The Japanese dining empire plants its flag in Miami’s financial district with a 74-story waterfront tower—and its second South Florida restaurant.
After two decades of dominating Miami Beach’s culinary scene, Nobu Hospitality is making a calculated expansion into Brickell, bringing its celebrity-magnet dining experience to the mainland for the first time. The move signals a major shift in Miami’s luxury landscape, as high-end hospitality brands increasingly view the city’s financial district as more than just a place to work.
The new Nobu restaurant will anchor 619 Brickell, a soaring 74-story residential tower designed by starchitect firm Foster + Partners alongside Sieger Suarez Architects. Positioned just south of Icon Brickell along Biscayne Bay, the development represents Nobu’s inaugural residential project in Miami—a strategic play that intertwines the brand’s hospitality DNA with luxury real estate.
Gli sviluppatori 13th Floor Investments e Key International hanno ritagliato uno spazio privilegiato al piano terra per il ristorante, caratterizzato da una sala da pranzo circolare con ampie vedute sul lungomare. La disposizione non è casuale: il ristorante fungerà da
La torre di 300 residenze includerà
Developers 13th Floor Investments and Key International have carved out prime ground-floor space for the restaurant, featuring a circular dining room with sweeping waterfront views. The layout isn’t accidental: the restaurant will serve as the social centerpiece of the tower, connecting directly to residential and amenity spaces in a design that blurs the lines between private living and public dining.
The 300-residence tower will include 90,000 square feet of private amenities, positioning it as one of Brickell’s most ambitious mixed-use projects. For Nobu Hospitality—co-founded by celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa, actor Robert De Niro, and film producer Meir Teper—the Brickell location represents both geographic expansion and product diversification.
Nobu’s Miami pedigree runs deep. The brand first arrived in 2001 with a South Beach restaurant at the Shore Club on Collins Avenue, quickly establishing itself as the city’s premier destination for fusion Japanese cuisine. Signature dishes like black cod miso, yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño, and rock shrimp tempura became staples of Miami’s fine-dining scene.
In 2014, the operation relocated to the Eden Roc Miami Beach, where it evolved into something bigger. The Nobu Hotel Miami Beach launched in 2016 as an innovative hotel-within-a-hotel concept, featuring over 200 rooms, multiple pools, a spa, and what became the world’s largest Nobu restaurant. Today, that location ranks among the brand’s highest-grossing outposts globally.
The move across Biscayne Bay comes as Brickell undergoes a dramatic transformation from business district to live-work-play destination. With residential towers proliferating and Miami’s financial sector drawing deeper-pocketed residents, the neighborhood has become fertile ground for luxury brands seeking new markets.
For Nobu, the timing is strategic. The brand has built a global empire spanning dozens of restaurants and hotels, attracting deep-pocketed diners and celebrity clientele from Los Angeles to London. Adding a Brickell outpost positions Nobu to capture both the neighborhood’s growing residential base and its established business crowd—a different demographic mix than the tourist-heavy Miami Beach market.
The 619 Brickell project also signals broader ambitions. By embedding itself in a residential tower from the ground up, Nobu is testing a model that could be replicated in other major cities, where real estate and hospitality increasingly converge.
Whether Brickell’s sidewalks will soon buzz with the same celebrity sightings that made Nobu synonymous with Miami Beach remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: the competition for high-end dining dollars in Miami just got considerably more intense.
Source: Miami New Times
