Imagine my surprise when I found out last week that I wasn’t in vogue. I mean there I was, reading fashion mags in Ego Trip Salon while getting trimmed and tinted in accordance with the latest trends, and I pretty much get slapped in the intellect with how out of…

They’re neighbors on Lincoln Road, but I suppose the new restaurant Azul, located next to Nexxt, didn’t learn from the mistake Nexxt made by copying the Cheesecake Factory a bit too closely for that billion-dollar chain’s comfort. The Cheesecake Factory sued, and the Mandarin-Oriental, whose restaurant Azul was just awarded…

When I told a colleague I was going to attend the Chefs Across America dinner at Norman’s some nights ago, she had two questions for me: Does anybody still care? And, how do you know the money’s getting to the right place? Although they might sound cynical to the unjaded…

Like many writers, I’ve often wondered how I would make my mark. Would it be via the most heart-wrenching poem ever written? The ultimate Great American novel? Maybe a truly astounding piece of journalism, enough to win — gasp — a Pulitzer? Nah. Nein. And definitely not even close. But…

Is there any point in summing up the past year? It doesn’t seem to matter what we’re talking about — dining, music, politics — all trains of thought lead to the wreckage of September 11. For most of us it’s as if the first eight months of the year didn’t…

“Anyone who isn’t mad or drunk is just a fool,” writes Tuan Ts’ai-Hua in The Feast of Flower-Pattern Wine. In Drinking Alone in the Moonlight, Li T’ai-Po notes that “only those in the midst of it can fully comprehend the joys of wine; I do not proclaim them to the…

You’re 61 years old, a big-and-tall kind of guy, gray hair parted on the side, wearing a conservative navy suit and a tie emblazoned with the tourist traps of New York City. Your personal assistant is twentysomething, petite and pretty, and she’s the one who answers your cell phone that…

You have to admire the arrogance. When McDonald’s unveiled its New Tastes Menu of South Florida about six weeks ago, the response was both immediate and unanimous. Those culinary professionals who actually pay attention to such things — meaning those who aren’t so snobby they ignore fast food altogether –…

So what’s the deal with all the CAPITAL LETTERS? Joining B.E.D., SUVA, and KISS, AMMO has just opened on Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables. Perhaps owners Joel Lopez and Leo Scotto and executive chef Alexis Pimentel (formerly of Giacosa) thought we wouldn’t PAY ATTENTION to the cuisine, which…

So it’s that time of year again, and you’re as stuck as a wooden stick in a Fudgsicle. You simply have no idea what to give the gastronome in your life. Well, relax. I’m here to save your sorry imagination with a list of the wackiest, weirdest, and most useless…

Okay, I’ve heard enough. Stop telling me it’s going to be a slow season, that dining aficionados are destined for disappointment, that nightlife connoisseurs will be bored enough to consider day jobs and reasonable bedtimes. If the season’s offerings are so supposedly meager, then why have I been signing my…

Wearing nothing but a thong, a young woman lay on a table in a seductive pose amid a drift of red rose petals. The open bar was jammed with customers. An extensive buffet offered everything from corn dogs to caviar. So where were we? No, not Miami Gold. Not Porky’s…

If you’re looking for the latest issue of South Florida Gourmet, you might have to look harder, and it’s not because your contact lenses need updating. Editor/publisher Simone Diament has temporarily halted production. She says it’s not about economics or advertising but indirectly cites the World Trade Center attacks. Her…

So it’s been just about two months since the terror attacks, and I’ve been doing my thing, eating and drinking and chatting up the food folks. And after hearing what the local restaurateurs and chefs have to say — at least until the wine impaired my listening skills — I’ve…

Billboard: Live or Dead. The reaction to my announcement last week that corporate chef Ephraim Kadish had been let go from Breez was intensely unanimous: Fellow chefs are up in arms. At least when their arms aren’t busy chopping onions, apparently. But a few insiders are crying strictly crocodile tears…

From the Ocean Drive sidewalk, the Tides Hotel looks the way it always does: stately, sedate, reserved. Inside the lobby activities also progress in the usual way. A guest or two checks in. Some folks eat dinner. A few people sip martinis at the bar. The atmosphere is quiet and…

“Your restaurant! Your war!” wrote Troy Brackett, publisher of Restaurantnews.com, in an impassioned restaurateur call to arms following the September 11 attacks. “During these uncertain times, it is imperative that we understand where we are, what we are up against and what we must do…. Commit yourselves NOW to noble…

Steve Cuozzo, restaurant critic for the New York Post, recently published his view on how to get back to the business of fine dining during these times of terror: “The mayor and the president urge us to get on with life. I’m ready to take the plunge. You come, too…

I admit I was one of the doubters — no surprise there — when I first heard that celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse had been cast as the lead in a television sitcom that would debut this fall. My concern didn’t spring from the proposed plot (a gentle sendup of Lagasse’s…

Even before the catastrophic events of the past weeks, culinary forecasters — New Times among them — have been predicting the decline and fall of the South Beach scene. Our seasonal mainstay of models, photogs, and film crews largely declined to shoot around town last year, but prices in restaurants…

As animals we know instinctively that eating is vital to our existence. Hunger is a primal urge. Without food our bodies can’t sustain themselves. As human beings, however, we may suspect that dining out, and writing and reading about dining out, is somewhat less important. And in the wake of…

Most of us remember the shooting death of Gianni Versace at his Miami home, Casa Casuarina, the way our parents recall the assassination of President Kennedy: as a tragedy of international proportions. Many vividly recall the resulting hordes of tourists swarming the Ocean Drive mansion for the gruesome photo op…