Kris Wessel is this town’s most daring and enigmatic chef. The lanky, easygoing Big Easy native was in 1995 the original pioneering partner of Paninoteca, on then just-awakening Lincoln Road. After selling his share of the biz, he dropped out for a bit and later resurfaced in 1999 with Liaison,…
Ten bucks will buy three pairs of multicolored clown eyelashes or two bargain-bin “best of” CDs by your favorite Sixties bands or a used copy of The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (spend $30 on all three and have a fun night!). But what will $10 procure for the savvy spender…
Georges Eric Farge charges through the loud, jam-packed room in a Gallic gallop, frantically waving his arms like a drowning man — except this frolicsome Frenchman is submerged only in adoration. He is grinning, hugging, sweating, slapping backs, and emitting a whistle with his lips that pierces the cacophony like…
Por Fin: “At Last.” As in: At last, five years after owner Carlos Centurion purchased the property, and two and a half years after breaking ground for construction, the beautiful two-level Spanish restaurant is finally open for business on the corner of Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Anastasia Avenue in…
Bartolome Grill & Restaurant’s 54-seat dining room is handsomely attired in black (tables, chairs, linens, pillars, bar, lofty industrial ceiling, waiters’ outfits) and vivid red (seat cushions, bar backlighting, waiters’ ties). Two walls are predominantly glass, which lightens and expands the space considerably; the rest are painted a grayish white,…
David Katz looks more or less like your typical 35-year-old guy from East Brunswick, New Jersey (perhaps a bit grayer). But he’s really much more interesting than that. His passions in life are his wife (a Miami native he met at a South Beach club — they both live here…
Recent articles have explored some of the revenue-enhancing measures that restaurateurs have undertaken to counter rising food costs — smaller portions, cheaper ingredients, professional pickpockets to work the dining room, and so forth. Many establishments will no doubt also rely on Miami Spice, the annual discount-dining program that begins August…
Cheryl Chin, of Jamaica Kitchen, was raised with four siblings in Kingston, Jamaica. Their father told them: “You’re all going to America and you’re all going to college.” Which they did. “When I say I have a master’s degree, people are like, ‘What?'” Chin says, seeming to relish the notion…
Baleen was an instant hit when it debuted at the Grove Isle Hotel & Spa in March 1999, and for good reason: The heavenly outdoor patio, with white gauzy curtains billowing in the breeze, proffered a panoramic vista of Biscayne Bay that was, and still is, difficult to beat. The…
Gabriele Marewski, of Paradise Farms, moved to Homestead in 1984 with a degree in agronomy from the University of Maryland (her home state). Fifteen years later, she purchased five acres of abandoned avocado grove and set about cleaning, plowing, and planting it into the certified organic Paradise Farms. She is…
If vegans are a “Hezbollah-like splinter faction” of the vegetarian movement, as Anthony Bourdain once wrote, then raw foodists would be that group’s loopiest fringe. Like vegans, they don’t eat products derived from animals, but they also shun chemically processed or pasteurized ingredients — and of course abide by the…
When Ken Lyon opened Lyon Frères et Compagnie in 1992, the chic, upscale café/market was a gastronomic oasis on an otherwise dry and dusty Lincoln Road. After closing the shop in 1997, Lyon formed the successful Lyon & Lyon catering company, and two weeks ago, he launched his new Italian…
Jeffrey Chodorow, head of the China Grill Management restaurant empire, has always brought a Ziegfeld Zeitgeist to the table. Sure, he hopes customers laud service and cuisine at CGM’s two dozen-plus venues. But he also wants them to consider the dining experience as akin to attending the theater or spending…
Hot summer days call for cool, revitalizing cocktails, so we figured this would be an ideal time to speak with David Fast, who’s been a bartender at Lido at The Standard since just after the sweet spa/hotel’s opening. 1. What’s the biggest-selling drink at the Lido? Mojitos. Consistently. Mojitos, mojitos…
In the spirit of this pugnacious presidential primary season, we proudly present a special Kitchen Sink Edition of the eighth annual Flapjack Flip-Off. “Anything Goes” is the theme this year, as our quartet of unwitting restaurant contestants will be permitted to sling apples, chocolate chips, flag lapel pins, or any…
Every Friday evening, from 5:30 to 11, North One 10 (11052 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-893-4211) hosts a barbecue and beer blast that is unlike any other in town. Chef Dewey LoSasso and crew grill up habanero chicken wings, mango and shrimp skewers, coffee-crusted rib eye steak, plus plenty more. And…
Ristorante Fratelli Milano’s umbrella-shaded tables are tightly clustered together on pinched, pedestrian-clogged SE First Street. Two dozen indoor seats are just as closely cramped in the windowless aisle of a room, where harried waiters squeeze through impossible spaces with oversize white bowls of pasta in their hands. This ain’t exactly…
Philippe Ruiz, from Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, France, began his stint at the Biltmore Hotel in 1999. Few local chefs can match Ruiz’s resumé of Michelin-star establishments, and fewer still possess his prodigious culinary talent. While most closely associated with the property’s exalted Palme d’Or, Ruiz was recently named executive chef of all…
The new Andú’s retro-futuristic design dares to depart from the restaurant world’s recent tilt toward timid, if tasteful, taupe-toned settings. Tables shine in white Plexiglas, banquettes are silver-gray, and globular white sculptural murals hang on the walls not taken up by floor-to-ceiling windows. Hand-blown glass bubbles form a circular curtain…
Lots of cookbooks get written on the fly by chefs who have grown star wings seemingly overnight. Nino Pernetti’s opus has been 20 years in the making; that’s how long his northern Italian recipes and European charm have been romancing diners at the great Caffé Abbracci (318 Aragon Ave., Coral…
A cacophony of chatter and clatter greets diners as they enter Mint Leaf, which has sprouted in the spot once occupied by Darbar Indian Restaurant and, most recently, by Restaurant Brana. The din seems surprisingly strong for such a modestly sized room and betrays a tranquil décor defined by dark…
The landmark Pacific Time shuttered its Lincoln Road digs last August, but chef/owner Jonathan Eismann is just a couple of weeks away, final permits permitting, from opening his new Pacific Time in the Design District, at 35 NE 40th St. New Times: So I have five questions to ask —…
