A little more than a year ago, chef Michael Schwartz, smarting from some of the lows inherent in the roller-coaster restaurant business, took an all-or-nothing gamble on a sparsely populated Miami neighborhood where other restaurateurs had flopped, sparking a bigger fire than even he intended when he opened Michael's Genuine Food & Drink on Northeast 40th Street.

A member of the trio that in the early 1990s had jump started an upscale food scene in just-stirring South Beach, Schwartz has just welcomed the other two pioneers to the next outpost of hip, the Design District.

Call it gentrification deja vu: Schwartz, who lured smart crowds to Nemo when there was not much reason to venture south of Fifth Street on the Beach, now cooks within a couple of blocks of Ken Lyon, who opened Lyon Freres et Compagnie on a tumbleweedy Lincoln Road in 1992, and Jonathan Eismann, who followed in 1993 with the acclaimed Pacific Time, a Lincoln Road rarity that survived eye-popping rent spikes for 15 years until finally throwing in the towel in 2007.

The foodie community is cheering -- and watching carefully to see what happens next in the arty, upscale pocket many say can't help but emerge as ``Miami's SoHo.''

''I remember when we opened Nemo [First and Collins] in 1994, you could shoot a cannon down the street and not hit anybody,'' says Schwartz, who left six years later and struggled in failed kitchen after failed kitchen before convincing investors to get behind the Michael's concept. ``Same thing here in the Design District. There have been a lot of nights where we have been packed, but you go up one block, and it's dead. Now that's changing.''

Michael's has been a high-energy oasis in a historic, spiffed-up neighborhood featuring top-name design showrooms and art galleries -- but not a lot of action, especially after dark and on weekends. By March, when The New York Times anointed the unpretentious eatery focused on regional and seasonal ingredients one of the top 10 restaurants outside of New York City and famed British chef Jamie Oliver declared it one of his five U.S. faves, the celebs were already finding their way, and the city's players were one-stop schmoozing while hostesses hustled to handle spillover crowds.

Now Michael's is joined by Eismann's new, less-pricey version of Pacific Time at 35 NE 40th St. in the old Piccadilly space, and Fratelli Lyon, 4141 Second Ave., in the glassed-in entry to the edgy, Italy-based Driade furniture and design store. The District's new restaurant scene, which also includes the sleek, months-old Domo Japones and Brosia, is expected to attract more retail and other businesses -- and finally deliver foot traffic.

''Michael Schwartz changed the Design District,'' says Craig Robins, the neighborhood's main developer and one of the leading players in South Beach's rebirth. ``It really did become a destination because of him. Now to have him, Kenny Lyon and Jonathan Eismann, three of the most important contributors to the creation of South Beach, really broadens things in the neighborhood.''

All three chefs are older now. Better schooled about the ups and downs of the business. More polished. So is Miami, as the cultural scene deepens and the visual arts bask in the international spotlight thanks to Art Basel Miami Beach and a growing roster of major galleries and collection spaces.

A lot of that affluent art scene is centered on the District and adjacent Wynwood, and that fact bodes well for the enclave's future as the sort of sophisticated destination that the Beach flirted with being before tipping toward mainstream and commercial, several area merchants say. ''There is a similar excitement in the District that existed in the early days on the Beach, where you had a creative community that knew it was in on making something special happen,'' says Lyon, who will continue operating his 10-year-old Lyon & Lyon catering company. ``But this time it's more high end. What we didn't manage to do on the Beach might come to fruition here. There was a big letdown when the Beach turned into Victoria Secret and The Gap and lost its unique identity.''

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