F&B is the heart of The Country Club at Mirasol, according to General Manager and Chief Operating Officer Matt Lambert, CCM, CAM, ECM, who’s been with the club since its inception nearly 22 years ago.
Lambert grew up working in the restaurant business and later got a degree in hospitality. When he graduated, he worked for Houlihan’s restaurants for five years, training in a variety of roles.
“Then I moved down to Boca Raton, Florida, and I worked for a high-end restaurant group. I started as a manager, then became a GM. … I ultimately became director of operations for six restaurants, and I was putting a lot of time on the road.”
When the then-General Manager of The Polo Club in Boca approached him about becoming the food and beverage director, Lambert jumped at the opportunity.
“Instead of driving to six restaurants, I had five restaurants on one property,” he says. “And that’s how I got into the club business.”
A few years later, he would join The Country Club at Mirasol in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where he’s been for nearly 22 years now.
“I opened the club with the developer,” Lambert says, “so I’ve seen the club come out of the ground, all the facilities being built, members moving in.”
This summer marks 15 years for Director of Culinary Michael Crain.
“The first seven years I was here, from 2003 to 2010, the developer ran the club, so I reported to the developer,” notes Lambert. “Then the membership took over the club in June of 2010, and we brought [Crain] on in September of 2010. He was the first big hire we had under the member-controlled club.”
These days, Crain has a team of about 60 culinarians, including six salaried sous chefs and an executive pastry chef. In 2024, food-and-beverage revenue reached $9 million across four restaurants: The Grille Room; Solstice, a fine dining restaurant; Revive, a poolside restaurant; and the Grand Ballroom, which hosts theme nights, holiday meals, and other events.
C+RC: What keeps you at Mirasol for 22 years?
ML: I love the membership here. They treat our staff really well. They respect us, they trust us, and they appreciate what we do.
And we have an incredible team. In season, we have up to 400 employees, a lot with long tenure. We have a great culture to work in, and we work for a great membership. Those are the two big motivating factors.
C+RC: Can you elaborate on the culture?
ML: We have really good governance here. The board hires me and the management team to run the operation, and then the board can focus on strategic planning, approving budgets and setting policy. We work with the board of directors, but our board has never micromanaged the operations. They have a lot of trust in us, and in turn, that allows us, as professionals, to do our jobs.
We’re [also] fortunate that our board approves budgets that [enable us to] take good care of the team, get the best of equipment, and execute a first-class member experience. That, in turn, helps us recruit people. We have a lot of long-tenured employees.
From an accountability point of view, the way we’ve set up our club is that each department head runs their business, and I’m here to support them and be a conduit between them and the board. It allows people to do what they’re trained for; it gives [Crain, for example] a lot of autonomy to do what he needs to do.
C+RC: Why was Chef Crain the right choice? What was your initial impression of him when you hired him?
ML: I’d put the word out through my contacts in the industry that I was looking for an executive chef, and another GM in the area said, ‘I met this chef; he’s from New York, but his in-laws live here.’
I ended up going to New York and kind of secret-shopped his restaurant. At the time, he was the Executive Chef at the W Hotel in New York City, and he had worked for celebrity chef Todd English for years. I was really impressed, so we brought him down for a tasting.
We had two final candidates, and they both produced amazing meals. But the big difference was that [Crain] was so passionate about what he does, and although he had never worked in a private club before, he had the right temperament and attitude to be in a private club.
We could send out a perfect medium-rare steak, and it gets sent back. Are you going to have a chef who responds by screaming and throwing plates? Or are you going to have a chef who says, ‘It’s not necessarily what I think. It’s what the member thinks.’
One of [Crain’s] biggest strengths is he really keeps a calm composure in the kitchen. He communicates well with his team. So that was my earliest memory—his whole temperament and lack of ego. He’s the ultimate team player.
C+RC: How would you describe Chef Crain’s culinary style?
ML: He’s classically trained, but he’s really well-rounded with his knowledge. He’s a learner. He’s always got his nose in cookbooks, or looking at social media, or doing research and development at different restaurants.
He’s a New York City kid, so he loves going back home and checking out all the new offerings in the city. He’s very passionate about his food, and he likes to stay up with the trends.
I hired him because of this brick chicken he used to make, which is phenomenal. You put the chicken under the brick and sear it, nice and crispy. It’s incredible.
But he’s great at incorporating vegetarian items or vegan items or gluten free—all the different allergens. Our club is unique in the sense that we have members in their 30s and 40s up to 80s and 90s; it’s a very diverse membership. We have a lot of young families here. He has to offer something to all different groups.
C+RC: Chef Crain attends Chef to Chef; this year he’s a speaker. And you’ve had two chefs on Hell’s Kitchen. What’s the value, to you, in that sort of engagement?
ML: Food and beverage is the heart of our club. Not every member golfs, not everyone plays tennis—but everyone eats.
I trust Chef. The biggest thing I can do is support him, whether it’s giving him a budget that he can execute, but also supporting his development of the team.
When Ryan [O’Sullivan] went on Hell’s Kitchen a couple of years ago, he was in LA for four to five weeks in the middle of our season. But it was important to him, and we had the support staff that could fill in.
Egypt [Davis] just finished third in Hell’s Kitchen. He was gone last May. To have an executive chef who’s willing to support his team for their development is awesome. Not everyone does that.
He’s a great mentor. And it fits with our style. My style is not to breathe down every department head’s back and micromanage them. At the end of the day, I look to [Crain] for his for his leadership when it comes to culinary.
C+RC: What has it been like for the membership to watch two of their club’s culinarians on Hell’s Kitchen, and how have you leveraged that opportunity?
ML: I’m willing to bet that most of our members didn’t watch many of these reality TV shows before. But [O’Sullivan] is very outgoing, very personable; he connects really well with our membership. So the membership was super supportive of him. And we supported it through our social media and through our communications with the membership.
Then to have him win was awesome. The members were so proud. It’s been great in terms of getting people to support our fine dining restaurant. [O’Sullivan’s] our chef in Solstice, the fine dining restaurant, and he has done an incredible job.
Same thing with [Davis]. The membership really got behind him. We just held our Hell’s Kitchen night for [Davis] where he made a lot of the food that he cooked on the show. [O’Sullivan] did it, too.
Then [Crain] got on stage, and we did a Q&A with [O’Sullivan] and [Davis]. The members loved it. They’re really proud and supportive of our team.
