A Liberty City Breakfast with Basic Training Deliverance Academy

Liberty City Breakfast from Miami New Times on Vimeo. Gus Garcia’s feature story this week explores the world of Basic Training Delivery Academy in Miami’s Liberty City. Here’s a video detailing the Sunday breakfast ritual they offer free to the community. Click here to read the full article…

A Room with a View

A burgundy stream of Cavia Malbec cascades into a short-stemmed snifter and stops abruptly as our waiter snaps the bottle upright. Lifting the glass to eye level and looking closely at the lower, liquid-filled half, I see a convex reflection of Buena Vista Bistro’s 24-seat room: black-topped tables lining the…

The Inspector: 5 Restaurants That Started 09′ In A Bad Way

After a short hiatus, The Inspector is back to keep you abreast of current developments in the routine-food-inspection-report scene. The following information may shock you, but understand we are only providing it because it is totally public information that we all have a right to see. Here are 5 restaurants…

Girl Scout Cookies Hit Streets, Scared of Salmonella?

Cookie junkies across the nation simultaneously erupted in joy and floundered in despair when ’09 Girl Scout cookie shipments hit the streets and salmonella peanut butter reports hit the airwaves. But don’t despair, according to MSN Health & Fitness:”The drum roll for recalls of peanut butter products continued without letup,…

Chocolate-Dipped Fairchild

This Thursday evening, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden will be hosting the Third Annual International Chocolate Festival Kickoff Party. No, I didn’t know about the first two either, but this year’s one-hour shindig (6 to 7 p.m.) features hors d’oeuvres from exceptional chef Edgar Leal of Cacao Restaurant — reason enough…

Behind the Line at Joey’s Wynwood

Chef Ivo Mazzon of Joey’s Cafe in Wynwood is from Roncade, Treviso, in Northern Italy, close to Venice. He studied there for five years at a hospitality institute and has been in Miami since April, 2003. He says “I love it here. We’re trying to make something special to create…

Arnold’s Royal Castle Reopens

There are few places in South Florida that have a more devoted following than Royal Castle. Its fans are so faithful that original mini-burger joint White Castle never found success here. Naturally, it was a grim day for many folks when Wayne Arnold’s Royal Castle was forced to close down…

Cindy Hutson, Waxy O’Connor, and Sierra Nevada

Waxy O’Connor’s South Beach, hitherto a humble pub, is getting all classy on us. This coming Wednesday, January 21st, marks the restaurant’s first foray into celebrity chef beer dinners. Cindy Hutson, chef/owner of Coral Gable’s beloved Ortanique on the Mile, will be cooking up a four-course dinner matched with appropriate…

In Other Recession News…

Hey, you. Yeah, you, the unemployed guy sitting on your couch surfing the Internet for a job. I would change those boxers, man. Shortly after doing that, I would head to eponymous sports pub Beef ‘O’ Brady’s for what the Sun-Sentinel’s John Tanasychuk says is a sure thing. No, not…

New Restaurant at the Hyatt Regency

The Hyatt Regency Miami, which underwent a $20 million dollar renovation last year, has unveiled its’ new Pure Verde restaurant. Executive chef Michael Morris will be in charge of the snazzily-designed venue, which just months ago was a dull, aging sports bar. Morris, who previously helmed Hyatt properties in Tampa…

Batty over Gotham

Gotham is a powerful word, concurrently connoting two potent icons: Manhattan and Batman. In the food world, it bespeaks a third force to be reckoned with: Alfred Portale’s Gotham Bar and Grill on New York’s West 12th Street, which nearly a quarter-century ago helped redefine the contemporary urban restaurant. Gotham…

Behind the Line at Wish

Chef Marco Ferraro from Wish, winner of Miami New Times’ “Best Outdoor Dining” award in 2007, one of four “Best of’s” we’ve awarded the hotel/restaurant, says “I’m Italian. Our cuisine is contemporary-American with a global influence. We do new-American food with an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients. Local is great…

The McDonald’s Rationalization

“Where you been, bitch?”Last week, I did something bad. Really, really bad. It was Wednesday, and I was very hungry. But I was also very busy, and short on cash. And so I decided, with a sorrowful resignation, to do something I hadn’t done in ages: I went to McDonald’s…

Slow Food Gets Maxed Out at 3030

This month’s Slow Food Glades to Coast dinner, on Thursday January 15, focuses on our local waters with a meal hosted by Chef Dean James Max at 3030 Ocean in Fort Lauderdale. Max, as we know, has a masterly way with anything that sports fins, scales, or claws, and his…

Andrew Zimmern Meets Jimbo

Andrew Zimmern, host of Travel Channel’s popular Bizarre Foods series, will be at Jimbo’s on Virginia Key tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday) in order to film part of the show’s upcoming Beach Special.  Be there at 4:30 p.m. or later if you want to take part in the party — and perhaps…

Molecular Gastronomy at Enso

                                                                                                                         Jacob Katel”The exciting part for us is when people break out their cameras before they eat,” says Chef Jacob Durham from Enso. “Food is the only artform made strictly for consumption. Cooking is the oldest profession in the world, so it’s…

Second Chance For SoBe Wine & Food Tix

This coming Monday morning, January 12th, a second block of tickets for previously sold out events will go on sale. So if you were bummed at being shut out of Rachael Ray’s Burger Bash or The Best of the Best at the new Fontainebleau, you’ve been given a second shot…

Mazie’s Soul Food Shines in Liberty City

Mazie’s Soul Food Restaurant and Take-Out is, at first glance, not much to look at. It appears to have once been a Dairy Queen-like operation — a stand-alone box painted orange-toned yellow and brown and fronted by an angled take-out window. This is a poor part of town, and some…

Food Stamp Nation – Florida Leads The Pack

The Miami Herald reports that “In the last two years, the number of Floridians on food stamps has increased more than 40 percent to 1.7 million. That increase is the highest in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”The numbers read like this, 356,000 food stamp recipients live…

Jimbo’s Place – Smoked Fish In Pictures

                                                                            Smoked Tuna – Jacob KatelJimbo’s Place is a Dade County institution. If you like smoked fish, cold beer, bocce ball, redneck-rock-n-roll, fishing, manatees, graffiti, choppers, hot rods, kayaks, wave runners, nature trails, family outings, drunken brawls, feral cats, wild roosters, music videos, film shoots,  bikini models, chess games, sunsets,…

And You’ll Get Lobster in Delray

Linda Bean, granddaughter of Maine’s L. L. Bean, is bringing us lobster. Though new to the foodie business, she’s got her own warf, her own fishermen, and now her own concept: lobster rolls, each with a full ¼ of meat, fresh and perfect and dripping butter on your grateful lap,…