True classics
La Specialità, Sunshine Coffee, Beethoven X Beyoncé, Daniel’s Steakhouse, Fujiya, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Word
Fashion-fired
The Skinny: Known for attracting the fashion set on their lunch breaks, Milan-born pizzeria La Specialità opened its first U.S. location in Miami’s Design District this summer.
The Vibe: Spacious and bright, the dining room is lined with cream-cushioned and polished-wood banquettes for a sleek, minimalist midcentury Italian aesthetic. Its anchored by a gallery wall with contemporary art by KAWS, Takashi Murakami, Rashid Johnson, and Cameron Welch. A 10-foot brick oven features a custom mosaic on another wall that opens up to the kitchen, and a marble pizza bar allows guests to observe the action, with service that’s brisk and professional.
The Food: My meal opened with a chopped paillard salad. Perfect for lunch, the salad is filled with lemon-pepper chicken tossed with baby kale, arugula, and pesto in lemon vinaigrette, and contains enough protein to actually satisfy the craving for both a chicken paillard and a chopped salad. Wagyu meatballs arrived oversized and tender in marinara, topped with grated parmesan. And the off-menu spicy rigatoni ranks among the best versions I’ve enjoyed in recent memory, with real heat and creamy sauce.
And then, of course, the pizzas. The Max pizza delivers spicy salami blanketing every inch of the pie to the crust’s edge over gorgonzola cheese and tomato sauce. The truffle pizza piles on mushroom paste, buffalo mozzarella, and fresh shaved truffles with no restraint. Dessert comes as a Nutella pizza with the chocolate-hazelnut spread tucked under the crust, topped with berries and whipped cream.
The Drink: The cocktail list sticks to classics: martinis, negronis, and spritzes while the wine list highlights Italy.
The Verdict: Equally appropriate for a business lunch or a dinner date, La Specialità brings polished Milan elegance to a simpatico Miami neighborhood. –Olee Fowler
→ La Specialità (Design District) • 40 NE 41st St • Wed-Fri 530p-10p, Sat-Sun 12p-10p • Reserve.
CULTURE & LEISURE • FOUNDLISTING
One Night Only: Beethoven X Beyoncé
Late Night at New World Symphony returns
New World Symphony’s Late Night series returns to explore the genius of two icons: Beethoven and Beyoncé.
From Destiny’s Child to Cowboy Carter, hear a full orchestra weave 15 of Beyoncé’s greatest hits into Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
Take to the dance floor or settle in, cocktail in hand, as the New World Symphony plays “Halo,” “Crazy in Love,” “Single Ladies,” and more.
→ Beethoven X Beyoncé (Miami Beach) • New World Center, 500 17th St • Fri, 11/7 @ 9p [spon]
MIAMI RESTAURANT LINKS: Opening season: LA Japanese restaurant Yamashiro opened yesterday in Downtown Miami… In Little Havana, nostalgified El Cuban Diner soft opens today… New Italian spot Altamura Trattoria debuts in Doral • Florida Keys native chef Abram Bissell readying Pauline to open next month at Shelborne by Proper • Annals of drink: Why The Metropolitan deserves more attention.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Wake-up call
Sunshine Coffee, the pop-up known for its Miami Iced drinks, opened its first flagship at the Esmé Hotel on Española Way last month. Beyond a bright, sunshine yellow façade on Washington Avenue, you can spot it half a block away. There’s almost always a line, but it moves. And yes, it’s absolutely worth it.
The shop beams with white marble counters, bright yellow walls, and bold blue accents, plus a mural reminding guests to “See the Good in All Things,” which is easy when you’re sipping a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Miami Iced. Miami Iced coffees are made with locally roasted beans layered in cookie milks and pink cold foams. Matchas are made lighter with strawberries, lemonade, and watermelon.
On the food menu, breakfast classics appear as playful riffs, like brown-butter focaccia cinnamon rolls, and fantastic pancake cake slices. The house-made English muffins might not sound like the most appealing thing on the menu, and yet: blasted through with Sunshine‘s magic (whatever it is), they’re fluffy, perfectly toasted, and typically deployed here as the foundation for the spot’s most addictive offerings, from a breakfast sandwich to a creamy Japanese egg salad and spicy tuna toasts.
It’s all to say that it’s worth thinking of Sunshine like the Miami sunrise: quick, hot, and something you shouldn’t miss if you’re here. –Amber Love Bond
→ Sunshine Coffee (South Beach) • 1436 Washington Ave • Daily 8a-5p.
