11 August 27 - september 2, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | PLAN YOUR WEDDINGS | CORPORATE EVENTS SOCIAL EVENTS Dream Event VIEW OUR EVENT SPACES WWW.THERUSTYPELICAN.COM at 3201 RICKENBACKER CWY, KEY BISCAYNE, FL 33149 | 305.361.3818 BE SOCIAL WITH US! /RUSTYPELICANMIAMI summer. During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Hard Rock Cafe Miami hosted watch parties for every match, filling the restaurant with soccer fans. It followed that with a Fourth of July weekend cele- bration just weeks before its closure. The loss is also significant for its employees. According to the WARN notice filed in June, the closure affected 117 workers, including 34 servers, 19 line cooks, 12 bartenders, nine bussers, and members of management. Miami isn’t the only longtime Hard Rock Cafe to disappear. The Key West location closed in May after nearly 30 years, while locations around the world, including Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Paris, have shuttered in recent years. The company’s business has increasingly shifted toward hotels and casinos. The Seminole Tribe of Florida purchased Hard Rock International in 2007 for just under $1 billion, and the company now operates dozens of hotels and casinos worldwide in addition to its remaining cafes. Hard Rock Cafe Miami opened just five years after Bayside Marketplace debuted and remained on the waterfront through more than three de- cades of downtown Miami’s transformation. Generations of tourists and customers have come and gone, and they’ve raised their overly sweet frozen cocktails for the last time. For all the complaints about the prices, dated decor, and unabashed tourist-trap reputation, Hard Rock Cafe Miami had something increas- ingly rare in this city: 33 years of shared history. Hard Rock Cafe Miami. 401 Biscayne Blvd., Mi- ami. Now closed. NICOLE LOPEZ-ALVAR ▼ MIAMI BEACH BAKE SALE A beloved Miami Beach bakery is losing its cher- ished home. The Love Loaf says it is “being forced to shut down” its North Beach bakery at 7415 Col- lins Ave. on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Owner Suzana “Suzi” Rodrigues has already lined up its next home one block south at 7337 Collins Ave., though the bread ovens will be off for a while. Rodrigues shared the news on Instagram on Aug. 13. She did not say what prompted the forced closure, and New Times has reached out for more information. Rodrigues did not name a landlord or devel- opment project, but available records place the bakery within the footprint of the massive Ocean Terrace redevelopment. A commercial property listing groups the bakery’s 7415 Collins Ave. store- front with the building at 7409 Collins Ave., and the city’s development agreement includes 7409 Collins Ave. in the Ocean Terrace site, which stretches across nearly the full block between 74th and 75th streets. City-approved plans call for extensive demoli- tion, restoration, and new construction across the site, including residential and hotel towers with new retail space. Urbanize reported in March that the developer expected to break ground later in 2026. The project has already forced out another neighborhood food business. Taquiza closed its longtime location at 7450 Ocean Terrace on July 31, as the Broadmoor Hotel prepared for con- struction. The Love Loaf sits within the same listed development site. Whether the redevelop- ment is the direct reason Rodrigues must leave remains unconfirmed. The move comes a little more than two years after Rodrigues opened the permanent shop in 2024. She spent 20 years working in corporate fi- nance before turning to baking, and the business took three years to open its Collins Avenue store- front. At the current bakery, the team mills or- ganic flour in-house for sourdough made with heirloom and ancient grains. The menu also in- cludes pastries and cakes, plus sandwiches, cof- fee, and matcha. Rodrigues credited customers for making the two-year-old shop feel rooted in the neighbor- hood. “The heart of our bakery will always belong to North Beach,” she wrote. Moving one block sounds simple enough; however, the new space still needs considerable work to meet code requirements, and Rodrigues estimates The Love Loaf will reopen during the first half of 2027. “Our best estimate is that we will open our doors again sometime in the first half of 2027,” she wrote. Rodrigues has no firm plan for the months be- tween locations. Her first priority is keeping the full staff together, which means finding a tempo- rary production kitchen where the team can con- tinue baking. She is considering pop-ups and delivery, possibly through a collaboration with another local business. “One of my priorities is to keep my team,” Ro- drigues wrote. “We are family.” The Instagram comments quickly turned into a real estate conversation. One person offered Rodrigues space at 7500 Collins Ave. Others sug- gested a hotel pop-up or a ghost kitchen. “OMG go pop-up and delivery… we will all support you,” one commenter wrote. Another had a more personal response to the coming gap: “I’m not eating bread until then.” Relief that the bakery would stay close was immediate. “Thank goodness you are staying in the neighborhood!” one person wrote. Rodrigues asked anyone with an idea, oppor- tunity, or possible production space to contact the bakery. She plans to keep posting updates as the team figures out where it will bake after Wednesday, Sept. 30. The Love Loaf. 7415 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; theloveloaf.com. Closing Wednesday, September 30. OLEE FOWLER Screenshot via @the.loveloaf/Instagram Beloved, woman-owned Miami Beach bakery The Love Loaf is being forced to close on Collins Ave. due to a massive redevelopment project.
