South Beach Wine & Food festival witnessed Miami’s evolution into a ‘food town’

In the days before Michelin stars, omakase bars and extravagant clubstaurants swarmed this tropical paradise, before every New York restaurateur staked a claim in the sand, Miami’s wine and food festival was a modest event. It had no choice but to be humble: In the late 1990s, the only restaurants most people tended to recognize were The Forge (now late, lamented) and Joe’s Stone Crab.

Optimistically named the Florida Extravaganza, the festival ran for a day at the Biscayne Bay campus of Florida International University, showcasing wines paired with food by local chefs working with hospitality students. By 2002, it had a new name, and by 2007 it had entered into a partnership with the Food Network, which meant big names and familiar faces — Rachael Ray, Guy Fieri, José Andres — arriving in Miami to tout the joys of eating.

The 2007 festival drew 30,000 to its new home on South Beach. Now in its 22nd year, the four-day South Beach Wine & Food Festival, which benefits the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University, draws an audience that’s twice that size. More than 60,000 attended last year’s brunches, lunches and intimate dinners, late-night parties and family gatherings, seminars, tastings and fitness events.

But the festival isn’t the only element that has changed dramatically over the years. Miami’s ever-growing food landscape, which has been expanding as generously as the waistlines of local foodies, has exploded. Brands from New York and beyond are snapping up prime properties (see: Major Food Group’s domination for proof: Carbone, Contessa, Sadelle’s, HaSalon, Dirty French, ZZ’s Club). More iconic restaurants are heading this way, like New York’s iconic Pastis, which is scheduled to open in Wynwood later this year.

Internationally-known chefs are arriving seemingly daily, like Tristram Brandt, who recently opened the exclusive Tambourine Room at the Carillon Miami Wellness Resort. Italian chef Massimo Bottura plans to open an outpost of his Michelin-starred Torno Subito in downtown Miami, and The Surf Club’s Thomas Keller is opening his French bistro Bouchon in Coral Gables. Meanwhile, local chefs — Jeremy Ford, Michelle Bernstein, Michael Beltran among them — have become household names, many of them nominated recently for the 2023 James Beard Awards.

Chef Michael Schwartz, who was just nominated for a James Beard Award, will host three events at this year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

The Michelin Guide arrived in Miami in 2022 for the first time, bestowing its prestigious stars on 11 establishments, including world-famous brands like L’Atelier by Joel Robuchon as well as locally-created restaurants like Beltran’s Ariete and Boia De from Luci Giangrande and Alex Meyer. Michelin recently released a list of eight other spots in Miami of note that includes Boia De’s sister restaurant Walrus Rodeo and Rosie’s, an outdoor spot from Akino West and Jamila Ross. Will they too earn stars one day? Stay tuned.

It’s the ultimate chicken and egg question: Did the food festival help usher in the Florida food frenzy? Or did the influx of outside interest fuel the festival?

Highlighting local chefs and diversity

Lee Brian Schrager, founder of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

“I don’t think we can take credit from the festival side for what the dining scene has turned into,” said Lee Brian Schrager, festival founder. “But we brought talent down here that maybe would never have come to Florida otherwise. When we started 22 years ago, there wasn’t a celebrity chef here. But then chefs would come and see the type of response we got from locals here, how they supported wine and food. . . . 22 years ago, getting chefs to come to a festival they weren’t paid for or never heard of was tough. Now chefs want to participate.”

Of course, there’s another alluring aspect: “Who wouldn’t fall in love with Miami Beach at this time of year?” Schrager said.

The festival’s evolution hasn’t always run smoothly, of course. This is Miami. Few things run smoothly. Chef and restaurateur Michael Schwartz, whose groundbreaking restaurant Michael’s Genuine Kitchen sparked the development of Miami’s glamorous Design District, recalls some grumbling among local chefs when the Food Network stars first started coming to town.

