Audio By Carbonatix
In Part Two of our
interview with restaurateur Myles Chefetz, we discuss celebrities who dine at
Prime One Twelve, his new hotel, and other upcoming projects. For more
information about the James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur, see Part One of our interview with the man who owns Prime One
Twelve, Prime Italian, Prime Hotel, Big Pink, Nemo, and Shoji Sushi.
New Times: How often do you
change the menu at the various restaurants?
Myles Chefetz: They change. In fact, I’m coming up with a new menu at Big
Pink in the next couple of weeks. Nemo is really evolving. I’m going to be
changing the concept there. That restaurant has been open for 15 years. I want
to do a broader-based fish concept. My plans are to redo that in the summer. I
might even change the name. But I will keep the signature Nemo dishes, like the
wok-charred salmon and the prawns. At Prime One Twelve, we are constantly
coming up with new ideas. As soon as I come up with a new idea, it ends up on
six other local menus. It’s quite flattering, but it’s kind of annoying too.
Too bad you can’t
trademark this stuff.
No, you can’t. You can only protect the format if it’s
likely to cause confusion.
Your portions are so
huge. How much food is wasted?
We charge a lot. I believe that you have to give people value.
They will pay more if you give them value. There’s a secondary marketing
intention with that. People all take the bags to go. I see people coming
out of
Prime One Twelve and it looks like they just came from Epicure because
they are
carrying so many bags. We go through a tremendous amount of paper
products.
They are eating that again, so they are thinking about Prime One Twelve
the
next day, or maybe even the day after. It’s the same thing at Big Pink.
It’s an
American gluttonous concept. I don’t know if it would work in Europe.
Some
people complain about the portion sizes, but then if you make it a
little bit
smaller, they flip out. Once you start with something like this, I
believe you
can’t change. Then you’re just looking for trouble. They are going to
say,
“Myles is cutting back and we’re not getting as much value as we used
to.”
Your customers are
very demanding, it seems. Is that important for you to have that
open-door
policy with your clientele?
It is. I make myself very accessible to the customers. My
cell phone number is on my business card, so obviously I’m accessible.
Everyone
who gets my card now has my cell phone number. During Christmas week, I
get 300
to 400 texts a day for reservations. Here’s the line always: “Myles, I
hate to
bother you.” It always ends with: “Will you be
there?” When I write my book, it’s going to be called Will
You Be There? And it’s the same whether it’s a person who is
unknown [or] a major celebrity. Sometimes I feel guilty if I’m talking to a
big-time celebrity and a local is looking at me. I never want them to think
I’m
paying special attention to the celebrity. I’ve made myself very
accessible,
almost too accessible. You won’t see me sitting down at a table at 9
p.m. on
any night eating dinner. I like to be working the room. And I always
felt that
people would look down on me while they are waiting two hours with a
reservation and the owner is sitting there eating. It doesn’t look good.
I’ve known you for 15
years, and I think you’ve probably sat down with me only once, and that
was back
during the Nemo days.
It was probably 11 p.m. at night. And I was probably
squirming in my chair. Typically, I eat at 1 a.m. I sit down when the
kitchen
is about to close.
What do you eat at 1
a.m.?
The first year Prime One Twelve opened, I ate steak every
night and my cholesterol went soaring through the roof. I gained a lot
of
weight. Now I try to cut back on the heavy meat at 1 a.m. I eat mostly
fish.
Why did you decide to
open a hotel?
It was a preemptive strike because somebody else was going
to build the hotel with the restaurant component on the ground floor
right next
to Prime One Twelve. I wanted to control the market. Second, and this
was
before the economy turned, I really needed an additional kitchen. It was
more
about the restaurant downstairs than it was about the rooms. I love
having the
rooms, though. It’s an amenity and it keeps the Prime allure going on
that
corner. Now you see Prime One Twelve, Prime Italian, Prime Hotel, Prime
Lounge. It creates this whole party atmosphere almost on a nightly
basis. I
wish the hotel had 50 rooms; it has 14. It’s a very boutique, cool
hotel. I put
the same design passion into it that I do into the restaurants.
How does it differ
from running a restaurant?
It differs in a lot of ways. The hospitality is the same.
You don’t see the customer as much.
I hope they aren’t
texting you complaining about the pillows.
Nah. I did get one about better-quality toilet paper. I’m
going with softer toilet paper now. Other than that, no. It’s too new [for people] to
be
texting me.
Is Prime Lounge an
extension of Prime One Twelve?
It’s mostly the same menu items. We have a separate and distinct
kitchen over there. The plans are to do a late-night slider bar over
there,
which will be taking some elements of Prime Italian and Prime One Twelve
and
serving them late-night.
My favorite is the
chicken parm sliders at Prime Italian.
That’s been copied too. I came up with that at 1 in the
morning. I was scribbling down things that might be fun. I was a little
frustrated when that was copied. C’est la vie!
