This Wynwood hangout spot just closed, leaving a local pizza joint without a home

A Miami pizza joint finds itself homeless again — and the Wynwood venue that was its home has closed, too.

Square Pie City, the Detroit-style pizza concept from Miami chef Jeremiah Bullfrog, has closed, as has Freehold Studios, the event venue at 2219 NW Second Ave. where the restaurant was housed.

“It has been tough,” said Bullfrog, who started the pizza brand as a pop-up in places like Wynwood’s now-shuttered Boxelder. “We need a new home.”

A statement by the restaurant’s attorney Daniel F. Benavides said that Square Pie City was subleasing space from Freehold, a hospitality concept from Brooklyn, which was leasing the whole building from Goldman Properties.

“Apparently Freehold negotiated a termination of the master lease with the landlord, which resulted in a termination of the sublease we had with Freehold,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, we were not told of any of these issues until the day before the termination was scheduled to take effect. So we were caught by surprise.”

Freehold opened in Wynwood in 2020, billed as a unique venue offering “boutique hotel vibes” without the actual hotel rooms. The concept sought to be a place to pop in during the work day and a spot to meet up with friends at night. Freehold had several bars, an outdoor courtyard, work spaces and a small cafe.

During its time in Wynwood, it housed several culinary concepts. Originally Freehold had a vendor offering New York Style pizza, then chef Amaris Jones briefly moved her fast-casual chicken spot Chick’N Jones in. That closed suddenly in October after only four months.

“We fell in love with Wynwood a few years back when we first visited the area and thought that the concept would be a perfect fit for the ever-growing neighborhood,” said Freehold Hospitality co-founder Brice Jones in a statement when the venue opened.

The Brooklyn concept apparently wasn’t a good fit for Wynwood. In a text, Goldman attorney Scott Srebnick confirmed that the lease had been terminated.

“Goldman Properties and Freehold mutually and amicably agreed to terminate the lease,” he wrote.

Jones praised Goldman for working through the process and lamented the abruptness of the termination.

“We had hopes the restaurants would get where we needed them to get to, and the results were never there,” he said. “At the end of the day, everybody in this deal, we’re all responsible parties, and everybody wishes we had given more notice to Square Pie City and to our staff as well, but it wasn’t viable at that point.”

The sudden closure isn’t the only setback Square Pie City has faced in the past year. The restaurant, which opened its first standalone spot in the Design District in January 2023, was forced out of that space by a fire in May 2024. It relocated to Freehold Studios a month later. In early November, Bullfrog hosted his P.I.G. 11 (Pizza Is Great) party there with a variety of popular Miami chefs offering up their ideas of the perfect pie.

He’s not sure what the future holds for Square Pie City but is looking at other options. He’d prefer another brick-and-mortar spot: “There’s something about going into a place and turning the lights on and having air conditioning,” he said wistfully.

“But we started as a scrappy pop-up,” he said. “If we need to, we could do it again.”

This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 1:34 PM.