The Big Game has come and gone and left in its wake a trail of athletic heroism, Watson Island Uber pickup horror stories and that time Maxim held a party on Virginia Key that no one talked about (seriously folks, did anyone go to that event? ‘Cuz the internets are crickets on that one). But amidst the hurricane of chiseled bodies, open bars, ankle-deep flood zones and celebrity onslaughts, one man stood stoic in the eye of the storm – and that man is restaurant guru Myles Chefetz, owner of Prime 112 (and through his Myles Restaurant Group, the owner of Prime Fish, Prime Italian, Prime Private and Big Pink).
During Super Bowl Week, Monday – Sunday, Prime 112 made a mind-blowing $1,920,000. How does MiMi know this? We asked Myles. One week. Let that sink into your relatively impoverished cranium. And while 1.9 Sticks is sales, not profits, it will surely help the restaurateur do whatever he wants to do, like live in $14 million condos.
He is, quite simply, the most financially successful pure-play restaurateur in Miami. Prime 112 – the 11th highest-grossing independent restaurant in America – alone sells almost $24 million a year in steaks, seafood, drinks & more. To put this freakin’ mind-boggle into perspective, the average Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse does $2.9 million a year, about 9x less than the lone Prime 112 at the historic Brown’s Hotel on Ocean Drive. Prime’s explosive success is based on its “high-energy environment”, which is code for loud hip-hop being pumped into the dining room, non-stop celebrity sightings, a million dollars in cars (read: $4 million with a Chiron) parked at valet, and lines down the sidewalk of people. People begging. It’s hotness. Every. Single. Night. Across town, people at Ruth’s Chris are falling asleep in their soup.
MiMi sat down with the steakhouse maverick to hear about his epic week and to glean some some cold, hard, numbers about the mayhem. In between, we heard stories about how Jamie Foxx travels with his own boombox and set up shop in the Prime 112 dining room after The Game and started beatboxing. This of course, as it commonly does, caused a celebrity chain reaction, whereby Doug E. Fresh joined Foxx to the delight of the rest of the dining room.
“My fingers are still numb from texting,” Chefetz declared about the epic week of nonstop requests for reservations, tables, stools – anything, Anything, ANYTHING!!! We also learned about the existence of a species of entrepreneurs Myles has dubbed “eBay Kids” – autograph hounds who stake out the Prime 112 sidewalk and have on hand the exact sports memorabilia (read: hats, jerseys, balls) of the pro athletes walking in and out of the restaurant. The eBay Kids corner the athletes for autographs in order to resell the items to collectors. This is genius.
“This week was the culmination of 16 years of catering to athletes and sports media,” reflected Chefetz of his legendary hospitality prowess and his team’s ability to weather such a crush of expense account-laden humanity. “And it erupted into this crescendo of activity. It was a blessing to have that amount of energy in one place.”
Here are Prime 112’s vital stats for its historic week
Total revenues for the week: $1.92 million (their previous high was $650k)
Covers for the week: 4,999
Steaks served: 2,109
Staff working: 85-100 per night (includes back of house, kitchen and of course servers, front of the house)
Bottles of wine sold: 763
Bottles of $1,000 and above wine sold: 38
Most expensive bottle of wine: a 2015 Screaming Eagle cabernet for $12k (ordered by a four-top whose bill was around $30k)
Cars valeted: 350-400
Team buses parked out front (Dallas Cowboys): 1
Hours Myles was personally on the floor: 120 hours over the week (a typical day ran 11am – 5am)
Nights he kept the kitchen open for Shaq until 4:45am: 1
Gallons of Purell stationed at the front door (for all the hand-shaking of course): 1
Number of handshakes by Myles: “Incalculable” (he eventually started doing fist-bumps halfway through the week when he started to feel under the weather).
Pounds of bacon put out on the bar as gratis bar snacks: 245 pounds of Newskie applewood smoked bacon from Wisconsin sliced by Prime’s in-house “baconator”
Covers served on their busiest night: 1,410 covers (the restaurant seats 300 inside and out)
Martinis served at the bar: 1,277 (it’s the most popular drink, obvies)
Team Owners that dined there: 5. Jerry Jones (twice), Dan Snyder, Mark Davis, the Hunt family, the Glazer family
Shark Tank hosts that dined there: 2 (Mark Cuban and Daymond John)
Pro-athletes that dined: “The list is so long it’s almost comical. Minimum of 500 and probably 500 more that couldn’t get in.”
Members of the Manning family that dined in the wine room: Archie, Peyton and Eli
Domestic Goddesses who fielded dozens of requests for selfies from players: 1. Martha Stewart
David Beckhams: That’s it. Just David Beckham. That’s the stat.
Entire teams that dined: 1. The Chiefs entire offense and defense ate together on different nights; a lot of 49’ers came in but not as a team.
Price per cover on their most lucrative night: $228 per person (“normally it’s $120-125 pp, so it’s almost double”, says Myles)
Orders of fried oreos served: 393
Fried oreos per serving: 5, (they use the double-stuffed ones)
What about how many millers watched the show from the loser bench????
Myles, we knew you back when. Nemo just a glint in your eye. Always thought you had a great business and showman talent. Thrilled for you, even though we no longer live on South Beach.😍🍷