Five Things to Know About Lur, The Tasting-Menu Food Stand in South Beach
Before you go to a restaurant, what do you want — or need — to know the most? In our series The Rundown, we’re sharing all the essentials about Resy restaurants — our newly opened, old, and soon-to-be-favorite spots.
Today, we’re highlighting an upscale tasting menu experience in a casual food hall setting.
At Lur — which is Basque for “Earth” — chef Aitor Garate Berasaluze is reimagining the food hall experience by introducing a reservation-only tasting dinner. The Basque food stand at Time Out Market in South Beach brings the cuisine of the chef’s homeland to Miami, combining the freshest local produce with authentic ingredients imported from Spain.
Berasaluze most recently helmed the kitchen at Leku, which many called the best new restaurant in Miami when it debuted in 2020 — an indication of the quality of cuisine he’s now serving up at this South Beach food hall.
Here are five things to know about Lur — and why you need a reservation to try the tasting menu.
1. You’ll be dining on Michelin-caliber cuisine at a food hall.
Berasaluze has worked in the kitchens of the top Michelin-starred restaurants in the Basque Country, and he brings that caliber of gastronomy to the menu at Lur.
“The cooking that we do here involves more preparation, more detail, a higher quality of products. You’ll see it in the techniques and flavors of my plates,” he says.
If you’re partaking in Lur’s tasting menu, you don’t order and walk away with a buzzer to find a seat at a bench. Lur’s stand is in a prime location within the market, featuring its own six-seat chef’s counter. This is where you’ll find yourself seated as the chef prepares each course in the open kitchen and serves it to you à la minute.
It’s an experience unlike any other at the quick-service Time Out Market, and also unlike the typical food hall kiosk, this one requires a Resy. Lur takes reservations for its three-course tasting menu experience Wednesday through Sunday from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., with a special eight-course offering on Friday nights.
2. Basque cuisine is a far cry from Spanish tapas.
The cuisine at Lur is inspired by the region of Spain from which chef Berasaluze hails — the Basque Country along the northern coast (he grew up in the tiny town of Izurtza). You might be familiar with Spain’s typical tapas style of dining, but don’t expect to find casual tapas on Lur’s prix fixe menu.
The Basque region is globally renowned for its culinary reputation, top chefs, and high concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants. Its eclectic cuisine is influenced by both the countryside and coast, utilizing the freshest ingredients available at local markets. Think of it as the Spanish regional cooking most aligned with haute cuisine.
That’s why Lur’s tasting menu changes based on seasonality, availability, and freshness of ingredients. Current options include ensalada a la parilla (grilled salad) with Idiazabal cheese and anchovies; branzino marinated in aji mirasol with beurre blanc and sunchokes; and the signature Basque-style creamy burnt cheesecake.
Of note, Lur also offers traditional Spanish staples such as pan con tomate, gazpacho, and tortilla Española for anyone at the food hall to order a la carte throughout the day (as well as to guests dining from the tasting menu who want to add on to their meal).
3. Guests can choose between three- and eight-course tasting menus.
Lur recently introduced a three-course prix fixe dinner option ($45 per person), available Wednesday through Sunday, as a more accessible way to experience the chef’s innovative Basque cooking techniques and artful presentation.
On Friday nights, however, guests can reserve the eight-course Basque Dinner Experience at 7:30 p.m. ($85 per person with $45 optional wine pairing), which the chef uses as a testing ground for new seasonal menu items. Throughout the experience, Berasaluze effortlessly shifts from the refined (like cauliflower cream soup with only three ingredients: cauliflower, basil oil, and pine nuts) to the indulgent (porcini mushroom croquetas with shaved black truffle) to the unexpected (chilled tuna tartare topped with warm slices of crispy pork belly).
“It’s a chance to experiment and see the guests’ response immediately,” he says.
Because seating at the chef’s counter is so limited, both tasting menu experiences are by reservation only. Lur also is looking to add servers so prix fixe dinner guests can extend beyond the chef’s counter and sit in the space surrounding the food stand.
4. The Michelin-trained chef is multi-talented.
At only 27 years old, Aitor Garate Berasaluze is a triple threat as a chef, baker and sommelier — all of which combine at Lur, down to the dessert and wine pairings. Berasaluze grew up helping with the family bakery as a child, where he was mesmerized by the wood-stone oven, while also working on the family farm. After finishing his studies in both food and wine, he cooked at top restaurants in the Basque region and elsewhere across Europe.
In fact, he got his professional start at the three-Michelin-starred Azurmendi in the Basque countryside, where he became the restaurant’s youngest head pastry chef and, later, head of the meat department. He was also recruited to be head sommelier at Asador Etxebarri, another acclaimed Basque restaurant that sits at No. 3 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Luckily for us, Berasaluze was invited to help open a new Basque restaurant in Miami as the head chef of Leku, and ultimately decided to go off on his own to open Lur at Time Out Market. And something tells us this is only the start.
5. Wine pairings are provided by a fellow market vendor.
Guests can add on wine pairings from Vinya ($20 per person with the three-course prix fixe), a natural wine bar in Miami with an additional outpost at Time Out Market. The Vinya team curates hard-to-find wines from small-scale producers, including family-owned wineries and sustainable growers. Of course they’ve selected Spanish wines to pair with your meal from Lur — many of which are sourced directly from the Basque Country. Because Berasaluze is also trained in wine, he’ll pour you a glass with each course and guide you through the tasting notes.
