Taquiza's last tacos come off the griddle Friday
A Michelin-recommended taqueria closes Friday, Lincoln Road starts swinging hammers, and a Waldorf Astoria is coming to the sand.
Friday is last call at Taquiza. After eight years, the Michelin-recommended taqueria is closing, with July 31 set as its final day of service — which leaves you roughly one lunch and one dinner to do anything about it. Eight years is a long run in a town where restaurant leases turn over like beach umbrellas, long enough that the place stopped being a discovery and became a default. If you have a standing order, tomorrow is the day to place it one more time. If you never made it in, this is an inconvenient moment to learn what you missed.
Comras starts swinging hammers at the north end of Lincoln Road
Demolition has begun on NoLi, Michael Comras' plan to turn eleven storefronts and a service alley into a 150,000-square-foot boutique shopping district at the north end of Lincoln Road. His firm paid $140 million in November for the properties at 600, 719–737, 741 and 801–821 Lincoln Road plus 723 North Lincoln Lane, and is spending another $30 million on the rebuild. The centerpiece is Via NoLi, an 18-foot-wide paseo cut straight through the shuttered Forever 21 at the 700 block, opening onto North Lincoln Lane with cafés and outdoor seating. "I don't think we should have backs of buildings," Comras said. Full construction is expected to ramp up in September.
Tokyo-style Neapolitan pizza is heading for the Beach
Royale Pizza Napoletana is bringing its Tokyo-style take on Neapolitan pizza to Miami Beach, with a short menu of antipasti, handcrafted pies, pasta and a few entrées. The detail that will either delight you or ruin your evening: it is walk-in only, in a polished room with no reservation book to hide behind. That is a real bet in a neighborhood where half the dining rooms live and die by the 8:15 slot on an app. Expect a line, expect it to be worth standing in, and expect to hear about it from someone at the gym first.
A Waldorf Astoria is coming to the oceanfront
Hilton and the Reuben Brothers have announced plans to bring the Waldorf Astoria name to Miami Beach, converting a landmark oceanfront hotel through a luxury makeover. It reads like real estate trade news until you remember what it means on the ground: another stretch of sand priced for someone else, another lobby you will walk past for years before you ever walk into it. Whether that is progress or the same story on repeat depends on which decade you moved here.
The Grand Hyatt tops out, and the officials showed up for it
Workers set the final structural beam on the Grand Hyatt hotel on Tuesday, and city and county leaders turned up to mark the moment. Topping-out ceremonies are mostly hard hats and short speeches, but the milestone is a real one: the beam is the last piece of structure, so the shape the building cuts against the sky from your street is now the shape it keeps. It also says something that city and county officials both made time to stand around a beam on a Tuesday.
The plan to close Lincoln Road's east blocks to cars has no money behind it yet
At the corridor's other end, Peter Kanavos' group wants to remake the 100 block between Collins and the sand — wider walkways, landscaping and an art walk of sculptures running to the beach — for about $12 million, split roughly three ways between Flag Luxury, the state and the city. The bigger idea is what happens next door: permanently closing the 200 and 300 blocks to traffic and filling them with landscaped islands, food stalls, small shops, a performance stage, chess tables and bocce courts. Kanavos calls the stretch between Collins and Washington "the black hole" for pedestrians. He also says the city does not have the money, and he will not file anything with the commission until the financing exists.
Put the Bandshell's music video night on your September calendar
The FilmGate Music Videos Festival returns to the Miami Beach Bandshell on September 17, built around the best local music videos and the bold, slightly unhinged visuals that come with them. It is a long way off, which is exactly why you write it down now — September fills up fast, and an open-air night at the Bandshell watching Miami artists' work on a big screen is the kind of thing you regret missing more than you expect to. Consider this your early warning.