"Victoria by day. Babette by night." That line sits on Babette's website, describing how the restaurant now runs. Chef Dani Chávez-Bello's kitchen takes over the Clásica Victoria café at 5855 Sunset Drive in South Miami from 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. In the morning the room still belongs to the café.
For roughly two years Babette was a Coral Gables dinner address, inside the 1928 La Jolla Ballroom building at 301 Alcazar Avenue. Its final dinner there was August 19. Its departure is one piece of a broader pattern in downtown Coral Gables over the past ten weeks. Several chef-driven dinner rooms have closed or moved. The storefronts that opened since August lean heavily toward coffee, pastry, frozen yogurt and lunch. The big evening restaurants are on the way, but they have not arrived yet.
The dinner rooms that went quiet between July and September
The most visible closing came last weekend. Sra. Martinez served its final dinner on Saturday, September 26, at 2325 Galiano Street. Chef Michelle Bernstein and her husband and business partner, David Martinez, announced the closing on Instagram without giving a reason. They said they plan to keep the space and are already working on what comes next. The restaurant had returned on December 13, 2024, after 12 years away. It took over the former Open Stage Club space with a dining room, covered patio, cocktail lounge and a stage for live music.
On Miracle Mile, Bodega Taqueria y Tequila closed the location it opened next to Seasons 52 in January 2024 and held a farewell party at the end of July. The brand's Miami Beach, Coconut Grove and Fort Lauderdale locations all remain open, so its Gables exit was a single-location decision.
Two other evening spots are harder to read. By August 31, Sospiro Wine Bar & Cucina at 2626 Ponce de Leon Boulevard had covered its windows, and a note on its website described a "short break." On September 2, The Burn Miami reported that a Japanese-style café called The Screaming Parrots was planned for the same address. No opening timeline was given. Sospiro's own site still shows a reservation link. Management has not said whether the closure is temporary or permanent. At 70 Miracle Mile, Don Favio's Pizza Gourmet had locked doors and papered windows around September 1. The owners have made no public statement.
The list of exits is not limited to dinner. Green G Juice & Açai also closed its shop at 376 Miracle Mile in early August. Still, most of the closures were places people went to after dark.
What opened instead keeps morning hours
The arrivals since early August tell a more consistent story. Here is what opened along Miracle Mile, Giralda Avenue and the south end of the city between August and late September.
| Address | What opened | When it was reported open |
|---|---|---|
| 374 Miracle Mile | Canelita, Basque cheesecake bakery and coffee | August 10 |
| 146 Giralda Ave. | Bar Zorro, Spanish tapas and cocktails | By August 20 |
| 318 Miracle Mile | Ami Ami, café, art gallery and bookstore | August 23 |
| 392 Miracle Mile | Le Macaron French Pastries | Grand opening August 29 |
| 6601 South Red Road | MELI Frozen Yogurt | September 1 |
| 239 Miracle Mile | YoYo, café, frozen yogurt and yoga studio | September 11 |
| 111 Miracle Mile | Bonsai Sushi | September 23 |
Five of the seven are built around coffee, pastry or frozen yogurt. YoYo pairs a Scandinavian-style café and frozen-yogurt counter with yoga, Pilates and hybrid classes on site, so a visit there can easily start before work. Ami Ami fits the in-between hours. It serves a Mediterranean menu built around flammkuchen, the Alsatian flatbread, and the walls hold work by local artists, including photographs by co-owner Dushan Drakalski, beside a shelf of several hundred books for browsing. It opened on 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. hours, Tuesday through Sunday, and planned to stay open until 9 p.m. starting in September.
Bar Zorro and Bonsai Sushi are the evening-friendly additions so far. Bar Zorro opened quietly on Giralda with tapas and cocktails, on a block that already draws a dinner crowd.
The same pattern shows up in what has been announced for daytime. H&H Bagels is headed to the former Canton Too space at 2614 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Call Your Mother Deli plans its first Miami-area shop at 317 Miracle Mile, with an opening targeted for late this year. Joe & The Juice is coming to the second level of the Shops at Merrick Park, next to Equinox.
The evening openings exist on paper
The dinner side of the street is not standing still. Its openings are just a few weeks to a few months away.
The most anticipated is Imoto at 100 Miracle Mile, next door to Buccan. Chef Clay Conley is bringing the Palm Beach restaurant south, with sashimi, sushi and small plates such as Peking duck tacos and miso-marinated black cod. The room will have a sushi counter and an eight-seat bar. Miami New Times lists the opening as this fall, with no date set. Azul Modern Mexican is targeting fall for 127 Miracle Mile, the former Kao Sushi & Grill. At Merrick Park, the New York Italian restaurant La Pecora Bianca plans to open in November at 360 San Lorenzo Avenue, Suite 1430, in the former Villagio space. It will be the brand's first Florida location, an all-day restaurant known for its vodka rigatoni and cacio e pepe.
Farther out, Havana Harry's at 4612 South Le Jeune Road has announced a fall 2026 reopening. Yonder, from chef Evan Burgess, is planned for 2526 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, with an opening expected next year. In May, Stand at 98 Miracle Mile said it would turn its daytime Japanese café into a nighttime izakaya this fall. No launch date has been reported since.
Babette's move shows one way a room can work around the clock. In South Miami, two operators share one space: Clásica Victoria in the morning and Babette at night. If Stand's izakaya plan goes ahead, 98 Miracle Mile would work the same way.
Until then, the city calendar is booking the evenings
Over the next two months, the most reliable evening reasons to come downtown are on the city and cultural calendars rather than on new menus. Many of these dates fall on or near the blocks where the closed restaurants sat.
- October 2, 6:30 to 10 p.m. The Coral Gables Museum hosts the Capture Coral Gables 2026 finalist exhibition and awards. The show stays on view through November 1.
- October 7 through November 1. Actors' Playhouse stages Jekyll & Hyde at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile.
- October 9 and November 13, 7 p.m. Art in the Park at Ponce Circle Park, 2810 Ponce de Leon Boulevard.
- October 17, 2 to 6 p.m. The city's Pumpkin Patch at Ponce Circle Park, with decorating, face painting, live music and a harvest market.
- October 24, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum's first Kiddo-Ween at 285 Aragon Avenue.
- October 31, all day. Trick-or-Treat on the Mile runs 3 to 6 p.m. A Day of the Dead celebration fills Ponce Circle Park from 5 to 10 p.m. Books & Books at 265 Aragon Avenue hosts a Y2K Halloween party at 6 p.m. The trolley runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- November 13, 6 to 9 p.m. The free 18th Annual William M. Schiff Art Show at The Palace, 1 Andalusia Avenue, on the same night as the November Art in the Park.
The museum's regular schedule also fills gaps between these dates. Gallery Night runs 6 to 10 p.m. on the first Friday of each month. Through November 1, the Anthony R. Abraham Gallery is showing America Touched, America Seen, an exhibition created with Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Halloween shows the current mix most clearly. Trick-or-treaters will walk past the new café counters at 239, 318, 374 and 392 Miracle Mile in the afternoon. By evening, the Day of the Dead celebration and the Books & Books party will be drawing people downtown while 100 and 127 Miracle Mile are still preparing to open.
If you've been watching your favorite Coral Gables storefronts change hands and want to know what that means for your own street, Elena Kemper Group is glad to talk it through. We follow these blocks every week, and we can tell you what we're seeing on Miracle Mile, Giralda and the streets around them.
