Side Dish

No longer coping: Seems Frank Copestick, executive chef of Red Square, has gone the way of perestroika and fizzled. There's no official word on why he left his position, but he didn't go directly to another job, and substance abuse is rumored. Frank, tell us you're not just another executive-chef cliché!

•Good point: A reader contacted me regarding my recent "Dish" column about bad service. She noted the place where walking out on forthcoming entrées "is sorely needed [South Beach] is the place most not to try it. The Miami Beach Police have a reputation for arresting first and asking questions later. I worry that walking away from an ordered meal might cause them to charge one with defrauding an innkeeper." Surely not. I think the cops are kept busy enough charging the restaurant owners.

•In other "Dish" confusion, several readers have been searching for A Taste of Ethiopia, claiming they can't even get the phone number from information. I'm not sure why -- I got it easily enough. It's 305-940-0499. So for those still hungering for more than a taste, here's the address again: 1072 NE 167th St., the owners say, but it's easier to think of it as being on 163rd (the street changes names as it heads toward I-95). Heading north on Biscayne Boulevard, make a left onto 163rd and look for 11th, the cross street. Do be aware that the restaurant currently closes at about 8:00 p.m., though. If you're planning on going for dinner,make it an early one.

•A bitter end to Caroline's? The highly rated French restaurant in South Beach has been abandoned by its namesake, Caroline Segui, who sold her interest in the restaurant. She cites "irreconcilable differences" with her ex-partner/boyfriend. Just another example of how not to go into business with a loved one, lest he become an intolerable one.... The somewhat cryptic e-mail I received on the subject claims another Caroline's will be opening soon. Perhaps Segui will be going solo this time, non?

•Looks like Miami is becoming known as an estro-genius town. Executive chef/proprietor Michelle Bernstein of The Strand has been invited to cook at the very prestigious James Beard Foundation on May 19, and executive chef Andrea Curto of Wish has been named one of the nation's ten rising stars by Food & Wine magazine. You go, girls!

Send your tasty tidbits to Jen Karetnick at 2800 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33137. Or e-mail kavetchnik@aol.com