PETA Likes Dolphin Stadium

Enter here, vegans As any meat-free Miamian knows, there is a dearth of vegetarian dining options in the Magic City. But according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), there’s one area where we excel at being meatless: the ballpark. PETA named Dolphin Stadium (home of the Florida…

Boutique Meat

Take your pick Next month Market Grill, an Argentine-style “boutique meat market” and food shop will open in the Blockbuster Plaza at 1539 Alton Road. The signature offering will be a “Pre-Selected Parrillada,” where you’ll be able to tell the butcher the amount of people expected at your BBQ, and…

The New Traditional Labor Day Menu

Welcome to Fall! What’s the difference between an Independence Day barbecue and a Labor Day barbecue? Around these parts, about five degrees. Seriously: Why are two distinct holidays held in different seasons celebrated via the same menu of hamburgers, hot dogs, and the like? Thanksgiving has its turkey, Easter its…

Mexi-Can’t

You really have to wonder about Palm Beach Gardens — what the heck is going on up there? The city is attracting investment just as though South Florida’s economic bubble were made from bust-proof Dupont space fabric. Take Cantina Laredo. This “gourmet Mexican” restaurant, which opened a couple of weeks…

Hot Damn!

I knew there was something different about the jerk chicken served at Betty’s Place (5601 Pembroke Rd., Hollywood, 954-226-3340), but I wasn’t completely sure what. I was determined to find out. “I can’t tell you, man,” the guy behind the counter gasped with a wide smile. “She’ll kill me!” Come…

Mile High Michy’s

Fans of Miami chef Michelle Bernstein’s culinary creations no longer have to journey to her famed Michy’s Mediterranean-style bistro to sample a taste of her talents. Beginning September 13, Delta Airlines will be serving up an exclusively crafted series of the celebrity chef’s meals to its passengers. Well, those in…

Interactive Vineyards

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, a national chain with a local branch in Coral Gables, has come up with an innovative idea: A Web site that takes viewers on a virtual tour of five esteemed vineyards that provide the restaurant with some of its exceptional wines. The voyage is…

All Greek to Me

Most of us will put up with a lot so long as we’re well entertained. And reasonably fed. Just give us our bread and circuses — and “Mitt Romney” could be the name of an exotic entrée for all we care. It wasn’t only the Roman hoi polloi who were…

Don’t Thai Me Down, Babe

You think it’s all fun and games being a food critic, dontcha? “Oooooh, you’re so luuucky,” perfect strangers purr when they hear what I do. “I wish I had your job.” I have news: If you had my job, you’d be 15 pounds fatter and your cholesterol would be off…

ADM: Supermaggot To The World

Who ever heard of a vegetable oil-aholic? “We have a saying in our company: “Our competitors are our friends. Our customers are the enemy.” — A comment made in the early 1990s by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)’s then-president James Randall, as quoted in Fast Food Nation The Archer Daniels Midland…

Animal Dreams

Kevin McCarthy is sautéing chocolate-coated scallops. It sounds as if one of our favorite chefs has wandered into some gustatory la-la land, a Ferran Adrià/Wylie Dufresne-inspired nightmare territory where oyster sorbets topped with mudwort foams are already passé. Or maybe he’s working on something more sinister: a killer aphrodisiac? Not…

Hot Scoops On The SoBe Wine & Food Festival

Perhaps you’ve read recent announcements concerning Paula Deen’s Poker Party, Emeril’s Sugar Shack Dessert Party, and other attractions that have been scheduled for this season’s Southern Wine and Spirits and FIU’s 2008 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival. New Times has uncovered some other, as yet unconfirmed events…

So You Wanna be a Food Critic, Huh? Part 1: The Big Night

Let’s begin with an easy question: A triangular-shaped sheath of pink-tinted plexiglas arrives in the mail. It is an invitation bearing engraved party details that trumpet an extravagant opening night party honoring the arrival of the latest, greatest restaurant: Cocktail reception at 7:30 p.m. (spirits provided by the latest, greatest…

How to Eat a Freedom Fry

Looks like they had it right. The French. About Iraq, that is. Notwithstanding their new President Sarkozy, who seems to have all the rigorous intellectual sophistication of George Bush the Younger (Work harder! Think less! Speak English!), it appears that a culture built upon centuries of deep rumination and political-social-philosophical…

Goodbye, Krispy Kreme, I Knew Ye All Too Well

Looks good. What are the other customers going to eat? Dear Krispy Kreme, When we first met, I was still so young. My metabolism posed no threat to our hot and steamy trysts. Everything was all so fresh and new. I admit, I got a little obsessed. Not in a…

A Season Preview for Dining

Who you callin’ Fatburger? A contemporary Asian fusion restaurant is going to debut down the street from Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink in the Design District. Chef will be Timon Balloo, who has worked locally at Chef Allen’s, Azul at the Mandarin Oriental, and La Broche (in fact he spent…

Indomania Takes a Vacation

Pieter and Ineke Both of Indomania, which only started up on the Beach a few months ago, will be closing shop and taking August off so they can return to Amsterdam — jeez, these Dutch people are lazier than the French! They say it’s to see family and look for…

Split Decision

In every critic’s life a moment emerges when she realizes that her carefully refined opinions — judicious and elegant as they may be — aren’t worth doo-doo. The revelation hits with the force of a piano shoved off a third-floor balcony; you look down at those shiny, grand preconceptions in…

Miami Spice Kicks Off Next Week

The sixth annual Miami Spice restaurant promotion deal kicks in on August 1st and continues through September. This season brings more than eighty participants, each of which will be offering special three-course prixe fixe lunch menus for $22, dinners for $35. Be discriminating with your selections — my guess is…

A Touching Tribute to John Lucente

John Lucente, chef de cuisine at Touch Restaurant and Lounge for the past three years, has been battling cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. To help, Touch is hosting a fundraising dinner, “Touched By John,” on Sunday, July 29th, at 7:00 p.m. All profits will go to…

The Undersea World of Toby Joseph

I’m not the kind of customer — being half-blind and chronically underdressed — that the St. Regis Resort would cultivate if it had a choice. The new Starwood Hotels enterprise has been open for business a couple of months now on Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard, a monument of swank that…