Your intuition is correct: Restaurants dropped like tasered protesters at a Republican rally last year. The not-so-bad news is that new eateries opened in many of the vacated spaces, offsetting our net loss. Read on for a partial and unofficial Short Order list of closings in Broward and Palm Beach…
In light of the upcoming South Beach Wine & Food Festival, I propose a law requiring that no posted photo of any Food Network personality ever exceed the size of a postage stamp. Our fine dining establishments are much improved in terms of the quality of cuisine served, but they’ve…
Chef Ivo Mazzon of Joey’s Cafe in Miami’s Wynwood is from Roncade, Treviso, in Northern Italy, close to Venice. He studied there for five years at a hospitality institute and has been in Miami since April, 2003. He says “I love it here. We’re trying to make something special to…
Ah, the Cuban Pig Roast. There’s no greater cooking method than the outdoor-food-to-fire-method. And with the holiday pig we ate, we gotta start looking ahead to the next one. This kind of cooking is so basic, yet so delicious, it brings out the inner cave person in all of us…
Cookie junkies across the nation simultaneously erupted in joy and floundered in despair when ’09 Girl Scout cookie shipments hit the streets and salmonella peanut butter reports hit the airwaves. But don’t despair, according to MSN Health & Fitness:”The drum roll for recalls of peanut butter products continued without letup,…
This Thursday evening, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden will be hosting the Third Annual International Chocolate Festival Kickoff Party. No, I didn’t know about the first two either, but this year’s one-hour shindig (6 to 7 p.m.) features hors d’oeuvres from exceptional chef Edgar Leal of Cacao Restaurant — reason enough…
Business-hippies Ben & Jerry know ice cream cross-branding is a powerful way to push a message and make people smile. Hell, their corporate language refers to the CEO as “chief euphoria officer.” With that in mind, they’ve chosen January as a month of change wherein their famous butter pecan flavor…
In 1968 The Berkowitz family opened its first seafood restaurant. That was in Cambridge, Mass. Legal Seafood is now a big franchise with locations in Sunrise, West Palm, and Boca and they are declaring January 20th a “Legal Holiday.” So when you go in there and buy an entree you…
Apparently even in its’ final moments, the Bush administration’s penchant for pettiness has not yet been exhausted. The latest victim is Roquefort cheese, which has had its’ import duty rate tripled to 300% by the lame duck government. According to an article in The Guardian, the move was taken in…
After a hard day of filing my nails, receiving deep tissue massages, and ordering Manolo Blahniks from Neiman Marcus’s online store (THANK GOD for the plummeting economy – sales are faaaabulous), there’s nothing that I like more than grabbing my komodo dragon and baby panda-fur lined purse, driving my Hummer…
One of our favorite restaurants in Fort Lauderdale, Christine’s on Oakland Park Boulevard, rolled out a new menu this week featuring, in addition to entrees, a pretty delectable line-up of small plates priced between 10 and 14 bucks. A good idea, thinks us, especially because the joint is becoming known…
There are few places in South Florida that have such a devoted following like Royal Castle. Its devotees are so faithful, the original, White Castle, never found success here. Naturally, it was a grim day for many when Wayne Arnold’s Royal Castle was forced to close down a few year’s…
Waxy O’Connor’s South Beach, hitherto a humble pub, is getting all classy on us. This coming Wednesday, January 21st, marks the restaurant’s first foray into celebrity chef beer dinners. Cindy Hutson, chef/owner of Coral Gable’s beloved Ortanique on the Mile, will be cooking up a four-course dinner matched with appropriate…
Hard to believe that A Fish Called Avalon has been reeling in diners on Ocean Drive for two decades, yet the Avalon Hotel’s seafood establishment is indeed celebrating its’ 20-year anniversary tonight. Congrats to the owners and chef Brian Cantrell for being able to achieve long term success in spite…
In “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” a Food Network original series, host Guy Fieri rides around looking for real-reality through specialty joints. In this episode he visits Jamaica Kitchen, an authentic Jamaican and Chinese-Jamaican establishment serving up pure fire. In 2007 the place won Miami New Times “Best Chinese Restaurant.” Check…
Hey, you. Yeah, you, the unemployed guy sitting on your couch surfing the Internets for a job. I would change those boxers, man. Shortly after doing that, I would head to epynomous sports pub Beef ‘O’ Brady’s for what the Sun-Sentinel’s John Tanasychuk says is a sure thing. No, not…
No, not that kind of beard. It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world these days fer sher, but at least we can take comfort in comfort food, and nobody does it with quite the panache of chef Michael Wagner of Hollywood, one of a handful of chefs invited…
The Hyatt Regency Miami, which underwent a $20 million dollar renovation last year, has unveiled its’ new Pure Verde restaurant. Executive chef Michael Morris will be in charge of the snazzily-designed venue, which just months ago was a dull, aging sports bar. Morris, who previously helmed Hyatt properties in Tampa…
It’s unclear how you take the owners of one mediocre Greek restaurant, combine them with the chef from another similarly unremarkable taverna, and come up with something as wonderful as Ouzo Blue. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out that Odis Giakis, former owner/chef…
What happened to Downtown At The Gardens? What was once a lovely dining destination is rapidly becoming a restaurant graveyard, staffed by people with bad attitudes and bunker mentalities. We called and spoke to someone in The Gardens’ marketing department about a wild rumor about the fact that four –…
On January 3rd, Starbucks rolled out a quintet of new Tazo full leaf tea beverages that are now available in all stores nationwide. Yesterday the coffee chain hosted “TeaTime events”, which is a civilized way of saying “free samples”. I headed to the most scenic of our Starbucks, at 14th…
Chef Marco Ferraro from Wish, winner of Miami New Time’s “Best Outdoor Dining” award in 2007, one of 4 “Best of’s” we’ve awarded the hotel/restaurant, says “I’m Italian. Our cuisine is contemporary-American with a global influence. We do new-American food with an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients. Local is great…
