Bidding farewell to North Beach, Miami's best neighborhood
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
One of many North Beach sunrises I saw. Photo: Sommer Brugal/Axios
After nearly four years, I'm no longer living on the beach.
Why it matters: As someone who once vowed she'd never live in Miami as an adult, North Beach welcomed me in and showed me a different side of what 305 living could be.
- Plus, I made living on the beach part of my mission (both in life and in this newsletter), to make sure folks I knew (and didn't) agreed it's the best neighborhood in Miami.
State of play: I recently moved to MiMo, and I'm excited for the change, but there are things I already miss about North Beach:
- My daily drives over the John F. Kennedy Causeway.
- Bob's Your Uncle (one of Miami's finest — prove me wrong!).
- Walking to restaurants like Silverlake Bistro, Katana and Prima Pasta.
- And the abuelitos next door to my apartment, playing dominoes (and blasting salsa, merengue and bachata) well into the early-morning hours every Thursday through Saturday.
Flashback: After 17 years living elsewhere, my childhood friends were shocked to hear where I'd be living upon my return to Miami. The reason: "That's so far!"
- And they weren't wrong, it was far — but only from the Miami I knew at the time.
Zoom in: I grew up near The Falls, an hourlong drive from North Beach (on a good day).
- It's 50 minutes from Sunset Place (RIP), nearly 40 minutes from Coconut Grove, where my brother and most friends lived at the time, and a more-than-30-minute trip to Versailles on Calle Ocho.
Yes, but: I was a 10-minute walk to the beach and boardwalk, where I spent most of my free time over the last few years.
- The area is walkable and the restaurants and bars are mostly family-owned.
- The Miami Beach Bandshell, where I attended countless shows, was walking distance.
North Beach offered an escape from the city's often lavish and fast-paced lifestyle.
Zoom out: I was also just a 10-minute drive from neighborhoods like Little River, Little Haiti and MiMo.
- The restaurants, cafes, music and art venues, and parks, including ZeyZey, Imperial Moto, Caracas Bakery, Surry Hills, Off Site, Magie Wine Bar, La Natural and others, offered a sense of community and closeness I never thought possible in a city as big as Miami.
- Shoutout to Legion Park's Saturday morning market and community yoga.
Those neighborhoods — North Beach included — gave me a front-seat look at how the areas that embody Miami's rich history were also undergoing intense change and gentrification.
- And the relationships I built with business owners and locals alike showed me what's being done to try to preserve them.
The bottom line: North Beach, and the community that came along with it, gave me permission to love Miami in ways I never thought I would.
- It will always have a special place in my heart.