This morning, while many of you were hitting the snooze button on your alarm clocks, we greeted the day with a perfectly brewed cappuccino and a bomboloni at La Centrale, the massive Italian food hall inside Brickell City Centre. Jealous? Don’t be, because come next Friday, you too can rise and caffeinate with the finest Italian espresso at the buzzy eatery.
La Centrale will officially open its doors to the public Friday, February 16. The 40,000-square-foot space boasts three floors, 14 different food concepts and five full bars. If it sounds overwhelming, that’s because it is. Let us break it down for you.
First floor:
- Caffé: Sicilian-inspired cafeteria where you’ll find cannolis and other fresh pastries
- Mercato: A collection of six grab-and-go food counters with options like stuffed focaccia and rotisserie chicken
- Pizza E Pasta: This casual spot serves fresh pasta and wood-fired pizzas
Second floor:
- Aperitivo Bar: An inviting circular, craft cocktail bar with an adjacent lounge and a stage for live music
- Carne: A carnivore’s dream boasting a dry-age meat locker and floor-to-ceiling windows
- Pesce: This cozy, Mediterranean-inspired spot serves locally sourced fish and features a raw bar
- Stagionale: Mostly vegan, this plant-based restaurant focuses on seasonal ingredients, like truffles, and offers hand-pulled mozzarella
- Venchi: More than 80 types of chocolates and 16 flavors of gelato are for sale at this delightful gelateria
Third floor:
- Bottega Del Vino: This wine shop boasts more than 500 labels and 4,000 bottles of vino
- Cantina: A fancy event space for up to 50 of your closest friends
- Enoteca: This stunning wine bar offers more than 30 wines by the glass plus an incredible $20 prix-fixe lunch and dinner menu
- La Cucina: Sharpen your knife skills, learn to cook or host your next birthday party at this fancy AF cooking and event studio
- La Riserva: You’ll need a special invitation to access the stunning wine fault, whose terracotta tile is from the same company that provided the materials for the ceiling inside the Duomo in Florence
While not all of the concepts inside La Centrale will open next week, guests have plenty to look forward to, including personal shopping services (someone will pick up your groceries from the downstairs market, add the bill to your tab and drop it off at your table while you dine) and cooking classes for children on Saturday mornings. Those Italians think of everything.
Want more? Sign up here to stay in the know.