Can Michelle Bernstein’s new restaurant bring locals to Bayside? These dishes might do it
Sit at a table overlooking the marina at Bayside Marketplace — something you probably haven’t done in 20 years, if you’re a local — and you can understand what lured one of Miami’s best chefs here.
A refreshing breeze blows into the second-floor patio of Michelle Bernstein’s new La Cañita seafood restaurant as a midday sun twinkles off the aquamarine water, where boats casually sway.
That drink in your hand — tequila with fresh pink grapefruit juice, rimmed with salt and tangy spices — feels exactly like what you should be sipping here as a plate of Bernstein’s perfectly crimped empanadas arrive at the table.
This food, this scenery: It just fits.
And that was the gamble behind this bold move, both by Bayside’s owners and Bernstein, an internationally known chef with the deepest Miami roots.
The mostly touristy mall, which opened 34 years ago, has been in the middle of a $27 million renovation that began just before the start of the pandemic. It needed it. The goal is to get rid of the tchotchke and souvenir shops that made it a classic tourist trap for overnight cruise-ship visitors and balance the mall with nationally recognized and local names.
.jpg "La Cañita Interior photo by Michael Pisarri (3).jpg")
It was a calculated investment by Ashkenazy Acquisition, which reportedly paid $200 million for Bayside in 2015, as an estimated 23-28 million visitors come to Bayside every year.
But, admittedly, not many locals.
Take a wrong turn, and you’re at the post-apocalyptic food court. The Hard Rock Cafe blocking part of the port view seems more like an antiquated eyesore. A Hooters was no reason for a Miamian to come to Bayside.
That’s where Bernstein’s new restaurant comes into play.
This pan-Latin restaurant aims to present a sampling of familiar Caribbean and Latin American dishes with Bernstein’s nuanced palate. Seafood dishes are inspired by Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, with a dash of Central and South America.
So on a recent visit, we took the challenge and ate at Bernstein’s restaurant like a local. Here’s the best of what we had:
Start with: empanadas
Bernstein’s hallmarks at her popular Little Havana restaurant Café La Trova are her empanadas. She imports them to this new spot with three options: picadillo (with raisins!), creamed spinach with mozzarella and chicken fricassee with creamy corn.
The fricassee were mild, more like a chicken pot pie, and that would play well with the Midwest tourist if not locals.
The surprise in the batch were the creamed spinach, where you could taste the freshness of the veggies packed inside the baked empanadas, pinched like a toasty crown. They were a satisfying start to a meal.
Because we know a tourist or sports crowd from the next-door Miami Heat games will come here, we also tried the Jamaican jerk-kissed chicken wings with charred lime, which were a mild rendition.
Don’t miss: Smashed avocado
The pan-Latin theme gives Bernstein license to put something like a guacamole on the menu. But this dish is much more than you’d expect. She treats this dish more like a version of corn esquites, with the smashed avocado topped with roasted corn kernels scraped off the cob and topped with chili-lime spices and queso fresco. Although the menu says it comes with Cuban Gilda crackers to serve, we were served a superior option: fried green plantain tostones that were cooked to a salty, golden crisp with a gently meaty center. Twice we swatted away the server’s hand when he threatened to take it too early.
Do not leave without ordering this dish.
Trust mom: Order arroz con pollo
Bernstein makes a big deal about her arroz con pollo ($25), here and at Café La Trova, which is adapted from her mother’s recipe. And it does not disappoint.
The rice is creamy like a risotto and the crispy-skin dark meat chicken is presented like artwork. Pops from three color grape tomatoes, tart green olives and bright green peas balance a dish clearly spiced from Bernstein’s warm memories.
Here for the seafood: Shrimp Enchilado
The focus of this restaurant is supposed to be the seafood of the Caribbean and Latin America. And so the Shrimp Enchilado ($28) is a dish that could show up in some form in many countries, including in our own New Orleans.
The dish, also called a shrimp creole here, is a play on shrimp and grits, and it works no matter which country’s seasonings you prefer. The grits make a creamy bed for three perfectly cooked shrimp that make us wish there were more. They are topped with a “tomato gravy” and roasted, slivered okra that kept their crunch pop.
Sweet finish
Our eyes went first to 305 Rum Cake with tropical fruit salsa, but the waiter’s suggestion was the homemade flan, which a staff member’s mother delicately bakes off site and brings to the restaurant.
It was a fine execution of a classic flan topped with what is supposed to be dulce de papaya but tasted mostly like fresh papaya slices, not a bad thing but not what we were expecting.
Bernstein and Bayside both have an enormous challenge — pleasing an audience of locals and outsiders.
Bernstein’s fans know her thoughtful cuisine and will come to expect it. Tourists know to expect sticker shock but will be surprised by the quality of the meal. And locals just stopping in before or after a concert or Miami Heat game at the next-door arena now have a worthy meet-up spot.
Bernstein’s La Cañita checks those boxes as a welcome surprise with her classic attention to detail in a Bayside that sorely needed the upgrade.
Miami Herald writers dine unannounced and at the newspaper’s expense.
La Cañita
Address: 401 Biscayne Blvd., downtown Miami on the second floor of Bayside Marketplace (next to Black Market)
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-11 pm. Friday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday
More info: LaCanitaMiami.com, info@lacanitamiami.com
Price range: Starters $14-$22; entrees $22-$42
FYI: Parking rates start at $7 for a two-hour window midweek and can be booked in advance online at parkwiz.com. Rates will fluctuate depending on whether there is an event at the next-door arena.
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
