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NYC Whisky Mecca The Flatiron Room To Expand To Miami This Fall
Ask a New Yorker what The Flatiron Room is and you're likely to get several different answers. It's one of the premier whisky bars in the Big Apple. To others, it's a high-end restaurant. It's a cocktail bar with live music. And the fact that it's all of the above is one reason why the flagship establishment in Manhattan's NoMad neighborhood has survived and thrived since 2012 — its sibling location in Murray Hill opened in 2017.
2025 presents a new set of challenges to bars and restaurants, from potential tariffs to a shaky economy to a downturn in alcohol consumption. It's in this fraught environment that owner Tommy Tardie is expanding the Flatiron Room's reach beyond New York City. This fall, its newest outpost is planned to open in the Edgewater section of Miami, in a newly constructed building with approximately 10,000 square feet of space — far bigger than either of its Manhattan locations. It's a big gamble on the future of the hospitality industry and the Flatiron Room's place in it. But given that Tardie & Co. have already beat the odds before by keeping two venues going, even through the pandemic, it would be foolish to bet against them.
I sat down with Tardie in the Flatiron Room Murray Hill and, over sparkling water (it was too early for whisky), talked about the challenges and opportunities of the new location, and how things are changing at the New York locations. The interview has been condensed and edited for brevity.
Tommy Tardie outside the flagship location of the Flatiron Room in New York City.
How much of a known quantity is the Flatiron Room in Miami?
You've heard the term, [Miami is] the sixth borough. So there's a lot of people who go to Miami that are from New York. I don't know what the statistic is now, but when I first signed the lease, over 50% of the people purchasing the units [in the building that houses the Flatiron Room] were from New York. So yeah, I think there's seems to be some pretty good knowledge. We're getting a lot of people that are reaching out, you know, super excited that we're coming down there. And a lot of our members here, talk about, like, I go down to Miami so much. And I think that's part of the strategy.
How knowledgeable are you about the Miami food and drink scene, and your potential clientele, going in?
One of the fun aspects of it is the due diligence part. So we've been going down there quite a bit. I've taken our chef down there, our beverage director down there. And it's, it's good to go to other venues and see what other people are doing. It's one of the things I love so much about this industry. If you're an accountant, or if you're whatever specialized industry you're in, you can't go into somebody else's workplace and see what they're doing. In our industry, you totally can walk right in. You can see what glass, see what they're charging, see what kind of ratio of food to beverage they're doing, or what kind of offerings they have. That's not that you want to follow them, but you know, knowledge is power, and you at least have a kind of an educated awareness of what, what your competition is doing. And from that, you can kind of carve out your own thing.
What are you seeing in the food and drink scene when you go down there?
You can kind of think about those fun tropical cocktails, but you know, Miami, the food and beverage scene is definitely getting much, much better. A lot of people are migrating down there. I think there's a lot of opportunities for us. There is, there's some very nice cocktail bars. And, you know, there's diversity down there.
How much is the Miami Flatiron Room going to replicate the New York experience?
What I want to avoid is I don't want to make it purely New York. I love our concepts here. Customers seem to like the aesthetics. But I think if we were to try to match this down there, it just wouldn't work.
We got lucky with our designer. She's really good. And I knew it was a tall task, because we have an established brand with its own identity. So to bring that brand and interpret it for a Miami market could be challenging. Like, how do we maintain this kind of maximalist design aesthetic in a place that's very minimal? But she did it. And I think when guests go down there, if they were to come in and not see our logo, they would probably be like, 'Oh, this reminds me of the Flatiron Room.' So we have certain brand pillars that we try to focus on. You know, the live music is one of them. Our bottle keep is one of them. Our distilled spirits program, which we've got a lot of fame from, and then the cocktails and food. So always want to maintain those things.
Our distilled spirits program is super comprehensive, and we're excited to bring it down into Miami to see what people are gravitating for. I like brown spirits, but frankly, you know, we're gonna have brown spirits, we're gonna have agave based spirits, we'll have rum, and we'll see what people like, but we're definitely gonna, while we're a restaurant, we also want to have a very robust distilled spirits program.
In your New York locations as well as in Miami, you're putting a greater emphasis on food and cocktails, spearheaded by a new culinary director, Jiho Kim, and a new beverage director, Ben Wald. We've been hearing about a decline in spirits consumption for a while, is this pivot the result of that?
