Five years after the pandemic put Miami in the national spotlight, drawing in new residents and companies with its business-friendly regulations and year‑round sunshine, the region’s booming dining scene is now showing strain and leaving some restaurants struggling.
There was an “oversaturation” of new restaurants and concepts that opened in the aftermath of the pandemic, said Felix Bendersky, a broker who heads F&B Hospitality, a brokerage focused on food-and-beverage clients, to CoStar News. “There were more concepts coming in than there were people.”
The new concepts and flavors elevated the city’s culinary game, with Miami being named the No. 1 best foodie destination in America in a recent study by personal finance data company WalletHub, based on factors such as most restaurants per capita. But that proliferation, and resulting stiff competition, has driven up prices for restaurant space and good employees, pitting well-capitalized corporate operators against longtime mom-and-pop shops, with losses on both sides…