Miami Beach, already saturated with storied glamour and golden nostalgia, is preparing to welcome a new chapter in its glittering saga: the debut of the Donatella Boutique Hotel & Restaurant in May 2025. The project, a sibling to the legendary Versace Mansion (now The Villa Casa Casuarina), is helmed by the Nakash Group — proprietors of both the Mansion and The Setai — in partnership with the celebrated Vida & Estilo Hospitality Group.
In a city defined by its unapologetic embrace of opulence, Donatella dares not to reinvent, but rather to polish and reframe the familiar — a choice that will no doubt attract the glitterati, but perhaps leave more adventurous seekers yearning for something a little less… preordained.
photo: @Donatella Boutique Hotel & Restaurant set to open May 2025 (photo credit: @The Louis Collection)
History Reborn with a Modern Shine
Set within the heartbeat of the Art Deco district at 1350 Collins Avenue, the building itself already carries weighty provenance. Originally designed in 1922 by Wallace Tutt, the architect behind the Versace Mansion itself, the Donatella property has long been a silent witness to the transformations of South Beach — from languid seaside outpost to global icon of style.
Now, thanks to a meticulous restoration and reimagining by Mico Design Studio, the boutique hotel will offer just six carefully curated rooms. Here, guests are promised an experience that fuses the heavy-lidded romance of Old World Europe with the crystalline brightness of contemporary Miami. Velvet textures meet sculptural modern lines; the past, like a well-aged perfume, lingers, but is never allowed to overpower.
The intimacy of a six-room hotel is a bold statement in Miami’s hospitality scene, where “bigger” and “brighter” have so often been confused for “better.” Donatella Boutique stakes its claim on the opposite: refinement through curation, not spectacle.
A Culinary Stage for Coastal Italy
Perhaps the true star of this revival will be the Donatella Restaurant, a culinary love letter to coastal Southern Italy under the stewardship of Executive Chef Alessandro Morrone. Within a setting that seats 170 (an impressively grand gesture for a boutique hotel), diners will be seduced by the understated luxury of traditional Italian craftsmanship: scratch-made pastas, pristine seafood, and heirloom produce-driven menus.
Highlights like Black Truffle Cacio e Pepe and Risotto Frutti di Mare hint at a kitchen that honors its roots while understanding the sophisticated palates of today’s international traveler. A private dining room for 15 ensures that those seeking exclusivity will find it — albeit in a space that is, perhaps fittingly, more sophisticated trattoria than formal salon.
A Soft Refrain of Familiar Luxury
With its rich history, intimate scale, and artful culinary program, Donatella Boutique Hotel will surely find itself an immediate darling among those who appreciate heritage polished to a high sheen. Yet, one might wonder if this polished familiarity also limits its audacity. In resurrecting the spirit of the Versace Mansion so faithfully, has the opportunity been missed to push Miami’s aesthetic vocabulary into a new era?
Miami Beach is a canvas known for reinvention — the bold, the unexpected, the untried. And while Donatella Boutique Hotel promises elegance in abundance, it plays in a key that is, perhaps, a touch too safe for a city whose very spirit is one of fearless experimentation.
Still, as the reservation books open and the glamorous descend, one thing is certain: Donatella will remind us why Miami fell in love with beauty in the first place. And sometimes, after all, there is luxury in familiarity.
