Acclaimed Palm Beach restaurant to bring its greatest hits to Miami area

One of the top restaurants in Palm Beach plans to spread its culinary love to Miami-Dade County. The team behind the 13-year-old Buccan bistro will open an expanded outpost next year in Coral Gables.

The always buzzy bistro, helmed by nationally acclaimed chef Clay Conley, will bring three of its related concepts to a prime corner of the Gables’ iconic Miracle Mile, according to a rep for the restaurants’ parent company Ember Group. That debut is expected to happen sometime after April 2025.

Miami area diners can expect a kind of mega-restaurant that combines Buccan, Imoto and Buccan Sandwich Shop into a collective 9,600 square feet, according to Ember Group.

Diners also can expect a mirror image of each of the Palm Beach-born concepts in terms of menu offerings.

Star chef in the kitchen at Buccan in Palm Beach

Buccan Palm Beach has been a hit since Conley and his partners Sam Slattery and Piper Quinn opened the upscale, relaxed-chic bistro on South County Road in late January 2011. Conley’s adventurous small-plates approach energized the dining scene on an island dominated by more starched, white-tablecloth restaurants.

The chef went on to earn seven semifinalist honors for a prestigious James Beard Award for “Best Chef” in the South, including one this year.

Conley says he’s thankful for the Palm Beach area and visiting diners that have helped keep Buccan going.

“It’s thanks to the support we have received in Palm Beach that we can continue to grow and bring our food and dining experiences to new markets,” Conley told The Post via a restaurant rep. “We’re honored and grateful for every guest that has come through our doors over the years and we’re excited for the opportunity to open more doors to more guests on Miracle Mile next year.”

This won’t be Conley’s first restaurant experience in Miami. He served as head chef at the former Miami hotspot restaurant Azul at the Mandarin Oriental for more than five years before coming to Palm Beach. He returned to the Azul kitchen to preside over its final dinner service in 2017, when the restaurant permanently closed.

Two years later, there was word that Conley and his partners planned to open a restaurant in a historic chateau in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. But that news came weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down restaurant dining rooms. The planned Chateau Miami never happened. The structure is now home to Chateau ZZ’s, a high-end Mexican restaurant by the owners of Carbone.

More: How Chef Clay Conley’s bistro became an icon for a new Palm Beach

'The perfect location'

The five-story building that will be home to Buccan Coral Gables is still under construction on the southwest corner of Miracle Mile at Galiano Street. Owned by the development company MAS AJP, 100 Miracle Mile will include retail, office and residential space in addition to the enhanced Buccan restaurant, to be located on the ground floor.

“For the Ember Group team, Coral Gables has long been the plan for their next expansion, with the opportunity at 100 Miracle Mile being the perfect location to finally realize that goal,” reads a statement emailed to The Post by a representative for the restaurant group.

The veteran national restaurant designer Peter Niemitz will dream up the interiors for Buccan Coral Gables and its related concepts at 100 Miracle Mile. There will be separate entrances for the concepts. Diners can enter Buccan and its Sandwich Shop from Miracle Mile and Imoto from Galiano Street.

How soon in 2025 can this new Buccan happen? According to Ember Group, it can be as early as April 1 and as late as September 30.

What would I order at Buccan, Imoto and Buccan Sandwich Shop?

Coral Gables palates are in for a triple-treat when the mega Buccan opens in 2025. While Conley is known for refreshing his menus often and sometimes unexpectedly, he does please regulars with some of his restaurants’ greatest hits.

What does a Buccan/Imoto newbie order from Conley’s menu? Anything that’s calling your name is probably the right answer.

Some of my favorites:

◾ At Buccan, I’d have the Florida rock shrimp ceviche with pineapple habanero hot sauce because Conley is masterful with raw dishes and flavor combinations. I’d have the short rib empanadas with salsa criolla because beef-filled empanadas have been on the menu since Day 1 and are still some of the best hand pies in town. And I’d order the sweet corn agnolotti, a relatively newer pasta dish that’s stuffed with ricotta, bacon and spiced up with piment d’Espelette.

◾ At Imoto, I love the Peking duck tacos with plum sauce, carrots and sesame, one of the restaurant’s original-menu dishes. The tuna foie slider with mango salsa is a special bite. And the Maine lobster sushi roll kicked up with spicy tuna, avocado, cucumber, crispy shallot and wasabi aioli. (The Michigan-born Conley was raised in Maine and knows his Maine lobster.)

◾ At Buccan Sandwich Shop, go for the Steak Bomb if you are a carnivore. A generous serving of finely chopped Prime New York strip steak, onions, peppers, cheese sauce, lettuce and tomato are tucked into a fresh baguette. And the jumbo chocolate chip cookies topped with flaky salt are a must-have.

Buccan Palm Beach timeline

◾ Buccan, the Ember Group’s flagship restaurant, debuted in Palm Beach in late January 2011.

◾ Imoto, an intimate, Japanese-leaning restaurant, opened next door to Buccan in February 2012. The cozy spot was inspired by Conley’s travels in Japan, where he worked with mentor and celebrity chef Todd English in 2003.

◾ The Sandwich Shop at Buccan, Conley’s elevated-deli and lunch takeout counter, opened at the northern side (Australian Avenue) of Buccan in mid-December 2014.

◾ In 2015, Conley and his partners opened Grato, a go-to trattoria in West Palm Beach’s Flamingo Park neighborhood. It remains a popular spot, but it is not part of the current plans for the Coral Gables location.

◾ In late January 2024, Conley earned his seventh semifinalist slot for a James Beard Award for “Best Chef” in the South. The previous “Best Chef” semifinalist honors came in 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022.

Buccan is at 350 S. County Rd., Palm Beach, 561-833-3450, BuccanPalmBeach.com.

Read recent columns by Liz Balmaseda

◾ Day trip: A farm-inspired brunch in Stuart. A Tuscan wine shop in Hobe Sound.

◾ A fresh batch of places to eat and locally made treats

◾ New West Palm steakhouse restaurant kicks off Sunday brunch

◾ A favorite seafood restaurant gets a glow-up in the Gardens

◾ Where to find the best meatballs in town? Some favorites!

Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She covers the local food and dining beat. Follow her on Instagram and Post on Food Facebook. She can be reached by email at lbalmaseda@pbpost.com. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Buccan Palm Beach restaurant to open near Miami at Miracle Mile