Cote Miami – the red-light dry-aging room with a Michelin star

On the corner of NE 39th Street and 2nd Avenue, in the old Buena Vista blocks that now form the Design District, Cote Miami opened its black glass doors in February 2021 as the first Cote outside New York. It carries over the same premise that made the Flatiron original famous: Korean barbecue conviviality staged with the ritual of a grand American steakhouse, prime and American Wagyu beef grilled tableside on smokeless charcoal grills built into every table. The restaurant holds One MICHELIN Star, a distinction it earned in the inaugural 2022 MICHELIN Guide Florida Star Revelation, making Cote one of only two American restaurant groups with starred locations in more than one city. It is owned by restaurateur Simon Kim through Gracious Hospitality Management, with Executive Chef David Shim overseeing the Miami kitchen as he does in New York, and a 100-plus-seat dining room built around a 5,892-square-foot footprint of leather banquettes, dry-aged beef and blue-chip art.

01The room and the setting

Architecture studio MNDPC designed the Miami dining room to echo the New York original while answering to its new address: the brief, as creative director Jonathan Garnett described it, was to bring a piece of New York City to Miami while capturing the city's Art Deco spirit and the modernity of the Design District itself. The result is a façade worked in stucco, brass and sculpted openings, with a custom recessed sign that reads as a sculptural object by day and a glowing art installation after dark.

Inside, a long neon-lit corridor leads guests past dark wood panelling toward an oval-shaped bar that anchors the room, flanked by blue-chip contemporary art, including pieces by Ed Ruscha. A red-light dry-aging room sits in full view of the dining floor, alongside two private dining rooms. The smokeless tabletop grills are paired with a dedicated outdoor air system that exchanges the room's air far more frequently than a standard restaurant, so the charcoal theatre never reaches the clothes.

02The chef

Executive Chef David Shim, a native of Seoul, built his craft in New York kitchens that could not be further from Korean barbecue on paper: Gramercy Tavern, Veritas and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. Simon Kim approached him to create and launch the very first Cote in the Flatiron District, and Shim has since carried that same hand, and the same 45-day dry-aging programme, down to Miami.

Insider tip

Corner of NE 39th Street and 2nd Avenue; valet parking available on NE 39th Street.

Every cut leaving the red-light aging room is seasoned with Cote's own Gastronome's Salt, a house blend of British Maldon salt, Himalayan pink salt and Korean thousand-day sea salt, a small, telling detail of a kitchen that treats seasoning as seriously as sourcing.

03The cooking

Cote's menu follows what the house calls its Beef & Leaf philosophy: USDA Prime and American Wagyu beef, dry-aged on site, balanced by light, bright pickled vegetables fermented in the restaurant's own Vegetable Fermentation Lab rather than the cream-heavy sides of a classic steakhouse. The Butcher's Feast remains the house ritual, four selected cuts of Prime and Wagyu grilled tableside with Korean accompaniments, alongside a longer Steak Omakase tasting that moves through nine or ten cuts paired with sides, cocktails or wine.

Miami has its own signature within that structure. The city's only exclusive dish is Cote's Ceviche, currently built from black grouper and hiramasa with trout roe, thin pickled fennel and a chojang vinaigrette, a deliberate nod to Miami's Latin and coastal palate that has no equivalent on the New York menu.

04What to order

Begin, if the budget allows, with the Grand Plateau, a seafood tower of a dozen east and west coast oysters, Maine lobster and Gulf shrimp built around the Cote Ceviche. The Steak & Eggs, hand-cut filet mignon tartare finished with caviar and milk toast, is the dish regulars order on sight. Korean 'Bacon', house-smoked heritage pork belly with pickled jalapeño and Korean mustard, is the shareable starter that sets the tone before the grill arrives.

05Wine and drinks

Cote's wine list runs past 1,200 labels, built under beverage director Victoria James with a stated focus on farmers and producers working organically, biodynamically or by la lutte raisonnée. The list carries a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence and has twice been nominated for the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Wine Program; James herself won the inaugural MICHELIN Guide Florida Sommelier Award in 2022 for her work on the Miami list, which is led day to day by head sommelier Macarena Carrillo.

06The neighbourhood

Cote sits inside the Design District, the redeveloped luxury retail quarter built on what was once the farmland and furniture-trade streets of Buena Vista, bordered by Wynwood to the south and the Upper East Side to the east. Valet parking is handled by Miami Design District Valet on the north side of NE 39th Street, a short walk from the district's galleries, flagship boutiques and the Moore Building, one of the area's oldest surviving structures.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.