This Miami Beach healthy dining spot closed so abruptly that diners were turned away

Those who were dining at Sunset Harbor clean eating hot spot DIRT on Friday morning walked straight into a soap opera. Employees were scrambling to lock the doors for good at 11 a.m., leaving everyone confused as to what was going on.

DIRT co-founder and partner Jeff Latulippe resigned from the company in November 2019 for various reasons, including to “focus on the next chapter for him and his family.” On Thursday at 11 p.m., employees were told via a text message from DIRT Regional Director of Operations Aaron Licardo that both the Sunset Harbour and Brickell locations were closing for good.

The two Miami spots closed on the heels of the Virginia location shuttering; that restaurant, located in Ballston, lasted less than a year. The message employees received claimed the company “found no other way to keep these locations open.”

The message further explained to employees that “payroll ends Sunday, so everyone will still get a full pay period paid out on February 7th.” Employees were instructed to stay open until Sunday as the Miami locations “wind down and run out of all products.”

Dirt opened its South Beach location in November of 2016 and the Mary Brickell Village location in 2017. Latulippe is a former Wall Street guy who shed 60 pounds through diet and exercise and educating himself on nutrition, then opened the spot to share his devotion to clean eating. The fast casual restaurant was a favorite for diners who adhered to paleo, keto, vegetarian and low carb diets. Latiulippe says he was not involved in the decision to close the restaurants or the timing of the closings.

Apparently the Sunset Harbour DIRT ran out of all products sooner than expected. The Brickell location winded down over the weekend.

This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 11:29 AM.