‘Stagnant mall’ Sunset Place loses another tenant as this South Miami food hall closes

If Sunset Place hoped the food hall craze could save its flagging South Miami mall, the experiment proved just another casualty.

Yumbrella, which opened in the spring of 2019 with half a dozen local restaurants, including one by popular Miami chef Adrienne Calvo, will close Jan. 30, its owner wrote on Instagram Tuesday afternoon. Founder Steve Simon, who also ran the restaurant Killer Melts at the food hall, blamed in part “a stagnant mall with no traffic.”

“Too many obstacles have drowned us out,” Simon wrote. “Between the labor crisis, increase in wages, astronomical rise in cost of food, goods, operational costs, rent, a stagnant mall with no traffic, this latest wave of covid, there were too many obstacles for our mom & pop place to survive.”

Simon, who still owns Killer Melts at 12310 SW 127th Ave. in Kendall, opened the 6,500-square-foot food hall along the Sunset Drive entrance to the mall. The first wave of restaurant concepts were popular suburban places with a local following, including Dr. Limon Peruvian restaurant, Simon’s own sandwich spot and Calvo’s Cracked fried chicken spot. Calvo’s restaurant proved so popular she opened a standalone location two blocks away.

The food hall also hosted karaoke, a bar and a private event space. But trouble began in earnest with the pandemic, when restaurants were forced to close to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The reality of a virus that spreads indoors made an indoor food hall a less attractive place for diners.

Simon was able to land forgivable federal loan through the Payment Protection Program in April of 2020.

“This is our only shot at being able to survive,” Simon said at the time.

Restaurants at Yumbrella tried to get creative. Chef Brian Hill was among the first to try to serve socially distant meals at his Comfort Kitchen, outside the food hall, but police quickly put a stop to it.

Yumbrella will open for its last week starting at 5 p.m. daily through Thursday, and from noon Friday-Sunday, Simon wrote on Instagram.

Yumbrella

Address: 5701 Sunset Dr Suite 194, South Miami

More info: undertheyumbrella.com