The 7th Annual South Beach Seafood Festival comes to Miami and Miami Beach Oct. 22-26. The festival showcases South Florida’s leading chefs in events that celebrate seafood in general and stone crab season in particular. USA TODAY named the festival one of its Top 5 Specialty Festivals in the country. It’s listed by Forbes in 2019 as Top 5 things to do this fall, and by the Travel Channel as the best seafood festival in the U.S.
The South Beach Seafood Festival benefits the CI Foundation’s EAT SMART program that provides healthy meals and nutritional guidance to Florida’s youth through programs in Miami Dade County public schools.
Each day of the festival features a different event:
Tuesday, Oct. 22, An Evening at Joe’s features historic Miami seafood restaurant Joe’s Stone Crab. The exclusive event hosts 50 VIPs in Jesse’s Room, where greats like Al Capone and Frank Sinatra dined. Tickets $500. (SOLD OUT)
Wednesday, Oct. 23,Cooking and Cocktails features five tapas-style courses for 75 seafood lovers by celebrity chef Sean Brasel of Miami's Meat Market and Goya Foods executive chef Fernando Desa paired by Herradura tequila. Tickets $150. (SOLD OUT)
Thursday, Oct. 24, Crabs, Slabs and Cabs, one of SoBe Seafood Week’s newest seafood events, is a cocktail-hour event for 250 people hosted at the Shore Club Hotel and cuisines from around the world. Award-winning chefs of South Florida create their take on the traditional Surf 'n' Turf dish paired with various cabernets. Tickets $150.
Friday, Oct. 25, the VIP Chef Showdown is the ultimate night of competition, where 16 of South Beach’s finest chefs conduct eight battles on the beach for your vote for best cuisine.
Saturday, Oct. 26, offers a full day of fun, featuring 20 restaurants’ pop-up cafes along five blocks of fun, three live music stages, games, an all-day, complimentary open bar and more. More than 70 menu items will tempt you to indulge in such treats as stone crabs, lobster waffle cones, steak and lobster skewers, shrimp tacos, oysters, shrimp cocktail, gyros, crab cakes, grouper in a bag, lobster mac ‘n' cheese, po' boys and more. Tickets $49 for ages 10 and older, $150 VIP. Food items range from $5-$10 each.