BRINGS AEGEAN CHARM TO ACQUALINA

By David Kaufman

Avra Estiatorio is the first South Florida outpost of the now iconic New York Mediterranean restaurant group. Set at the Estates at Acqualina between the North and South Towers inside Villa Acqualina, the restaurant elevates Acqualina’s existing portfolio of world-class dining to stunning new heights. Owing to its Mediterranean roots, Avra at Acqualina is all about light and water – with floor-to-ceiling windows offering panoramic vistas of the beach and pools. A 100-footlong terrace also features double-height ceilings and sturdy stone arches looking out to the Atlantic.

LOOMING OVER THE 360-DEGREE FLUTED MIRROR BAR

IS A TREMENDOUS TERRACOTTA URN WITH A LARGE FICUS TREE – ALL THE DESIGN HANDIWORK OF THE PRESTIGIOUS STA ARCHITECTURE GROUP IN MIAMI BEACH.

Although intimate in feel and aesthetic, Avra Miami is grandly proportioned, with 330 seats – including supremely comfortable oversized booths. The ceiling is designed like the al fresco pergola found in the Greek isles, covered with flowering bougainvillea vines to evoke the charming tavernas found along the Aegean countryside.

According to STA Principal Todd Tragash, a core element of Avra’s design was its use of stone, as evidenced by the eye-catching stone installations at each end of the restaurant. “Our design was inspired from the remnants of the quarried blocks, after they’re cut into slabs,” says Tragash. “The stone masons call them ‘skins.’ We sourced the skins from the Mediterranean and Aegean regions and composed them into three-dimensions explosions of the extracted material.”

Much like at existing Avra restaurants in New York and Los Angeles, Avra Miami is all about culinary drama. Each evening the restaurant’s “catch of the day” is displayed so diners inspect and select their favorite seafood items. Sturdy travertine marble columns anchor the restaurant, accented and aligned by the large ficus trees native to South Florida, which are set in large terracotta urns, lending another nod to Greece and its iconic fig trees. And wafting through it all are those cool Atlantic breezes, brought into the restaurant through towering glass doors – ever-reminding diners that Avra, after all, comes from the word for “breeze” in Greek.