4 May 14-20, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | THE SOCIAL NETWORK Newly surfaced records and longstanding accounts from alleged victims draw renewed attention to Cipriani’s proximity to Epstein’s world. BY NATASHA YEE O n any given night in downtown Miami, the glassy waterfront din- ing room at Cipriani hums with a familiar local energy: hedge fund and crypto bros, East- ern European expats, glamorous women in barely-there heels, bot- tles arriving unprompted. It’s the sort of place where access feels baked into the lighting, the ser- vice, the crowd. It’s also the kind of environment that, for years, helped power American financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s social network. As the fine Italian luxury brand expands across South Florida, with a Coconut Grove hotel and all-day cafe, plans for Miami and West Palm Beach hotels, and ultra-luxury res- idences coming to Brickell in late 2027, newly surfaced records and longstanding accounts from alleged victims are drawing renewed at- tention to its proximity to Epstein’s world. The Cipriani brand traces back to Venice, Italy, where Giuseppe Cipriani opened Har- ry’s Bar in 1931. The bar is widely credited as the birthplace of both the Bellini and carpac- cio, the paper-thin sliced meat dish that be- came a staple of Italian cuisine. More than half a century later, the brand expanded to the United States, debuting in Manhattan in 1985 with Harry Cipriani at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue and multiplying throughout the globe, from Ibiza, Mexico City, and Dubai to London, Hong Kong, and Beverly Hills. Cipriani landed inside Icon Brickell Miami in May 2013. “There’s also a glamour that many Miami restaurants, as stylish as they may be, lack. Enter and be transported wherever your fantasies will take you,” former New Times food editor Laine Doss wrote of the eatery prior to its debut. “Some will see a fabulous yacht circa Jay Gatsby; some will see Don Draper seducing a lover or a client; some will see Hemingway hobnobbing with Lauren Bacall.” That legacy of exclusivity and global reach is part of what makes the brand’s more recent associations notable. The connections cut across business, so- cial, and physical space. In U.S. Department of Justice-released records, the name “Cipri- ani” appears 530 times alongside documents tying Epstein to a potential deal with Cipri- ani-linked partners, firsthand accounts plac- ing him inside Cipriani venues, and a shared orbit of model agents, celebrities, and finan- ciers. Epstein also pursued a business rela- tionship with Giuseppe Cipriani involving a private membership club in London, records show. It’s a pattern of proximity that goes be- yond chance encounters. “How the Upstairs Works” “Cheers to Cipriani’s legacy and Miami’s dy- namic future,” reads the caption on a Decem- ber 2025 Cipriani Residences Miami Instagram post. “An intimate world in the making, where the quiet glamour of Harry’s Bar meets a sanctuary for residents only.” Yet the history surrounding the brand is more complex than the post suggests. A September 2025 Substack post by inde- pendent journalist Ellie Leonard describes Cipriani Wall Street as “a Hollywood hot-spot for people like Harvey Weinstein, P. Diddy, Woody Allen, Leon Black, Donald Trump, and, yes, Jeffrey Epstein.” An October 2001 Vanity Fair story states that Paolo Zampolli, an Italian former modeling agent turned presidential special envoy who is rumored to have introduced Donald Trump to Melania, had a standing table at the bustling joint. In January 2019, the Daily Beast described Cipriani’s hotels, bars, and restaurants as “Har- vey Weinstein’s ‘hunting ground,’” citing ac- counts from more than two dozen sources who described a close relationship between Ameri- can former film producer and convicted sex of- fender Weinstein and Giuseppe Cipriani. Women have alleged they were sexually as- saulted by Weinstein at Cipriani-owned ven- ues. Cipriani associate Paolo Zampolli told the Daily Beast that Weinstein was a “very frequent client” and described Cipriani as a close friend. “Weinstein is accused of three sexual as- saults at Cipriani properties, and is charged with a fourth assault against a woman he met at Cipriani Upstairs in Manhattan,” the Daily Beast story reads. In 2022, a former employee at Harry’s Ta- ble, a Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan, sued the company, alleging she was sexually ha- rassed by both the restaurant’s owner and Weinstein, according to Bloomberg. One survivor, Kelly Brennan, describes in a May 2022 Substack post how Epstein alleg- edly groped her at Cipriani’s Manhattan loca- tion in 2003, while she was a college student at State University of New York at New Paltz. She recalls being “brought to a semi-private area filled with stunning girls and young ladies, most of which seemed younger than me. Soon after, I was intro- duced to Epstein and ‘friends,’ including Jean-Luc Brunel, a beautiful brunette woman that fit the description of Maxwell (but I can- not be sure), and other adult men.” Later that night, Brennan alleges in the de- tailed Medium post, “He stood up and ana- lyzed my body with his eyes while running his hand along my curves. After peering down my shirt, he groped me in front of the other adults, making me feel highly uncomfortable... It wasn’t until he began to assault me that ev- erything fell apart for me physically.” Brennan did not return New Times’ re- quest for comment via Instagram. Throughout the DOJ files, the lore sur- rounding what is constantly described as “Upstairs” at Cipriani’s popular Manhattan restaurant is seemingly unending. In a January 2010 exchange with a person who is indicated as Brunel, the French model scout and alleged sex trafficker who was found dead in his Paris prison cell in February 2022, Epstein writes, “it would be nice and i thinnk [sic] beneficial for you to have a dinner for lyndon lea. in new york this week.” (Lea is an English financier and investor whose name shows up in the DOJ files 343 times.) “Done,” a redacted email address, which appears to belong to Brunel, responds. “I was going to in- vite him thursday night for diner [sic] at the reopening of upstairs Cipriani. I am inviting also 10 models. You can tell him. I shall con- tact him tomorrow with details” One message from Cipriani to Epstein, dated the morning of September 10, 2010, reads cryptically, “I would like to see how the upstairs works in New York on Sunday,, as you will not be there, is there someone who could coordinate.” A mere forty minutes later, Epstein responds, “Yes for sure.” The same day, an undisclosed email ad- dress sends Epstein a mystifying message. “Cipriani upstairs... Bheeee... Uffff. A couple of days later, in a thread with the subject line “Upstairs Sunday,” Stefania Gi- rombelli, now the vice president of communi- cations at Cipriani, writes to Epstein, “Dear Mr. Epstein, I work with Giuseppe Cipriani in NY. I understand you would like to | METRO | >> p6 Jeffrey Epstein had ties to the Cipriani empire. New Times collage Cipriani restaurant photo by Laine Doss; Giuseppe Cipriani photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images; Jeffrey Epstein photo by Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan Company
