A basement space inside Miami Beach's Townhouse Hotel that has cycled through some of South Beach's most talked-about nightlife brands is about to get a new identity. Zebra Club, a bar and supper club backed by chef Michelle Bernstein, bartender Naren Young, and hospitality veterans David Martinez and Dan Binkiewicz, is targeting a September 2026 opening at 150 20th Street, promising champagne, martinis, and elegant cocktails in a polished supper-club setting.
The concept was first reported by WhatNow, which described Zebra Club as aiming to become a neighborhood-driven drinking destination for Miami Beach. The below-ground space most recently housed K Ramen, according to the same report, but its history goes back much further. Florida corporate records show Binkiewicz and Martinez registered the entity Zebra Club IP LLC back on September 27, 2022, meaning the concept had been quietly in development for roughly four years before Wednesday's opening announcement, according to Sunbiz filings.
A Basement With a Storied Past
Before K Ramen, the same subterranean footprint was home to Bond Street Lounge, a basement sushi lounge that restaurateur Jonathan Morr opened in 2000 as an extension of his New York dining brand, according to Jenjuice Hospitality. That earlier venue became a fixture of South Beach's celebrity and local nightlife scene in the early 2000s. The Townhouse Hotel itself is a 68-room Art Deco landmark built in 1939 and later re-envisioned in 2000 by Parisian interior designer India Mahdavi, per the Miami Beach Visitor & Convention Authority, giving Zebra Club a setting that blends 1930s Miami Beach architecture with a minimalist modern sensibility.
Familiar Faces Behind the Bar
Bernstein, Martinez, and Binkiewicz are far from strangers to each other. The trio first collaborated in 2015 at Sweet Liberty Drinks & Supply Co. alongside the late bartender John Lermayer, and that South Beach flagship remains a critical darling, landing at No. 9 on Food & Wine's list of America's top bars in April 2026, as reported by World Red Eye. Beyond Sweet Liberty and the forthcoming Zebra Club, Bernstein and Martinez have also built out Little Havana's Café La Trova in 2019 and Bayside Marketplace's La Cañita in 2021, according to Michelle Bernstein Catering.
Binkiewicz brings his own decade-plus résumé in South Florida nightlife to the project, having operated Brickell's Blackbird Ordinary — which underwent a major 1970s bohemian redesign in 2023 featuring the LED dancefloor salvaged from the former Purdy Lounge — along with Downtown Miami's Mama Tried, opened in 2018, per Time Out. More recently, Binkiewicz partnered with Moe Aljaff and Juliette Larrouy to open Schmuck in New York, which won Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 20th annual Spirited Awards in July 2026 and ranked No. 4 on North America's 50 Best Bars list this year, cementing his reputation well beyond Miami.
A World's 50 Best Talent Joins the Team
Rounding out the group is Naren Young, an acclaimed bartender who relocated to Miami and previously served as creative director at Dante, the Greenwich Village institution that has operated since 1915. Young's program helped Dante earn the No. 1 spot on The World's 50 Best Bars list in October 2019, per EVOKE, a run widely credited with popularizing modern aperitivo and Negroni culture. Young has also been involved with Sweet Liberty and Medium Cool, giving him existing ties to the Miami hospitality circle he's now joining full-time.
Bernstein will oversee Zebra Club's food program, a role that draws on a résumé already stacked with accolades. She won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: South in 2008 and, in 2026, was chosen as the tribute dinner honoree for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival's 25th anniversary — a Hoodline report on the honor noted she was the first Miami chef so honored. Her profile has only grown since: this month, Manhattan's Gramercy Tavern selected Bernstein and Café La Trova to open its guest bartender takeover series, a two-day residency that brought Miami cocktail and food recipes to New York patrons.
What Zebra Club Signals for Miami Beach Nightlife
Pairing Bernstein's culinary pedigree with Young's global bar credentials and Binkiewicz and Martinez's neighborhood-focused track record positions Zebra Club as a kind of hospitality supergroup for South Beach. The project also lands amid a broader national wave of upscale supper clubs and champagne-and-martini-driven menus, with operators increasingly translating global accolades — like Young's Dante honor and Binkiewicz's Schmuck win — into smaller, intimacy-driven local venues. For a basement that has already hosted two distinct eras of South Beach nightlife history, Zebra Club's September debut adds a third chapter shaped by some of Miami's most established hospitality names.
