As part of his continuing campaign to free wine drinkers from the shackles of chardonnay, Clean Plate Charlie presents. . . torrontes. WTF? TF, not to put too fine a point on it, is the biggest white wine grape in (and the only indigenous grape to) Argentina. If you’ve never…
Okay, Lirim Jacobi isn’t John Belushi and Taverna Opa isn’t Faber College, but a toga party is a toga party. And even U.S. Senator Blutarsky would have to admit that a toga party hosted by WILD 95.5 with DJs, wine tastings, a whole spit-roasted lamb, belly dancing, fire dancing, a…
Restaurateurs tend to be a fairly optimistic lot. After all, a positive attitude is practically a requirement to enter a business that’s perpetually overbuilt, where profit margins can be as thin as Sarah Palin’s résumé.New Times talked to a pair of local restaurateurs whose longtime success in their markets is…
It’s a truism of the restaurant business that when the world goes to shit, diners’ taste for Indo-Peruvian Tuscan burrito sushi gratins vanishes, replaced by an intense craving for the culinary equivalent of a pat on the head, a glass of warm milk, and a thick, soft blankie to tuck…
If there’s anything good that can be said about the past year or so in our economy-blighted restaurant industry, it’s that we’re beginning to loosen the bonds of the mall-and-chain dining megaliths that have for so long dominated the scene in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Here’s a sample of…
Old-fashioned French cuisine (or “time-honored,” depending on how you see these things) got its 15 minutes of fame last month with the release of Julie and Julia, probably the first time anyone under 90 has heard the words “boeuf Bourguignon” and “dinner” in the same sentence. Except perhaps at L’Anjou…
• Stick a fork in ’em, they’re done. Memphis BBQ & Blues, which took over the West Palm location of the late (and inexplicably lamented) Tom’s Place, will smoke no more (not that they did that much or that well to begin with). Also gone belly up is Culinary Café…
You gotta love a winemaker like Randall Grahm. He named one of his finest wines Le Cigare Volante (“The Flying Cigar”) to commemorate Rhone Valley vintners who in 1954 had a law passed that would prohibit flying saucers from cruising over or landing near their vineyards. One of his best-selling…
An economy that’s gone from filet mignon to meat loaf faster than you can say “greedy Wall Street bastards” has got the attention of even high-flying steak houses. One of them, Ruth’s Chris, last night unveiled a new “bistro menu” of apps, sushi, soups, salads and sammies priced from $9…
As part of the continuing Food Writers’ Full-Employment Project, another restaurant has announced it’s coming to Clematis Street. This one is Don Ramon, the mid-scale Cuban eatery that’s pegged to debut in the old Paradise Bar spot in November. There will be no reinventing the wheel here, just all your…
NT’s own John Linn recently took one of my favorite road trips to one of my favorite towns — the long cruise down U.S. 1 to Key West. The Southernmost City is home to a surprisingly number of seriously good restaurants — John nailed three of them — but the…
Pinot noir that actually tastes like pinot noir is becoming about as rare as brain cells at a birthers’ convention, as winemakers pimp out this most perfect of all varietals with gobs of fruit and cords of oak and enough alcohol to stir into a martini. Cheap pinot noir that…
• It’s hard catching a real bonefish, but catching a Bonefish Grill will get even easier when the Tampa-based chain opens its 43rd Florida restaurant later this month, this one in Plantation. If you’ve been to one, you know the drill — scarf some fried “Bam Bam Shrimp”; your fish,…
Mall fast food is a pretty goddamned dismal mouthful, but this little joint in CityPlace has gotten enough foodie buzz for Charlie to put his intestinal tract on the line and check it out. Italian Oven Café is the sole and way-slimmed-down survivor of the Pittsburgh-based Italian Oven chain that…
The shithammer continues to fall on local restaurants. At CityPlace, the revolving door keeps spinning with the departure of Bar Louie, a somewhat unwieldy blend of pub, sports bar, and midscale café with a menu that offered something for everyone but hardly anyone bothered to sample. That leaves the BL…
The story of Robert Mondavi is as depressing as it is inspirational. Probably no single person did more to put California on the world wine map, not only as a vintner who produced wines that rivaled some of the best of Europe but as an evangelist of New World wines,…
Tag and bag Las Gaoneras, the modestly ambitious and thoroughly delightful Mexican restaurant across the street from the goliath Renaissance Commons complex in Boynton Beach. The first U.S. outpost of a Mexico-based chain, it didn’t even make it a year before folding. A bit higher up the food chain than…
Cancan dancers in poufy white tutus, waitresses in red satin bustiers and butt-hugging short black skirts, a DJ station, two bars, a colorful wooden carousel horse suspended from the ceiling… Karim El Sherif is selling the grésiller along with the steak frites at his new Carousel Can Can Café, which…
• Ever since the old Shore restaurant on A1A in Delray Beach washed up many moons ago, the prime oceanfront space has been an empty eyesore. A failed redo left a gutted building but still no restaurant, something about to change with the purchase of the site by Jim Taube,…
There are many reasons to hate white Zinfandel. For one, it almost always sucked. Not just sucked but inhaled through a screaming vortex hell-nozzle thousands of years of winemaking artistry only to spit them out as a sweet, insipid, pinkish turd, available cheap at your local giant-mega-super-dupermarket. For another, it…
When John Montagu, First Lord of the Admiralty and avowed Satanist (!), asked his valet to slap a hunk of meat between two slices of bread in 1762, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich could hardly have known that almost 250 years later a restaurant in Boca Raton would nestle a…
• Good for you, good for the environment. That’s the idea behind Joey Giannuzzi’s The Green Gourmet, a planet and palate-friendly meals-to-go market slated to open in West Delray in late September or early October. Formerly chef at Henry’s in Delray, Giannuzzi will be dishing contemporary American comfort food for…
