He turned his ‘Chopped’ winnings into a favorite Gables restaurant. Now it’s closing
Goodbye Dirt Cup.
Goodbye queso frito with Iron Beer-guava jam. Goodbye pancakes dusted with Cap’n Crunch and condensed milk.
The restaurant Eating House, which arguably created a new branch of elevated dining by melding classic techniques with bold, Miami flavors, will close next month after nine years in Coral Gables.
“What was meant to be a short-term pop-up restaurant quickly became a permanent fixture in Miami’s evolving culinary scene,” the owners wrote in an email Friday afternoon. The restaurant’s last day will be July 18.
Miami native Giorgio Rapicavoli created this “new Miami” cuisine by tapping into his Westchester roots, his Italian mother’s cooking, his Argentine father’s grilling, and the particular culinary inspiration that led him to become Miami’s first “Chopped” champion.
He turned $10,000 from that victory into his eating lab. The 10-table nook at the edge of Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Calle Ocho was a literal and figurative intersection of the upscale and the real Miami. He mixed genres there, bringing in ingredients others would find mundane (Iron Beer Latin soda, Cap’n Crunch) with the upscale (shaved truffles and imported cheeses).
There were contrasting flavors, foams, gelees, reductions — Rapicavoli delighted in experimenting with cutting-edge culinary techniques. But he also relied on bold (if sometimes heavy) dishes. His annual 420 dinner was an acknowledgment of his love for stoner food. It sold out weeks in advance.
His restaurant interests expanded over the years. He created the original menu for Glass & Vine in Coconut Grove, before moving on. And he opened the sneaker-themed Grails Sports Bar in 2019 in Wynwood where you can drink a cocktail out of a ceramic sneaker glass.
And in February he opened a nearby Italian restaurant, Luca Osteria, on the revived Giralda Plaza that he said taps into the kind of chef he has become with his mother’s Italian heritage: “I’ve always wanted to cook this kind of food. It is who I am, and it’s what I grew up eating,” he said. “I thought, ‘How can we really respect the ingredients and put them through an Italian lens?’”
For Eating House’s farewell, the restaurant will offer a menu of its greatest hits. Count on the carbonara pasta with Grana Padano cheese (similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano but intentionally specific for his dish) that also goes into his “Sorta” Cesar Salad. Expect the Cap’n Crunch pancakes, oyster mushroom “anticuchos,” and, yes, his adult version of a child’s dirt cup: Nutella cream, pretzels, salted caramel and vanilla ice cream layered in a pot, with a tiny basil sprout “growing” atop.
Eating House
Address: 804 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Coral Gables.
Hours: 5:30-10 p.m., Wednesday-Thursday. Until 11 p.m., Friday-Saturday. Brunch 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
More info: 305-448-6524. EatingHouseMiami.com
