How Esquire Rates Miami Food and Drink (A Partial Retrospective)

I recently came into possession of a half-dozen back issues of Esquire, a magazine somewhat obsessed with naming the best of this and the best of that. The food section is no exception -- three of the issues I thumbed through featured such listings. I took a tally to see how Miami fared:

MARCH ISSUE:
The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches, with a hilarious intro by Scott Raab, raved about fifty of America's finest. Our town scored with the Cuban Sandwich from Latin American Cafeteria ("the later the hour, the better it tastes"), and seafood salad on baguette from La Sandwicherie in Miami Beach ("goes well with the salty air"). Only quibble with the "encyclopedia" is that it isn't alphabetized.

JUNE:
Best Bars in America honored twenty spots, from Juneau to Isle of Palms, South Carolina. Miami: Zero. Apparently creative caipirinhas and frequent celebrity-sightings were not sufficiently factored in.

NOVEMBER:
Best New Restaurants trumpeted 23 of the nation's finest 2008 rookies. Congrats to Jonathan Eismann's Pacific Time for being our sole representative -- although New York's Scarpetta made the grade, and chef Scott Conant should be opening the Fontainebleau branch any time now.

To close on a positive note: If Esquire ever does a Best Streets To Serendipitously Stumble Upon A Steakhouse survey, we will surely clean up.

--Lee Klein