A perception exists among snobs who have not dined out around Miami that the restaurants have glitz but no gravity. This was never really the case, though in the sobering years following the flamboyance of the Gianni Versace period, when steamy glamour outshone good taste, new Miami restaurants of real excellence have been few; the wonderful old Jewish delis have disappeared, the innovations of the so-called New Floridian Cuisine have pretty much receded; and the promised explosion of restaurants in the Design District never really happened.  Still, on a recent trip to the city I found some very good places that may not be breaking new ground but are helping to solidify Miami’s dining out reputation.

STILTSVILLE FISH  BAR
1787 Purdy Avenue
786-353-0477

    Few restaurants in Miami have a décor that so perfectly sums up the style and spirit of this Sunset Harbour  newcomer, which cannily adapts the look of a much rougher version of an old Florida fish house to colorful advantage.
    Opened last fall and named after a group of wooden houses set on stilts on the banks of Biscayne Bay back in the 1920s, Stiltsville Fish Bar has a smart-looking bar, outdoor and indoor seating, barnacle planters, brass purse  hooks in the shape of  Poseidon with his trident,  beer tap handles made from  swordfish bills, shell chandeliers and wooden columns that evoke the original houses, which are shown in black-and-white photos of the era.
    Owners  Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth (right), who also run Root and Bone in New York, could have coasted with a menu typical of many Florida fish houses, but Stiltsville outpaces that genre by, first, obtaining only the finest seafood available on a daily, local market, and then preparing it with imagination, even wit. Exceptionally fine was the “Big Fish for Two” (market price), on that day a crispy whole snapper with a lemon-basil salsa verde and a dusting of Key lime. Every component emphasized the fish’s freshness, rather than masking it, and cooking it crisp gave it an extra, highly pleasing texture, as it also did to crispy coconut shrimp with roasted coconut, Key lime juice and katafi pastry around it ($14). They take the idea of Buffalo chicken wings and re-do it as fish wings (left) with chili-lime hot sauce and celery hearts ($11).
    The Gulf blue crab cakes are fat and full of lump meat, served with tangy pickled kohlrabi and chayote slaw with a semi-hot horseradish remoulade. All those piquant, savory flavors coalesce in a way that evokes the sea smell and taste of the Caribbean. Of course, there are oysters in various forms, not least wood-grilled with charred sourdough ($18), and a sour orange and red snapper ceviche ($30) to be shared. The shrimp and stone-ground grits with Creole sausage, melted tomatoes, peas and shrimp butte ($27) are a masterful rendering of this Southern classic.
    Each day, depending on what’s best, there might be skillet-grilled black grouper ($36), mutton snapper ($34) or other fish.  But don’t neglect the remarkably good fried chicken with watermelon pickle and hot sauce (half bird $22). The crusted batter stays on the bird and the juiciness is evenly suffused throughout.
    And definitely do not neglect the sweet cornbread with buttermilk cream  and scallions, with the option of adding butter poached lobster  ($13). It’s one of my favorite dishes of the year (right).
    For dessert as much attention is shown to that course as the rest, so you must share a big slice of banana cream pie served in a jar with a chocolate wafer and toffee sauce ($10). The sun-bright Key lime pie (left) is just sour and sweet enough to rank with the best in Miami.
    If Stiltsville were only a dependable fish house, it would be well worth going to just to satisfy one’s cravings, but I’d go back again and again just to see what swam in the back door that day. I know it’ll be something I haven’t tasted made so well ever before.  

Open for lunch Mon.-Fri.; dinner nightly; brunch Sat. & Sun.

