Twenty years ago, a little-known and very young graduate of Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, opened an upscale Cuban restaurant in Coral Gables, Florida-and within months, the restaurant Yuca had established chef Douglas Rodriguez as a formidable talent in the American restaurant industry. From the age of fourteen, Rodriguez had been working in restaurants and collecting cookbooks-and so it was perhaps foreordained that this Miami-raised son of Cuban immigrants would soon be dubbed the “Godfather of Nuevo Latino” cuisine and the recipient of numerous awards and international acclaim.
With over 50 million Spanish speakers, the United States is the second-largest Spanish-speaking community in the world (after Mexico), which is one explanation for the recent explosion of Hispanic and Latino restaurants. And just as Julia Child instructed the American palate about the wonders of French cuisine, so has Douglas Rodriguez become El Jefe, the man best positioned to offer Americans an entrée into the gustatory delights of Latino- and Hispanic-based cooking.
After award-winning stints in Manhattan, where his restaurants earned high ratings from Zagat and multiple stars from the New York Times, Rodriguez has streamlined his focus to a restaurant empire which now includes Alma de Cuba in Philadelphia, Deseo in Scottsdale, the soon-to-be opened D. Rodriguez Cuba in the South Beach Art Deco gem, Hotel Astor-as well as OLA at the Sanctuary Hotel in South Beach.
Originally opened on Ocean Drive in the south of Fifth neighborhood of South Beach, OLA (an acronym for Of Latin America, as well as Spanish for “wave”) moved uptown a few years ago to a relatively more restrained address on James Avenue-at the Sanctuary Hotel. Just down the block from Casa Tua, another sophisticated sanctuary, OLA has the feel of a private home in Palm Springs or Buenos Aires, a clubhouse of civility nestled in a plush residential neighborhood.
OLA’s outdoor terrace fronts the quiet street-and to find yourself seated in white leather chairs beneath a harvest moon is to realize anew the magic of Miami nights. Equally soothing is OLA’s interior space, with a palette slightly more subdued than the designer Paul Smith’s trademark stripes. Recent visits to OLA on both a weekend and a weekday night found a room buzzing with energy, although without that cacophony so often associated with South Beach restaurants.
Well-known for its mojitos, OLA recently initiated a class in Mojitos Making 101 for teambuilding and group activity-and after tasting several of OLA’s signature drinks, it would be hard to argue with the resultant effect. Everyone looks better behind a mojito glow. OLA also offers a class on ceviche, another area of cuisine that El Jefe Rodriguez has claimed and reshaped as his own with his customary innovation.
Acknowledging influences from around the world, OLA takes its primary cues from Cuba, while mixing in the culinary consequences of Spanish colonialism. Lobster empanada, for example, finds the Spanish staple oozing with squid ink and Maine lobster, accompanied by an avocado salad and a salsa rossa, thereby incorporating the locales of Cuba, Maine, California and Mexico into one particularly delicious starter.
Similarly, a pastel, OLA’s vegetarian option, is a masterful experience in texture and flavor, whereby Rodriguez modifies a Puerto Rican pastel, using both yucca and malanga (a root vegetable like a yam, popular in Cuba), as well as green plantain, and places it atop a chestnut puree, beneath a slaw of pumpkin salad. The end result is a kind of global cornucopia of autumn’s harvest: a mélange of flavors from several different latitudes, all celebrating Indian summer’s bounty. Truly spectacular, it’s the kind of entrée that elevates humble vegetables into a new realm. A side of winter asparagus arrives perfectly seared with grill marks, while a plate of Catalan spinach showcases golden sultanas and pine nuts with roasted garlic oil-and then there are those rolls: pandebono, a toothsome Colombian bread made with tapioca flour, cornmeal, and queso fresco, a salty farmer’s cheese. No question about it: these rolls are the primary reason Columbus set sail for the New World.
As for desserts, Rodriguez reclaims his Miami roots with a deconstructed key lime pie, a decadent creation that isolates each of the primary components of that lip-smacking dessert, the better to appreciate each specific taste. And given the proximity to Cuba, and that island’s impact on post-prandial vices, why not a cigar-albeit rendered in almond chocolate cake hand rolled with semisweet chocolate mousse, served alongside a candy matchbook. With smoothly orchestrated grace, the staff at OLA works together like a roomful of professional tango dancers-as equally polished as they are attractive. Recently named by Newsweek as “one of one hundred Americans who will influence the millennium,” Douglas Rodriguez’s cooking at OLA makes a tantalizing argument that one excuse for colonialism might be the increased sharing of national bounties-and that every Latin and Hispanic cuisine merits a place at the American table. The culmination of over four hundred years of travel, OLA reveals the true menu of the New World.
DETAILS:
OLA @ Sanctuary, 1745 James Avenue Miami Beach, FL 33139
Phone: 305.695.9125
Website: www.OLAMiami.com
