East Flagler Street is open again from Biscayne Boulevard to West First Avenue. The construction fences that stood along the street for six years are mostly gone. The businesses moving into the five rebuilt blocks are nearly all food and drink, and several of them started as pop-ups elsewhere downtown. Construction no longer sets the street's pace. Funding does: specifically, whether downtown can afford to close Flagler to cars on weekends this winter.
The Flagler Business Improvement District counted 13 businesses that had opened or were about to open this year on Flagler and nearby side streets, plus seven more signed leases. That count sits against a long stretch when the street was losing businesses. Fewer people walking by, on top of pandemic shutdowns, meant shops closed one after another, according to the Miami Herald.
The Pop-Ups That Signed Leases
The clearest sign of what Flagler is becoming is who chose to stay. Three of the most talked-about new spots built their followings at temporary setups before signing for a permanent address.
Flagler St. Bakery opened its first permanent shop at 12 NE First Ave. on Aug. 7. Before that, it ran a Sunday pastry pop-up outside Over Under, one of the bars that stayed open through the construction. Owner Julian Gheiler makes everything from scratch, including a medianoche croissant and chocolate babka, and Miami New Times reported lines out the door.
Fratesi's Pizza at 69 E. Flagler serves Chicago tavern-style pizza: a thin, cracker-like crust with cheese and toppings running to the edge. The business built its following by popping up at bars and restaurants around town. Its permanent restaurant was open by July 2025, so Fratesi's has been on Flagler through the worst of the construction, not just since the reopening. Eater Miami's September 2026 list of best new restaurants still calls it one of the hardest reservations in town. Its signature pie is the Demon Pig Boy, with pepperoni and pickled hot peppers.
Phở Nam at 270 E. Flagler held its grand opening on Sept. 3. It is the second restaurant from chef Tam Pham and sommelier Harrison Ramhofer, the team behind Tâm Tâm. For now it serves dinner Thursday through Sunday, 5 to 10 p.m., and its website lists lunch as coming soon. A block north of Flagler, Sippin' on Saigon at 215 N. Miami Ave. pours iced Vietnamese coffee and ube lattes. Edible South Florida lists banh mi, pho and spring rolls there as well.
Why the New Doors Pour Drinks and Bake Bread
The mix leans toward food and drink partly by design. A zoning change that came with the streetscape project exempts places serving alcohol on Flagler from spacing restrictions, and those places can now put sidewalk seating along the entire street. The Downtown Development Authority also gave cash grants to help several new businesses open. The wider sidewalks were planned with outdoor cafes in mind from the start.
The Herald's list of new arrivals includes a pizza restaurant, a cigar club, a wine shop and a French bakery and cafe. The signed leases include a contemporary art gallery and the pho spot that has since opened. The Herald concluded that Flagler "appears poised for a future as an entertainment district" rather than returning to its past as a retail shopping street.
"What our retail mix will be is going to evolve. Now we need to get to work and start filling the empty storefronts that remain." Terrell Fritz, director of the Flagler Business Improvement District, speaking to the Miami Herald
Plenty of those storefronts are still empty. Entrepreneur Moishe Mana owns much of the street. He repainted his storefronts on the 100 block and fitted them with smoky new glass, using colors taken from the giant Mona Lisa mural on his headquarters tower at East First Avenue. Most of those storefronts were still vacant as of August. Mana has said he wants to attract tech, fashion and other creative businesses, and Fritz has not ruled out some stores coming back.
A Short Walk Along the Rebuilt Blocks
Going east from Miami Avenue toward the bay, here is where the open doors are:
- Backbone Wine Co., 29 E. Flagler, open Tuesday through Saturday
- Fratesi's Pizza, 69 E. Flagler
- Flagler St. Bakery, just off the corner at 12 NE First Ave.
- Cigar Club Miami, a block north at 106 NE First St., with a lounge open to nonmembers
- Lost Boy Dry Goods, 157 E. Flagler, one of the bars that held on through the construction, along with Over Under
- La Boulangerie Boul'Mich, which the BID lists at 169 E. Flagler and the bakery's own site lists at 199 E. Flagler
- Blind Pig Contemporary Art Space, 243 E. Flagler, which was showing the group exhibition "Harvest #1" in late September
- Phở Nam, 270 E. Flagler, close to Biscayne Boulevard
You may notice the pavement change along the way. Brick pavers cover the street east of Miami Avenue, and plain asphalt covers it west of there. That is the result of a redesign partway through the project and the city's decision to reopen quickly. The city has $1 million from the Florida Legislature that could pay for finishing the brick or building a formal entrance to Flagler. That money requires matching funds, and no decision has been made.
The Weekend Street Has a Price Tag
The curbless brick design was meant to let the city close Flagler for markets and festivals. The first test of that idea went well. Weekends on Flagler started in February as a seven-week pilot and grew into four months of Friday-through-Sunday programming on the 100 and 200 blocks. It included Street Stages live music, a Saturday Green Market produced with East Coast Marketplace, and a Sunday Vintage Market produced by Magic City Flea. During the FIFA Fan Festival in Bayfront Park, the DDA set up a soccer pitch in the middle of Flagler, and Lost Boy put up an air-conditioned pop-up tent. Fritz said every bar and restaurant saw "an enormous influx."
The trouble is the cost. Those 14 weekend closures cost more than $130,000, and about 70% of that went to Miami police for securing intersections. A full winter season would cost $415,000, which Fritz said the BID and the DDA cannot justify. The DDA is paying for a traffic analysis to find a cheaper way to run the closures, and the agencies are raising sponsorship money.
As of early October, the BID says it is looking for funding to bring Weekends on Flagler back in late October as an expanded 24-weekend season running through April 2027. It has not published dates, and it asks people to watch for programming announcements. Until it does, plan on cars on Flagler this weekend.
Two Sites Still Waiting
The biggest pieces left on the street depend on long projects, not on the streetscape.
At 48 E. Flagler, Mana has been tearing down half a block of buildings that were condemned as structurally unsound. The site sits right against the Metromover line, so work can only happen overnight when the cars are not running. Part of the new sidewalk there is still fenced off. Mana and the DDA have said they plan to build a temporary soccer park on the site once demolition is done, with one regulation field and some mini pitches. No report since early August has said the demolition is finished.
At 174 E. Flagler, the Olympia Theater now has a plan. Miami commissioners approved selling the theater and the 10-story office building above it to Sports Leadership Arts Management, known as SLAM, in September 2025. SLAM will lead an estimated $50 million restoration expected to take up to five years. Miami Dade College is the education partner and plans a Miami Innovation & Arts Academy for next school year. The college also hopes to bring programming like the Miami Film Festival and Miami Book Fair into the theater.
Within Walking Distance This Fall
Even without the weekend closures, the next few months bring a lot to the blocks around Flagler. Frost Science opens "The Science Behind Pixar" on Oct. 10 at 1101 Biscayne Blvd. Miami Film Festival GEMS runs Oct. 29 through Nov. 5, with screenings at Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus at 300 NE Second Ave. and other venues. Red Bull Flugtag lands at Bayfront Park on Oct. 31 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is free, and viewing is first-come, first-served. The Miami Book Fair runs Nov. 15 through 22, with its Street Fair Nov. 20 through 22. On Flagler itself, the Museum of Miami at 101 W. Flagler is showing "Caught in the Eye: Remembering the 1926 Hurricane" through April 11, 2027, with a curator-led tour on Nov. 21.
If you own a home or a condo near Flagler and want to understand how the street's reopening fits into your plans, Alexandra Zeidan follows these changes block by block. Schedule a Private Consultation and we can talk through what the next season on Flagler could mean for you.
