These new restaurants in Miami have private rooms and semiprivate spaces for groups both big and small, appropriate for events, meetings, business dinners, presentations, and other types of entertaining.
1. Kane Steakhouse, in what is known as Miami's "meat-eating district," is Mathew Glazier's newest restaurant. Its private dining room features red Murano glass chandeliers, seating for 12, and full audiovisual capabilities, including a 60-inch plasma screen. For the utmost in privacy, the room has both "Do Not Disturb" and "Service Please" illuminated signage, which can be controlled via remote by the event host.
2. The newly opened Dream South Beach houses Tudor House, led by chef Geoffrey Zakarian. The restaurant offers a few private dining options, such as the Palmer House's rooftop, which accommodates 20 seated and 50 standing. The rooftop also has smaller cabanas that seat 15 and hold 25 standing. The detached outdoor lounge, Highbar, is a 1970s throwback, with gold and white glass and Lucite tile, atmospheric lighting, and low-slung seating. The lounge has a private elevator, plasma TVs, rocking chairs, and wicker chaises, and seats 60 or has room for 150 standing.
3. With its success since opening in February 2010, Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill has expanded to include a new, semiprivate lounge designed by firm CetraRudy, which took design cues from South America's Colonial Spanish-style architecture. The lounge serves cocktails, crudos, and tapas. The semiprivate lounge seats 16.
4. Downtown Miami's newest all-American bistro, City Hall, the Restaurant, brings together owner and general manager Steve Haas, chairman of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, and chef Tom Azar, formally of Emeril's Miami Beach, Orlando, and New Orleans. Within the 6,000-square-foot space is an intimate, private dining area that seats 40. The interiors include lacquered floors and dark walnut and black varnished wood tables and chairs.
5. China Grill Fort Lauderdale has seven private and semiprivate dining options to fit various types of meetings and dinner functions. Fully private offerings include the 104-Seat Waterway Room, which holds 150 for a cocktail reception, and the 32-seat Sake Board Room, with a flat-screen TV. For a semiprivate affair, the 50-seat chef's table area and the 60-seat Riverview Room are available; and for outdoors, the patio, which seats 50 and holds 100 for a reception, can be set with a full bar and full dinner.
6. Chef Daniel Boulud's db Bistro Moderne, which opened in late 2010, has two private dining rooms options. The Wine Tower room holds six, but if something larger is needed, two private dining rooms each seat as many as 17 and hold as many as 80 for a reception. The Miami restaurant personalizes menus for events with raw bar and charcuterie options.
7. Steak house Meat Market Miami Beach has a new addition, its outdoor lounge. The main dining room is filled with woods, buttery banquettes, amber lighting, and natural hues, while the menu is filled with eclectic items like quail eggs and baby escargot. For an evening outside, the restaurant's lounge menu for private events has light appetizers like crab and lobster cakes and Kobe beef sliders.
8. Market 17 came into the Fort Lauderdale scene in December of last year and has recently unveiled three private and semiprivate dining options. One room seats 20 with two glass walls, with views into the main dining room. Two other semiprivate areas include an indoor area fit for 40 standing and the semiprivate patio. The menu includes farm-to-table items like grass-fed beef and locally sourced produce.
9. Texas de Brazil Fort Lauderdale is the sixth location of the Brazilian steak house in Florida, with other locations around the country. The three private dining spaces, fit for business and social groups, can accommodate 70 and are dressed with dark wood interiors, metal accents, and custom art. The event-specific menus feature slow-roasted cuts of beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and Brazilian sausage accompanied by a variety of salads and sides and wines from California, South America, Italy, and Australia.
10. 1500 Degrees, the farm-to-table eatery at the Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach, recently unveiled two private dining spaces. The 10-seat private dining area offers a private terrace and is off the main dining room. There is also a larger, 14-seat private dining room on site with full audiovisual capabilities and a view of the kitchen through soundproof glass. Menu options are fully customizable, and ingredients change daily according to season.
