Vice City Bean — Restaurant in Miami

Visiting Miami with time to kill, I had to look for a good shop where I could spend time and enjoy a decent cup of coffee. When I saw Vice City was a multi-roaster, I was immediately sold. It isn’t quite what I had hoped having worked at a shop that carried 3-8 different roasters at a time, but they did have their own label and Madcap at the time of my visit.

The menu is simple but expansive enough for this type of third-wave shop. There’s some food stuffs available, though I did not try anything this visit. I saw croissants, empanadas, and other bakery fare in the case. The menu includes sandwiches, egg sandwiches, oats, and the like.

I had the guest espresso (Madcap’s “Eureka”) and a pour over of Vice City’s own Chelbasa (Natural Ethiopian with some of the standard Yirgacheffe notes with a little more spice). They serve their for-here with the always nice NotNeutral ceramics and the tray/carafe combo. The owner (?) also shared a demi of Colombian that one of the employees brought in to try/share, and it was also great and interesting (almost reminded me of a Gesha varietal but some of that acidity may have been an anaerobic process? but I’m not sure on that).

They sell a good variety of merchandise, including tea, whole beans, and other brewing gear. There are also Vice City branded hats.

The shop uses Marco pour overs, which I’ve never seen in a shop. They’re also rocking out on a three group-head slayer and somebody’s using a Motta pitcher. This is to say: this shop knows and is serious about their coffee with the quality and latte art to match.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in a shop with this kind of vibe and I am so happy I ended up here to spend some time taking it in. Highly recommend if you’re looking for a good...

I had an extremely disturbing and unprofessional experience at Vice City Bean. I was quietly checking my email on my laptop when the owner approached me with a rude and aggressive attitude, demanding that I make a purchase immediately. Before I could respond, he began cursing at me and told me to leave.

What made this encounter even more upsetting was the blatant racism he displayed. As a Black man, I was subjected to offensive and stereotypical remarks, including him saying, “You Black people come in here and try to work from the coffee shop—go take that somewhere else.” His comments were discriminatory, uncalled for, and made other customers visibly uncomfortable.

As I calmly said I would leave and began walking out, he pulled out his phone and started recording me without my consent. This was completely unprofessional, unnecessary, and felt like an attempt to escalate the situation rather than resolve it.

I do not recommend this place to anyone. No customer should ever be treated with hostility, racism, or disrespect—especially by the owner.

The owner is a compulsive liar about the way he treats people of color and the way he treated me he pulled his phone out and made a huge scene when I cooperated to leave based off the way he was treating me. I even had to speak to a resident next door living at Filling Station Lofts and they told me directly that he stereotypes people of color and is very racist towards them so I really don’t condone this place and the treatment that I received was diabolical!...

There is a minimum purchase requirement to sit there, but they are not upfront about it. We stayed around 35 minutes as I had to hop on a call and while I joined the call, my husband got a banana & tipped $4. The staff made remarks implying it wasn’t enough to sit there (at that point we had been there like 15 minutes). When we asked how much would be sufficient, one employee said, “That’s not the point.” However, that is the point because at Coffee Shops, I rarely buy everything I want as soon as I get there but buy snacks as the day progresses. It’s fine to have rules, but they should be clear. I didn’t want pastries or drinks at that point of my visit, if I only want fruits, how many should I buy within the first 15 minutes to avoid being mistreated? Regardless, I won’t be returning because of the service. The employees displayed hostile behavior, and the business feels like one that tolerates, not welcomes. They want you to leave if you don’t spend the amount they arbitrarily decide as soon as you get there… Not a good experience...