Andrea Curto-Randazzo is one of Miami's best known chefs, and the restaurant she ran with her husband Frank, Talula, was for years one of Miami Beach's finest eating establishments. Last year, they left to help start a new venture -- as executive chefs of the Water Club in North Miami Beach.
Yesterday, the couple confirmed they had left the Water Club due to differences with management and ownership. "I'd give them a very short shelf life," said Frank Randazzo, speaking of the Water Club. "What they are doing just isn't working. The management isn't capable of getting [the employees] to do good work."
The couple, who live in Miami Shores didn't name names and a call to the Water Club wasn't returned Thursday. The Randazzos will continue running a catering business, Creative Tastes, but, added Andrea, "I am itching to get back into a kitchen."
The Water Club always seemed to me a bizarre place for the Randazzos to work. It didn't have the boutique feel of their prior restaurant and the food was not particularly creative. "It wasn't a gastronomic project," says Frank. "It was more a neighborhood, casual, happy hour kind of place."
Given the economy, he added, that seemed a better approach than a restaurant like Talula, where diners pay $100 per person and there are only a couple profitable nights a week.
"We all need a restaurant we can go to and relax," said Frank. "Something for everyone was the premise, but it was never conveyed that way by management."
"What Andrea and I do next will be more casual and approachable," he added.
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