A sneak peek at Atlantic Village
Hallandale shopping center bringing birria tacos, Korean barbecue, rooftop bars and more
Hallandale Beach’s newest shopping village wants to transform a former culinary dead zone on North Federal Highway into a trendy slice of South Beach.
Three Miami Beach hot spots — Korean barbecue restaurant Drunken Dragon, Japanese sushi house Temakase and a rooftop eatery from Miami Beach’s Juvia Group — are the splashiest additions to Atlantic Village, a sprawling plaza of apartments, medical offices and eateries just east of Big Easy Casino.
These restaurants aren’t open yet — they’ll debut in early 2022 — but they join a dozen new eateries just opened or slated to open within weeks at Atlantic Village. They include: Holi Vegan Kitchen, serving vegan-fied versions of tacos and hamburgers, which opened in October. Jaffa Israeli Kitchen & Wine Bar, coming this December, turns out Middle Eastern-style brisket and kosher-style dishes. Next, in January, comes Crema Espresso Gourmet Bar, a coffeehouse and all-day breakfast spot; and La Pizzetta, a Miamispawned upscale pizzeria.
The live-eat-shop hub is the brainchild of developer Daniel Chaberman, whose Mexico Citybased firm Grupo Eco is building the $26.5 million Atlantic Village.
He’s doubling down on the idea that Hallandale Beach is perched on Miami-Dade’s doorstep, a gateway to white-hot Aventura and Sunny Isles Beach. The proof: Every bar and eatery in Atlantic Village is an offshoot of an established Miami restaurant.
That was intentional, Chaberman says. Instead of waiting for restaurants to knock on Atlantic Village’s door, he “aggressively courted” Miami’s buzziest eateries during the pandemic, seeking tenants touting trendy cuisine from vegan comfort food to birria tacos. And he had a strong selling point.
“We were looking for tenants that wanted to lease in Aventura but can’t afford to pay Aventura prices,” Chaberman says. “We’re two miles from Aventura Mall and a mile from downtown Hollywood.
People are trying to drive less. You can swim, play soccer, go kickboxing, do a little bit of everything here.”
That’s why chef Yaniv Cohen wanted in on Atlantic Village. His Jaffa Israeli Kitchen stall at the MIA Market food hall in Miami’s Design District drew hundreds of customers, many from Hallandale and Aventura, to try his turmeric-roasted cauliflower and brisket marinated in tomato sauce and date honey.
Cohen’s new kitchen in Atlantic Village celebrates the humble cauliflower, served whole and seared golden-brown “like a big, beautiful flower.” “I always think about the spices,” Cohen says. “Turmeric is one of the bestknown anti-inflammatories.”
Vegetables are main entrees in his native Israel, not a side dish served with protein, he says. His recipes are sourced directly from his mother, grandmother and his father, a Tunisian Jew who taught him to make salads with roasted beets, red pepper-tomato chutney and pickled vegetables. As a kosher-style restaurant, he avoids mixing meat and dairy, so his creamy tahini and labneh are dairy-free.
“Hallandale is a lovely town, and I really appreciate the
attention to detail at Atlantic Village,” Cohen says. “Most plazas have the parking right in front and the businesses are in the back. Here, they flipped it around. My restaurant is right up against Federal.”
What’s cooking at Atlantic Village?
Jackhammers and drills roared to life atop the sixth floor of Atlantic Village’s third phase, a medical tower with snazzy surgical suites and offices opening next spring. The outer shell is finished: Workers smeared stucco on cinder blocks at the future home of a rooftop restaurant opening next summer from Juvia Group, a Miami Beach hospitality group. A three-story garage behind the tower will offer rooftop soccer with space for three side-by-side soccer fields.
When finished, Atlantic Village will have 70,000 square feet of restaurants and retail along three square blocks between 601 and 801 N. Federal Highway. Chaberman, who snapped up all 8 acres for $22 million, says the sleepy Hallandale Beach corridor is primed for a renaissance.
Not that the views from atop Atlantic Village look all that breathtaking now. To the west: a sea of asphalt, Big Easy Casino and the now-closed greyhound racetrack. To the south: a mobile-home park. To the north: used-car dealerships galore.
“I would tell the homeowners who live in our high-rises that although the views aren’t so great now, charges are coming,” Chaberman says. “It’s just a matter of time, especially in this underdeveloped area.”
The first phase of Atlantic Village opened in early 2019 with sister locations of Miami-born restaurants: Dr. Limon Ceviche Bar, the Juice Mafia, Doggi’s Arepa Bar. There is also musicthemed gastropub the Blues
Burgers, mural-splashed cocktail bar Crudos Fusion Art and a two-story indoor playground called Flippo’s.
Chaberman says the pandemic’s usual culprits — permits and supplychain problems — delayed the second phase until now. It includes a tower with boutique offices, a swimming academy and a six-story-tall mural from two Brazilian artists, and ground-floor restaurants including Holi Vegan Kitchen.
Miami rushes in
Delays are not stopping South Beach eateries from shuffling into Atlantic Village. Coming soon to the complex’s third phase: Drunken Dragon, a 200-seat upscale Korean barbecue joint from the team behind Wynwood bar Ràcket, serving twice-fried chicken and tiki cocktails.
Temakase, a Japanese restaurant born in New York’s East Village, tested the waters with a 15-month pop-up inside Sagamore Hotel South Beach before signing a lease at Atlantic Village, co-owner Anthony Shnayderman says. Temakase’s 1,500-squarefoot spot will do omakasestyle (chef ’s choice) hand rolls, high-end sushi stuffed with fresh toro, spicy scallops, truffle blue crab and lobster roll.
Which means prices at Temakase’s 25-seat hand
roll bar are a bit steeper: the $20-$40 range. Hallandale Beach gives Shnayderman and his partner, Liron Michaeli, what South Beach can’t: fewer tourists, more repeat diners.
“Our concept is more for locals, customers who come two, three times a week. I want people to consider it their weekly lunch spot,” Shnayderman says. “We never see the same face in Miami Beach.”
The pandemic’s onslaught on Miami-area restaurants forced Frank Neri’s Mexican seafood restaurant PEZ to close in early 2020, but he pivoted with an Instagram-hot taco trend: beef birria. His El Primo Red Tacos pop-up proved a hit with takeout crowds, and now he’s expanding into Atlantic Village in early 2022. After that: Coral Springs and Kendall.
Neri’s beef birria is slowbraised for 16 hours in a brick-red adobo of chili pepper, garlic, cumin and bay leaves. Birria is then piled into tortillas and served with a red consommé for dipping.
“It takes two shifts of people working at the restaurant to prepare one batch over 15 hours,” Neri says.
Why Hallandale Village? “It’s a different world for us, and a lot of our customers already come from Broward,” he says. “We’re bringing birria to all of South Florida.”