Aventura’s newest restaurant, 800° Woodfired Kitchen, hosted a recent Breakfast Meeting of the Aventura Marketing Council/Chamber of Commerce that featured South Florida crisis management and government affairs advisor Brian Andrews speaking about “Integrity in Trying Times”. A full-house audience of business leaders and elected officials filled the beautiful Ocean Ballroom at the Trump International Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach as AMC Chairman Gary Pyott, Association 1st, welcomed guests and thanked Cameron Wheeler, the amazing young singer who entertained guests as they networked.
Representing 800° Woodfired Kitchen were Executive Chef and Founder Anthony Carron, Director of Operations Dougal Myers and Director of Business Development Sylvester King , who were enthusiastically greeted by AMC members eager to learn about the new restaurant.
Sylvester King introduced keynote speaker Brian Andrews of The News Directors. Brian is one of the area’s most respected crisis management advisor, helping local governments, special events, non-profit organizations, political campaigns, and local companies with strategic planning for crisis communications and public affairs. If his name sounds familiar, it’s because you may remember him from his many years of work as an investigative TV news reporter on WSVN, CBS4, Local 10, and RCN Colombia.
Brian talked about his Father, and shared some of his Dad’s ‘pearls of wisdom’: “Always do the right thing, no matter how unpopular it may be” and “Measure twice and cut once”. Brian then walked through the audience to start the conversation about crisis communication, ethics, and integrity in business communications. “Every business owner should be asking themselves what is the right thing to do by our employees and our customers? How quickly can we do it? How can we attain maximum disclosure with minimum delay?”. Audience members were asked to consider possible crisis situations their business could face. Answers ranged from “active shooter” to “chemical spills”, and after reviewing the steps to take, Brian added, “The day after a crisis, you will be judged by what you said, how you said it, and the amount of care and compassion that you showed. He who speaks first controls the trajectory the story takes, so you must speak first. When you can’t talk about facts, talk to people about the process of finding those facts, and be sure to include your most important audiences: employees and clients. You must be ready, so start thinking about what you would do in the event of a crisis.”
Talking about ‘doing things the right way’, the first restaurant venture together for Dwayne Wade and Udonis Haslem, three-time NBA champions with the Miami HEAT, is 800° Woodfired Kitchen in Aventura, already drawing rave reviews. Serving artisan pizza and woodfired, chef-driven dishes, this 125-seat outpost is the first Florida location for the West Coast-based restaurant brand. Now open daily for lunch and dinner, the 4,000-square-foot restaurant highlights the art of cooking with fire, featuring stone-hearth pizza ovens and rotisseries burning fragrant wood in a central open kitchen
Executive Chef and Founder Anthony Carron felt strongly about opening in Aventura. “I’ve been connected to Aventura for more than 10 years. As the opening chef of Bourbon Steak, I become very familiar with this area, and frankly, I fell in love with it. It was a natural fit to want to bring 800° Woodfired Kitchen to one of my favorite places.”
Dougal Myers, Director of Operations for the location, added: “Our customers can visit every day of the week for lunch or dinner and have something different from our diverse menu each time, or they can bring the entire family and share in the generous portions of our variety of flavorful plates.”
800° Woodfired Kitchen is located in the Aventura Shopping Center at 2956 Aventura Boulevard, Suite C-3, Aventura, FL 33180. Reservations and catering orders can be made by calling (305) 902-4363.
