Wynwood’s Culinary Arms Race: Miami’s Dining Scene Gets a Power Surge

In the most vibrant cities around the country, including New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, funky art districts have turned into destination dining districts. In Miami, a slew of 2024 openings from prominent local, national and international players has transformed the mural-draped Wynwood neighborhood into a new restaurant renaissance.

Two exclamation points punctuated the year in Wynwood. On December 11, Noble 33’s Casa Madera debuted with its over-the-top seafood towers, grilled crab legs, sea bass tacos, flaming salt-baked branzino and wagyu short rib barbacoa. On December 19, Feal Hospitality’s new location of Ghee Indian Kitchen opened with its light and bright Florida-centric dishes like backyard pakora (featuring taro from four-time James Beard Award semifinalist chef Niven Patel’s own Rancho Patel farm), yellowfin tuna bhel, Yukon dosa, turmeric-marinated fish (with fish that changes based on what Ghee’s seafood supplier finds) and kebabs that wouldn’t be out of place in a Mediterranean restaurant.

These two top-tier openings wrapped up a busy 2024 in Wynwood that also saw notable debuts like pasta-and-wine bar Otto & Pepe (from chef Viviana Varese of Michelin-starred Alice in Milan), Noble 33’s Sparrow Italia (with its half-pound A5 wagyu meatballs), omakase specialist Sushi by Bou and smashburger sensation Cowy Burger in an area that already had buzzing powerhouses like Pastis, Doya, Uchi, Kyu and the Smorgasburg food market.

“I think Wynwood has the density that we would like for Ghee,” Feal Hospitality founding partner/CEO Mohamed Alkassar tells Observer of a neighborhood that’s north of downtown and south of the Design District. “It’s a very central location for all our guests. People from Miami Beach are able to easily get to Wynwood. We spent a lot of time doing a market study because there was a lot of construction in Wynwood. We timed our opening to when we knew a lot of the construction was going to be done and there was going to be a lot of offices and residential delivery.”

Feal Hospitality (which plans to open Ghee in Atlanta) and Noble 33 (which operates Sparrow Italia in the same building as Casa Madera) have serious goals to grow their offerings in Wynwood. Instead of closing between lunch and dinner as its Dadeland location does, Ghee’s Wynwood space at the new Amli apartment development is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week for family-style à la carte feasts, 13-dish $75 tasting menus and a lunch option that works nicely for a solo diner.

“We believe we will make the tiffin sexy again,” Alkassar says of the 120-seat Ghee Wynwood’s $24 five-layer lunch that includes a curry, a daily salad, basmati rice, naan and dessert. “This is what Ghee is all about: stellar food using excellent ingredients priced like a true neighborhood restaurant, even though it’s big.” For Patel, the multifaceted chef and Feal co-founder who also runs Italian-inspired Erba in Coral Gables and Caribbean-leaning Paya in Miami Beach with Alkassar, Ghee is about serving the kind of food he likes to cook for his own meals.

“Honestly, this is how I eat at home,” Patel tells Observer. “It’s a lot lighter, very vegetable-forward and clean eating. That’s how most Indian households are.”

Alkassar and Patel are working to launch a takeout window as well as high chai for the mid-afternoon crowd in Wynwood.

“It’s our play on high tea in the U.K.,” Patel says. “You know, at 3 o’clock most of the time on Friday, nobody’s getting work done anyway. So you come to Ghee and have this three-tiered plate with nine little bites with a lot of Indian street food: three sweet bites, three cold and room temperature bites and three hot bites. We’re going to have a lot of fun with it, do Bombay sandwiches and Indian trail mix and probably the pakoras.”

Noble 33, meanwhile, is planning to open a members-only space in February for pre-dinner and post-dinner libations, dessert and light bites.

“It’s going to be an eighth-floor rooftop above Casa Madera,” Noble 33 co-founder and chairman Tosh Berman tells Observer. “Our membership program is global, so it’s not just directly related to Wynwood. This will be an additional amenity that all members globally will have access to, similar to our cigar lounge in London or Door 33, our speakeasy opening in Houston, and our rooftop at Toca Madera.” About half of this new Miami space is outdoors.

“We even have a pool, which may end up being activated during the day,” Berman says. “But right now, it will be an experiential design element where we’ll have fire dancers and other cool theatrical elements.” Berman and Noble 33 co-founder and CEO Mikey Tanha also plan to open Toca Madera in Brickell and Meduza Mediterrania in Miami Beach this year; launching their Miami adventure in Wynwood is like going to uncharted waters and finding a treasure chest.

“Very candidly, we always anticipated wanting to go into Wynwood last as opposed to first,” Berman says. “But Sparrow has been an absolute game-changer for our company.” Berman has seen the response Sparrow Italia has gotten for its pasta (including gluten-free protein options), extensive steak selection and live music. He’s also been fortified by how Casa Madera’s seafood-focused Riviera Mayan menu has been received. Sparrow Italia (a modern version of a moody masculine steakhouse that’s also built for nights when you want to pair pizza with big red wine) and Casa Madera (lush, natural, feminine and built for nights where bottle service can mean mixing Jarritos sodas with tequila) have very different vibes, and that’s the point.

“It gives people the variety of being able to start in one place and then try something different or use it for different days of the week,” Berman says. “They can bounce between the two. I ask a lot of our guests, ‘What’s your favorite?’ And what I love is it’s down the middle right now.”