Born and raised in Miami and widely-considered one of the city’s foremost chef/restaurateurs, Danny Serfer (44) is the chef/owner of two of the Magic City’s most beloved independent restaurants, Blue Collar and Mignonette.

A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu. Serfer started his career in one of South Florida’s most auspicious restaurants, the groundbreaking Chef Allen’s by James Beard award-winning chef Allen Susser. Over the course of five years, the young chef rose from stagé to Chef De Cuisine, to this day crediting much of his passion for and mastery of seafood cookery to Susser, a founding member of Miami’s trendsetting Mango Gang chef collective. In that vein, seeking new challenges, he departed Chef Allen’s and assumed the role of Executive Chef at 15th Street Fisheries & Dockside Café in Fort Lauderdale.

After a brief stint in New York City and missing home, Serfer returned to Miami and embraced his passion for comfort food, opening Blue Collar in January 2012 on what was, at the time, a less-than-glamorous stretch of US1 in Miami’s MiMo District, which is now home to some of Miami’s most beloved and celebrated restaurants. Blue Collar struck a nerve and quickly gained notoriety for its big flavors, lack of pretention and authentic spirit. Its success paid the way for Serfer’s next restaurant, Mignonette. An ode to the great American oyster bar – something Serfer found lacking in Miami – the restaurant opened in the Edgewater neighborhood of Miami in April 2014 and like Blue Collar the concept struck a chord with locals and visitors alike. So much so that Mignonette remains a decade later not just one of Miami’s only true oyster bars but one of its most popular restaurants.

In 2023 Serfer saw the opportunity to give his beloved Blue Collar a refresh and in 2024 he moved the restaurant literally across the street into a breezy indoor/outdoor space practically double the original’s size. The move not only gave him the opportunity to increase his seating it also allowed him to integrate a full bar. In June 2024 “the new Blue” opened its doors, the new incarnation a casually elegant mid-century modern gem as polished as the original Blue Collar was rough and tumble.