Delilah Owner Eyes Venue on Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road

The Hwood Group is looking to bring its celebrity touch to Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road with initial plans to open an upscale Nice Guy restaurant.

The L.A.-based hospitality group — best known for celebrity haunts like Delilah, a favorite of rapper Drake — is in the early stages of taking over the entire 7,500-square-foot building at 947 Lincoln Road, which abuts Michigan Avenue, according to a city filing. The Italian establishment would house 358 seats in total, including 96 booth seats and some bar seating.

But the group has not yet signed a lease for the Miami Beach building, said a spokesperson for Hwood Group. 

Hwood Group’s restaurants have attracted droves of celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber, thanks to its strict privacy policy, which includes a ban on most photos. 

In Miami Beach, the group wants to cover some windows with “cypress paneling that will be used to cover these windows to provide privacy for patrons,” the application states. The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board will consider the proposal May 14. 

The group’s Nice Guy brand has restaurants in Dubai and L.A., which offers $24 margarita pizzas, $14 truffle fries, and $89 16-ounce, dry-aged ribeye steak. The Miami Beach restaurant would mark Hwood Group’s second location in the Miami area. Last year, it opened a Delilah in Brickell. 

For Lincoln Road, the Nice Guy restaurant will mark somewhat of a departure in hospitality offerings. Besides the upscale Mila rooftop lounge, the shopping promenade has gone down market in recent years, in part thanks to the opening of a Cheesecake Factory location.

“The proposed The Nice Guy restaurant venue will bring a sophisticated dining destination to the corner of Lincoln Road and Michigan Avenue by way of a gentle and thoughtful renovation of the existing contributing structure,” the application states.

Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.