Beach Theatre in Miami Beach Becoming a TAO Restaurant & Lounge

posted by miamiguy on September 19, 2007 at 7:35 am

MIAMI BEACH. FL — The Beach Theatre on Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road is being converted into an upscale restaurant and lounge known as “Tao.” It is still in the construction phase, but should be completed soon.

If you stand on the corner of Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road and Drexel Avenue and look to the southeast, you can still see the structure that housed the screen of one of the finest movie theaters in the country, the Beach Theatre. It’s been decades since this movie palace ran its last feature, but now a new vibe is coming to 420 Lincoln Road in the form of the ritzy TAO Restaurant & Lounge.

Miami Beach will the third in a series of upscale TAO eateries that include East 58th Street in New York and another at the Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, all of which operate under the watchful eye of TAO’s signature 20-foot tall golden Buddha statues.

More here ar Miami Beach USA.

Theaters in this post

Comments (3)

fmbeall
fmbeall on September 19, 2007 at 7:56 am

Hope is enternal as long as a theatre is not demolished. I scouted out the theatres of Miami Beach in 1993 and found the structures of all the theatres I knew in the 40’s still stood, with the exception of the Plaza. The Lincoln is now home to the New World Symphony, the Cinema Casino a successfull night club and the Colony home to a local theatre group. However, the Carib was gutted for stores. The Variety and Cameo had gone to porn, but still were there in somewhat original condition.

garyk
garyk on September 20, 2007 at 5:53 am

I was in this space about 15 years ago. There was a garage sale of a nightclub that was leasing the space. I thought there might some old theater speakers etc. for sale. There was absolutely nothing. The space was entirely gutted. Just bare block walls and an atmospheric sky. The balcony had been converted to a bank years ealier. The large office and retail building this theater space resides in is more like a lincoln center in miniature. It is not a tropical deco, but more of a radio city deco. It is somewhat unique on the Beach and it is a shame it was gutted and will not be restored to its past. It would take a complete re-building to make it into a theater space. I hope the new restaurant is nice. The space is certainly huge and could make for a very interesting restaurant. The Carib theater building just down the street is for sale. This was a very large theater that was also gutted. The price is around 20 million dollars. I don’t think showing movies will be profitable. This is a very high rent district.

miamiguy
miamiguy on December 25, 2007 at 11:41 am

The link for that article I posted has changed…here’s the updated one…Beach Theatre in Miami Beach. If I can get a photo of the new restaurant’s interior, I’ll post that too.

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