Celebrity Chef Marcus Samuelsson plans to open a new restaurant in Miami!

Updated On March 18, 2024 | Published By: shahid | In Career

Marcus Samuelsson is an Ethiopia-born, Sweden-raised chef and restaurateur.
He is the head chef at the famous posh restaurant named Red Rooster in Harlem, New York.

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Marcus plans to open a restaurant in Miami

It has come to the knowledge that Chef Marcus is opening a restaurant in Miami. He has purchased a former pool hall and has all plans in place to convert it into a restaurant.

He had decided to complete the construction before the year-end and inaugurate the center this year.

A redevelopment board has plans to bring the vibrant Black culture back to Miami and invest millions of dollars in a place called Overtown for it. Marcus is one of the first celebrities to commit to establishing a restaurant there.

It is learned that Marcus has bought a building there for $ 1.5 million and he preferred this place over another in the Miami Beach area. That does sound interesting!

Marcus said:

“There’s a linkage between Overtown and Harlem, and I want to be part of that,”

He plans to hire people from his community and offer internships as well at the new place in Overtown. He wants to decorate the walls with pictures of the local artists and thus honor them. Similarly, he said:

“Through art, you learn a narrative about people’s journey. Music does that. Food does that. Art does that,”

The place Overtown is in between swanky downtown Miami high-rises and artsy Wynwood with its shops, bars, and world-renowned street art.

It is a prime location but due to the higher crime rates here, it did not get a lot of investment. But now things are changing and the future for Overtown looks brighter.

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Marcus and his cuisine and career

Marcus is a person who believes in cultural fusion. He has studied the cuisine and philosophy of the various places he has visited and resided and brought it into his food.

Marcus was born in Ethiopia but was raised by adoptive parents in Sweden. Though he has an Ethiopian ethnicity, his parents were Swedish and hence Caucasian.

He gained popularity when he began creating Scandinavian cuisine of high quality at upscale Manhattan’s posh restaurant called Aquavit.

This was in the 1990s when he also was honored with the James Beard Award for his talent and great work. He soon started making appearances on TV cuisine shows.

In 2010, Marcus zeroed down on Harlem as the area for his restaurant. He named it Red Rooster and it became an immediate hit in the area and around.

The soulful Southern food was transferred into urban fare thanks to the efforts of Marcus. He also provided gospel brunches and organized various food festivals. It was all a success.

Marcus also launched another restaurant called Marcus B&P in downtown Newark and this area is also developing fast.

About Overtown

Overtown is a prime location between downtown Miami high-rises and artsy Wynwood but lacked investment due to the bad name it acquired with the high crime rates here.

However, it does have its share of niceties such as Overtown’s Lyric Theater. Talented and famous stars such as Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., and Billie Holiday used to perform here, and hence it was called the ‘Little Broadway’.

These stars even if they performed elsewhere used to come down to be in the Overtown hotels since they were denied accommodations in Miami’s white neighborhood.

The area was affected due to the construction of two expressways in the 1960s and also riots that had hit the area in the 1980s. It is now set to become ‘the Harlem of the South’.

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