{"id":400553,"date":"2026-09-15T15:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T15:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400553\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T15:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T15:38:16","slug":"la-sponda-a-new-luxury-italian-restaurant-opens-in-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400553\/","title":{"rendered":"La Sponda, a New Luxury Italian Restaurant, Opens in Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"La Sponda.\u00a0 The Louis Collection<\/p>\n

For a restaurant operator with a white-tablecloth steakhouse that serves $375 Rosewood Ranch wagyu porterhouses, hosts $1,200-per-person dinners featuring ultra-premium LVMH wines (including Ch\u00e2teau Cheval Blanc and Ch\u00e2teau d\u2019Yquem) and has brought in guest chefs from Casa Julian<\/a>, Rockpool<\/a> and Borgo Egnazia<\/a> for exclusive events, Daniel\u2019s Miami<\/a> proprietor Thomas Angelo<\/a> unironically says he thinks a lot about \u201capproachability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angelo, who runs Gioia Hospitality<\/a> with his daughter Kassidy, is quick to talk about Daniel\u2019s<\/a> bar menu, the restaurant\u2019s under-$20 cocktails, its specially priced Miami Spice<\/a> menus and how it discounts its 2,000-selection wine list by 25 percent at lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, we had 195 lunches in the restaurant,\u201d Angelo tells Observer. \u201cWe did $15,000 for lunch and sold $5,000 in wine. Value is super important. You have a top 5 percent that will come in and don\u2019t care how much they spend. They\u2019ll buy a bottle of Petrus. But that\u2019s 5 percent, maximum, of your guests. Everyone else is looking for value in today\u2019s world, with higher gas prices and higher food prices. We have a wine list with many bottles under $100.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at the top tier of Miami dining, balance matters. So at La Sponda<\/a>, which Gioia Hospitality and culinary director Danny Ganem<\/a> are opening at Ugo Colombo\u2019s Vita at Grove Isle<\/a> luxury residential development on September 19, Angelo has a similar formula in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important to me that there are pastas on the menu that are under $50 that are still great,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The La Sponda bar area. The Louis Collection<\/p>\n

Ganem, who also runs the kitchen at Daniel\u2019s, has one clear goal with his cooking: \u201cWe want to wow the guests,\u201d he tells Observer. \u201cOur goal is to create an experience where people finish their meal, and they say, \u2018Wow.\u2019 The cooks understand that everything that is being done is to wow the guests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel\u2019s, which is ranked No. 40 on the World\u2019s 101 Best Steak Restaurants<\/a> and is No. 9 in North America and No. 1 in Florida on that list, has ascended to the top of the Miami meatery scene. La Sponda<\/a> will serve beef of the same quality. Ganem says that sourcing the best ingredients is the first part of his wow-factor process.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The wagyu bistecca Fiorentina. The Louis Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cI spend a lot of time throughout the week curating the steaks at the restaurants,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing in, for example, Mayura Station wagyu from Australia. It\u2019s cattle that are fed chocolate. We have another one, Sir Harry, that gets fed citrus, and you find those notes. We just continue pushing. There\u2019s always another ranch that people are talking about, so we bring in the beef, and we taste it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the 120-seat La Sponda, Ganem has also been blending different sauces to make lobster pasta during R&D. He\u2019s been working on cannelloni with short ribs and Vacche Rosse cheese. La Sponda will serve caviar pasta and truffle-topped pasta with the option of white truffles when they are in season.<\/p>\n

But again, Angelo, who grew up eating Italian-American food in the Bronx, cares a lot about value.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you only have things that are hyper-expensive, what you have is a special occasion restaurant,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re in a residential community on this island where you\u2019ve got guests who\u2019ve purchased these 65 beautiful units, and they may come three, four times a week. They may come with their friends on Saturday and want a beautiful porterhouse, a beautiful steak with black truffles or caviar. Or they may come on Monday and have an incredible chicken dish or cavatelli pomodoro.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The La Sponda tartare. La Sponda<\/p>\n

Angelo mentions how Scarpetta\u2019s spaghetti pomodoro has always been its best-seller, so dialing in the perfect tomato sauce is probably even more important than sourcing truffles or caviar. Angelo pays close attention to what he experiences at other restaurants, and he tapped Martin Brudnizki Design Studio for La Sponda after admiring its work at Thomas Keller<\/a>\u2019s Surf Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Angelo\u2019s family is from Puglia, and La Sponda is on a guard-gated 20-acre island in Biscayne Bay near Coconut Grove, but he\u2019s thinking beyond \u201ccoastal Italian\u201d at his new restaurant. He wants the food at La Sponda to reflect many parts of Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to have the regional cuisines of Italy, and I kind of charged Danny with coming up with dishes that would represent all of Italia, not just Puglia,\u201d says Angelo, who\u2019s traveled extensively around Italy with Ganem and wine director Daniel Bishop<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

La Sponda will feature delicate crudos and colossal wagyu bistecca Fiorentina on a menu that also showcases spaghetti alla chitarra al tartufo with Burgundy truffles, cultured butter and Parmigiano espuma; linguine all\u2019astice with Maine lobster, fennel, ginger wine and pomodoro; and branzino alla Vernaccia with Taggiasca olives, potatoes, tomatoes and basil. Ganem\u2019s team will make fresh pasta daily and also use extruded pasta to serve dishes true to their Italian origins.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Spaghetti alla chitarra al tartufo with Burgundy truffles. The Louis Collection<\/p>\n

And like at Daniel\u2019s, La Sponda will host special big-ticket wine dinners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already lining up Antinori<\/a> and Gaia<\/a> to come,\u201d Angelo says. \u201cAnd Danny\u2019s got a little secret we can\u2019t announce yet, but he\u2019s got a relationship with a three-star Michelin chef who\u2019s very famous in Italy, and we\u2019re working on something.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Angelo very much wants to attract new customers who might not yet know much about pricey wine or Michelin stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went out to eat in my 30s, I wasn\u2019t buying $2,300 of wine,\u201d he says. \u201cI was looking for bottles that were $45 and $50. Cultivating that younger guest is important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Sponda, located at 5 Grove Isle Dr., Miami, FL 33133, will initially open for dinner on Wednesday through Sunday.<\/p>\n

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