This celebrated chef was priced out of Miami. Now he’s making magic in Fort Lauderdale

For Chef Timon Balloo, Miami was a beloved culinary home.

He came up through the ranks at Johnson & Wales University, cooking for Alan Susser at Chef Allen’s in Aventura and later at Azul at the Mandarin Oriental with Michelle Bernstein. He opened two restaurants in Miami: Sugarcane raw bar grill in 2010, which put Midtown on the map, and the more intimate Balloo in 2019, where he created fusion magic born from his Chinese, Indian and Trinidadian roots. He reveled in the city’s cultural diversity and its growing passion for food and dining.

So how did the chef end up leaving the Magic City — the place he calls his “intended home” — for Fort Lauderdale, where he has opened one of the best restaurants in Broward County?

Economics. Opportunity. The changing needs of family.

The move was not what he expected. But the shift is all part of the life journey, says Balloo, now the father of two.

“I miss the Miami demographic, but I love that I’m about three miles away from where I pick up my kids from school,” he said. “We have great support from the community. We’re able to do everything on our terms. That’s very liberating as a business person and creator and husband and father.”

The Katherine, tucked away on Broward Boulevard just off Federal Highway in downtown Fort Lauderdale, occupies the former space of Foxy Brown. Named for Balloo’s wife, Marissa Katherine, the restaurant opened in 2022 with a menu that reflects their love and their lives together.

It also reflects their rich cultural heritage, from Balloo’s Caribbean influences to Marissa Balloo’s Thai-Colombian background. You’ll find Thai red curry mahi mahi; jerk grilled chicken thighs served with coconut-braised kale and plantains; roasted marrow bones with bacon marmalade. You’ll also find comfort foods like a divine short rib orecchiette; fish on polenta (a recent choice was wahoo); Indian-style grilled street corn; tuna crispy rice; and salads including a Thai-style charred cabbage salad.

One of the menu highlights, the clam chowder fries, are a must. The dish is exactly what you think it is, a ghost of Balloo’s past: Growing up in San Francisco, he ate and adored clam chowder, then learned the power of fries during his time in Belgium. He envisions the dish as a mussels-and-frites sort of meal, with the hot, crispy, skinny fries on top and clam chowder (minus the potatoes) on the bottom. If you dine at The Katherine without ordering it, you have made a grave error.

Balloo envisions The Katherine as a scaled-down, modern version of Sugarcane, with attention paid to the diverse cultures that represent his family (“these cultures need representation,” he says.) New menu items will appear throughout the year, but you can always expect to find the favorites.

“With Sugarcane, I always said my goal was to create a Miami institution, like the restaurants that used to be only in New York,” he says of his first restaurant, which is now run entirely by his partners. “ Like Pastis, which is here now, and Gramercy Tavern. They’re institutions that are symbolic of cities. What we did at Sugarcane was monumental. I hope to repeat it in its own way.”

Balloo has long had ties to Broward. He moved there with his family at the age of 15 and attended Piper High School in Sunrise, where he met Marissa in his senior year.

“It’s always been home, in a way,” he says. “My grandma’s here. My wife’s family is here.”

When Balloo closed in 2020, a victim of the COVID pandemic, the plan was to eventually reopen in Miami. There were deals afoot. But no one had counted on the massive influx of out-of-town restaurants trying to break into the market.

We weren’t prepared for the rest of the country to merge on Florida and take all the real estate,” Balloo says ruefully. “In four weeks, we had three potential locations gone to out-of-state operators willing to pay full price for square footage and take whatever they could. And behold, no opportunity to open a Balloo in Miami any longer.”

That’s when he let the nagging idea in the back of his mind rise: Why not Fort Lauderdale? Everyone knew Foxy Brown, and when that restaurant moved to its new space on Broward Boulevard, he made his move.

Opening in Fort Lauderdale offers different challenges than opening in Miami, of course. There are good restaurants in and around the city, but it doesn’t carry the prestige of Miami (witness the distinct lack of Fort Lauderdale restaurants on the Michelin star list — the city wasn’t included in consideration while Miami, Orlando and Tampa were).

Used to instant success, Balloo found that drawing an audience took longer.

“I came in thinking we were going to hit it like wildfire,” he admits. “But there was a little bit of reluctance. I thought it would hit harder faster. We had to learn about the area and figure it out.”

The customers gradually arrived — ironically, many of the first to support it were from New York or Los Angeles or other restaurant meccas outside Florida — and The Katherine has grown a loyal base. Balloo, a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant for Sugarcane, was nominated as a semifinalist earlier this year for “Best Chef South” for The Katherine. James Beard nominations are far from the usual in Broward.

People are finally taking notice — and, living in Plantation, Balloo finds he’s not away from home quite so much anymore.

“Broward is a growing market with a lot of young professionals coming from everywhere,” Balloo says. “Maybe they don’t want to deal with Miami. I don’t want to deal with I-95 all the time! . . . Hopefully we’ll be here for a long time. I want to make The Katherine a Macchialina — a neighborhood restaurant you fall in love and grow old with.”

The Katherine

Where: 723 E Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale

Hours: 5-9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and Sunday; 5-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Closed Monday-Tuesday

More information: thekatherinerestaurant.com or (754) 216-0690

Reservations: resy.com; bar and patio generally reserved for walk-in diners.