This Coral Gables restaurant is reopening in a new spot — with more than ‘stoner food’
Giralda Plaza is doing more than bringing life back to Coral Gables’ restaurant row. It’s bringing a beloved local restaurant back from the dead.
Eating House is making a comeback.
The restaurant that Giorgio Rapicavoli opened with his winnings as Miami’s first “Chopped” winner was a hit for nine years on the corner of Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Southwest Eighth Street until the lease ran out in July. Rapicavoli closed it rather than renew. But he wasn’t done with Eating House.
Instead, he will open a “grown up” version of the restaurant where he combines bold, unexpected flavors that cross cultures and culinary boundaries at 128 Giralda, just steps away from his 7-month-old Luca Osteria on the revamped Giralda Plaza — where it has been a runaway success. He expect to open in late February or early March 2022.
“So much has changed in nearly 10 years. So much has changed in dining, and we want to reflect that,” said Rapicavoli, 35.
The menu may change weekly, definitely seasonally, he said. But he will bring back the rich, sometimes heavy, classics his audience loved at weekend brunch: chicken and waffles, Cap’n Crunch and condensed milk pancakes, and pasta carbonara with a warm, runny egg.
Rapicavoli, too, has changed since he first opened Eating House at 26, where it was playground for his unique sensibilities in combining Miami flavors on a plate. (Think Iron Beer guava jam and candied bacon fried chicken and waffles before anyone else in Miami was doing it.) He was named a James Beard award semifinalist three times for his inventiveness at Eating House.
But he performed this magic in a tiny kitchen where mostly fried food was the only way to keep up with the always-booked 50-seat dining room. And “there was only so long I could make elevated stoner food. The food that interests me is different now,” he said.
Luca Osteria, named after his son, typifies the honed in vision of his food for the new Eating House — high quality ingredients mixing bold flavors in simple dishes. His house-made bucatini uses mojo butter and a vegetarian nduja “sausage” is made with semi-dried tomatoes in cured olive oil. And ingredients include 600-day aged San Daniele prosciutto to fresh Stracciatella made daily in West Palm Beach.
“Ingredient-driven: That’s what’s important to me,” Rapicavoli said.
That is the kind of ethos he envisions at the new Eating House — including a robust cocktail program he designed himself, an interest he developed while creating his Grails elevated sports bar in Wynwood.
The upcoming Eating House adds another dimension to Giralda Plaza, where developers (and Rapicavoli’s landlords) Marc Schwarzberg and brother-in-law Jose “Pepe” Ortega bought the former Scientology building and have revamped it into several new restaurant concepts.
A slow-to-develop project took off with new restaurants such as Coyo Taco, La Sandwicherie and a new rooftop bar, Cebada, by Kendall’s Abi Maria founder Jorgie Ramos.
This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 11:31 AM.
