Whet Your Appetite: Miami's Newest Restaurants

12/6/2011

Whet your appetite with savory eats from Miami's upcoming restaurants

• CRAVE brings "value-driven" eclectic eats & a full sushi bar to Merrick Park beginning Dec 9. The Minneapolis-based restaurant offers 9,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space and menu highlights like mini burgers, black bean soup. Asian noodle salad, grilled ceviche, surf & turf, flatbreads and fish tacos.
• Southeast Asian eats meet a social club scene at Lantao at the Surfcomber Hotel. The eclectic menu features snacks, noodle bowls, salads and main plates. Highlights include green papaya salad, blue crab spring rolls, Singapore chili prawns and BBQ pork ribs.
• "Effortless elegance" arrives in Brickell Monday, Dec 12 as Mare Nostrum opens its seafood-centric Mediterranean doors. The 8,000-square-foot space boasts 114 seats, 60 terrace seats, a private dining room and daily shipments of red tuna, langoustines, dorada and other European seafood specialties. Menu highlights include Iberico ham croquetas, bluefin toro tataki, blue point oysters, gazpacho, house-made pastas, paella, salmon a la plancha and 24-hour slow baked cochinilo asado.
• Key Biscayne icon the Rusty Pelican reemerges from its five-month, $7 million renovation Monday, Dec 12, bringing "breathtaking" views, a new contemporary design and a modern American menu from executive chef Michael Gilligan (W South Beach Hotel & Residences). The revamped menu features over 20 small plates (sea bass ceviche (pictured), sushi rolls, steak tartare and foie gras & goat cheese empanadas); entrees (whole fried snapper, baked salmon roulade, duck fat fried Colorado lamb loin, grilled filet mignon and wild mushroom ravioli); lunch specials (the Biscayne burger, the Rusty Pelican club sandwich and the lobster salad roll); and an extensive beverage menu (a 1500-bottle wine cellar, signature cocktails & mircobrews). Toast the new eats & drinks at the weekday happy hour featuring $5-$9 bar bites and discounted beer, well drinks, wine & cocktails from 4-7pm Monday through Friday.
• Pork, pork and more pork arrives in Midtown Dec 19 as Salumeria 104 opens its doors. Chef Angelo Masarin (Casa Tuas, Sardinia) is dishing out a menu of imported meats, roasted pork loin, crispy pork belly and for seafood lovers a bit of slow-cooked salt cod.
• The Shelborne complements its recent renovation with the opening of Vesper, an American brasserie serving breakfast, lunch & dinner beginning Dec 9. Chef Frank Ferreiro dishes out Kobe beef-laced shepherd's pie, filet cheese steak "hoagies," a 22oz bone-in rib eye and Mediterranean sea bass. Lunch skews more casual with classic club sandwich, Kobe burger and the Vesper sandwich - ham, salami, turkey & gouda cheese. Feeling a bit less formal? Pop by the hotel's "walk-up boardwalk" restaurant Lucy's Cantina Royale for guacamole & chips, skirt steak burritos and corvina tacos.
• Villa Mayfair brings an elegant, elaborate "diverse blend of Mediterranean flavors" to the Grove with fresh, local and seasonal eats prepared in the 4,000-square-foot kitchen. Chef Frederic Joulin (Guy Savoy) helms the kitchen and the indulgent menu featuring Alaskan king crab "cannelloni," Maine lobster mango salad, truffle artichoke soup, sea bass a la plancha, sea scallop & caviar tower, New Zealand rack of lamb, Moroccan style organic chicken breast and honey glazed duck breast.