People come and go quickly in the food biz, so it’s no big deal that Pepe Freixas, Victor Passalacqua, and chef José Charles left La Dorada, the wonderful Spanish seafood house in the Gables, to try the same recipe again at a new Spanish restaurant called Navarra. Two things do…
Suddenly I seem to be in the gratis restaurant-consulting business. The only two messages on my voice mail this week were from folks who craved advice. And both centered around that evergreen puzzler: how to succeed on the Beach. The first plea I received was from Sonia Lyn, owner of…
The Albion Hotel, owned by the Rubell family, has finally taken the plywood off the windows of Mayya, the boutique hotel’s signature Mexican restaurant. TV talk show host Cristina Saralegui handled the ribbon-cutting duties during its recent opening. Fortunately, despite the heat of 400 bodies packed into the two-story eatery…
After closing for more than two months, the charming and cozy Escopazzo on South Beach has reopened with a brand-new dining room, doubling its capacity from about 35 to more than 70 seats. To introduce this new “wine room,” Escopazzo has announced it will host monthly winemaker dinners, beginning October…
While dining the other night at Toscana 2000, I couldn’t help but think of the Stanley Tucci film Big Night, a favorite on all foodies’ must-see lists. When it came out a few years ago I asked my friend, a local film critic, what he thought of it. He learned…
Although it has negative connotations, “petty” isn’t necessarily a bad adjective. (It’s derived from the French word petit, which means small.) There’s a petty officer, which is an officer appointed from enlisted personnel. Petty cash is kept on hand to pay for minor items. And petty larceny carries less of…
The House of Rémy Martin might want to stick this little skeleton in a closet: The Cognac King and the James Beard Foundation recently introduced the Louis XIII Ultimate Dinners, a program designed to benefit aspiring chefs. Twenty-eight of the nation’s “most acclaimed restaurants” were chosen to participate. Each restaurant…
As a rule I avoid any restaurant which has an appellation that ends with the word palace or hut: The former are never palatial, the latter usually just cramped snack-food places with graceless décor. Rather than shun the Original Pita Hut, though, I seek it out on Arthur Godfrey’s unofficial…
Steep steps in the kitchen of the French restaurant Prunelle led up to a plush plum-color dining room. Actually it was down those steps that Wolfgang Puck and Jeremiah Tower came to thank us, the chefs and culinary staff, for a job well done. It was in New York City,…
In finer restaurants the prevailing procedure for dining is this: You make a reservation, leave your phone number, and then it’s usually customary for the eatery to call back and confirm the date and time of your meal; sometimes they even reconfirm your intentions on the day of your visit…
A good way to measure the health of our economy is by the number of high-end restaurants that have opened or are scheduled to open around town. We’re not slumping. Already here are Baleen, Soyka, Ortanique, Coco Pazzo, Beatlenut, the News Room, and a second Grillfish; on the way should…
When I heard Norma’s on the Beach was planning a sequel in Coral Gables, I wasn’t excited about the prospect of two solid Caribbean restaurants in town; I was upset. Let me explain. I’ve been a huge fan of the funky Lincoln Road eatery since it opened. Even when I’m…
The waitstaff at By Sarah Cafe & Catering, located on Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami, stiffens visibly when the light contemporary jazz (think Chuck Mangione) playing on the radio is interrupted by commercials. One particular advertisement clearly bugged the hell out of ’em. “Run by chefs. That explains our food,”…
Lovers of Las Vegas and habitués of the Bahamas will instantly recognize the lobby of the two-month-old Miccosukee Resort & Convention Center: Clanging bells, security guards, and row after row of video gaming machines announce the Miccosukees’ intent to make their new gambling complex state of the art. Denizens of…
Shrimp tempura $12.95
Sautéed chicken with chili paste $13.95
Whole snapper $18.95
Sushi boat (for two) $38.00
Thai sticks $2.85
Pasta is a possibility again on Le Jeune Road, just off South Dixie Highway, at the spot formerly occupied by Tutti’s. The owners of Pazzia, which opened this past December, haven’t tinkered with the place much. There’s still a large rectangular bar in the center of the space serving as…
I used to frequent a fantastic little French bistro on New York’s Upper East Side, but I would have eaten there even more often if the name weren’t so ridiculous. You try inviting a date to a place called Voulez Vous. Remember “Voulez vous couchez avec moi ces soir?” Ugh…
Having a hard time deciding where to dine? Not sure what you want to eat tonight? Try turning to your sign. It gives dining under the stars a whole new meaning. Astrologer and columnist Sydney Omarr, along with deceased chef Mike Roy, put together a cookbook of culinary constellations, Cooking…
One day several years ago I answered the phone on the first ring, as is my habit because the darn thing sits right next to my computer. “Give me room 38,” a woman said. “Sorry, I think you have the wrong number,” I replied to the cheeky caller. “Bullshit!” she…
Turkey was where Cleopatra met Antony and the Trojan horse came to fetch Helen of Troy; it was the birthplace of Abraham and St. Paul and the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. But most of us know little about this nation, and even less about its food, which…
The gray season has begun. Those dark skies and blustery storms make an evening out seem less appetizing. It’s time to stay in the house — better yet, to stay in bed, and catch up on movies and devour trashy novels. Still, despite the deluge one recent Saturday night, I…
Good literature may not necessarily change your life, but it can revolutionize the way you feel about certain foodstuffs. For instance after reading Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen, a Japanese novella about death, transvestitism, and cooking school, I came away not with a new understanding of love and grief, but with a…
