There are two important things to know about today’s Riverwalk Burger Battle. First, is that this year’s winner will be whichever burger induces what Renee Quinn, a consultant for battle organizer Riverwalk Trust, called “Burger Nirvana.” Second, hopefully you already purchased your tickets, because they are now sold out. $40…

Fabio Cracco describes his specials the way a swooning grandmother gushes over a new grandchild. His hands make sweeping circular motions as he explains how meaty, salty cubes of speck — an Italian ham made with pork shoulder — and pungent Gorgonzola cheese together create a simple yet rich sauce…

During a weekday lunch the perpetual click-click-click of Fabio Cracco beating eggs to sauce pasta carbonara doubles as background music at La Cucina Veneziana. On a Friday night he holds the door for little grey-haired ladies as the restaurant empties. Each one receives a kiss on the cheek followed by…

As craft beer bubbles into South Florida’s mainstream Ryan Sentz and the Funky Buddha Lounge & Brewery in only two short years have risen to the head of the pack. Maybe it’s the Maple Bacon Porter that has craft beer enthusiasts packing their bar three deep. Maybe it’s the speakeasy…

d.b.a./café breaks the notion that good food and drink must be accompanied by a fancy setting and fancy prices. Cut up wine boxes line the kickspace under the bar. More of them form a New York City skyline at the far end of the restaurant, past the multicolored string of…

“The ultimate goal is to be on shelves,” Eric Guerrero says over a pair of roaring gas-fired burners that are jury-rigged with heat reflectors and firing up two 15-gallon kegs retrofitted with spigots and thermometers. He describes his beer-brewing setup as “Ghetto 101.” The Navy veteran stands over six feet…

Basic beer brewing is a simple enough process that long-extinct civilizations in Egypt and ancient Sumeria were able to do it. A source of starch — beer makers use anything from malted barley to rice husks — is steeped in hot water to extract the sugars. The liquid is strained…

You’ve seen the bumper stickers. And you’ve wondered what the hell the vague term “Salt Life” stands for. In 2003, a group of longtime friends from Jacksonville who spent every moment they could surfing, fishing, or diving had the words “Salt Life” tattooed on the backs of their necks. In…

At Casa Frida Number 18 on our Tastemakers list, Julieta Bocos wants you to taste Mexico. Not the Mexico fast food chains try to sell, and not the Tex-Mex most Americans mistake as Mexican food. Slow-cooked moles – a Mexican sauce made with chocolate and chilis – and fall-apart pork…

You know those Salt Life stickers you see everywhere? The idea for them, and the multimillion-dollar company apparel company they created came from Jacksonville. Salt Life, the company, began in the early 2000s with a group of friends with a passion for fishing, surfing, diving and anything involving the ocean…

Thanks to Susan Kim, you wouldn’t be out of line if you called Lauderhill, Florida’s Little Korea. Though the west Broward enclave isn’t quite as dense with Korean business as Little Korea in Los Angeles, Kim and her Korean (barbecue) restaurant Gabose have paved the way for the slew of…

Monday nights are a good time to go out for dinner. Sometimes at the start of a busy workweek, you just don’t have the head for cooking. Still, it was shocking to find all 200 seats filled at Kaluz on a recent Monday. The cavernous, modern space was just 2…

It was shocking to find Kaluz packed and bustling on a Monday night. It was more shocking to find a chic, multimillion-dollar restaurant with a well-rounded menu and detail-oriented servers pop up from nowhere. A bit of investigation found an experienced, well-funded team behind the waterfront eatery, which sits overlooking…

New Times’ Best Of Broward-Palm Beach 2013 issue arrives June 13. To celebrate, Clean Plate Charlie is serving up 30 of our favorite tastemakers — restaurateurs, chefs, bartenders, and other foodies who make the South Florida food scene what it is. We’ll start with number 30 and lead up to…

The pink-and-red gingerbread-looking house on East Commercial Boulevard could have been plucked out of Epcot Center’s German pavilion and dropped in the middle of Fort Lauderdale. Sure Norma and Dieter Dauer sell apple and cherry strudel, poppy-seed cake, and crumb cake out of the pocket-sized house that Hansel and Gretel…

Mancini’s Modern Italian: Las Olas Institution Reinvented

Jack Mancini’s namesake restaurant on East Las Olas Boulevard was a rare, long-standing institution on a street where some restaurants depart faster than visiting tourists. After a decade in business Mancini’s closed its doors in 2011 when the 10-year lease expired. After trying his hand at a short-lived tapas-and-cocktails concept…

It was a surprise to see Susan Arboleda of SusyPops’ cake pops selling her wares at Gulfstream Park’s SweetTooth Soiree Friday night. People paid anywhere from $40 and $80 and were promised all the sugary treats they could handle. However, we couldn’t blame her. The amateur confectioner who aspires to…

U.S. Highway 27 marks the border between the Everglades and suburbia. The contrast is stark: On one side of the highway, a paved, subdivided, and strip-malled South Florida stretches all the way to the ocean; on the other, mangroves and squat emerald saw-grass marshes go as far as the eye…

There’s a huge Jamaican and West Indian population in the western part of Broward County. While immigration to South Florida is perpetual, it seemed as though the seeds of this community began arriving in the late 1970s. As we wandered around Sunrise and Weston, eating everything from slow-cooked oxtail to…