Ya know when you think about Miami a couple things come to mind--white beaches, seafood, and some of the best night clubs in the country, but one thing you don't usually think of is a classic American diner. However, when we were planning our trip to Florida and looking at the Triple D places around Miami a diner is exactly what we found. We knew that we would be spending the end of our trip to the Keys in Miami, and so we decided to take advantage of the chance to see at least one place Guy visited in the area. Most of my family doesn't really go crazy for seafood, so we decided to hit up the 11th Street Diner--home of some American classics, which were born along the east coast, but like most things in this country retired to Florida.Lucky for us, this place just happened to be only about 6 blocks from our hotel in South Beach, so our first afternoon in the city, we decided to walk down to the diner. It's notorious for being the late 
night hangout for everyone who's partied a little too hardy down on the strip, and are in need of some comfort food to ward off their morning hangovers. We weren't there at 2am when this place is at it's busiest, so we almost had the place entirely to ourselves. Here's the cool thing about the diner, it was built in 1948 by a dining car company in New Jersey, and located in Wilkes-Barre, PA for 44 years. The east coast, mainly Pennsylvania and New Jersey, are known for their silver clad diners, but in the 1990's it was dismantled and moved down to South Beach as part of the Art Deco movement in the city. With the help of volunteers and the city, it was restored to its original art deco form and opened on September 11, 1992, and from that day on its been a cornerstone of the Art Deco district. The diner is exactly what you'd expect from an east coast transplant--a silver dining car, filled with red plastic booths, and a soda fountain right in front. The front portion of the diner is exactly what it looked like in the 40's, but they've recently added on a sports bar in the back. We sat in the front part of the diner in their corner booth, and were only the second group of people there. But we were the only group of people eating...
night hangout for everyone who's partied a little too hardy down on the strip, and are in need of some comfort food to ward off their morning hangovers. We weren't there at 2am when this place is at it's busiest, so we almost had the place entirely to ourselves. Here's the cool thing about the diner, it was built in 1948 by a dining car company in New Jersey, and located in Wilkes-Barre, PA for 44 years. The east coast, mainly Pennsylvania and New Jersey, are known for their silver clad diners, but in the 1990's it was dismantled and moved down to South Beach as part of the Art Deco movement in the city. With the help of volunteers and the city, it was restored to its original art deco form and opened on September 11, 1992, and from that day on its been a cornerstone of the Art Deco district. The diner is exactly what you'd expect from an east coast transplant--a silver dining car, filled with red plastic booths, and a soda fountain right in front. The front portion of the diner is exactly what it looked like in the 40's, but they've recently added on a sports bar in the back. We sat in the front part of the diner in their corner booth, and were only the second group of people there. But we were the only group of people eating...Guy sampled a lot of food while he was here, and covered the full range of what he called "American Classics," and that's pretty much what all our meals looked like. My mom and Jenn got their famous t
urkey dinner, complete with cranberry sauce and stuffing--so good that Guy commented on it when he signed the poster he gave to them ("Killer chops & turkey!"). Lisa got the Argentinian skirt steak, another of Guy's favorites, that she got with mashed potatoes and mac 'n cheese. Ben and I diverted from the Triple D specials though, because on top of being featured on Food Network, they've also been voted the best fried chicken in Miami by the New York Times, so that's the route Ben and I took, along with some sweet potato fries for me, black beans and rice for Ben, and the mac 'n cheese for both of us. Now I've gotta say for being in South Florida, the fried chicken was pretty phenomenal, and according to Ben it was the best beans and rice he's ever had. Overall, we were all pretty happy with our food. I had forgotten to check the specials board on the way in though, and after rewatching Guy's clip I wished I had tried their pork chops with apples and cherries, but still I was pretty happy with my fried chicken. Now here's the thing about the diner, the food was awesome, but our waiter wasn't really all that happy to have business in the middle of the afternoon, so we were kind of left to our own devices. We all left happy that we'd visited, but were somewhat unanimous in our vote that it was definately a one time stop on the Triple D train. The food was classic diner fare, and definately lived up to the American classics, which was a unique find in Miami, but there wasn't really a ton that jumped out at us that made us want to revisit the next time we rolled through Miami. That doesn't mean though that I wouldn't give it a hearty recommendation if you ever find yourselves in South Beach, and are just lookin' for some good ole' fashioned diner food.
urkey dinner, complete with cranberry sauce and stuffing--so good that Guy commented on it when he signed the poster he gave to them ("Killer chops & turkey!"). Lisa got the Argentinian skirt steak, another of Guy's favorites, that she got with mashed potatoes and mac 'n cheese. Ben and I diverted from the Triple D specials though, because on top of being featured on Food Network, they've also been voted the best fried chicken in Miami by the New York Times, so that's the route Ben and I took, along with some sweet potato fries for me, black beans and rice for Ben, and the mac 'n cheese for both of us. Now I've gotta say for being in South Florida, the fried chicken was pretty phenomenal, and according to Ben it was the best beans and rice he's ever had. Overall, we were all pretty happy with our food. I had forgotten to check the specials board on the way in though, and after rewatching Guy's clip I wished I had tried their pork chops with apples and cherries, but still I was pretty happy with my fried chicken. Now here's the thing about the diner, the food was awesome, but our waiter wasn't really all that happy to have business in the middle of the afternoon, so we were kind of left to our own devices. We all left happy that we'd visited, but were somewhat unanimous in our vote that it was definately a one time stop on the Triple D train. The food was classic diner fare, and definately lived up to the American classics, which was a unique find in Miami, but there wasn't really a ton that jumped out at us that made us want to revisit the next time we rolled through Miami. That doesn't mean though that I wouldn't give it a hearty recommendation if you ever find yourselves in South Beach, and are just lookin' for some good ole' fashioned diner food. Again, check out the website and see what this awesome diner car looks like plus you can check out the menu, the dishes with stars by them are the Triple D favs http://www.eleventhstreetdiner.com/
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