Can Cuban fine dining succeed in West Palm Beach? This Miami chef says yes
When he was a child growing up in Havana, chef Osmel González remembers going to the beach with his parents and his brother. It was an all-day affair, involving sun, water and almost certainly a lot of splashing. Drinks (for the grownups, at least). And, of course, food (for everybody).
“We’d go to the beach for the entire day, from six a.m. till the sun went down,” he recalls. “They’d buy fish from the local fishermen, gather under the sea grape trees and fry fish all day.”
That fried fish has stayed with González, formerly of the Michelin-starred restaurant EntreNos in Miami Shores, and has now been reborn as tempura golden tile fish, served with refried tomato and fried egg emulsion and caviar, a nod to the popular minuta sandwich. This new version occupies a prominent position on the menu at his new restaurant, Emelina, which reimagines all the things Cuban cuisine could be.
Emelina, which opens Feb. 3 in West Palm Beach, is a bit of a departure for González and Colombian-born chef Camila Salazar, his wife, and not merely because it’s two counties to the north of where they have been working. They opened the restaurant in collaboration with restaurateur and art dealer Alvaro Perez Miranda’s APM Restaurant Group.
It’s also a shift for Perez, who is known for his Michelin-starred restaurant Ogawa in Little River as well as Hiyakawa in Wynwood and the more casual Midorie locations.
“I’ve been wanting to do a restaurant that was not Japanese for a long time,” says the Venezuelan-born Perez. “The first thing I look for is a chef and the team. Osmel and Camila came to me, and we found we share the same principles of hospitality — the caring, the nourishing, the attention to detail. And all of us being Latin, we’re trying to elevate and represent the Latin community in a good way.”
González and Salazar had been considering opening a more casual Cuban restaurant after EntreNos closed in 2025, two years after it earned a Michelin star and mere months after it earned a Michelin Green Star (which highlights restaurants using sustainable practices). During the early meetings, they stuck to the idea of casual fare.
And then Perez found the space, formerly home to the Japanese restaurant Konro, which closed after its chef owner Jacob Bickelhaupt was charged with domestic violence and it was stripped of its Michelin star.
Set up for an upscale concept serving a tasting menu, the space changed the direction of what would become Emelina.
“It was so beautiful and elegant,” González says. “We thought, ‘This is our call back to fine dining.’ All this time we were waiting for the right moment.”
Emelina features a 12-seat chef’s counter, with two two-top tables to the side. There are two seatings each night, serving a chef’s choice tasting menu that begins with that ode to minuta but branches out to evoke familiar Cuban flavors. Black beans are on the menu, though not in any way you’re used to eating them, and culantro, a Cuban staple, makes a few appearance as well.
González explains that what they’re hoping to do is explore what could have been.
“Cuba as a country has not evolved” regarding cuisine, he says. “The food hasn’t been able to evolve, because Cubans were never able to travel or study abroad, to taste other countries’ food and have freedom to bring those influences back to our own country. So here, we are using familiar flavors in more modern ways. We’re not trying to reinvent Cuban food — we just use flavors we know.”
The restaurant also continues the ethos González, Salazar and then-partner Evan Burgess worked toward at EntreNos: Sourcing as much as possible from Florida. González is working with some of the north Florida farms he teamed up with during his EntreNos tenure and is highlighting seafood from Florida’s coast and says the restaurant is already sourcing around 80 percent of its products from the state.
“We think it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “We want to reduce our footprint and support local businesses and small producers and highlight the beauty of all that we have here. Why not use pecans from north Florida? I get that it’s not easy. It’s complicated. But maybe if more people do it eventually it will be easier.”
As to whether West Palm Beach is ready for upscale Latin food, both González and Perez believe it is.
“There are many fine dining Latin restaurants in the world,” González says, adding that the group plans a return to Miami in the future. “We can have that here, too. We need to have good hospitality, the attention to detail to the guests. Alvaro is the perfect match for us to bring in that beautiful hospitality.”
Emelina
Where: 424 Park Place, Unit 101, West Palm Beach
Opening: Feb. 3
Hours: Seatings at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday for chef’s counter; 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. for tables
Price: $235 per person
Reservations: Tock
More information: @emelina_wpb