Daniel’s steakhouse team opens stunning new Italian restaurant at Grove Isle

Food admin September 15, 2026 0 Comments

Daniel’s steakhouse team opens stunning new Italian restaurant at Grove Isle

The idea for La Sponda, the luxurious new waterfront restaurant opening this week in Miami, began long before you might assume it did.

Thomas Angelo, CEO and founder of Gioia Hospitality, which operates Daniel’s restaurants in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, started envisioning a glamorous Italian destination for Miami long before his steakhouses were born.

La Sponda “was something we had been talking about for a few years,” he said. “It was conceptualized before we even opened the first Daniel’s.”

The swift success of both Daniel’s restaurants understandably sidetracked Angelo and his team. But now, La Sponda is ready to open at the luxury condominium Vita at Grove Isle on Sept. 19, just in time to gear up for the season.

‘Our love letter to Italy’

Creating an upscale Italian concept came naturally to Angelo, whose father was born in Gioia del Colle in Italy’s Puglia region. Before Daniel’s, Angelo was operating Fiola in Coral Gables, the second location of Michelin-starred Italian restaurant in Washington, D.C., from chef Fabio Trabocchi.

In 2024, Angelo founded Gioia Hospitality with his daughter Kassidy, chef Danny Ganem and wine and beverage director Daniel Bishop and opened the first Daniel’s in Fort Lauderdale. It was such a hit, Gioia turned the Fiola space into Daniel’s Miami in 2025, where the response was equally enthusiastic.

Since then, Daniel’s Miami has earned applause and awards, including being named one of the best steakhouses in the world by The World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants. Next year, a third Daniel’s is scheduled to open in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood.

But Angelo never forgot his desire to open an Italian restaurant.

“For me and Kassidy, this is our love letter to Italy,” Angelo said. “For me, being a first generation Italian American opening this restaurant and collaborating with a highly-regarded developer on this project is a dream come true.”

Ugo Colombo, founder of CMC Group behind Vita, said that La Sponda is the perfect fit for the luxury development.

“Grove Isle has long held a special place in Miami, with a history as one of the city’s most celebrated waterfront destinations,” he said in a statement. “La Sponda is a natural extension of that vision, bringing exceptional dining, hospitality and design together.”

Hospitality and consistency

La Sponda, which offers spectacular views of Biscayne Bay, seats around 120 diners (there’s also a private dining room for special occasions). Designed by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, the restaurant makes use of white tablecloths, imported stone and hand-painted architectural details, with a baby grand piano in one corner.

The quality of hospitality and service offered at La Sponda, though, will be familiar to Daniel’s diners, Angelo said.

“My key to success is great hospitality and consistency,” he said. “If you have those things, people come back and expect more of the same.”

The restaurant will also follow the Daniel’s ethos on sourcing high-quality ingredients, with a menu that offers highlights from a variety of different regions in Italy. The Angelos, chef Ganem and Bishop traveled around Italy, from Florence to Verona to Puglia, to sample cuisine and wine and explore traditions to bring back to La Sponda.

“Each region has its particular dish that best represents it,” Angelo said. “We wanted to do something that paid homage to that by incorporating the best ingredients we can source.”

So what does that mean for the menu? Fresh pasta made daily, like spaghetti with Burgundy truffles, cultured butter and parmigiano espuma or paccheri al Campagnolo with Maine lobster, tomatoes, capers and olives. Seafood like a salt-encrusted branzino with olives, potatoes, tomatoes and basil. Bistecca Fiorentina, a specialty of Florence, a wagyu porterhouse with rosemary, Balsamico de Modena and Gioia olive oil.

You’ll find the Gioia olive oil — made by Gioia Hospitality in Italy — across the menu, in a variety of dishes as well as served with Sullivan Street sourdough and focaccia. The menu will also feature crudo and antipasti and a unique-to-Miami tableside gelato service.

“That’s something Kassidy and I saw on our trip and wanted to incorporate,” Angelo said.

Connecting with family history

For Kassidy Angelo, Gioia’s co-founder and managing director, La Sponda signifies not only a new frontier for the company but also a chance to revisit her family’s heritage.

“Travel has always been a really important part of my relationship with my dad, and some of our most meaningful experiences together have been in Italy,” she said, adding that traveling to her grandfather’s hometown imbued the trip with a deeper meaning.

“It reconnected my dad with a part of our family history,” she said. “Watching him follow that passion gave me the confidence to eventually take the same leap and build something alongside him. La Sponda feels like a culmination of that journey and of everything we have experienced, learned and come to love together both in our working and personal relationship.”

Angelo, too, feels that strong sense of connection.

“Some of my favorite memories were made in the kitchen and my travels with my children to Puglia,” he said. “Those memories became the foundation for La Sponda, and our hope is that every guest who walks through our doors feels that same sense of warmth, connection and hospitality.”