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3 South Beach nightclubs take Miami Beach to court over spring break midnight curfew
MIAMI BEACH — A court battle is underway after three South Beach nightclubs decided to challenge Miami Beach’s newly instated midnight curfew to crack down on spring break.
According to CBS News Miami’s news partners at The Miami Herald, Miami Beach city spokesperson Melissa Berthier confirmed Saturday that a complaint was filed by the M2, Mynt Lounge and Exchange nightclubs.
The Herald reported that a court hearing was ongoing Saturday afternoon at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Downtown Miami, where city manager Alina Hudak was on the witness stand and being questioned by Ben Kuehne, who’s representing the nightclubs.
According to the Herald, Hudak testified that she saw bigger crowds and a more “rowdy atmosphere” among spring breakers on Thursday night, leading her to believe a curfew would be necessary. She also said the effectiveness of the curfew was evident Friday night when crowds began to thin out as midnight drew near.
“Clearly, the crowds chose at some point in the night to go somewhere else,” Hudak said. “It just wasn’t fun.”
The Herald reported that M2, Mynt Lounge and Exchanged filed the complaint around 11:30 p.m. Friday — nearly 30 minutes before the midnight curfew — in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, according to a copy of the document. The judge overseeing the case is David C. Miller.
The curfew “unduly punishes and penalizes the plaintiffs’ lawful business operations and was done without reasonable or appropriate advance warning and in the absence of good cause,” the complaint stated. Also, several big events at the clubs had planned for this weekend will be canceled, the filing noted, adding that the venues had collectively welcomed thousands of patrons so far this month “without causing any harm to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens, residents, and visitors of Miami Beach,” the Herald reported.
The curfew began Friday night and was scheduled to be in effect each night this weekend until Monday morning, and applies to all areas south of 23rd Street and requires businesses to shut their doors after midnight.
The nightclubs’ legal challenge seeks to nullify the curfew for the rest of the weekend. According to the Herald, Hudak declared on Friday a state of emergency that lasts until Monday in order to enact the curfew, and would need approval from the Miami Beach City Commission if it were to be extended.
Romain Zago, the owner of Mynt Lounge, told the Herald on Friday that he didn’t understand why the city imposed a curfew when other measures seemed to be effective in keeping crowds small and calm the prior weekend.
“I don’t understand why this week they would not apply the same system, the same measures,” he told the newspaper. “What happened all of a sudden today that we have to have a curfew?”
According to the Herald, Mynt is open from midnight to 5 a.m., meaning that Miami Beach’s curfew would force the club to be closed the entire weekend. Zago told the Herald that the move would damage his business and his employees.
“My staff all live check by check. They cannot afford a week off,” he said.
The city, Zago added, is “removing food from our plates.”
Large crowds gathered in South Beach for spring break, especially on Ocean Drive, for spring break, the Herald reported. However, the curfew enforcement went smoothly and police almost had the entire strip cleared by 12:15 a.m.
According to the Herald, this is the fourth year in a row that Miami Beach had declared a curfew during spring break; however, unlike past years, the 2024 curfew was imposed despite a relatively quiet March so far thanks to the city’s “break up with spring break” campaign.
The third weekend of March has had a problematic past for Miami Beach, marked by stampedes, shootings and other incidents related to spring break revelers. City officials had warned residents, visitors and businesses since last year that a curfew was likely during spring break this year, the Herald noted.
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A food company known for popular grocery store condiments has recalled a package of tortilla strips that may be contaminated with wheat, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The product is meant to be gluten-free.
Sugar Foods, a manufacturing and distribution corporation focused mainly on various toppings, artificial sweeteners and snacks, issued the recall for the “Santa Fe Style” version of tortilla strips sold by the brand Fresh Gourmet.
“People who have a wheat allergy or severe sensitivity to wheat run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the product,” said Sugar Foods in an announcement posted by the FDA.
Packages of these tortilla strips with an expiration date as late as June 20, 2025, could contain undeclared wheat, meaning the allergen is not listed as an ingredient on the label. The Fresh Gourmet product is marketed as gluten-free.
Sugar Foods said a customer informed the company on Nov. 19 that packages of the tortilla strips actually contained crispy onions, another Fresh Gourmet product normally sold in a similar container. The brand’s crispy onion product does contain wheat, and that allergen is noted on the label.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
No illnesses tied to the packaging mistake have been reported, according to the announcement from Sugar Foods. However, the company is still recalling the tortilla strips as a precaution. The contamination issue may have affected products distributed between Sept. 30 and Nov. 11 in 22 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
Sugar Foods has advised anyone with questions about the recall to contact the company’s consumer care department by email or phone.
CBS News reached out to Sugar Foods for more information but did not receive an immediate reply.
This is the latest in a series of food product recalls affected because of contamination issues, although the others involved harmful bacteria. Some recent, high-profile incidents include an E. coli outbreak from organic carrots that killed at least one person in California, and a listeria outbreak that left an infant dead in California and nine people hospitalized across four different states, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The E. coli outbreak is linked to multiple different food brands while the listeria outbreak stemmed from a line of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products sold by Yu-Shang Foods.