Will Thompson at Sunny's

• Good For: Dinner. This modem F1orida steal<liouse offers a full restaurant menu that can be enjoyed indoors (in a mid-century dining room) or outdoors (in a courtyard centered around a majestic banyan tree)
• FYI: Sunny's also has a thoughtful wine and champagne list, which spans larger names like Pol Roger as well as intersting low-intervention bottles such as Muchada-Léclapart Lumière from Andalusia.

"Everybody thinks their martini recipe is the only martini recipe, says Sunny's co-owner Will Thompson. His choose-your-own-martini menu offers guests five kinds of gin, four kinds of vodka, whether they'd like it dry 50/50, dirty or filthy, and an assortment of garnishes (do try the house blue-cheese olives). "We have a martini that's 'Our Way' with manzanilla sherry and frozen gin, but the point of this martini section is to get guests to give us the information to make the cocktail that's right for them." This way of making people feel welcome, seen and heard while having a great time is a gift that the Boston-born Thompson possesses. It was the backbone of his first bar, Jaguar Sun in Downtown Miami, which received the Exceptional Cocktails award from the Florida Michelin Guide in 2023. While Jaguar Sun has closed its doors, its spirit lives on at Sunny's, the permanent iteration of its pandemic pop-up, which opened in October.

While steaks are the name of the game here -Aaron Brooks, formerly of Four Seasons Miami's Edge Steak and Bar, is executive chef - Sunny's also has an impressive raw bar. My favorites include the scallops served with aguachile negro and pickled chayote; and the Ko egg - soft-cooked, atop onion sauce and served with osetra caviar and fingerling-potato chips, it's inspired by chef-partner Carey Hynes's time at Momofuku Ko in New York.