Banh Mi Near Me in Coconut Grove: BANH's Bookstore Short Rib Dip

BANH builds exactly four banh mi, and it does it in a 13-by-9-foot corner of the Café at Books & Books, 3409 Main Hwy, Coconut Grove, FL 33133. The counter opens at 11 am Monday to Friday and 10 am on weekends, and the most expensive sandwich, the short rib Lê Dunk with a cup of 24-hour pho broth, is $23. Miami New Times named it Best Sandwich in Best of Miami 2026. For banh mi near me south of downtown, start at this bookstore counter.

BANH started with two people sharing a commercial kitchen during Art Basel. Aidan Friedson, then a 22-year-old University of Miami student running a small meal-prep company, met chef Phuoc Vo at Miami Kitchen Incubators, where Vo was executive chef for a catering company. When the meal-prep business closed, Friedson worked under Vo for six months, according to the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District's March 2026 profile.

Vo had spent more than a decade in kitchens including the Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott and Disneyland, was a finalist on Food Network's Ciao House and competed on Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives Out. He had wanted a proper banh mi shop since childhood and missed the Vietnamese food he grew up with after moving from California to Florida. Friedson, a two-time Chopped Junior champion and Miami Herbert Business School graduate, handles the business side and the front of house.

The bookstore connection is family. Friedson is the nephew of Mitchell Kaplan, who founded Books & Books in Coral Gables in 1982, and his uncle mentioned that the Grove café space was free. The store itself has been on Main Highway since June 2018. BANH opened with boba, cold brew and Vietnamese coffee in the fall of 2025, and The Burn Miami reported the banh mi menu starting on October 20, 2025, with a limited number made each day.

The menu on BANH's own website lists four sandwiches and nothing else. The OG Viet Deli, at $19, layers chả lụa, pork sausage and pâté. Don't Cluck With Me, $18, is sous-vide lemongrass chicken. The Faux Real, $18, is the meat-free option, built on char siu braised soy. Every one is finished with BANH's Umami Garlic Aioli, cilantro, pickled carrots, daikon and sliced fresno chiles, so the heat comes from the peppers rather than a squeeze bottle.

The Lê Dunk, $23, is the sandwich most people come for. Short rib is cooked sous vide, tucked into the baguette and served with a side of pho broth that simmers for 24 hours, built on a family recipe Vo has worked on his whole life. The name comes from his mother's maiden name. Friedson told the Coconut Grove BID it is the most popular sandwich and the one he recommends to first-timers, alongside a Vietnamese coffee.

The Infatuation's Mariana Trabanino gave BANH a 7.7 in December 2025, called the short rib its best sandwich and ranked the OG Viet Deli among the best banh mi in Miami, noting its thick coating of pâté and the hint of spice from the fresnos. A Google reviewer who goes by AskLyle, quoted on BANH's site, described the short rib as basically a Vietnamese French dip: messy, savory and still fresh.

The baguettes come from La Provence Bakery in North Miami, but Vo worked with its baker on a blend made specifically for BANH, according to the Coconut Grove BID. Proteins and pickles are prepped off-site in a commercial kitchen, then the sandwiches are assembled to order at the bookstore counter, which The Infatuation compared to a space the size of a horse stall. Each sauce starts from scratch using Vo's family recipes.

The drinks are half the business. BANH calls its list The Daily Sip. Cà Phê Rush, $11, is Vietnamese cold brew with sweetened condensed milk and sea salt foam, and Saigon Black, $9, is a 24-hour cold brew made with Café du Monde, the New Orleans coffee Vo's parents kept stocked after immigrating from Vietnam. Rising Phoenix, $9, is hibiscus tea with passion fruit and popping boba, and Unicorn Moon Milk, $11, is taro with cream cheese foam.

Arrive early if the OG Viet Deli is the goal. The Infatuation reported that it sells out early because BANH orders a limited amount of its pork sausage from Vietnam, and Miami New Times wrote in Best of Miami 2026 that the banh mi now sells out regularly. Hoodline described weekend crowds of readers, office workers and passersby queueing between chapters after a viral video pushed the counter from low-key to slammed.

Do not come planning a long sit-down meal at the counter. The Infatuation noted there is nowhere to sit and eat at BANH itself, and suggested carrying the sandwich across the street to the shade of Peacock Park. Festival weekends are the hardest time to get a sandwich at all. During Japan Fest, the team sold out in two hours, Friedson told the Coconut Grove BID. On those days, order ahead or arrive at opening.

Ordering ahead is simple. BANH takes walk-ins at the counter and pickup orders through its Toast page, linked from banhlovesyou.com. One reviewer named Danielle wrote that she and a friend arrived right at closing, and Friedson reopened and insisted they order. That kind of hospitality shows up in the reviews, but the safer plan is to arrive well before the 8 pm close on weeknights.

Books & Books sits on Main Highway in the Grove's village center, across from Peacock Park. The free Coconut Grove Trolley loops along Grand Avenue and South Bayshore Drive with stops at Peacock Park, Kennedy Park and the Grove's Metrorail stations, according to the Coconut Grove BID. On Metrorail, the Coconut Grove and Douglas Road stations on US 1 are the closest stops for this end of Main Highway, and the trolley connects both to the village center.

Drivers have two public lots within a block. The King's Lot on Main Highway has 189 spaces, and the MPA Playhouse Lot, also on Main Highway, has 235 spaces and 12 EV chargers. The CocoWalk garages on Grand Avenue and Virginia Street are a short walk north if both are full. A Toast pickup order placed before you park keeps the stop short on a busy weekend.

Peacock Park, across Main Highway, is the obvious picnic spot. The 9.4-acre city park on Biscayne Bay sits on the site of the Bay View House, a hotel Charles and Isabella Peacock built in 1883 and later renamed the Peacock Inn. It was the first hotel on mainland Florida south of Palm Beach, and the city bought the land in 1934. Indian peacocks still roam the lawn.

For a longer walk, continue south on Main Highway to The Barnacle Historic State Park. Ralph Munroe, one of Coconut Grove's founders, finished the house in 1891, and it is the oldest house in its original location in Miami-Dade County. The path in passes through tropical hardwood hammock, one of the last remnants of the once vast Miami Hammock. Browse the Books & Books shelves on the way back.

If the OG Viet Deli is gone and the line is long, Plan B is Pho 79 on South Dixie Highway in Pinecrest, south of the Grove along US 1. The Infatuation recommends its number two, a classic cold-cut banh mi on a crisp baguette with cured pork, ham and head cheese, or the number one with grilled pork, pâté and spicy mayo.

BANH, inside the Café at Books & Books, 3409 Main Hwy, Coconut Grove, FL 33133. Hours Monday to Thursday 11 am to 8 pm, Friday 11 am to 9 pm, Saturday 10 am to 9 pm, Sunday 10 am to 8 pm. Sandwiches $18 to $23, with the Lê Dunk at $23. Walk-in counter plus online pickup via Toast at banhlovesyou.com. Instagram @banhlovesyou. No seating at the counter itself.