While Miami has been loudly settling into its relatively new status as a restaurant hotspot, some 70 miles down coast, West Palm Beach is also amassing a collection of leading places to eat. Among the newest is Emelina – a Cuban-inspired fine dining restaurant in the Flamingo Park district.
Slated to open on February 3, comes from the brains behind the operation are husband-and-wife pair chef Osmel González and chef/operator Camila Salazar, who were both part of the team behind EntreNos – a short-lived but influential pop-up in Miami, which garnered one Michelin star.
See also: The Best Restaurants in Miami
While EntreNos veered toward the more informal side (by day it was a cool coffee hangout), Emelina marks a step-up. The restaurant will have just 16 seats – a 12-seat chef’s counter and two tables for two – and all guests will be served a single seasonal tasting menu. While the space is grown up and slick with a dark, moody color scheme and a theatrical open kitchen, a few touches (such as rattan-backed chairs) serve to remind guests that they are very much still in Florida.
Born in Havana, González’s career has taken him to restaurants around the world including Disfrutar in Spain; Kikunoi, Den, and L’Effervescence in Japan; and California’s SingleThread. At Emelina – which is named after his grandmother – González is planning to not only channel the culinary culture of his home country but also imagine what its current restaurant scene may look like had the country’s history taken a different turn.
With Salazar (who hails from Colombia and has an equally well-traveled resume), González looks to creative sustainable initiatives in his cooking – a passion the duo developed at EntreNos, which was awarded a Green Michelin star. While the cuisine nods to Cuba, the pair is calling on relationships with Floridian farmers, fisherman, and small-scale producers to limit environmental footprint.
“West Palm Beach has an energy that feels both coastal and cosmopolitan, and there’s a growing community of guests who are curious, open-minded, and eager to support thoughtful dining experiences,” says Salazar. “Emelina is our way of honoring where we come from while rooting ourselves in this place – working with local producers, telling personal stories through food, and creating the kind of intimate, intentional experience we’ve always dreamed of sharing.”
Related Story
For their latest project, Salazar and González have partnered with established Florida restaurant group APM (Hiyakawa, Midorie, and Michelin-starred Ogawa are already under the umbrella). “As a regular at EntreNos, I was consistently moved not only by Osmel’s food but by Osmel and Camila’s impressive and compelling trajectory in the industry,” says Álvaro Perez Miranda, founder of APM Restaurant Group. “As I got to know them better as people and as chefs, I was really drawn to their integrity, discipline, and the way they honored Florida’s producers.”
