Sobremesa Sets the Table for Community
You know the friendly neighborhood spot where you open the door and a bell hanging from it rings. While you browse, you hear a roll of paper being tugged and cut to wrap a bottle of wine. A place you’d like to sit in and hang. That’s Sobremesa, an unpretentious shop run by Gabriella Zamora, Stephanie Paton and Aubrey Russell in the heart of Miami Shores.
The name, Sobremesa, is a word that doesn’t exist in English. “It’s that feeling, that moment where you sit around at the end of a meal. The table’s a mess, but you’re enjoying each other’s company,” says Gaby. Far from being a mess, Sobremesa does have a special feel to it. “It’s a European shop ‘feel’ that we felt didn’t exist here,” Steph says. “We created the place we’d want to go to all the time.”
They’re a well-traveled trio. Born in Miami, Gaby left here when she was 10 to live in her mother’s hometown of Mexico City. At 23 she traveled to Barcelona where she worked at cocktail bars and gastropubs, and fell in love with hospitality. She also met her now-husband, Aubrey. “He’s an amazing home cook,” Gaby says. Aubrey had landed in Spain via London, Florence and Mexico before coming to Miami. For four years, Aubrey managed the downtown bar, The Corner.
Steph, who lived for years on a sailboat, was born in Washington, D.C. to a Hungarian dad and a Mexican mom, who was prepping Sunday mole as we spoke. She moved to Miami 23 years ago in search of nicer weather.
Three Globetrotters
They trio met a decade ago in Miami while working at The Standard. They went on to open The Club House at Soho House and coincidentally lived across the hall from each other in a 1920s Spanish building on the beach. That’s where they became great friends, spending nights cooking together and sharing inspiring dinners. Talks over the table sparked ideas of eventually opening up shop.
In August 2021, Sobremesa opened its doors in Miami Shores, where they’re finally pouring what they’ve learned throughout their accumulated years of travel, good eats and hospitality. They offer a carefully curated gamut of products from around the world: flour from Italy and rice from Spain, fennel seeds from Greece and dried chiles from Mexico, gourmet tinned fish from Portugal. Fresh black truffles. Not everything is imported; some products come from local makers. There’s local eggs, garbanzo dip made in house with Rancho Gordo beans, daily fresh bread from Paradis Bread & Books in North Miami, Liger’s chocolate chip cookies and fresh pasta from Macchialina.
The product that caught my eye was Sobremesa’s own homemade Salsa Macha, made by Aubrey. With roots in the Mexican states of Veracruz and Oaxaca, this spicy concoction is usually composed of a selection of dried chiles, garlic, seeds and nuts, carefully toasted and infused into cooking oil. “The hardest part is to keep it a recipe, because it’s always made by eye and depending on the products that are available,” he says. “So this is Salsa Macha version 2.0” – meaning you’ll always be getting something fresh and new. What can you put this on? “Everything” says Gaby. Aubrey suggests quesadillas. I imagine it over a fatty egg yolk.
Pair it with Ma Petite Chapie from Lindenlaub, pulled from their ample selection of natural wines. “You’d be crazy to get into the wine business if you didn’t love it,” Aubrey says. They explain the ins and outs of natural wines at weekly themed tastings on Friday nights, starting at 7 and ending when the bottles run dry. “People come to hang out and enjoy themselves. It’s our way to build community,” he says.
Sobremesa
170 NE 96 St., Miami Shores
Open Tue.-Sat., 10am-7pm, Sun. noon-4
sobremesamia.com • @sobremesamia on Instagram
