Food & Drink

We all know 2009 was sort of a strange year for restaurants. On one hand, there were dozens of significant openings, places that really added to our overall scene. On the other, there was more attrition than a super-long game of Risk. Here’s a comprehensive run down, from A to…

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and if you weren’t at the house, you were probably at Seminole Casino Coconut Creek’s Sweet Dreams event schmoozing with Art Ginsburg. Wait–you don’t know who that is? Yeah, we bet you do. He started out as a butcher then a caterer with a flair…

Art’s has sat in between a Firestone and a Pep Boys on University Drive in Coral Springs since 2001, a regular lunchtime spot for mechanics and blue-collar workers from the area. But owners Artis and Marilyn Holmes have been cooking barbecue since 1993, when they first opened Art’s in Rapid…

“There she is! Do you see her?” shot my mother, motioning behind my head toward the glass-encased wine rack by LOLA’s foyer. I spun around slyly to try to catch a glimpse of the crazy woman in the purple tutu my family kept going on about. But I missed her…

You have to hand it to Todd English: the dude knows an easy mark when he sees one. That mark, of course, would be South Florida, now home to three of English’s restaurants, each having opened within the past year or so. Two more are on their way 2010. Perhaps…

Well, the fate of the old Jazziz space in Seminole Paradise Hollywood has finally been determined: (Correction: Bongos will debut in a new space across from Paradise Live/Opium.)Update: Word on the street is that Fort Lauderdale bad boy Steve Martorano will be the one to move into the Jazziz Space,…

If you have a functioning taste bud anywhere in your body, a trip through San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace is like ascending to heaven. Better, because you don’t have to die to get there.  The 121-year-old waterfront building with its replica of the 12th Century Giralda bell tower of Seville,…

It’s hard to find a decent veggie burger. Many have a fall-apart texture and odd ingredients, others are dry and flavorless. But the veggie burger at J. Alexander’s, the Nashville chain with a few locations around South Florida, is actually very, very good. Even to a meat eater. I caught…

You can’t swing a bag of botox around South Florida without hitting an “ultra lounge.” The whole nightclub/restaurant concept has become so pervasive that it seems there’s one opening (and closing) almost every week. Although the idea of signature drinks, clubby atmosphere, and party food is a good one, many…

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. Put the eclectic flavors of South Florida — the “New American Riviera” — on your own kitchen table with…

Dickerdoodles are like snickerdoodles. Only there’s one big difference. Each year, web comic Penny Arcade holds a contest in which readers send in photographs of their own homemade dickerdoodles, holiday cookies that intimate much more than Christmas spirit. Essentially, it’s a baking contest with a little bit of photo composition…

I’m relatively sure that I’m not the only person who, after an evening of cocktails with friends who recently headed home, has stood in his kitchen looking desperately for an easy, late-night, meat-based meal. But cooking abilities are questionable for someone who’s holding on to the fridge and freezer door…

This week’s restaurant review features a list of lackluster dishes I ordered at much-loved Anthony’s Runway 84. There’s the Italian Sunday Feast, above, a $29 pile of Italian staples that I’m pretty sure somebody could whip up in the time it takes Rachel Ray to complete a meal.But the worst…

Downtown day workers have been grabbing a quick lunch at this Cuban sandwich stand along Andrews Avenue for years, since it was known as Sury’s. But recently, the walk-up counter has been taken over by the property’s original owners, who have cleaned the place up and revamped the menu. Where…

We stood in the hallway entrance of Anthony’s Runway 84, all of us fuming over what had just happened. My wife was applying lip gloss in the bathroom and rehearsing how she would tell off the maître d’. My aunt and uncle figured we ought to just drop it, but…

The Office will open the New Year in Delray, and we don’t mean Steve Carell.   We do mean Mark Militello and David Manero, the original Mango Gangster and creator of Vic & Angelo’s and DeVito South Beach, who will debut their first collaboration in January in the Atlantic Avenue site…

•    The entertainment scene at CityPlace just got a whole lot more interesting with the opening earlier this month of B.B. King’s Blues Club. Taking over the spaces once home to Legal Sea Foods and Bar Louie, this sixth club in the B.B. King mini-empire boasts four bars, stages for…