Museums, concerts, restaurants and clubs: Downtown Miami has everything you need

Downtown extends from the Miami River north to the Arsht Center and from I-95 to Biscayne Bay. The original city of Miami was built here, and many buildings bear witness to an audacious history. In dramatic contrast, glassy high-rises reflect an evolving urban affluence — Downtown Miami is becoming a tech center.

Downtown boasts world-class museums, opera, ballet, the International Film Fest (March), and the nation’s largest Book Fair – not to mention Biscayne Bay, a bit damaged but still the main attraction in turquoise and silvery tones. A Baywalk follows it from the Miami River north to the Perez Art Museum.

Take a walk down Second Avenue, the historical corridor once considered to replicate New York’s Fifth Avenue, and see the Ingraham and the Huntington buildings, which survived the 1926 hurricane. Find historic relics on both sides of Northeast First Avenue: the Classical Old U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, dating to 1912, and now repurposed as La Real Bar and a brewery; the baroque Gesu, Miami’s first Catholic Church; and fronting Miami Dade College, vacant and grand, the Neoclassical Dyer U.S. Courthouse.

Often, I run into the owner of a local club. I asked him why he chose downtown. “Authenticity, downtown breathes diversity — architectural, culinary, ethnic, generational — and had potential. Of course, potential implies risk. Even today, downtown exudes a certain edginess. Sanitized artificiality is not to be found here, not now.”

Five favorite spots

Area 31, 270 Biscayne Blvd. Way, area31restaurant.com

Suspended on the 16th floor of the Kimpton EPIC Hotel, Area 31 opens for brunch, lunch, happy hour and dinner. It offers seafood fare, and one matchless panoramic view of the Bay and the Miami River. You stand right above the very spot where Ponce de Leon first met the Tequesta.

Lost Boy, 157 E Flagler St., in the historic DuPont Building, lostboydrygoods.com

Cozy and elegant, the bar attracts locals and those who work around the Flagler District. Architects, lawyers, techies, bureaucrats and Realtors gravitate to Lost Boy for happy hour, as well as your typical gregarious lady out for a game of pool. Get there by 4 p.m. to take advantage of the half-off happy hour.

A regular, gyrating on the barstool, volunteers: “It’s the only place in the area where $7 can get you a G&T, a Martini, or a whiskey and beer combo.”

La Cañita at Bayside Marketplace, 401 Biscayne Blvd., lacanitamiami.com

Bayside is an open mall, shop all you want, from Victoria’s Secret’s lingerie to CBD feel-good candy. Or chill at Michelle Bernstein’s La Cañita, a high-end Cuban restaurant overlooking the marina. It brands itself as original pan-Latin with a twist — the twist being high-quality ingredients. The fish of the day, for example, is purchased from a local fisherman. Pricey? A bit, but you get what you pay for.

Frost Science Museum, 1101 Biscayne Blvd., frostscience.org

Occupying the northwest corner of Maurice Ferré Park, it has an aquarium and a planetarium. The Gulf Stream Aquarium spans three floors and includes an oculus and an open tank at the rooftop where one can spy hammerhead sharks and stingrays. Frost Science, the CEO Frank Steslow says, aims to inspire an appreciation for the impact science and technology have on every facet of our world. A current exhibit takes visitors alongside woolly mammoths, those gentle giants that made the Ice Age tundra their home.

Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., arshtcenter.org

The catalyst for downtown’s renaissance is home to the Florida Grand Opera, the Miami City Ballet, Broadway in Miami, and its Brava Restaurant will satiate hungry culturists.

Raul Guerrero is the editor of “Downtown News” and academic curator of DASS (Downtown Arts + Science Salon).

This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 6:00 AM.