Masked and armed men walked into the popular Wynwood restaurant Joey's Monday evening and robbed the restaurant and its diners, Miami police say.
No one was injured during the incident at 2506 NW 2nd Avenue, during which guests and staff were ordered to the floor at gunpoint while the suspects collected diners' belongings and took cash from the restaurant's register.
"We were having dinner when three African-American guys came in with bandanas on their faces and two guns each, one in each hand," said witness Sara Ataie, who lives in Midtown.
"They just broke in and told everyone to get down under the tables and said they would shoot if we made noise. They kept saying 'please' -- 'Please shut up, we don't want to hurt anybody, but please don't talk.'"
Ataie said she considered calling 911 as she lay under a table in the far left corner of the restaurant, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the risk: "All we did was pray."
The three men, one of whom was wearing flip-flops, shortly fled on foot, she said.
Ataie was luckily not among the patrons robbed -- she said the men walked by her table several times but never reached for her purse -- but her dinner party declined to stick around for dessert.
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"After it was over, the waitress asked if we still wanted our food. We were like, 'Are you kidding?'"
For those invested in Wynwood's gentrification, a brazen dinner time robbery at Joey's wasn't exactly on the menu. Though the area is packed on Second Saturdays for the Wynwood Art Walk, Ataie says she likely won't be back at any other time.
"Tonight was different. It felt really alone, the stores were dark, there was no valet parking as there normally is. It was as if [the robbery] was meant to happen -- it was raining, it was the only restaurant wide open, and there were no cops and no people around.
"If it's not for Art Walk," she said of Wynwood, "I will never go back there."
