Beauty & The Butcher
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Fine Dining for the Table – and a Porterhouse Bone for the Dog.
When dining at Beauty & the Butcher, self-control lasts roughly until the bread arrives.
The sourdough focaccia ($12) comes out tall, burnished, and cut into thick slabs, with a crisp top and an airy interior made for tearing apart. Alongside it are ’nduja butter and local honey fermented with koji: smoke, spice, sweetness, and warm bread conspiring against anyone who planned to “just have a bite.” The honey and butter alone could inspire poor decision-making.
Beauty & the Butcher comes from Grove Bay Hospitality Group. Chef Kenny Gilbert, VP of Culinary Operations, is currently at the helm of the kitchen and leading the restaurant’s culinary direction. The restaurant is also included in the Michelin Guide.
The dining room looks the part. Dark wood, marble, soft golden light, and deep booths create a polished atmosphere, but the room is too lively to feel stiff. On our visit, there were couples leaning into date night, groups of friends dressed for a proper dinner, families celebrating, and longtime pairs who appeared comfortably settled into a monthly splurge.
The cocktail list casts a similarly wide net. I tend toward sweeter drinks, so the watermelon lemon drop martini was an easy choice: bright, fruity, and tart enough to avoid tasting like candy. My fiancé prefers whiskey and ordered the Tokyo After Dark, made with Shibui whiskey, J.F. Haden’s espresso liqueur, house espresso, and Licor 43. Our orders said more about us than most personality tests.
Before entering full steakhouse territory, we tried the hamachi crudo ($22). The fish arrived in a passion fruit and rose-water vinaigrette with citrus, chiles, rice pearls, and dehydrated rose petals. The hamachi was cool and delicate, the passion fruit supplied tartness, the chiles brought a small but noticeable spark, and the rice pearls added texture. Rose water can easily hijack a dish, leaving everything tasting faintly of a perfume counter, but here it remained controlled. The result was light and refreshing – a smart opening before the richer courses ahead.
Left: Sourdough Focaccia Bread With Hamachi Crudo
Top Right: Crispy Brussels Sprouts
Middle: French Onion Mashed Potatoes
Bottom Right : 24 Oz. Porterhouse Steak, Plus the Bone That Was Taken Home in a Doggie Bag
And rich they were. The Australian Wagyu filet ($73) was the best thing we ate. At six ounces, it was modest only in size. The exterior had a dark, seasoned crust, while the center was so smoothand buttery that I stopped talking after the first bite. Filet can sometimes trade flavor for tenderness; this one did not.
The 24-ounce porterhouse ($125) was the table’s showpiece. Served sliced around the bone it delivered tender filet on one side and a beefier strip on the other. It was deeply flavorful and properly charred. Before we left, the staff happily wrapped the bone for our dog,giving the term “doggy bag” its most literal – and appreciated meaning.
For sides we ordered the truffle mac and cheese ($19), the crispy Brussels sprouts ($17), and the French onion mashed potatoes ($14). The mac and cheese, made with smoked Gouda queso, crispy garlic, and winter black truffle, was heavenly. The sprouts were dressed with warm Serrano ham and onion vinaigrette, Cabrales cheese, focaccia crumble, and lemon – enough to make you forget it was a vegetable. The mashed potatoes, however, were what kept pulling my fork back: Yukon Gold potatoes topped with a French onion and Gruyère gratin, creating a crisp, browned surface over a soft, buttery mash. They tasted familiar, comforting, and just sophisticated enough to belong beside Wagyu.
Throughout the meal, the service elevated the experience. Fine dining requires the best ingredients and culinary techniques, but service is what determines whether all that excellence feels welcoming. Here, it did. So did our dessert of house-made cookies – crisp around the edges and soft and chewy inside with malted milk for dipping. Like the rest of the meal, the dessert pulled off the evening’s best trick: leaving us wanting more when we could not possibly eat another bite.
Beautyandthebutchermiami.com
6901 Red Rd, Coral Gables