How does the celebrity
quotient affect your business?
It’s a huge part of my business. Customers expect to see
celebrities. I’ll have people say, “Who’s coming in tonight? Is anybody
there
tonight?” I’m like, “Well, you’re there. And your family is there. Isn’t
that
enough?” Because the restaurant is so small, you rub elbows with major
celebrities.
It’s a big thing. For me, it was fun meeting them all, but then I
realized they are just regular people. Some of them are more demanding. Some need
to be
more demanding for security reasons. Some celebrities will wait; some
won’t
wait. Some will wait in their car until the table is ready. The sports
celebrities are very important. I think Prime One Twelve gets more
athletes
than any restaurant in the country. And I know most of them too.
Can Shaquille O’Neal
and Michael Jordan eat at Prime One Twelve without being harassed?
It depends on how you define harassed. We usually don’t let
customers go up to them while they are eating. The people who come to
South
Beach in general have seen a lot of celebrities, so they aren’t as crazy.
You
don’t have people running after them. I’ve had situations where they do
get
bothered, and I deal with it on a night-to-night basis.
You started your
career as a lawyer. When you moved to Miami in 1994 to open Nemo, was it
on a
lark, or did you think this was going to be a permanent career change?
When I came here to build Nemo, I still had Conscience Point
in the Hamptons. My intention was not to live here full-time. It was to
create
a resort lifestyle where I spend my winters here and summers in the
Hamptons. Of
course, Nemo was a huge success. It really dominated the market, until
China
Grill opened. The summer was packed, so I ended up selling everything in
New
York.
You mentioned you
are going to be changing Nemo, but does it still hold a special place in
your
heart?
It always will. It makes me feel old when I walk in there
sometimes. Restaurant years are like dog years; you age quickly. It
holds a
special place, but I also feel like I’m in a time warp. That’s a ’95
installation
décor-wise. I just did a big menu change, but I think people today want
variety. I’m not opposed to change when change is necessary.
The bacon craze is so
big right now, but you’ve been serving bacon at the bar at Prime One
Twelve for
six years.
It’s there every night. It’s applewood-smoked bacon from a
company called Nueske is Wisconsin. It’s the best applewood-smoked bacon
out
there. That’s a real signature of Prime One Twelve. It’s an idea I came
up with
years ago. I thought it would be fun and different. It’s very expensive
to do.
But people expect it now. I have people come in, just eat bacon, and have
a
glass of wine and leave because they are full.
What are some of your
favorite restaurants in town?
I go to Joe’s Stone Crab, but I rarely eat out in Miami. I’m
always in my own restaurants. People look at me funny when I’m at other
restaurants. They want to know what I’m doing there, why I’m not at
work. Typically,
I know most of the staff because they’ve worked for me at one point or
another.
There’s a lot of whispering and the chef will come out. It’s not an
anonymous
experience. It’s not all that relaxing. I don’t like having special
attention.
I prefer to be quiet. I am so on every night. Imagine being onstage
every
night: You’re on. You’re smiling. You can’t come in a bad mood. It’s
shaking
hands, going to table 34, 42, 35; this one wants to say hello. Everyone
wants
to say they know the owner. That’s what I do. I call myself jokingly the
King
of Superficial Conversation. I have the same conversation over and over
again.
It’s like Groundhog Day. You go
through this with thousands of people a week. Literally thousands of
conversations. So when I go home now, I’ve almost become reclusive. I
don’t
like to be social in my free time because I’m social so much. People
always try
to get me to go to events. Going to a gala event is not peaceful. You’re
going to
hug and a kiss 1,000 people. I’m doing that every night anyway. But
normal
people don’t do this every night. Typically, a person goes home at 6
p.m.
They come home and say, “What are we going to do tonight?” I don’t even
think
about what I’m going to do at night. Mechanically, I have the same
routine. I’ll
spend all day in my office, do some cardio, and then I get back to work.
I’m not
thinking, What am I going to do tonight? It’s not even an issue. I
haven’t seen
a movie in two years.
What do you think of
the success of your former chef/partner Michael Schwartz?
I’m happy for him. He had some movement since I had bought
him out in 2002. The Design District is perfect for him because it
allows him
to be creative and do his own thing in a smaller setting. That’s what he
thrives on and performs the best on.
You were going to do a
project in New York. What is the status of that?
A deal for me has to be so perfect for me to risk what I have
here. Right now, I have too much to lose here. I know that I’m very
fortunate. I
realize that. I’m humble about my success. To risk that for a little bit
of
more ego-stroking is not worth it. Prime One Twelve is the pinnacle of a
restaurateur’s
success. When you open up in other cities, it takes away the specialness
of it.
There’s only one Prime One Twelve. Every day I wake up, I don’t
take it
for granted. I always have this fear that it’s not going to be there one
day. That
is what makes me successful, because I have that neurotic fear that it
will be
gone. I can never settle for status quo.
