A coral-rock building on the lagoon
The building
The restaurant sits in one of Matheson Hammock Park’s historic WPA buildings, built of coral rock at the end of the park road, where the lagoon meets Biscayne Bay.
It started out as a beach concession stand and was Redfish Grill for years; Hurricane Irma badly damaged it in 2017.
In 2022 Donatella made it NOMA BEACH: a bigger patio open to the lagoon and the bay, dinner on the rooftop, and palms wrapped in lights. It is the only waterfront restaurant in Coral Gables.
Donatella Arpaia
Donatella grew up on the coast of Puglia and around Naples, in a family that cooked. She started out in law, and restaurants won: in New York she opened Bellini, davidburke & donatella, the Michelin-starred Anthos, Mia Dona and Kefi, more than a dozen restaurants in New York and Miami in all. The New York Post named her “the most powerful woman in Manhattan,” and Crain’s put her on its 40 under 40.
She trained at the French Culinary Institute and the Italian Culinary Academy, and learned Neapolitan pizza in Naples from the master pizzaiolo Enzo Coccia. Americans know her from Food Network, as head judge on Iron Chef America and from The Next Iron Chef and Beat Bobby Flay, from the Today show and Good Morning America, and from her cookbooks; New York’s food world knows her as the Meatball Queen, and the meatballs on our menu are her family’s recipe.
In 2022 she opened NOMA BEACH in Miami: her vision of coastal Italian, with the water all around it. She also hosts curated events here herself.
“Anyone who doubts that Donatella can do something is taking a huge risk.”
Bobby Flay
In the press
Six stories Donatella chose, as their pages looked. Open one to read it.