Miami developers have expanded the branding of their luxury condos from high-end cars and celebrity designers to include world-class chefs and even luxury wellness centers to lure buyers, Side Dish has learned.
The city’s thriving skyline, which features residential towers named for Porsche and Bentley as well as Armani/Casa, will soon be joined by a 48-story luxury building named after Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten .
Jean-Georges Miami Tropic Residences, expected to open in 2027 in the Design District, will offer apartments starting at $1.6 million and feature French legend ABC Kitchen’s acclaimed trilogy – ABCV, ABC Cucina and ABC Kitchen.
While the restaurants will be open to the public, well-heeled residents can expect well-appointed apartments, Vongerichten designed the kitchens – from the appliances to the pots and pans. It can even stock your fridge before you sit down.
“A chef understands all the details that create quality, like texture and color, so it’s only natural for a chef to bring his experience to the lifestyle,” Vongerichten told Side Dish during a recent visit to the Sunshine State.
The property, with the motto “taste is everything”, will be launched in partnership with developer David Martin of Terra and Lion Development.
Before joining Vongerichten, Martin launched Carbone Residences, as Side Dish previously reported, in partnership with Carbone’s parent company Major Food Group and fellow developer One Thousand Group.
Carbone’s 58-story steel-and-glass tower, known as Villa Miami, relies on celebrity chef Mario Carbone, who also designed the kitchens and can stock the fridges and bars.
The Cipriani brand is also well represented with Mr. C and Cipriani Residences.
Bringing in well-known restaurant brands to boost condo sales is nothing new. In New York, developers anchor elite buildings with private restaurants run by Daniel Boulud and Vongerichten, who heads the kitchen at the exclusive 220 Central Park South on Billionaires’ Row.
In Miami, however, partnerships with chefs, restaurants and wellness centers have become the latest evolution in the housing branding revolution.
This week, Martin will also launch The Well Coconut Grove Miami, Side Dish can exclusively reveal. The tower follows last December’s debut of The Well Bal Harbor Miami, which also features commercial space — some of which was recently leased by Tom Brady for his family office.
An exclusive wellness club featuring nutritional and medical programs, fitness classes and the latest spa treatments for longevity, Well boasts celebrity clients including Brady, Emma Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Priyanks Chopra and Nick Jonas.
“I think the big idea is to create environments that improve people’s lives,” Martin told Side Dish.
“When we start with an idea or project, we are trying to understand how people can improve their lives. We try to go through pretty specific processes to understand who the owner is that we’re designing for—with demographics and psychographics, and that data informs our decisions about who our partners are.”
The health spa was co-founded by Rebecca Parekh, Sarrah Hallock and Kane Sarhan, who opened The Well New York near Union Square in 2019. Membership prices for classes start at $350 a month.
“So many people who come to the club in New York said they wanted to live here,” said Sarhan, adding that the expansion from private clubs to residences was a natural extension of the brand.
“Well-being is a macro trend. Everyone with money is interested in longevity, fitness and weight loss. That’s what they’re spending their dollars on.”
The new, eight-story Coconut Grove residence will also include a full market, along with “on-demand” juice and snack programs, family meal preparation services and an in-building cafe and restaurant, Sarhan said.
The Well also has doctors and nutritionists, along with health-focused spa treatments like infrared saunas, cold plunges, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, PLT light beds and more.
Buyers can also customize the wellness rooms in their homes, and the kitchens come with a “healthy butler’s pantry,” with “healthy cooking appliances, so cooking at home is easy,” Sarhan said.
At Coconut Grove, 20% of the 200 units sold in the first 48 hours, Sarhan said, and they have deals to develop new brand-name residences in Mexico, London and Texas:
“When I look at the sub-market, whether it’s Coconut Grove or Bal Harbor, it’s for intellectual communities of empty nesters who move from houses to buildings because they want services,” Martin added.
we listen… there’s new culinary talent in Aspen off the slopes this season.
Cederic Vongerichten, son of Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and his wife, Ochi, launched Wayan Aspen this month. It’s an outpost of their popular New York-based restaurant Wayan, featuring innovative, award-winning French-Indonesian cuisine and its ‘little sister’ Ma•dé.
Wayan Aspen launched after a successful two-year pop-up at The Little Nell.
Signature, shared dishes include Lobster Noodles with Black Pepper Butter and Thai Basil; Peekytoe crab fried rice with kerupuk and cilantro; alongside regional favorites like Colorado lamb satay and local dry-aged Ribeye served with Indonesian sauces; and desserts including pandan passion fruit cream. There’s also an Aprés Ski menu and handcrafted cocktails, including the Calamansi Fizz with gin, calamansi, aquafaba and rosemary and Devils Avocado with mezcal, avocado, cucumber and honey.
In addition, Jayma Cardoso’s Snow Lodge — from the Surf Lodge in Montauk — has a new chef and culinary director: Preston Hix, who was previously at Vail’s La Tour, Miami’s Fountainebleau Hotel & Resort, La Gorce Country Club, Klaw; and Le Bilboquet of Denver.
Celebrity guests at the Snow Lodge have included Anna Kendrick, Riley Keough, Heidi Klum, Ian Somerhalder and Nacho Figueras.
The “New American” menu comes with a strong Italian influence, and is already known for the whole fish baked in salt. There’s also live piano music during the week, as well as the Jade Room Caviar x Champagne lounge.
Finally, head chef Sam Talbot, the original chef at Surf Lodge when Cardoso launched 16 years ago, is also executive chef at ZigZag – from veteran New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas hospitality owner Romain Pavee and partners /local philanthropists Scott and Carly. Weber.
For years, Aspen’s cuisine was “Italian, Italian, Italian, with a little bit of sushi,” Pavee told Side Dish.
“Now there are several diversities – from Thai cuisine to French-Indonesian cuisine,” he added.
Pavee describes ZigZag as a French-American bistro, “with classics from both sides of the ocean.”
The name comes from Pavee’s five-year-old daughter, Juliette, who noticed that the Roaring Fork River flows ‘zig zag’.
“The name was so alive and innocent and pure, and the river couldn’t be more involved in the community. It is also the shape of the tracks left by snowboarding. It was perfect,” Pavee said, adding that he “fell in love” with Aspen years ago, and it was where his daughter saw her first snow.
ZigZag has opened where Mezzaluna, an Aspen staple, stood for 37 years before closing last October. It comes with “the last, standing wood-burning oven” in Aspen, where Grandpa was.
“Mezzaluna was an institution and we want to honor it. The food will be higher, ‘French elegance’, but it’s also for everyone, in a place that’s warm and welcoming,” said Pavee, adding that there is a focus on local produce, which will be especially evident this summer, with an emphasis on the “garden” section of the menu that reflects fare from places like Venice Beach, where Pavee lives, as well as a wood-burning section.
“Right now the ground is frozen, but in the summer, the bistro will be super produce-focused and healthy. We’ll still have rich plates and comfort food, but we’ll also play more farm-to-table,” Pavee added.
All three restaurants bring something new to the Aspen scene, which took off earlier than usual this year, said Cardoso, who opened Snow Lodge in December. 6.
“The crowds have been non-stop since we opened. People want to be on the mountain early, before it gets super crowded,” said Cardoso, adding that there has also been a large number of buyouts from luxury brands.
Snow Lodge has held exclusive invitation-only dinners for brands including Gucci, Bottega Venetta, Vogue and hotelier Steve Wynn’s newly launched Wynn Fine Art, which honored artist Connor Addison. The dinner was hosted by Winn’s stepfather, Nick Hissom, director of Wynn Fine Art, and partner Kameron Ramirez.
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