Recent articles have explored some of the revenue-enhancing measures that restaurateurs have undertaken to counter rising food costs — smaller portions, cheaper ingredients, professional pickpockets to work the dining room, and so forth. Many establishments will no doubt also rely on Miami Spice, the annual discount-dining program that begins August…
After three years in business at 1831 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Little Saigon City has closed shop. Although the mom-and-pop Vietnamese restaurant regrettably included sub-par Chinese food on its menu, the unpretentious, home-cooked buns, phos, spring rolls and desserts were quite good, and very well priced. But as high food…
Words of dining advice: Always ask how much the verbally recited daily specials cost. Or pay the consequences. For Peter and Neil, a vacationing couple from Danbury, Conn., the consequence was a nearly $300 tab for dinner at Rendezvous On The Beach (in the Beacon Hotel on Ocean Drive). They…
Just back from Guatemala, and jonesing for raw fish and the curative powers of pickled ginger, we dragged our sorry carcasses and knotted, rebellious intestines over to Sushi Jo in West Palm Beach late Sunday for a bit of s&s. We just couldn’t resist that Guatemalan street food, could we?…
Perhaps you’ve heard — or seen — by now, but there’s a new, plastic one gallon milk carton showing up in stores across the country, and it’s going to blow your mind. Well, not really. But it is pretty cool. A simple change in the shape of the carton and…
Did you know that pasteurized milk is “more natural” than raw milk? Or that lactose-sensitive people should not avoid all milk and other dairy foods? Neither did I until partaking of the Dairy Nutrition Quiz in yesterday’s Miami Herald health section (the “wellness” page, to be precise). Try this one…
Whoever imagined that a simple tomato pie with a bubbly, blackened crust (“bruciata,” in the trade) could potentially cause a cancer cluster? At least one Delray Beach-based letter writer to the Sun-Sentinel did, and she’s not alone (read the down & dirty responses that letter generated here). Whether or not…
Gabriele Marewski, of Paradise Farms, moved to Homestead in 1984 with a degree in agronomy from the University of Maryland (her home state). Fifteen years later, she purchased five acres of abandoned avocado grove and set about cleaning, plowing, and planting it into the certified organic Paradise Farms. She is…
Baleen was an instant hit when it debuted at the Grove Isle Hotel & Spa in March 1999, and for good reason: The heavenly outdoor patio, with white gauzy curtains billowing in the breeze, proffered a panoramic vista of Biscayne Bay that was, and still is, difficult to beat. The…
Let’s start by saying that, for the good of our country, we sincerely hope that MoveOn.org is better at political activism than they are at baking. This thought occured as we surveyed the Hungry For Change Bake Sale, two small tables of baked goods set up by the crafty lefties…
When Ken Lyon opened Lyon Frères et Compagnie in 1992, the chic, upscale café/market was a gastronomic oasis on an otherwise dry and dusty Lincoln Road. After closing the shop in 1997, Lyon formed the successful Lyon & Lyon catering company, and two weeks ago, he launched his new Italian…
If vegans are a “Hezbollah-like splinter faction” of the vegetarian movement, as Anthony Bourdain once wrote, then raw foodists would be that group’s loopiest fringe. Like vegans, they don’t eat products derived from animals, but they also shun chemically processed or pasteurized ingredients — and of course abide by the…
Manny (The Mayor) Diaz was at the grand opening of Manny’s (The Steakhouse) Steakhouse this week in the Met One Tower downtown. Manny’s comes from Minneapolis, and specifically from Phil Roberts, a Minneapolis/Miami resident. It is an extremely well-regarded emporium of beef that serves only USDA-certified dry aged, center-cut beef…
Shop organic. — Lee Klein…
Hot summer days call for cool, revitalizing cocktails, so we figured this would be an ideal time to speak with David Fast, who’s been a bartender at Lido at The Standard since just after the sweet spa/hotel’s opening. 1. What’s the biggest-selling drink at the Lido? Mojitos. Consistently. Mojitos, mojitos…
Jeffrey Chodorow, head of the China Grill Management restaurant empire, has always brought a Ziegfeld Zeitgeist to the table. Sure, he hopes customers laud service and cuisine at CGM’s two dozen-plus venues. But he also wants them to consider the dining experience as akin to attending the theater or spending…
Every Friday evening, from 5:30 to 11, North One 10 (11052 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-893-4211) hosts a barbecue and beer blast that is unlike any other in town. Chef Dewey LoSasso and crew grill up habanero chicken wings, mango and shrimp skewers, coffee-crusted rib eye steak, plus plenty more. And…
In the spirit of this pugnacious presidential primary season, we proudly present a special Kitchen Sink Edition of the eighth annual Flapjack Flip-Off. “Anything Goes” is the theme this year, as our quartet of unwitting restaurant contestants will be permitted to sling apples, chocolate chips, flag lapel pins, or any…
Philippe Ruiz, from Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, France, began his stint at the Biltmore Hotel in 1999. Few local chefs can match Ruiz’s resumé of Michelin-star establishments, and fewer still possess his prodigious culinary talent. While most closely associated with the property’s exalted Palme d’Or, Ruiz was recently named executive chef of all…
Ristorante Fratelli Milano’s umbrella-shaded tables are tightly clustered together on pinched, pedestrian-clogged SE First Street. Two dozen indoor seats are just as closely cramped in the windowless aisle of a room, where harried waiters squeeze through impossible spaces with oversize white bowls of pasta in their hands. This ain’t exactly…
Lots of cookbooks get written on the fly by chefs who have grown star wings seemingly overnight. Nino Pernetti’s opus has been 20 years in the making; that’s how long his northern Italian recipes and European charm have been romancing diners at the great Caffé Abbracci (318 Aragon Ave., Coral…
The new Andú’s retro-futuristic design dares to depart from the restaurant world’s recent tilt toward timid, if tasteful, taupe-toned settings. Tables shine in white Plexiglas, banquettes are silver-gray, and globular white sculptural murals hang on the walls not taken up by floor-to-ceiling windows. Hand-blown glass bubbles form a circular curtain…
