9 May 28 - June 3, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ CLOSINGS CHANGING LANDSCAPE Just a week after New Times announced the closure of Cheese Burger Baby after 25 years in business, another South Beach staple is closing. Segafredo L’Originale, the Italian café and cocktail bar that has anchored the western end of Lincoln Road since 2000, is closing for good next month. The venue announced the news on Insta- gram earlier this month and invited guests to a free final celebration on June 21, from 2 to 10 p.m., with a last complimentary toast and live music. Segafredo, which opened on June 10, 2000, was brought to Miami Beach by restau- rateur Graziano Sbroggio, who had arrived from Italy a decade earlier to help operate Ti- ramesU on the same pedestrian mall. His re- lationship with Massimo Zanetti, the owner of the Italian Segafredo brand, led to the opening of the Miami location, which became Florida’s first Segafredo L’Originale. Sbroggio opened it alongside Mark Soyka, of News Café fame, and later brought on Luca Voltarel as co-owner and general manager, founding Graspa Group in 2002 to manage the operation. TiramesU closed in 2017 after nearly 30 years, while Segafredo seemingly outlasted them all on Lincoln Road. The setup is with an open-air DJ booth in the middle of one of Miami Beach’s most- trafficked people-watching stretches. The outdoor red tables at the western end of the pedestrian mall became a scene. Segafredo played house music from a DJ booth year- round, served Italian paninis and spritz cock- tails, and built a following across decades of WMC seasons, Halloween crowds, and just the typical day-to-day. DJ Aladdin had a nine- year residency there, bringing DJs from around the world for Winter Music Confer- ence shows. Comments flooded the Instagram an- nouncement. “I was there when it was the opening day, will be there on the last day!” wrote one commenter. “Where cigarettes and strollers meet!” wrote another. @daisy.cabrera tagged @dj_ aladdin_miami directly: “Those WMC mixed CDs of yours are collectibles.” @tiempolibre- miami recalled being a longtime regular at Ti- ramesu (back in the day) and Spris! All great places, thank you, Mr. Sbroggio.” “So sad the last piece of Lincoln Road from the good old days,” wrote another user. Graspa Group has not announced a reason for the closure. Segafredo L’Originale. 1040 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach; sze-originale.com. Closing party June 21. OLEE FOWLER ▼ OPENINGS WE WANT THE FUNK Just a few weeks after South Beach was shocked to hear about the closure of Paya, there’s some delicious news to report. Mohamed “Mo” Alkassar, who co-ran the Sunset Harbor restaurant with Niven Patel, has opened CHŌ Funky Asian Bistro. Located at 1209 17th St., it’s his first solo restaurant as part of a new venture, Mo Momentum Group. The kitchen features cuisine from Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia. To make it easy to order with a group of friends (or a date), the menu is organized into five sections. “Snacks,” “Raw,” “Dumplings & Friends,” “Wok,” and mains. Snacks include a delicious chicken liver pâté on a True Loaf Bakery baguette with Granny Smith kaffir lime chutney, and pork ribs with applewood-smoked gochujang sauce. Talk about a flavor bomb. The “Raw” section features menu items like a scallop crudo with red curry oil, pandan, and kaffir lime, and a wasabi cabbage salad with Korean pear and apple wasabi vinaigrette. The “Dumplings & Friends” section offers plenty of options. Some include a Vietnamese shrimp roll with peanut hoisin and nuoc cham, eggplant lumpia with chili- garlic dip, and duck bao with honey-soy- glazed duck and house-made pickles. From the “Wok,” the pad see ew comes with stir-fried beef, Chinese broccoli, and rice noodles, while the duck fried rice arrives in a ceramic Chinese take-out box. Mains include Korean fried chicken with confit garlic kew- pie, gochujang, and house-pickled daikon. Plus, crab curry with jackfruit, spaghetti squash, and Thai red curry. “Cha Ca La Vong,” a Vietnamese preparation of turmeric- marinated daily catch over rice vermicelli noodles and herbs, and Khao Soi Lamb Neck with egg noodles and crispy noodles. Alkassar and Patel ran Paya together under their hospitality group Feal, which also closed its Coral Gables Italian concept, Erba, last year. The two remain partners on Ghee Indian Kitchen, the Michelin Bib Gourmand-recog- nized Indian restaurant that has expanded to Atlanta. However, CHŌ marks his first solo ven- ture. Alkassar was a James Beard Award semi- finalist for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2023 and landed on the Observer’s 2024 Power List. The name comes from several Asian lan- guages and translates, roughly, to “going be- yond.” The space was co-designed by Cuban American artist MokiBaby, with a pagoda- framed, street-facing kitchen that puts the cook line on display from 17th Street. Inside, guests will find crimson-lit book- shelves, mirrored surfaces, hand-painted ta- bletops hiding Easter eggs about Alkassar’s friends and family, and a “fish tank TV” at the host stand. CHŌ Funky Asian Bistro. 1209 17th St., Mi- ami Beach; choasianbistro.com. OLEE FOWLER ▼ LISTS & RANKINGS ON TOP Miami has just landed at the top of another major food list. A new global culinary diversity study from travel eSIM company Holafly puts the Magic City third in the world (tied with Munich) with 75 percent of its restaurants serving in- ternational cuisine. It’s the highest share of any American city in the study. The study analyzed TripAdvisor data across cities pulled from the “World’s Best Cities” rankings, measuring the ratio of local versus in- ternational restaurant offerings to identify where food-focused travelers can experience the widest range of cuisines in one place. Miami outpaced New York City, which placed seventh globally with 71 percent inter- national cuisines, and both Los Angeles and San Francisco at 68 percent. Melbourne placed first overall (79 percent), followed by Berlin (78 percent), with London fourth (74 percent) and Hamburg fifth (73 percent). Miami’s placement tracks with the city’s makeup (and it even received the top foodie city title in 2025). With a majority-Latin popu- lation and decades of Cuban, Venezuelan, Co- lombian, Peruvian, and Caribbean immi- gration shaping our restaurant scene, the city’s food diversity grew out of who set- tled here. Getting a café Cu- bano, a bowl of san- cocho, or a Venezuelan arepa is not a destination out- ing; it’s a regular Tuesday. That plays out in different parts of the city, with Doral’s dense amount of Venezuelan restaurants, Little Havana’s Cuban counters, the Haitian restaurants of Little Haiti, the Japanese spots, and Peruvian cevicherias spread across Brickell and Midtown, showing that the diversity isn’t concentrated; it is found throughout the city. This is the second consecutive year Miami has topped a major U.S. foodie ranking. Wal- letHub’s 2025 Best Foodie Cities in America report ranked Miami first among more than 180 cities using a different methodology that measured restaurant density, access to top- rated dining, and more than two dozen addi- tional factors. Two organizations ran entirely different analyses and arrived at the same an- swer for two years in a row. That WalletHub report also put Miami 156th in affordability, proving that eating well here and eating affordably here are, unfortu- nately, typically two separate pursuits. The full Holafly study also includes breakdowns on Michelin-starred restaurants, vegetarian-friendly dining, and gluten-free options alongside the diversity ranking. OLEE FOWLER | TASTE TEST | ▼ Café South Beach institution Segafredo L’Originale will close on June 21 after 26 years in business on Lincoln Road. Segafredo L’Originale photo MIAMI OUTPACED NEW YORK CITY, LOS ANGELES AND SAN FRANCISCO IN THE STUDY. New Miami Beach restaurant CHO Funky Asian Bistro is open in the former Paya space on 17th Street with Chinese, Korean, and Thai cuisine. CHŌ Funky Asian Bistro photo
