- 465 Brickell Ave, Miami
- The Cipriani family · Harry's Bar, Venice, 1931
- Venetian Italian · the original Bellini
- Brickell Bay waterfront
The Ciprianis have been serving the same short menu since Giuseppe opened Harry's Bar in Venice in 1931, and the Brickell room on Brickell Avenue does not deviate: beef carpaccio, tagliolini gratinati with ham, the Bellini as it was first poured in 1948 — white peach purée and Cipriani prosecco, nothing else. Whether that consistency reads as discipline or as museum-keeping is a matter of taste, and both readings are defensible.
What is not in dispute is the service, which is the old European kind, and the waterfront position. Lunch is the better meal.
The other Brickell Italian question. Claudie, on Brickell Bay Drive, comes at the same neighbourhood from the South of France rather than the Veneto — lighter, more recent, and built for dinner rather than for a business lunch. If you are choosing between them, choose by the hour of the day.
Ninety years of the same short menu, and no interest in changing it.
