Miami is home to glitzy multimillion-dollar restaurants, a sea of sensational sushi spots, and more than its fair share of satisfying bistros, trattorias, and steak houses. Central and South American immigrants, as well as those from the neighboring islands, have blessed our area with a plethora of exemplary and inexpensive…
Sage on Fifth opened in South Beach at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Fifth Street in August 2004, two weeks before Hurricane Frances blustered across Florida. Although the restaurant withstood the winds and rain, it couldn’t endure customer indifference and was soon boarded up for good. Fratelli La Bufala…
Madiba has come to South Beach by way of South Africa, with a stopover at Fort Greene, Brooklyn — which is where Mark and Jenny Henegan, with long-time friend Serge Jules, opened their first Madiba in 1999. Their new establishment made its debut this past September in the neighborhood once…
In his recent documentary about Bob Dylan, No Direction Home, director Martin Scorsese portrays the singer as a quietly zealous man more concerned with the impact of his music on those listening than any media adoration. Executive chef of The Biltmore Hotel, Philippe Ruiz, radiates a similarly silent intensity; he…
Miami doesn’t boast a cheese store in the mold of the grand Old World type, where wheels, loaves, and slabs are stacked high on marble countertops and an intense, swoon-inducing stink is pervasive. What it does have is a smattering of specialty markets whose selections are ample enough to keep…
Most restaurateurs aim to provide what they’re certain we’ll enjoy. For instance, they know we like Italian, and within that genre, pasta is always a favorite. It seems simple enough, but Klaus Frisch was the first in the Gables to figure this out — in 1985 to be precise, when…
Americans consume more than one million animals every day, only a minuscule fraction of which is devoured at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar in Coral Gables. Still, if I were a cow, I’d be a little nervous all the same, for a mere glance around the grand 6700-square-foot restaurant…
Bay Harbor’s new Asia Bay Bistro & Sushi Bar boasts nouvelle Asian cuisine, but apart from the sushi, it’s really a traditional Japanese restaurant with some token Thai tossed in for good measure. There’s nothing bistro-ish about the food; I suppose the word as it’s used here refers to the…
The first Chinese restaurants in this country were opened with the intent to serve immigrants from China working during California’s gold rush. When American miners took an unexpected shine to the food, a new dining phenomenon was born. By the Twenties, Cantonese chop suey houses had become part of our…
The idea of organic, nutritional, sustainable cuisine, first replanted in this country by Alice Waters, has since sprouted into a whole-food movement that has widely affected the American diet. Anyone who doubts this observation need only note the crowds strolling through the gargantuan Whole Foods Market. In recent years, raw…
It came down to the bottle from Gleneagle Estate, described as being “slightly tart” and “fantastic with seafood, particularly shellfish,” or the one from Germany, “perfect for bold dishes as well as foods from the grill or rotisserie.” We settled on the latter for an affordable $12, and after we…
A repetitious restaurant scene can only lead to repetitious reviews. I repeat: No, I’ll clarify: From the exterior it looks like a corner coffee shop, just the sort of humble, low-key space that hints at unpretentious home-cooked food — in this case, Vietnamese-style. Indeed that’s just what the friendly folks…
The first Tango Grill, a fast-food kiosk serving grilled Argentine-style steaks, waltzed its way into the Aventura Mall in 1999. The corporate group behind it, however, was no newcomer, having already placed quick service operations in 300 shopping centers, spanning 29 states and 9 countries. It had the food-court groove…
Legendary chef Auguste Escoffier and César Ritz, “the king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings,” first teamed up in 1890 at the London Savoy. Eight years later César was managing his new namesake hotel, Hôtel Ritz, in Paris, as well as the esteemed Carlton Hotel in London, with Auguste lending…
Until early this year, Café One Ninety was a blissful little bohemian eatery on the northern fringe of the Design District. Owners Alan and Donna Lee Hughes offered appealing food at affordable prices in an amiable ambiance. Add to the mix an expired lease and a greedy landlord, and it’s…
When Manuel Martinez, a Cervantes scholar, opened the Spanish restaurant Don Quixote in Coconut Grove five years ago, he expended considerable money and effort on transforming the dining room into a semblance of the town of La Mancha. If the food had been re-created with the same passion, I probably…
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that you’re not familiar with Preston’s, even if it has been situated in the high-profile Loews Miami Beach Hotel since 1998. It’s the fate one might expect to befall a property’s number two dining option, especially when the signature restaurant is named Emeril’s. Preston’s…
Bice has branches in Barcelona and Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Montreal, Dubai and Delray Beach — about two dozen restaurants in some twenty cities, with another fifteen slated to open for business by 2006. Beatrice Ruggeri (nickname: Bice) began it all by opening her eponymous trattoria in Milan in…
Restaurants representing Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Uruguay, and just about every other Spanish-speaking nation can be found within the corridor of strip malls along Bird Road in West Miami-Dade. Few have been around as long as the Spanish Solmar Restaurant, operated by the Olivira family since 1981. It doesn’t appear…
Having once been stung by a man-of-war, I was less than excited to be seated with my back to a tall, narrow tank filled with gracefully flowing jellyfish, glowing translucently in blue neon light. The waiter’s chatter about chef James Wierzelewski’s concept of global cuisine and how the kitchen crew…
Ogbe and Felitia Guobadia, he from Nigeria, she from Virginia, met at Rutgers University and married in Nigeria’s former capital Lagos, where they opened an American fried chicken joint. Political turmoil prodded the two back to New Jersey, where they operated a successful African art gallery/Ethiopian restaurant. They next landed…
I have long maintained that if the axiom “you are what you eat” were true, the language among Argentines would be reduced to only one word: moo. The Knife and Matador, a pair of all-you-can-stuff-your-gut-with Argentine steak houses that have recently set up ranch in these parts, reinforce the notion…
