As it turns out, former Astor Place chef Johnny Vinczencz isn’t only a terrific chef, he’s a good sport. His response to my “Where’s Johnny V?” bulletin in “Side Dish” led to an Internet correspondence. In exchange for a brewski at the fashionably unglamorous Abbey Brewing Co. on South Beach…
I’m not the only one drenched in bad feelings about Bambú, apparently. A source told me that Bambú owner Karim Masri sent consulting chef Norman Van Aken an e-mail saying Masri wasn’t going to pay Van Aken, who has placed his personally trained protégés in Masri’s restaurants, for his services…
Tonino Doino grew up in Italy, quite poor, yet as the story goes, he would become the first person to resign from the waitstaff of Bice in New York City. The reason that no waiter before him had ever considered quitting is probably because each was earning roughly $100,000 per…
In terms of cultural crossovers, few cities have got anything over Miami. There is, of course, the music, which often mixes Latin, Afro-Caribbean, and rock roots. And the city’s two primary tongues, which for better or worse have produced hybrids such as lunchear (to meet for lunch) and faxear (to…
Okay, relax, this is not a public-service announcement. But imagine, just for a minute, having AIDS. The weakness, the fatigue, the constant infections — you own them. What you don’t own is what’s necessary for an immune-deficient body to fight the myriad opportunistic illnesses: proper nutrition. In fact you can’t…
The “mall experience,” for me, is pretty much defined by the quality of my trudge from parking lot to movie theater and back out again. Even from this admittedly limited perspective, though, I’ve been able to glean the obvious: To succeed as a mall restaurateur, you must either be part…
It may not be as elemental as the chicken-or-egg controversy, but it still ranks, in some neighborhoods, as an age-old question: Do you want to be a restaurant or a club? Judging from opening night, Cameron Diaz’s new eatery, Bambú, doesn’t know the answer. The party was called for 10:00…
In the process of learning about wine, I have discovered I am a woman. A woman among men. Among many men. In fact it’s not unusual for me to supply the only burst of estrogen during a testosterone-dominated winemaker’s luncheon. Every once in a while I’m joined by Simone Zarmat…
Wheeeere’s Johnny V? Looks as though I’m not the only one searching. Jonathan Eismann, who took over the erstwhile Johnny V’s Kitchen, needs him bad. Apparently Johnny V is the only one who knows the combination of the safe on the premises. But Jonny E shouldn’t fret: The big V…
Tuscan steak. The very words bring back memories of a weekly carnivorous ritual during my couple of deliciously decadent decades in Italy. Living in Rome had its pluses and minuses, to be sure, but dining almost daily around the city, with its more than 3000 restaurants, became a passionate pastime…
“Is it you?” Sheila Lukins asked, smiling hugely, as she trotted into Bal Harbour Beach House’s Nantucket-style screened-in porch for an interview. “It’s me,” I acknowledged, standing up somewhat uncertainly to greet her. “Is it you?” In truth I didn’t know what the cookbook author and chef at the Beach…
About a year and a half ago, Andrea Meza decided to turn her Meza Fine Art Gallery in Coral Gables into a gallery café that would feature fine art, fine music, and fine “global” food. A fine idea. The handsome gallery/dining room of Meza Fine Art gallerycafé, which seats about…
In Coconut Grove, where commerce and nature have wrestled over square footage for decades, The Last Carrot juice bar remains a tribute to hipper, or hippier, days. Those would be the Seventies, when “the Grove” implied folksingers, incense, McGovern bumper stickers, and pottery classes. When the Last Carrot opened in…
While we were dining at Fiedele’s Seafood Restaurant, a Haitian-Caribbean seafood restaurant on Biscayne Boulevard and 72nd Street, hundreds outside the INS building seven blocks north were protesting the U.S. government’s treatment of Haitian immigrants vis-à-vis people coming from that other island nation. I’d love to weigh in on the…
Years ago, on Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables, I used to wander into an eclectic shop called the Culinary Bazaar. Located next to Caffe Baci, it was the ideal place to wile away a wait for your table (and there was always a wait at Baci). Culinary Bazaar…
Lincoln Road is a fertile ground for rumors, but I gotta tell you, few have panned out. First there was the story that Red Lobster was replacing South Beach Brasserie. Uh-uh. Then I heard Cheesecake Factory was coming to haunt the Road. Still no final word on that little tidbit…
Last Night at the S&S Diner, the 1987 Mel Kiser/Corky Irick flick about pretrendy Miami, brought national fame to this classic counterspace-only eatery, along with an unending rush of trendy directors seeking instant authenticity. Most recently scenes for The Versace Murder were shot there. But the S&S Diner had been…
Those who believe in unlucky restaurant locations would probably consider the National Hotel one such site. They could trace the origins of the curse to the Oval Room, which opened three years ago in the ravishingly renovated hotel. I still remember their “butternut squash risotto-style,” which I misread as being…
It’s high season, time once again for the ravenous hordes from the North to descend. Time again to schlep the ravenous hordes out to the Everglades, for the obligatory gator-gaping expedition. And time again — assuming they don’t get eaten trying to stump-jump their rental bikes over Shark Valley’s snoozing…
“Regardless of nationality or culture, everyone has an attachment to soup…. You rarely hear anyone emphatically say, ‘I don’t like soup,’ and the person who does cannot be trusted.” Indeed. Those are words from the recently published, wonderfully irreverent culinary bible called The Daily Soup Cookbook, stemming from a restaurant…
If there were any doubt basketball is a sport for the poor-born to play and the wealthy to watch, the AmericanAirlines Arena (AAA) will put it to rest. And if you didn’t know, the AAA is so new that if you wander by during daylight hours, you’ll see ongoing construction,…
