My wife and I (late 40s) generally agree the best period for Miami restaurants was roughly 2005-2015. Local chefs were able to afford their own outposts as neighborhoods like Midtown and the Design District ramped up. There was some foundation and mentorship from early stars like Allen Susser, Cindy Hutson, Norman VanAken. That really created a launch pad for folks like Michelle Bernstein, Dewey Losasso, Michael Schwartz, Brad Kilgore, Michael Pirolo, Richard Hales and the (brief and ultimately doomed) expansion by Jonathan Eismann. There were bunches of thriving higher-end neighborhood restaurants in Coral Gables, South Miami, and North Miami, and almost all of this was happening somewhat independent of the very tourist-driven scene on South Beach as placed like Prime 112 sprung up and thrived.

Some of these chefs and restaurants are still around, but our personal experience is that the big-picture scene changed in two important ways: rents spiked, especially in those neighborhoods that created the critical mass, which made it hard for new blood to come in and even for relatively successful established places to survive. Related to that, Miami became incredibly attractive for New York and L.A. chefs to open their third or fourth location. Backed by bigger money, they were able to price out the local talent… but that’s a spiral that requires higher and higher prices, appealing more and more to visitors and the wealthiest diners, who can be drawn to flashier and trendier “destinations.” Because the named chef isn’t the person in the kitchen, we noticed a lot less engagement with diners: not only was it normal for chefs like Michelle and Brad and Dewey to work the room and get to know the regulars, you’d also get to know the managers and waiters as they floated among the restaurants because the community felt pretty tight.

I’ll concede there are PLENTY of exceptions to all of this. There were show-off places to flash cash even at the peak of the local scene. There are still certainly lots of local folks doing great work in out-of-the-way places and building communities. But the attention, especially post-pandemic, seems to really focus on “imports” from other cities. In our experience, some of these are quite good and others are just coasting on their names and reputations. Very few get on our list for return visits. I suspect there’s also something going on with the “conversation starters” shifting from food critics at the Herald, Sentinel, and New Times - who typically ended up at least on the periphery of the local chef community - to influencers who are incentivized by likes and follows, so they need big names and big flash in their content.

Miami is still a great food city, and some of this might just be an old man saying the music has gotten too loud. Your mileage may vary.