Superstar restaurateur Michelle Bernstein and her enterprise associate/husband David Martinez have opened a number of ventures throughout their 20 years collectively. They normally don’t look again when one closes. That’s about to alter with the reopening of Sra. Martinez in Coral Gables, which had a little bit of magic to it throughout its earlier stint within the Miami Design District, Bernstein says.
“It’s humorous. We by no means have ever in our careers — David and I’ve been collectively working for about 25 years — introduced something again. We’ve closed a pair and we vowed nearly by no means, ever to go backwards. And that’s sort of how I’ve lived my entire life is I by no means return,” she says. “However, there’s simply one thing that has all the time itched us about Sra. Martinez and wanting yet another shot at it as a result of it died just a little younger and it was actually not as a result of the restaurant did poorly.”
Actual property was the issue with the previous put up workplace constructing not precisely excellent for a restaurant. Now, 12 years later, Chef Michy’s Sra. Martinez will return on the former web site of The Open Stage, 2325 Galiano St., Coral Gables.
Bernstein says she and Martinez have discovered so much for the reason that first model of Sra. Martinez closed.
Eating tendencies change
“Every little thing’s modified in eating a lot within the final 10 years. First it modified simply as issues naturally do, however then after Covid, it modified once more,” she says. “Eating grew to become a lot much less intimate and much more casual and meals began coming onto the desk at any time when it was prepared. That is what grew to become the brand new norm. After which after Covid, I believe issues nearly went again just a little bit to the intimate. … It’s very fascinating how we’ve gone by way of this entire loopy cycle.”
Her experiences lately with Café La Trova and Candy Liberty present that folks need experiential eating.
“It’s extra than simply going to eat a meal,” she says. “It’s, ‘I would like all the things. I would like it multi functional place and I would like a complete night.’ And I get that, as a result of who doesn’t need that? However the factor is, it’s actually laborious to offer nice high quality meals, an ideal high quality expertise, wonderful cocktails, after which service besides. It’s actually laborious.”
However Senora Martinez — that’s the place the Sra. abbreviation comes from — offers credit score to her husband for honing proper in on nice service. Moreover co-owning eating places together with his spouse, Senor Martinez has partnered at different extremely revered bars, equivalent to Medium Cool on Miami Seashore, which has nightly reside jazz and DJs, and the upcoming Zebra Membership on the Townhouse Resort in Miami Seashore.
“He has extra bars that I don’t even know if individuals know that he’s a associate of, however he spends a pair nights every week ensuring that everybody is getting an ideal expertise, even when they’re simply going to a cocktail bar, the sort of service that you’d get at a five-star restaurant,” Bernstein says.
Amidst juggling all their enterprise pursuits (Bernstein admits to liking a little bit of chaos), the couple have a 12-year-old son, Zachary.
“He’s been providing an opinion of my meals since he was about 5. And I hate to say it, I don’t need him to listen to me, however he’s normally proper. ‘It’s horrible, mother. I don’t assume that is fairly the way it was.’ And I’ll really feel very offended at first and sort of damage. After which as he walks away, I’ll style it and I’ll assume, ‘he’s proper.’”
She doesn’t anticipate their son to observe them into the restaurant enterprise, saying he’s a whiz at math and science.
Zachary’s dad and mom met when Bernstein was the chef on the Mandarin Oriental’s Azul. David began as a waiter and have become a supervisor. They have been nice buddies first after which Bernstein says her crush was marriage.
Their first enterprise was MB from Michelle Bernstein at a resort in Cancun. “They actually wooed us into opening a restaurant there,” she says, noting that they didn’t truly personal it. MB continues to be there however now it stands for Muy Bueno.
In 2005, they acquired married, purchased a home and ready to open Michy’s (primarily based on her nickname) and helped begin the gentrification of Miami’s Higher East Facet.
