Bar Bella, a brand new Spanish tapas restaurant from veteran restaurateur Jorgie Ramos, has opened within the former Tacocraft house in South Miami. The restaurant’s title and idea have been impressed by Ramos’s daughter Annabella, whose heritage bridges his Cuban background and her mom’s Midwestern roots. The menu displays this cultural mix, combining Spanish tapas with American barbecue methods.
“Our objective is to marry the heritage,” stated Ramos, who additionally leads Cebeda Rooftop in Coral Gables. “We’re doing smoked paellas, we’re doing barbacoa, we received oysters, we received crudos — now we have a bit little bit of every thing.”
The menu ranges from uncooked bar choices like East and West Coast oysters with piquillo pepper escabeche to a wide range of small plates together with bacon-wrapped dates with chorizo and blue cheese, paprika-dusted corn ribs, and each ham and garlic soup croquetas. For heartier choices, the “Rancho” part includes a pork stomach jam-topped smash burger, smoked pork butt with cafecito-tallow caramel, and rabo encendido empanadas. The restaurant’s specialties embrace a rotating smoked paella — presently that includes crispy rooster oyster and foie gras — and a every day barbacoa preparation which may showcase wagyu picanha with roasted bone marrow and smoked sopa de hueso.
The beverage program highlights Spanish wines and cocktails with playful names nodding to native spots, just like the “Banned from Boogies” frozen cocktail made with peach puree, cranberry, peach liquor, and Jägermeister. The restaurant additionally options two distinct bar areas — a entrance tapas bar and a extra full of life again bar referred to as Abi Maria, a revival of Ramos’s earlier Kendall bar that may debut its personal menu within the coming weeks.
“Of all of the locations we’ve had, this one feels actually good. In case you stroll in, it feels very homey, it looks like us,” says Ramos. The restaurant goals to be each a vacation spot and a neighborhood mainstay in South Miami, an space Ramos grew up in and feels enthusiastic about revitalizing. “It’s an incredible neighborhood that’s simply not tapped but.”
Bar Bella is situated at 5829 SW 73rd Avenue in South Miami. The restaurant is open Tuesday via Thursday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. for dinner service, with plans so as to add brunch in early 2024.