Collaboration Dinner at Evelyn’s with Boia De!

T HIS EVENT IS STRICTLY 21+

Join host Chef Brandon Salomon and guest Chefs Alex Meyer and Luciana Giangrandi from Boia De! for a special collaboration dinner. This dining experience will feature wines expertly curated and paired Gabriela Ospina of Boia De and Dave Lopez of Sidewalk Bottle Shop.

Proceeds from this diner benefit Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital.

Doors open at 6:45 pm, Dinner begins promptly at 7 pm

* Gratuity Included in Your Order

If you would like to sit with friends who purchased tickets in a seperate order, please email us at [email protected] no later than 3 days before the event, so we can try our best to accomodate you.

About Chef Brandon Salomon

At the helm of Evelyn’s Fort Lauderdale is Chef Brandon Salomon who joins the Fort Lauderdale team from Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, where he played a major role at the Five-Star, Five Diamond Resort’s signature restaurant Florie’s by three-Michelin-starred, World’s Best Chef Mauro Colagreco. Evelyn’s eastern Mediterranean meets Florida coastal cuisine shares flavour-rich dishes influenced by locality, seasonality, and culture. A native of Long Island, New York, born into a family of cooks, Chef Brandon fell in love with cooking at a young age and had the fortunate opportunity to be surrounded by a variety of cuisines and cultures.

After training at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, he worked at acclaimed restaurants and hotels in New York, Florida, and San Francisco. Now in Fort Lauderdale, Salomon is bringing the flavours of the Mediterranean to one of the world’s top yachting destinations.

Brandon has always been around food, eager to assist his mother Kim and grandmother Sadie in the kitchen, which often felt like a dreamy Sunday morning with the unforgettable aromas of their famous tomato sauce filling the air and embracing their rich Italian heritage. Brandon’s grandmother on his father’s side, Yvonne, is Israeli and was born in French Morocco. Some of his earliest memories include her mezze table, carefully curated with flavours from the Mediterranean, as well as her famous harissa, which is his favourite hand-me-down recipe. There’s no denying that family cooking has paved the way for the chef that Brandon is today with enough memories to continue to inspire him for years to come.

Chef Brandon began working at his grandparents’ bakery as his entryway into the hospitality industry at the age of 12. After training at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, Chef Brandon worked at acclaimed restaurants and hotels in Washington, DC, New York, Florida, and San Francisco. In 2015, he joined Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach as a cook at the Resort’s signature restaurant Jové Restaurant and Bar. In the summer of 2018, the Resort went through a multi-million-dollar renovation, giving Chef Brandon had the opportunity to join the task force at Four Seasons properties in Orlando, Chicago, and Montreal, gaining valuable operations experience first hand. Chef Brandon’s journey led him to Menton, France where he had the opportunity to learn directly from Chef Mauro Colagreco at restaurant Mirazur, awarded the #1 restaurant in the world in 2019. He spent four weeks in the French Riviera with the Mirazur team mastering his craft and love for food, fuelling his passion for Mediterranean cuisine and lifestyle of sharing meals with friends and family.

Upon returning from his travels, back to Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach in the fall of 2018, Chef Brandon was appointed as Sous Chef for Florie’s by Chef Mauro Colagreco.

As an innovator in the world of culinary, Chef Brandon is continuously looking for ways to innovate food by testing his imagination and culinary creativeness. His spare time is often spent exploring different restaurants and cuisines and curating his culinary artistry on social media, of which he has amassed a following of more than 17,000 on Instagram.

About Chef Alex Meyer

Alex graduated from Emory University in Atlanta in 2008 with a degree in economics. Like Luciana, Alex felt the pull toward something outside his studies. The same year, Alex began his career under the guidance of Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo at Animal Restaurant in Los Angeles. While still working at Animal, he helped Jon and Vinny with the opening of their second restaurant, Son of a Gun. After almost three years in Los Angeles, Alex moved to New York City where he started working at Eleven Madison Park. A few months later, Alex joined the opening team of The Nomad, where less than a year later was given the position of sous chef. It was in this role and at this restaurant where Alex would spend the rest of his three years in New York City. Alex credits his time at Animal as crucial to his appreciation for well-sourced ingredients and thinking outside the box and The Nomad, for incredible attention to detail, technique, and precision.

Shortly after, Alex made the move to Miami with Luciana and successfully opened a food truck called La Pollita, which served traditional and modern tacos in Midtown Garden Center from 2016 to 2017 before moving to its final outpost in Design District until 2019. In late June 2019, Alex and Luciana’s brick and mortar dreams came true with the opening of Boia De, a neighborhood restaurant tucked in a bustling shopping center in Miami’s upper east side. Today, the culinary duo shares equal responsibilities as co-owners and executive chefs of Boia De, serving modern American cuisine with a touch of Italian influence.

About Chef Luciana Giangrandi

Luciana grew up in a large, Italian-Latin family in which the dinner table and food were primary focuses each evening, bringing family and extended family together to socialize, trade stories, and continue the tradition.

Although a Miami native, she moved around spending time in Chile, Switzerland, and Italy. After a few years in Europe, Luciana moved to New York City and graduated from the Eugene Lang School of Liberal Arts at The New School in NYC in 2008. With a journalism degree in hand and a head full of dreams of food writing, Luciana attended the Institute of Culinary Education to create a stronger connection with the world she hoped to one day write about. During her internship at the 3-star New York Times restaurant Scarpetta in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, Luciana fell in love with kitchen life, and what started as a 6-month stint turned in a 3-year tenure. Luciana would go on to work on the opening team of The Nomad before ending her 8 years in New York City in the kitchen of Carbone, the Michelin starred Italian-American restaurant by Major Food Group. During her time at Carbone and Scarpetta, she acquired the skill set to match her passion for Italian cuisine. After her years in NYC, Luciana spent a summer cooking in the kitchen of Ristorante La Dogana, a highly acclaimed restaurant in the hills above the Tuscan coast.

Bringing her career full circle, Luciana returned to Miami with partner Alex Meyer and together they opened La Pollita, a beloved Mexican food truck formerly stationed in Miami Midtown Garden Center before its final outpost in Design District. In June 2019, the two closed up the taco shop and opened Boia De, a 24-seat restaurant and bar in Miami’s charming Buena Vista neighborhood. Today, Luciana and Alex serve as the co-owners and co-executive chefs for the retro-modern restaurant delivering modern American fare with Italian influences.

Host or Publisher Greater Fort Lauderdale Food & Wine Festival