New seafood restaurant from a Keys chef opens at oceanfront Miami Beach hotel

A Florida Keys native is leading the kitchen at a new seafood restaurant — with Latin and Caribbean influences — in Miami Beach.

Now open at the beachfront hotel The Shelborne by Proper is Pauline, headed by culinary director Abram Bissell, known for his work at such New York restaurants as The Modern and Eleven Madison Park. The restaurant is named after Pauline Baker, the wife of celebrated American culinary and cocktail writer Charles H. Baker Jr., and their travels through Latin America inspired the menu and the decor.

Bissell calls the restaurant “my love letter to Caribbean-Latino food,” the sort of cuisine that is “rooted in memory and culture, shaped by craft and grounded in a deep respect for simplicity and the ocean that’s always called me home.”

“Returning to my home state after so many years has been deeply personal,” he said. “It’s a chance to refine the flavors that shaped me and the people who inspired them.”

The menu includes main courses like lobster and mussel sancocho (a stew); beef loin con pan and turbot Encendido, served with sides like yuca cremoso with rosemary tostones, sazon spinach and green peas and rice.

There’s also a raw bar serving Jonah crab claws, conch ceviche and Key West pink shrimp, as well as rock shrimp fideos (a short, thin pasta), caviar tostadas and zucchini blossom dumplings (not seafood, but it definitely sounds good).

Bissell said he aims for a menu that focuses on bringing people together.

“For me food has always been about connection before anything else, a way to love, to remember and to share,” he said. “My love for food and for people has been both an anchor and an inspiration in ways I didn’t think were possible.”

Pauline seats 178 guests with an indoor dining room and an outdoor terrace that overlooks The Shelborne’s pool. The restaurant will open with dinner service and add lunch and brunch menus later.

The restaurant isn’t the only new addition to The Shelborne by Proper. Also open now is Little Torch, a cocktail lounge named after Little Torch Key, the smallest and most secluded island in the Florida Keys. In addition to craft cocktails, expect vinyl DJ sets, cocktail events and musical performances as well as karaoke nights, once a tradition at the hotel.

Pauline

Where: 1801 Collins Ave., Miami Beach

Hours: 6-11 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday

Reservations: OpenTable

More information: shelborne.com

This story was originally published November 14, 2025 at 4:30 AM.