If the comprehensive story of hotel dining is ever written, it should be titled Upstairs, Downstairs, Downstairs. Upscale restaurants are generally located upstairs, often on the top floor. (If it’s a Hyatt, the room might even rotate.) Informal eateries tend to be situated at street level, thus easily accessible from…
Claiming to make “the best damn sandwich on the planet,” as Big Slick’s Deli does, is no small feat, considering the competition. In Manhattan, Craft’s famed New American chef Tom Colicchio recently opened Witchcraft, where the tuna fish sandwich is an innovative — and high-quality — combination of Sicilian tuna,…
When it comes to contests, the number six has historically portended unexpected outcomes. The sixth Summer Olympics, for instance, were to take place in Berlin in 1916 but were canceled because of World War I. Cavalcade copped top prize at the sixth annual Academy Awards in 1933, and nobody has…
Expectations are a bitch. Take Creek 28. Before coming to the cozy little restaurant in the off-the-eatin’-path Indian Creek Hotel, chef Kira Volz made the Abbey Dining Room — in the almost as obscurely located Abbey Hotel — into one of the best least-known dining spots on the Beach. It…
Jafar Shabani, who formerly owned The Fifth Street Market and La Factoria on Collins Avenue in South Beach, says Persian food is what he wanted to do all along. Jafar, born in Tehran and raised in Toronto, fulfilled this ambition by opening Rice House of Kabob on the Beach a…
One little-known fact about food writers: The background of many American restaurant reviewers does not include a stint at culinary school. Rather, these critics including the New York Times’ Eric Asimov, Gourmet’s Jonathan Gold, the Village Voice’s Robert Sietsema, and many more — were musicians. The connections between expertise in…
If I tell you Spiga’s dining room is one of the most beautiful and romantic in town, take the praise with a grain of salt: I put my two cents into the design. The man directly responsible was Peter Hawrylewicz, one of Miami’s premier architects. It was 1994, and having…
There is something endearing and a little scary about The Bamboo Shak, as if you went to dinner at your neighbor’s house and found he had built a fully operational 767 out of matchsticks and discarded washing machine parts. But you really have no idea until you step inside the…
The Japanese traditionally consider a huge variety of ingredients appropriate for use in sushi: pieces of egg omelet, a myriad of pickled or fresh vegetables, and most anything that swims in salt water, excepting foods that do not pair well with vinegared rice, such as oysters. In the Western world…
The official name of Bangkok, deemed lengthiest in the world by Guinness World Records, is Krungthep Mahanakhon Amorn Rattanakosin Mahintara Yudthaya Mahadilok Pohp Noparat Rajathanee Bureerom Udomrajniwes Mahasatarn Amorn Pimarn Avaltarnsatit Sakatattiya Visanukram Prasit. Bangkok likewise boasts the largest Chinatown outside China, is sinking at an alarming rate of two…
There was one line in there that hit me hard,” Michelle Bernstein said, her cutting board directly opposite mine at the far end of the long, narrow kitchen at Michy’s. “And it has stuck with me ever since.” She was referring to my review of Azul when it opened at…
In 1994, when South Beach was a sleeping giant just beginning to stir, Sport Café became the first budget Italian restaurant to set up shop. We forget how quickly times have changed: Sport’s location, Washington Avenue just off Fifth Street, was still considered an iffy place to walk around after…
Maroosh is the busiest restaurant I’ve seen that not one person claims to have heard of. On a recent Saturday evening, it was packed tighter than Lil’ Kim’s silicon-plumped zeppelins. And why not? The food is consistently tasty and well prepared, the portions are huge, and the prices are on…
Barely a week after Canela opened two months ago, a very picky Cuban-American friend of mine — who happens to be a stickler for authenticity — returned from a lunch at the small yet stylish café with a convincing report. She was particularly impressed with not only the daily special…
When Martini Bar Restaurant opened in the Shops at Sunset Place this past December, I read various press notices about how consulting chef Frank Jeanetti would bring fine cuisine to South Miami. Jeanetti has been cooking it up around town for a while — at the Biltmore Hotel, Pacific Time,…
You would think a sleek, swank wine bar on South Beach has got to be the House of Pretentious Snobs, with cork dorks noisily proclaiming their ignorance and haughty staffers sniffing that you, peasant, couldn’t possibly comprehend the indecent pleasures of this insolent little Bordeaux, which sells for roughly the…
Houston’s, T.G.I.Fridays, Tarpon Bend, City Cellar Bar & Grill. Blame Dennis Max for the glut of casual-upscale restaurants threatening to overrun every privately owned casual and upscale eatery in Coral Gables. After all, it was his formula of posh interiors and accessible, reasonably priced contemporary American food that made him…
La Cofradia is a gorgeous new 78-seat restaurant in Coral Gables. The contemporary cuisine, with Mediterranean and Peruvian accents, is fresh and cooked with aplomb. The wine list features more than 180 bottles (beginning at $40) and 37 wines served by the glass, ranging from $9 to $25. A full…
It’s clear you are in the country when you pull up to a four-way intersection — with no traffic lights, just stop signs — and the vehicles on the three other roads include a tractor, an open-back tomato truck, and an arch-neck paso fino horse. And it’s apparent you are…
As diners enter Heads or Tails Seafood, they are greeted by a smoky fish-fry aroma and the scent of raw fish emanating from the retail market located immediately to the right. Some pause and peer at the fishmongers furiously filleting sundry snappers, groupers, and other carcasses of the sea before…
The joy associated with home cooking. Picture Mom standing at the stove, stirring a large pot of soup, waiting for Dad’s arrival. The kids are gathered in the kitchen, inhaling the intoxicating aromas of long-simmered chicken, fresh vegetables, and herbs. The table is set for the family meal, which provides…
Stupendous tents that compose the Grand Tasting Village have been constructed on the Beach. Barbecue pits are being assembled for the BubbleQ, flatware is being polished for the Ferran Adrià Tribute Dinner, sugar is being spun for the poolside dessert party, and a small army of the culinary world’s movers,…
