• That the all-American burger has gone from humble to haute is about as newsworthy as gravity, but now even Checkers Drive-In Restaurants have hopped on the “gourmet” burger bandwagon. Eighteen of the chain’s local eateries are now offering the “Flavor Built Menu,” six upscale burgers garnished with everything from…
So as I mentioned last week, I’ve discovered the DIY chocolate website, Chocomize (chocomize.com), and in a flight of sugar-fueled fantasy customized my own bar of dark Belgian chocolate and proceeded to wait for its delivery. Just to refresh your memory, I called the thing “Tropical Madness” (probably due to…
The West Palm sibling of Fort Lauderdale’s Off the Hookah, the nightclubby restaurant where water pipes aren’t the only things smoking, is now up and running on — where else? — Clematis Street. The newest Hookah (314 Clematis St., 561-837-8577) is 14,000 square feet of faux exotica, complete with “ancient”…
‘Tis the season of the ritual charring of the flesh–aka, barbecue season–(check out John Linn’s review of Sheila’s here) so a young man’s fancy turns to what beverage of the alcoholic persuasion is best to wash down some killer ‘cue. Many of you (philistines) will say beer, and while it’s…
Nowadays you can design your own pizza, customize your own hamburger, build your own ice cream cone, and create your own pasta from a selection of noodles, sauces, and proteins. Wouldn’t it be great if you could do the same with chocolate? Uh, well, yes. And, in fact, you can…
Keeping up with the Joneses may be a crummy way to live, but if you’re a restaurant in the brutally competitive South Florida market, not keeping up with your neighbors is a sure way to perish. And with West Palm’s Clematis Street area full of bright and shiny new restaurant…
• Party like a patriot at Il Bacio, where on Sunday, May 30, the niteclubby Delray restaurant will host its “Wet, White and Blue” bash. On tap for the event, which begins at 6 p.m., are live reggae from Hard Drive; drinks specials from Bacardi, 1800 Tequila and 42 Below…
Everybody’s looking for a good deal on wine nowadays, and anybody who’s been paying attention to the wine market knows that some of the best deals around are coming from Latin America. Or to put it more succinctly, Chile and Argentina. The quality of their grapes, skill of their winemakers…
There’s something to be said for knowing when to quit. Although longevity and persistence have their place, in time that thing or person who refuses to give it up (Larry King), gracefully fade away (Bret Farve), or drown himself in his bathtub (Glenn Beck) start to become goddamned annoying. Like…
• One of the hottest food trends of the past couple of years is cupcakes, and now Hoffman’s Chocolates is jumping on the cupcake bandwagon. Beginning in June, the five local Hoffman’s will be offering more than two dozen varieties of the tasty little cakes, at $2.75 for a regular-sized…
Everyone likes cute little buns, right? How else to explain the sudden popularity of, ah… sliders. Okay, so maybe there are a few other reasons. But though the petite little miniburger has been around since the White Castle chain was founded in the 1920s, it wasn’t until the last couple…
Say “Italian white wine” and almost everyone will say “Pinot Grigio.” Blech. Most Pinot Grigio, Italian or otherwise, is to wine what Bud Lite is to beer — watery, tasteless, insipid stuff made for people whose palates cringe at the thought of anything with, you know, flavor. So, instead, next…
• Two big Delray Beach projects on tap for local restaurateur Burt Rapoport. First is a takeover of the now-shuttered Busch’s Seafood on the Intracoastal, which Rapoport will make over as Burt’s at the Bridge, a casual, affordable eatery featuring a wood-fired grill, raw bar, live music, and upstairs wine…
Take six truckloads of South Beach-style lounge furniture and custom lighting, food and booze booths, live music, a fashion show, and a samba parade, dump them all on the Great Lawn in downtown Delray, charge everybody $15 to get in ($20 at the door, $75 for VIP tickets) and you’ve…
Is your kitchen smaller than Snookie’s brainpan? Do you barely have enough counter space to spill a can of Bud? Does your refrigerator wheeze like Kirstie Alley running a marathon? Is your stove something Neanderthal Man would have used to roast a hunk of woolly mammoth? If you answered “yes”…
There’s cheap Chardonnay and there’s cheap Chardonnay. Then there’s ForestVille Chardonnay. At $5.99 a bottle they’d practically have to give the stuff away to make it any cheaper. And while the 2008 vintage certainly isn’t going to make anybody forget Kistler or Far Niente or Sonoma-Cutrer, it does give you…
• Joining Caruso as the second Italian restaurant opened in Boca Raton by former Chicago restaurateurs in the past few months is Capri Ristorante (39 SE First Ave.; 561-391-8044). The husband-and-wife team of Joey and Giovanna Capri have ex-Norman Van Aken and Mark Militello chef Victor Franco in the kitchen…
More than 40 local restaurants will offer tastes of just about every cuisine in the nation at the 19th-annual Taste of the Nation: Fort Lauderdale, to take place from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, May 13, at the Broward Convention Center. Hosts include chef chairman James Dean Max of 3030…
If beer is your world, then start saving up your thirst for World of Beer, a purveyor of fine suds set to debut first in Coconut Creek (4437 Lyons Road, no phone yet) and later in West Palm Beach. According to Richard Reeves, president of the company that holds the…
“The best” is one of those designations fraught with peril as well as slightly ridiculous. Is LeBron James “better” than Dwyane Wade, Picasso “better” than Joan Miro, John Coltrane “better” than Charlie Parker? I don’t want to have to make those calls. So I won’t say Pine Ridge’s perpetually superlative…
There’s something furtive, slightly embarrassing, even shameful about it. Sort of like spanking the monkey to Sarah Palin videos or watching the goombah nitwits of Jersey Shore. But we do it anyway, at lunch and even at dinner, unable to resist its base, carnal lure. Sure, we deny it,…
• There are more burgers to relish than you can shake a french fry at at the new Relish burger emporium (401 Northwood Rd., 561-629-5377) in West Palm Beach. More than 1,000 different combinations, according to owners Daniel and Desiree Tobin, which you can DIY with 20 assorted relishes (from…
