At 5855 Sunset Drive, the morning belongs to pastry. Clásica Victoria has served breakfast and lunch at that address since 2022. Its founder, Victoria Galindez, began her pastry tradition in Buenos Aires in 1996 and later refined it in Paris and Vienna.
At 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, the same room becomes Babette, a world-cuisine dinner restaurant with a different kitchen, a different identity, and a different set of owners.
The setup at 5855 Sunset Drive is a good model for how downtown South Miami's evenings are changing this fall. The best-known redevelopment site in town is still waiting on demolition. In the meantime, the evening activity is moving into spaces downtown already had: a daytime café, a two-block street intersection, and a century-old building at Sunset Drive and US-1. None of these were built for nightlife.
One address, two restaurants, split at 6 p.m.
Babette opened in Coral Gables in 2024 at 301 Alcazar Avenue. After roughly two years there, it closed that location in August 2026, and The Burn Miami reported that it would move into Clásica Victoria's space in South Miami, with dinner service starting Friday, September 4. The two businesses chose to share one room rather than look for a second one. Their announcement put the arrangement this way:
"By day, Clásica Victoria continues exactly as it always has. By night, Tuesday through Saturday from 6 p.m., the room transforms and Babette takes over. Victoria owns the morning. Babette owns the night."
Chef Daniel "Dani" Chávez-Bello runs the kitchen. He spent more than twenty years in kitchens including El Bulli and Bouley in New York, and has cooked across Europe and Asia. His partner, Alex Oliveros, handles the restaurant's identity, interiors, and atmosphere. On Babette's own site, the pairing is described as "Two independent stories. Two distinct identities."
For anyone living within walking distance of Sunset Drive, this gives the block between Red Road and US-1 a sit-down, chef-driven dinner option five nights a week in a room that used to close after lunch. It took no new construction, only a second business using the same space.
A street that closes to cars once a month
The same thinking about shared space works at street scale two blocks south. On the second Saturday of every month from October through May, the City of South Miami closes SW 73rd Street and SW 58th Avenue to traffic for SoMi Second Saturdays, a free, family-friendly, pet-friendly night market. It runs 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
The market isn't new. Its first edition ran May 11, 2024. In 2025, the city said Miami Friendors, a South Florida organization, handled vendor recruitment and event support. The format has also become more fixed over time. Each edition now has a theme, and the full season is published in advance. Four hours a night across eight Saturdays adds up to 32 hours a season when an ordinary downtown intersection works as a public room.
The city's event listing for this Saturday, November 14, promises local artisans, food vendors and restaurants, drinks, and live music. Parking is free all day in the City of South Miami Municipal Garage at 5829 SW 73rd Street. The organizer's market page names November's theme, "Boots, Beats & BBQ," and lists these vendors for the night:
- Melz Kitchen, Nimbuya, and D La Mata, under food tents and prepared meals
- Peachtree Bakery and Hectico Flan, in baked goods
- Root & Ritual Plant & Coffee Shop, with plants and flowers
The page also lists a kids' activity area and free maracas at the City of South Miami tent.
The rest of the season is already posted:
- December 12, 2026: SoMi's Holiday Village
- January 9, 2027: The Wellness Reset
- February 13, 2027: Puppy Love
- March 13, 2027: Caribbean Night in SoMi
- April 10, 2027: SoMi Freestyle Night
Peachtree Bakery and D La Mata are listed for both November and December. Anyone who finds a favorite this Saturday can likely find them again at the Holiday Village a month later.
The midnight kitchen is moving into a 1920s bank
The third change is still under construction. It addresses the evening hours that Babette and the night market don't cover.
Deli Lane Café & Sunset Tavern has operated at 7230 SW 59th Avenue since 1988. AvalonBay Communities bought the surrounding property for redevelopment, and the restaurant must leave its current space by January 1. As Miami New Times reported in September, it is moving across the driveway into the historic Dorn Buildings at the corner of Sunset Drive and US-1.
The building has its own history. Brothers Harold and Robert Dorn built the three-building complex in the 1920s. Over the years it housed the Dorn-Martin drugstore, South Florida Bank, and the South Miami Post Office, and South Miami designated it a historic site in 2005. The renovation costs more than $3 million and includes new electrical and plumbing systems. Owner Kirchoff told Miami New Times that deteriorated concrete columns had delayed the work, and that he expects the new restaurant to be ready before the January 1 deadline.
According to the same report, the plans call for:
- A combined name, Deli Lane Café and Tavern, with each side keeping its own personality
- A tropical café side designed to feel almost outdoors, and a tavern built around high ceilings, historic windows, and two trees inside the bar
- A mezzanine seating roughly 65 to 70 people for private events, decorated with Sunset Tavern memorabilia and University of Miami sports items
- A kitchen open until midnight, with breakfast still served all day and night
Kirchoff described the late kitchen to Miami New Times as filling a late-night dining gap in South Miami. Put the three together and the evening fills out. Babette offers dinner from 6, the market runs until 9:30 one Saturday a month, and Deli Lane plans to keep cooking until midnight. All three are within a few blocks of each other, and all three are in buildings or streets that already existed.
The big site stays dark a while longer
The contrast is just west on Sunset Drive. The Shops at Sunset Place covers about 10 acres. The Miami Herald reported in July that the redevelopment plan calls for seven towers of 12 to 33 stories, about 1,500 homes, a hotel, theaters, and 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. As of that report, demolition had not started.
On September 1, 2026, the Miami-Dade County Commission adopted an ordinance creating the Downtown SoMi Community Development District. A community development district is a financing mechanism for infrastructure, and the county's filing estimates the improvements at about $149 million. In October, Miami Today reported that the demolition target had moved from the first quarter of 2026 to early 2027.
In the meantime, AMC Sunset Place 24 at 5701 Sunset Drive still lists films and sells tickets. On a second Saturday this winter, it's realistic to plan dinner at 6 in the room on Sunset Drive, the market on SW 73rd Street until 9:30, and a movie at the mall that is waiting for demolition. Every stop is walkable, and none of them depends on the towers.
Today's downtown and the planned 1,500 homes will both shape what comes next on Sunset Drive. If you own near downtown South Miami and want to talk through what the coming years on these blocks could mean for your property, the Cromer Team would be glad to sit down with you. Request a Private Consultation, and we'll meet you for coffee at Clásica Victoria.
