The Gibson Room – Coral Way's candlelit tavern from a Star chef

On a quiet block of Coral Way, at the inner edge of Shenandoah — one of Miami's oldest residential neighbourhoods — The Gibson Room occupies the shell of a longtime beer-and-burger dive once known as The Mighty. Chef Michael Beltran, who holds one MICHELIN Star for his flagship restaurant Ariete in Coconut Grove, opened it in the summer of 2022 together with Ariete Hospitality Group, choosing a stretch of street he knew from childhood. Running the kitchen alongside him is executive chef Kris Huseby, a colleague from their shared years on the line at Michael Schwartz's Cypress Room. The room itself is painted almost entirely black, lit by candles and a long backlit bar, with a mounted blue marlin, taxidermy on the walls, a grand piano and a small stage that keeps live music and vinyl nights running after dark. The Gibson Room is selected in the MICHELIN Guide.

01The room and the setting

Nearly everything inside is black, from the walls to the ceiling, so that even a five-o'clock happy hour already feels like the start of a long night. Beltran's team gave The Gibson Room a makeover dominated by a back-lit bar that takes up most of one wall and the raised stage up by the windows, with rows of speakers mounted above the taxidermy deer heads, and nearly everything painted black.

The kitchen pass looks out on a mounted blue marlin, in what the team describes as part of an ode to Florida set inside Shenandoah, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the City of Miami. Nearby stands an actual grand piano — the kind of detail guests least expect to see alongside walls adorned in taxidermy, in the middle of Coral Way — which makes the low-lit dining room feel closer to a private club than a corner tavern.

02The chef

Beltran opened his flagship, Ariete, in Coconut Grove, and the restaurant has gone on to win a Michelin Star in 2022 and 2023. Under Ariete Hospitality Group, Beltran owns and operates a wider portfolio including Chug's Diner, Brasserie Laurel, El Vecino and Eva and the Oyster Bar, among others. The Gibson Room sits closer to home than any of them: Beltran grew up in the neighbourhood where he opened the bar, making it one of his most personal projects to date, and his grandparents still live just a few blocks away.

Insider tip

Open Wed–Sun evenings only; closed Monday and Tuesday.

For the kitchen, Beltran turned to executive chef Kris Huseby, a longtime friend who shared the line with him at Michael Schwartz's Cypress Room, and the pair built the menu together from scratch rather than importing dishes from Ariete.

03The cooking and what to order

The menu moves from snack-sized plates to full dinners. On the current card: Baked Oysters with mushrooms and glaçage, Maduros Fondue with blue cheese and confit garlic, Bone Marrow St. Roe with buttermilk biscuits and preserves, and a Tamal En Cazuela with foie gras, crispy duck chicharrón and dried fruit mojo.

Larger plates run to Fish & Chips with battered haddock and sauce gribiche, a Roasted Chicken Ballotine with maple and boniato, a double-smash Burger, Parisian Gnocchi, Shrimp Andouille Etouffee with aged Carolina rice and benne, and Golden Tilefish with romesco and farro verde. A charcuterie board brings in Point Reyes Bay Blue, Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Thomasville Tomme alongside house pâté de campagne and chicken liver mousse, and dinner closes with a foie-gras Flan with rum-drunken figs, a Hot Banana Cake with banoffee, cocoa and rum, and a Coconut Cream Pie with cocoa and lime.

04Wine and drinks

The room takes its name from its own signature order: a House Gibson made with gin or vodka, vermouth, sherry and onions, built to be drunk slowly at the long backlit bar. A short list of wine by the glass and draft beer runs alongside it, built to keep pace with a live set rather than compete with it.

05When to go and booking

In October 2026, The Gibson Room keeps evening-only hours, open Wednesday and Thursday from 5pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday to 2am, and Sunday to midnight, with the kitchen running Wednesday to Saturday from 5 to 11pm and Sunday from 1 to 9pm. A daily happy hour runs from 5 to 7pm, with a second late-night happy hour from 11pm to 1am Thursday through Saturday for anyone who wants the band without the full dinner.

06The neighbourhood

Shenandoah sits a few streets back from the restaurant rows of Coral Gables and Coconut Grove, in a pocket of Miami still built mostly of houses and low apartment blocks rather than hotels. It is a street surrounded by apartment buildings and homes, still a quiet community of families — and the chickens that know how to cross it — exactly the kind of block Beltran wanted for a restaurant built for his neighbours before anyone else.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.