The old Starbucks counter inside the Dadeland Publix in Kendall has gone quiet, its menu boards dark and its space crowded out by stacked cases of Publix-brand bottled water. But the empty nook at 9105 S. Dadeland Blvd. may not stay empty for long — Publix says the spot may become one of its Pours bars, serving beer, wine and coffee to shoppers instead of coffeehouse drinks.
“All of the Starbucks locations are closed, and we are working to transition this space to other retail use which may include Pours,” a Publix spokesperson said, as reported by the Miami Herald. The company added that more details, including an opening date and product mix, are coming soon, though nothing has been finalized yet. If it happens, the roughly 60,000-square-foot Dadeland store, which opened in 2000 in Miami's Kendall neighborhood, would become the first Publix in Miami to devote floor space to a Pours bar.
What a Pours Bar Actually Offers
Publix Pours is an in-store bar that lets shoppers sip draft beer, wine, premium coffee, tea, on-tap kombucha, matcha and smoothies while they shop, the Herald's report notes. The beer — served in pints or offered as small-group tasting flights — and the wine are reserved for customers 21 and older. The bar and cafe areas also sell snacks like acai bowls, according to the same account.
The cafe area at Dadeland, photographed on October 25, is currently tucked behind rows of bottled water with its counters and menu boards sitting empty, per the Herald's report. It's a quiet holdover from Publix's old coffeehouse partnership with Starbucks, which the grocery chain began adding to its stores in 2016, according to NBC 6 South Florida. At the partnership's peak in 2018, Publix had Starbucks stations in about ten Florida stores, one of which sat inside the Dadeland location.
Pours Is Already Spreading Across Florida
Publix already runs a handful of Pours locations around the state, including spots in Naples and Bradenton, and one each at the Glades Road store in Boca Raton and in Wellington. Miami-Dade and Broward currently have just one Pours location, inside the Fort Lauderdale Publix at 255 SE Third Ave., per the Herald. A remodeled Wellington Publix opened its own Pours bar as the chain's eighth statewide and second in Palm Beach County, the Palm Beach Post reported, with the first Palm Beach County Pours having opened earlier at the Glades Road store in Boca Raton.
The concept has been expanding steadily since it debuted at the Tallahassee GreenWise Market in 2018, according to the Business Observer. By 2023, Pours had expanded into five traditional Publix stores beyond the GreenWise banner, with locations in Orlando, Clermont, Ormond Beach, St. Augustine and Naples, and the chain was eyeing two more openings near Tampa's Gandy Boulevard and in the Neptune Beach area.
Why Publix Wants You Lingering in the Aisles
A Florida International University professor told the Palm Beach Post that the Pours concept is designed to keep shoppers coming into physical stores rather than ordering groceries online. “The Pours bar is meant to be another incentive for customers to come into the store, instead of shopping online,” the professor said. For Publix, turning a shuttered coffee counter into a beer-and-wine stop fits that same logic — giving Kendall shoppers one more reason to stick around the aisles a little longer.
Whether that materializes at Dadeland, and what it will pour, remains unconfirmed. Publix has only said the space may include Pours, with no opening date or specific product lineup disclosed yet.
