Yardbird Southern Table & Bar, Miami Beach, Our Lucky Day

Every year Bon Appetit lists its top new restaurants for the year, they are all over the country, I wish I could try every one, but don't travel around the US enough. Gotta change that.

This year on our way to South Beach, Miami a couple of weeks ago, I got lucky. My friend Veronique Deblois, aka Food and Wine Chickie , posted on her Facebook status that she was having lunch at Yardbird, one of Bon Appetite's Best this year.

We re-charted the GPS toward 1600 Lenox Avenue and had a fabulous late brunch here. We loved the place. Marvelous in every detail.

After a somewhat rocky start, yea disregard the old Yelp reviews, perfection is not easy, Chef Jeff McInnis and his team have not only won the BA recognition. They also made the James Beard Award semi-finalist list for best new restaurant 2012 and best chef of the south for 2012.

Retaining and contributing to Miami Beach's historic motif, Yardbird is real Southern, but in a modern hip sort of way. The restaurant decor with an open kitchen has reverence to its roots with a touch of humor.

Old fashioned pickling jars adorn the back wall.

In their own words "From juke joints to honky tonks, barrelhouses to backrooms, you’d find Bootleggers and Baptist rubbin’ elbows and worshipping the whisky. ... Forgettin’ your troubles for a time and workin’ up a fever. Shake what your mama gave you. Don’t matter, Preacher gonna heal you come Sunday."

Yea I like that. The staff is friendly, accomplished and entertaining, like New Zealander, Kezia, who is also a singer and song writer, and made our meal fabulous.

The cocktails are not to be missed, they draw from classic Southern elements dating back to Prohibition days, Lawless or Justified any one? Here we have the Blackberry Bourbon Lemonade and a great take on our classic NY cocktail which here is called a Yam-hattan, with sweet potato infused Bourbon, Dolin Blanc sweet vermouth, and chocolate mole bitters. I'm stealing that recipe.

The wine list is exceptional with a lot of interesting US wines including an spry Sparkling Blanc De Noir called Gruet, from New Mexico and a fabulous Peite Manseng, Lovingston, from Virginia. We got introduced to Petite Mansang in Virginia last year. It's a fun wine grape with royal roots that thrives in the southern climate.

A simple watermelon salad with salt, pepper and mint woke our taste buds for a delicious meal.

Next was the butter lettuce & grilled mango salad with South Florida fresh mango, smoked pecans, benne seed vinaigrette. Give me more.

Then came these fabulous shrimp n’grits. Photo does not do them justice. Made with fresh Florida shrimp, crisp Virginia ham, Adluh South Carolina stone ground grits. This is what I call true Southern.

Now this was so very good, a "BLT Benedict in a Cast Iron Casserole," Tasty and fluffy buttermilk biscuit crumble under soft poached organic eggs, with the Yardbird's flavorful house cured bacon, and a cherry tomato salad with frisée, and Hollandaise sauce. Lemuel Benedict would have loved this.

Veronique texted me "You might be tempted not to get fried chicken, but you should." So I did. Wow it was fabulous. Sorry, did not get a good picture though.

Did capture the fabulous House Cut Fries served with a buttermilk dipping sauce and “bacon salt.”

Yardbirds approach is unique, they describe it like this,

"Instead of individual starters and main courses, Yardbird serves up soul nurturing dishes meant for sharing amongst friends. Made completely from scratch with love and pride and continuously brought to the table throughout the meal."

I liked this a lot as we enjoyed the food with the wine, cocktails and a couple of very good beers.