Mignonette heads to Gourmet Diner site in North Miami Beach

Danny Serfer at Mignonette
Danny Serfer at Mignonette

The old Gourmet Diner along Biscayne Boulevard will soon have a new tenant. 

Gourmet Diner

Gourmet Diner

Chef Danny Serfer will open a second Mignonette at the North Miami Beach diner by the end of the year.

Mignonette is leasing the 2,300-square-foot space at 13951 Biscayne Boulevard, property owner Brett David told The Real Deal. David, CEO of Prestige Imports and Lamborghini Miami, said the deal was “record-setting” for the area, but declined to provide lease rates.

David received about 20 letters of intent from potential tenants, he said, but ultimately signed a 15-year deal with Mignonette.

Asking rents were $16,000 triple net per month, according to a Common Capital Partners flier posted online. Engin Yergin and Steven Brodsky of Common Capital Partners, who have been active in the area for close to 20 years, brokered the lease, Brodsky confirmed to TRD. He declined to disclose Mignonette’s rent, but at the asking price it comes out to $192,000 a year.

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Property records show David’s Rockwell Holding Group paid $1.6 million for the building in 2012 as part of a bigger deal. David is in the midst of expanding his exotic car dealership along the Biscayne corridor in North Miami Beach, a recent hotspot of commercial and residential activity.

Serfer, who also owns Blue Collar in the MiMo neighborhood, is building out the 1983 chrome diner and expects to be open by early December.

“We want to preseve as much of the integrity of the diner look inside and out,” he told TRD. That includes keeping the stainless steel whenever possible, reupholstering diner banquettes, bringing in classic diner bar stools and more.

Serfer said the diner location fell into his lap. “The diner kind of snuck up on us. We were on our way to another meeting for a different location and the person we were supposed to meet with stood us up,” he said.

He opened Mignonette, at 210 Northeast 18th Street in Miami, about two years ago, and Blue Collar nearly five years ago. He wants the new Mignonette to “stand on its own.”

“The bones and DNA will be the same, but with a different chef de cuisine,” Serfer told TRD. “As we get farther and father down the road, [it will be more of] a reflection of what the neighborhood wants.”