07/24/2023
"This beloved Italian restaurant on the Miami River was just sold. Here’s what we know"
- BY CONNIE OGLE JULY 19, 2023
https://www.miamiherald.com/miami-com/restaurants/article277439193.html
"When Miami wants pizza and some of the best chicken parm around, Miami heads to the nationally famous restaurant Crust — where guests not only indulge in huge helpings of comfort food but also warm and graceful hospitality.
Now, the popular restaurant close to the Miami River has been sold.
On Tuesday evening, owners Klime and Anita Kovaceski announced they sold the business on July 1. “After much thought, Anita and I have decided it is time to make a change that we feel is for the better — for us, our families, our employees, and our beloved guests,” the statement said. “We wholeheartedly believe that the new owner and the entire Crust team who are staying on will continue to keep our legacy of great food and hospitality alive. “While you may not regularly see us on premise, we will continue to offer consultation and support Crust operationally when needed.”
The Kovaceskis, who opened the restaurant in 2015 after converting the building from a former Sherwin-Williams paint store, declined to talk about who purchased the restaurant. But their statement indicates that life (and pizza) will go on at the restaurant (even if it must continue without Anita’s affable greetings to every guest).
Kovaceski, who says he is happy about the sale, says that the employees will remain on the staff, cooking the Italian specialties he created (Kovaceski is proudly Macedonian, and once told the Miami Herald that was helpful to him as a chef: “I don’t have to do my grandmother’s recipe. Sometimes not being authentic to the region is a good thing”).
Chris Maurice, who had been working as Anita Kovaceski’s assistant and has been with Crust since it opened, will be the restaurant’s new general manager.
The new team is making minor adjustments to the menu, Kovaceski says, but adds that about 90 percent of the menu will still be offered, including the beloved and gigantic chicken parm, which has been heralded as one of the best chicken parms in the United States. The pizza at Crust was named one of the best in the country in 2022 by Yelp.
As for Kovaceski, he’ll stay busy with his restaurant consulting business, although he’s thinking about taking a vacation first.
“I haven’t had a vacation for nine years. I’m definitely taking some free time,” he says. “Fifteen years from now I’ll be 78, and just like Biden and Trump, I also want to be president. I’ll run for president of Macedonia. So until then, in these next 15 years, I’m going be in the hospitality industry, it’s in my blood, and that’s what I have done all of my life.”
It’s known for its great pizza and enormous chicken parm.