WORK • Thursday Routine
Mr. Worldwide
DANNY GANEM • culinary director • Daniel’s Steakhouse
Neighborhood you work in: Coral Gables & Ft. Lauderdale
Neighborhood you live in: Kendall
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Our cooks are receiving at 7a. And then, right away, we start looking at all the ingredients. We get the prime rib going, so we can make this beautiful melt-in–your-mouth preparation. After that, the guys will start putting all the pots on the stove, and then we start making the stocks, sauces, all the dressings, and start setting up those stations. In the front of the house, we’re polishing, cleaning the entire restaurant, and then putting it all together. So at 1130a before we open up for lunch, everything’s ready to go.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I wake up around 530a and start looking through my emails. As soon as I get breakfast ready, I’m making sure that Ft. Lauderdale and Coral Gables are ready to go. When I’m in the car, that’s my time to talk to all the vendors and start nagging on pricing, making sure what they have is in season. We start talking with the farmers to see what they’re gonna have in the near future. Then when I get to the restaurant, I’m talking to my team. There are many cooks that have been working with me for 12 years, eight years, six years. It’s a family approach.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I live in Kendall, so one of my favorite restaurants is a small Japanese restaurant called Fujiya. It’s run by a father and daughter and whenever you go there, you feel at home. All my fish purveyors sell to him, so I know what they’re getting. I live around Finka, so that’s another great restaurant. And Vice City Pizza. My out of towners, I take ‘em to Sanguich.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I like art a lot. Being a chef, plating your recipes is art, so when I go around the neighborhood and see different artists putting up artwork, I’m influenced. I try to see the galleries in Wynwood and the Design District. I also like the museums, like the Rubell Museum and Superblue.
Any weekend getaways?
I look into airline tickets and I go to New York, Washington DC, or Chicago, which is like a three-hour trip. There’s some that arrive at like 10 o’clock at night, on Saturday night, and I’m there Saturday night, Sunday, Monday, then I come back really early on Tuesday, back at work. It’s super cheap, you can do it for like $198.
What was your last great vacation?
We just came back from France. I try to go to Paris at least every other year because they’re so ahead of the dining game. I love to study that, you know? Yes, it’s my job, but at the same time that’s the craziness of loving my job, that the line between work and play gets blurred. It was my first time going to Lyon and to Marseilles. In Marseilles, it was seafood, seafood, seafood, three-star, two-star restaurants and more seafood. And my youngest son, he was — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — asking for ice cream and gelato.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Bahamasair starting new FLL-ELH (North Eleuthera) flights • Nobu-branded private residences hit the market in Barbuda • JetBlue to launch domestic first class next year.
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Three properties in Coconut Grove & Silver Bluff that came to market in the last 30 days.
→ 2437 SW 25th Ter (Silver Bluff) • 4BR/5BA, 2405 SF house • Ask: $2.04M • pergola, primary onto pool • Days on market: 23 • Annual tax: $9266 • Agents: Maurice Boschetti & Jossie Tezanos, Compass.
→ 1815 Fairhaven Pl (Coconut Grove, above) • 4BR/4BA, 3665 SF house • Ask: $7.5M • 50’ of private dockage, new everything • Days on market: 6 • Annual tax: $52,510 • Agents: Scott Shuffield & Lilian Liu, BHHS EWM.
→ 2932 Emathla St (North Coconut Grove) • 6BR/6.1BA, 6218 SF house • Ask: $12.0M • 2023 built, one-story with gym, sauna, and steam room • Days on market: 13 • Annual tax: $85,780 • Agent: Micahel Lancri PA.
MIAMI WORK AND PLAY LINKS: The fight to gate off North Beach Road • New renderings revealed for psychedelic Calle 8 skyscraper in Brickell • One West Twelve Residences breaks ground in Historic Overtown • In AI world, it’s the boring middle of work that’s disappearing • Real talk: CEOs don’t actually call the shots.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Play Roulette
Mars Volta • The Fillmore (Miami Beach) • Fri @ 8p • mezz ctr, $105 per
Stars v Panthers • Amerant Bank Arena (Sunrise) • Sat @ 6p • sec 118, $200 perfin
Jesse & Joy • Knight Center (Downtown) • Sat @ 8p • sec 109, $130 per
ASK FOUND
Three PROMPTS for which we seek your immediate attention:
What’s your favorite Miami spa (and treatment)?
Who do you trust to do your eyebrows?
Where’s the best bar to dine alone at in Miami?
Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@itsfoundmiami.com.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Restaurants, old-school
The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of Miami’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundmiami.com.
Caffe Abbracci (Coral Gables), Nino Pernetti’s northern Italian power lunch headquarters