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With a name derived from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
(“There are no shortcuts in evolution”), David Bouley’s Miami
Beach restaurant is a temple to the elevated and evolved.
Ensconced in the fabled Morris Lapidus-designed diLido Hotel
(1953, and now gorgeously renovated and rechristened the
Ritz-Carlton South Beach), and designed by Jacques Garcia of
Hotel Costes fame (as well as the Sultan of Brunei’s Parisian
pied a terre….), Evolution is a testament to the glories to be
found high atop the food chain. The circular summer room is as
sumptuous as a summer palace—think Le Petit Trianon refreshed
with clean lines and luxurious fabrics—with floor-to-ceiling
golden draperies, and two massive gold-leafed columns. Intimate
and secluded, to eat in this room surrounded by like-minded
individuals, people driven to pursue culinary excellence, is to
feel a member of a privileged gastronomic club.
And while Bouley and his institutions have certainly never been
inexpensive, he and his sous-chefs do not skimp on les amuse-gueules.
For starters, there’s a small square bowl of gazpacho, with
cilantro croutons—followed by grilled eggplant terrine with red
bell pepper and Vermont goat cheese—which slathers elegantly on
the delicious rolls. A plate of grilled vegetables retains the
flavor of every single one of the not-less-than twelve samples
from a summer garden’s bounty, all of them bursting with flavor.
And afterwards, there is what’s referred to as “pre-dessert:” a
small scoop of goat cheese ice cream atop wild blueberries so
succulent and juicy so as to evoke childhood summers spent
picking blueberries by the quart basket. The “real” dessert is
called Rose Cloud—whereby a puff of meringue sits atop a cloud
of raspberries alongside a small scoop of rose ice cream, the
cumulative effect of which is to feel as if one has bathed in a
milk tub filled with rose petals. Refreshing and yet slightly
decadent and almost a bit depraved—which somehow sums up the
entire experience of eating at Evolution. “How did I get here?”
as David Byrne might say—but on the other hand, why not linger a
while longer and luxuriate in the thrill.
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