On the Upper East Side, Biscayne Boulevard's Familiar Addresses Are Getting Second Acts

"The corner sat empty long enough," Anthony Mejia told Miami New Times in August, when he and three partners reopened 701 NE 79th St. as Upper Eastside Hangout. The corner holds a liquor license that dates to 1937. It had been closed since 2024.

That reopening is one of several this year. A lot of what counts as new on the Upper East Side in 2026 has a history. A Wynwood pizza counter came here after its old courtyard was set aside for a high-rise. A North Beach taquería closed to make way for redevelopment and reopened a few blocks west. And a glass-walled 1954 gas station on Biscayne Boulevard, empty since New Year's Eve, now has an announced tenant. The neighborhood is taking in what other parts of Miami have lost, and it's doing that inside buildings it already has.

A 1937 License Back in Use

According to New Times, the corner at NE 79th Street was Magnum Lounge for decades, a piano bar with a loyal local following. In March 2016, Bar Lab cofounders Gabe Orta and Elad Zvi reopened it as The Anderson, an '80s-inspired cocktail bar named for Hugh Anderson, the developer who helped build the Venetian Causeway. Restaurateur Ken Lyon bought it in 2019, and it closed in 2024.

Upper Eastside Hangout is the latest name on that license. It comes from All We Need Hospitality Group, which four partners founded: Travis Rogers, John Fortini, Anthony Mejia and Victor Ramos. New Times reports that all four live in the neighborhood. The courtyard holds more than 250 guests at picnic tables, high-tops and kid-size tables, with turf underfoot, shade sails strung with lights, LED screens for game days and movie nights, and cornhole and foosball. Down a palm-lined path is the Original Bar Shack, a coral-and-green striped cottage with 15 seats in 200 square feet. The group calls it "Miami's smallest cocktail bar." Food comes from stalls that include Cheeseburger Baby, Tacomiendo and Noodle Bar.

Published schedules for the Hangout don't agree. The Hangout's own site currently lists happy hour on Thursday and Friday from 5 to 9 p.m., which differs from earlier press coverage.

What Wynwood and North Beach Gave Up

Pizza Tropical spent close to ten years as the late-night window at Gramps in Wynwood. New Times reported in April that the Gramps courtyard is now slated for a residential high-rise. The pizzeria soft-opened a permanent storefront at 7010 Biscayne Blvd., next to Dogma. The same report says owner Adam Gersten described this part of town as still holding the "soul" that Wynwood had arguably priced out. Gersten runs it with co-founder Frank Pinello and one of the restaurant's longest-serving employees. The menu kept the El Peppe, La Blanca and garlic rolls, and as of the April report the cheese slice was still $5.

Taquiza made a similar move this summer. Steve Santana's taquería had been at 7450 Ocean Terrace since April 2018. It opened there as a temporary pop-up and stayed eight years, until its last service on July 31, 2026, to make way for the Ocean Terrace redevelopment. New Times reported that less than three weeks later it reopened at 8246 NE Second Ave. in Little River, just west of the Boulevard. The new counter is inside the commissary and tortilla factory that has supplied its restaurants for more than three years. The tacos now use stone-ground yellow corn, and the totopos are still heirloom blue. Masa by the pound and tortillas by the dozen are available to take home.

In each case, redevelopment elsewhere ended a well-loved counter's run, and the business reopened in existing space near Biscayne Boulevard.

The Gas Station Still Waiting for Its Next Tenant

The biggest test of this pattern sits at 5600 Biscayne Blvd. Miami architect Robert Law Weed designed the building in 1954 as a futuristic Standard Oil station. Restaurateur Mark Soyka turned it into Andiamo Brick Oven Pizza in 2001. New Times credits Andiamo with helping start the neighborhood's restaurant renaissance years before the Boulevard filled with destination dining. The last pizza came out of the brick oven on December 31, 2025, after the restaurant chose not to renew its lease.

The next tenant is Burgers & Shakes, the diner-style chain George Iglesias founded in Miami Beach in 2011. New Times reported in July that it would open in the building, which the paper also calls the General Tire Building, "within the next few months." The chain's North Miami location at 899 NE 125th St. opened in early August. A New Times roundup on September 2 said the brand was "preparing to open its iconic MiMo location soon" and gave no date.

The menu is simple. New Times describes a signature classic cheeseburger, a whole grilled fish filet sandwich and a grilled chicken burger, with hand-spun shakes.

Smaller Newcomers in Older Storefronts

Not every opening comes with a backstory. Still, the year's smaller arrivals on the Boulevard are also moving into existing storefronts:

• Pluma, 5140 Biscayne Blvd. Eater Miami's September 2026 heatmap lists this fried-chicken shop. It fries to order in beef tallow and serves tenders, sandwiches and a smashed "smashbird," with beef tallow fries and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
• La Fraiche Pasta Box, 5700 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 109. The Infatuation's openings guide describes it as a fast-casual counter where you choose the noodle shape, sauce and toppings. Dry pasta is sold by the pound.
• Teo Teo, Biscayne Boulevard in MiMo. The team behind Caracas Bakery is opening a Venezuelan rotisserie next door. The Miami Guide reports that the window wrap reads "neighborhood rotisserie" and "fall 2026."

The same guide expects Anako, a Filipino restaurant from the team behind the former Sili stall, to open on NE Second Avenue in Little River in October. The street address hasn't been published.

The Calendar That Stays Put

The Morningside Civic Association's annual Halloween Block Party Bash is on Saturday, October 24, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. along NE 59th Street and NE 6th Avenue. It includes candy, food, drinks and entertainment, and the trick-or-treat route runs along 59th Street west of 6th Avenue and 6th Avenue north of 59th Street. Ticket prices go up in tiers:

Children 5 and under from member households get in free at every tier.

Every Saturday, the Legion Park Farmers Market runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Biscayne Boulevard and NE 66th Street. It has local produce, prepared food and free yoga under the trees.

Getting around those dates may be slower for a while. The Florida Department of Transportation's Biscayne Boulevard intersections project covers NE 72nd Street, NE 74th Street, the 8300 block and NE 85th Street. The work includes new pedestrian signals, curb ramps, a signalized midblock crossing replacing flashing beacons, changes to parking spaces, and repaving and restriping. FDOT allows lane and sidewalk closures at those spots from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and weekends, during non-event days. That window overlaps market hours at the 72nd and 74th Street intersections, a few blocks north of Legion Park.

A 1954 Robert Law Weed station that served pizza from 2001 through 2025 is the kind of building we follow closely. To talk about Miami architecture with design provenance, from MiMo glass on Biscayne to the solar-integrated tower at 1428 Brickell, contact David De Leon and the De Leon Group.