After 2-year closure, News Cafe reopens in South Beach

The iconic News Cafe on Ocean Drive will reopen today after a two-year closure and change in ownership.

Why it matters: News Cafe, which was founded in 1988, is a South Beach staple that “helped pioneer the rebirth of the Art Deco district beginning in the 1980s,” a spokesperson tells Axios.

• Fashion designer Gianni Versace, perhaps its most popular patron, regularly walked to the News Cafe from his nearby Ocean Drive mansion to eat breakfast and buy Italian-language newspapers. (Versace was murdered in front of his home in 1997 on his way back from the cafe.)

Details: The restaurant and newsstand, owned by Goldman Properties, will return with “beloved classics” and new dishes inspired by Mediterranean and American cuisine, the spokesperson says.

• It will be open 8am to 11pm Sunday-Thursday and until midnight Friday and Saturday.
• The restaurant, at 800 Ocean Drive, will be managed by Vida y Estilo Restaurant Group, which also operates Barsecco, Havana 1957 and La Cerveceria de Barrio.
• A revamped newsstand will be filled with local, national and international publications. The iconic green awning outside will stay.

What they’re saying: “It is in Goldman Properties' DNA to preserve and celebrate the past,” the spokesperson tells Axios. “News Café is an important part of Miami Beach's history.”

Catch up fast: The restaurant, founded by restaurateur Mark Soyka, quietly closed in January 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the hospitality industry.

• Following the closure, Goldman Properties – which owns the Tony Hotel South Beach where News Cafe is located – acquired the restaurant brand.
• The owners originally planned to open News Cafe last May, but the spokesperson said the "permitting process for the upgrades took longer than expected."