The One Who Keeps the Book Miami
How to Get a Table at Rao’s in Miami
For years, tiny one-room Rao’s in East Harlem has been one of the most notoriously difficult reservations in America. The family-run spot made even greater fame selling its pasta sauces in grocery stores, and this past fall, opened its first location in Florida at the historic Loews Miami Beach hotel. Snagging a table isn’t quite as tough as it is at the original, but you can’t just waltz into Rao’s Miami Beach on a Saturday night and sit right down.
Rao’s opens reservations up to 60 days in advance so guests can plan for those primetime slots accordingly, but for the real tips, we turned to co-owner Ron Straci. On a recent Saturday night, Straci effortlessly worked the dining room in a custom-tailored sport coat, negroni in hand, winking at guests, and laughing with everyone. Between sips of the cocktail, Straci walked us through the must-order menu items — and how to get a prime seat at Rao’s Miami Beach.
How does this Rao’s compare to the one in New York?
Ron Straci: We are trying to give them the same feeling, but it’s a little bigger. This has a little bit of a [spacious] feeling, where New York has that little tight feeling. But the feeling that I get from staff, you think they worked here for five years already. They have bought into that mystique that Rao’s is something special.
One of the things we did in Vegas, we dropped the ceiling to make it look smaller, like New York. Here, we couldn’t touch it; this is an historic building. So we decided if we can’t touch ’em, let’s make it nicer. So everyone likes the way Rao’s looks. They like that we’re putting the pictures on the wall like we have back home … It’s just a bigger room.
How many seats do you have?
Almost about 200 seats, depending on how it’s set up. You know, half of the space here wasn’t used by Lure, so that’s what we call the Rao’s Room now. It was used only for private parties, but we have seating in there.
How far out should someone plan to book?
Sometimes I hear you need two weeks down here. Sometimes they say a week, sometimes they say three weeks. So it depends, but I say two weeks. We’re starting to get people, like [we do in] New York, who now want a table every Thursday.
What advice do you have for someone looking to book on a weekend?
My cousin’s granddaughter called I think two or three weeks ago, and got a table last night (Friday) at nine o’clock. That’s the earliest she could get. They didn’t ask me, and I don’t know if I’d have been able to do anything.
So it depends if you’re two, you’re four, you’re six, you’re eight. That always affects how long it’s gonna take. And if you’re comfortable with the time, because here we open at six and we do sit until 10. So a lot of people, we have to squeeze them in at 9:30, — and nobody in Miami eats early anyway.
Do you accept walk-ins?
Yeah. We had about 13 or 14 last night. The night before we had 20 walk-ins.
Can you eat at the bar?
In New York, we couldn’t serve at the bar. It’s a little shorter than (the one in Miami) and we just have one bartender and the way the kitchen is, and the way everybody comes in at the same time, we were never able to do it. But here we serve the full menu at the bar.
What about big parties? Where are you set up for that?
Yes, we have the Rao’s Room for private parties. There’s a charge for the room and whatever the food is.
How is the food different than it is in New York?
We have a menu in New York, and we use that menu for autographs. The menu is our manager, Joe, who sits down at every table and takes the order by saying, we have these things for appetizers, we have these pastas. What we can do there — which you can’t do anywhere — is we can make the veal, the steak, the chicken any way you want.
Here, if you want veal, you’re gonna get it the way it’s on the menu. With this many people, we just can’t do whatever you want. We can tweak it a little bit — you can have it with peppers if you want that. So that’s the big difference.
But as far as the food, we have almost all of the special items that we have in New York: The roasted peppers, the meatballs, the seafood salad, lemon chicken, steak chops. In New York, I can make the pork chop seven different ways. Here, I can do it two ways, but it’s the same food. And I have not had one person from New York say, “I don’t like what you did here.”
What should people order to get the true Rao’s experience?
The roasted peppers, the seafood salad, and the baked clams. You can’t miss on the meatballs. Any of the pastas.
Nothing’s prepped. Everything’s fresh. So you won’t have the veal or pork chops sitting around for 30 minutes getting heated and reheated over and over. The lemon chicken — they broil it, then they broil it again with the lemon. The peas and prosciutto is our signature side. The peanut butter tart: I call it a hockey puck. It’s great, you’re going to love it. It’s got zero calories!
I have not had one person from New York say, ‘I don’t like what you did here.’— Rao’s Co-Owner Ron Straci
Are there any dishes that are special to Miami?
No, not really. Well, maybe one of the pasta dishes, —a little purse pasta, it’s got cheese in it and a little bit of cranberry. That came from Vegas.
Tell us about your wine list and cocktail program.
We’ve got a full bar, so we can do anything. but most of the drinks out there are kind of classic, Italian inspired, maybe some French. The wine’s been a long process and it’s a nice full list. We have a lot of stuff, as you may notice when you pass by (the front hallway). We have all flavors and all prices. I think it ranges from $80 to $2,000.
Does the menu ever change?
No. The reason the food is so good is because we’ve been making the same thing for 45 years. We know how to make it by now.
