Ocean Drive follows celebrity chef Michael Mina as he opens Stripsteak at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.
Michael Mina at the new Stripsteak in the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.
Born in Egypt and raised in America’s Northwest, Michael Mina rose to fame in San Francisco’s lofty culinary scene. Today his Mina Group runs 24 properties from Jackson Hole, Wyoming; to Washington, DC; to Las Vegas; to Miami (Bourbon Steak, Michael Mina 74). Ocean Drive tagged along as Mina finalized staff training at his newest Miami restaurant, Strip steak in the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.
10 am—Bourbon Steak, Turnberry Isle Miami
Mina strolls into the private dining room and wraps Bourbon Steak Executive Chef Gabriel Fenton in a big, back-slapping hug. “Your life is about to change, boy!” he says with a knowing laugh—Fenton’s wife is due to give birth to their first child next week, while Mina is a father of two. These friends cooked in the same kitchen together for six years, and now Fenton runs Bourbon. They sit down with Mina Group President Patric Yumul and general manager Anibal Macias to review Fenton’s additions to the company’s in-house website, where all the chefs pitch new recipes. “We’ll approve the dish, tweak the dish, and then they have seven days to get it up on the site and put a video up,” says Mina, who relies on these videos, as well as meticulous dish notes and photos, to train every position in the house and maintain the quality control across his properties.
Mina sees the culinary pendulum swinging. “I feel like it’s going back to showier, more fun service. Food trends went so much farm-to-table, went to more simplicity, and took us away from something we were really good at. I want to get it back.” Mina rolls out a new challenge to his team: Each chef needs to help evolve six whimsical bar dishes that will be substantial enough to serve at the table—think mouthful-size wagyu Philly cheesesteaks or a battered lobster “fishwich” on a truffle roll.
Mina in the kitchen at Stripsteak.
1 pm—Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink
The group saunters into a lively lunch rush. Geoffrey Zakarian stands up from his table to say hello. Mina invites him to one of his San Francisco 49er tailgate parties, where he regularly spit-roasts a 1,200-pound wagyu cow for 24 hours. “I’ll tell you, when you roast it whole like that, the brisket is unbelievable, surrounded by fat,” he says, beckoning Zakarian to make the trip.
Chef/owner Michael Schwartz walks up with a big grin and a handshake, and asks about how the Stripsteak opening is going. “It’s a big restaurant, 350 seats,” says Mina. “More seats than we’ve ever done.” The Mina Group’s focus as of late has been on growing the brand by partnering with large properties such as the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas and the Fontainebleau in Miami, allowing the group to avoid a lease and large front-end investment. “We can stay really focused on operations,” he says. Chef Schwartz sends out the food, and Mina serves everyone; the team swoons over pork belly pizza, identifies puffed faro on the tilefish crudo, loves the Florida orange bits in the yellowtail tartare, and guesses as to how many cooks there are in the kitchen.
5 pm—Stripsteak
Giving a speech to his staff in the Stripsteak dining room before service.
Servers dodge construction workers to the cacophony of hammers and drills and bartenders shaking ice. “Today we want chaos. It’s the first ‘oh my effing God, I actually have to get this order right!’” says Mina of the friends-and-family service about to start. He first meets with Executive Chefs Gerald Chin and Gary FX LaMorte in a back room and brainstorms the new whimsical bar dishes—Mina wants to infuse some of them with tobacco. Chin suggests cold-smoking instead. “I love it!” says Mina. “Let’s screw around with that tonight.” They also plan chicken wings that will swing—trapeze-like—above dipping sauces, and ponder an old-school diner-style toothpick dispenser for french fries.
The staff gathers in the dining room for his sendoff speech. It’s a bracing for battle, but also a pep talk: “The first two months are going to be really hard, but you’ve got to stay positive. When you get confident, we’ll make it harder. We’re going to be a pain in your ass, but the restaurant has to improve every single day. We will always be pushing the envelope. Every station goes down at one time or another, so it’s about, Is everybody there to pick you up?”
Customers arrive, wide-eyed. Tickets start to spit out of the printers in the kitchen. “One grouper!” yells the expediter. “One rib eye!” Soon everyone is bowed over their stations, focused. Mina samples this and that, coaches food runners on how to read tickets and line up trays so as to deliver dishes to the proper seat number. He’s annoyed by a sauce; he’s happy with a steak. “Season the proteins with dry hands so all the seasoning comes off,” he yells. A chorus of “Yes, chef,” rises from the staff.
More tickets arrive. He looks around at the somewhat controlled chaos. “I love the pressure, I love the energy, the interaction with the cooks, the dishwashers,” he says. “It’s such an interesting environment of artistry, sophistication, and fun people that have an energy that you don’t get in other industries.”
He helps a food runner with a big tray. “And every restaurant is like a kid—they’re all different.” Fontainebleau Miami Beach, 4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 305-674-4780