The Borderless Creativity of Recoveco’s Seasonal Menu, in Five Dishes
Recoveco’s name may mean “nook” or “cranny” in Spanish, but it hasn’t taken long for local food lovers to discover this hotly tipped gem since it opened this summer.
“Our restaurant is a little bit further away from where Miami’s main dining districts are now, but we’ve been surprised by how many people have come to South Miami from as far north as Broward, and we also have a good mix of locals,” co-chef/owner Nicolas Martinez says. “We even see guests recognizing each other. That didn’t happen when we worked in very touristy areas like Wynwood or the Design District.”
Together, Martinez and partner Teresa Gallina are doing it all. “We both share responsibilities equally. We both put things on the menu. We both cook, we both prep, we both do plumbing, tiling the walls,” Gallina quips, referencing their 1.5-year project to open Recoveco.
The intimate, open-kitchen spot seats only 30-40 guests but, Gallina notes, they’ve been very efficient with the small space. “It’s 1,300 square feet — that’s 30% bathroom, but 100% fun,” she says.
The couple met when they were working together at Alter in Wynwood (at the time, one of Miami’s best restaurants run by James Beard semifinalist Brad Kilgore, now at Oise in Wynwood). After Kilgore’s restaurants closed during the pandemic, Gallina and Martinez went on to help open Itamae in the Design District (another top Miami restaurant — seeing a pattern?) and became co-chefs de cuisine.
But they envisioned opening their own restaurant. “We’re more quiet and reserved, and a neighborhood place sounded more fitting,” Gallina says.
Recoveco’s concept might be hard to pinpoint, but that’s intentional. They’ve kept the menu brief (10 items in total), with the goal of executing every plate exceptionally well — and that’s exactly what they’re doing.
“We intentionally have a short menu and aren’t married to any cultural geography so we don’t limit ourselves on what we can do,” Gallina says.
While dishes and ingredients will rotate with the seasons, here are five standouts staying on the menu for now that help to paint a picture of the kind of culinary fireworks Gallina and Martinez are capable of — even if tweaks are made.
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Pennsylvania Golden Chicken
Mangos, Hoja Santa oil
The Recoveco chefs aspire to serve dishes prepared from whole animals — and hence, the crispy-skinned Pennsylvania Golden chicken (served with its feet still attached!) was born.
“Fish is naturally a great starting point for this approach, but in terms of what could come next, a cow or a pig felt too ambitious at the moment for our small space, but a bird felt manageable,” Martinez explains.
Gallina and Martinez thoroughly researched and tasted a range of birds before landing on the Pennsylvania Golden chicken that’s currently on the menu, and Recoveco is the only restaurant in Miami serving it.
“It comes at a steep price point for us. Regardless, we are committed to showing quality in every step of the dining experience, so we feel — even if some people’s feathers are rustled — that having this ingredient is a worthy investment,” Martinez says.
Since Recoveco opened this summer during mango season, the chicken is paired with a sauce made of green Kent mangos cooked with the same spices used to dry-rub the birds. “We finish it with Hoja Santa oil, a plant that we love as much as it loves the Miami weather,” Martinez adds. The crispy golden chicken also comes with a side that will rotate with the seasons.
Chilled Royal Red Shrimp
Dashi, white soy ponzu, flora
To start your meal, consider the chilled royal red shrimp, a dish that showcases why South Florida is a great source of seasonal ingredients. The chefs use royal red shrimps from Cape Canaveral and lightly poach them in a housemade dashi, resulting in a really luxurious texture.
“The shrimps are served in a shallow pool of white soy ponzu and accompanied by whatever is best at the moment — we did citrus during our opening, but right now it’s slivers of Brogden avocados, a South Florida cultivar with a skin so thin you can eat the fruit without peeling it,” Gallina says.
The dish is almost always served with a delicate leaf or flower for visual interest, like cranberry hibiscus from the yard or citrus begonias from Harpke Family Farm. “Lots of flora to play with in Florida,” Gallina adds.
Grass-Fed Beef Tongue with Chimichurri
Sesame whip, housemade crackers
The beef tongue at Recoveco was inspired by Martinez’s homeland of Uruguay — a country known not only for loving meat but also the off-cuts that come from butchering the animal. It’s topped with chimichurri to give the foreign dish a feeling of familiarity, alongside a sesame whip that provides a rich, nutty note and acts as a foil to the chimichurri. The dish is served with housemade crackers (right now, made with chicken fat and purple Danish wheat) for guests to assemble their own perfect bite.
“Part of our mission at the restaurant is to cook and serve things that people would not be inclined to find at other restaurants, or would take a lot of effort to cook at home,” Gallina says. “We have managed to prepare a product that is often underutilized, local, and really high-quality and present it in a way that is approachable enough for those at the table who have some second thoughts or preconceptions about tongue.”
Dry-Aged Black Grouper
Sweet potato, sherry sabayon
Recoveco’s chefs like to work with local and seasonal fish, which they order whole. The team then scales, cleans, and dry ages the fish for some time before serving it. “Our treatment of the protein in terms of time and attention is something that is non-negotiable and consistent, but the things that they get served with are subject to the seasons,” Martinez says.
Currently, the grouper’s companion is sweet potato — prepared in more than one way. There’s steamed sweet potato underneath, as well as lightly steamed sweet potato leaves from Tiny Farm above the fish. “A sherry sabayon and onions cooked in sweet potato vinegar and butter round out the whole dish for a result that more than one guest, independently, has equated to a warm hug,” Martinez says.
Fig Leaf and Cucumber
Ice cream, sorbet, juniper meringue, ice
Miami’s tropical climate calls for a refreshing dessert, and the fig leaf and cucumber dish has become an instant hit. While the restaurant has switched up the flavors since opening, they’ve maintained the same overall approach to this plate.
“The combination of ice cream, sorbet, juniper meringue, and ice is fun to eat texturally, and the flavors are always on the side of fruity and tart,” Gallina says. “It’s that one item that satisfies a craving but also refreshes the palate — both in temperature and flavor.”
Upon opening, the dish featured cucumber ice with lemon sorbet and now, they’ve since switched to Dellerman’s pineapple. The ice cream flavor, so far, has been fig leaf.
“It’s one of our favorite flavors and we happen to get the leaves from a tree we drove down from North Carolina and planted in my parent’s backyard,” Gallina says. “It’s over 10 feet tall now and makes the air around it smell incredibly delicious on a hot day. It does hate the rainy season, though, so I’m pretty excited to give the fig tree a break and find something new.”
Lyssa Goldberg is a Miami-based freelance writer and content strategist. She loves telling stories about food, wellness, and travel, and you can find her byline in Parade, The Points Guy, U.S. News & World Report, American Way, Mashable, Time Out, and more. Follow her on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.
