The Miami dining boom continues! On June 3, multi-floor culinary destination Julia & Henry’s opens near Miami’s Bayfront Park, in a 1936-built Art Deco building that once housed one of the first Walgreens stores. Part of a growing downtown community, the space promises a number of projects from celebrated chefs and beverage professionals, and Florida-based King Goose Hospitality is overseeing operations.
The complex was announced in 2021 as a new project from School of Whales, a real-estate fund focused on historic buildings. Founded by entrepreneurs Andrea Petersen, Daniel Pena-Giraldi and J.J. Giraldi, the fund is publicly open to anyone able to make an investment of at least $500.
“Miami is one of the few cities that doesn’t have a downtown that is really the hub of activity,” Petersen told Wine Spectator. “That’s starting to change. And part of [our] vision is—with this building—to bring downtown back to its heyday.”
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Spread across seven levels, Julia & Henry’s is named after 19th-century Miami developer Julia Tuttle and industrialist-tycoon Henry Flagler (as in East Flagler Street, where the building is located, and Florida’s Flagler College). The first three floors are devoted to food halls, with 26 concepts altogether, and the fourth and fifth floors feature a recording studio and rehearsal rooms for music collaborations. The basement hosts a “high energy sound room,” Jolene, and a showstopping restaurant is coming to the roof. Let’s lay it all out:
• On the first floor will be European market–style restaurants and La Época, a wine bar named after the department store that previously occupied the building. Karina Iglesias is overseeing the wine program there—with a focus on organic and natural selections—and throughout the rest of Julia & Henry’s.
• Along with comfort foods and live music, the second floor will feature a new location from Miami-based Boxelder Craft Beer Market.
• The third floor will boast international cuisine options and a cocktail bar, The Lasseter.
“[Julia & Henry’s] was thoughtfully curated to represent some of the best talent that Miami has to offer and the best talent that Miami can attract, being such an international hub,” Petersen explained. The dining concepts collectively spotlight the work of many leading Florida, Latin American and South American chefs and drinks professionals. Among them, local chef-restaurateur and TV host/judge Michelle Bernstein is launching Michy’s Chicken Shack and the Cuban-cuisine Luncheria, and José Mendín of the Pubbelly Restaurant Group—working with chef Jorge Mijangos—is opening a burger spot, June, and a gyoza concept, Hitchihaika. Peruvian chef-butcher Renzo Garibaldi is bringing a new location of Osso to the complex, while Argentina’s Tomás Kalika, chef-owner of Mishiguene, will debut a Jewish-cuisine eatery called Mensch.
• The Julia & Henry’s roof is set for Torno Subito, a new restaurant from acclaimed Italian chef Massimo Bottura, who is best-known for his Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, considered to be one of the best restaurants in the world. Bottura premiered this contemporary Italian concept in Dubai, and the new location will offer much of the same flare and cuisine. Chef Bernardo Paladini, formerly of the Dubai restaurant and Osteria Francescana, will lead the kitchen.
“Every time something opens in Downtown Miami, people flock to it, because there are very few offerings. People are craving this activity,” said Petersen, who notes how excited she is to watch guests “enjoy and really have access to all these incredible concepts under one roof and at an accessible price point.”—C.D.
Seasons 52 Expands in Texas
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On May 20, grill–wine bar Seasons 52 arrived in San Antonio, Texas, joining locations in Houston and Plano, as well as dozens of Wine Spectator Restaurant Award–winning siblings across the U.S, all part of the Darden Restaurants Group.
Like the other Seasons 52 restaurants, the San Antonio newcomer exclusively offers dishes with fewer than 595 calories on its seasonal menu. Executive chef and restaurant partner Brandon Kimball offers plates such as wood-grilled corn, watermelon-tomato salad and spiced bacon flatbread, with many preparations employing the restaurant’s oak-fire grill and brick oven.
Erika Godsey, who leads beverage strategy at all Seasons 52 locations, oversees the 80-label wine program alongside managing restaurant partner Jennifer Patterson. The list features Sonoma Pinot Noir, Washington Cabernet, Bordeaux, Australian Shiraz and much more, including seasonal flights such as a recent spotlight on California’s The Prisoner Wine Company and another on Spain’s Miguel Torres. “We pride ourselves on our acclaimed Wine Bar, where guests can experience the same discovery and balance as the rest of our menu,” Godsey said via email. Alternatively, guests can expect a range of cocktails, such as a Hawaiian pineapple cosmopolitan or a rosé lemonade.
