When Pres Rodriguez and Raul Sanchez took over 176 NW 24th Street in February 2026, they didn't try to rebuild what Gramps had been for thirteen years. They pulled the collage-topped tables, the arcade games, the craft cocktail list. In their place: picnic benches, a pool table, local art on the walls, live music three nights a week. It's a different bar now, and if you're chasing the old dog-friendly patio reputation, you'll need to ask before you sit down.
Karpo tracks whether the Bar at Gramps pop-up is still running this week and flags what's known about its dog policy, so you're not driving to Wynwood on old information.
The picnic tables that made Gramps the default dog spot
Gramps opened in Wynwood in 2012 and ran for thirteen years as a tropical dive bar and live-music venue. It had two indoor bar areas, a graffiti-covered outdoor patio with a small stage, and a backroom theatre called Shirley's used for comedy, film screenings, and drag nights. Drinks were strong and cheap rather than fussy, and a walk-up window called Pizza Tropical sold New York-style pies out of the courtyard, with the El Peppe and La Blanca as regular favourites.
That patio, lined with picnic tables under strings of lights and old sports memorabilia on the walls inside, became the default place to bring a dog in this stretch of Wynwood. It was named repeatedly among the neighbourhood's dog-friendly options, but this was always an informal habit rather than a written policy — worth remembering now that everything about the address has changed.
Why the owner shut it down, and who picked up the keys
Owner Adam Gersten announced the closure in 2025, and the final week of service wrapped up in early January 2026. The sister location, Gramps Getaway at the Rickenbacker Marina in Key Biscayne, is still open and unaffected by the Wynwood closure.
A month later, a stripped-down pop-up called Bar at Gramps started operating out of the same building, but Gersten isn't behind it. The new operators are Pres Rodriguez and Raul Sanchez, running the space Thursday through Saturday nights. There's no dedicated website or Instagram account for the pop-up; updates come, when they come, through the old Gramps social media account. The original run was announced as at least a month, with a possible extension if it drew a crowd — which means its current status, as of this writing, is worth confirming before you make plans.
What the new operators decided to strip out
The choices Rodriguez and Sanchez made are plain enough once you walk in. Gone are the collage-topped tables and arcade machines that gave old Gramps its cluttered, lived-in feel. Gone too is the craft-cocktail and draft-beer programme that Gramps had built its bar menu around. What's there now is plainer: picnic-bench seating, a pool table, some local art on the walls, and live music on weekend nights.
Only part of the building has come back to life so far. The front bar and the patio were the first sections reopened, while the old Shirley's theatre — the room that once hosted Hannibal Buress, Eric André, and Wynwood's longest-running drag night, Double Stubble — was sitting as informal storage when the pop-up opened. Whether that room reopens for programming again is another thing to check rather than assume.
Don't assume the dog-friendly culture carried over
Even under the old ownership, letting dogs onto the patio was a custom rather than a stated house rule, so there's no guarantee it survives a change of operator and concept. The current occupant is running a genuinely different kind of room — no fancy cocktails, no draft beer, a plainer picnic-bench setup — and there's no reason to assume water bowls or a dog-friendly patio culture from the Gramps era simply carried over with the address.
Given how recently the pop-up opened, and how loosely its run was described from the start — at least a month, possibly longer if the crowds showed up — its current operating status is genuinely unverified at the time of writing. A call or a look at the old Gramps social feed before you set out is the sensible move, not a formality.
Where the pizza went
Pizza Tropical, the walk-up window that fed most of Gramps' late-night crowd, announced plans to relocate to a new Wynwood space not long after the closing party. If that move has gone ahead as reported, that separate location may end up being the better dog-friendly pizza-and-beer stop in the neighbourhood, since it isn't tied to the pop-up's uncertain run or its stripped-back bar-only offering. It's worth confirming the new address and hours before treating it as a linked recommendation, since a relocation announcement isn't the same as a confirmed, operating storefront.
Wynwood's wider shakeout
The old Gramps address sits between N Miami Ave and NW 2nd Ave, a block reachable by Miami-Dade bus routes 2, 6, and 32, and walkable from most of central Wynwood. The neighbourhood around it has shifted hard toward luxury condo towers, tech office leases, and glossy ground-floor restaurants in recent years, which is part of the backdrop to why a cheap dive bar with a graffiti patio didn't fit the current commercial math.
Gramps wasn't the only casualty. Brick, J. Wakefield Brewing, Wynwood Brewing Co., and Dogfish Head have all closed in the same stretch of redevelopment. The murals and street art that built Wynwood's reputation are still there, but the cheap-drink, artist-enclave character that went with them has largely faded, replaced by a nightlife scene aimed at a different budget.
Practical notes
The address is 176 NW 24th Street in Wynwood, between N Miami Ave and NW 2nd Ave, reachable by Miami-Dade bus routes 2, 6, and 32. The original Gramps is permanently closed as of January 2026. The current occupant, a pop-up called Bar at Gramps run by Pres Rodriguez and Raul Sanchez, has been operating Thursday through Saturday nights since February 2026 but has no formal booking system, website, or Instagram — updates run through the old Gramps social account, if at all. Expect picnic-bench seating, a pool table, local art, and live music rather than a cocktail programme. Confirm hours, dog policy, and whether the pop-up is even still running before heading over.
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Ask Karpo first
Is the Bar at Gramps pop-up still running this week, and does anyone there actually let dogs onto the patio? Ask Karpo to check the current status and hours before you drive over, since the old Gramps reputation doesn't automatically apply anymore.
