This year has already been a busy one for the South Florida restaurant scene. Two months into 2017, we have a new crop of restaurant openings and closings. In February, celebrity chefs Geoffrey Zakarian (Point Royal) and Ralph Pagano (Naked Crab) unlocked the doors to their new restaurants. There were even a few brewery openings.

Today, Miami’s Mandarin Oriental will unveil a new waterfront bar and lounge with a Peruvian twist. Designed by the hotel’s executive chef, Diego Oka, a Japanese/Peruvian toque who has spent a large part of his culinary career working with celebrity chef Gaston Acurio, the space is an ode to his and Acurio’s homeland.

Miami chef and restauranteur Ralph Pagano says his new Fort Lauderdale restaurant, Naked Crab Seafood Kitchen, has one thing no one else in the area offers: mermaids. “There’s a lot of things that make this concept unique, but I don’t think anyone else has a tiki, steakhouse, cocktail bar with a live mermaid show,” Pagano says.

Ever wondered what a speakeasy was like during Prohibition or wanted to sample the martini Sinatra used to drink? You can at SOBEWFF’s Fort Lauderdale event, Drink. The time machine-inspired cocktail party is one of the latest to be added to the festival’s expanding Broward County lineup. It will be…

Geoffrey Zakarian’s latest concept, Point Royal, is slated to open Sunday, February 12, at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood. The restaurant is the fifth concept to launch as part of the property’s estimated $100 million renovation.

A new taste of South Africa will arrive in South Florida when Spatch Grilled Peri-Peri Chicken opens in Fort Lauderdale this Thursday, February 9. The Restaurant People (TRP), the South Florida-based hospitality group behind Fort Lauderdale’s Tarpon Bend, S3, and Boatyard, has announced its partnership with South African-born restaurateur Stavros Florias to create a fast-casual restaurant they’re calling the first of its kind.

Chef and restaurateur Michael Schulson once planned to become an architectural engineer, but then he dropped out of school to cook instead. “It turned out well, though, because now I’m not only a chef; I’m also building restaurants,” Schulson tells New Times. “Most people don’t have the ability to close…

Born and raised on a farm in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, Big Easy Winebar & Grill (Brickell City Centre, 701 S. Miami Ave., Miami) executive chef Maryna Frederiksen has fond memories of her father raising cattle and sheep for the country’s minister and eating vegetables fresh from her family’s…

Next winter, the team behind Delray Beach’s Cut 432 and Park Tavern will bring its successful Mexican soul-food restaurant and tequila bar, El Camino, to Fort Lauderdale. Owned and operated by partners Brandon Belluscio, Anthony Pizzo, and Brian Albe, El Camino’s Broward County outpost will be one of several Florida locations the…

Life is too short for fake wine, fake cheese, and fake people. It was a sentiment held by Leor Barak, founder of Wilton Manors-based New York Grilled Cheese Co., until recently. Over the past few years, the restaurateur says, he’d been harassed by his very vocal clientele for not offering a vegan alternative of his popular grilled cheese sandwiches.

If there is one restaurant line worth waiting in, the grand-opening party for the Halal Guys’ first South Florida location (2268 S. University Dr., Davie) would be it. The New York City-based chain has announced it will throw a daylong celebration beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, January 21.

You won’t hurt Judy Czerenda’s feelings if you tell her the veggie burger she serves tastes exactly like a McDonald’s cheeseburger. “It’s not at all offensive,” says Czerenda, who runs the two-month-old Now Burger booth at the Yellow Green Farmers Market. “There’s a reason McDonald’s is one of the biggest restaurant chains in the country. They spent millions to create their burger, and if mine tastes just as good without any bad ingredients, it’s not disparaging. It’s great.”

Brimstone Woodfire Grill is opening its first Miami-Dade location at CityPlace Doral this week, one of 20 eateries set to launch at the new mixed-use retail complex located at 3450 NW 83rd Ave. It joins restaurants such as Cooper’s Hawk Winery, Baires Grill, and the Rusty Bucket Restaurant & Tavern.

Growing up in Miami, locals hear certain phrases often, like “bro,” “bueno,” and “ay dios mio.” One that stuck in the mind of Alec Fernandez came from fellow Cubans placing their orders at the neighborhood bakery or lunch counter: “Dos croquetas.” “I would hear it so often everywhere I went, it got me thinking,” Fernandez says. “Miami doesn’t have anyone making nontraditional croquetas, so I would. My plan was to take the croqueta to the next level.”