One of Miami’s favorite chefs is taking over the restaurant at this Coconut Grove icon
It’s a partnership that could only be made in Miami: Chef Giorgio Rapicavoli is taking over the Mayfair Grill restaurant at the iconic Mayfair House Hotel & Garden.
Born and raised in Miami, Rapicavoli is the force behind the popular restaurants Eating House and Luca Osteria in Coral Gables. The first Miami contestant to win the Food Network’s “Chopped,” he has grown up in the Miami culinary scene, partnering with Grove Bay Hospitality Group in 2015 to open Glass & Vine in the Grove.
And now he’s taking over a legend — and still sounds a little surprised by the turn of events.
“The Mayfair is an iconic part of Miami,” he says. “It’s been here forever. What an incredible location. When I came in to see the space I was reminded of how captivating it was. How can it not draw you in?”
The hotel, which first opened in 1985, was renovated in 2020 and reopened in 2022 after a $50 million renovation. Earlier this year the hotel earned a prestigious Michelin Guide award and was named one of the best new hotels in the U.S. in 2023 by Condé Nast Traveler.
When the hotel reopened, the Mayfair Grill was operated by Lost Boy & Co. and served southwestern cuisine. Now, Rapicavoli’s menu will be different, focusing on what the chef says is the most impressive part of the restaurant: the open-flame grill, which he calls “the Ferrari of grills.”
“I will tell you, it’s not easy to have one of those in the restaurant,” he says, gazing at it with the admiration usually reserved for expensive, high-powered sports cars. “It’s difficult. It’s labor intensive. But it produces food like nothing else. Look at it now — the flames trickling. That’s a Grillworks grill, the real deal. It’s an incredible piece of machinery.”
Cooking over live fire appeals to Rapicavoli— “my dad’s from Argentina, so I’ve been cooking over fire my whole life with him,” he says — so diners can expect grilled dishes to be featured. Rapicavoli envisions a grilled snapper served with garlic Key lime butter, steak with chimichurri, prawns with preserved lemon and Calabrian chili.
He’s even thinking about kabobs on the grill, maybe grilled dates with goat cheese.
“I’ll have to try it first,” he says.
Other menu items include plates for sharing, such as an avocado caprese with Florida burrata; Sebastian Inlet clams with white beans, chorizo dashi and grilled bread; and jalapeño pesto green pasta with stracciatella, Florida basil and cashew. You’ll also be able to find lobster ravioli with thermidor sauce, brandy, shallot and citrus and chicken with cilantro salsa verde and grilled lime.
Rapicavoli says that when he was creating the menu, still a work in progress, he wanted to create the sort of place locals might want to visit a couple of times a week.
“I want to approach it like: it’s food, it’s fire, it’s seasoning,” he says. “I’m not really trying to manipulate ingredients too much. Just letting them shine.”
The restaurant, which opens under Rapicavoli Aug. 9, won’t change much physically, although the chef has plans to turn the former ventanita area into a food and beverage station to streamline the space. The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner for now and add a weekend brunch in October.
As for returning to Coconut Grove after his years at Glass & Vine, the timing is right, he believes.
“When I think of the Grove, I think it’s the last bit of Americana in Miami, still kind of untouched,” he says. “The Grove to me is the old Pan Am headquarters, the Doors playing here in the 1960s, old hippies, people walking around in Birkenstocks. That’s still the Grove to me. How can I translate that into cuisine? It’s unique.
“I get to come back a matured older chef,” he muses. “I get to do Luca, which is my family’s heritage, and Eating House, which is fun and playful and not what you expect. It’s cool. I want this to be what you expect but the best version of that. It’s an incredible opportunity.”
Mayfair Grill
Where: Mayfair House Hotel & Garden, 3000 Florida Ave., Miami
Opening under Giorgio Rapicavoli: Aug. 9
More information and reservations: www.mayfairgrill.com
