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About The News Lounge
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The News Lounge 55th Street
.png) Mark Soyka founded the News Cafe, on Ocean Drive, in 1988 and The Van Dyke Cafe, on Lincoln Road, in 1994 that helped to revitalize both Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road, respectively. Mark is a long time resident of Morningside, Miami's oldest, historically preserved neighborhood, located East of US 1 (Biscayne Boulevard) and is a vintage car enthusiast. In the late 1990's he needed a home for his extensive collection. As he was commuting back and forth to South Beach, on 55th Street Terrace, sat a building that kept calling out to him; right at the point where Biscayne Boulevard takes a sharp bend to the right. At the time of purchase, the building at 5556 NE 4th Court (built in 1938) had been an "ugly" office supply warehouse. Over the years, the structure had taken a beating, but Mark saw its potential. He began ripping off the shingled and acoustical tiles, the carpet over the original Terrazzo floors, gutting the building, uncovering a "gem" of Miami Modern (MIMO) Architecture, with a vaulted wood rafted ceiling. The building was used as a show room for his vintage car collection for about a year, when he decided to host a Christmas party for his management staff. The party was such a success, Mark affirmed the same evening that he would convert the space into his next restaurant. .png) In 1999, he opened his name sake restaurant, Soyka. At the same time, and soon there after, he purchased the buildings along NE 4th Court: 5400 (a funeral home built in 1940), 5580 (a Ford Food Supermarket built in 1948) and 5582 (a transmission repair company, built in 1982), plus the associated parking lots in between. Today the four reuse buildings house: restaurants, retail stores, offices, gym and, at the heart of the complex, in a lush "courtyard," (created out of a parking lot) The News Lounge. In addition to these developments, his eye wandered across NE 4th Court to a historic, Robert Law Weed Building (built in 1954 for General Tire), sitting at 5600 Biscayne Boulevard, already home to Leo's Car Wash. He repositioned Leo's, making room for his landmark pizza joint, Andiamo.  www.facebook.com/TheNewsLounge |
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