While Miami has been loudly settling into its relatively new status as a restaurant hotspot, some 70 miles down coast, West Palm Beach is also amassing a collection of leading places to eat. Among the newest is Emelina – a Cuban-inspired fine dining restaurant in the Flamingo Park district.
Slated to open on February 3, comes from the brains behind the operation are husband-and-wife pair chef Osmel González and chef/operator Camila Salazar, who were both part of the team behind EntreNos – a short-lived but influential pop-up in Miami, which garnered one Michelin star.
While EntreNos veered toward the more informal side (by day it was a cool coffee hangout), Emelina marks a step-up. The restaurant will have just 16 seats – a 12-seat chef’s counter and two tables for two – and all guests will be served a single seasonal tasting menu. While the space is grown up and slick with a dark, moody color scheme and a theatrical open kitchen, a few touches (such as rattan-backed chairs) serve to remind guests that they are very much still in Florida.
Born in Havana, González’s career has taken him to restaurants around the world including Disfrutar in Spain; Kikunoi, Den, and L’Effervescence in Japan; and California’s SingleThread. At Emelina – which is named after his grandmother – González is planning to not only channel the culinary culture of his home country but also imagine what its current restaurant scene may look like had the country’s history taken a different turn…