The Miami Design District is a nice neighborhood for strolling. The various antique and design shops contain interesting merchandise to peruse and you don’t have to worry about getting pushed around by a crowd. There never is one. At least not the times I’ve found myself walking here, in what…
When China Grill first opened its doors in the spanking new Thomas Kramer building in 1996, the resultant buzz was so loud it gave other restaurateurs headaches. But the explosively successful opening was not what made this the most influential restaurant in the short history of modern South Beach. Rather…
The lovely, ivy-covered Hotel Place St. Michel has graced the Coral Gables intersection of Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Alcazar Avenue since 1926. Back then it was the Sevilla Hotel. Inside this European-style inn is the Restaurant St. Michel, which likewise exudes a simple elegance by way of wooden floors,…
The outdoor lobby of Lincoln Road’s Sterling Building has proved to be a problematic location for restaurants. Pacific Time Café and South Beach Stone Crabs, the prior occupants, had to contend with moviegoers cutting through their dining room for entry into the Alliance Cinema, and the distraction of a large…
These bottom-of-the-page reviews tend to focus on informal, inexpensive dining options that aren’t even restaurants per se. Delicias de España certainly fits that description. Located just off the intersection of Red and Bird roads (next door to the nifty Fifties luncheonette Picnics at Allen’s), this Spanish bakery, café, take-out shop,…
One of the lectures I remember most from my days at the Culinary Institute of America dealt with defining a chef’s role with regard to the process of cooking. The instructor told us as chefs-to-be, we would be privy to the finest and freshest produce, meats, and seafood available. Our…
Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant is an irrepressibly cheery place, the walls sunshine yellow, the rest of the room festively splashed with vibrant colors. The menu is bright and glossy as well, with the three dozen offerings constituting a sort of Mexican “happy meals” program for gringos: tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas …..
Sometimes people do the right things for the wrong reasons. For instance it would have been nice if the owners of the new SoBe restaurant/lounge 6 Degrees had kept the locals of the community in mind when drawing up plans for their venture. They didn’t. Instead, like so many others,…
As you pass by Romeo’s Café on Coral Way, the place appears to be your average neighborhood Italian restaurant, the type with straw-wrapped bottles of chianti on red-and-white-checkered tablecloths. There is nothing about the façade, in other words, that even hints at the unique and extraordinary dining experience lurking behind…
It took a grueling telephone conversation with Lynne Wacholder to find out the name and location of Confiteria Buenos Aires Bakery & Café — I’m not entirely certain she’s even told her husband Victor about it yet. Apparently Lynne didn’t want hordes of people discovering her favorite neighborhood spot for…
With its red walls, checkerboard terrazzo floor, fabric-wrapped columns, fiber-optic lighting, and caped, oversize chairs, the two-level KISS Steakhouse and Lounge looks like the Mad Hatter’s tea party on location in Vegas. Which is an appropriate design for the late-night club that evolves at about 11:00 each night, when the…
Some people equate the Yucatán with Cancún or Cozumel, with lying on quiet white-sand beaches by day, guzzling margaritas in boisterous clubs at night. Mention the Yucatán to me, and all I think of is the town of Ticul (pronounced “tee-cool”), home of Gloria Del Socorro’s pollo pibil. Well all…
Dining establishments are composed of innumerable components: service, ambiance, soups, entrées, wines, and so on. Certain restaurants end up being exactly the sum of their parts — some more so, others less. Generally speaking, though, if you are pleased with the individual aspects, you’ll most likely enjoy the whole experience…
The Incan word tambo refers to small inns that once populated the mountainous terrain of pre-Columbian Peru. Tambo, the new Japanese-Peruvian restaurant in Miami Beach, resembles neither a small inn nor anything you’d ever stumble across in mountainous terrain. In fact with its mosaic tile floor, sand-color walls, white tablecloths,…
There’s been a lot of talk lately about airline security, but precious little about being able to secure a good airport meal while waiting through the delays that these defensive concerns necessitate. I wouldn’t mind having to bide my time at the Houston airport for an extra hour or two…
A fresh piece of fish doesn’t require a lot of dressing up to be alluring. Salt, pepper, drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of lemon juice, and smattering of chopped herbs are more than enough. For some people. Others like their seafood adorned with additional flavors and textures and sauces and…
On the first day, Mark Soyka declared: “I am opening News Café on Ocean Drive, and a thriving beachside boulevard shall spring up around it.” And that came to pass. Soyka next declared: “I am opening Van Dyke Café on Lincoln Road, and a thriving pedestrian mall shall spring up…
South Florida tourist agencies are gauging where the local economy stands by reading lines on comparative graphs. I got to thinking that a more accurate way to assess the matter would be by studying a real line — like the one that forms at Joe’s Stone Crab. Or used to…
The sign on the door of the little storefront window reads, “A Couple of Basketcases.” That’s the name of Caron Coles’s gift-basket company on 151st Street in North Miami that shares space and uses the specialty food products of her larger enterprise, Foodalicious, to fill those baskets. Upon entering the…
When we heard the first explosion through an open bedroom window, my wife and I thought it might be thunder. This occurred the day of our arrival. Soon afterward military helicopters buzzed precariously low overhead, and every now and then a jet fighter would crack the silence of the city…
Home Depot and the Latin-flavored bakery chain Don Pan are inextricably linked in my mind, and not just because I am an unabashed fan of both places. Whenever I pull into the Depot parking lot, I salivate with Pavlovian anticipation, knowing from habit that after stocking up on house supplies…
On May 29, 1913, as a string orchestra performed in the restaurant of the Savoy hotel in London, two diners rose from their chairs and began dancing. As others followed suit, tables were pushed aside to clear space, and social tradition was overturned. Previous to this night, dining and dancing…