“We realized how nicely we labored collectively, and I used to be the again of his entrance and he was the entrance to my again. I by no means enterprise into the eating room. I’m truly fairly shy, and so it’s not one thing I ever really feel comfy with,” she says. “David’s simply so fantastic with hospitality, so good at making individuals really feel good. He simply injects this nice happiness and repair and so good at what he does.”
The transition to their very own enterprise wasn’t straightforward.
“We have been in a really comfortable resort, Azul, and I had all the time labored for different individuals, and also you study in regards to the good and the unhealthy a part of opening your individual enterprise,” she says. “You must repair your individual oven. You must ensure that all of the paychecks undergo. You pay all people earlier than you ever get something your self.”
She offers a number of credit score to having considered one of Miami’s most famed restaurateurs as a associate at Michy’s.
“We have been actually fortunate as a result of we selected Steve Perricone as a associate. who has been within the business for twice the period of time that we’ve. He’s such an essential individual within the restaurant/bar enterprise in South Florida and past. So, he taught us so much. We have been studying as we went.”
Bernstein says she nonetheless will get stopped by individuals who beg her to open Michy’s once more, 10 years after it closed.
Getting ready for a gap
Now, the reopening of Sra. Martinez, anticipated in late September, sounds just like the fruits of the couple’s skills.
They picked a high restaurant designer, whom they’ve lengthy admired: Thomas Schlesser, the founding principal of New York’s Design Bureaux. His firm is a three-time James Beard Award winner for excellent restaurant design with Chicago’s The Publican in Chicago and New York Metropolis’s DBGB and Bar Boulud.
Bernstein says The Publican is considered one of her favourite designs. Previously, her sister has all the time designed the eating places — “my sister nearly is aware of me higher than I do know myself and he or she has higher style.”
The sister duo began speaking a few European/Spanish flavored design. Sra. Martinez goes to have freshly poured inexperienced and pink terrazzo flooring. There will likely be black and white tiles, loads of crops, some wrought iron and a bar the entire size of the restaurant. The home windows can all be pushed open throughout cooler climate and there will likely be a stage for leisure.
Diners will be capable of peek into the kitchen, however Bernstein prevented a design that makes the kitchen crew really feel like they’re in a fishbowl. Patrons will be capable of see a few of the meat hanging. She’s very enthusiastic about a big wood-burning oven the place she will put together entire chickens, fish over greens and end off tortilla Española and a brand new oxtail paella topped by bone marrow.
On the time of the interview close to the top of July, the menu was 70 % executed. She is bringing again British chef Andrew Gilbert, who was on the first Sra. Martinez. He’s additionally identified for the since closed Seven Dials in Coral Gables.
“He and I’ve been actually creating this menu collectively, and he’s very sturdy. He’s strict and type and really sensible, and he’s actually good with numbers. I believe he’s going to make a superb chef at Sra. Martinez,” Bernstein says.
The menu will certainly have her ode to Spain, Bernstein says. “It will likely be outdated world meets very new world utilizing new methods and new kinds and, for me, new recipes.”
She’s been experimenting so much with croquettes, together with one which has carbonara inside and an egg yolk aged for 12 days grated excessive. Shes additionally provide you with a pretend mozzarella made out of tofu and plans to serve it with tomatoes or plums if they’re in season.
Bernstein is partnering with a number of native farmers and shes planning a extra seasonal menu than she normally does. After all, the caveat is the rising season in our semitropical paradise is so much completely different than up north.
She’s excited in regards to the completely different choices for patrons: You’ll be able to have a drink and a chew on the bar and expertise the music, or you may come and have a household meal within the eating room and hearken to music. She’s promising wonderful cocktail service and is happy in regards to the Coral Gables eating scene and the situation subsequent to Graziano’s Mercado.
There will likely be some Latin music, however the couple additionally wish to push the envelope a bit. Anticipate a vibe that varies from weekdays to weekends.
Does she anticipate individuals to get out of their chairs and dance? “God, I hope so. I hope so. I’d love them to. I all the time informed David, ‘I would like a spot that I can cling up my apron and go dance,’ so why not?”
