Lyon’s Plethore & Balthazar Opens at Hilton Bentley

Plethore & Balthazar, P&B for short, is headed across the pond to bring a bit of France to South Beach. The original restaurant, located at 72 Rue Merciere in Lyon, France, has been replicated down to the black and white chairs, for its second home at the Hilton Bentley Hotel in…

Full Bloom Opens With Plant-Based Cuisine and a Killer View

While Miami’s plant-based landscape has evolved enormously in the past few years, upscale vegan eateries are still surprisingly scarce. Full Bloom Gourmet Vegan Cuisine, which opened last month in Miami Beach, is now filling that niche, offering a healthy, chic alternative to the city’s traditional culinary scene.  Tucked away in…

August 2015’s Miami Restaurant Openings and Closings

August openings and closings in Miami are predictably slow, with most restaurant owners preferring to wait until the fall crowds to open. By the same thought process, if a restaurant made it this far along in the summer, chances are it has enough capital and a following to survive through…

Downtown’s Havana Pizza Slings Ropa Vieja on Plantain Crusts

With so many utilitarian Cuban pizza places selling doughy, Varadero-style pizzas it seemed inevitable someone would reimagine some of Cuba’s best-known dishes in pie form.  About a month ago Gabriel Martinez, a partner in downtown’s Havana Coffee & Tea Company, opened Havana Pizza (48 E. Flagler St. 305-250-1099) nestled into…

Culinary Incubator Pops Up at Wynwood Yard

Miami’s first culinary incubator, along with a host of dining and drinking options,  opens this fall at the Wynwood Yard. This “pop-up community gathering space” opens at 70 NE 29 St and features everything from gardening classes and eateries to a a place where up and coming entrepreneurs can have…

Byblos’ Middleterranean Melody in South Beach

Spicy, sweet, tender, and toothsome only begin to describe the lamb ribs at Byblos, the new Eastern Mediterranean eatery at the Royal Palm South Beach. To give the starter its sensual mix of flavors and textures, the meat is cooked sous vide for 24 hours before being brushed with carob…

Piola on Lincoln Road Closing Tonight, Funeral Planned — With Coffin

Piola South Beach is the latest casualty in the transition of Lincoln Road from local hangout to soul-sucking tourist trap. The restaurant, located around the corner from Lincoln Road at 1625 Alton Rd. closes tonight after a 15 year run. Illyana Stefanova, marketing manager for Piola, says the pizza shop opened…

Hurricane Party and Survival Tips From Miami’s Best Chefs

Tropical Storm Erika is currently out in the Caribbean making trouble for anything in her path. Although categorized as a loosely organized tropical system with 50 mph winds, she devastated the small island of Dominica with severe flooding, leaving 12 dead in her wake. She is now on her way…

Dragonfly Restaurant to Open in Downtown Doral

Dragonfly is being added to the ever-growing roster of dining options at the soon-to-open $1 billion Downtown Doral project. The combination restaurant and fish market is scheduled to start operating this winter at 5341 NW 87 Ave., joining Bulla Gastrobar, Freddo Helado, Passion del Cielo, and many more eateries at…

50 Eggs’ Spring Chicken to Open Fall 2015

More details have emerged on 50 Eggs’ fast casual chicken joint. The restaurant, formerly named Llewellyn’s Chicken & Biscuits,  has a new name and an opening date. Spring Chicken is set to open its first location fall 2015, across from University of Miami, taking up the old Miami’s Best Pizza…

Little Bread Cuban Sandwich Co. Opens in Coral Gables With Extended Menu

Barely a month after chef Alberto Cabrera announced he was morphing his Coral Gables restaurant Bread + Butter into Little Bread Cuban Sandwich Co., the restaurant is up and running. Located at 2330 Salzedo St., it is open for breakfast, lunch, and early supper daily, with dinner Friday and Saturday evenings…

Try Pasta Wednesdays at Zak the Baker

First comes sourdough bread, then the pasta, or at least that’s been the trajectory of events at Zak The Baker in Wynwood. For about one month now, the flagship café/bakery has been serving a single homemade pasta dish every Wednesday. Executive sous-chef, Johnny Bacon, and the bakery’s main dough man,…

Haitian Peanut Butter Fires Up Snacks and Sandwiches

“If you had a spoon I’d eat some right now,” Prinston Paul says while standing near the front door of Little Haiti’s Sabal Supermarket on the corner of 54th Street and Northeast Second Avenue We’re inspecting a jar of mamba, Creole for peanut butter, a common snack on the island…

Tom Colicchio’s Beachcraft Looks for a Place in the Sun

It seemed inevitable Tom Colicchio would open a place in Miami. He’s been eyeing the city since 2007, when David Bouley’s Evolution vacated the Ritz-Carlton, South Beach. But there was little hint the smooth-domed chef whose face is a fixture everywhere from television to Capitol Hill would take on a…

Marion: Mediterranean Fare and Bar Lab Cocktails in Brickell

Marion Brasserie, a new Mediterranean bistro, located one block south of Mary Brickell Village, at 1111 SW 1st Ave., has set an opening date. The restaurant will open September 14 for dinner, and will start serving lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. – 11  p.m. daily on Monday, October 5,…

The District Miami Owners Sued for Back Pay

Sometimes when a restaurant fails it implodes, and chances are the flashier and more extravagant the opening, the bigger and messier the closing. Buena Vista’s the District Miami opened to much fanfare in late 2013. The restaurant seemed to have it all – a prime location just north of the…