It is an astounding statistic: 99 percent of all new restaurants go out of business within the first six minutes. Or something like that. Still, this doesn’t deter one feckless restaurateur after another from trying their hands at the hazardous game. They all go in confident that they’ve got something special and can beat the odds.
Danny DeVito, for instance, probably figures his popularity with the public will help propel his brand new Italian chop house, DeVito South Beach, to the top. He is teaming with veteran restaurateur David Manero and Michael Brauser to “bring Hollywood to South Beach.” The contemporary Italian cuisine is accompanied by “a menu of bottled water specially imported from New York” (fill in your own joke). A featured dish is the Global Steak Flight -- Japanese Kobe Beef, Australian Wagyu Rollatini, and American Kobe Flat Iron. Time will tell if Danny’s really got the chops.
Prime Blue Grille isn’t associated with a celebrity who can thrill fans with autographs at its opening; it is being launched by two former principals from the Smith & Wollensky Group. Still, PBG is going to offer its own distinctive signature: The first national restaurant featuring all natural, hormone-free, corn-fed prime beef, and wild-caught, market fresh seafood grilled over smoldering wood. A downtown waterfront location on the Miami River (South Biscayne Boulevard) promises to be another big draw. Doors are set to open June 30.
Grimpa, a trendsetting steakhouse in Brazil, will open its first United States location in Mary Brickell Village this Monday. Eighteen cuts of prime rib, rib eye, sirloin, veal, flank, lamb, sausages, and so on, will be served “rodizio” style by roaming carvers with large sword-like skewers –- an all-you-can-eat affair. Meats will be grilled over natural charcoal, and there will be a salad bar, warm buffet, and selection of over 500 wines.
Also debuting on Monday: Bonefish Grill, on Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables. The Bonefish name is not new to South Floridians -- this will be the sixth one. Having a track record helps with the odds of making it, as does specializing in fresh seafood, cooked over an oak-burning grill, in a comfortable setting, at a good price.
“Spice Art” will try to lure South Beachers into ISHQ when it opens any day now on Ocean Drive. Co-owners Sham and Kavita Kamlani explain: “Spices will be used to heighten the senses and raise the intensity of the dining experience,” a poetic way of saying that the fare will be Indian, with two tandoor ovens shooting out naan breads and bright red chickens.
After a $100 million dollar renovation this past December, the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club recently unveiled The Cascata Grille, where “guests will enjoy a variety of savory menu items” in an outdoor setting with “spectacular views of some of South Florida's most diverse tropical vegetation, a spectacular waterfall and the resort's magnificent new North golf course.” But what is really distinctive about this restaurant is the amazing executive chef, Hubert Des Marais, who formerly wowed critics and public alike at The Four Seasons Hotel chain. This chef is the real deal.
Chef Michael Blum is banking on his past and current success with Michael’s Kitchen, on Harrison Street in Hollywood, to help make the transition to his upcoming branch in the Newport Beachside Resort in Sunny Isles a smooth one. Will popcorn shrimp, corned beef reuben spring rolls, and Chilean seabass over lobster/king crab risotto provide, as the promo promises, “the cure for boring food”? We’ll see when it opens in November, but wouldn’t you be confident in succeeding if your menu contained Twinkie Tiramisu and Deep Dish Rice Krispies Treat Pizza? (Relax -- they’re for kids.) --Lee Klein
