The Champ Is Here: Stephanie Izard’s Ladygoat Will Land in Miami’s Wynwood
Observer · · g4164138
Chef Stephanie Izard is bringing whole-animal cooking, local shellfish and bold global flavors to Miami in early 2027.
Stephanie Izard will open her first Miami restaurant in early 2027 with the multicultural flavors, whole-animal cooking and deep love for all things goat that have powered her career.
Ladygoat, a partnership between Izard and Grove Bay Hospitality Group, will be located in Miami’s buzzing Wynwood neighborhood and serve dishes like flaky goat empanadas, a sticky and crunchy pork shank, a wood-fired porterhouse and Izard’s signature green beans.
“All my restaurants tie together the way I like to cook: bold flavors, pulling inspiration from different areas,” Izard tells Observer in an exclusive interview to announce the opening of Ladygoat . “And depending on where I open, I just change things up a little bit. It’s about getting to know what’s available locally and weaving that into the way I like to cook. I love the idea of coming up with new things that aren’t on the menus at any of my other restaurants.”
Izard, whose flagship Girl & The Goat opened in Chicago 16 years ago, is working on a wood-fired seafood tower with local shellfish for Ladygoat. She’s been touring her way through Haitian and Cuban restaurants in Miami to “really get the vibe” of the city. She’s marveled at how some of those restaurants prepare pork and conch, and she’s excited to play around with conch in Miami. And Izard, along with Grove Bay Hospitality vice president of culinary operations Kenny Gilbert and Ladygoat chef de cuisine Logan McNeil , is about to break down and cook goat from a local farm as they develop the Ladygoat menu.
Izard is, of course, the first woman to win Top Chef , and she later won Iron Chef Gauntlet . Gilbert is a good friend and competition-cooking-show rival, and his presence at Grove Bay helped convince her to open Ladygoat.
“Kenny and I have the perfect friendship/rivalry thing going on, whether it’s in the kitchen or in our workouts,” Izard says. “He jokes that I tried to kill him at the gym when I was down there last time, but we just love to challenge each other.”
Ladygoat grew out of a collaboration dinner in May when Izard cooked alongside fellow “Top Chef” champion Jeremy Ford at Ford’s Stubborn Seed in Miami. Stubborn Seed is part of Grove Bay’s portfolio, and Izard chatted with Grove Bay co-founders Francesco Balli and Ignacio Garcia-Menocal , who asked if she might want to open a Miami restaurant.
“I was very excited to meet Francesco and Ignacio and the entire team at Grove Bay, but Kenny was the first step that made me excited to even jump into conversations,” Izard says. “I trust him, and he’s the most diligent and organized person that I’ve ever met.”
So Gilbert and McNeil are now here to help bring Izard’s Ladygoat vision to life. As always, Izard will cook with the kind of global flavors that won her a James Beard Award in 2013. She’ll make Girl & the Goat’s sautéed green beans with fish sauce vinaigrette and cashews. She’ll serve her goat empanadas with huacatay mayo, and she’ll present her pork shank with an assortment of sauces and pikliz for a family-style feast. She’ll finish her wood-fired porterhouse with Castelvetrano olive chimichurri and miso garlic brown butter. Garcia-Menocal and Balli are excited to let Izard cook exactly what she wants.
“I think our partnerships with celebrity chefs work well because we each understand what we do best,” Garcia-Menocal tells Observer. “We understand that chefs are creative and great at what they do, and we let them do what they do best. They create the menus and manage the kitchen. And what we’re great at is doing everything else as far as managing the business.”
It’s a formula that’s led to Stubborn Seed earning a Michelin star in Miami and opening a second location in Las Vegas. And while Grove Bay understands that Miami is a seasonal market, the hospitality group wants to work with prominent chefs to create year-round spots that work as both destination dining and neighborhood hangouts.
“There’s still seasonality involved in Miami, for sure, but it’s becoming more and more [about] neighborhoods,” Balli tells Observer. “Now the neighborhoods are becoming their own personalities.”
Garcia-Menocal says Ladygoat’s location, on a busy, strollable stretch of an art-laden neighborhood, and its indoor-outdoor setting evoke the feeling of visiting Girl & the Goat in Chicago’s West Loop. Ladygoat is taking over a lush space on NW 25th Street that was previously Rosemary’s .
Izard, speaking to Observer from Girl & the Goat’s Los Angeles location, says Wynwood feels ideal for her Miami debut.
“When I look at where Girl & the Goat is in Chicago and where I’m sitting here in the Arts District in L.A., Wynwood is just the type of neighborhood I enjoy being in,” she says. “It’s a little funky. There are nice restaurants and people who have income that they can spend on food, but there’s also just this right vibe. It’s fun. It’s a little bit different. You can be a little bit quirky and still fit in. If you’re going to pick someplace in Miami, it seemed like the perfect fit as opposed to being over by the beach.”
You obviously don’t have to be by the beach to feel the sunshine and energy in Miami.
“I like the brightness that you get in the food here,” Izard says. “At Ladygoat, I’m going for these bold flavors that really work well together. A lot of acid, a lot of texture, all these elements. I think it’s looking at different flavors I’ve played with over the years and what fits in Miami.”