Michael Schwartz has tapped Roel Alcudia (pronounced Roh-ELLE), most recently chef de cuisine at Jonathan Waxman's New York City restaurant Barbuto, to run the kitchen at the forthcoming Cypress Room, only a few blocks from his flagship restaurant in the Design District.
Schwartz broke the news at a recent 'pop up' at Harry's Pizzeria with Paul Kahan, owner of Chicago's Avec, Blackbird and The Publican, according to a post on Miami Restaurant Power Rankings. A Barbuto hostess on late Wednesday night told Short Order Alcudia moved to Miami "last month."
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As MPRP pointed out a "bromance" of sorts has blossomed between the two restaurant groups since the Michael's Genuine team traveled to New York in the summer of 2011 to host a dinner for food and media glitterati. Jennifer Rubell, HarperCollins Publisher Dan Halpern and food writer Francis Lam filled Waxman's meatpacking district eatery.
Waxman & Co. then traveled to Miami in February of 2012 to put on one of the first chef's pop ups at Schwartz's pizzeria. Since then, the two restaurants have been swooning back and forth on social media and it's now clear the relationship was built on a bit more than professional adulation.
MPRP first broke the news that The Genuine Hospitality Group, the umbrella company for Schwartz's growing empire, was opening The Cypress Room, slated to open early this year.
On top of Harry's, Michael's Genuine and The Cypress Room Schwartz also runs 150 Central Park on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. The recent $55 million sale of South Beach's Raleigh Hotel to W South Beach Developer David Edelstein and the SBE Group also seemed to be a shot in the arm for longtime plans for Schwartz to open a restaurant inside the hotel.
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