I like distilled spirits. I like whiskey. I know the most about whiskey. I enjoy tequila and rum as well. But with the economy the way it is, and with rents continuing to increase and inflation the way it is, we need to really make sure we get to maximize the revenue opportunity, and the operation we have now is very different than it was, you know, 13 years ago, when we first opened. Back then, an average ticket price of like, $40, we were still able to be profitable, right? But every year, you know, we have a 5% escalation on rent, or 3% escalation on rent, we have people wanting to get paid more. You know, ultimately we need to increase that. And if they're there, if we can have a food offering, then why not take advantage of it? And this part of us investing so much in our food offerings is, when we go down [to Miami], we do have to do breakfast and lunch. Dinner is what it is, but we also have to do breakfast and lunch.
The view inside the Flatiron Room Murray Hill. The vibe in the Miami location promises to be quite different.
How do you think tariffs are going to affect you?
We fortunately have some flexibility, especially in the spirits world. Margins tend to be really good. [Spirits] have great shelf life and honestly, we're not greedy. When we go to Miami, we're not looking to do price gouging. If there's one thing I've learned is in this industry, it's easy to get them in the door the first time, but [then] it's more challenging.
I've got the new kid on the block, and you can charge, and people will pay for it initially, because they want to experience, you know, the new shiny object. But we want retention. We want to really focus on the community. We want to tap into the people that live in Miami, and we're in an area that's super densely populated, with not a lot of elevated food options.
We don't want to be so so outrageously priced that people can only afford to go on an anniversary or a birthday. We want a place that people can come and, you know, we're being Miami, what it is like? We want to have those high end items that that people may want to celebrate with both food and beverage, but at the same time, we want to have some options that are more affordable, that we can attract people that really just want to come down from their apartment and have a nice meal without feeling that they've got violated.
No $1,000 martinis or anything like that?
Yeah, well, we're gonna have some, you know, some higher end, large format items that, if people want to celebrate — it seems down there they like that, you know, we, we know our brand, and we're not going to, you know, we're not going to be the sparkler place. Right, but we, if people want to celebrate with something kind of extravagant, we want to have it on the menu, but we don't want that to be the norm.
How have the concerns about the economy over the last couple of years, whether it's inflation or tariffs or recession scares, affected how you run the Flatiron Room?
I listen to Bloomberg every morning — they talk about, like, last year was the restaurant recession. So people have been pulling back. And I think another trend we're seeing more of now is, is people are looking less at gimmicks, you know, the ... molecular gastronomy category. I think people are moving away from that, and they're looking more at storytelling and more at quality ingredients, the story behind the vendor that you're getting it from, and how items work together on your palate. And that's something we really want to focus on. We've been doing a lot of training for that, you know, sourcing from a local farm — people want to know why you're getting it there. What makes this particular oyster unique, or how this particular cheese pairs well with, you know, this particular protein.
People want genuine experiences. They want value. And unfortunately, we are seeing, you know, a bit of a pullback on the average amount that people are spending. But it's all things we can work, and we just have to work a little bit smarter, streamline the operation, run lean. And for us, what we're super excited about is that it's we're able to, it's our third location, and we're able to, you know, spread out some of these fixed costs over multiple venues.
So having more locations actually helps you?
For instance, whenever you do quantity, you get bulk. So even now, like when we're purchasing glassware and we're purchasing plates, it's so much easier for us to hit that next tier of price discount, because now we're sharing the cost between three locations, and we've been doing that across the board, and we've been having a lot of fun with that. For instance, we we have some really fancy hand towels in our bathrooms, and they're very, very nice. They're a linen like towel, and they feel very, very durable, but they're expensive. We found a manufacturer that was able to print our logo on it. And even with the logo, provided we get 50,000 of them, our price is cut in half. Little things like that are opportunities, and unfortunately, we wouldn't have that opportunity if we had one venue, because it's just too big of a cost to eat.
You've got a few zero-proof cocktails on your menu. What's your opinion of the category?
Just personally, if there are good non-alc options on a menu, I'll have two cocktails, and then instead of either cutting myself off or having a third one and feeling awful the next morning, I will have a no-alc just to keep the fun going, but, you know, not get any more drunk.
I was having dinner with a friend, and there's some cocktails that we offer on the menu. You've heard of our Garden of Eden [a Spanish-style gin & tonic]. We have [a non-alcoholic] one called Eve's Elixir, which looks exactly the same when you order it, it doesn't sound like you're ordering a non-alc cocktail. And I was having dinner with a friend, and he was enjoying his Garden of Edens while I was enjoying my non-alcoholic cocktails, unbeknownst to him, and he coincidentally mentioned the whole non-alcoholic cocktail scene, and as he's drinking with me, he's like, 'I just don't understand why these people drink non-alcoholic cocktails.' And he was, you know, he was getting lit. And I was not, and I thought it was quite humorous, but I felt a little bit protected that I didn't have some, you know, marker on my drink,
Are you going to use the New York locations as sort of a testing ground for new recipes for Miami?
