I had a friend who purchased the smallest apartment I had ever encountered across the street, and I adopted the neighborhood as my own. Pastis was always the first stop for a glass of wine and shrimp from the raw bar. Every single Friday evening, I would throw on jeans and run out of the theater, stage makeup still on, and hop on the subway downtown to Pastis. In the early 2000s, I had a part in a not-so-great off-Broadway show. But it was also a restaurant that welcomed everyday New Yorkers with open arms: spend a thousand dollars or just come in for some frites and a beer at the bar. Pastis starred in an episode of Sex and the City where Aleksandr Petrovsky and Carrie Bradshaw canoodled over oysters, The Sopranos' James Gandolfini would hang out at the bar, and Cher filmed a music video on the cobblestone streets just outside its doors. It was a place where you felt anything could happen.

Yes, the burgers were delicious, the French onion soup piping hot, and the wine cold - but the New York bistro became a sensation for more than its food and drink. The restaurant's warm globe lights welcomed everyone in those heady first years of the new millennium. Although celebrities embraced it, its roots were that of the noble-yet-humble French bistro: an egalitarian establishment designed to provide good food and drink in a convivial setting. The original Pastis (which opened in early 2000, closed in 2014, and reopened a stone's throw away in 2019) made its home in Manhattan's Meatpacking District back when workers wearing bloody white aprons slung carcasses from the wholesale butchers that gave the neighborhood its name. But, of all these New York darlings, Pastis is - and has always been- different. So, it wasn't a total surprise when restaurateurs Stephen Starr and Keith McNally announced plans to bring Pastis to Miami's Wynwood neighborhood. Major Food Group's Carbone was an instant sensation when it opened last year, Cote was handed a Michelin star for its Miami restaurant, and Rao's - a New York establishment famous for the fact that you'll never be able to secure a reservation - plans to open in Miami Beach.

Seeing the same opportunities (and an instant audience), New York-based restaurateurs have been migrating south. A perfect storm of low taxes, lower-priced (than New York) real estate, and a balmy climate have been the major attractants for New Yorkers to permanently make the 'sixth borough' home. In the past few years, Miami has seen an increased infusion of New York money and culture.

Pearls pastis