Happy Hour Hunt: JB Kitchen & Bar in Brickell

The Place: JB Kitchen & Bar1250 South Miami Avenue, Miami305-415-0070 / jbkitchenandbar.comThe Hours: Thursdays and Fridays, 5 p.m.-8 p.m.The Deal: $5 Moleca Lime Caipirinhas on Thursdays and $5 DonQ Mojitos on Fridays. There was no happy hour menu for food (orders were made off the appetizer’s menu.)The Digs: JB Kitchen…

Interview with Philippe Ruiz of Biltmore’s Palme d’Or, Part One

While some of the top-name chefs manning kitchens in Miami are busy working on bacon-infused ice creams and three-pound slabs of steak, the Biltmore’s chef Philippe Ruiz continues to focus on making light, classic French dishes with a modern edge, often using just a few natural, high-quality ingredients. Thankfully the critics…

Florida’s Modern-Day Slavery Museum Tours the State

If each slave-picked Florida tomato you ate caused a tooth to fall out, you’d be reduced to bleeding gums in a matter of cheeseburgers.In the winter, most of America’s tomatoes come from Florida, especially the fields of Immokalee, close to Naples, in Collier County, just west of Dade.Unfortunately, the tradition…

Smith & Wollensky Hosts $25 Portuguese Wine Tasting

If you like socializing on the scenic terrace of Smith & Wollensky while sampling unlimited sips from some 100 whites, reds, rosés, Ports, Moscatels and White Vinho Verdes, all from Portugal, at a very low price ($25) — well, this coming Monday, March 8, is your lucky day.The event is…

Home Cooking: Mercadito’s Guacamole de Mango

Of all the promotional swag I collected during the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, one was particularly handy. The magnet containing the recipe for Mercadito’s guacamole de mango was handed to me as we sampled the soon-to-be-open restaurant’s carnitas tacos during the Grand Tasting Village. Being a lover of…

Hone Your Culinary Skills with Chef Alan Hughes

Ready for culinary boot camp? Former One Ninety chef Alan Hughes will be teaching eight three-hour classes in his kitchen starting March 14. The classes, limited to five students, will cover a range of topics starting with the basics. In the first class, students will learn knife techniques, kitchen organization…

Rats and Roaches: Top 5 Restaurant Busts This Year

If you’ve eaten in the City of Miami in the past three months you may not want to read any farther.There’s a distinct possibility that ugly little roach legs, and furry little rat claws joined your romantic dinner, business lunch, or casual snack.The following list includes five restaurants who have…

The Great Tomato Mess: Forget About It, They’re Evil

Everybody’s whining about the lack of tomatoes these days. The winter freeze down our way messed up the supply, so there just aren’t many. DiMare farms, the biggest producer, is sending out just 20 percent of the usual haul. Subway, my favorite lunch joint, posted a sign yesterday that only…

Altamare Opens For Lunch With Free Prosecco

Altamare Restaurant will officially open for lunch tomorrow, Wednesday, March 3 (noon to 4:00 p.m.). To help create a festive mood for the occasion, owner Claudio Giordano will be pouring complimentary glasses of prosecco. Count us in.1233 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach305-532-3061…

Carnaval Miami Cooking Contest As Part of Calle Ocho Festival

Got pork?Send your special recipe for 8 portions of the other white meat “prepared with the flavor of your native country” to the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana (1400 SW 1st Street. Miami, FL 33135) along with your name, address, and phone number.You could be chosen for the finals (for…

Two New Chilorio’s Very Mexican Joints Now Very Open

Chilorio’s Very Mexican, “a fast-casual fresh Mexican restaurant,” has opened not one, but two new South Florida outposts: At 130 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, and at 8211 South Dixie Highway in South Miami. Both spots offer what Chilorio bills as “dishes made from authentic Mexican recipes, many of which…

The Scoop on South Miami’s 72nd Bar & Grill

If you’re not a subscriber to our weekly Café Bites dining newsletter, here’s a taste of what you’re missing. Click here to subscribe.72nd Bar & Grill isn’t the 72nd moderately priced, neighborhoody bar and grill to open in Miami since the Great Recession took a blowtorch to upscale dining establishments…

Where It At? Leek Dumpling from SBWFF

What it is: Pan-fried leek dumpling with a bit of osetra draped over it.Where it at: Well, it was at one of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival events. But what chef, from what restaurant, put it out?…

Guy Fieri Ties Up South Beach Wine & Food Festival 2010

The South Beach Wine & Food Festival wrapped up last night with a beach party hosted by Guy Fieri at the Gansevoort’s Beach Club, appropriately themed “Moon Over Miami,” since the full, orange moon began to dip just as the party began. At 6 p.m. a line had already started…

Heavens To Betsy! BLT Partners Split

Laurent Tourondel and BLT empire business partner Jimmy Haber, have parted ways, two days short of their sixth anniversary of partnership. Haber gets BLT Steak in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, and also BLT Fish, BLT Prime and BLT Burger in New York.Chef Tourondel will still be executive chef…