The potted palms are empty of greenery. Many of the rooms are bereft of beds. The lobby boasts a silence so profound it’s almost religious in quality. But the Shore Club, along with its dining destination Sirena, is indeed open. More important, Nobu, one of the world’s preeminent restaurants, also…
The cosmopolitan is dead. I know, I know. I enjoy that particular vodka martini too, vibrant as it is like an Art Deco building on Ocean Drive. But the cosmo is so passé it has become an umbrella drink, and you can get a frozen one at, appropriately enough, Big…
What, you believe everything you read? Of course not. As a member of the media, I’m very familiar with what kind of jarred pabulum we’re spoon-fed like babies. I do my best not to contribute to it — I try to present a well-researched, critical point of view. But I’m…
While the Murphy bed had yet to be installed, the rest of Rumi was indeed finished enough to open last week, only about ten days later than announced. Invitations for the opening festivities — Romero Britto-designed martini glasses, numbered and signed — were hand-delivered, a luxe touch no cosmo-lovin’ gal…
A few weeks ago, when I wrote about the 21-and-over policy at Gatsby’s, I asked you to spare me your vitriolic opinions on kids and fine dining. Of course you haven’t. The responses have been pouring in, and in a way I’m grateful; reading the riotous insults is far more…
Miami may be a fabulous place for a free spirit, but it’s a darn tough town for a lady. For one thing table manners and dining etiquette are all but impossible to pursue when the restaurant employees don’t even set silverware properly. So I’ve been shifting a great many forks…
I’ve spent so much time lately looking at the restaurants that haven’t opened, readers tell me, it’s almost like I’ve neglected the ones that have. Intrepid new eateries, forgive me. Downtown Italian restaurants La Loggia and La Nota, I didn’t mean to give you the Side Dish boot, even if…
The experience was humiliating. Along with my kids, my husband, and my in-laws, I was turned away from Gatsby’s, a month-old restaurant in Davie. Indeed the manager refused to allow us to even cross the threshold before informing us we weren’t going to be seated. Why? Not because we weren’t…
They always say, be careful what you wish for. Who are “they”? Who the hell knows — but screw ’em. Because I may be about to get what I’ve always wanted. Almost exactly a year ago, I publicly entreated our native (or close enough to it) chefs to get out…
You’d think we’d been in Utah or something: Miami Shores is kicking up its heels over the first restaurant to win a beer-and-wine license since, well, ever. The Village Café has finally convinced the Village Council that Miami Shores is not Salt Lake City, so why be dry? So much…
The instant message I received from a friend was extremely alarming. “I felt so violated,” it read. Yikes, I thought. Had she been sexually assaulted? No, as it turned out. But her glove compartment had been raped — by a valet who didn’t even have the decency to close it…
“It’s like owning a boat,” notes Michael Schwartz, executive chef-proprietor of Nemo, Shoji Sushi, and Big Pink, on the way back from picking lychees at his friend Roland Samimy’s grove down in the Redland. But it’s “better to have a friend who owns a boat.” Schwartz is referring, of course,…
On the one hand, it’s pretty tough to understand why Ephraim Kadish is smiling. As the vice president of culinary affairs and executive chef for Billboard Live, a multimillion-dollar dining-and-entertainment project in South Beach that has been in development so long it’s almost reached Shore Club status, his responsibilities are…
The start of the rainy season has special significance for those of us fascinated by the food-and-wine scene. And I’m not talking about the fact that we now have moisture falling from the sky, so can expect to be served water instead of having to play by the drought rules…
Red tide. Rampant E.coli. Mad cow disease. When it comes to the food chain, what other organisms do we humans have to worry might kill us? Aliens, apparently. That is, if you take your social satire seriously. Author Michel Faber does. In his new novel, Under the Skin, he treats…
The Best of Miami issue: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee for the breadth and depth of your pages, for your biblical proportions, for your wise (-ass) advice. I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need to find the…
So you’re a restaurateur, and a successful one at that. You’ve owned five or six places, mainly in Denver, and have even handled three at one time. But you’ve trained as a chef, and cooking is in your heart. So you mostly create in the kitchen while your daughter deals…
Don’t try this with The Weakest Link: If you think executive chefs are too busy dreaming up new dishes to take notice of pop culture, treat yourself to dinner at Astor Place. Chef Johnny Vinczencz has found an innovative way to keep that irritating Survivor show in the spotlight. He’s…
So you’re a musician, and you have some big dreams. You want to be in a band. You want to record a CD. Maybe you want to own a production company. And you need some cash to make it all happen. What to do, what to do? If you’re Joey…
So you’re a chef. You’ve trained at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, one of the most respected culinary institutions in the United States. You have interned in a variety of foreign lands, including Israel, Hong Kong, China, Japan, France, and Italy. You’ve cooked your way up the…
I’d rather be a date than update: I can understand why some of you are e-mailing me saying I’ve ruined beef for you. I’m sympathetic to your plight, really. But I refuse to follow the mad cow and foot and mouth epidemics any longer, as I’d like to get on…
Hey, Nobu, listen up: The last thing South Beach needs is another sushi restaurant. I say this with all due respect for your unquestionably wonderful product. I say it with a firm nod toward your eye for location. I say it knowing full well that you have experienced some of…
