Faced with a stressful week of work, my girlfriend and I decided it was time for a pleasant dinner in the Roads this past Saturday. We had passed Old Lisbon many times. After stepping into the cozy restaurant, the rich aromas of flaming Linguiça and stewing codfish grabbed hold of…
It is an astounding statistic: 99 percent of all new restaurants go out of business within the first six minutes. Or something like that. Still, this doesn’t deter one feckless restaurateur after another from trying their hands at the hazardous game. They all go in confident that they’ve got something…
Our waiter came to the table and began speaking in a foreign tongue. Granted, we were at La Dorada, a Spanish seafood establishment with a predominantly Hispanic clientele. But one would think that when management determines the language to be spoken by employees, a restaurant’s country of residence would take…
Ever walk down the street in some funky part of town and almost trip over a twenty-dollar bill, pick it up, and think, Hey, God likes me? Walk down Biscayne Boulevard around 72nd Street, definitely a still-funky part of town, where it looks like an army of giant gophers has…
Hi Lee, Hope you have been doing well. Memory jog – About a year ago, I read your “foie gras” story which changed my life. My husband Tony and I decided togo vegetarian. I wanted to update you on our progress: I have become quite the creative vegetarian cook, not…
The shocking news came late Tuesday afternoon, when the South Florida Concierge Association sent an email out to local hotels with the following message: We have received word from Pacific Time that they have closed their doors effective immediately. Chef/proprietor Jonathan Eismann helped pioneer the resurgence of Lincoln Road by…
Dads are like assholes. Or not. That’s the thing — they’re all so damn different! So before deciding on a father’s day destination, it helps to define what type of man he is. Here’s an easy-to-use guide (meaning short of length and no big words) of recommendations specific to your…
It is the loudest dining room I have ever witnessed. Not only is every one of the hundreds of patrons talking at full pitch, and incessantly, but also the ricocheting acoustics in the large, lofty space make it seem as if they are screeching at the top of their lungs…
Finding Zuperpollo Biztro the first time didn’t take quite as long as it took the starship Voyager, marooned in the Delta Quadrant, to locate Earth again. But it was close. Or at least it seemed that way. Nestled inside an office building — all the way through the long lobby,…
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) in Tallahasee has doubled the fine for any proven offense of food misrepresention in dining establishments (from $250 to $500, which still doesn’t seem like much punishment for deceiving the public — and increasing profits considerably while doing so). “Floridians ought to…
On May 7, I posted a blog entitled Ask the Food Critic, in which readers were encouraged to forward questions to me concerning the local food and dining scene. Sample queries were offered, such as: Is it true that Daniel Boulud will be opening a namesake establishment in downtown Miami?…
I was to meet Marco Pierre White poolside at The Raleigh Hotel at ten in the morning. Figured a cup of coffee, quick chat for a short blog, thank you very much. He had arrived in town the previous evening for a speaking gig with Gael Greene at Books &…
Sasha Issenberg, in his new book The Sushi Economy, implies that to eat raw fish on rice is to become an assiduous participant in 21st-century global capitalism. By way of illustrating sushi’s cultural adaptability, the author cites the California roll of avocado and crab — invented in Los Angeles during…
Cheap restaurant in South Beach” is dangerously close to being an oxymoron. “Good cheap restaurant in South Beach” is so oxy you almost have to be a moron to believe that such a greed-defying miracle actually exists. Well, I don’t mean to sound stupid or anything, but there’s at least…
Green Eggs And Ham, I Am (no more) A few months after filing for Chapter 11, a posted sign on the window makes it official: “Cafeteria out of business.” This round-the-clock Lincoln Road eatery premiered in November of 2003, its sister branch having opened in New York five years earlier…
Say you and your mate decide to have a romantic dinner in Coral Gables. The Hotel St. Michel comes to mind, because the room is so quiet and quaint, but as your last visit was quite some time ago, you check their website to investigate. The home page trumpets a…
If you want to feel like a tourist in your own town, go to Balans. It’s on Lincoln Road, for god’s sake. When was the last time you hung out there, oozing along with the flow of bug-eyed Midwesterners in their neatly pressed shorts and Tommy Bahamas, elegantly dressed Latins,…
When it comes to culinary firsts, Miami seldom beats Manhattan. So when an article in New York magazine virtually swooned itself silly last December about the opening of Pardo’s (a twenty-year-old Peruvian rotisserie chicken chain) in NYC, it was hard to believe. There’s been a Pardo’s Chicken in Miami for…
When One Ninety Restaurant premiered on 46th Street in Buena Vista East some four years ago, it was the first hip, bohemian-style restaurant in the area. Locals flocked to the place for the carefree environment, live music, and tasty, affordable fare. Enter greedy landlords. Exit One Ninety. Last month, after…
Sasha Issenberg is a younger guy than I had envisioned while reading his book, The Sushi Economy. I could see the youth in his face as he approached the podium at Books & Books in Coral Gables on Saturday afternoon. Then he started his talk by stating that he’s been…
Three major restaurant openings are pegged for the coming month. I am all too aware that reality rarely matches hype in the restaurant biz, but this trio truly appears to hold some promise. * On May 30th, the smartly re-designed Tides South Beach hotel will premiere its new dining establishment,…
Ouzo’s Greek Taverna & Bar has announced plans to open their second venue, to be located in the former Madiba space on South Beach’s west side — just down the block from another Mediterranean favorite, Sardinia. I’ve always enjoyed the North Miami Beach Ouzo’s, and explained why in my review…
