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An iconic former Miami bar space is back with a fresh look—and it is home to what might be the city’s smallest cocktail bar

A sprawling new open-air hangout has taken over the former Anderson Bar property, complete with $5 beers and a seriously tiny cocktail bar.

Laura Ratliff
Written by
Laura Ratliff
Drinks at Upper Eastside Hangout.
Photograph: Courtesy of Upper Eastside Hangout | Drinks at Upper Eastside Hangout.
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If you’ve been mourning the loss of The Anderson, we have some good news: one of Miami’s most recognizable bar spaces is officially pouring drinks again.

The former Anderson Bar property at 701 NE 79th Street has reopened as Upper Eastside Hangout, a new open-air drinking and dining destination that blends Old Florida nostalgia with prices that might make Miamians do a double-take—in a good way. (The property is also home to one of the city’s oldest continuously operating liquor licenses, dating back to 1937.)

The new spot comes from All We Need Hospitality Group, founded by Travis Rogers, John Fortini, Anthony Mejia and Victor Ramos, who have turned the space into a colorful, 250-plus-person courtyard with cream shade sails, string lights, picnic tables, lawn games and giant LED screens.

The real star, however, might be hiding down a palm-lined path: the Original Bar Shack is a tiny, 200-square-foot cocktail bar that the team believes could be Miami’s smallest. The retro coral-and-green mini-house seats just 15 people and packs tropical wallpaper, vintage prints, brass palm sconces and a full-on cocktail program into its very petite footprint.

Drinks use Floridian ingredients like Datil peppers, Muscadine grapes, locally-made liqueurs and pecan infusions. The Florida Spritz combines Ketel One Botanical Peach & Orange Blossom with Munyon’s Paw-Paw liqueur, mint, lemon, grapefruit and hibiscus bitters and prosecco, while the Dade Runner mixes spiced rum, banana, blackberry liqueur, lime, pineapple ginger beer and orange bitters.

And in a city where cocktail prices have become genuinely frightening, the Hangout is making a pretty convincing case for becoming your new neighborhood local. Happy hour runs Tuesday through Friday from 2 to 6pm with $5 beers, mixed drinks, frozen cocktails and wines. Beer (notably) is $5 all the time—even at 11pm on a Saturday.

Food comes from a garden of familiar and new concepts, including Cheeseburger Baby, street-style taqueria Tacomiendo, hand-pulled noodle spot Noodle Bar and international snack purveyor ProfessorSnacks. Weekly happenings range from $3 tacos and $5 margaritas on Tuesdays to Thursday game nights and all-ages Sunday Sunset Comedy.

Upper Eastside Hangout is open Tuesday through Sunday from 2pm to 1am, but the property’s comeback isn’t finished yet. An indoor lounge called Here to There will join the lineup in September and a self-service concept called In Between Wine Garden is also expected later this year.

“The corner sat empty long enough,” cofounder Anthony Mejia said. Based on the $5 beers and Miami’s potentially tiniest cocktail bar, we’d say it has certainly come back swinging.

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