James Beard Award-winning chef-restaurateur Michael Schwartz’s philosophy is simple: The secret to good food is good food. Beloved by locals and visitors to Miami since 2007, Michael’s Genuine® Food & Drink set the bar for neighborhood dining with its menu based on simple preparations of seasonal ingredients and the atmosphere to match.
With a track from hometown Philadelphia spanning NYC to Los Angeles under Wolfgang Puck, Schwartz landed on Miami Beach in the early 1990s turning heads and tables doing seriously good food on not so serious South Beach. Branching out on his own to open Michael’s Genuine in a then forgotten neighborhood on the mainland now known as the Miami Design District, he cementing his reputation for reinventing a fresh approach to food and defining sincere hospitality in Miami.
Schwartz’s The Genuine Hospitality Group currently operates 10 restaurants including five locations of its growing pizzeria brand, Genuine Pizza® and several outlets branching from its fine dining roots at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink in the Design District. The newest additions to the Genuine portfolio include Amara at Paraiso, the quintessential Miami restaurant with waterfront dining and a fresh approach to bold Latin American and the just-opened Tigertail and Mary, which Schwartz describes as, “the ultimate neighborhood restaurant in Coconut Grove.”
*2021 participating Farm to Fork chef.