Reservations Now Open for The Blu Fin. Sebastian is Expecting You!
Ask Sebastian La Rocca why anyone should come to The Blu Fin, and he does not answer the question.
He throws one back.
Why, he asks, would you drive 30 or 45 minutes past a hundred restaurants to get here?
Then the Argentine-born chef, Italian by blood, global by résumé, and visibly incapable of doing anything at half volume, answers himself.
“We don’t sell food,” he says. “We offer you an experience.”
That is Sebastian La Rocca: a chef with 27 years in international kitchens, a Michelin pedigree, the verbal velocity of an espresso machine, and an almost romantic belief that dinner should leave a lasting impression. He is the culinary director behind The Blu Fin, opening a week from tomorrow (Tuesday, October 13) at 1410 South A1A, and Vero should know this: he has not come here to play it safe.
He opens staff orientation with the story of Hernan Cortés burning his ships, because there is no going back.
La Rocca is part Argentine, part Puglian, part citizen of wherever the next extraordinary kitchen happens to be. He has cooked around the world, worked in Michelin-recommended restaurants, and is a member of a Navy SEAL Foundation charity swim team.
But his résumé is only half the appeal.
La Rocca talks about a restaurant as if it were a perfectly staged evening at someone’s most glamorous friend’s house. The music matters. The lighting matters. The welcome matters. The air conditioning matters. The person at the door matters. The food matters enormously, but it cannot carry the night alone.
“The most important thing,” he says, “is not the building. It’s not the furniture. It’s the people.”
Three Ways In
The Blu Fin is the polished centerpiece: an elevated Mediterranean-Latin restaurant where the beef tartare arrives beneath a crystal cloche filled with bourbon-barrel smoke, hand-cut Prime strip, wagyu tallow, quail yolk, caviar, and lobster bisque reduced for 48 hours.
Then there is the Charley steak, La Rocca’s tribute to Charley Brown’s, the beloved steakhouse that once occupied the site. Guests choose a knife from a custom-crafted presentation box before a Black Angus Prime New York strip arrives beneath a silver cloche.
But Blu Fin is only one part of La Rocca’s new gastronomic compound on A1A.
Turtle Cove Market is his chef-driven everyday pantry: a place for pastries, macarons, chocolate, exceptional charcuterie, prepared foods, sandwiches, sushi, specialty groceries and the sort of Italian and European products that often require a much longer drive south. The idea is you stop in for a serious dinner to take home, or simply for a croissant, a beautiful piece of chocolate, or just a Tuesday night.
And then there is The Motley Cow, the more relaxed tiki bar: cocktails, lunch and dinner, a lively place to settle in without the fine-dining ceremony. Think of it as the easygoing sibling to The Blu Fin’s evening experience.
Which brings us to La Rocca’s favorite question: “Do you like hot dogs?”
And, of course he does!
So next door to a restaurant where you may select your own steak knife and receive caviar under crystal smoke, Turtle Cove Market will have a cart serving wagyu hot dogs.
Already a Local
La Rocca is not here to lecture Vero about food. He is already eating his way through town.
He talks up Ocean Grill, where his first dinner in Vero convinced him he was in the presence of a true local institution. He likes Mai Thai. He goes to Nino’s for pizza, calamari and chicken piccata, and is a vocal evangelist for Coastal Bagel near Cleveland Clinic.
“It’s not about being the best,” he says. “It’s about being different.”
Vero Beach is about to find out what that looks like: an Argentine-Italian chef with a big laugh, a big point of view, a gift for hospitality, and the conviction that if you come to his table, he had better give you a reason to remember it.
The Blu Fin opens October 13 at 1410 South A1A. Reservations open today at www.theblufin.com.
