A woman clad in a black and white gingham button-up greets visitors at the doors of the newly renovated Shula’s Steak 2 Restaurant and Sports Bar located inside the Shula’s Hotel on Main Street. Having opened a week before Valentine’s Day, without any official marketing, the restaurant pulled in over 200 people for the evening, a high number compared to previous years.
Renovations and updates have completely transformed the look and feel of Steak 2, and the project was one that kept in mind all the senses, from the music, to the lighting, and most especially - the food.
About 35 percent of the previous lunch and dinner menus and about 75 percent of the wine and beer selections were updated. The cuisine has morphed from strictly traditional American into an amalgamation of high quality American cuisine with regional influence, reflective of the community the restaurant serves.
“We’re known for our steaks and we are a sports restaurant. We needed a steak sandwich on the menu,” said Bruce Lawrence, general manager.
The new menu incorporates a Latin flair from rice and beans as sides to the new “Cuban Reuben” steak sandwich. Some new starters and entrees are a roasted half chicken which is brined for 24 hours then roasted fresh every morning, the Shula Frita Burger which is made with sliced cantimpalo chorizo, and buffalo shrimp prepared in the same way as chicken wings with a tangy taste.
Those steaks are hand selected and center cut pieces that are never frozen and always fresh as are many of the menu items. While typical sports bars are often as kitschy as they are familiar, Steak 2 strays from the typical and instead goes for a classy and comfortable atmosphere, one that took years to come to fruition with an intense attention to detail. Selection for the uniforms alone took months to decide, and the black and white historical photographs are hung inside bright silver frames that glint against the mood lighting. Exact replicas of Coach Shula’s two Superbowl trophies, only obtainable through authorization from Shula’s corporate entity and the NFL, are featured near the bar where guests often take photos beside them.
The bar has also gone through some major changes, moving from offering 9 taps to 16, two of which are dedicated to a Cabernet and Pinot Grigio. The inclusion of wine on tap, a recent trend that allows customers to enjoy wine dispensed in the same way as draft beer, is one of the many details that has propelled Steak 2 far beyond what it once was.
“The wine on tap is not a happy hour wine, and it’s also not a $60 dollar wine,” said Lawrence. “We wanted to make this an enjoyable but also an affordable experience so the wine on tap sells at $9 a glass and the beer we selected offers so much variety. We have different IPA’s and represent the region and abroad with beer from local breweries as well as beer from the West Coast.”
The wine on tap holds 1 pony keg, 26 bottles of wine, offered and stored in the way wine is intended to come from the winery – in big enough containers that remain fresh because of the use of nitrogen tanks. The beers run off a Parlec Perlick system, the Mercedes of tapping systems. Sangria is made from scratch and 10 of the 12 signature drinks are new.
Coach Shula’s 347 career victories, making Shula the winningest coach in NFL history, is honored with a 3-4-7 Happy Hour on weekdays from 4 to 7 p.m. where various menu items, both food and drinks, are offered at $3, $4, and $7.
Additionally, the introduction of a new breakfast nook where a buffet is served each morning for hotel guests and walk-ins alike at $13.95 sits behind large barnyard sliding doors that when opened reveals a black and white wallpaper made of historical photos of Miami Lakes when first established by the Graham family.
A weekend brunch menu and a mimosa bar is are in the works.
Shea Design, an architecture and design company based in Minneapolis, was contracted to complete the renovations. The company has a history of projects in museums, symphony centers and performing arts buildings, and many of those innovative and appealing design elements can be found in the restaurant.
Steak 2 boasts a number of accessible USB ports and power outlets with wifi offering 20 megabyte download speed and 30 megabyte upload speed with capabilities up to 50 megabytes which creates a reliable and fast experience to surf, stream and download while waiting for the creme brûlée.
The boosted signal offers restaurant-goers a place to comfortably camp out or they can indulge in one of the new 40+ hi-definition TV screens, 10 of which are each assigned to an individual booth.
Fantasy Football fans have reason to celebrate as well, since an area of the restaurant seems to have been made specifically with drafts in mind. A tall pub table seats 12, enough for a whole team to sit side by side, and take advantage of the power outlets in the center of the table to turn on their laptops and get ready for the new season.
A handful of nostalgic regulars reminisced about the bones of the former restaurant, but a large and vocal majority of regulars and newcomers have commented to management and staff about their excitement for the updates. Despite the rich history of the former Steak 2, like radio shows and celebrities like Marino and Mandich walking through the doors, the new Steak 2 offers a place for visitors to bring their families, tell new stories, and make new memories.
Steak 2 is open seven days a week, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. and open for breakfast on weekdays at 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and on weekends from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Reservations are available on Open Table or by calling 305-820-8047 for a take out order!