Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink
Cinnamon Sugar Sourdough Toast – pumpkin butter, caramel apples
Duck Rillette – crostini, cornichon, mustard
Breakfast Pizza – house smoked bacon, farm egg, Monterey jack, scallions
Wood Oven Baked 9 Grain Pancake – organic maple syrup
Wood Oven Roasted Double Yolk Egg – cave aged gruyere, roasted tomato, chives, sourdough crostini
Warm Banana Bread Pudding – brown butter streusel
Warm Pecan and Sweet Potato Caramel Bun
Coconut and Medjool Date Icky Sticky Pudding Cake – wood roasted pears
Never one to shy away from sequential morning meals, particularly in a brunch scene as dynamic as the one of Miami and South Beach, it was just as the doors unlocked at Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink that our trio found a seat on the quiet side of the bar and with exquisitely knowledgeable service happy to offer advice an eight part order was crafted, each item coming out as it was readied by the kitchen with only an overcooked egg and undersized pancake holding the experience back from perfection in all ways.
Located in the Design District, with parking at a premium and reservations a must for anyone who does not desire a long wait, MGFD is considered by many to be Miami’s ‘signature’ restaurant and with a Beard Award winning Chef at its helm alongside a repeat semi-finalist for pastry the options range far and wide, the concepts of daily change, local sourcing and sustainability forming a longtime core while several ‘signatures’ also decorate the menu – the later a worthwhile focus of a first-time visitor, though the raw bar, salads, and produce all seemed plenty enticing as well.
Opting to balance sweet with savory it was a simple matter of timing that saw the meal begin with what would turn out to be the best item of the set and as much as the crunchy cinnamon toast found textural balance in the sweet, creamy flavors of autumn a follow-up of finely shredded duck beneath a seal of fat saw the full-on flavors of fowl meet sharp contrast in crispy toast and house-pickled vegetables, the transition to a lackluster pancake only slightly larger than the diameter of a hockey puck proving a disappointing waste of $8, though the pure maple syrup was admittedly quite good.
Rejecting a first attempt at pizza due to an egg that was cooked-through only to be treated to a replacement less than sixty seconds later suffice it to say that Michael’s does not skimp when it comes to cheese, eggs, or herbs and with a lightly blistered crust bolstering the flavor profile of already smoky bacon the only thing that prevented the pizza from shining best of the savories was its tablemate ‘signature’ of two egg yolks baked in a small ramekin beneath a veil of gooey gruyere, each rich bite a new adventure in taste and texture as local tomatoes added a splash of acid serving to accentuate an herbal blend prominent with chives.
Finishing strong with a trio of sweets a humorous glitch in the computer system saw no less than three Caramel Buns arrive at our table at separate times and as much as I’d have been glad to indulge in each as the golden roll was sweet, crispy, and moist the better part of valor was saving room for the rest – a banana bread pudding a tad undersized for sharing despite the intensity of its flavors while the novel take on traditional Sticky Toffee Pudding was enthralling in its subtlety, the shredded coconut and its milk serving to tame an otherwise sugary dish while the roasted pears were smoky and tender beneath a quenelle of light cream.
