Having just opened this past December, this spin off from the Stubborn Seed in Miami Beach is quite a gem. First the story of the restaurant is a feel good story with a dedication to family values as Jeremy Ford, the season 13 Top Chef winner opening and dedicating it to his daughter representing beauty and butcher referring to himself. The location is down the road from the University of Miami off of US1.
The interior is a warm masculine feel with dark wooden tables, bookshelves and lounge style couch seats. The ambience was like being at a lively dinner party with a good volume level of lively conversation throughout the restaurant.
For the past nine months, the restaurant has been doing well, onto its second chef tasting menu and about to have it's third (winter) menu. What I particularly enjoy about the chef tasting menu is that the meal will have a good pace and flavors will tend to complement each other as the meal progresses.
What is nice about menus from Chef Jeremy Ford is that he truly pays attention to the local and seasonal ingredients, ranging from mango to blue crab to mamey sapote to passion fruit. You are thoroughly reminded you are in South Florida with each dish.
Coal Kissed Royal Miyagi Oyster
A nice cool smokey flavor and ice slush served with the oyster. A great start to the meal.
Breads and Spreads
A nice charcuterie of olives, tomatoes and prosciutto on the left, chicken liver mousse (center bottom), nduja butter (center top). On the right is a sourdough focacia (at the top right), lardo slices (at the bottom left of that dish) and capicola (at the bottom right). This was a nice second course as it took you from the coldness of the oysters on ice to a warm focacia bread with a variety of dips and savory flavors. The more savory and smokey things are, the happier I generally am.
Szechuan Cured Hamachi
The third course continued the progression with a return to seafood and to South Florida, not withe the Hamachi which is a pacific yellow tail, but with the melon, chili fermentation, Florida mango and passion fruit emulsion. The emulsion had the right amount of spiciness to awaken the palate.
Blue Crab Agnolotti
At this point in the meal, the dishes are a little warmer in temperature as the next course is a continuation of the seafood theme as blue crab, along with ricotta cheese and almonds is served as stuffed into an agnolotti and served with pickled wild ramps on top and sprinkled with split english peas. The dish is served with meyer lemon caviar cream.
Agnolotti vs Ravioli
Some may be confused as the difference between agnolotti and ravioli as they look quite similar. The difference is that agnolotti comes from the PIedmont region (northwest) part of Italy and is made by folding pasta over to create a pouch whereas ravioli is more universal and is created by pressing two sheets of pasta together to form a pocket. The difference is the amount of sauce that adheres to the pinched parts as agnolotti has one side that is smooth since it is folded over.
Foie Gras Tart
Sandwiched between a white port gelee on top and a pine nut sunflower crust on the bottom, this might be the best foie gras presentation and combination of flavor I've had this summer.This was quite an enjoyable dish.
Intermezzo
The palate cleanser for this meal consists of a blackberry and cream popsickle.
Shrimp Fried Loup de Mer
This is the first of the two main courses. On the left is a charred calilini and on the right is the Shrimp Fried Loup de Mer (a type of sea bass). The sauce is a bouillabiase emulsion made with chorizo and added spices. The Loup de Mer was served with the caviar enhancement.
Smoked Crescent Farms Duck
Reverse seared crescent farms duck on top of a hazelnut dukkah and laid aside jerk cabbage. The puree on the side is a plantain pineapple puree. To top it off, the dish is served with an au jus.
Homestead Mamey
Appearing like a chocolate lava cake, we are served a mamey sapote pudding cake with passionfruit toffee and orange creamsickle (the slice of orange laying atop the dish). It was a very good dessert.
Gueridon Cheese Service
A nice little show to end the meal, a hickory smoke infused set of petit basque (goats milk) cheese served with zaatar lavash (flatbread). I looked up gueridon on a hotel management site to learn more about it.
All in all a good meal. I will be happy to return especially with a changing menu.