Cheap wine that doesn’t suck rarely is Merlot. On the Universal Suckitude Scale, cheap Merlot ranks slightly higher than dogshit omelets and just below seeing Kirstie Alley naked.Why? Well, Merlot naturally runs to the soft and flabby side — sort of like Rex Ryan without the personality — which is…
Steve Martorano may have had humble beginnings running a one-man sandwich delivery business out of the basement of his mother’s South Philly home, but there’s nothing humble about his newest restaurant venture, set to debut later this month in the gaudy Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Consider this: Martorano’s…
• Doc’s All-American Café, the 1950s-style Delray Beach diner where teenagers still wear bobbysox and the cars all have tail fins, has expanded the reach of its inexpensive burgers and ultra-thick, creamy milkshakes to Boynton Beach (1797 N. Congress Ave., 561-733-0997). Unlike its Delray parent, the new Doc’s is a…
The best thing to happen to chicken wings since the invention of hot sauce is the upscale pizzeria. Sure, everyone loves Buffalo chicken wings, perhaps the ultimate culinary achievement in turning a pig’s ear (or in this case, the useless appendages of a corporate-raised sack of virtually flavorless meat) into…
Oops, I did it again. Last week, you may recall, I threw a minor temper tantrum over wines with stupid, cutesy names and stupid, made-up backstories, then went ahead and recommended one. Well, just to show I’m nothing if not consistent in my hypocrisy, this week I’m touting another one. …
There’s a new moon rising at the Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale and it’s called Via Luna. The unpretentious, moderately priced Italian grill takes the place of the Ritz’s ritzier Cero, which struggled to find an audience despite generally positive word of mouth. Via Luna will host its official grand opening party…
• Three of the four partners of Clematis Street’s Reef Road Restaurant & Rum Bar have hit the road in a reportedly friendly dispute over the direction of the casual, seafood-oriented, beachy-type eatery. Niteclub impresario Cleve Mash has bought out Rocco Mangel and Todd Herbst and Bill Watson of Big…
With some 50 restaurants lining just a few blocks of Atlantic Avenue, there’s a lot of savoring to be done at Delray Beach’s annual Savor the Avenue food orgy. Eighteen restaurants will offer multicourse, prix fixe dinners, with each course paired to wines from Chile’s Santa Rita winery. Among them…
“They’re off!” at the Village at Gulfstream Park. The restaurants, that is. Close on the heels of the recent opening of III Forks come the debuts of two more eateries at the sprawling Hallandale shopping-entertainment-residential complex, Cantina Laredo and Tonino Lamborghini’s Caffe Corsa. The Gulfstream Cantina (501 Silks Run, 954-457-7662)…
• If you’re a food professional with an idea for a great new product; a caterer looking for an affordable, licensed, and fully outfitted kitchen; an amateur cook looking to improve your skills; or someone who wants a swell place to throw a party, check out the Production Kitchen (1253…
Big Al’s Steaks is getting a little bigger. “Big Al” Costilo, the cheerful purveyor of rigorously authentic Philly cheese steaks from locations in Coconut Creek and Delray Beach, will open his first franchise this summer on Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach. The menu featuring Philadelphia’s iconic sammie and its reliance…
There’s wine snobbery; then there’s reverse wine snobbery. We all know classic wine snobbery. It’s the snooty sommelier at Le Grand Boof making you feel like an idiot because you don’t know that the chief grape of St. Emilion is Merlot. Reverse wine snobbery is perhaps best displayed in the…
As part of an irregular series on how to have more fun with your hamburger, allow Charlie to present… the lambburger. Like ground beef, ground lamb is cheap and easily available, but it also takes to Moroccan, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean flavorings in ways the standard disc of chopped cow…
Nothing does celebrations better than champagne (or sparkling wine). And what better celebration than for a bubbly that’s downright skinflinty and doesn’t suck at all? That would be the nonvintage Kenwood Cuvee Brut, which at $10 a bottle is cheaper than stuff you would use to flush out your car’s…
• Adding a Boca Raton location to its Hollywood older brother is Argentango Grill (504 Villa De Palmas; 561-416-2213), known for its 28-ounce skirt steak that comes rolled up like the sidewalks in Boca after 10 p.m., not to mention all the other kinds of meat you could ever hope…
Unleash your inner Tom Colicchio and sample the suds of 12 of the area’s best amateur brewmeisters this Sunday, February 28, at Lake Worth’s always fun ‘n’ funky Havana Hideout, where chef-owner Chrissy Benoit is hosting the first of a planned series of Top of the Hops brew-offs. From 1…
• Tommy Billante’s restaurant empire just keeps growing. The SoFla restaurateur, whose stylish, accessible, and wallet-friendly Italian eateries give new meaning to the phrase “familiarity breeds content,” has opened his fourth local Villagio, this one in the Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise (1760 Sawgrass Mills Circle, 954-846-2176). Expect…
Like foreclosures, unemployment and pin-striped bankstas lugging home million-dollar bonuses, restaurant happy hours are a sign of these very unhappy economic times. What you don’t see much of–at least not yet, anyway–is an entire mall going happy for a few hours a night. But that is the deal at CityPlace,…
You may not need three forks to demolish 18 ounces of USDA Prime bone-in ribeye, but if you want to try it at Hallandale’s ambitious Village at Gulfstream Park, you’ll need to head for the new III Forks steakhouse (501 Silks Run, Ste. 1130, 954-457-3920). The fourth Florida meatery of…
Pinot Grigio is the cream of wheat of the wine world–bland, boring, inoffensive, with as much character as a politician running for re-election. Most of the time, anyway. One of those other times is when you crack a bottle (and you do crack it; it’s a screwtop) of the 2008…
Farmers’ markets are a wonderful thing: politically, ecologically, economically, and gastronomically correct. We love the idea of them; we love the quality product we can get at them. What we don’t do is shop a whole lot at them. After all, most farmers’ markets are open only on weekends, usually…
If you’re not a subscriber to our weekly Café Bites dining newsletter for Broward and Palm Beach counties, here’s a taste of what you missed this week. Click here to subscribe. When you get right down to it, the business of barbecue is ribs, and ribs are certainly the business…
