Food

Team behind Maple & Ash steakhouse bring their popular Chicago bistro to Miami

By Connie Ogle

Updated October 8, 2025 2:35 PM

The interior of Eight Bar, coming soon to Miami Worldcenter on the first floor of Maple & Ash. The Louis Collection

A luxury steakhouse in downtown Miami is getting a new addition.

Maple Hospitality Group, which opened the high-energy steakhouse Maple & Ash at Miami Worldcenter in March, is bringing the brand’s bistro Eight Bar to the neighborhood. The new restaurant, which will offer both indoor and outdoor dining, will be located on the first floor of Maple & Ash.

The Miami Eight Bar, which will seat 97 guests, isn’t exactly the same as its Chicago counterpart, which was intentional. Chef Danny Grant, who’s also a partner in the Maple Hospitality Group, said that it was important that the Worldcenter restaurant reflect the neighborhood.

“With Miami, we wanted to create a place that fits the way this city eats and gathers — somewhere you can swing by for sushi after work, a burger with friends or a bottle of wine late at night and feel like it’s your spot,” he said.

The interior of Eight Ball in Miami. The Louis Collection

This means a fair amount of greenery and leopard wallpaper on the back bar — and a more relaxed atmosphere than the upscale Maple & Ash.

That relaxation extends to the menu, too, which offers less expensive fare, like the Eight Bar Burger, made with a wagyu beef patty, and The Skewers (choose miso-butter chicken or glazed wagyu beef). You can of course get a crispy fried whole snapper with Szechuan sauce that feeds the whole table, as does the Plateau del Mar, a seafood tower with lobster, prawns, scallops, oysters and fettucine in a Calabrian chili sugo.

Eight Bar also offers sushi rolls and nigiri, like the King Crab roll with truffle and drawn butter. You’ll find the expected, like a spicy tuna roll and nigiri like toro and caviar, but also a hamachi “pizza,” which is seaweed layered with wasabi aioli and pickled chili.

The bar at Eight Bar in Miami. The Louis Collection

The restaurant also has its own cocktail program, with specialties like Vice City, with mezcal, papaya, hot honey, mango limonada, caged heat (a spicy cocktail syrup) and mint and the Electric Flamingo, with Grey Goose, Lillet Rose and bubble gum.

And don’t be surprised if the day-and-night vibes are somewhat different (Eight Bar is opening for dinner only at first but will eventually open for lunch). The idea is for the space to mimic a garden retreat with natural light during the day but become more of a lounge after dark.

The back wall at Eight Bar, coming to Miami Worldcenter. The Louis Collection

Earlier this year, Grant, the youngest U.S. chef to earn two Michelin stars in 2011 and 2012 while at Ria, the now-closed restaurant in Chicago, told the Miami Herald that the Maple Hospitality believes that Miami is a natural fit for the brand.

“I think as we come to Miami and are embracing the the environment down here and embracing this celebratory nature of Miami, it’s a perfect pairing for Maple,” he said. “I walk into a Maple & Ash, and I’m like, ‘All right, this is awesome. I’m ready to go. Let’s eat, let’s drink. Let’s have fun. Let’s let our hair down, and let’s enjoy the moment and embrace it.’ And I think Miami as a community does that better than any other city in the country.”