RESTAURANT NEWS | MIAMI
Miami’s Reborn Fooq’s Begins Another New Chapter
One of the city’s best new restaurants has hired Roel Alcudia to guide its menu and a growing national portfolio.
FOOQ’S | MAP | INSTAGRAM
By Eric Barton
6:41 a.m. ET, Sept. 11, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
The chef who helped shape Mandolin Aegean Bistro and led one of New York’s most celebrated country restaurants is returning to Miami. Roel Alcudia has joined the We All Gotta Eat restaurant group as culinary director, putting him in charge of Fooq’s, one of Miami’s best new restaurants.
Alcudia will work with founder David Foulquier on menus, new dishes, and the broader culinary identity of the company. The group began with the original Fooq’s in downtown Miami in 2015 and now stretches from South Florida to Manhattan, with restaurants including Eleventh Street Pizza, Sushi Noz, Noz 17, Noz Market, and Chez Fifi.
Roel Alcudia
The appointment adds another chapter to Fooq’s already eventful return. The restaurant reopened in Miami’s Little River neighborhood after a four-year absence, trading its intimate downtown address for a 14,000-square-foot former warehouse. Upstairs, The Lion’s Den gives the operation a vinyl-fueled bar and lounge.
Chef Andrew Bazzini led the kitchen when the reborn Fooq’s opened, building a menu around Foulquier’s Persian and French background. That translated into dishes including sour-orange duck, wagyu kebabs, and whole roasted dorade alongside one survivor from the original restaurant: bucatini amatriciana.
Alcudia, meanwhile, arrives with his own history in Miami. He previously ran the kitchen at Mandolin Aegean Bistro, helping the Greek and Turkish restaurant expand internationally through a partnership with Soho House. He later served as corporate executive chef for Groot Hospitality, overseeing culinary operations at Komodo, Swan, and Papi Steak.
One indication of what he might bring to Fooq’s comes from Stissing House, where Alcudia previously served as executive chef. Alcudia most recently led the kitchen at the Hudson Valley restaurant, where wood-fired cooking and an old farmhouse setting gave vegetables, whole fish, and large cuts of meat plenty of smoke without turning dinner into a lumberjack costume party. During his tenure, Stissing House landed on The New York Times’ list of America’s 50 best restaurants and earned James Beard Award semifinalist recognition.
Foulquier described Alcudia as one of his most important mentors. Now the relationship stretches across an entire restaurant company, though Miami diners will likely judge it one plate at a time.
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