The All New Same Old

Of all the foodist trends to come and go in recent years, the one I’m fervently hoping will survive the swings of fortune and fashion is the fancy cocktail. I’m happy to report that in the couple of decades since New York bartender and mad scientist Dale DeGroff first poked…

Fort Lauderdale Water Contamination and You

Murphy’s Law works after all: No sooner then we preach the benefits Florida’s clean tap water in this very publication, the hand of the Almighty descends from on high and dumps a bunch of industrial lubricant into Fort Lauderdale’s water supply. Now, residents and restaurateurs alike are scrambling to pick…

How To Become A Food Critic

You could be he I figure I’m getting too fat, drunk, and impossibly snotty to hold this job much longer, so I hereby give readers a heads up. If you’re planning to try to oust me from my oystershell- and hamhock-encrusted throne as Food Critic at Broward-Palm Beach New Times,…

Pairings Tickets Available at a Reduced Price

Shameless self promotion alert: Tickets for New Times own upcoming foodie event, Pairings, are available now, folks. So run on over to our Pairings minisite and get hooked up for an evening of sampling from nearly a dozen fine restaurants like 3030 Ocean, Capital Grille, Kuluck, and Cafe Seville. (Check…

UPDATED: Gold Medal Wine Tour Stops in at Two Chefs Too

Good news for fans of wine pairings: The Gold Medal Wine Tour, a for-charity, touring wine event taking place at classy restaurants across South Florida, is making a stop at Jan Jorgensen’s latest joint Two Chefs Too on September 24 (this Wednesday). For $150 (payable directly to charitable organizations like…

Oktoberfest Without Beer

The beginning of the PR release looked promising: “Prime Blue Grille is celebrating Oktoberfest – in true Prime Blue Grille fashion – with the return of their popular program Endless Pours, every Saturday and Sunday in October.” Wow! In honor of the great beer fest the steak house would be…

Dinner on a Farm

Courtesy of Paradise Farms Organic The autumn season is rolling in, a time when crisp humidity fills the Florida air and we can almost smell the pumpkins and squashes and other odorless vegetables growing bountifully on our farms. It is a time when crunchy apples fall from trees — presumably…

WTF Is It?!? Round 8

OK, this is by far the weirdest, messiest edible I’ve ever kept in my kitchen, a thing that performs a sort of vegetal strip tease over the course of a week or so, spilling greenish dragon scales all over counter top and floor. You eat the part that reveals itself,…

Dine Out Lauderdale Preview: Trina

Preview with a view. Trina, Cero, Galanga, and Jackson’s Steakhouse started their Dine Out Lauderdale Preview on September 14, offering advance tastes on their $35 three-course prix fixe menus. Full details are at Open Table; make sure to check before you go, since they’re mostly offering the Dine Out menu…

Russian Candy and a Shot of Vodka

A friend of mine brought me a bagful of Russian candy from Brighton Beach, and after tasting it I’ve decided I’m going to save it for the Halloween trick or treaters. I never have candy to give away on Halloween, and I find myself more often than not cowering in…

YOLO Restaurant & O Lounge to Open on Las Olas

Heads up comes by way of a press release, so let’s head in: Proprietors Tim Petrillo and Peter Boulukos (also the chef) chose a 6,300 square feet space on Las Olas Boulevard to house the new YOLO Restaurant & O Lounge. YOLO is expected to open September 30 and will…

Lobsters Walking!

Your next free meal is crawling your way. The Florida Spiny Lobster is walking, thanks to the recent hurricanes that passed through the Keys. Our Keys lobsters are taking a mass holiday and sauntering up the coast close to shore — they’re expected to reach Miami today and Palm Beach…

Up-Tempo

Few restaurants are perfect. And most of us don’t demand perfection anyway. We just want to have a place to hang, eat, and drink, secure in the knowledge that we’re not going to be poisoned, insulted, or spilled upon, n’est-ce pas? Such is the raison d’être for the “brasserie,” a…

Slow Foods Exotic Fruit Brunch this Sunday

Be honest: Does this look like breakfast? This Sunday, September 21, 2008: If you’ve never eaten a Mamey (tastes like a sweet potato crossed with a papaya) or a Jackfruit (juicyfruit candy crossed with bananas) you’ll have a chance this Sunday to give it a whirl, courtesy of Fairchild Tropical…

Hotel Biba Toasts Flavor Palm Beach

[ Biba: Haunt of the Hotties We’re officially halfway through Flavor Palm Beach, the only thirty dollar three-course meal you’re likely to get in the foreseeable future. Have you been to Forte yet? Solu? Strip House? I stopped in to Forte last week for cocktails, and before I could say…

Gay Speed Dating at Java Boys

I have so much love to give. Serious serial monogamy There have always been things to love about Java Boys in Wilton Manors. Besides the best mocha in the world (seriously: everybody else skimps on the chocolate), Java Boys has pretty good pound cakes, comfy sofas, a friendly clientele, and…

Oprah’s Vegan Chef at Sublime

Dude comes with a price tag. Deconstructed Press Release: Ft. Lauderdale—Fresh from his stint as Oprah Winfrey’s chef for her 21-Day Cleanse… um, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the point of a “cleanse” to stop eating for a while? Don’t you drink a lot of juice and warm…

A Feast Through Eastern Europe, Part 7: Budapest and Paris

Lee Klein We loved everything about M Restaurant (Kertész u. 48), including the goose leg gobbled in the photo above. We’d arrived into the city at dusk, showered, and headed out a bit weary after a very long ride in a van (from Skopje). We were going to eat at…

A Feast Through Eastern Europe, Part 6: Budapest

Lee Klein We were in the city for just four days, but that was long enough to pick up an obvious vibe: Budapest is happening. It is young. It is hip. It is, along with places such as Berlin and Barcelona, part of a new world order of cities worth…

A Feast Through Eastern Europe, Part 5: Lake Ohrid

Lee Klein On this stretch of the trip, in a tiny fishing village tucked into a pristine corner of Lake Ohrid (one of the oldest, deepest lakes in the world), we ate almost every meal at “home” — meaning prepared on a small two-burner electric oven outdoors, on a patio…

Straight Hot Dog, No Chaser

It’s my best friend Phil’s 40th birthday, and Sunday is going something like this: Rounds of $4 wine at Harry’s Banana Farm under the stuffed alligator. Back to our place for a bottle of champagne. Over to Cucina Dell’Arte in Palm Beach for Bellinis and kamikazes (“What’s a kamikaze?” “Never…