After 25 Years in Business, Oprah-Loved Icebox Cafe Closes

Icebox Cafe, best known for its oversized cake slices featured on Oprah Winfrey’s “Best Cakes in America” segment in 2010, has closed its locations after 25 years.

“It’s been an honor and a privilege serving you for over 25 years, and now it’s time to turn our focus onto new adventures,” owner Robert Siegmann stated in an email to guests while announcing the restaurant’s closure.

Founded in 1998 in Miami Beach, Icebox Cafe originally offered all-day cafe fare with a focus on healthy comfort food. It gained fame after appearing on Oprah’s show nearly 15 years ago and relocated to a larger space in Sunset Harbor in 2013. The brand expanded throughout South Florida with locations from Doral and Hallandale Beach, though these too have closed. The restaurant also has location in Miami International Airport, but it is unclear if the airport locations remain open.

This news doesn’t come as a complete surprise though. In October 2023, the restaurant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing $18.2 million in liabilities, according to the Real Deal. Siegmann blamed the bankruptcy on “harsh operational losses” from the pandemic, worsened by loans from “aggressive lenders.” The bankruptcy affected Icebox Cafe locations in Hallandale Beach, Miami Beach, and Miami International Airport’s Terminal D, as well as the affiliated Fig & Fennel restaurant at the same terminal, and commissaries in Atlanta, the University of Central Florida, and Hallandale Beach.

And this isn’t the first time Icebox Cafe faced legal issues. In 2018, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a lawsuit against the restaurant, accusing it of misleading customers by falsely claiming to use local produce and ingredients, while actually purchasing from national distributors such as Sysco. The lawsuit alleged that Icebox made deceptive claims about having state certification as a local provider, selling wild salmon without verification, and promoting a “garden-to-glass” cocktail program supposedly supported by a nearby garden. These practices were reportedly attempts to exploit the “farm-to-table” trend, which typically commands higher prices.

For those craving Icebox’s famous cake, it is still available nationwide through Goldbelly.