The first impression was the worst. I’m not talking about the creamy white interior of the refurbished Nash Hotel. That was the second impression. The third would be the restaurant itself, Mark’s South Beach, and how the walk downstairs to a sleek, contemporary dining room, with outdoor seating by a…
March is not Black History Month. March is not Women’s History Month, Breast Cancer Month, Secretaries’ Month, or Grandparents’ Month. It’s not even Spring Break Month, not really. It can’t be, because March is Miami Media Blitz Month. Take a look at March’s reading and viewing material: Travel & Leisure…
The Pelican Hotel on Ocean Drive has 25 uniquely themed rooms, from the safari-designed “Me Tarzan, You Vain,” to the sparser “Jesus Christ Megastar,” which, if nothing else, is the only hotel room to ever advertise with the slogan “A man’s life consist not in the abundance of the things…
If you’ve ever wondered what kosher really means, check out the following joke, in which Moses speaks to God from atop Mount Sinai: God: And remember, Moses, in the laws of keeping kosher, never cook a calf in its mother’s milk. It is cruel. Moses: Ohhhhhh! So you’re saying we…
When it comes to Oggi Caffe in North Bay Village, we just can’t get enough. Fortunately for us, proprietors Alex Portela and Eloy Roy, who also run Caffe Da Vinci in Bay Harbor Islands, agree. They’re currently in the process of opening a second Oggi, at 7921 NW Second St…
As a food writer, my best moment this millennium came during an interview with chef Andrea Curto last month, when I asked for the usual sound-bite definition of her dishes at SoBe’s Wish. “Fusion,” she declared immediately, “because that way I can cook whatever the heck I want to.” Honesty…
“Never give a sucker an even break” is, I believe, the philosophical impetus propelling the recent rash of “consulting chefs” that has been spreading rapidly in these parts. This public-relations ploy is akin to culinary karaoke, wherein one chef or another follows the bouncing boil and cooks along to a…
I was roaming through the open forum (a chat room) at Epicurious.com, a Website for foodies sponsored by Condé Nast publications, where the majority of messages were predictably upbeat and enthusiastic. Then I came across what I thought was a pretty valid question: “Doesn’t anyone here ever get a bad…
You’ve inquired about it. You’ve begged for it. You’ve demanded it. And now you’ve got it: our first-ever Ethiopian restaurant. A Taste of Ethiopia has opened at 1072 NE 167th St., in North Miami Beach, a culinary mecca that has become the most ethnically diverse in the area. Co-proprietors Celia…
In SoBe it’s easy to get spoiled when it comes to sushi. Great grub of most other Asian nations isn’t easy to find in Miami, but visiting know-it-alls from New York, or even Asian food mecca San Francisco, are unusually impressed by my Japanese-food tour de force — a strolling…
Well, you could have fooled me. In fact you did. I believed the recent countywide proliferation of parrilladas — Argentine steak houses — was a natural outgrowth owing to several factors. First, fresh, uncooked Argentine beef, which had been banned for import since 1930 because of an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth…
There were two undying rumors about Big Fish back when I moved to Miami six years ago. One was that this renovated shack-complex-turned-restaurant on the Miami River had once dispensed the best cheapo fish sandwich in town. Wait: “Best”? Legendary! Mythic! To hear it told, neither Jesus himself nor even…
The small, cluttered, always crowded L’Entrecote de Paris debuted on Washington Avenue, just south of Fifth Street, in 1993. The restaurant seemed old from the start, in a good way, as though it had been there forever. That was part of its appeal. Much of the clientele was made up…
I have never dipped my feet into the cool blue waters of Portugal, but I did once put them in my mouth by suggesting to a Portuguese fellow that his national fare was pretty much the same as Spain’s. His brief but emotional lecture enlightened me as to a few…
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…
