Closer Look: Roberta's in the Miami Design District

Funky, graffiti-style caricatures of pizza, beer, and cigarettes are painted in red, orange, and yellow across the walls of a half-wooden, half-tented structure on the southeast corner of Jungle Plaza in the Design District. Inside, a team of cooks smears cheese and drizzles honey onto disks of dough laid out on metal baking sheets.
The 200-square-foot, hand-built structure looks nothing like other spaces in Miami’s most luxurious shopping destination, home to world-renowned designer storefronts such as Prada, Burberry, Cartier, and Fendi.
This past October 17, a temporary, scaled-down version of the hipster Brooklyn restaurant Roberta’s opened near the Tom Ford and Louis Vuitton boutiques. Three men and two women, flushed-faced and wearing damp headbands and flour-dusted white aprons, churned out pizzas spiced with chili flakes and soppressata.