No reservations: Latest condo amenity is resident-only restaurants

Can a delicately prepared five-course meal be enticing enough to get a condo buyer to sign on the dotted line?

The latest amenity at high-end condominium towers is the private restaurant for residents, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Developers in major U.S. cities hope they can attract customers in competitive and overheated markets by serving up what literally no one but residents can taste.

Miami is a hotspot for private dining rooms. Consultatio USA has resident-only restaurants at its Oceana Bal Harbour and Oceana Key Biscayne developments. The firm’s owner, Eduardo Costantini has a unit there.

“It’s very different than operating a regular restaurant — it’s like we are their own kitchen,” said Tommaso Morelato, whose Toscana Divino Hospitality Group runs Ballerina and a residents-only restaurant at Oceana Key Biscayne. “These residents can come to eat three or four times a week.”

Gil Dezer’s Porsche Design Tower, with units listed from $6.3 million to $32.5 million, has its Fuel restaurant serving truffle pasta. Residents of Miami’s private Fisher Island can grab drinks and snacks from Palazzo Del Sol.

Many of these private restaurants for residents are run by celebrity chefs. Boston’s Millenium Tower has Mina at the Tower, run by chef Michael Mina. Residents also have access to a private smartphone app to order food from the restaurant delivered to their units.

In Chicago, the team behind the under-development 1000M skyscraper is planning a full service bar and lounge on the building’s 72nd floor, open only to residents.

Exclusive amenities are popping up at rental properties, too. At 63 Wall in New York, there is a speakeasy called The Transcript on the building’s second floor. Only tenants can imbibe. [WSJ] – Dennis Lynch