Local Flavor: Live Your Best Brunch Life in Miami

Winter weather has everyone dreaming of soaking up the sun. Thankfully, sunshine and champagne are always on the menu during a Miami brunch.

Miami is the perfect antidote for the winter blues, with its endless supply of warm temperatures, sunshine and sandy beaches. But this Florida hotspot offers more than just a perfect setting for swimming and sunning: it’s also home to countless incredible brunch spots, particularly in Miami Beach, South Beach and their surrounding neighborhoods.

When I visited Miami, I made a point of scoping out some of the best places to kick back with a mimosa and fuel up for long, sunny afternoons. Here are my favorites:

Sweet Liberty Drinks & Supply Company

Every Sunday, Sweet Liberty offers bottomless mimosas — or rosé! The award-winning cocktail bar has a brunch menu that includes traditional favorites with a twist, like eggs benedict made with Jim Beam-infused honey. Best of all? Brunch stretches on until 5PM, so you can sleep in and still have time for your most important meal. In addition to mimosas, the breakfast cocktail menu touts several unique options. The Chamomile margarita may sound mismatched, but it’s a perfect marriage of fresh lime, white tequila, and chamomile-infused agave.

Yardbird Southern Table & Bar

Yardbird Southern Table & Bar delivers on its name, with lots of regional favorites to help you recover from the previous night’s adventures. Think biscuits, grits, butter and syrups. The Fried Green Tomato BLT is worth mentioning in your postcard to the folks back home, and the Dulce de Leche Strawberry Waffle is a sweet accompaniment to your champagne-spiked o.j., should you choose to indulge.

Photo credit: Juvia Miami Beach
Juvia

Juvia is a quintessential Miami Beach spot: a high-end option with a clientele to match. This indoor/outdoor restaurant, perched nine stories above the city, is known for some of the best views and people-watching in town. It also boasts an extensive menu that includes prix fixe options with bottomless mimosas, bellinis and prosecco.

Palace Bar

With the motto “every queen needs a palace,” the legendary Palace Bar on Ocean Drive is beloved by locals and tourists alike. This LGBTQ-friendly South Beach destination offers a popular brunch-buffet-plus-drag-show combo. When you’re there, it almost feels as if last night’s party never ended!

Icebox Cafe

Icebox Cafe in Miami Beach offers local and seasonal options for brunch. The menu includes a hearty list of cocktails that go beyond your basic Bloody Mary, including the Energizer Bunny, a concoction that contains gin, cucumber, fresh pineapple, lemon, yerba mate syrup and matcha green tea. The café initially launched as a bakery and still sells its popular and award-winning cakes and handmade desserts.

 

Miami Beach and South Beach can be a dizzying maze of bars and restaurants. But diving in and finding your favorites makes for a fun escapade between sunning and art gallery-hopping. When I departed Miami for home (and cooler temps), I knew I had barely scratched the surface of discovering the area’s best brunches — so I’m already working on a new must-eat list for my next visit.

Where to Stay:
Marriott Vacation Club PulseSM, South Beach

Bailey S. is a freelance writer living outside of Boston.