Walk two blocks of Harding Avenue and you will pass a kosher steakhouse and its own casual spinoff, run by the same chef, who used to cook across the street before he opened either one. Keep walking and you will pass a deli that had already held back-to-back Michelin Guide mentions as of last fall, sitting between a sourdough bakery and a frozen yogurt shop that was still working through permits as of late last year. None of this reads as coincidence once you notice where the addresses fall.
The story residents keep telling themselves about Harding Avenue is that Surfside's food scene "keeps growing." That is true but incomplete. What is actually happening on this stretch is closer to specialization: a handful of concepts have gotten good enough, and proven enough, that they are starting to leave Surfside and open elsewhere. That is a different and more interesting claim than "there are more places to eat now," and it shows up clearly if you look at who is expanding, who is getting recognized, and who is betting on this block next.
The Same Chef, Two Blocks Apart
Chef David Benrey opened Street Kitchen at 9460 Harding Avenue in January 2020, after serving as executive chef at Surfside's Harbour Bistro just across the street. The restaurant built a reputation fast: Resy describes the dry-aged 14-ounce rib eye as a signature draw, alongside a menu that swings from seafood to chicken and waffles with maple chile syrup. Kosher food writers have gone further, calling it one of the top kosher restaurants in South Florida, period.
In December 2024, Benrey opened a second, more casual concept about a block away at 9561 Harding Avenue. Originally covered as Street Bar and now operating as KooLuLu, it takes the same kosher certification and applies it to Mexican-inspired street food: flautas, tacos, burgers, priced for a weeknight instead of an occasion. It is the kind of sister concept a chef opens when the first restaurant has already worked.
The part that actually tells you something is what happened next. By January 2025, Street Bar had grown enough to announce a second location in Hollywood, Florida, at 6648 Stirling Road, under the tagline "Tacos. Burgers. Birds. Beers." A concept born on a hundred-number stretch of Harding Avenue was confident enough in less than a year to test itself outside Surfside entirely. That is not what a neighborhood food scene does when it is simply adding restaurants. That is what happens when a specific block starts working as a proving ground.
Here is how tightly that stretch is packed, address by address:
Address | Business | What it is |
|---|---|---|
9460 Harding Ave | Street Kitchen | Kosher steakhouse, opened 2020 |
9472 Harding Ave | Hikari | Upscale Japanese omakase |
9509 Harding Ave | 16 Handles | Frozen yogurt, permits filed |
9517 Harding Ave | Josh's Deli | Kosher deli, Michelin-recognized |
9523 Harding Ave | Gifted Crust | Women-owned sourdough bakery |
9561 Harding Ave | KooLuLu (formerly Street Bar) | Kosher Mexican-inspired, opened 2024 |
Six businesses, none of them more than a five-minute walk apart, spanning a steakhouse, an omakase counter, a Michelin deli, a bakery, a casual taco spot, and a fro-yo shop still waiting on its permit. That is not what a strip looks like when it is filling vacancies. That is what a strip looks like when operators are choosing it on purpose.
Josh's Deli Isn't a Fluke Two Years Running
If Street Kitchen proves the block can grow a concept big enough to export, Josh's Deli at 9517 Harding Avenue proves something adjacent: that recognition here does not require reinvention every season. According to the Town of Surfside's own account, published last September, the deli had already held a Michelin Guide mention for two consecutive years at that point, built on a menu that reworks Jewish comfort food rather than chasing trend cycles.
The Michelin Guide's own writeup is specific about what earns that attention: the Jewban, a playful spin on the Cuban sandwich, and latkes topped with spicy tuna and sriracha cream cheese, all built from meat and fish cured in house. This is a counter-service deli with sidewalk seating, not a tasting-menu destination. The recognition is going to craft, not spectacle, which is a different kind of validation than a splashy opening generates. It also means the deli isn't a one-year story that will fade from next year's guide. Two years running is a pattern, not a mention.
The Fine-Dining Bookend
None of this happens in isolation from the rest of Surfside's food identity. At the other end of the spectrum sits The Surf Club Restaurant, Thomas Keller's first Florida venture, holding a Michelin star in the 2026 Guide inside the Four Seasons at The Surf Club's restored 1930s clubhouse. It is Continental cooking, formal service, and a room built to evoke an earlier era of Surfside glamour.
The point isn't that Surfside has both a casual kosher deli and a Michelin-starred fine-dining room within the same town. Plenty of towns can claim that. The point is that both ends of that range are earning outside recognition around the same stretch of years, from a kosher steakhouse spinning off a second city to a Continental dining room holding onto a star. A town this size does not usually get validated at both ends at once.
What's Moving In Next
The businesses arriving on Harding Avenue right now are not chasing occasion dining. They're betting on repeat, daily foot traffic:
- Bagel Boss opened in the heart of town in summer 2025, bringing a New York-style deli menu, bagels, smoked salmon, and pastries, to a stretch that already had a deli reputation to build on.
- Gifted Crust, a women-owned sourdough bakery at 9523 Harding Avenue, focuses on slow fermentation and stone-baked loaves rather than a quick-serve pastry case.
- 16 Handles filed permits with the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation late last year to open at 9509 Harding Avenue, with a target of opening before that year was out, according to restaurant industry coverage.
A bagel shop, a bread bakery, and a frozen yogurt counter are not bets on tourists passing through once. They're bets on residents walking the same block on a Tuesday morning and a Thursday night. That is a different kind of confidence than a chef opening a tasting menu, and it is arriving on the same short stretch of Harding Avenue at the same time.
The Week Still Starts and Ends on the Sand
For all the counter-service ambition on Harding Avenue, the actual rhythm of a Surfside weekend hasn't moved far from the beach. The Surfside Farmers Market runs Saturdays and Sundays starting at 9:30 a.m., set up directly on the sand. A few blocks over, the Turtle Walk on 93rd Street, a citywide art exhibition of 13 turtle sculptures painted by local artists, sits next to the Surfside Community Center as a quieter, more permanent marker of the town's long-running commitment to its nesting loggerheads.
Neither of those things is new this year, and that's the point. The food scene on Harding Avenue is proving itself in a way that draws outside attention, while the weekend routine around it stays exactly as unhurried as it has always been. Both can be true on the same short walk.
The Actual Tell
If you want a single way to read all of this, don't count how many restaurants opened on Harding Avenue this year. Watch which ones are confident enough to leave. Street Bar didn't stay a Surfside experiment. Josh's Deli didn't need a second act to hold its Michelin mention. That's a short stretch of Harding Avenue that isn't just feeding a town well. It's producing concepts good enough to prove themselves somewhere else first.
If you're already walking this block for the food and find yourself wondering what it would take to actually live closer to it, the Davoudpour Team has spent years learning Surfside building by building. Schedule a Consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
