One of Miami’s favorite chefs just opened a restaurant in Bayside. Will locals go?
Bayside Marketplace is getting a serious food upgrade.
The husband-wife team of chef Michelle Bernstein, a James Beard award winner, and hospitality pro David Martinez, has opened La Cañita, a seafood-focused, pan-Latin restaurant right on the bay. It’s the latest restaurant to get serious about dining at the touristy mall, which is hoping to attract locals alongside tourists on cruise ship layovers.
“The location is unbelievable,” said Martinez.
The two-story restaurant with an outdoor patio looks out on the water in a way so few restaurants in Miami do anymore, with condo developments eating up waterfront real estate. The couple leaned into this waterfront, tropical feel, with a vibrant-colored restaurant inspired by a rum distillery.
The menu embraces the ocean. Fresh local fish, Keys shrimp, conch and seasonal stone crabs will make up a menu that attempts to represent Miami’s many seafood-loving Caribbean cultures. There are dishes inspired by Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, with a dash of Central and South American, Martinez said. But this being a menu created by the Miami-born Michelle Bernstein, La Cañita will have the kinds of touches that made Bernstein a national name.
“It’s going to be the kind of food you’ve had growing up in Miami,” he said.
La Cañita is part of a renaissance in food for Bayside as it replaces the German Bavaria Haus that was geared toward tourists. Black Market Miami went upscale in replacing a Hooters with an ‘80s-themed sports bar. And singer Nicky Jam’s La Industria Bakery has been a brunch success.
At La Cañita, Bernstein will have the challenge of representing many of Miami’s Latin cultures in one menu. But she has shown her ability to do so successfully at Little Havana’s Café La Trova, her old-world Cuban themed restaurant in Little Havana. Although she is not of Cuban descent, she partnered with Cuban cocktail master Julio Cabrera to make that restaurant a runaway success with Miami’s Cuban-American community and beyond.
Dishes at La Cañita include Jamaican jerk chicken wings, empanadas stuffed with chicken fricassee, whole snapper with Haitian pikliz, shrimp enchilado with coconut rice and Bernstein’s family arroz con pollo recipe, which she also serves at Café La Trova. Cocktails will take spins on mojitos, margaritas, and the old fashioned.
And as an all-day restaurant, La Cañita will also be more relaxed than La Trova.
“La Trova is a tuxedo. This is a guayabera and shorts,” Martinez said.
.jpg "La Cañita Interior photo by Michael Pisarri (3).jpg")
There will also be live music every day of the week, a feature that has made Café La Trova a nightlife spot. Martinez said he hopes to be a warm up venue or after-hours spot for acts that play at Bayfront Park or FTX Arena. Martinez and Bernstein have managed to make their current spots nightlife successes, with their Miami Beach bar Sweet Liberty and Café La Trova both named among the world’s best bars.
The restaurant was also designed as Bernstein’s first concept — that is, able to be duplicated in other locations outside of Miami.
“We wanted to build a place that was happy, upbeat, very colorful,” Martinez said. “We envision families coming out and eating and enjoying themselves, overlooking the bay.”
La Cañita
Address: 401 Biscayne Blvd., downtown Miami in the Bayside Marketplace
Hours: Wednesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday open until 11 p.m. Sunday until 10 p.m.
More info: LaCanitaMiami.com, info@lacanitamiami.com
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 2:45 PM.
