Time to roll up your jacket sleeves, because it’s going to be an 80s summer in Del Ray.
Tonight is the soft opening for Miami Vibes, a Miami Vice-themed pop-up bar at 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue in Del Ray. The party starts at 6 p.m., and the drink menu is full of summer drinks like frozen daiquiris, mojitos and even an Old Fashioned with watermelon rum.
Miami Vibes is the sixth pop-up at the space by owners Bill Blackburn and “Mango” Mike Anderson of the Homegrown Restaurant Group since closing their Sushi Bar restaurant at the end of 2021.
Final touches were still being added to the restaurant interior on Thursday night, like a back-lit mural of Miami’s South Beach, neon lighting and painting. Anderson says that the pop-up will be ready to go by Friday. He also says that a date at Miami Vibes should run you about $60 to $100.
“We just wanted to have an 80s place with 80s music and with a Miami Vice vibe to it,” Anderson said.
Bar manager Mari Luffey wasn’t born in the 1980s and had to research the decade.
“Working under Mango Mike I’ve learned some things and I did a lot of research watching Miami Vice,” she said.
The drinks are named after the show, like the “Crockett and Tubbs” and the “St. Vitus Dance,” and the menu is full of small appetizers like coconut shrimp and spinach and crab dip.
Miami Vibes will be open until October, when it will once again be transformed into their Halloween-themed restaurant Nightmare On The Avenue. In December, it will be turned into their Christmas-themed pop-up bar Joy On The Avenue.