Here’s a quote from chef Johnny Vinczencz in 1997, at the tender age of 32, when South Florida’s most adored young foodist was rising as brilliantly as a solid-gold moon over Miami: “There’s so much glamour in this business that it’s easy to get caught up with presentation and looks…
I could never get it straight: Was Karu the restaurant and Y the lounge, or vice versa? No matter now, as the reopened venue’s newly christened restaurant name is Seecomar’s at Karu & Y, which I thought was a misspelling of Seacomber’s until I saw that the new owner’s name…
Dan, we’re guessing, drank the bottled stuff.It was somewhere before the waiter brought out what might be the world’s best grilled octopus that he broke the news. “If you want to drink water, we only serve bottled water,” he said. And I had no doubt there would be no exceptions…
Mmm… waffle fries! And chicken sandwiches with pickles! This Thursday, a new Chick-Fil-A is opening in Lauderhill (8190 W. Commercial Blvd.), and the company is passing out coupons for free meals to the first 100 adult customers in line at 6 a.m. At first, we thought this was just a…
Just a reminder to mark your calendars: The Fellsmere Frog Legs Festival kicks off on January 15th and runs through the weekend to a grand finale at the Sunday Croaker Run. For my money Saturday the 17th looks like the best day to show if you’re feeling competitive: three contests…
Ever since Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto unveiled his latest restaurant, Morimoto, in Boca Raton Resort & Club, Short Order has been dying to go. I mean, the man is an Iron Chef, both on the original Japanese program and the new Food Network creation, Iron Chef America, and this restaurant,…
Football and margaritas. There is less than one month left of football season; less than one month to transform your culturally bankrupt, Dorito- and Budweiser-filled Sundays on the couch into something genuinely awesome. And for that purpose, we suggest Moquila the classy nu-Mexican joint in Mizner Park, Boca Raton. An…
Evidently I’m not the only one fantasizing about Stone Crab claws the size of baseball mitts. Slow Food Miami, in conjunction with Friends of the Everglades, is planning an event Saturday January 31st that ought to help sate your desire, at least temporarily, for things that scuttle sideways: The Stone…
Here’s a bit of the ammunition you’ll need for a lively debate with slow food organizer Diane Campion at this Sunday’s panel discussion “Why Buy Local?” Campion, heirloom tomato farmer Walt Ross, Nancy Roe of Green Cay Farms (pictured left), nutritionist Larisa Alonso, and Cafe Boulud Chef Zach Bell are…
Linda Bean, granddaughter of Maine’s L. L. Bean, is bringing us lobster. Though new to the foodie business, she’s got her own warf, her own fishermen, and now her own concept: lobster rolls, each with a full ¼ of meat, fresh and perfect and dripping butter on your grateful lap,…
Wow, I am so ashamed of myself. I’ve lived in South Florida for 15 years, and until last weekend I’d never been to Everglades City, stone crab capital of the universe. This little one-horse town is a seafood-lover’s wet dream, and it’s barely two hours drive from the door of…
This Sunday evening, recording artist Farah Juste will be at Tap Tap Haitian Restaurant on South Beach for “a CD signing and celebration”. Ms. Juste’s career as a passionate singer of Haitian folk songs took off with her debut solo album in 1977, and since then she has performed from…
We already know what the biggest restaurant trend of 2008 was; let’s not draw out the agony — it was identical to the biggest banking trend, auto trend, friends-of-Bernard-Madoff trend, newspaper trend, and retail sales trend: If you didn’t lose money this year, there’s something wrong with you. Unless you’re…
A couple months back, we reviewed Marumi Sushi, a small but very authentic Japanese restaurant hiding in the western wilds of Plantation. I loved it then: nowhere else in Broward can you get this kind of unfiltered, unapologetic view of the food that Japanese folks actually dig into, and nowhere…
Restaurateur Brad Friedlander, owner of Red, The Steakhouse and Moxie, The Restaurant in the fashionable Beachwood, the Suburb, of Cleveland, the City — along with partners Peter Vauthy and Jonathan Bennett — premieres the second Red tonight at 119 Washington Avenue in South Beach. What to expect: “A unique blend…
There are bad ideas, very bad ideas, unspeakably horrible ideas — and then there is Burger King’s Flame, a men’s cologne being touted as “the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame-broiled meat”. The fragrance is currently being sold in New York and online for $3.99, and though the…
I Predict:You will recycle many BaggiesThis time of year we’re all clairvoyant: Everybody is summing up the past and predicting the foodie future, including moi (look for my column next Wednesday here). My inbox is full of this kind of hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo, most recently the Food Network’s…
This time of year brings all manner of helpful hints, like how to truss a turkey, or how to make your gingerbread men look like Scarlett Johansson (I made that second one up, but you know what I mean). Tips on avoiding food-borne illness are especially prevalent, as they should…
If the prices of local slow food events has been a bit rich for you, or you haven’t quite had your fill of wacky holiday cocktails yet, hie yourself over to Forte di Asprinio in West Palm Beach this Sunday for “The Farmer and the Mixologist,” an event that promises…
Life as da Campo Osteria Todd English has to be something like a movie. The famed Boston chef and restaurateur earned his first James Beard award in 1991. Since then, it has been a blur of television spotlights, celebrity galas, and glitzy openings. Among his vast empire of 22 outposts:…
On December 5th, 2008 Tumi Restaurant in Margate (7926 W Sample Road) underwent a routine food inspection that resulted in 18 code violations, 7 of them deemed “critical.” They were mostly run of the mill grease accumulations and food debris pile-ups, but one violation stood out. The willful deception of…
Executive chef is Garrette Gray, whose eclectic menu includes starters ($6-$17) such as pan roasted scallops with smoked duck, shiitake mushrooms, poached pears and natural thyme jus; fish entrees ($24-$34) like grouper with braised callaloo, potato conch fritter, roasted red pepper and lemongrass broth; and meats ($24-$56) like grilled veal…
