L.A. Story
Latin Comfort Food in South Beach

There are certain things no neighborhood should be without: a good wine bar. A place where you can get jet-fuel-strength cafecitos. A tapas joint.

But when you put all three of them together into one place, that’s when you get something truly remarkable...

Introducing Bernie’s L.A. Café, your new Latin comfort food spot, now open in South Beach.

Think of this sliver of a restaurant as the gourmet equivalent of your typical greasy empanada-and-cortadito stand. Helmed by Bernie Matz, the chef behind local favorite The Café at Books & Books, this is where you’ll go for belly-filling lunches with friends and post-movie bites with a date.

Housed in the former Cajun fast-food place The Spot, the space looks totally different now, with blond wood wine racks, a handful of tables and a fire-engine-red wall. You’ll come in with your date or friends, settle down with a bottle of Argentinean Malbec and dig into a slew of small plates like Grouper Ceviche with celery and grapefruit. Then, you’ll move on to heartier stuff like Chorizo Tacos and a Havana Cheese Steak.

And since the chef is a Miami veteran, you’ll probably catch a few power players, chefs and real-estate moguls stopping in for thimbles of coffee and spirited powwows in Spanish.

Nothing inspires a powwow like a thimble of coffee.