A French restaurant from Mexico, Gloutonnerie, will be taking over the former Au Pied de Cochon venue in South Beach. I heard this news from my source, Strep Throat, who reported that it would be upscale, “a Maison d’Azur type situation.” I believe I picked up a trace of sarcasm…
“The grocery store has become a Tower of Babel,” said Louis Sullivan back in 1990. “Consumers need to be linguists, scientists, and mind readers to understand the many labels they see.”Sullivan at the time was Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and he instructed the FDA to…
Jonathan Waxman’s early resume includes La Varenne culinary school in Paris, Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and his own iconic Jams. That he has just been named “chef-in-residence” with Rosa Mexicano might seem unusual for two reasons. Firstly, “chef-in-residence” sounds like a private cook in some rich person’s house, perhaps preparing…
Tapas and Tintos in midtown: Shaky service undermines some tasty plates at this outpost of a SoBe favorite
Why is it that so many waiters insist on memorizing orders instead of writing them down? This often requires diners to repeat themselves until the waiter gets it right or, worse, delivery of the wrong food. Both occurred during a recent visit to Tapas & Tintos in Midtown Miami. You’d…
We noted the opening of some 100-plus restaurants this past year; only half that number was on our “closed” list. There might be more of the latter: PR firms rarely trumpet the shuttering of businesses.It was, overall, a great time to be a diner in Miami (you can read why…
December proved to be an active final month of the year. There was the re-opening of the splashy, remodeled Rusty Pelican; the re-opening of Pearl Restaurant & Champagne Lounge; the re-opening Philippe by Philippe Chow in a new SoFi location; the second Sakaya Kitchen venue downtown, and the second 100…
Miami food scene 2011: food trucks, great chefs, and real coffee continue the culinary ascent
Less than a decade ago, Miami had arguably the worst dining scene of any famous city in America. If you wanted a great meal back then, you were better off heading to Ohio. (Seriously, Cincinnati had much better chefs.) But our restaurant fortunes soon began to rise. New Times’ year-end…
Earlier this week, I mentioned that I’d be dusting off my Ouija board in time for the annual predictions post, but of course I was just kidding; obviously one cannot accurately foresee the future solely by sliding ones hands over some letters. That’s why the Ouija board only accounts for…
Farewell 2011: We laughed, we cried, but mostly we ate. And there were a lot of very good meals to eat throughout the year. This coming week, the Cafe review will feature a look back at the past twelve months. In the meantime, let’s chew over the ten best restaurants…
Cinco Cantina and Tequila Bar: Only the tequila and beers are authentically Mexican
Perusing the past year’s restaurant reviews has brought to light something I suspected: I wasn’t very mean in 2011. It was difficult to find five scathing critiques. In fact, I really didn’t find any — there was only mild sarcasm in a few of the following. Still, these were the…
It seems fitting that Cinco Cantina & Tequila Bar opened in the Village of Merrick Park this past Cinco de Mayo. Not only are the two “Cincos” in sync, but the holiday is celebrated more here than south of the border, just as Cinco Cantina’s food is much more American…
File this under when a deal sounds too good to be true, it usually is. You can ignore the end of the following paragraph; it turns out the folks over at 100 Montaditos got a little ahead of themselves. They have decided not to run Dollarmania every day; the $1-for-all-montaditos…
As I dust off my trusty Ouija board in preparation for the Miami dining predictions of 2012, it seems only fair to look back on how I fared on my prognostications of one year ago. On quick glance, it might appear I did rather poorly. Upon deeper reflection, it still…
Macarons are absolutely the new cupcakes.I know this because I was watching ABC News and they said that “macaroons are the new cupcakes.” The next day Time magazine came in the mail and in it was an article entitled “Will Macarons be the new cupcake?” Then I Googled “macarons are…
There are thousands of comestibles and cooking gadgets on the market, but you would think most chefs have just about every conceivable piece of equipment they might possibly want — and we know they have access to all sorts of foods. But it turns out that there are vacancies on…
Last February, we heralded the midtown Miami opening of the first American branch of 100 Montaditos. There are more than 200 locations in the rest of the world (many of them in the place of origin, Spain), and the one in midtown has been a huge hit — lines spilling…
The rumor mill was spinning yesterday that Sam Gorenstein, Beard-nominated chef formerly of BLT Steak, was set to open his new venture called My Ceviche at 235 Washington Avenue in South Beach. Miami’s Restaurant Power Rankings reported this back in August, but had the projected opening date pegged for October…
Route 9 ran down the highway with our Best Restaurant in Coral Gables award in Best of Miami 2011. But Coral Gables has a whole lot of excellent dining establishments. Well, maybe not a whole lot, but certainly more than these five favorites of ours. So with apologies to Ortanique…
CG Burgers versus DGB: Damn Good Burger
