Southern comfort on Lenox. Famous fried chicken with bourbon-spiked watermelon lemonade. The brunch chicken & waffles are a Miami institution.
Chef Jeff McInnis, a Top Chef alum who grew up in the Florida Panhandle, opened the original Yardbird Southern Table & Bar in South Beach in 2011 with restaurateurs John Kunkel and Chris Romero, built around the Southern cooking McInnis grew up on. It's since grown into a multi-city group with locations in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Singapore, still anchored by the Miami Beach original.
The fried chicken is the headline dish: brined for 27 hours, dredged in a family-recipe blend of herbs and spices, fried to order, and served with honey hot sauce alongside biscuits made fresh every half hour. The bar leans into an extensive bourbon list to match the Southern menu.
Named to Bon Appétit's 50 Best New Restaurants of 2012 and was a James Beard Foundation Best New Restaurant semifinalist the same year.
Yardbird takes reservations online and gets busy on weekends, so booking ahead is worth it. The vibe is lively and casual, no dress code beyond smart-casual, and the Miami Beach location is walkable from the surrounding Sunset Harbour dining strip.
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Convivial Southern kitchen with long waits and even longer cocktail lists. Weekend brunch is an event.
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