One of Chicago’s most highly acclaimed steakhouses is preparing to open in Miami. Maple & Ash, which opened in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood in 2015 to massive success and revelatory reviews, will open a Florida-based location on March 13 at Miami Worldcenter in downtown Miami. According to Restaurant Business, Maple & Ash has become one of the top-grossing independently owned restaurants in the country, grossing over $30 million in 2022.
An Innovative, Abundant Space
The two-story, 22,000-square-foot restaurant will be far and away the brand’s largest location to date and promises immense things to come. While Maple & Ash also has a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, this new Miami location is the brand’s biggest undertaking to date, and its success could come to dictate the future of the restaurant across the country. The huge new space is divided into different areas: The Dining Room, The Bar Lounge, The Salon, and The Atrium, all of which have been designed with this tropical locale in mind.
The impetus behind the vast space and numerous chambers is a desire to keep guests constantly hungry for more. The brains behind the restaurant insist that you can go more than once and never have quite the same experience at this location. Furthermore, Danny Grant, chef and partner for Maple & Ash, said that the restaurant’s playful side meshes well with the Miami aesthetic.
“I think as we come to Miami and are embracing the environment down here and embracing this celebratory nature of Miami, it’s a perfect pairing for Maple,” says Grant, who was the youngest U.S. chef to earn two Michelin stars in 2011 and 2012 while at Ria, the now-closed restaurant in Chicago.
“I walk into a Maple & Ash, and I’m like, ‘All right, this is awesome. I’m ready to go. Let’s eat, let’s drink. Let’s have fun. Let’s let our hair down, and let’s enjoy the moment and embrace it.’ And I think Miami as a community does that better than any other city in the country.”
Putting the Steak Back in Steakhouse
Maple & Ash is best known as a steakhouse, but Grant says that while steaks are a highlight at the restaurant, they’re not the only reason to make a reservation.
“We’re just a really beautiful wood-fired restaurant at heart, and our goals are to create really delicious, amazing food. And that’s not just steak,” he says. “I think a steak is just such a small part of what we do.”
Grant admits he didn’t eat at steakhouses much before he came to Maple & Ash (“I was like, ‘I could do this better at home,’” he says), however, he has come to understand the passion diners have for a perfectly cooked piece of meat.
“The one thing we can’t do when making a steakhouse is you can’t change it so much that people don’t understand it,” he says. “But you can evolve it.”
The menu will reliably feature the dishes that have made Maple & Ash such a delicacy for so many but will also feature a few only-in-Miami items. These items include hamachi crudo served with winter citrus, golden beets, habanero ponzu, Dover sole, and a dessert named Orange Dreamsicle, with orange mousse, yuzu puree, and mint basil granita.
Healthy Competition
Maple & Ash is far from alone in migrating to the vibrant social scene of Miami, as many restaurants have in recent years. However, Grant isn’t worried about the high volume of new restaurants opening in the city. “Being able to play in that market is exciting for us,” he says. “Is there more competition when you have more and more and more going on? Absolutely, but I think for me and our company, we’ve always looked at it as we want more great restaurants around us, because it’ll bring more great people to come out to dinner.”
The Maple & Ash Miami location opens its doors on March 13.
