Joe's Stone Crab – Miami Beach's claw-cracking institution since 1913

On the southern tip of Miami Beach, where Washington Avenue meets the old fishing frontage of South of Fifth, Joe's Stone Crab has been serving the claw that made it famous since 1913, before Miami Beach was even incorporated as a city. What began as Joe Weiss's small lunch counter, opened after doctors told him a change of climate might ease his asthma, grew within a decade into the restaurant that introduced stone crab to the world, after a Harvard-trained ichthyologist persuaded Weiss to try a crustacean he had assumed nobody would eat. More than a hundred years on, the business is still family-run, now by Stephen Sawitz and his mother Jo Ann Bass, the fourth and third generations of the founding Weiss line. In 1998 the James Beard Foundation named it an America's Classic, and it remains one of the country's highest-grossing independent restaurants. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide.

01A family history, not a franchise

Joe and Jennie Weiss were Hungarian-born immigrants who had been living in New York when Joe's asthma pushed them south. Joe had asthma and borrowed against a life insurance policy to travel to Miami Beach in 1913, where he found relief from his symptoms, and his wife and son soon followed. In 1913, Joe Weiss opened up a small lunch counter on Miami Beach, before Miami Beach was even a city. By 1918 the couple had bought a bungalow across the street and turned the front porch into a dining room.

Stone crab itself only entered the menu by accident. In 1921, James Allison built an aquarium at the foot of the bay and invited a Harvard ichthyologist down to do research; Joe, who was only serving crawfish and fish at the time, doubted anyone would eat the local crabs. The scientist brought a sackful to prove him wrong, and Joe boiled the claws, paired them with hashed browns and cole slaw and sold them for 75 cents, an instant hit. The restaurant was designated a Miami Beach historic landmark in 1975, and in 1998 it won an America's Classic Award from the James Beard Foundation and is consistently among the highest-grossing individual restaurants in the United States.

The family thread has never broken. Fourth-generation co-owner Stephen Sawitz now runs the business alongside his mother, Jo Ann Bass. Even the mustard sauce served with every claw is unchanged: according to Sawitz, the restaurant still follows the recipe his great-grandfather created more than a century ago. A reception-area painting by Romero Britto, depicting a multicoloured stone crab with 'Joe's' emblazoned in red glitter, was created as a gift for Jo Ann Bass to mark the restaurant's 100th anniversary in 2013.

02The cooking

Everything still turns on one dish: chilled, cracked stone crab claws with mustard sauce, exactly as Joe first served them. Fresh Florida claws are seasonal — available from 15 October until 1 May, the period when the regulated catch is legal, with frozen claws served on a reduced schedule the rest of the year. The fishery is tightly managed: Florida law prohibits harvesting whole crabs, so only claws measuring at least 2.75 inches are taken and the crabs are returned to the ocean, which works because stone crabs can regenerate their claws up to three or four times during their lifespan.

Insider tip

Fresh claws run October 15–May 1; reservations via OpenTable, walk-ins always welcome.

The kitchen has turned over a new head chef for the current season, but, as fourth-generation owner Stephen Sawitz put it, the goal remains keeping the gold standard of service and food that has made Joe's synonymous with the Miami Beach experience. Beyond the claws, the menu runs to oysters, a chilled seafood tower, prime steaks and a Florida lobster tail, but stone crab is still what every table orders first.

03What to order

Start with the claws themselves — Jumbo, Large, Select or Medium, all chilled, cracked and served with mustard sauce — or go for the Joe's Classic, which adds Joe's cole slaw, hashed browns, creamed spinach and a slice of key lime pie to a full order. The Chilled Seafood Tower stacks stone crab, whole Maine lobster, king crab, shrimp cocktail, oysters and tuna tartare for the table. For something hot, the Lobster Mac & Cheese in white cheddar and breadcrumbs is a fixture, and no visit ends without a slice of Joe's Key Lime Pie or the Basque-style Guava Cheesecake with Biscoff crumb.

04The room and private dining

The dining rooms carry family names rather than numbers. Gigi's Room, lined with green banquettes, seats 24; Calvin's Room, a semi-private space between the East Wing and Jesse's Room, holds the same number; Jesse's Room is described on the restaurant's own site as the most intimate space, 'filled with cherished memories and old-world charm'. The East Wing combines Gigi's and Calvin's rooms behind folding doors for up to 92 guests, and a full buyout of the restaurant can accommodate 400. The restaurant has air conditioning and a terrace, and in the reception area the Britto crab painting still hangs opposite the hostess stand.

05When to go and booking

Lunch runs Wednesday to Sunday, 11:30am to 2:30pm; dinner runs Sunday to Thursday 5pm to 10pm and Friday and Saturday 5pm to 11pm, according to the restaurant's own site in October 2026. For decades Joe's famously took no reservations at all; today reservations are accepted through OpenTable, though walk-ins are always welcome and seated based on availability. Weekend waits in peak stone crab season remain part of the ritual. For a faster, no-reservation option, Joe's Take Away sits next door with counter service and café seating.

06The neighbourhood

Joe's sits at the quiet southern end of Miami Beach, in what locals call South of Fifth, a short walk from South Pointe Park and the cruise-ship channel, and a world away from the neon of Ocean Drive. It was here, on a porch overlooking what was then undeveloped beachfront, that Joe and Jennie Weiss built a restaurant before Miami Beach existed as a municipality — and the corner of Washington Avenue and Biscayne Street has been drawing diners, from stone-crab regulars to the odd Prohibition-era gangster dining under an alias, ever since.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.