“In the beginning, there was push back from local chefs, me being one of them,” admits Schwartz, who is hosting three separate events at this year’s festival, including a Farmer’s Market Brunch with local farmers on Feb. 26 at the Jungle Plaza space in the Design District. “Great attention was paid to the Food Network and out-of-town celebrity chefs. The local up-and-comers felt they were getting the short end of the stick. I remember expressing that to a certain degree.”

Now, he said, local chefs are happy to make up a big part of the festival.

“Lee has done a good job listening to feedback and making adjustments,” he said.

Chef Mashama Bailey of The Grey in Savannah hosts a jazz brunch as part of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

Adjustments were required last year, too. Black chefs, bloggers and influencers criticized the festival’s lack of diversity. One cultural influencer wondered on social media at the lack of Black judges for the festival’s popular competition Burger Bash.

In response, the festival hired a Black marketing manager and a Miami Gardens diversity consultant who recruited more Black chefs, restaurant owners, media and entertainers to participate.

This year’s Burger Bash judges include Nicole Gates of Lil Greenhouse Grill in Overtown, NBC 6 co-anchor Jawan Strader and James Beard Award winner chef Ming Tsai from BaBa at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky. Other events highlighting Black chefs include Overtown EatUp! with Marcus Samuelsson and Amaris Jones of Red Rooster, an offshoot of Samuelsson’s Harlem EatUp!, which celebrates Harlem’s rich culture and cuisine.

“Our commitment to diversity is important to me,” Schrager said. “We want our festival to look like the world. We do want to be inclusive.”

Taking the festival to new neighborhoods

Samuelsson, whose Red Rooster Overtown will host this year’s EatUp!, said that the festival can boost the profile of local businesses.

“Something Lee and I talked about was how can we extend the festival into Overtown and make it more diverse,” he said. “Driving traffic to a place like Overtown and other marginalized communities, we can actually support the businesses there. I feel like doing the Overtown Eatup! can really bring awareness to all these small businesses.”

The festival, he said, shouldn’t merely benefit the out-of-town guests: “At the end of the day, entrepreneurs in Miami should benefit, too.”

Chef Mashama Bailey from The Grey, one of historic Savannah’s hottest restaurants, is also hosting Our Sunday Table: Jazz Brunch with The Grey and Friends, which highlights a diverse line-up of chefs including local heroes Valerie Chang Cumpa of Itamae and Akino West of Rosie’s. Bailey, who learned how to cook from her grandmother and other women in her family, said that such acceptance of diverse cuisine has helped chefs of color highlight their cultures.

“People like me no longer have to train up in a French restaurant to open a French restaurant. You can train in a French restaurant to cook your grandmother’s food,” she said. “There are so many ways to be an American. So many stories. So many different ways to express that through food and culture.”

She’s looking forward to participating in the festival for personal reasons, too: It’s fun and useful for established chefs, too.

“It’s a way for me to hang out with some bad-ass chefs,” she said, laughing. “There are some great folks in Miami, and one of the things I love about working these types of events is that we all get to work together, spend time together and learn from each other.”

Celebrity chef Guy Fieri, a familiar face at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, hosts “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Live” at this year’s festival.

Nobody is sure if the dining boom in Miami will continue. Concerns about a possible economic recession or restaurant saturation continue. Schwartz, who was nominated in the category of Outstanding Chef for the James Beard Awards, said he thinks the boom is cyclical and the dining scene is destined to slow down eventually.

“Over 30 years I’ve seen these waves of out-of-town invasions, and this has been the biggest wave,” he said. “The whole freaking world moved here! How the restaurant scene has thrived here has been pretty amazing. But we’ll see this settle down.”

Samuelsson, though, believes this growth is just the beginning.

“I don’t think we’re at the end of the growth of Miami,” he said. I think we’re at the beginning as a food town. I just want that growth to also benefit Black and brown businesses. Miami is a diverse city. That’s why we love it.”