Tuscan July

Miami Spice has proven such a successful promotion tool that each year we see more and more restaurants stretch it out by creating their own similarly priced specials for the month of July. Like Miami Spice, the deal’s worthiness is wholly dependent upon what kind of menu is being offered…

To Catch a Shrimp Thief

Life in the New Times’ offices is often exciting — but nothing could have prepared us for what unfolded today. A coworker who shall remain unnamed brought in a spiral party platter of cocktail shrimp for lunch; the kind where all the little buggers are arranged around the tray in…

Fourth of July Feast

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July — I know I did. This year I threw a little shindig at my house to celebrate. So I invited the crew from work, friends, and family down to Casa de Linn with the intention of giving them something a…

Big Sexy’s Sinful Sweets

If you’d told me that these New Age drug stores were legally selling pot brownies, nut mixes infused with hashish, and tea-laced Rice Crispie treats, I would have died laughing.

Game On

Welcome to the first installment of our weekly Friday game, WTF IS IT?!? Each Friday (maybe) we’ll put up a photo of some exotic and supposedly edible foodstuff. First reader to correctly identify the thing will win…. …the smug knowledge that s/he is an insufferable know-it- all. You’re naturally invited…

Lulu’s Legacy

South Beach old-timers have long spoken of Lulu’s the way older old-timers recall Wolfie’s Delicatessen — with fondness not just for the place itself, but for the moment in time it was so emblematic of. When Billy Keen Jr. opened the restaurant on Washington Avenue in 1990, Lulu’s came to…

Cheap Eats: Out of the Blue Cafe

Jose D. Duran The Midtown Steak Sandwich at Out of the Blue Cafe. Where: 2426 NE 2nd Ave., Miami 305-573-3800 What $15 Gets You: A sandwich, panini or salad with a drink. Located on the fringes of Wynwood, Out of the Blue Cafe feels oddly out of place among the…

Sizzlin’ Caliente

Mexican food is the fastest-growing trend in ethnic cuisine in America, probably for no other reason than the popularity of the Mexican grill. These days, you can’t say “Pass the salsa” without an attendant from Chipotle or Baja Fresh chirping in, “Rojo o verde?” And did we mention On the…

Bye Bye Saigon

After three years in business at 1831 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Little Saigon City has closed shop. Although the mom-and-pop Vietnamese restaurant regrettably included sub-par Chinese food on its menu, the unpretentious, home-cooked buns, phos, spring rolls and desserts were quite good, and very well priced. But as high food…

A Little Bellyaching

Jo Clark’s latest venture, Thai Jo, is set to open in West Palm’s CityPlace this summer next door to the new Taverna Opa.

Take a Look at These Jugs

Perhaps you’ve heard — or seen — by now, but there’s a new, plastic one gallon milk carton showing up in stores across the country, and it’s going to blow your mind. Well, not really. But it is pretty cool. A simple change in the shape of the carton and…

That Pizza Could Kill You

Whoever imagined that a simple tomato pie with a bubbly, blackened crust (“bruciata,” in the trade) could potentially cause a cancer cluster? At least one Delray Beach-based letter writer to the Sun-Sentinel did, and she’s not alone (read the down & dirty responses that letter generated here). Whether or not…

Rendezvous With A Rip-Off

Words of dining advice: Always ask how much the verbally recited daily specials cost. Or pay the consequences. For Peter and Neil, a vacationing couple from Danbury, Conn., the consequence was a nearly $300 tab for dinner at Rendezvous On The Beach (in the Beacon Hotel on Ocean Drive). They…

Diet for a Broke Planet

You can’t take two steps these days without running into somebody who’s been laid off — or is planning to be. Suddenly, we’re all transformed from grasshoppers into ants, and the only markets we’re betting on are the aisles at Costco. Some of us aren’t quite old enough to remember…

South Beach Obama Bake-Off

Let’s start by saying that, for the good of our country, we sincerely hope that MoveOn.org is better at political activism than they are at baking. This thought occured as we surveyed the Hungry For Change Bake Sale, two small tables of baked goods set up by the crafty lefties…

From Israel, With Love

“In Israel, people came from all over the world,” Ilan Cohen says. “So they brought their customs and flavors and kitchen dishes from Europe, from Morocco, from Greece. My father is from Syria, and my mother comes from Yugoslavia, with some Greek background. When I was growing up, we had…

Meat Me In Miami

Manny (The Mayor) Diaz was at the grand opening of Manny’s (The Steakhouse) Steakhouse this week in the Met One Tower downtown. Manny’s comes from Minneapolis, and specifically from Phil Roberts, a Minneapolis/Miami resident. It is an extremely well-regarded emporium of beef that serves only USDA-certified dry aged, center-cut beef…

In With the Old, Out With the New

Back in the late ’80s, if you were looking to impress a date over a sophisticated dinner, there was only a handful of restaurants in Palm Beach County that could pretty much guarantee you a home run. On the island, there was the hoity Café Europe and the even-pricier Petite…

Give Bessie a Break

I just got back from a trip to Santa Monica, California, a place so foreign to my experience and sensibilities that I felt like Marco Polo encountering the Mongolians. The ways of the Santa Monicans are strange indeed, and wonderful; I came away with a few observations about the natives…