The nightlife king who airlifted Miami’s hottest club to the Las Vegas GP

If you’ve spent a night out in Miami, chances are you’ve stepped foot in one of David Grutman’s properties. The south Florida hospitality kingpin has become synonymous with the beachfront city over the past two decades, opening several best-in-class restaurants and nightclubs, and becoming pals with the likes of David Beckham, Lionel Messi, and Kim Kardashian along the way.

It’s no surprise then, that he played an integral role in shaping the Miami Grand Prix’s hospitality offerings, hosting A-listers in his ultra-luxe 72 Club and throwing some of the weekend’s biggest bashes at LIV. However, Grutman has now turned — at least part of — his attention to Las Vegas, expanding his portfolio out west in tandem with the addition of Formula 1’s  Sin City race.

Not only has he opened multiple restaurants and a Vegas outpost of LIV Nightclub at the new Fontainebleau hotel, but he’s played a key role in the race’s Paddock Club programming, creating a mini nightclub on the roof of the pit building, and curating a Papi Steak garage experience in the pit lane.

“It’s not just about the race itself anymore, it’s about the experience building up to the race and what’s going on around it,” Grutman told Motorsport. “And nowhere offers a better experience than Miami and Vegas.”

He continued, “Coming from Miami where I’m one of the bigger fish in the pond, to Vegas with the best operators from around the world and the highest hospitality concentration I’ve ever seen … it’s just humbling for me to be to even be able to play on the same field as those guys.” 

Grutman said his venues are still in the “baby stage,” but he’s already hit the jackpot on the music front. “We’ve bet on a lot of up-and-coming talent like John Summit and Dom Dolla, who just happened to have insane years in 2024,” Grutman said of his resident DJs, who are performing throughout the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend. “We made some big bets on the guys that we thought were going to be the future, and they’ve over-delivered for us.”

Working across three Miami races has prepared Grutman for the Las Vegas GP, though, he’s still learning about the high speed world of F1. “I remember walking the starting grid at the first Miami Grand Prix — it was something like six minutes that felt like an hour. I was with Matt Damon and David Beckham, and Beckham and I were like ‘What the f**k is this?’ But Matt Damon was so obsessed with that TV show [“Drive to Survive”] so he knew every little thing about the car and this driver and that driver, it was awesome.”

Grutman has also had a front row seat to the expansion of soccer in America — another traditionally European sport witnessing a massive boom in the States. He described the palpable “Messi effect” when the Argentina captain joined the once-struggling Major League Soccer team, Inter Miami. “It’s on such an international scale. I’m getting calls from people all over the world who are coming to Miami and wanting to go to a game or visit one of our restaurants,” he said. 

It’s a similar situation for Formula 1. “The Papi Steak garage in Vegas is much bigger and better this year, it’s just incredible,” he said. “We’re also doing LIV on the grid [in Paddock Club] which will be a party. It’s on the rooftop and we’ll all be getting down.” As for the future of his relationship with Formula 1 in Vegas, Grutman said there’s plenty more to come: “We can’t wait to keep growing and and see what else we can do.”