There’s nothing quite so satisfying as sitting peacefully by a river and composing poetry. Finnegan’s Way? Can’t really say. Maybe that’s not entirely true — dining by a river can be just as rewarding, and even more so for those not as fortunate as I to be blessed with poetic…

Brothers Nicola and Fabrizio Carro are probably a little freaked out right now. Orchestrating the daily culinary operations at a bustling newcomer like Quattro Gastronomia Italiana is a tall enough order, but the two Piedmontese chefs are also busy getting acquainted with cooking in America for the first time. This…

When the Clinton Hotel on South Beach’s Washington Avenue first finished refurbishment in 2004, the in-house (or, more accurately, side-of-house) restaurant was the pish-posh Pao Chinese. Pao’s seats were initially filled by foodie fannies, but about an hour later, the fickle SoBe populace was hungering for something else. Enter Aigo,…

Town Kitchen & Bar evokes a decidedly cosmopolitan mood. This is partly attributable to its urban-industrial design, with exposed ceiling pipes and poured concrete floor and walls, one of the latter horizontally striped by a photo-mural of Times Square. Plus there’s a bustling big-city bar scene, where suits and skirts…

Like the rest of the Deco properties that dress Ocean Drive, Ocean Five Hotel possesses a pleasantly primped pastel exterior and an in-house restaurant whose tables spill out to the sidewalk. No doubt it draws its share of out-of-towners looking for a spot to stop for postbeach burgers and beers,…

Anokha isn’t the prettiest restaurant in town. The small, faintly lit, 36-seat room boasts bare beige burlap walls, a black ceiling, and … well that’s about it, other than shiny-top tables and wooden chairs (plus some outdoor seating). You’d hardly know this was an Indian establishment except for a scattering…

During the sultry stretch of summer between early July and early September, Siruis, the Dog Star (and brightest in the sky), rises and sets in sync with the sun. The Latin term for this is dies caniculares, or dog star days, which has since been modulated to dog days, or…

There are cakes. Carrot. German chocolate. Cinnamon bundt. Coconut buttercream. Cakes, cakes, and more cakes. Plus cupcakes, and cookies the size of hubcaps, and chocolate ganache truffles piled like miniature cannonballs, and six types of brownies — all rich, fudgy, and gooey. Did you say pies? Key lime, pecan, apple…

Regis Philbin has returned to prime time. The Mets have once more found their way to first place. Joe Lieberman faces forced retirement back to private life. And The Oasis Restaurant is again dishing humble, healthy, mostly Mediterranean fare at its former storefront location in Miami Beach. All happy homecoming…

You can’t please everyone, but try telling that to restaurateurs. It is just a matter of time before “sushi tapas” begin showing up on Spanish menus — or, for that matter, Japanese menus. Or Chinese. Or Thai. Or at Sushi Bali, an Indonesian-Japanese-sushi restaurant that, for good measure, also offers…

The goose is nothing, but man has made of it an instrument for the output of a marvelous product, a kind of living hothouse in which there grows the supreme fruit of gastronomy. — Charles Gérard, L’Ancienne Alsace à Table The question is not “Can they reason?” nor “Can they…

My wife has more than once accused me of being narrow-minded when it comes to the hot-button topic of immigration. She has even called my main talking point on the issue simplistic. I admit nothing of the sort, although I acknowledge the slogan “No Mexican immigrants, no Mexican restaurants —…

Maybe it’s the typically drab décor of neighborhood Chinese restaurants that puts you off. Perhaps it’s the frustration of not being able to translate the menus on the wall or comprehend the nightly specials as inventively enunciated by your Chinese waiter. Is it possible you are creeped out by murky-water…

We hear it over and over: Americans are too fat. Even the numbers are becoming familiar: 64 percent of the population is overweight, 30 percent of whom are obese. A recent 136-page report blames the nation’s 900,000 restaurants and food-service establishments. The paper, prepared by an education group called the…

An instrumental version of “Send in the Clowns” was playing as we entered Casa Nostra, an Italian restaurant at the intersection of Mary and Oak streets in Coconut Grove. It’s the sort of schmaltzy song you might hear in a neighborhood Italian joint in Brooklyn or Jersey, which is what…

Lounges that serve food provide one-stop shopping for those interested in dinner, drinks, and a high-spirited evening of socializing without having to get into and out of automobiles in between. Staying put in one place saves time. It saves gas. It also prevents the heartache of abandoning a prize parking…

A debuted two months ago on the northern fringe of Miami’s Design District. It is named for the train line that traverses three boroughs of New York City. The moniker makes sense in light of the original A being located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, but the spare and funky…

Those who relish a waterfront disaster need not rely on the silver screen’s Poseidon: Just head to Café Sambal for dinner. Well, perhaps that is a bit harsh. The sushi bar tenders a first-rate array of pristine maki rolls, nigiri sushi, sashimi, and temaki (cones) — even the California roll,…

If the comprehensive story of hotel dining is ever written, it should be titled Upstairs, Downstairs, Downstairs. Upscale restaurants are generally located upstairs, often on the top floor. (If it’s a Hyatt, the room might even rotate.) Informal eateries tend to be situated at street level, thus easily accessible from…

When it comes to contests, the number six has historically portended unexpected outcomes. The sixth Summer Olympics, for instance, were to take place in Berlin in 1916 but were canceled because of World War I. Cavalcade copped top prize at the sixth annual Academy Awards in 1933, and nobody has…

Jafar Shabani, who formerly owned The Fifth Street Market and La Factoria on Collins Avenue in South Beach, says Persian food is what he wanted to do all along. Jafar, born in Tehran and raised in Toronto, fulfilled this ambition by opening Rice House of Kabob on the Beach a…

If I tell you Spiga’s dining room is one of the most beautiful and romantic in town, take the praise with a grain of salt: I put my two cents into the design. The man directly responsible was Peter Hawrylewicz, one of Miami’s premier architects. It was 1994, and having…