This iconic New York City French restaurant is opening a spot in Wynwood
Miami, get ready for another New York import.
The New York City restaurant Pastis, which helped reinvigorate the industrial Meatpacking District in the early 2000s, is opening a location in Wynwood in August of 2022, the owners announced Tuesday.
Philadelphia-born restaurateur Stephen Starr, whose South Florida restaurants include Makoto and Steak 954, partnered with fellow James Beard award-winner and Pastis founder Keith McNally to bring the traditional French bistro concept to Miami’s one-time grungy industrial district. Wynwood may long ago have shed its art gallery and warehouse roots to become an international destination, but Starr said the spirit of the area reminded him of the Meatpacking District.
“Pastis felt like it should be there and not in some hotel building or on South Beach,” Starr said. “Wynwood always reminded me of where Pastis was born.”
Diners loved Manhattan’s Pastis for its simplicity, a massive, buzzy restaurant with faux paint-crackled walls where you could down a bowl of mussels drenched in garlic butter with a glass of wine or invite 10 of your closest friends for a bacchanal on a Tuesday.
“The food is familiar. It’s the kind of place where you could go four or five times a week,” Starr said.
The Miami restaurant will be massive 8,000 square feet with more than 3,000 feet of outdoor space for dining.
Pastis became the lowkey hangout for celebrities and families, from Sunday brunches to late-night hangover recovery spots. Starr hopes to be able to keep the restaurant open as late as 3 a.m., like the original Pastis, which opened in 1999. That restaurant eventually closed for five years before reopening nearby with a remodeled look in 2019. The final look of the Miami spot has not been decided, Starr said.
“When we reopened the restaurant, the response was overwhelming,” Starr said.
Pastis Miami
Address: 380 NW 26th St., Wynwood
Coming in August 2022
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 4:02 PM.
