Last week I attended the opening of Johnny V South Beach, the new restaurant at the Astor Hotel (where Metro Kitchen used to be). The chef: Johnny Vinczencz of the restaurant by the same Johnny V name in Fort Lauderdale. The food: dubbed Nuevo American, — described by the chef as traditional American fare with touches of Latin and Afro-Caribbean influences — includes menu items like seared local black grouper with three citrus dulce de leche and Wagyu rib eye marinated with mojo.
Since this was the opening, guests sampled food served at different stations set up throughout the restaurant and the Astor’s courtyard. The combinations were in fact interesting — seared tuna served over Jamaican spinach served on a coconut yuca cake (a very tasty polenta-looking thin slab of yuca, fried, with coconut and coconut milk); beef short-rib tacos with mango cole slaw… Others were typical American but with some twist. Macaroni and cheese. Smoked tomato soup with a mini-grilled cheese.
With people lining up for food it was hard to inquire much about the chef’s creations and as my companion stated, difficult to judge the restaurant. He’s right. The experience would be different if you went, sat down at your own table, and ordered from the menu. For now, I won’t make any conclusions about Johnny V until I visit it on a regular night. I will, however, give props to pastry chef Malka Espinel because of everything I sampled, the desserts were by far the best. The banana pudding was delicious. And the restaurant’s menu will feature some of her own creations, including pudding three ways, made with chocolate-ancho chile, cinnamon-caramel bread pudding, Catalan rice and guava cake filled with dulce de leche-Mascarpone mousse (yum!).
I will admit that this is not the type of restaurant I visit often — I’m more for the smaller, off-the beaten path places — but I will make it a point to go back and give it its due.
Johnny V South Beach
956 Washington Avenue
305.672.9998
tags: restaurants, dining, Johnny Vinczencz, south beach, nuevo american, miami
Looks like a fun place! Are you going to the South Beach Food & Wine Festival? I looked at their website to try and figure out what type of festival it is. There are a bunch of expensive programs or events you can attend. But I was wondering if you knew if there is anything to do for free. Can you just show up and wander around or something like that? Or is everything at certain restaurants around town?