BEAKER & GRAY
2637  North Miami Avenue 
305-699-2637

    I’ll risk the cliché and call Beaker & Gray the epitome of the laid-back Florida vibe.
    The three-year-old Wynwood Arts District restaurant opened by Chef Brian Nasajon is not a kitschy knock-off of a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville restaurant serving “Jimmy’s Jammin' Jambalaya” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” but it does have the look of a bar-lounge that has unexpectedly good food and a cocktail program that, under partner Ben Potts, for once really makes savory sense.
     Its wide open dining room is called an “eatery,” which I’ll accept along the casual lines and décor of the place, with its bare wood ceiling and industrial steel beams, exposed light bulbs, brick walls and cement floors, folding chairs and straight-backed banquettes, with a big open kitchen to one side.  The place can get loud, especially with wholly unnecessary blaring music in the mix of voices struggling to be heard above it.
    The waitstaff and manager Reymyl Coleman couldn’t be friendlier in a way that is clearly genuine and out to make you have a good time, which will begin with one of those outstanding cocktails, like the “Cocoa Boulevardier” made with Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon, Campari, Cinzano 1757, and Tuthilltown Cacao.
    Miami native Nasajon’s parents were from Uruguay, which applaudably affects his cooking, and a stint at SushiSamba on Miami Beach gave him his education in handling seafood and Asian seasonings.  At Beaker & Gray some of the best items are “Bites,” like the cheeseburger croquettes made with wagyu beef, aji Amarillo chili, and bacon ($14); an old tiki bar dish made new—and right—Rangoon crab with cream cheese and shiso ($18); and one of the few bagels I’ve had in Miami since the closing of Wolfie’s Rascal House that I really liked, here with “everything” on it (left), Nova lox, sour cream, onion and dill ($12). Sometimes more really is more.
    Among the hot dishes, the best I sampled was a platter of short ribs with pearl onions, tomato mustard and a delightful scallion churro ($18). A yellow curry rice noodle with blue crab and Chinese sausage was a creditable rendering ($18), but pumpkin gnocchi with pork rind, manchego cheese and red shiso was a bit of a mash up of flavors that didn’t quite click. ($16).
    What’s not to love about a warm plate of cookies—or better, chocolate chip cookie doughnuts with a shooter of rich, creamy vanilla milkshake ($12)? There’s also a guava cookie with brown sugar, guayaba paste and cortadito coffee ice cream ($11). But the smash hit is luscious liquid dulce de leche poured over buttery crumbs with a sugar churro and sweet cream ice cream ($14).  You should share it; but you may not want to.
    Beaker & Gray, along with MC Kitchen and Michael’s Genuine, pretty much sums up the current restaurant scene in the Design District, though there are a lot of upscale chains said to be opening, like Joël Robuchon’s Atelier and Jean-Georges Voncerichten’s ABC Kitchen.  For me Beaker & Gray, MC and Michael’s are enough to keep me well fed and entertained among gallery visits. Each has that important and credible stamp of individual personalities and you don’t get that from chains.  

Open for lunch  Mon.-Fri.; dinner nightly; brunch Sat. & Sun.

MOLYVOS

    For more than 20 years now Molyvos, named for a town on Lesbos, has been one of New York’s most gregarious and best Greek restaurants, not least because its rustic décor of warm colors, photos of the Greek islands and spacious well-set tables, with a bar (below) that is as much about eating as drinking. It is all exceptionally welcoming, but its longevity is owed to its consistency of Greek cuisine based on high quality.
    Add to these virtues what is probably the best Greek wine list in America and a location one block from Carnegie Hall and the Theater District, and you have something quite special, thanks to the Livanos family and partner Paul McLaughlan, who have kept alive the ideals of Greek hospitality.
    Executive Chef Carlos Carreto has been there from the beginning in 1997, learning Greek cuisine from his predecessor, Jim Botsacos. The menu over two decades has remained pretty much intact, while the daily whole fish changes with what is seasonally best in the market, from black sea bass ($36 per pound) caught off Montauk, Long Island, to wild lavraki ($36 per pound) from Greek waters.  These are impeccably grilled over charcoal with a fine searing and interior succulence, dressed simply with lemon and olive oil.
      Of course, you’ll want to begin with the Greek mezes spreads ($10 each, or three for $27), from a traditional tzatziki to a more American avocado-sesame thick with chickpeas, crunchy pomegranate and Manouri cheese.  There are also eight cheeses available ($8 each, three for $21). The small plate not to miss is the ikaria wild greens pie, full of chard, spinach and minted butternut squash wrapped in crisp pastry ($10). Roasted beet salad of baby arugula, grapefruit, yogurt cheese, glazed walnuts and a tangy blood orange vinaigrette ($18) is a refreshing starter, and the grilled octopus with marinated chickpeas, baby artichokes, tomato, red onions, celery leaves and Cretan olive oil dashed with citrus ($24) goes way beyond the usual platter of naked grilled octopus.
    The Classics section of the menu includes a deliciously sloppy stuffed red pepper with fragrant basmati rice, eggplant, tomato and Manouri cheese ($25) and a luscious version of that Greek lasagna moussaka (below), lavishly layered with eggplant ($30).  For its entire run Molyvos has served its marvelous, very tender lamb shank youvetsi with orzo pasta, sweet tomatoes and Kefalotyri cheese ($30), and they dare not remove it or change it. It is indeed a classic rendering.
    The only disappointment of the evening were the lemon-garlic laced potatoes that were roasted too long so as to become mushy ($12).
    The baklava sampler ($12) is the wisest option for dessert, offering you chocolate-almond-prunes, hazelnut, or white chocolate tres leches. But an option is the chocolatina ($12), a rich mousse cake with orange flavorings and melting vanilla ice cream.  I was surprised, then, that the Greek coffee I ordered was thin and watery, when it should have been thick and syrupy.
    As noted, the wine list is a marvel—page after page of modern Greek wines from Santorini, Thessaly, Macedonia and more. The rosés are of particular interest for the summer.
    It would be nice to see Molyvos add more new dishes of a kind one now finds at a more modern Greek restaurant like Nerai on the East Side, but what you enjoyed at Molyvos in the past will be every bit as delicious the next time you go, and once experienced, you’ll find it difficult not to return to this joyful restaurant for what will become your personal favorites.

Lunch and dinner daily.

