Aba will open at the Bal Harbour Shops, and it’s going to be grand.
The Bal Harbour Shops proves itself as more than a shopping destination with its latest expansion announcement: Chicago’s Mediterranean restaurant Aba is opening on its ground floor this fall. It comes to Miami by way of Top Chef alum CJ Jacobson, executive partner Marc Jacobs and Chicago-based hospitality group Lettuce Entertain You, which marks its first South Florida project with Aba.
The sister restaurant to Ēma in Chicago’s River North, Aba showcases chef Jacobson’s lighter style of Mediterranean cooking. The menu is vegetable-forward and includes an assortment of dips, including the carrot sunflower with sunflower tahini and the avocado hummus with Dungeness crab. There’s also the torched toro toro with watermelon and crystalized Castelvetrano olives; an everything bagel with smoked salmon spread, shawarma Spiced Skirt Steak with black garlic mushroom jus and grilled mahi mahi with roasted garlic yogurt, among other signature dishes.
Mixologist Liz Pearce created a Mediterranean-meets-Southern-California cocktail menu and curated a wine list that focuses on winemakers who employ sustainable, organic and/or biodynamic growing practices.
Aba is slated to open on the mall’s first floor and comprise a covered patio, mezzanine bar, terrace and indoor dining area, totaling more than 240 seats. Needless to say, it’ll be sprawling and a welcomed contrast to the spate of other Mediterranean restaurants swinging open their doors this season—from modern Israeli spot Neya to Lebanese stunner Amal to the tapas-centric Mazeh. Miami’s surely got room for one more.
- Virginia Gil Editor, Time Out Miami