The new owners of this Miami bar didn’t think they’d survive 2020. But locals showed up
When locals heard that Tavern in the Grove founder Kim Murdock was taking over another popular bar, they showed up with gifts.
These were more than decorations for the revamped neighborhood craft beer bar The Mighty. It was a show of support for a Miami native who has built a following over the last three decades. And now she was starting in a new spot at the worst possible time — buying the bar a week before the start of the pandemic.
Olav Smit, who bought Tavern in the Grove from her in 1995, lugged in a wedge of the original Tavern’s bar, complete with the bell she and her husband found on a trip in London, which they would ring when someone left a fat tip.
Another patron brought a baseball glove. It belonged to Murdock’s late husband, Pat, who played in a softball bar league run out of the Tavern. He gave it to Patrick Jr., who was manning the bar, and it is displayed on a shelf.
And city of Miami firefighters, a brotherhood that adopted her as family after Pat Murdock died on the job of a rare heart condition, told her to make room for firefighter memorabilia. A little more than a year since Murdock bought this bar, it is starting to feel like a second home.
“I feel very at home here,” she said. “This place has our personality. It’s friendly, warm, inviting. People like to come where they are known.”
From barkeep to pie shop
Murdock, who grew up in this bar’s neighborhood, has a knack for creating places that locals love.
In 1987, when she was just 21, she bought a flagging bar in Coconut Grove with the help of a $25,000 home equity loan from her parents, and turned it into Tavern in the Grove. It became an instant hangout for locals, a third place — not home, not work, the original Starbucks.
It’s where she met her late husband, while handing out fliers for her bar. Together, they opened several businesses, from a dog groomer to one of Miami’s first food trucks, Mangia Mia, cooking her mother and grandmother’s Italian recipes.
After her husband died of a sudden heart attack, Murdock started another business that gave her purpose — and Miami had another gem.
She put up the money to help a young firefighter, a friend and coworker of her late husband, to open Fireman Derek’s Bake Shop. She and Derek Kaplan turned a hole in the wall in Wynwood into a local’s favorite and a tourist destination, thanks to a mouth-watering Instagram page.
After watching the shop grow and expand into Coconut Grove, she sold her stake in the pie shop in March of 2019. She considered an early retirement, but that didn’t last long.
“I knew right away I wanted to open another bar,” she said. “It was a great part of my life.”
Transforming a favorite
Murdock remembered the social groups she had built at the Tavern. And just as her father, a former bar owner himself, had done with her, she teamed up with her son, Patrick Jr., to buy The Mighty.
“Every story growing up literally had to do with the Tavern,” Patrick said.
The previous owner, Ryan Brooks, had turned the spot next to a bicycle shop into a craft beer den, a quiet hangout for neighborhood folks who appreciated a low-key spot with artisanal beer from around the world.
The timing was less than ideal. Murdock and her son took over The Mighty a week before restaurants were ordered shut to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Those two weeks gave the pair time to game-plan. They recognized that people would not be dining indoors for a while, so they revamped the entire menu. Cocktails to go replaced craft beer on tap. Large hearty portions of chicken sandwiches, burgers, build-your-own taco kits became the heart of the menu.
And Patrick, a University of Miami marketing grad, revved up the Instagram, just as he had at Fireman Derek’s. Beautifully lit cocktails and crispy chicken sandwiches jolted anxious doom scrollers.
“We tried to make a really good thing that people wanted,” he said.
A new spot for locals
Locals found them. Guests Kim Murdock had served at Tavern in the Grove in her 20s sought her out at the new spot. They brought with them stories of the social hub she helped build.
“You want to know you’re going to see someone you know, to have that local experience. This neighborhood needs that,” she said.
When COVID-19 cases dropped and restaurants in Miami were allowed to reopen, those customers came back for a seat at the bar. They came with their dates and their spouses. Some came to share a beer with their adult children and to share stories of the old days.
And some, like Smit, brought knickknacks to add a piece of old Miami history to the new location. Before long, Smit, who also founded The Grove Spot, had volunteered to manage the bar Monday nights, just because he missed the business.
There is still more to come. Live music plays on Thursdays. Firefighters always pay happy hour prices. And the menu will expand as diners return.
Over one doorway, Kim Murdock hung a painting of a firefighter she kept at the entrance to her Wynwood pie shop, a gift from local artist Rey Jaffet. The firefighter in silhouette, wearing badge number 1063 on his helmet — Pat’s badge number — makes her feel at home at this neighborhood bar.
The Mighty
Address: 2224 SW 22nd St., Miami
More info: 305-570-4311. TheMightyMiami.com
This story was originally published June 23, 2021 at 9:50 AM.
