Eeeeeatscon Miami 2024: Restaurants, It's Always Sunny Stars, and More

Miami has another food festival coming, but this one has five Es in its name and 24 hip restaurants from across Miami and the U.S. participating.

The first Miami installation of Eeeeeatscon, created by restaurant listing site the Infatuation and presented by Chase Sapphire, is going down February 3-4 at Bayfront Park. Eeeeeatscon started in Los Angeles in 2017 and was later launched in New York City and Chicago.

The Miami iteration of the festival features popular, in-the-know Miami hot spots like Caracas Bakery, El Bagel, Chug's Diner, Off-Site, Walrus Rodeo, and Tâm Tâm.

"This is a long overdue moment for Miami, which has become such a foodie city with a lot of attention on it," Infatuation Miami editor Ryan Pfeffer tells New Times. "We have a lot of newer restaurants participating, like Caracas Bakery, Tâm Tâm, and Maty's, while paying respect to the classics and newer-classics like Madroño Restaurant and Chug's Diner. Plus, February is such a beautiful time in Miami...it's going to be a celebratory moment for so many."

According to Pfeffer, restaurants will keep 100 percent of their profits made onsite. Therefore, attending the festival directly supports the restaurants.

Complementing the restaurants, various speakers will appear at Eeeeeatscon throughout the weekend, including the likes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia stars Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton, as well as Saturday Night Live star and Miami native Marcello Hernandez.
Billed as "being built in the spirit of a music festival, but with restaurants as the headliners," the event runs from noon until 6 p.m. General admission tickets cost $30, but those who are Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cardholders were offered special presale tickets, including early entry by an hour, as well as access to a special lounge onsite. Chase is the parent company of the Infatuation.

Additional South Florida restaurants participating include plant-based pop-up Isabel's, cocktail haven Jaguar Sun, Miami's only Laotian restaurant Lil' Laos, and 'grammable-beyond-belief pizza outpost Miami Slice.

As for how the restaurant lineup was curated, Pfeffer says, "It was very collaborative between our local editorial team and [the Infatuation's] events team...we had a big document of restaurants we wanted there, the types of cuisine, and the restaurants of the moment. Then, we started to narrow it down. A lot of people are really excited to participate, and if you look at our reviews on our website, these are places we're genuinely excited about, too."

Six non-Miami restaurants are on the Eeeeeatscon bill Among them are L.A.-bred Bang Bang Noodles and NYC Indian fried chicken outpost Rowdy Rooster. As for Pfeffer's can't-misses at the fest, he's looking forward to some Texas barbecue from Austin-based KG BBQ, a towering fried chicken sandwich from NYC's Rowdy Rooster, and some duck carnitas from an onsite collaboration between Maty's x Nixta Taqueria.

"Don't you dare leave without getting a slice of key lime pie from Sweet Delights," adds Pfeffer. "She is a one-woman operation out of Florida City and is the sweetest woman in the world. And it is the best."

A full list of restaurants, speakers, and activations is available at eeeeeatscon.com/miami.

Eeeeeatscon Miami. Noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, February 2, and Sunday, February 3, at Bayfront Park, 301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; eeeeeatscon.com. Tickets cost $30 via eventbrite.com.