10 August 13-19, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | While our doors are closing for now, we are hope- ful this is not goodbye forever. We have plans to reopen in the future! If you’d like to stay updated on our reopening and future announcements, please send us your email address at abracero@ runchickenrun.com. We’ll be sure to keep you in- formed every step of the way. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being part of our story. We hope to welcome you back again soon. – Yardbird Miami Beach.” On OpenTable, Yardbird’s listing states, “We thank you for having chosen Yardbird Miami over the years; it has been a pleasure being a part of the community. We sincerely apologize for the in- convenience our closure may have caused. We hope you can join us at another Yardbird around the country and world. Thank you, Miami, for 15 years!” Exactly what prompted the sudden clo- sure remains unclear. One diner said in a Google review posted Wednesday morning that she had a lunch reser- vation the previous day and only discovered something was wrong when she called to ask about valet parking. She wrote, in part: “I had a reservation yester- day [Tuesday] for lunch. When I called to ask about valet parking, the man who picked up in- terrupted me. He yelled that the restaurant was closed and rudely hung up on me. Then, a woman from corporate called about 30 minutes before my reservation and said the restaurant unexpect- edly closed. She was calling people with reserva- tions to let them know. I asked what happened, and she said she did not know, but that suddenly, the day or the night before, the restaurant closed—an odd response from a regional restau- rant manager.” If the account is accurate, even members of Yardbird’s corporate team are apparently scram- bling to notify guests after the decision was made. Perhaps the strangest part of the timing is that Yardbird was allegedly participating in Miami Spice 2026 right up until its doors closed. How- ever, according to the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) website, this is not the case. (The Southern restaurant has actually been stripped from the website entirely.) A Yardbird employee who appears to have managed the Google listing for the restaurant re- sponded to a review, writing, “Thanks for the fan- tastic recommendation, Just Mike The Poet! We’re thrilled you enjoyed the Spice Menu. Your enthusiasm makes it all worthwhile, and we ap- preciate your support!” And just weeks before the closure, Yardbird’s public relations team was sending press materials promoting a new menu item in July. In other words, there was little outward indication that the restaurant that launched the entire Yardbird brand was about to disappear. Winner of countless New Times “Best Of” awards, Yardbird was beloved by many over the past 15 years. Its most recent award was in 2020, when it won a Readers’ Choice for Best Fried Chicken. Restaurateur John Kunkel opened the original Yardbird in Miami Beach in 2011 under 50 Eggs Hospitality Group, building the restaurant around Southern cooking, hospitality, and family recipes. Fried chicken became its calling card, particularly its famous fried chicken and waffles, alongside deviled eggs, buttermilk biscuits, mac ‘n’ cheese, and other Southern staples. The restaurant quickly became one of Miami Beach’s defining brunch destinations. By 2018, New Times reported that Yardbird had been named among OpenTable’s 100 Best Brunch Res- taurants in America. Weekends could be espe- cially packed. For eight hours every Saturday and Sunday, the restaurant served biscuits, fried chicken, mac ‘n’ cheese, fried green tomatoes, and cocktails to a steady stream of locals and tourists. It became one of South Beach’s longest- running brunches, both in terms of its marathon weekend service and its staying power. The accolades stretched well beyond Miami. In Photo by Travis Copeland Yardbird Southern Table & Bar has unexpectedly closed its original South Beach restaurant after 15 years, leaving diners and staff stunned. Taste Test from p9
