Tacontento Coming to South Beach in June

Arriving in South Beach early next month will be Tacontento, a fast/casual full service Mexican restaurant. Tacontento translates to be happy, and if the slogan, “The best tacos… period,” comes anywhere close to being true, we will be. Tacontento started in the late ’90s as a taco stand in Guatemala…

Oil Spill Reactions From Miami Seafood Chefs and Purveyors

The BP oil spill has put all of South Florida in an officially declared State of Emergency. Not long before that announcement was made, we reached out to seafood industry folks like Chef Jonathan Eismann and one of his longtime purveyors, Christopher Twiss, as part of our continuing coverage on…

Sneak Review: Smoke’t Southern Kitchen & Tap

A mere charcoal briquet from next week’s glowing? fizzling? Cafe review:Main courses come with any two of 15 “fixin’s”, which if ordered a la carte would range in price from $2.95 to $6.25. There are, again, inconsistencies within the category, although plusses outnumbered minuses. Jalapeño mac & cheese hit the…

Chipwich Inventor Dies

Richard LaMotta, who created the Chipwich from his Sweet Tooth ice cream parlor in Englewood, New Jersey, passed away two days ago at age 67. The bearded Brooklyn native came up with the notion in the late Seventies — a  four-ounce slab of vanilla ice cream, sandwiched between chocolate chip…

Joey’s in Wynwood $6 Pasta a Damn Good Deal

Joey’s Wynwood Italian Café isn’t just the gustatory champion of Miami’s art district, it’s also as cheap as you are. Starving artists, broke freelancers, assistant district attorneys, and hungry spangers rejoice! Even we can afford to eat here. A bowl of in-house, handmade spaghetti with a juicy, herbed up tomato…

Crisp Calamari

Chances are pretty good your grandmother isn’t as talented a cook as you think. Sure, that lasagna or meatloaf is better than those you’ve tried elsewhere, and her other few specialties are perhaps equally impressive. But the key word here is few — meaning through years and years of making…

All-Natural Evos Coming To Pinecrest This Weekend

Fast food is about to be evo-lutionized in Miami. This weekend Evos, an all-natural chain (with locations in California, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina), debuts in Pinecrest.  The rstaurant makes American diner staples like hamburgers, shakes and fries healthful. Well, as nutritious as French fries can be. Instead of deep-frying…

Downtown Miami’s Sandwich Bar Shows Promise

Downtown Miami’s new savory spot, The Sandwich Bar, is everything simple. ​Simple décor. Simple concept. Simple ingredients and even simple names, as the two chefs are both named Leo. But the eatery, located near the Miami Dade College Wolfson campus, loses its simplistic edge when it comes to taste; the…

Mercadito Taqueria Opens in Midtown Miami

If you’re not a subscriber to our weekly Café Bites dining newsletter, here’s a taste of what you’re missing. Click here to subscribe.Before “fast food” meant a tasteless disc of pulverized cow between two pieces of soft cardboard there was the taco. Cheap, nourishing, able to accommodate just about any…

Tiramesu, Sardinia Chefs Face Off in Italian Cooking Show

Chefs Luca Taretto of Tiramesu and Pietro Vardeu of Sardinia will face off on May 20 in an Italian cooking battle at the MiaCucina showroom in Coral Gables. The battle is the first of the Italian Cooking Show IV, a series of five monthly cook-offs organized by the Italy-America Chamber…

Sneak Review: Calamari

A little antipasti paragraph before the main course Cafe review of Calamari next week:Most appetizers range from $5 to $10, pastas $10 to $13, main courses $15 to $20, and desserts $6 to $8. While these prices represent a great deal, nightly specials can make your meal even more of…

Chef Sean Bernal’s Mofongo Recipe

He promised, and he delivered. Here’s Chef Sean Bernal’s version of mofongo, a highly recognizable Puerto Rican dish. It can be found on Oceanaire’s menu as an appetizer, but we recommend you ask for it there as an entrée with shrimp in Creole sauce to get the full effect… and…

Closed Restaurants Roundup of Doom

Almost two quarters into 2010 and restaurants are dropping like so many flies at a swatter factory.Did your favorite neighborhood joint close? Yes. So did some big-money startups, middling little guys, and corporate behemoths’ touristic appendages.Our records indicate the loss of 28 29 restaurants so far this year. But will…

Help Wanted: Flapjack Flip-Off X

Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe. Not that my editor has permitted me to continue this self-indulgent farce of a contest for so long, but that I’ve been at the paper for more than a decade. Luckily I foresaw just such a possibility, and right from the start shrewdly…