We're so lucky, because typically restaurants have the evolution of a dish, even a cocktail — it evolves. You come up with something, you play with it, you take a picture of it, and you standardize it. You say, Okay, this is going to be a cocktail. Truth is, over the next couple weeks... it's going to be adjusted based on people's suggestion or feedback, or just how it works within the kitchen.
And normally, when you you open up a restaurant, you don't have that luxury to have an active, live audience, giving you, you know, real life feedback. So we feel really, really fortunate that we have all that. So we're like, okay, it's just right. Bring it over there, and we could say, look, we've we've already tested this. It works.
But there's certainly going to be certain nuances based on the kitchen's capabilities, and even like the climate — like down there, sushi is I think it's going to be really important. I think seafood is going to be really important, for sure, so probably more so than up here. But what we want in terms of growth is just really kind of maximizing the three different venues and taking advantage of the economies and of scale and being able to work collectively to just create a better product.
Flatiron Room culinary director, Michelin-starred chef Jiho Kim, hard at work.
You've been the face of the Flatiron Room since it opened. Now that you're presumably going to be spending a lot of time in Miami, how do you think that's going to affect the New York locations?
The last year, I would say we've really been focusing on growth and making sure we have plenty of systems so that we can grow, and this place isn't as reliant on me. I've got a really good team. I love technology, and there's so much technology out there right now that really helps businesses grow and scale. So we're we're doing what we can. Obviously, there's gonna be things that fall through the cracks, but I expect when we first open to be down there most of the time. Fortunately, it's like a two and a half hour flight to get back and forth, so it gives me that luxury of being able to come back when I need on a moment's notice, without breaking the bank, because it's not crazy expensive.
But as as a new business, I need to be down there and just see what's happening. You open up a new restaurant, you think everything through, and then there's certain nuances that just come out. There'll be a grumpy neighbor upstairs, a creaky step or, you know, a heater that isn't working properly. You just, there's things that you learn when you go there. And no matter how much you you plan it out, it's not until you open that you see how the restaurant actually flows, which is always the biggest challenge. It's that you want that kind of perfect balance of form and function, and you don't really know the form part until, you know, you start seeing bottlenecks, and you start seeing kind of irregularities or things that you didn't anticipate. Then you adjust.
Do you feel like you need to have a new 'face of the brand' in New York?
I don't think I want to be the face of the brand. I mean, I think inherently, as the owner, I probably will be. But you know, as we grow, I really want our members to have somebody that is going to recognize them when you come in. Why people buy our lockers or our bottles [as part of the Flatiron Room's Bottle Keep program] is, it's really so little to do about the alcohol and more to do about the experience and that kind of, I'd say, a bit of a notoriety or recognition or just that exclusiveness, right? So it can never be just me, the one that's going to provide that. So we — the general manager, the AGM, even our staff — we want to make whenever they come in, we want them to feel special. And yeah, if I'm here, I really enjoy doing that. But as we grow, I can't, I can't realistically think, Okay, well, I'm going to be the one that provides that experience.
What is your secret to keeping a bar/restaurant going for so long?
I think the secret is just, just keep focusing on what you're doing. Just keep focusing on what you're doing, believe in what you're doing, adapt when you need to, don't overreact. I still, unfortunately, fall into that, that hole. Every summer is very, very painful, July and August and beginning of September is really, really tough. When we first opened, we had a lot of fanfare, and we, you know, we were doing really well. And then summer came, and I was like, What is going on? You know, maybe, maybe they have shifted, and people don't like us anymore. And then fall comes, and then boom,
Also, I think tightening the belt, running lean, is really, really important, It's in terms of cutting, we don't want to compromise on quality. It's more efficiency, you know, and being a little more strategic with our labor. You know, we're a small, lean restaurant. You want people to be able to wear different hats. And you know, I'm thankful that we have people that have been with us for a super long time, and they have that muscle memory where they're able to do things without even thinking about it, versus, you know, hire someone new, and they're just it's, it's almost requires more work on your end, and then to train and then to do it yourself. But you know, over time, you get people that have been with the company for a long time, and then they just, they know how to do it well.
Who knows what the future is going to be like with the economy. But, you know, I think we've always comfortably been adaptable, and I think our business is adaptable enough to kind of kind of pivot a little bit without changing our concept — much. So we'll see.
