As a rule I avoid any restaurant which has an appellation that ends with the word palace or hut: The former are never palatial, the latter usually just cramped snack-food places with graceless décor. Rather than shun the Original Pita Hut, though, I seek it out on Arthur Godfrey’s unofficial…
Steep steps in the kitchen of the French restaurant Prunelle led up to a plush plum-color dining room. Actually it was down those steps that Wolfgang Puck and Jeremiah Tower came to thank us, the chefs and culinary staff, for a job well done. It was in New York City,…
In finer restaurants the prevailing procedure for dining is this: You make a reservation, leave your phone number, and then it’s usually customary for the eatery to call back and confirm the date and time of your meal; sometimes they even reconfirm your intentions on the day of your visit…
A good way to measure the health of our economy is by the number of high-end restaurants that have opened or are scheduled to open around town. We’re not slumping. Already here are Baleen, Soyka, Ortanique, Coco Pazzo, Beatlenut, the News Room, and a second Grillfish; on the way should…
When I heard Norma’s on the Beach was planning a sequel in Coral Gables, I wasn’t excited about the prospect of two solid Caribbean restaurants in town; I was upset. Let me explain. I’ve been a huge fan of the funky Lincoln Road eatery since it opened. Even when I’m…
The waitstaff at By Sarah Cafe & Catering, located on Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami, stiffens visibly when the light contemporary jazz (think Chuck Mangione) playing on the radio is interrupted by commercials. One particular advertisement clearly bugged the hell out of ’em. “Run by chefs. That explains our food,”…
Lovers of Las Vegas and habitués of the Bahamas will instantly recognize the lobby of the two-month-old Miccosukee Resort & Convention Center: Clanging bells, security guards, and row after row of video gaming machines announce the Miccosukees’ intent to make their new gambling complex state of the art. Denizens of…
Shrimp tempura $12.95
Sautéed chicken with chili paste $13.95
Whole snapper $18.95
Sushi boat (for two) $38.00
Thai sticks $2.85
Pasta is a possibility again on Le Jeune Road, just off South Dixie Highway, at the spot formerly occupied by Tutti’s. The owners of Pazzia, which opened this past December, haven’t tinkered with the place much. There’s still a large rectangular bar in the center of the space serving as…
I used to frequent a fantastic little French bistro on New York’s Upper East Side, but I would have eaten there even more often if the name weren’t so ridiculous. You try inviting a date to a place called Voulez Vous. Remember “Voulez vous couchez avec moi ces soir?” Ugh…
Having a hard time deciding where to dine? Not sure what you want to eat tonight? Try turning to your sign. It gives dining under the stars a whole new meaning. Astrologer and columnist Sydney Omarr, along with deceased chef Mike Roy, put together a cookbook of culinary constellations, Cooking…
One day several years ago I answered the phone on the first ring, as is my habit because the darn thing sits right next to my computer. “Give me room 38,” a woman said. “Sorry, I think you have the wrong number,” I replied to the cheeky caller. “Bullshit!” she…
Turkey was where Cleopatra met Antony and the Trojan horse came to fetch Helen of Troy; it was the birthplace of Abraham and St. Paul and the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. But most of us know little about this nation, and even less about its food, which…
The gray season has begun. Those dark skies and blustery storms make an evening out seem less appetizing. It’s time to stay in the house — better yet, to stay in bed, and catch up on movies and devour trashy novels. Still, despite the deluge one recent Saturday night, I…
Good literature may not necessarily change your life, but it can revolutionize the way you feel about certain foodstuffs. For instance after reading Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen, a Japanese novella about death, transvestitism, and cooking school, I came away not with a new understanding of love and grief, but with a…
In the June issue of Vogue, food writer Jeffrey Steingarten, fed up with snooty maitre d’s and perpetual busy signals, decides to “not make one reservation for the entire week. I will just show up.” So he does, and has some moderate success at good New York City eateries, winding…
La Gloria is, for moviegoers, the most significant Mexican import since Like Water for Chocolate. That’s because this new taqueria is located smack-dab in the midst of Coconut Grove’s cineplexes, offering a transcendent alternative to mall-land’s predictable fare. Mexican restaurants used to be just as predictable, but in recent years…
Another South Beach restaurant. Opened just under six months ago in the nether regions of South Beach by some of the owners of The Strand’s successful Living Room, Cafe Tabac might be just another pretty cafe. It’s as stylish as Joia, as moderately priced as Big Pink across the street,…
If I could sum up Miami in one word, it would be “transient.” The good weather attracts drifters. Folks don’t settle in Miami, they merely reside for a time. Some people are only here to party on South Beach before getting down to the serious business of making a living…
It’s probably me, but I just don’t get Fish 54. The seafood restaurant opened about three months ago in the Loehmann’s Fashion Island space formerly occupied by Fish, a high-end eatery run by the Nemo and Big Pink folks, Myles Chefetz and Michael Schwartz. The pair had invested a cool…
The Holy Trinity of gastronomic delicacies comes down to this: the salted fish eggs of a pregnant sturgeon, goose livers that have been grossly force-fed, and a subterranean fungus. If you haven’t developed an appreciation for caviar, foie gras, and truffles, you might think this is one giant joke being…
Europeans like to gripe about a lot of things in America. Especially about dining out, about how all those waiters hover at your table chattering about nothing. They’d be driven right back across the Atlantic after eating at Sweet Donna’s Country Store, where we were greeted by not one, but…
