South Miami's Mi'talia Kitchen Revamps With Bold New Menu

You barely notice the cars whizzing past on U.S. 1 or the Metrorail trains chundering past while visiting Mi'talia Kitchen & Bar in South Miami. With its simple, modern interior at once welcoming and elegant — and a menu rife with hearty Italian cuisine — it's a pleasant upscale neighborhood restaurant one might call ideal for almost any occasion.

Behind the scenes at this four-year-old establishment, however, changes are afoot, and Grove Bay Hospitality chef Phil Bryant believes they're for the better.

A veteran of Yardbird Table & Bar in Miami Beach and one-time sous chef under Norman Van Aken, Bryant was recently appointed culinary director for Grove Bay Hospitality, which owns Mi'talia and Miami hotspots like Stubborn Seed and Root & Bone.

First on his to-do list, he says, is enhancing the menus across the group's portfolio, starting with Mi'talia.

Mi'talia Kitchen & Bar debuted in 2019, a restaurant created by Miami power couple and chef partners Janine Booth and Jeff McInnis (Stiltsville Fish Bar) to share their spin on Italian cuisine. When it opened, McInnis told New Times the restaurant was the result of the couple's obsession with Italian food. They even traveled the country, doing "homework" in the form of eating.

The name, Mi'talia, is a play on words, a sort of "wink-wink" that the restaurant reflects their take on Italian dishes. The opening menu aimed at offering lighter fare, from pasta and vegetarian dishes to the couple's own brand of Nuvola-style wood-fired pizza — a light and airy crust McInnis once described as a hybrid mashup of a Neapolitan pie and a New York slice.
Now, Bryant says the goal is to take Mi'talia to new heights with a bolder approach to classic Italian fare.

"We want to take the idea of Italian cuisine and apply it to our local products and the way we envision food," Bryant says of the new menu. "I want food to be big flavors, interesting combinations, and an ingredient-driven tug on the strings of the classics."

What's resulted is a fairly dramatic menu overhaul, informed by Miami hotspots such as Macchialina in Miami Beach and Fiola in Coral Gables. Everything is made "honest from scratch" — an ardent way of saying almost everything is handcrafted using local ingredients whenever possible.

Some of the new additions are simple. The lunch menu didn't include sandwiches, so Bryant added some, emphasizing fun and crave-worthy elements. Take the "Godfather," a double cheeseburger with spicy capicola and the housemade black garlic aioli.

Others are more advanced. The new dinner menu, for example, features a handful of experimental new appetizers like a fresh and piquant hamachi crudo.

The dish's signature touch: a hint of Calabrian chili crunch dolloped on top, adding an unexpectedly pleasant savory element over an expected heat, contrasting perfectly with the mild white-fleshed fish and a few dollops of creamy aioli. Torched pomelos add a smoky, fruity flavor. The dish feels clean and pairs well with the refreshing, fruity cocktail, "Summer in Sorrento," with a perfect match of bourbon, passion fruit, and mango foam.

A duck ragu over pasta, meanwhile, is even more surprising. Bryant uses gallo de cresto pasta — a crescent-shaped pasta with ruffled edges that takes inspiration from the rooster's comb — ideal for sauce retention. A rich duck confit is mixed with a strong, tangy pomodoro and a pulled duck jus ragu.
From there, a hit of umami comes from a dollop of foie gras butter, while caramelized radicchio lends a tinge of bitterness. Grano Padano cheese crumbled on top rounds it off, adding a hint of saltiness to mellow the more robust flavors. It's an intense dish that sticks firmly in the mind long after dinner.

A lighter king crab agnolotti arrives next; its creamy king crab and mascarpone filling stuffed into the ravioli-like pasta. Combined with the crunch of breadcrumbs and the dulcet tang of vegetables like corn and sweet onion, the pasta is a pleasant mix of flavors and textures. Tarragon powder and jalapeño provide just enough heat to balance the dish.

Not everything on the menu is new, however. Bryant has been careful to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater, retaining popular dishes such as the pappardelle bolognese. Others have been enhanced slightly, such as a new version of the spicy rigatoni vodka with nduja sausage. A five-course tasting menu has been added, and plans are also in the works for collaborative dinners with other chefs.

"It's always a challenge when you go into a restaurant and you change what's been going on," says Bryant, adding that he's already planning on more than just seasonal changes to the menu. "We don't want to alienate anyone, but to try more interesting combinations and old flavors."

Even if change is a constant at Mi'talia, Bryant's overarching philosophy feels on point: For this newly enhanced establishment, a bit of change has certainly proven to go a long way.

Mi'talia Kitchen & Bar. 5958 S. Dixie Hwy., South Miami; 305-885-4008; mitaliakitchen.com. Sunday through Thursday noon to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday noon to 11 p.m.