Miami’s favorite secret steakhouse pop up is back. Can you get a table this time?
Diners who sat outside under the string lights at Miami’s most popular pandemic pop-up last year kept asking its owner if he would please bring it back.
When the pandemic forced Will Thompson to temporarily close his downtown cocktail bar Jaguar Sun, he and fine-dining chef Carey Hynes moved their operation outdoors — to Little River, serving balanced cocktails, steaks cooked in a wood-fire oven and fresh, cold oysters under a canopy of stars at an empty lot.
They called the year-long pop-up Sunny’s Someday Steakhouse and it was an instant hit. And now they finally have an answer for those customers.
The pair are reopening Sunny’s at Little River’s Lot 6 in time for Art Basel, Thompson said, and it will remain open through February 2022.
“You have to give the people what they want,” Thompson said.
When the duo opened Sunny’s last year, it was out of necessity. Not wanting to expose their staff to COVID-19, they opened at Lot 6, an outdoor space that allowed them to rethink what hospitality meant when indoor dining spaces were fraught.
They soon found that diners, locked in for months, were looking for the chance at a big night out — complete with silverware, fine china, cocktails and excellent service, not just quick, simple bites and beers.
They leaned into dinners under starry skies, surrounding a massive banyan tree adorned with string lights. There they attempted to recreate a restaurant in the spirit of the fine-dining restaurants Per Se and Momofuku where Hynes had worked. The pair ran the pop-up until July, when they closed it to focus on reopening Jaguar Sun.
And most important, Thompson said, no one on their staff contracted COVID-19 and they eventually were able to get vaccinated.
Now they’ve had three months to rethink what worked best at Sunny’s and offer more of it. That will mean more seafood cooked on that wood-fire grill, more raw bar and vegetarian dishes and more of the intricate cocktails that made them a downtown favorite. Plus they’ve added the background infrastructure — like building kitchen prep areas — to help drinks and food come out faster.
“We had a chance to step back and look at what worked,” he said.
Sunny’s will begin taking reservations Nov. 15 through the online platform Resy, which is linked on Jaguar Sun’s website.
What won’t change is the whimsical look and feel of Sunny’s.
“The most important thing to keep is the vibe: the tree, the music, the lights,” Thompson said. “We’re going to lean into that.”
Sunny’s Someday Steakhouse
Address: 7357 NW Miami Ct., Little River at Lot 6
More info: Open Wednesday-Saturday beginning Dec. 1. More info: info@jaguarsunmia.com. Reservations available through Resy.com or at jaguarsun.com beginning Nov. 15.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
