Azul is a two-month-old 120-seat restaurant in the $100-million Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Key, actually housed on the side of the hotel, along with another eatery, Café Sambal, in a patinaed structure. The restaurant’s interior , elegantly accented in rosewood, bamboo, white marble, stainless steel, and silk, impresses in an…
I was befuddled by the only word emblazoned beneath the restaurant’s name, right on the menu’s front page: tapas. Having always assumed the first Las Culebrinas, on West Flager, was a Cuban restaurant, I naturally projected likewise for this second venture, which emerged in the Grove seven months ago. I…
Call me Ishmael if you must. But don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m after a big white whale. This quest is about white tuna. White tuna is the most recent specialty item to hit sushi bars. Shibui in Miami began carrying it less than a year ago. Sushi Hana…
Thanks to the mad cow disease outbreak, restaurants in France have stopped serving beef, and there are reports that incinerators in England can’t keep up with the disposal of infected animals. Not the best climate to open a steak house, eh? Still, Jeffrey Chodorow of China Grill Management debuted Tuscan…
Green beans, sweet potatoes, strawberries, and all types of pulchritudinous produce can be purchased from roadside purveyors peppering the flat farmlands that surround Homestead. Nothing beats farm-fresh food. It’s also pleasing to note that there are more chickens than traffic lights here, John Deeres outnumber John Does, and a pastoral…
If a recent story stemming from Orlando is any indication, Americans love buffets now more than ever. Two weeks ago, during a Sunday buffet brunch at the 4th Fighter Group restaurant, a three-alarm fire broke out. But despite the smoke like steamed milk from a cappuccino machine pouring into the…
There are two types of gourmet markets: the modern sort, as in lots of white tiles, bright lights, and shiny stainless steel Metro shelving; and the rustic old-time look favored by Scotty’s Grocery. Well, not really favored. The style in this case has been attained involuntarily through evolution, the landmark…
If I’ve learned anything living in Miami, it’s that objecting to policy is pretty useless. No matter how strong the demonstration against whatever — a proposal, an issue, a politician — chances are the powers that be will ignore it. Protesters, however, do stand a better chance if they’re well…
If you’re going to dine at Diego’s Tapas at Bayside Marketplace, first check the local sports pages; you won’t want to head there when the Heat is playing a home game. Unless of course you’re the undaunted sort who relishes the prospect of a bumper-to-bumper crawl home through arena traffic…
A couple of years ago travel writer Mac Seligman sent a letter in which he wrote about how when you travel, what you expect — or are led to expect — is never what you get. To that end he’d prepared a list of “travelese,” a compendium of terms that…
The road to hellish restaurants is paved with good intentions, smiling countenances, sunny dispositions, and a sincerity on the part of proprietors. Al Bustan isn’t hellish, but the Lebanese eatery also isn’t anything more than just another ethnic eating place owned by people who want to serve exemplary renditions of…
On Chowbaby, a relatively new Website, an article titled “Fascination with Fusion” details the gastronomic community’s love affair with fusion cuisine. Author Kelly Tokarski writes, “Fusion is trendy. Fusion is tasty. Fusion is today.” Girl, I got news for you: Fusion is tired. Fusion is torturous. Fusion is so yesterday,…
The good news is that Oliver Saucy and Darrel Broek are not putting Café Maxx and East City Bistro up for sale, despite rumors to the contrary. The better news is that the duo finally has found a site for East City Grill, their successful Fort Lauderdale venture that was…
The Paramount Grill in Aventura Mall is being touted as Chef Allen’s passage into casual dining. For those of you who may have just arrived here, Allen Susser once was one of the most talked-about chefs in town, his namesake restaurant nationally acclaimed. That was back in the heady days…
The differences are glaring. As coruscating as the neon undercarriage of an El Dorado cruising Ocean Drive. As in-your-face as the high beam of a rotating spotlight outside a Washington Avenue nightclub. As shiny as a supermodel’s nose, awaiting powder. Last year, when the whole world looked forward to partying…
Sad but true, happy hour has never really secured a foothold here in Miami. Sure, a couple of restaurants like Monty’s and Hardaway’s Firehouse Four have managed to draw a steady after-work crowd almost every night of the week. But serious attempts to institute happy hour have been sporadic and…
I was mindlessly slipping on my favorite Wallace & Gromit socks while getting dressed for lunch, when I suddenly became mindful of the fact that I was headed to the Govina Dining Room at the Hare Krishna Temple in Coconut Grove, the sort of place that likely would have guests…
Of course the question on every diner’s mind is not which restaurants will open this year. It’s which ones of the slew will survive the season and which ones the media will feed on like carrion. Fortunately I have come up with a foolproof method of predicting the formative successes…
The west side of South Beach once again has proved nonlucrative: Jonathan Eismann’s Westside Diner has closed. Eismann’s product was the second attempt to make something of this spot, following Johnny V’s Kitchen, run by Astor Place chef Johnny Vinczencz. “It was very disappointing, because it was a real labor…
It’s become cliché to describe a Latin restaurant in Miami as “reminiscent of an old-time Havana supper club,” but that is in fact the case at Samba Room in the recently renovated Bancroft Hotel on South Beach. Not too ritzy a club, mind you, the stylishly spare décor defined by…
Hans Viertz has gone from being corporate head chef of Club Med, a job that entailed overseeing 31.2 million meals per year, to proprietor of Estate Wines & Gourmet Foods, whose “Euro table” lunch service features a butcher-block table with communal seating for twelve, plus five additional stools at a…
Astrological geeks spend Saturday afternoons at the planetarium, while bird nerds flock to Parrot Jungle. Scientific tykes have Epcot Center, and we’ve reserved more or less the rest of Central Florida for all the other kiddies. So where do foody two-shoes go to when they want to stroll through a…
