This L.A. hot spot opens in Miami with a no photos policy and $27 chicken tenders

Earlier this year, Vanity Fair called the upscale Los Angeles restaurant and supper club Delilah “the unofficial sanctuary for the rich and famous.”

Now, as just about every luxury brand is preparing to head south, Delilah is making her debut in Miami. And she’s bringing her famous chicken tenders — yes, you read that correctly — with her.

Chicken tenders may be an odd choice as a signature dish for the sort of restaurant that draws such luminaries as Drake and Beyoncé. But those tenders — which “walk an impressive tightrope between greasiness and elegance,” according to Vanity Fair — are a broad hint that this clubstaurant is aiming to be a little different from the rest.

Delilah, which also has a location in Las Vegas, is a modern-day supper club, with fine dining, live music and dancers. But though entertainment is definitely on the menu, co-founder John Terzian of h.wood Group says the combination lounge-and-restaurant focuses on food first.

Terzian, who created the Delilah concept with his partner Brian Toll, said that opening a location in Miami has long been on the agenda. The duo have hosted events in the city for the past 10 years and have long considered the Magic City a good fit for what they hope to accomplish.

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“It truly is the best city for a combination of international visitors and locals,” he says. “Our concept resonates what the lifestyle is there.”

College friends familiar with the Los Angeles club scene, Terzian and Toll opened the first Delilah in 2016. The hot spot resonated in L.A., becoming a draw for the wealthy and fabulous and leading management to swiftly institute a “no photos” rule to put famous clients at ease. They opened a Las Vegas location at the luxurious Wynn, a Forbes Five-Star hotel, in 2021.

The new restaurant will incorporate elements of the Los Angeles and Las Vegas restaurants, with a few differences and nods to the Miami scene. Located at the Four Ambassadors in Brickell, Delilah Miami will be the first location with an outdoor terrace, which is not yet open. And because the restaurant is the only Brickell spot with its own boat slips — located at the new Brickell Bay Boardwalk — guests can arrive via boat and moor on site.

The menu will reflect a few differences, too. The kitchen will be led by executive chef Daniel Roy, formerly of The Matador Room at the Miami Beach Edition and Jeremy Ford’s Stubborn Seed, which earned a Michelin star in 2022 and 2023.

Roy’s local experience gives him a bit of insight into what Miami wants when it comes to dining, he said.

“What we want to do at Delilah is have a menu that’s product-driven,” he said. “We want to give people something they may not have in the everyday world.”

An example would be the Cubano fritters, which Terzian calls “the greatest things of all time.”

The idea of a Cuban sandwich for the Miami menu was floated, but Roy rejected it.

“I said, ‘I’m not doing that — I know better,’ ” he says, laughing. “I’m not getting beat up because it’s not like your grandmother’s. So I thought about how we could transform this into a bite, do something outside the norm but not do a croqueta.”

The result is a fritter stuffed with pork, smoked ham, and Gruyere cheese, served with a homemade mustard aioli and coated with chicharrónes.

The famous chicken tenders, which cost $27, were always destined for the Miami menu. The idea for the signature dish came when Terzian and Toll were first putting together a menu for the concept.

“I’m a diehard chicken tender fan,” Terzian admits. “No one had done a gourmet chicken tender, one that’s elegant. I fought to make sure we did that, and it turned out to be a massive hit. When we were opening in Vegas, people were asking, ‘Are you sure people are going to want this?’ But that’s the No. 1 hit there.”

“We don’t just get them out of a box breaded and throw them into a fryer,” Roy explains. “It’s free range chicken that we grind, not just a piece of meat.”

Other only-in-Miami menu staples include an appetizer of octopus a la plancha ($26). One of Roy’s personal favorites among the entrees is the charred romanesco ($32), which resembles a cauliflower, is served with harissa, celery leaf pesto, garlic crumbs and herbs.

“Coming from the background I come from, working with Jeremy Ford, I love to focus on vegetables,” he says. “The cauliflower from Kyu inspired this. It’s highlighting a vegetable and making it a star.”

The menu, which also includes stone crab salad, crispy confit and suckling pig, is infused with Latin-inspired flavors, including coconut and lychee. There’s seafood, a raw bar, steaks, roasted chicken and caviar and bottle service. Entree prices range from $28 for a burger to $317 for a 40-ounce Tomahawk steak.

Terzian knows that celebrities and tourists will find their way to Delilah Miami, but he says he understands that in the heat of summer, drawing the year-round diners is key.

“We really want to focus on locals,” he says. “We’re really trying to make sure to add to the community as much as we can.”

Delilah

Where: 301 Brickell Bay Dr., Miami

More information and reservations: www.delilahrestaurants.com; 305-400-4657

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