Consider the gift basket. Stuffed with incredibly edible comestibles ranging from fresh fruits straight out of boutique orchards to artisan cheeses cured at dairies that exist in determinedly rural communities, it serves a multitude of occasions. The basket celebrates births and other Hallmark holidays, commiserates deaths, brings in money for…
For the 43rd consecutive year, Arbetter’s Hot Dogs will not be serving free baked beans “the day after the Boston Red Sox win the World Series.” The Sox are an undeniably fine baseball team, and as of this writing have just steamrolled into the American League Championship Series, but anyone…
Around this prostitution-trafficky stretch of Biscayne Boulevard, the term “hot” has traditionally been more associated with the word “pants” than with “food.” That changed last year with the opening of Renaisa, in the rather dilapidated building long occupied by the Bimini, a basic bar/fried fish joint on Little River that…
It’s official — and it’s Esquire: Food critic John Mariani named Carmen the Restaurant one of 2003’s “Best New Restaurants in America” in the magazine’s 22nd annual survey. About the eatery in the David William Hotel, the only one that Mariani recognizes in the state of Florida, he writes that…
Since opening in Loehmann’s Plaza eighteen years ago, Chef Allen’s Restaurant has raked in prestigious dining awards the way most of us accumulate bills: rated “best restaurant in South Florida” by Gourmet magazine, voted “best food in Miami” in the 2003 Zagat, winner of Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence, recipient…
There’s (arguably) more argument in America about what constitutes real barbecue than about what constitutes justification for declaring war — unless the war is between differing ‘cue factions, in which case just about any difference of opinion is reason enough to start shooting. Some purist pit-fired wood barbecuers even go…
Since virtually all of the regulars on what it amuses me to refer to as my “Restaurant Review Victims List” (food criticism is one of the world’s most interesting jobs, but it’d shock you to learn how often reviewers end up with job-related ailments ranging from food poisoning to just…
Perhaps you’ve noticed the large murals and conspicuous neon lights of Taquerias El Mexicano while driving through Little Havana toward downtown. Located at Fifth Avenue and Calle Ocho, that neon conspires with a thickly gated exterior to give the place a forbidding, down-and-out appearance. Lurking behind those gates, however, is…
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, stumping in Philadelphia, stopped by the landmark Pat’s King of Steaks for a “common folk” photo-op, and proceeded to place an order for their famous Philly cheese steak sandwich — “with Swiss cheese.” Philadelphians cringed at the faux pas, as did, I’m sure, Kerry’s campaign…
Driving past you’d never notice this bar/restaurant in the Argentine enclave around 71st Street and Normandy Drive; indeed the first three times I cruised by deliberately looking, I missed it. But I wasn’t surprised to think the eight-month-old spot had already folded. I’d become aware of Il Romanaccio Caffe through…
After too many years of all-you-can-eat buffets, comfort foods, and huge portions in à la carte restaurants, Miami, meet the new gimmick in town: tapas — what you and I already know as Spanish appetizer-size items like tortillas (omelets), fried calamari, and white anchovies, and what Katrin Naelapaa, director of…
What do you get when you take Browns — a two-story building with seven-foot ceilings built in 1915 with the now-prohibited, nearly extinct first-growth Dade County pine — lift it up four feet and move it back fifteen feet, and drop it on cinder blocks? A Myles Chefetz establishment, of…
I should start by stating my general disdain for fast-food chains, which I believe exist mainly to provide pseudonutrition for those who don’t like to put a lot of thought into what’s going into their stomach. Still it’s only proper that I keep abreast of national dining trends, and I…
By now it’s probably common knowledge that the Miami Herald has undergone yet another redesign, one that includes the September 18 launch (or return) of the Thursday food section. What you may not realize is that Miami New Times is also about to debut some more comprehensive coverage of the…
When a good restaurant has been around for a good fifteen years and, what’s more, is the only eatery of its kind in the region — in this case, the only source, as far as I know, of Danish food in South Florida — one would expect it to be…
Funny how a phrase can change in meaning over the decades. Take “curbside pickup,” for instance. It used to refer to recyclables — glass, newspaper, tin cans. You know, garbage. But in recent years, thanks to chain restaurants like Chili’s and Romano’s Macaroni Grill, it has gained a new definition…
This season the word on the street is “yip.” As in, Jinny Yip, who is opening Miss Yip’s Chinese Café in the former Bambú space. I’ve heard she’s hired a terrific Chinese chef and that we can look forward to authentic cuisine. Let’s keep our collective fingers crossed that her…
Ago is no Spago, though it does serve thin-crust, wood-fired pizzas, and as the trendy California eatery relied in its heyday on the buzz of the Hollywood now crowd, so too does Ago draw social minglers from the current SoBe scene. Ago is also no Nobu, but shares the same…
Now there are shopping mall food courts. But once all the classiest department stores used to have their own lunchrooms, featuring food like iceberg lettuce wedges with old-fashioned white boiled salad dressing — polite food that didn’t stain the white gloves, light food for those with lots of leisure time…
It’s not unusual for a couple to give birth a year or two after getting hitched — unless the couple is a couple of award-winning young chefs, like Andrea Curto-Randazzo (formerly of Wish) and Frank Randazzo (the Gaucho Room), and they decide to almost simultaneously give birth to a child…
While sitting at a table draped in a blue and white checkerboard cloth, in the Jerusalem Market & Deli (which is tucked into the same North Miami strip mall addendum as the Mexican restaurant Paquito’s), I came up with a “Road Map for Better Mideast Food.” What makes me so…
About ten years ago, I started habitually breaking one of the cardinal rules associated with drinking alcohol: I began ordering wine in Asian restaurants. Retribution from the community at large was swift — based on the supposition that only somebody who couldn’t not drink would order Chardonnay with cashew chicken,…
