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In case you didn't drink enough at last weekend's South Beach Wine & Food Festival, there are two more wine events this weekend. Ready?

• The Boca Bacchanal begins today and continues until Sunday. It's like the South Beach festival but without the celebrities: wine seminars, a grand tasting, vintner dinners and a cooking demonstration. And like the other more well-known festival, these tickets won't come cheap; the grand tasting is $85 at the door, the cooking demonstration is $125, and everything else starts at $250.

• The second annual Dan Marino Weston Wine and Food Festival is a much smaller event. It's only on Sunday, from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m., and while they'll take your money ($40 general admission/$50 at the door/$1,000 for VIP access), at least it's going to a good cause; 100 percent of the proceeds go directly to the Dan Marino Foundation.

Photo: Flickr

• MP: Chicago gets up close and personal with some Belgian waffles.

• MP: Boston gives us a photo of the tastiest-looking raw vegan ravioli we've ever seen.

• MP: Philadelphia tells us about gay porn twins who held up a buffalo wing takeout spot.

• MP: San Francisco presents the history of warfare through various food items. In video form.

We were in the process of updating Who's Restaurant & Lounge when we came across the restaurant's MySpace page. Here's the message that greeted us:

Who’s is Closed Due To CHEAP and NON LOYAL people

Who's Lounge [MySpace]
Who's Restaurant & Lounge [MenuPages]
Who's Restaurant & Lounge [Official Site]

Mint Leaf opens today, as we mentioned earlier this week. If you're in the downtown Coral Gables area, you might want to try one of their lunch specials. When we called and were told that the lunch specials run between $13 and $15, we thought that was a little steep. Then we heard what it includes. Your lunch thali comes with a curry (choice of vegetable, lamb, chicken or shrimp), a canapé, two vegetables, a lentil stew, salad, raita, papadums, bread and rice. Even if the portions are tiny, that's still a fairly big lunch.

The lunch specials are only available for sit-down lunch this week; they'll start doing take-out next week.

Opening: The Mint Leaf [MP: South Florida]
Mint Leaf [MenuPages]
Mint Leaf [Official Site]

• Deborah discovers Florida farm-raised clams. They're called 'pasta clams,' because they're the perfect size for tossing with pasta. [From the Test Kitchen]

• Charles Passy offers a few tips for Starbucks to improve matters. [The Hungry Man]

• Paula's having some trouble storing her lettuce. [mango&lime]

• Miami Dish starts a "Man on the Street" feature, the first of which stops at Pinolandia, a fritanga in Little Havana. [miami dish]

• L2M is a bit frustrated with the Miami Herald's food section, which yesterday led with a feature on casseroles. [Spangdish]

• Do you know where to find good cupcakes in Miami? Join the discussion on Chowhound. [Chowhound]

We thought we'd steer you toward some reading material this morning about the only remaining Royal Castle. The article in the Herald is part of its series on 27th Avenue (aka Unity Boulevard), which cuts through a number of very diverse neighborhoods.

William Singer got the idea for Royal Castle in Columbus, Ohio. The only restaurant that stayed afloat there during the Depression, he would say, sold small hamburgers for pennies. It was a quaint chain called White Castle.

Bankrupt and desperate to be an entrepreneur, Singer tinkered with the name and took the idea to Miami in 1938.

By 1958, Royal Castle had grown to 58 stores in South Florida. They thrived in working-class, mostly white areas, where families bought the greasy patties layered in onions, pickles and mustard by the dozen.

Under Lawrence Singer, William's son, the chain blossomed to at least 185 throughout Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. All had strict rules. No more than 10 stools at the counter. No women behind the counter. No blacks sitting in front of it.

The last Royal Castle continues to thrive [Miami Herald]

Photo: Flickr

Our favorite Miami-based fast food chain will be selling new items this year, among them Kraft macaroni and cheese for the kiddies. They're also planning some sort of wrap, called the BK Wrapper, smoothies, and two specialty Whoppers:

The new items discussed Wednesday include an Angry Bacon and Cheese Whopper with spicy, crispy onions, and the Indy Whopper, which will have bacon and pepper jack cheese and will be promoted together with the new Indiana Jones movie this summer. (A regular Whopper with no bacon or cheese has 670 calories and 39 grams of fat, according to Burger King's Web site.)

Also in the works are a BK Wrapper, three new flavors for its iced coffee line, a steakhouse burger, smoothies and even Kraft macaroni and cheese.

Burger King unveils new items [Forbes]
Burger King [Official Site]

Photo: Flickr

At MenuPages, our legions of users submit reviews regularly for their favorite (and often least favorite) restaurants. Some make it onto the website, others don't. Here, we'll go over the week's best and worst reviews.

Best week yet so far, we think. Only five reviews didn't pass muster. Here's one of them, for Amazonia Churrascaria:

I was thoroughly satisfied with my dining experience. I recommend this place to all who have not tried it. The meat was so flavorful and satisfying. The service came with a smile and warmth that made me feel as though I was a guest in someone's home who was trying to impress me. I can't wait to bring my wife next!

This restaurant instantly became my new favorite place on South Beach. The food is outstanding, the service is amazing, and the atmosphere is wonderful. First went with some friends and have been back repeatedly. The food is delicous, starting with the mac n cheese, spiced nuts and endive appetizers!! I can't say which is my favorite because they are all sooo good!! For dinner the burger....yummy :) Definitely the best burger I've had since I moved to Florida. the pumpkin salad, the filet and the cod...all of which are equally delicous...the grilled cheese is heaven sent!! Love that the food is fresh and tastes as good as it looks. The waitstaff is delightful and very attentive. The perfect place to go for good music and a warm atmosphere. I will certainly be back on a regular basis for lunch and dinner!

Now here's a nomination review that left us scratching our head. It's for DeVito South Beach:

I have been to DeVitto's three times... the tomato and mozzarella salad is to die for. So is the spinach gnudi. Great pasta choices for vegetarians.

Nice place with great food.
Some of my favorites are:
- Fig Crostini
- Croque Monsieur
-Grilled beef tenderloin
-Cheese plate

..Oh and the full bar!

Only warning is that the Uva green salad can be ordered with Shrimp Tempura... This isn't Japanese style thin and flaky breading it’s thicker - like Chinese breading

• Enrique Fernandez gives Marinheiro two-and-a-half stars, although he says the Portuguese restaurant needs a focused identity. [Miami Herald]

• The steaks at Bourbon Steak are poached in butter. The lamb in olive oil. The pork in bacon lard. Oh yeah, and the fries in duck fat. We're not sure we could handle so much decadence. Actually, we probably could. [Miami New Times]

• Fork on the Road visits L'Arte Bianco Bakery, which specializes in Peruvian and French confections, in addition to a few Persian breads. That's because the owners are a Peruvian husband and Persian wife team who took classes in French baking as undergrads in Los Angeles. [Miami Herald]

• The celebrity chefs who were here for the festival mentioned San Loco Taqueria, Joe's Stone Crab, