The Burger Brand Bringing a Taste of Buenos Aires to South Florida 

Twenty-five years ago, La Birra Bar started as a tiny, seven-table café in Boedo, Buenos Aires. Daniel Cocchia and his wife Roxana opened the neighborhood spot with a simple, hands-on approach to food and a willingness to experiment. Over time, one item began to stand out: the burgers. 

Today, La Birra Bar’s burgers are at the center of the family-run brand with six locations across South Florida, three People’s Choice wins at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s Burger Bash, and a burger recently crowned the best in the world. Despite the growth, the Cocchia family’s approach hasn’t changed much: make as much as possible in-house, pay attention to the details, and never stop improving. 

Turning a neighborhood café into a burger destination took plenty of trial and error. The team experimented with meat blends, fat ratios, grinds, cooking temperatures and techniques, while putting just as much thought into the bread and sauces. Today, La Birra Bar uses Argentine Angus beef and bakes its buns fresh every day. “We wanted a bun with character and flavor of its own, but one that would complement the meat rather than compete with it,” Cocchia says. 

New burgers can go through dozens of versions before they ever reach a customer. “To us, a burger isn’t simply meat, bread, and cheese,” Cocchia says. “There has to be a balance between richness, acidity, crunch, moisture, temperature, and flavor.” And while La Birra Bar’s Argentine roots influence the menu, Cocchia doesn’t necessarily consider it an Argentine burger. “We’re simply trying to make a great burger and allow our identity to come through naturally,” he says. 

In 2021, the family brought that philosophy to North Miami Beach, where they opened their first U.S. restaurant. South Florida’s large Latin American community and mix of international and American diners gave the brand a chance to see how its burgers would compete outside Argentina. “We wanted someone to take a bite of our burger and immediately recognize it as La Birra Bar,” Cocchia says. 

American diners have taken notice. La Birra Bar has won the People’s Choice Award at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s Burger Bash three times. In 2026, its Crispy Dubai Burger earned the overall title at the Dubai Burger Championship. The burger pairs ground beef and white American cheese with crispy onions, chimichurri truffle sauce, and Dubai-inspired mayo.  

For first-time diners, Cocchia recommends the Golden, which earned La Birra Bar its first major U.S. recognition. Another favorite is the Crispy Onion topped with bacon, crispy onions and secret sauce. 

Since arriving in North Miami Beach, La Birra Bar has added locations in Wynwood, Doral, Weston, Fort Lauderdale, and Coral Gables. But as the brand grows, so does the challenge of consistency. “In the United States, it’s not enough to make an amazing burger once,” Cocchia says. “You have to be able to make that same burger hundreds of times a day, at the same level every single time.” 

For the Cocchia family, building La Birra Bar has always been about more than adding locations or collecting awards. Family members remain closely involved in the company, and maintaining the feel of the original restaurant has always remained important. “We can grow in size, but we still want to think like that family standing behind the counter of a tiny restaurant in Boedo, trying to make sure every customer is happy,” Cocchia says. 

There is more growth ahead, with additional Florida locations in Boca Raton, Brickell, and Orlando, along with a Madison Avenue shop in New York City. La Birra Bar is also expanding into Inter Miami’s new stadium with two locations.  

It’s come a long way from seven tables in Boedo, but Cocchia’s goal for what comes next is simple: “Proving that our identity can travel to many more cities without losing what made us different in the first place.”