The upscale restaurant, bar and market complex taking shape at Anthony DeChellis’ new mixed-use building in South Beach is looking for workers as it closes in on a fall opening date.
Sebastian La Rocca, the Argentine-born culinary director of Windward Restaurant Concepts, the company that will run the three enterprises, will hold a job fair on Monday, Aug. 24, to hire 80 employees.
The restaurant space was designed to accommodate The Tides restaurant, one of the island’s premier fine-dining spots, but that deal fell through late in the building process. Unruffled, DeChellis recruited La Rocca and moved ahead with creation of a Mediterranean fine dining concept entitled Blu Fin.
“These 80 new jobs will be a major boost to the local economy,” La Rocca said, adding that his business philosophy includes hiring locally and buying products from local suppliers whenever possible.
“It’s all about becoming part of the Vero Beach community – creating jobs, developing hospitality professionals, supporting local growth and building places the community can be proud to call its own,” he said.
The job fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday at the company’s headquarters at 916 Turtle Cove Lane on South Highway A1A next to the 7-Eleven convenience store and across the road from Johnny D’s Italian family restaurant.
La Rocca said he is looking for people who can offer more than just the technical skills required of experienced culinary and retail workers. He said he is seeking individuals who buy into the company’s concept of a “commitment to extraordinary hospitality.”
“We don’t just sell food,” La Rocca said. “Food is only part of the hospitality. It’s the welcome at the door, the energy of the room, the attention to the smallest detail, the conversation with the guest, and the music, the atmosphere and the feeling someone takes with them when they leave.”
With those criteria in mind, he said, the company is “searching for people who bring energy, passion, teamwork, accountability, curiosity, attention to detail and a genuine desire to take care of others.”
Along with cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders, food runners and hosts for the restaurant and bar, La Rocca is looking for managers and supervisors, including an assistant general manager, a chef de partie, and supervisors for the restaurant and the gourmet market.
He is also looking for a purchasing and receiving manager and a cashier for the market. Specialty positions available include a barista for the market and a pastry supervisor, sushi chef and butcher for the restaurant.
Windward Restaurant Concepts is owned by DeChellis, a Moorings resident and former president of Credit Suisse private banking in New York. The complex will be anchored around the Blu Fin, a fine-dining establishment “rooted in Mediterranean cuisine with Latin inspiration,” according to La Rocca, who said the atmosphere will be “sophisticated without being pretentious.”
The complex will also include the Turtle Cove Gourmet Market, which is in the section of the building closest to Highway A1A and will feature a diverse selection of house-made gourmet products including fresh pastas, seafood, pastries, coffee and other specialty products. La Rocca said the market will be ideal for today’s lifestyle – “fresh, convenient, high-quality and constantly evolving.”
In between the restaurant and the market will be the Motley Cow open-air tiki bar under a giant palapa palm frond roof “inspired by the relaxed lifestyle of Florida’s coast, featuring creative cocktails, great music and an atmosphere for people to come together and have fun,” La Rocca said.
The three different establishments will open for business this fall, but the exact order of the openings is still up in the air.
DeChellis’ impressive new 27,000- square-foot office and retail center was originally supposed to house The Tides for a couple of years while the restaurant’s quaint Central Beach location on Cardinal Drive was demolished and replaced with a modern, custom-built restaurant building.
DeChellis owns the current Tides building and planned to build the new facility to suit Tides Executive Chef Leanne Kelleher. The thought was that Kelleher would move her trademark restaurant back to Cardinal Drive when the building was complete, while continuing to operate a second restaurant at the South Beach location, along with the gourmet market.
But, in the end, Kelleher realized she and her customers were too attached to the current location and all the memories associated with it to make the move. With DeChellis’ blessing, she decided to remain at her present location, closing the restaurant during the slow months of August and September for needed repairs and improvements, including an upgrade to the building’s aging systems. The Tides is closed now, in accordance with that plan. It will reopen on Cardinal Drive in October in time for the coming winter season.
Kelleher’s decision to stay put cleared the way for DeChellis to engage a headhunter and eventually recruit La Rocca, who has experience in Michelin-rated restaurants in Europe and the Americas, for the new fine-dining venture.
“Sebastian brings a rare combination of global experience, entrepreneurial vision and operational excellence,” DeChellis said. “I have wanted to create something truly special for this community for a long time, and with Sebastian, I believe we are about to do exactly that.”
DeChellis owns and manages DeChellis Capital LLC, a Vero Beach real estate and investment firm with Windward Restaurant Concepts as its hospitality division.
The Windward name is a tribute to Windward Way in The Moorings where DeChellis grew up and lives today.
Besides the restaurant, bar and market, tenants at the mixed-use center will include a spa and an investment company, among others. Employees at the other businesses won’t have far to go at lunchtime.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
