Why River Oyster Bar’s Gnocchi Has Been Miami’s Most Decadent Secret for 15 Years
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Around dinner time at The River Oyster Bar, the energy flows from the center, a bar that chef and owner David Bracha designed to be the restaurant’s nucleus. The kitchen sits just behind it, feeding the rhythm of the room with plates that have kept the restaurant relevant for more than two decades.
Among those plates is the gnocchi and jumbo lump crab with parmesan cream and black winter truffle, one of the restaurant’s longest-running and most-requested dishes.
“It was an instant hit,” says Bracha. “It’s been a hit for a very long time, and people still ask for it.”
The dish didn’t appear on the opening menu in 2003 but came a few years later, inspired by a meal Bracha had at Babbo in New York. “I remember having gnocchi and I thought, wow — it’s like a little potato dumpling, but it melts in your mouth,” he says. “A lot of people do it with ragùs. I thought, how can I do a seafood version?”
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He paired it with crab and kept the rest minimal: shaved black truffle (stored in oil), a touch of garlic, cream and parmesan. “It’s a decadent dish,” he says. “Something fun, something for a celebration.”
The gnocchi are made in-house twice a week by Bernard Elie, who started as a dishwasher and is now the only person who makes them. “He’s been with me since day one,” Bracha says. “He’s so good at it. We joke that he should open up a gnocchi shop. I’d put him up against any Italian.”
The gnocchi recipe is deceptively simple — russet potato, flour, egg — but relies entirely on technique. “It’s like a grandmother making pasta in Italy,” Bracha says. “It’s not complicated, but it takes skill.” The crab, meanwhile, is pure luxury: jumbo lump pieces sourced based on availability. “You’re getting the biggest pieces you can get out of the crab in that dish,” he says.
Some guests share it; others don’t. “My daughter loves it. It’s her favorite dish,” Bracha says. “She’ll have it as an entrée.”
That’s a dish I would never even consider changing. I think they’d hunt me down.— David Bracha, chef-owner of The River Oyster Bar
Bracha recommends savoring the dish paired to a white wine with body, like an American or French chardonnay, Chablis, grüner veltliner or sauvignon blanc. “You’ve got the cream, the cheese, the crab, it screams for something that can hold up to it,” he says.
Though Bracha likes to evolve the menu, this dish has remained off-limits. “If I go to remove a signature dish, people get really bent out of shape,” he says. “That’s a dish I would never even consider changing. I think they’d hunt me down.”
The dish’s enduring appeal echoes The River Oyster Bar’s longstanding success in a part of Miami that’s experienced its fair share of change. The restaurant first opened in 2003 in Brickell, long before the neighborhood’s boom, and quickly became one of the city’s top destinations for pristine seafood. The original space had charm — and a leaky roof. After a 10-month COVID closure, the restaurant moved to a long-awaited new space in December 2020.
“The interior still has the same vibe,” Bracha says. “It’s not ultra-modern. It’s not super trendy. It’s comfortable, it’s warm. We didn’t try to reinvent the wheel.”
A fourth-generation Miamian, Olee Fowler knows every corner of the city. She spent a decade as the editor of Eater Miami, and now as a freelance writer, she captures the stories that make Miami unique. When she’s not exploring Miami’s newest restaurants and bars, you can find her at home with her dogs, Foster and Peanut, or cheering on her beloved Florida Gators. And yes, that’s probably a Coke Zero on her desk.
