Pairings is this Week!

Don’t forget that New Times’ ultimate food and wine event, Pairings, is coming to the Broward Center this Thursday night. Tickets are just $29 if you order online now, as opposed to $40 at the door, so get yours fast. Click here to get a more info on the event,…

N’awlins South Beach Style

Ahnvee, a Cajun-Creole restaurant and “laid-back lounge” will open at 621 Washington Avenue (the old “Strand” location) in late-2008/early 2009. Executive chef Tom Azar, most recently having served the same function at Emeril’s Miami Beach, will be putting out skillet cornbread with honey butter glaze; fried alligator; crawfish-and-rice croquettes, and…

Chef Allen’s Allures in Aventura

I’m not saying Chef Allen’s décor used to be dull, but when I first reviewed the restaurant, one of my dinner guests fell asleep at the table. Granted she was only nine years old. And she was medicated owing to an allergic reaction. But still — the place wasn’t exactly…

Event: Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier

There’s nothing like a dame, particularly if the dame cooks good. And no dame cooks as good as Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international group devoted to supporting and mentoring women in the culinary professions. The new cookbook Les Dames have just published was almost enough to make me get off…

Eismann Enters The Pizza Biz

Come January, chef Jonathan Eismann of Pacific TIme fame will be opening Pizzavolante (“flying pizza”) at 3918 N. Miami Avenue, in the Design District. According to Eismann, the contemporary-styled 900 square foot space will be offering “creative wood-oven pizza” with organic and local ingredients, and “some gluten-free products”. Emphasis will…

SoBe Wine/Food Fest Tix Go On Sale

Tickets for the 2009 South Beach Wine and Food Festival go on sale this coming Monday, October 27. We mention this because in past years tickets have sold out very quickly — especially for the more popular events, such as Rachel Ray’s Burger Bash ($200), Bubble Q ($350), and Wine…

Cheap Kosher Eats at Sara’s Vegetarian Café

“Shalom, y’all” might sound like the start of a Southern politician’s stump speech in Boca Raton, but it is in fact one of the mottos posted at Sara’s Vegetarian Café in North Miami. So is “good, hot, and a heckuva lot,” which likely refers to the hefty portions but could…

Pizza Rescues Earth!

“Saving the Earth, One Pizza at a Time” is the motto of Pizza Fusion, the first ever organic pizza franchise that is getting set to open at 14815 Biscayne Boulevard in mid-November. The Fort Lauderdale based restaurant chain offers pizza, ciabatta sandwiches, salads, desserts, and organic beers and wines, all…

More on Michelle’s Spanish Joint

Michelle Bernstein Michelle Bernstein hopes to have her new tapas place open “before Art Basel”. She says the menu is “almost done”, and will include items such as boquerones, tortilla española, and artesanal Jamón Serrano. “We’re going to do blood sausage and stuff like that, and I’m playing with all…

Nemo Is Still Swimming on South Beach

Change might carry a lot of currency these days, but Nemo is having none of it. When co-owners Myles Chefetz and Michael Schwartz opened the artsy neighborhood café in 1995, it was the hottest haunt in town (and Esquire magazine’s pick for one of America’s best new restaurants). It looks…

A New Palacios Downtown?

El Palacio de los Jugos, which makes the best batidos, arepas, lechon asado — heck, let me just say it’s my favorite Cuban joint in town — is negotiating a lease for a new location across the street from the Federal Courthouse in downtown Miami. Owners Beatrize and Reinaldo Bermudez…

Good Food at Fair Prices on Biscayne Boulevard

Peru to the Yucatan in 88 blocks. That’s the distance on Biscayne Boulevard between the new Sabor a Perú at 29th Street and the relocated Burritos Grill Café at 117th. The former is a small, informal 30-seat space, so clean and shiny it looks like it could be a fast-food…

Anthony’s Is Busting Out All Over

Thatsa bruciata! I don’t usually approve of chains, but Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza is definitely one of the good guys: Born in SoFla, where not long ago you couldn’t get a decent slice of pie to save your soul, Anthony’s has recently managed to put a coal fire pizza joint…

Cheap Eats – Heidy’s Cafe and Laundromat

I go to Heidy’s Cafe (2804 NE Second Ave., Miami) for the $6 special. The portions are generous and the food delicious. Today, the daily special features carne asada, white rice, refried beans, and spaghetti. I add on Honduran cheese, mantequilla, spicy vegetables and habanero salsa. By the end of…

New Benihana Location to Open in Coral Springs in 2009

“Don’t think about dropping it, don’t think about dropping it…” If you ever needed any proof that the recession is hitting the middle class the hardest, just take a spin around Coral Springs. The sleepy burg – once the ultimate destination for budding family units – is literally covered with…

Michy’s Clarification

This morning, I erroneously reported that Michy’s was moving into the Domo Japones space. Michelle logged on to set the story straight: Hi Lee, Just so you and everyone knows, Michy’s is not and never will be moving. We are opening a Tapas Restaurant, a dream for my husband David…

AIWF Rib Cook Off

There’s some seriously saucy Sunday shenanigans coming our way in the form of the American Institute of Wine and Food’s Annual Rib Cook-off, scheduled for Sunday, October 12 at 4 p.m.. Local students from Florida Culinary, Johnson and Wales, The Art Institute of FTL, Cordon Bleu, and Florida International are…

DiBono’s Italian Café Opens in North Miami Beach

Folks from South Philly are, culinarily speaking, a strange lot. For one thing, they put Cheez Whiz on their steak sandwiches, and they don’t hesitate to squirt an even cheaper Cheez Whiz-ish sauce onto French fries, hot dogs, pretzels — you name it. They also eat scrapple and refer to…

You’re Too Single! Eat, Eat!

Flirting for Foodies with the Gourmet Club I’m not usually one for singles events, particularly because I’m married, but these Singles Dinner and Dancing parties put on by the Gourmet Club look pretty damned posh. They’ve been holding them at the Addison, Cafe Maxx, and Pranzo — the next one…

Bloody Good Dinner

Dinner and a murder mystery with Edna? On October 14, North One 10 Restaurant’s “Evening With Edna Buchanan” will pair the cool mystery novelist with a “crime fiction inspired” dinner provided by Dale and Dewey LoSasso and crew. The event will presumably provide the author with an intimate forum in…

Pacific Time Resurfaces in the Design District

I bemoaned the loss of Pacific Time when its Lincoln Road doors closed in June ’07. Yet the truth is, I hadn’t dined at the restaurant for at least a couple of years — and on those last visits, it was clearly on cruise control; there was no emotion, edge,…