Chef Michael Schwartz adds a fourth spot to his Miami dining empire. (
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Celebrated Miami chef Michael Schwartz will open his first South Beach restaurant next Monday, The Post has learned.
The April 22 debut of Restaurant Michael Schwartz is part of the remake of Collins Avenue’s Raleigh hotel, which was purchased by the unlikely combo of David Edelstein and Sam Nazarian in December.
At the Raleigh, the James Beard Award-winning Schwartz, who already presides over Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, Harry’s Pizzeria and the recently opened Cypress Room in the Design District, will continue his focus on local, seasonal ingredients and small and large plates meant for sharing.
“It’s sometimes more difficult to deliver approachable food than a fine-dining experience,” Nazarian says. “That’s what sold us on the Michael Schwartz experience. The restaurant is poised to re-introduce the Raleigh to the local community. At the same time, we’re looking to make the Raleigh a culinary center, and also make it approachable.”
Dishes will include signature Schwartz “snacks” like crispy hominy with chili and lime, plus house-made linguine with cured swordfish, fried Buffalo-style rabbit, clams casino and a large-format Harvey Cedars fish stew. As part of a changing menu that will be printed daily, Schwartz will offer raw-bar selections and try out new dishes, including a steak tartare with crispy shallots and a quail-egg yolk. And Hedy Goldsmith, Schwartz’s longtime and rightfully revered pastry chef, will be on dessert duty.
Schwartz will serve breakfast and lunch, and also offer in-room and poolside dining along with boxed beach meals at the Raleigh. In addition, the chef is working with Nazarian’s SBE hospitality company on the reboot of the Raleigh’s Martini Bar.
Edelstein, who developed the W South Beach, and Nazarian, the man behind the SLS South Beach, were seen as formidable rivals in Miami’s luxury-hotel showdown until they joined forces. Both Edelstein, who brought New York chef Andrew Carmellini’s the Dutch to the W, and Nazarian, whose SLS includes the Bazaar by José Andrés, have been instrumental in merging South Beach’s power-dining scene with food that you actually want to eat.
And this stacked stretch of Collins Avenue has only gotten hotter, thanks to other high-profile hotel-restaurant openings including EMM Group and “Top Chef” winner Hung Huynh’s Catch and Kris Wessel’s Florida Cookery, both at the James Royal Palm, as well as LDV Hospitality’s Dolce Italian at the Gale South Beach. Also in the works is the 2013 opening of an outpost of New York’s Lure Fishbar at the Loews Miami Beach.
“South Beach had kind of been given a hall pass for many years,” Nazarian says. “People had, in a sense, conceded that you’re not going to get quality like you’re going to get in New York. “
Now, though, Miami “operators are holding themselves to higher standards,” Nazarian adds. “Miami is starting to take itself seriously.”
The Raleigh is the first of multiple collaborations between Nazarian and Schwartz. The chef will open a restaurant in Miami’s forthcoming SLS Brickell (which will also house an Andrés outpost) and is looking at a possible location in Los Angeles, where Nazarian’s SBE is based.
Follow Andy Wang at twitter.com/andywangny.