Every wine-producing region has its iconic wine. The Napa Valley has Cabernet Sauvignon; France, Bordeaux; Italy, Chianti; Spain, Rioja; Australia, Shiraz; Chile, Carménère. And Argentina has malbec. Like its South American cousin, malbec is one of the “noble grapes” of Bordeaux (along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit…
The only thing painful about Le Petit Pain is deciding which of its luscious breads, pastries, cookies, tarts, and other confections to take home with you. But one pain that’s pure pleasure is a breakfast bread that, if you’re not of Scandinavian descent, you’ve probably never seen before. “Scandinavian coffee…
Chocolate is a lot like sandpaper. It smoothes the rough edges off just about everything. Of course, good handmade chocolate can flatten your budget too, one reason why the deal at Schakolad Chocolate Factory is a treat for your sweet teeth. Through the end of August, the Davie Factory is…
• Another Italian restaurant comes to Boca Raton with the debut of Rosario’s Ristorante in the tony Royal Palm Place shopping mall. Rosario Lanza, late of La Viola, is serving up a menu of mostly tried and true dishes from the top of the boot to his native Sicily, which…
“This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory — maybe something with a…
If you are or have ever been a cubicle slave, you know a good, cheap lunch that isn’t one more ham-and-cheese or tuna sandwich can bring a tiny speck of light into the daily grind of pounding big rocks into little rocks for The Man. Of course, you don’t have…
I’m a sucker for Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza’s meatball and ricotta pie. The combination of the thin, crisp, slightly charred, and bubbled crust with a simple tomato sauce, a little mozzarella, tiny meatballs, and blobs of rich ricotta is hard to resist when the urge for takeout pizza strikes. But…
• It may be early, but the folks at The Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival aren’t letting any arugula grow under their feet. Already scheduled to be on-hand for the Dec. 10 bash is local top toque Michelle Bernstein (at right), whose Michelle Bernstein at The Omphoy resort in…
“I am not drinking any fucking Merlot!” That was Miles Raymond in Sideways, the movie that did for Merlot what Plan 9 From Outer Space did for science fiction cinema. If you’ve tasted much domestic and Australian Merlot over the past few years, you can sympathize with Miles. Most of…
Artisanal pizza is no longer a moron of the oxy variety, with pizzerias like Una Pizza Napoletana in New York, Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco, and Pizzavolante in Miami’s Design District. And now you can add Dak Kerprich’s Pizzeria Oceano (201 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana, 561-429-5550)…
You may have thought cooking was just a way to get something to eat. Actually, it’s why homo sapiens developed bodies strong enough to bench-press a dump truck and brains that could create incomprehensible “financial instruments” to sell to widows and orphans and crash the world economy like a drunken…
• Fire and ice cream is not a happy marriage, as the folks at Palm Beach’s Sprinkles ice cream shop found out last weekend. A kitchen fire gutted the shop, which not only dishes everyone’s favorite hot-weather treat but breakfast, lunch, and assorted retail items. Sprinkles expects to be again…
Sauvignon Blanc is forever the underdog, settling for whatever flickers of limelight its better-known Chardonnay partner might cast aside. But Sauvignon Blanc actually has much to offer. For one, it’s almost always cheaper than Chardonnay, which can demand premium prices no matter how insipid the wine in the bottle. For…
The world of wine speaks a language all its own. Urdu, mostly. With a soupcon of bullshit and a faint whiff of pretension. So in keeping with Clean Plate Charlie’s commitment to calling a spade a goddamned shovel, he presents this modest glossary of wine terms for your amusement, edification,…
Recession, you say? Apparently not on Clematis Street, where despite a dining economy that has many restaurateurs contemplating an easier line of work, like shipping out on a tramp steamer to Bolivia, the hits just keep on coming. Two new spots have opened up on the street, both admittedly in…
• A pair of West Palm Beach eateries are taking their shows on the road to the rather tonier confines of the Shops at Boca Center. Come fall, Rocco’s Tacos will be slinging tortillas and margaritas in the current Big City Tavern space, the same eats and drinks that have…
Mention Zinfandel to your average noncork dork and the first wine likely to come to mind is some sweet, fruity pink stuff pissed out by giant conglomerates that is to real Zinfandel what paté de foie gras is to 9 Lives Liver & Bacon dinner. So let’s get one thing…
Marylea Moffat was in a pickle. The trucking company she and her husband ran had crashed and burned. Her marriage too. And getting a new job? Well, the way things are nowadays, good luck with that. What she did have was a lifetime of family recipes for pickling just about…
How does it sound to taste more than 50 wines from around the planet, nibble on munchies, get as much as a 20 percent discount on anything you buy, and walk away with a spiffy German wine glass, all for only $15? Better than a poke in the eye with…
Cheap pinot noir is a moron. Cheap, good pinot noir is an oxymoron. Pinot noir, you see, is the Sarah Palin of grapes — flighty, erratic, unpredictable, hard to handle — though unlike the nitwit from Wasilla, the result can be anything but simple and stupid. It’s that ornery nature…
All hail the humble taco, a perfect marriage of starch, protein, fruit, vegetable, and appetite, a triumph of down-home Mexican gastronomy, a thing of rare culinary beauty. Of course, that’s a taco made with fresh, quality ingredients by someone who knows and loves authentic Mexican food. That’s where Mark Miller…
Making cheap Chardonnay is like playing rock guitar: Everybody does it; hardly anybody does it well. The folks at California’s Twisted Wine Cellars do it pretty well. Well enough, in fact, for their 2007 vintage to grab a gold medal at this year’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, which just…
