Paris, but make it kosher: Chef to open a unique new French restaurant in Miami

As a teenager in her native France, Chef Olivia Ostrow learned how to stuff geese and how to make foie gras. She traveled around the world for experience, including to Israel, eventually opening her first restaurant, La-Rendez-Vous in Greensboro, North Carolina, with her father Daniel Binn.

Now, she’s bringing kosher French dining to Miami’s Buena Vista neighborhood.

Ostrow Brasserie, which opens in August, will be a certified Glatt Kosher restaurant under the supervision of a mashgiach (a Jewish kosher supervisor) to ensure that the proper standards are upheld.

But how to create French sauces and dishes and keep them kosher? Ostrow modifies her cuisine with unexpected substitutions like vegan cheese.

“I am creating a type of cuisine that doesn’t exist,” she said. “It’s perfect for the up-and-coming Buena Vista neighborhood.”

The restaurant, which features a salon-style art wall with more than 40 artworks from Ostrow’s own collection and a replica of one of Alphonse Mucha’s famous beer posters, specializes in traditional dishes. Expect Lyonnaise salad with poached egg; crab cakes with truffle beet mousse; trout amandine; orange duck confit with braised caramelized endive; and beef bourguignon .

The chef’s signature specialties include lamb paupiette, a dish made of meat beaten thin and stuffed. In this case, the meat is chicken scallopini stuffed with ground lamb and prunes and wrapped with bresaola (air-dryed, salted beef) and served with truffle potato puree.

At first, the restaurant will be open for dinner only and will introduce lunch and brunch in the fall, as well as open a crudo sushi bar that adds French flair to Japanese cuisine.

There will also be a happy hour. The 2,400-square-foot space, which includes an open kitchen and an outdoor patio for regular dining and private events, will serve kosher wine, beer, Champagne and sake.

Ostrow understands she is taking a risk with a kosher French restaurant that aims to reproduce Paris vibes, but she won’t let worry stand in the way of her aspirations.

“My goal is to be the first kosher restaurant in Florida to earn a Michelin,” she said.

Ostrow Brasserie

Where: 4850 NW Second Ave., Miami

Opening: August 2023

More information: www.ostrowbrasserie.com or 786-238-7452

This story was originally published July 27, 2023 at 4:30 AM.