Here’s why Miami Spice is starting early — with half the usual number of restaurants
For the first time since he has worked in Miami restaurants, chef and owner Mike Beltran won’t offer the annual Miami Spice dining promotion this year.
Neither will many other Miami-Dade restaurants.
The summer promotion offers Miami-Dade diners a fixed-price menu for lunch, brunch or dinner on a three-course meal at a 30 percent discount. This year it starts June 1, two months early, to lure uncertain customers back into dining rooms after the coronavirus shutdown.
But as South Florida restaurants only now begin reopening their dining rooms at 50 percent capacity or less after being closed for more than two months, many are having a hard time making the math work.
“For me, it’s unfathomable to think a restaurant that has 50-25 percent capacity can lower their check average for three courses of food,” Beltran said. None of his three restaurants, Ariete, Nave or Taurus Whiskey Bar, will participate.
More than 220 restaurants participated in the promotion last year. Fewer than 90 have signed up this year, said to Bill Talbert, CEO and president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, which runs the promotion.
“I am going to predict that we’ll have a lot more than 88 at the end of four months,” Talbert said.
Participating restaurants must agree to offer the deal five days a week, slicing the cost of a $55 three-course meal to $39. Lunch and brunch are offered at $25, down from $35. The full list will be online June 1 at MiamiAndBeaches.com.
Those kinds of incentives have proven effective in past years, when sparse summer dining rooms could be packed to the limit with customers looking for rock-bottom prices. Restaurants could make money on the discounted food only with a full dining room. It was an especially good way for food lovers to try new restaurants on the cheap.
But in a time when six feet must be kept between tables, and capacities rarely reach the allowed 50 percent occupancy, even past proponents of the Spice are having a hard time justifying participating.
“Miami Spice has done well for me [in past years], but it’s hard to understand how this year’s program is going to help,” said chef Brad Kilgore.
Kilgore said he was surprised to learn three days ago that the visitors bureau was extending the promotion for two extra months, just days after the city of Miami allowed restaurants to reopen with limited seats.
His restaurants, Alter, Ember, Kaido and Brava, won’t open until later this month, when he said he will offer Miami Spice menus.
“The GMCVB does a lot of good things for us. I just wish they had consulted with some of the restaurant leaders on this first,” Kilgore said.
Restaurants are being encouraged to reach regular capacity by turning parking spaces into outdoor seating, which experts have said is safer dining in enclosed spaces. Talbert said he hopes restaurants that have the space will take advantage of it. Although Miami’s swelter and unpredictable rain might have other plans.
“You’re going to find some folks who say, ‘We can’t yet make it work.’ But we’re doing everything we can to help the industry,” Talbert said.
Fooq’s in downtown Miami is one of the participating restaurants. Owner David Foulquier, a Forbes 30-under-30 winner, said his restaurant’s average ticket per person is close to Miami Spice’s meal deal. So he hopes the promotion will bring some diners during what he expects will be the worst months in his restaurant’s history.
“For me, it’s a no-brainer,” Foulquier said. “For the little guy like Fooq’s, this is a glimmer of hope for us for a chance to fight through what’s coming.”
Not participating in Spice during a regular year can put a restaurant at a disadvantage, said Beltran, and many will be tempted to offer this year since diners don’t know which restaurants have reopened. But he said restaurants, which generally make 4-8 percent profit on meals, will be hard pressed to stay afloat in an already-battered industry.
“Right now, I don’t need marketing,” Beltran said, “I need revenue.”
