The Dutch at the W South Beach, opens to the public today with lunch and dinner service (breakfast to follow).
Chef Andrew Carmellini decided to start the Dutch in Miami Beach after success with his two New York restaurants, Locanda Verde and the Dutch.
With the Dutch Miami, chef Carmellini has decided to take with him the parts of the New York location that will work well here namely an extensive raw bar, prime meats, and soulful American fare, and tweak the decor and menu.
The result is a space that looks both both bright and warm. White brick walls are reminiscent of an old and well-loved kitchen. Bookcases that line the walls are filled with model boats, jars, and old Florida memorabilia -- handpicked by Carmellini, who said he'd been collecting the odds and ends for about a year.
The large bar, with hand-aged mirrors, looks like a good place to meet friends for a drink or a meal.
The menu is eclectic, serving everything from little oyster sandwiches ($ each) and blue crab pizza with tomato, zucchini, & jalapeno ($18) to short rib mole ($35), Florida red snapper with mussel-ginger sauce ($28), and spice-glazed pork chop ($29).
Selections from the raw bar range from oysters (sold individually $3 each) to peel and eat shrimp ($19) to stone crab claws (MP). High rollers can dine on one of the two raw platters, the Biscayne ($75) and the Collins ($125).
We asked chef Carmellini a few questions about his plans for the new space, the menu, and where he's sourcing food locally.
New Times: Tell us about the decor of the Dutch Miami Beach.
Andrew Carmellini: The Dutch New York is in Soho and it feels very much like New York. There's a sense of place to it. I wanted to do the same thing here. I wanted to make a restaurant that had a sense of Miami but didn't look too Art Deco. I also didn't want to slick it out and make it ultra-loungy. I wanted it to be unique. If you look around, there's stuff I've been buying over the past year, like vintage maps, books, and model boats. They're placed around the room to create a feeling that's bohemian and homey. It feels like it has some soul.
On your blog, you've been talking a lot about visiting farms in South Florida. What are you finding?
It's a little confusing because here in Miami heirloom tomato season is starting and in New York we're doing butternut squash. I am trying to use as much local produce as I can. For instance, I've been to Teena's Pride, but in the end, my philosophy here is the same as in New York. Local is important, but it has to taste good.
Right now, avocados are awesome and so we're using them. I've been working on my sourcing for a year and my red snappers are coming from Sarasota. I've got a good line on true Florida red snapper.
Stone crabs are coming out of the Keys. Were getting them from D&D in Key Largo. I found a guy in Little River that makes his own burrata from Wisconsin curds. It's very, very good, so I'm using that.
But, a lot of my meat comes from Pennsylvania, and I'm getting my oysters from up north.
How do you plan to work both Miami and New York restaurants? Will we see a lot of you in Miami?
Right now I'm here 14 hours a day every day. I was here anyway for a month a year to see my family.
What can people expect when they come for a meal at the Dutch?
My restaurants in New York are both neighborhoody. You can come on a Tuesday and have a bowl of pasta or you can go out on Saturday and have tequila and oysters. We have all kinds of people eating there. It's not just finance guys or fashionistas. We get a great cross-section of people. That's what I'm going to try to do here.
We're not having foams and layers, although I did that in the past. This is a more soulful approach. Good service and good food, but without pretension.
I'm also pretty passionate about the bar. We're going to have great cocktails and a great bourbon list.
The Dutch opens for lunch and dinner today, November 14, and for breakfast, starting November 15.
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