CuriosiD: Why is it called The Old Miami?

In this episode of CuriosiD, listener Leah Warshaw asks the question:

“How did The Old Miami get its name?”

The short answer

The first Miami on Cass was the Miami Lounge, which opened in 1947. As the neighborhood took a turn for the worse in the 60s, the bar became the site of murder, prostitution, and other crimes that marred its reputation. 

The bar switched owners several times but kept “Miami” in the name, for the most part. Shortly after The New Miami was burned down, veteran Danny Overstreet opened The Old Miami, with “Miami” standing for “missing in action Michigan”. Though it started as a place to serve veterans, it’s an inviting dive for everyone in the neighborhood today, with gems like a koi pond in its expansive backyard.

Danny’s wife, Julie, credits the use of “old” to Danny’s sense of humor. She runs the bar today. 

Manager Dena Walker adds, “I mean what would you call it—the New New Miami?”

Back to the beginning

While it’s a fun iconic dive bar today, to tell the story of how the Old Miami came to be, you have to go back through a lot of strife, crime and rebuilding as the neighborhood around it slowly changed.

When it first opened, it was just the Miami Lounge. We have no clue why the tropical name was picked to begin with, but it’s stuck around.

There were a lot of car dealerships in the neighborhood, so you’d get that crowd drinking there during happy hour. It was major spot for union leaders, too—both for their meetings and for their fights. A newspaper clip from back in the day tells the story one union leader smacking the other over the head with a picket sign. And even considering all of that, it was considered a classy joint.

By the time we get to 1966, that luster is starting to fade and the patina is giving way to a neighborhood that’s seeing more crime and violence. The Detroit Free Press described the Miami Lounge as a “neighborhood hangout in a low class neighborhood frequented by transients.”

Crime comes in

The violence didn’t politely sit outside and wait to be invited inside the Miami Lounge. In February of 1966, it seeped into the bar and changed its trajectory forever. 

A 34-year-old mother of five, a bar owner and his porter were brutally murdered at the Miami Lounge. It was a triple homicide that detectives viewed at the time as the work of professionals. According to archival stories from the Detroit Free Press, they were found tied up in the storage room and shot execution style. About $230 was missing from the register.

Ten blocks away and two months later, two more victims were found at the Verdi Bar on Sibley Street—a street that doesn’t even exist anymore. It was in the footprint of where Little Caesars Arena sits today. 

The headlines read “POLICE GO ALL OUT IN KILLER HUNT,” sending out dozens of officers to comb the city, believing that both tavern murders were committed by a trio of ex-convicts who met while doing time at Jackson Prison. 

It was front page news. The city was on notice and the pressure was getting to the suspects. By May, one of them—Gary Grayvold—was found floating in a lake at Stony Creek Metropark. Police believed his two former partners in crime—Dante Ferrazza and Harry “The Horse” Whitney—were behind the amateurish slaying. Once they caught wind that they were connected to the tavern murders and the floating body in the lake, they skipped town. 

By September of 1966, they were still on the run. It’s unclear if they were ever caught. And for those seven months since the triple murder at the Miami Lounge, it sat closed. 

And this sounds like something out of a movie, but according to a story in the Detroit Free Press, the very first night it was open to the public again… another murder happened. The bartender John Kimmel was gunned down by his ex-girlfriend in cold blood.

From there, you can imagine the name Miami Lounge didn’t hold a positive connotation in the minds of Detroiters. 

The lost years

At some point, it became a sleazy joint known as Ken’s Lounge, known to be frequented by sex workers and their pimps. In 1977, it became the New Miami—a play on the old name and a way to separate itself from the violent history that had stuck to the ribs of the place. It was home to a lot of live music—something that’s still part of the bar today. MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer played there. So did proto-punkers Destroy All Monsters.

But the neighborhood was rough. Once again, it didn’t politely wait outside the doors of the New Miami either—even with the name change. Around 1979, someone lit the place on fire.

A fresh start

It wasn’t long after that current owner Danny Overstreet brought it back to life and opened The Old Miami in 1980.

Even though it’s open to everyone, it’s been known for decades as a veterans bar. There’s military memorabilia covering almost every inch of the walls. It’s also known as a spot for live music from all different genres. There’s a pool table, there’s cold beer and a bunch of couches.

It’s really cozy in the winter—it feels like you’re hanging out in your buddy’s basement. And in the summer, it’s an amazing spot to sit outside in the grass and have a beer. 

The Miami name still sticks around, even after all these decades, and in some ways has been redeemed. Today The Old Miami is an iconic Detroit dive, attracting all walks of life from hipsters and bachelorette parties to everybody in between, with a lot of live music thrown in for good measure. 

WDET’s CuriosiD series answers your questions about everything Detroit. Subscribe to CuriosiD on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.