MIAMI SHORES – The challenge, as Adriana Oropeza and Carlos Oropaz saw it in 2019, was to make some noise in the quaint village of Miami Shores.
They thought “sins” …
… as in Sins Gastrobar, their Northeast Second Avenue restaurant in the village’s downtown strip.
With its wrap-around bar, a “tree of life” carving next to the kitchen and a large outdoor patio that seats 150 people, Sins Gastrobar offers a range of dining experiences — from lunch fare and kid menus to happy hours, live music, flamenco shows and drag brunches — tempting customers to give in to their culinary vices.
“Miami Shores is a very conservative community and we wanted to help the village evolve,” Oropaz said.
Vice-themed specials include “Wednesday Envy,” with wine discounts, “Thursday Greed,” with free pitchers of Sangria,” and “Saturday Gluttony,” with free brunch waffles for children.
“We have everything for everyone,” said Oropeza, who opened Sins in October 2019 in partnership with Oropaz, her brother, and Oropaz’s spouse, Victor Oropaz.
“You can go to Sins Gastrobar to have a quick happy hour drink or a quick lunch, but you can also have a fancy dinner and have a Tomahawk and with a fancy bottle of wine,” said Oropaz, the restaurant’s manager and mixologist.
The siblings faced a few challenges when opening the restaurant, including no sewer connection.
“There were no liquor licenses given to any restaurants for this city and it was a learning experience for us and the city,” Oropeza said. Another challenge was launching the restaurant just three months before COVID hit the United States. Oropaz said the two wore many hats keeping the restaurant going at a time when customers were staying at home.
“We even visited our regular customers that we didn’t see during COVID,” Oropaz said.
About 80% of their customers are from Miami Shores, Oropeza said.
“It is very heartwarming to see how everyone dining here knows each other,” Oropeza said. “You see people going from table to table saying ‘hi’ to each other.”
Jorge Garcia is a regular.
“Sometimes when you get a sense of a restaurant or a new place that opens you wonder how long it’ll stay open, but this one seems very concrete,” Garcia said.
Oropeza and Oropaz both have experience in the service industry and worked at several restaurants in the Miami area before opening Sins Gastrobar.
Oropeza credits her love of food to her family who raised her to eat good food. Her father, Jacinto Oropeza, has Spanish roots. “Spanish people live to eat, don’t eat to live,” she said.
Oropeza said 10 different steak cuts highlight the menu that uses the “sin” theme for category headings. For instance, “Tiny Sins” features small bites; “Not Yet a Sinner” lists appetizers; and “No Regrets” contains salad options.
The pork belly bites, a “$14 Tiny Sin, are cooked for 36 hours and deep fried and sauteed in ginger and sesame seeds and scallops, are the most popular menu item and Señorita on 2nd ave. is the most popular cocktail” $15, said Oropaz, who created the cocktail menu. The cocktail is a margarita made with mezcal, passion fruit and tajin on the rim and he also said that it is even better with tamarind.
Sins Gastrobar was awarded “Best Service in Miami Shores 2023” and “Diners Choice 2022” by OpenTable.
Sins Gastrobar, 9835 NE Second Ave., Miami Shores
www.sinsgastrobar.com
