The Anderson Bar’s old corner on 79th Street is buzzing again. In its place is Upper Eastside Hangout, an open-air food garden and bar that reopened this month on the former Anderson property. The team has carved out a 250-plus-person courtyard and slipped a coral-and-green Original Bar Shack into a palm-lined path, a roughly 200-square-foot cocktail hut that seats about 15. With $5 beers, rotating food vendors and weekly programming, the setup is aimed squarely at being a casual neighborhood hang for Upper Eastside locals.
What the Hangout Is Serving and Who’s Behind It
According to the venue’s website, Upper Eastside Hangout sits at 701 NE 79th Street and hosts a rotating lineup of food vendors that currently includes Cheeseburger Baby, Tacomiendo, Noodle Bar and ProfessorSnacks. Upper Eastside Hangout lists the address and shows hours from Tuesday through Sunday, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. The site describes the space as an all-ages, open-air community hub with picnic tables, shade sails and lawn games meant to keep things relaxed from daytime into the evening.
Original Bar Shack: Miami’s Possibly Smallest Cocktail Bar
The headliner here is the Original Bar Shack, a retro coral-and-green mini house that the crew says measures about 200 square feet and seats roughly 15 guests. As reported by Time Out, the interior is decked out with tropical wallpaper, vintage prints and brass palm sconces, and the cocktail list leans on Floridian ingredients like Datil peppers and muscadine grapes. “The corner sat empty long enough,” cofounder Anthony Mejia told Time Out, which credits the project to All We Need Hospitality Group.
Events, Prices and the Neighborhood Pull
Local roundups are already clocking the new arrival. The Infatuation added Upper Eastside Hangout to its new-openings guide, and Meetup listings show recurring events like weekly Sunset Sundays comedy nights at the venue. The Hangout’s community pages and event calendar point to watch parties, game nights and family-friendly afternoons, alongside later-night programming for those who want to linger. Early buzz around the neighborhood suggests the space is vying to be both a daytime gathering spot and a late-night option for Upper Eastside residents who do not want to trek far.
Pricey Miami, Meet Cheap Pours
To make itself a realistic neighborhood standby, the Hangout is leaning into value. Time Out reports that happy hour runs Tuesday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., with $5 beers, mixed drinks and frozen cocktails, and that beer is $5 “all the time.” The outlet also notes that the property holds one of the city’s oldest continuously operating liquor licenses, dating back to 1937, and that an indoor lounge called Here to There is slated to join the lineup in September, with a self-service In Between Wine Garden expected later in 2026. If those additions land as planned, Upper Eastside Hangout will pair programmed neighborhood nights with a tiny, one-of-a-kind cocktail shack tucked into its courtyard.
