This outdoor steakhouse in Miami delivers the big night out you have been missing
Someday they would open their own steakhouse, friends and restaurant partners Carey Hynes and Will Thompson used to tell one another.
That someday came sooner than they expected.
Coronavirus forced them to temporarily close their downtown restaurant and cocktail bar, Jaguar Sun, in the summer of 2020 and plot a new idea. The future, they decided, was outdoors.
So for four nights a week, they applied their fine-dining backgrounds to creating the only kind of restaurant they felt comfortable running. They turned the outdoor Little River event space Lot 6, with its brick pavers and sprawling banyan tree at its center, into a place where diners could return — an outdoor dining room with the kind of cuisine Hynes learned at Thomas Keller’s Per Se and David Chang’s Momofuku, paired with Thompson’s talent for cocktails and impeccable service.
The restaurant is still going nearly two years later.
Sunny’s Someday Steakhouse evolved from a pop-up with tacos and beer at picnic tables to white linen table cloths and dishes as expertly cooked as any you’d find in a Miami restaurant with four walls and roof.
They dropped the “Someday” and announced plans to build a permanent indoor seating area (for sweltering or soaked Miami nights) this summer. Meanwhile, they reopened Jaguar Sun — completing a restaurant expansion they never saw coming during a pandemic.
For two restaurant owners who admit they love steakhouses, they built a steakhouse for people who hate traditional steakhouses.
Forget red leather booths and burled wood in a space where your eyes need to adjust to the dark. Here, as dinner time approaches from Wednesday through Saturday, the sun sets like a dimming dining room and string lights glow like fireflies. Limestone pillars and walls ensconce the 120 diners like a secret Vizcaya landscape. Music, from Drake to Bruno Mars, livens the courtyard.
And a wood fire billows in Hynes’ kitchen, separate from the dining room by a black steel grate, like a “Peaky Blinders” set piece.
All of it together creates a feeling — a feeling different from any steakhouse you’ve visited in Miami. It’s the adventure of the outdoors, scrupulous renditions of familiar dishes (some with surprising flourishes) and a staff that seems as delighted as diners to be there.
And Sunny’s leaves you with a feeling. Not just a big bill (though there is that) but a sense of an uncommon big night out in Miami.
But first, cocktails
Sunny’s is the kind of restaurant that encourages you to come with a group, ready to share — and early (sorry, Miami). But only because the lively courtyard is at its best on a crisp, clear Miami night where Thompson, the drinks expert of the two, creates a menu of complex pregame drinks.
Thompson melds flavors that act as an aperitif, like the Cynar Flip, which combines the artichoke-based Italian liquor with Jamaican rum and sherry. Or even something as simple as a Spritz uses Cappalletti aperol with elderflower liquor and fresh grapefruit juice.
Family style
No one is stopping you from ordering a hangar steak, a side of decadent duck fat potatoes with a playful French-onion dip, a side of périgourdine sauce to slather over the top and hoarding it for yourself. Sunny’s is still a steakhouse in the traditional sense.
But it would be a shame to miss out on sharing a variety of skillfully cooked dishes, a candy-shop choice of sauces, thoughtful side dishes and generous appetizers.
That starts with indulging in the raw bar. Sunny’s selection of Kusshi and beausoleil oysters came dressed in separate and specific mignonettes, with a spicy tang, that brought out the clean and briny flavors of the fresh oysters.
Wahoo crudo with serrano chili was one of the several dishes on the menu that skillfully add heat with acid and salt — flavor is never lacking in any of Sunny’s dishes. A flawless pair of stone crab claws quelled an indulgent craving.
And they consider how to add that flavor. The Caesar salad uses salty umami-rich cantabrian anchovies in the sauce to pack flavor without the creamy glop to weigh down long, individual romaine leaves. But it dresses the salad with chunks of mild, white boquerones anchovies and a dusting of breadcrumbs instead of blocky croutons.
That attention to detail — for highlighting flavor and texture — shows up in many of Sunny’s dishes.
Rohan duck is chosen specifically for its thin layer of fat and it’s air-dried and aged for two weeks. The result is a rich flavor and a skin that crisps like potato chips.
A 16-ounce Kansas City strip steak is so perfectly cooked rare that it reads almost like Bluefin tuna and just as buttery. Don’t miss the opportunity to drizzle it with peppery salsa verde sauce or the truffle-rich perigourdine. A korobuta pork chop, especially when topped with pineapple habanero hot sauce, accentuates its tangy rub; unfortunately ours was cooked past the point of being tender.
A word here about bread: Sunny’s delights in making its own. And you will delight in eating it.
The Parker House rolls, baked tall and massive — splendid — glisten with a poppy-covered caramel crust. You will order seconds. You may, as we did, order a pair to go, particularly with whipped honey butter you mix tableside yourself.
Strong, sweet finish
Nearby Frice makes the ice cream (espresso or banana with blondie chunks on this day); Sunny’s makes it even more special, topping it with Haitian rum whipped cream and salted caramel.
The sleeper, though, is the passionfruit mousse with macerated strawberry, dusted with an entire torchon of foie gras that has been frozen and microplaned over top. Again, the mix of flavors — umami, sweet, acid — are a final reminder Sunny’s doesn’t take your big night out for granted.
Miami Herald food writers dine unannounced at the newspaper’s expense.
Sunny’s Steakhouse
Address: Lot 6, 7357 Northwest Miami Ct., Little River
Hours: 5 p.m.-midnight, Wednesday-Saturday
Prices: Appetizers $4-$19; raw bar $4-$45; most entrees $22-$89; sides $10-$12.
More info: Jaguarsunmia.com
This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
