“We have basically taken over from top to bottom,” says Goat Hospitality Group's Founder and CEO Derek Gonzalez, about the brand's agreement to work with W Miami as the hotel's official food and beverage partner.
And by “taken over,” he means the hospitality group oversees the hotel’s food and beverage outlets as a friendly partner in helping the 146-room hotel evolve and attract a wider audience.
From the 15th-floor steakhouse (Mia) to LunaSol (in Spanish this means “day to evening”) on the 50th floor, and an event space, too, this adds up to a collection of concepts. After an extensive redesign and branding, they expect to open throughout 2024.
Restaurants partnering with hotels are nothing new—a trend that began about 15 years ago—but they are certainly becoming the norm. Guests want to feel embedded in an authentic, vibrant dining or drinking experience alongside locals.
“[It’s] creating a nice marriage between your typical stay at a hotel and hospitality, nightlife, and daytime,” says Gonzalez, “like Vegas has done for so many years.”
This day-to-night concept he also sees lifestyle hospitality company Nikki Beach doing well. “We don’t want to copy something that’s already been done. We want to create something that’s different and has a story to it,” says Gonzalez. “How do we differentiate ourselves from the competition and create a product that people haven’t seen?”
For example, every food and beverage space in the hotel will have a cultural or emotional meaning, including dancing with a shaman in front of the DJ booth. Woven throughout the concepts are nods to Gonzalez’s Mexican and Mayan heritage, also honoring Miami’s heavily Hispanic and Latino population.
LunaSol, he says, “has a Mayan twist to it. It’s Miami’s first and only cenote.” A cenote is a subterranean chamber with accessible water, a unique aspect sure to set LunaSol apart.
As for Mia, which is the former ADDiKT Modern Kitchen, the idea is to make this steakhouse accessible—and not formal or exclusive. “I feel like a lot of high-end steakhouses only cater to the one percent of the one percent,” says Gonzalez. “I want the 99 percent to feel like the one percent.” By using a feminine type of design, he hopes this will attract those on a first date or girlfriend getaway, not just business dinners among male associates.
This transformation project is also a full-circle moment for Gonzalez, who formerly lived in the hotel’s building for seven years.
Many of the Goat Hospitality concepts are named in honor of his late Aunt Pilo, who died from complications from Down Syndrome: Pilo’s Street Tacos; Pilo’s Tequila Garden; Pilo’s Beach Club
The hospitality group’s been committed to building a workforce inclusive of individuals with special needs. Goat Hospitality Group is now one of South Florida’s largest employers for individuals with special abilities in the hospitality sector.
Marriott was more than willing to get behind this. “It allows me to have a bigger platform to hire more people with special abilities,” says Gonzalez.
Another unique way Gonzalez is partnering with the hotel is moving his employees’ offices into the building, for both Goat Hospitality Group and Goat Design and Development, a full-service design firm that crafts spaces for brands.
They are taking over an entire floor as their new headquarters and following the mantras of Wabi-Sabi design, which folds in natural materials. He was inspired by another hotel brand, in fact: 1 Hotels, which has a property in nearby South Beach.
Gonzalez also wanted to flip the paradigm of what an office normally looks like, and challenge the recent work-from-home trend, which—without face time—can easily zap teambuilding and creative collaboration.
“Your typical corporate office is stuffy and sterile. [Here], it’s like we’re hanging out in the comforts of our home,” he says.
But there’s a functional reason to have everyone under one roof, too. “That’s where all the Goat executives gather every single day and we collaborate,” he says. “I wanted to foster creativity. We bounce ideas off of each other. We program the simplest things, from what the hotel guests are going to have for breakfast to what DJs we’re going to bring for Spring Break. It’s important to have everything centralized. Magic happens when you have creativity.”
Partnering with a big brand in the hospitality business—as opposed to a small, locally owned boutique hotel—made all the difference.
“They already have a platform. Bonvoy [Marriott] is the largest hotel chain in the world. The reach is endless,” says Gonzalez. “The idea is to create concepts that can live within all W hotels. I already see this living in the W in Washington D.C., New York, or Dubai, as opposed to more of a boutique hotel with one or two locations. You can be in San Francisco, New York, or Miami, [and] you can go to Mia and know you’re going to get the same quality.” (Note: At the moment, Goat Hospitality's partnership is solely with W Miami.)
All of this is a study for Gonzalez—who left a career in wealth management to build his hospitality company in 2017—in what might come next. “My dream is to eventually open up my own boutique hotel and add my own food and beverage,” he says. “I’m getting to the forefront of how a company like Marriott and the W brand have built it.”
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