Versailles Restaurant

A restaurant at 3555 SW 8th Street, opened in 1971 and founded by Felipe A. Valls Sr., a Cuban exile from Santiago de Cuba — a founding date and founder confirmed independently of the restaurant's own account. It won a James Beard Foundation America's Classics award in 2001. For decades it has served as a central gathering place for Miami's Cuban exile community, hosting political fundraisers and rallies and drawing media coverage of events related to Cuba, along with visits from U.S. presidents and other politicians; one such visit, on June 13, 2023, is independently documented and dated. The James Beard Foundation's own award database could not be fetched directly, so the award rests on the encyclopedia's account of it.