An immersive new restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is proving that intentional design, attention to detail, and premium positioning can outperform discount-driven traffic in full-service dining. Since opening in February 2025, TIMBR has attracted more than 32,000 Instagram followers, with design-forward content reaching north of two million views. But the concept has translated that attention beyond simple impressions into real foot traffic—garnering over 30,000 unique reservations in its first year in business, with an average of 7,000 reservations per month. It’s also earned a reputation as one of the highest price-per-head check averages in the city.
While modern guests are still looking for high-quality food and beverage, what they’re really seeking is a dining experience that goes beyond the ordinary and gives them something to brag about and post on social media.
“It definitely requires more than just food, and I’m seeing that a lot when I look around in contemporary restaurant design as well—there is always an experiential element that I think is very important,” says TIMBR cofounder Michael Tronn. “And some are more subtle than others … It’s never just a room with food. So I think design and concept play a huge part in a restaurant experience.”
Tapping into his background building more than 30 destination venues, Tronn designed TIMBR with every micro-detail in mind, alongside his partners at 3 Hospitality—Paul Brown and Max Van Fleet. The 8,500-square-foot restaurant tells a story across three distinct yet connected spaces.
Guests first enter The Park, a ground-floor dining room designed like a twilight picnic, where nine 15-foot towering tree trunks and branches rise through the space, custom live-edge wood tables anchor the room, and denim-upholstered banquettes provide comfort beneath an 18-foot ceiling studded with about 750 custom “firefly” lights, simulating a starry night. “I don’t think really anyone uses denim as an upholstery fabric because the blue rubs off on people, but ours is treated so that it won’t rub off and people really love it,” Tronn notes.
Beyond that lies The Atrium, often called the Flower Room, a soaring, 33-foot-high space with a 20-by-20-foot skylight, a pergola-topped bar, and roughly 90,000 flowers climbing the walls and ceiling to create a lush, romantic garden atmosphere. Upstairs, The Lounge shifts the tone: darker, more seductive, and wrapped in greys and blacks, it extends the narrative to an intimate, evening-ready retreat, tying the entire experience together as a layered, immersive progression.
“They all work together, even though they’re all totally different,” says Tronn. “This for sure was the first of its kind in Fort Lauderdale. When I talk about filling a void, most of the other restaurants here were commercial, large chains, multiple locations—some that were OK, but nothing that would be extraordinary.”
Tronn explains that every physical detail at TIMBR is deliberately chosen to communicate something to the guest, even if they only register it subconsciously. For example, he worked with a brick mason to create soft-edged, timeworn-looking bricks for the façade, making them look as though they are “blanketed in a pie crust”—nothing sharp, nothing fake—so the exterior feels like it’s been there 100 years.
Having worked in TV and film before, Tronn views himself more as a producer for TIMBR—ensuring the lighting makes the “actors”—or customers in this case—look their best. “Everyone wants to look nice, so warm lighting, the way that it’s done, reflecting on people’s skin, minimizing wrinkles and whatnot, [impacts] how people are showing up,” he says.
“The way I approach design is it’s a stage, and everyone in it is playing a role, whether you’re a guest or employee, you are still producing some kind of theater,” Tronn adds. “No matter what you are creating, it is a production, and it is an experience, and you have to be aware of that in order to create the thing that you want to put out into the public.”
For him, the production doesn’t end with good photo opps. While concept and design may draw guests through the door, it’s the fundamentals that keep them coming back, converting one-time Instagram visitors into regulars.
“Concept will bring people several times. Food and beverage and service will bring people back repeatedly,” he says. That focus is especially critical in Fort Lauderdale, which he calls “one of the most competitive culinary markets, not because there are so many great places, but there are so few people.”
In a small, seasonal market, he argues, mediocre food “kills a place,” making TIMBR’s high check average possible only because guests perceive that the experience—on the plate and in the room—matches the price.
TIMBR positions itself as a premium dining destination with menu pricing to match. On the dinner menu, entrees such as the 30-day wet aged ribeye at $75 and prime bavette steak at $62 signal a clear luxury focus, reinforced with seafood offerings like scallops & celery root at $44 and “from the mill” options like the garganelli bolognese with basil-whipped ricotta at $38. The wine list pushes that premium identity even further, with bottles such as Opus One 2021 at $690, Dom Pérignon Rosé at $875, Aloft Cabernet Sauvignon at $575, and Sassicaia at $510, showing that TIMBR is catering to guests comfortable with splurge-level pricing.
Importantly, Tronn doesn’t walk into a project thinking about profits; he prioritizes what kind of experience he’s providing. “What am I creating that will be of service to our guests? How am I inspiring them? What am I aiming to deliver for them? And in the case of TIMBR, it goes well beyond food and drink. It’s an environment that’s meant to inspire their imagination and their own creativity and their own sense of self,” he says. “Delivering that through a room or a series of rooms is a completely different experience than just, ‘how can we maximize covers and sell the most steaks’ and stuff like that. So I think that’s a real differentiator.”
While he acknowledges that ROI still matters and TIMBR was expensive to build, he argues many operators spend heavily without his level of intentionality. Tronn’s nearly obsessive approach extends to everything from Italian wood flooring to bathroom hardware. He describes assembling TIMBR as conducting a symphony where every “note” has to be right: he estimates thousands of individual decisions, often testing 10–15 options for a single element—whether it’s a tree, a plank of flooring, or even an ADA grab bar—until he finds a version that meets both functional and aesthetic standards. For him, these micro-decisions are not indulgences; they’re the details that collectively shape how guests feel in the space.
When looking at broader restaurant design trends, Tronn says he’s bored by the kind of “Florida maximalism” that’s become common—spaces filled with peachy tones, rattan, wicker, and floral prints. He also points to another common look in Miami: Midcentury-inspired parametric wood interiors that, while effective and warmly lit, now appear in nearly every major city and no longer feel original.
He also notes that some local operators have started adding trees indoors—something he believes was influenced by TIMBR—but points out his restaurant still differentiates itself by using real tree trunks instead of fake ones. “I am very sensitive to plastic bark—I think it looks completely fake and poor, and even at the highest level, they have not been able to make it look real yet, which is why we ended up with real ones,” he says.
Asked what advice he’d give to operators chasing premium positioning without racing to the bottom on discounts, Tronn points to clarity. “No matter what you’re doing, and no matter on what scale—whether it’s fast food or fine dining and everything in between—you have to still have an identity,” he says. “And I think that the clear identity, as well as the clear audience for the project—if you have those two things, then the equation is just A plus B equals C.” In other words, make sure you know exactly who your concept is for and what you are, then build design, service, and pricing around that promise.
Tronn is in the process of transcribing that philosophy into his forthcoming book, “Symphony For the Senses,” which will be a strategic framework for how to design venue-driven experiences that could just as easily apply to neighborhoods or cities as to restaurants. “I think it shares something new, and if I give that information to people, then we’ll see a lot more interesting places that are more intentional,” he adds.
