12 OctOber 8-14, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | 3201 RICKENBACKER CWY, KEY BISCAYNE, FL 33149 305.361.3818 | WWW.THERUSTYPELICAN.COM BE SOCIAL WITH US! /RUSTYPELICANMIAMI Join us for SUNSET HOUR EVERY MONDAY-FRIDAY 4PM-6:30PM tinue to evolve under bar manager and mixologist Eddie Fuentes. The restaurant will also offer new cocktails, while the wine program will feature a focused mix of European, Argentine, and classic Italian produc- ers. It also includes at least one small nod to the new neighborhood. “You’ll probably find a few more Malbecs on the wine list,” Rapicavoli teases. Rapicavoli isn’t forcing a North Beach identity onto a restaurant that already knows what it wants to be. “We really want to capture what’s special about Luca and bring it to a new neigh- borhood,” he explains. Instead, the evolution will be subtle. It’ll be a little more casual and a little more neighborhood- driven. Plus, he hopes it will be the restaurant people return to without needing an occasion. The restaurant will also echo Luca Osteria’s mid- century aesthetic, with warm wood furnishings and gold detailing. But for Rapicavoli, the most meaningful part of expanding Luca is the new clientele that will fill the dining room. “We are really just so excited to bring this concept that’s so unique to Miami to a new neighborhood,” he says. “Getting to create new experiences with new people, making new regulars. It’s why we do what we do.” That idea of regulars comes up again when Rapicavoli talks about what success will look like once Luca Trattoria finally opens its doors. He isn’t chasing the reaction that the new restaurant is bigger, flashier, or even better than the original. He wants people to trust it. “I hope it is just as delicious as Osteria, that the service is just as good, and that it’s a place they’ll always want to come back to,” he says of what he hopes guests will think after their first visit. “Consistency is key, and with a new location that’s more important than ever.” Rapicavoli and Casanova left their mark on Mi- ami dining after beginning their careers while living in North Beach. Now, more than a decade after opening Eating House, they’re heading back to the neighborhood where that chapter began, this time hoping to build the kind of place where a new group of Miamians will want to keep coming back, too. Luca Trattoria. 933 Normandy Drive, Miami Beach. Opening this fall. VICTORIA STANZIONE ▼ SOUTH OF FIFTH BACK TO THE FUTURE South of Fifth cocktail bar The Scapegoat has a new look and menu straight out of the ’80s and early 2000s. Now, hunter-green walls, lower ta- bles, and a logo inspired by The Strokes fill the room. Eight years after opening, the 30-seat bar at 100 Collins Ave. has completed a renovation led by bartender Tom Lasher-Walker and his team. The Ariete Hospitality Group spot also picked up New Times’ Best Bar in Miami Beach award this year. The refresh gives regulars a different room for their usual round, with a design that draws on 1980s South Beach and a cocktail pro- gram influenced by early-2000s New York. Lasher-Walker and the team handled the re- model in-house, choosing the updates for the bar’s 635-square-foot space. Hunter green re- places the brown-black walls, while standard- height wooden tables replace high-tops. Amber lighting, glossy green tile, dark wood, and leather-toned seating round out the room. The new logo has a roundabout origin. Ac- cording to the announcement, it references the wordmark from the Strokes’ 2001 debut album, “Is This It,” which drew on the chrome-style branding of Magna cigarettes, a budget brand popular in the 1980s and ’90s. The team used that refer- ence, along with the lighting and furniture changes, to update the small room. The New York influence has a connection to Lasher-Walker’s own career, who moved to New York in late 2014 to work at Attaboy, which occu- pies the former Milk & Honey space on Eldridge Street. That same year, he won the Bacardi Leg- acy Global Cocktail Competition. At The Scapegoat, the menu includes drinks like a frozen Vesper, white Negroni, Penicillin, Waterlily, and Revolver, alongside drinks Lasher- Walker developed during his time behind popular Miami bars. The “Hidalgo,” created at The Scapegoat in 2025, features mezcal, pomegranate amaro, lime, and orgeat. “Beny’s Daiquiri” combines Don Q Gran Reserva Añejo XO with Velvet Falernum, Giffard Banana, lime, and Angostura bitters, while the “Hollywood Margarita” comes with blanco te- quila, triple sec, Ancho Reyes Verde, and lime. The announcement lists $12 happy-hour cock- tails daily from 5 to 8 p.m., including daiquiris, gim- lets, Palomas, Manhattans, and mojitos. Beers run $9 to $14, with a nonalcoholic Kölsch-style ale among the options, and wines by the glass cost $17. The Scapegoat. 100 Collins Ave., # CU-4, Miami Beach; scapegoatsobe.com.OLEE FOWLER Taste Test from p11 Award-winning Miami Beach bar The Scapegoat has just undergone a makeover with hunter-green walls, lower tables, and old-fashioned cocktails. Photo by R.C. Visuals THE COCKTAIL PROGRAM IS INFLUENCED BY EARLY-2000S NEW YORK.