“I am excited to bring our balanced approach to food and wine to more people in Texas and to build a team here,” said Patterson. “I have been welcomed to the community by the nicest of people, and I am honored to not only provide a diverse environment and positive culture for my team, but serve these great people in our new restaurant!”—C.D.
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In May, the team behind leading Champagne label Dom Pérignon announced that it is sponsoring a new merit-based scholarship program, the Dom Pérignon Scholarship Fund, for students at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), which has multiple campuses, including in Hyde Park, N.Y., and St. Helena, Calif.
On an ongoing basis, the program will provide full funding for 20 students working toward their two-year Master of Professional Studies in Culinary Arts degree, which is the first degree of its kind, according to the CIA. Additionally, Dom Pérignon has underwritten a grant to help the master’s program develop further in the coming years. (The Champagne house also awards scholarships to students working toward qualifications from the Institute of Masters of Wine.)
“Dom Pérignon’s creative ambition is a perpetual quest for harmony as a source of emotion—a quest that is shared by great chefs in our mutual ambition to create memorable meals and pairings,” said Dom Pérignon chef du cave Vincent Chaperon in a statement. “Our vision is to nurture a profound appreciation for the art of living in the next generation. The Dom Pérignon Scholarship Fund, made possible through the Culinary Institute of America, is the first step in bringing that vision to life.”
While improving their kitchen skills and learning the culture and history of restaurants, the master’s candidates will study subjects necessary for becoming a successful chef-restaurateur: marketing and media, the relationship between wine and food, human resources and compliance training, effective food systems and sustainable agriculture.
In addition to the online courses, they will get hands-on experience as paid interns this inaugural year at one of three acclaimed restaurants in Northern California: Wine Spectator Grand Award winners the French Laundry and SingleThread Farms and Best of Award of Excellence winner Californios, studying under culinary leaders like Thomas Keller and Kyle Connaughton. The students will get additional required experience through immersive residencies at CIA’s campus in Hyde Park, N.Y., and at Dom Pérignon’s Champagne headquarters.
Connaughton hopes the students will get their hands dirty, quite literally, while immersing themselves in every facet of SingleThread’s farm-to-table structure, including working at the restaurant’s farm. As he explained to Wine Spectator via email, he hopes the students will, above all else, learn to focus more on how they source and treat food. He will also encourage them to carefully choose whom they partner with at their future restaurants while building a sustainable community through suppliers and partners as well as their staff.
“We, as chefs, have a responsibility to be and become mentors,” Connaughton explained. “We are responsible for training the next generation of thoughtful leaders. I look at opportunities like this and think about what I would have loved to have had and could have benefited from. There’s no better way to pay that forward to the next generation than to create the programs you wish you had.”
Applications for the Dom Pérignon Scholarship Fund are currently open until June 15, 2023. Ideal candidates would be chefs with several years of experience in kitchens who hope to become chef-restaurateurs.—J.L.
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Heavy rains devastated Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region in May, causing landslides and floods that reportedly displaced tens of thousands of people and killed at least 15. The storms have left mass destruction in their wake, and rebuilding will be challenging. But organizations around the world are offering help, including a group of well-known Italian restaurants in Chicago. Organized by philanthropic organization Chicago Chefs Cook and the National Italian American Foundation, the restaurants are hosting Chicago Chefs Cook Presents: The Emilia Romagna Dinner Series to raise relief funds for farmers in Emilia-Romagna.
“The Chicago Chefs Cook organization was created to ensure that those in the most dire state of adversity are nourished,” said Prairie Grass Cafe chef-owner Sarah Stegner, a member of the Chicago Chefs Cook leadership team, in a statement. “The devastation experienced by farmers in the Emilia-Romagna region is on the collective conscience of the Chicago culinary community, and we could not just sit on the sidelines watching.”
From June 8 to 12, the restaurants are hosting a range of dining experiences and donating the proceeds to organizations such as the Italian American Relief Fund, which was founded to provide aid after earthquakes hit Northern Italy, primarily Emilia-Romagna, in 2012. A number of Chicago chefs are also adding dishes to their menus (or to those at host restaurants) that will raise additional funds. Among the participating restaurants are several Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winners, including Gibsons Italia, GT Prime, RPM Italian, Testaccio and The Village (or Italian Village), alongside other Windy City mainstays like Alla Vita, Gene & Georgetti, Il Milanese, Nonnina and more.—C.D.
