Actor Caine to open first US operation: South Beach Brasserie

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 16, 1996 by Jack Hayes

SOUTH MIAMI BEACH -- International film celebrity Michael Caine, already the owner of five restaurants in London, will bring his operating finesse to this continent with the launch of South Beach Brasserie on Lincoln Road here in November.

Caine will open the 225-seat concept with Miami Beach restaurateur Ray Schnitzer, proprietor of the 11th Street Diner, which has been operating in South Beach since 1991.

According to Schnitzer Caine -- who also owns The Canteen, Langan's Brasserie, and The Restaurant at the Hyde Park Hotel in London -- will be "a participating partner" in the new operation.

"He'll be in here every day during the season [from November to April]," said Schnitzer, who knows Caine through a mutual friend from Manhattan. The actor lives in London and also maintains a home in Miami.

The Brasserie will showcase a Mediterranean and Asian-inspired menu developed by Mitchell Maxwell, who was chef de cuisine at the former Bang here and more recently was executive chef at Follia on nearby Washington Road.

Maxwell said he is targeting a $15 average lunch check and a dinner check in the $30 range.

"We plan to be here more than a year," Maxwell said, noting that the management, kitchen, and operations staff are residents of South Beach

According to Schnitzer the Brasserie's logo is being finalized. Meanwhile, rennovation has begun on the massive building, which previously housed a Johovah's Witness temple and, before that, a synagogue.

Reports of Caine's involvement in a South Beach restaurant began to circulate a year ago -- about the time that Madonna and partners Brian McNally and John Evans opened The Blue Door, a fine-dining concept at the 248-room Delano Hotel on Collins Ave.

Before that, actor Burt Reynolds, who was a partner in the former Backstage in Jupiter, Fla., opened a South Beach unit, but that concept has since closed.

Other movie celebrities involved with South Beach dining or entertainment concepts include Sylvester Stallone, who is a partner in Bar None on Washington Road, and Gloria Estefan, whose restaurant Allioli opened three years ago in the Cardoza Hotel, which she also owns.