Lane Cardwell

Grammys, Emmys, and Steak Oscar

Lots of people get the "open a restaurant" bug.  There are people who have been in the business for years.  And people who are a talented home cook who have friends that always tell them "you should open a restaurant." And people who like going out to eat and think, "How hard could it be?" There are restaurant investors who know that they couldn't open or run a restaurant, but believe in the person that they are backing financially. And then there are the celebrity owners who put their name, reputation, and sometimes their food knowledge, into a new restaurant venture. A lot is expected from a restaurant opened by a celebrity chef. No one is quite sure what to expect from a restaurant opened by a celebrity.

I have visited South Beach many times over the years.  When I was growing up in Miami it had a reputation as "God's waiting room," filled with retirees from the north living in cheap condos and apartments.  It has become a trendy, fun, restaurant Mecca as boutique hotels and condo high-rises replaced the retirees. South Beach has attracted many top notch restaurants, and more than its share of celebrity restaurants. New York and Los Angeles, the home and work location for many of our top actors, actresses, and recording stars, have always been a prime place for a celebrity to open a restaurant. South Beach is certainly in the top 3 or 4 for celebrity restaurants.

I have long been a fan of Gloria Estefan's Cuban restaurant, Larios on the Beach, named for her father. It was one of the early Miami Beach celebrity-owned restaurants and is celebrating over 15 years of providing true Cuban food, live music and mojitos to locals and tourists. Gloria and her husband have been very active in the restaurant with food recipes and music. They also operate Bongo's Cuban Cafe. For them it was an opportunity to showcase the Cuban lifestyle to many who would never have an opportunity to experience it otherwise.

A few years ago I visited the newly opened Robert DeNiro Italian restaurant, Ago Miami, in the Shore Club Hotel in South Beach. It is a branch of Ago Los Angeles and Ago New York. Robert DeNiro has been active in the restaurant business since the opening of Tribeca Grill in the early 90's. DeNiro gets more involved in the design side of the business than the food side.

Last night I had the opportunity to visit the one-year old DeVito South Beach.  Located just a few blocks south on Ocean Drive from Larios, DeVito is an Italian chophouse with a heavy influence on the menu from owner Danny DeVito. This $6 million redo of an old South Beach hotel is further evidence of the good things that can happen when the celebrity enters the business for all of the right reasons.

As is typical with a celebrity restaurant, Danny partnered with a strong local restaurateur, David Manero, to be the operating partner. The menu and the décor are like The Soprano's meets South Beach. Prime steaks, pastas, and lobsters are the mainstay of the menu. Danny's influences came from his memories of his mother laying out sheets of pasta on the bed, and spending many hours each day stirring the pasta sauce for the big meatballs which she used to make. One of the more unusual dishes was at the end of the meal. Festa di "San Gennaro" is an enormous cotton candy "tree" holding caramel cheesecake lollipops. It was bigger than a basketball.

The quality of the food and the décor were first rate. Prices matched. Clearly the restaurant is targeting a group of moneyed locals, other celebrities, and tourists wanting to experience a one-time splurge at a restaurant named and owned by a familiar face on TV and the movies. The desire to excel, and win an Oscar, is matched by the desire to sell a great steak Oscar. When celebrities invade our world the results can sometimes be worth noting.

Posted by Lane Cardwell on July 23, 2008 | Comments (2)