    Twenty years ago if you heard at all about Prosecco, the white sparkling wine from Italy’s Veneto region, it was probably as a component with white peach juice of the bellini cocktail, invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice.  The popularity of that easy-to-drink apéritif helped Prosecco get a foothold in the U.K., German and U.S. markets as a good mixer as well as a cheap alternative to Champagne.
     Unfortunately, Prosecco’s increasing popularity led to the export of enormous amounts of very poor, very cheap, very watery Prosecco, with only a few labels like Bisson, Valdo, Bortolin, Ruggeri and Mionetto producing high quality examples, whose prices were modestly higher than poor examples and a lot lower than Champagne.
    Since the 19th century Prosecco, largely from the grape of the same name (though in 2009 the grape was re-designated as Glera, left), has been made according to the French Charmat method (called “martinotti” in Italy), by which the second fermentation takes place in a pressure tank. This is faster and much cheaper than the complex méthode champenoise by which the second fermentation, after the addition of a sugar liquid called the dosage, is done in the bottle.
    But, despite Prosecco sales soaring over the past decade and expected to increase by 36% in the next five years with a 9.2% share of the global wine market and accounting for 20% of all sparkling wine sales, the wine has remained in the shadow of the more illustrious name of Champagne, which makes Enola Ceola, CEO-Managing Director of Mionetto USA, shrug.
    Over dinner near his office in White Plains, N.Y., I asked him about raising the image of Prosecco vis-à-vis Champagne.
    “We raise the image of Prosecco by saying it is not Champagne,” he said, pouring the company’s flagship DOC Treviso Brut ($14) with its orange label (which does resemble Veuve Clicquot’s). “For a lot of people Champagne is intimidating and a special occasion wine. We market Prosecco as an everyday indulgence.”
    Clearly the price of Prosecco is a powerful factor in promoting Ceola’s point of view. Many Proseccos sell in the U.S. for under $10, and bars and restaurants sell them for $10-$12 a glass—-far below any entry level Champagne. Boston’s Lincoln Tavern sells 1,000 cases a year and New York’s Grand Tier at the Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center pours all-you-can drink Mionetto as part of its Sunday brunch.
    Being cheap, however, has kept Prosecco’s image low, which is what Ceola is committed to changing. “There is, sadly, a lot of poor Prosecco in the market,” he said. “They suffer from too high a yield and overproduction. That’s why many have a bitter aftertaste. You can make a bellini with them but you wouldn’t want to sip it as an apéritif or throughout a meal.”
    Mionetto’s prices in U.S. wine stores range from about $10 up to $35, and while there is no fear that it will run dry, the company has diversified its labels while staying true to a style that aims for a balance of alcohol, acidity, fruit and yeast, with very fine bubbles. “We are very thoughtful about how much dosage our wines contain,” said Ceola. “We make some of our wines without any at all,” referring to its limited edition Millisimato label.
    Under Italian wine laws Prosecco’s sweetness varies based on the sugar levels remaining after fermentation: Extra Brut contains under 6 grams of sugar per liter; Brut 6-15 grams; Extra Dry 12-20 grams; Sec or Dry 9-35 grams.
    Mionetto was founded in 1887 (since 2008 owned by Germany’s Henkell & Co.) in the Valdobbiedene region north of Venice, and up until a month ago the company bought all its grapes from growers with whom it has developed long-term relationships (“mostly on handshakes,” says Ceola). The company recently bought its first vineyard land, 200 acres, which in the best sections of the DOCG region is going for more than 1 million euros ($1.17 million) an acre.  Ceola noted that “Growing Prosecco grapes used to be a second job for a lot of people in the region, who just did it on weekends and made a little money.  Now those farms are worth a fortune, and the growers are going more full-time.”
    Proving that Prosecco is actually very appealing throughout a meal, I tasted several Mionetto sparklers with dishes as varied as yellowfin tuna crudo, pizza with Italian sausage, gnocchi with a mushroom cream sauce, salmon with quinoa, and Parmesan-crusted halibut.
    To celebrate its history Mionetto did a limited release Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Millesimato Brut Nature ‘Cuvée Anniversario’  ($25)–-quite a mouthful, literally and figuratively—from selected, hand-harvested grapes, a prolonged rest on the lees, and no dosage that is indeed beautifully balanced and has far more fruit flavor than comparable bubblies with no dosage.
    The company’s most prestigious—and at $35 its most expensive—is the elegant Cartizze DOCG Dry, whose grapes come from the most renowned vineyards in Veneto, picked in the second half of September, and bottled at 11% alcohol and 24-26 grams of sugar per liter. This is a creamy, luscious Prosecco whose faint sweetness makes it perfect with something like prosciutto and melon, sole in lemon butter and Italian cheeses like Parmigiano, Robiola, even Gorgonzola.
    I mentioned to Ceola that some prestigious Champagne houses are now promoting their lower-priced sparklers to be poured over ice cubes in summer. Ceola laughed and said, “We’ve already done that with our Il Collezione line. See, Champagne is now trying to compete with Prosecco!”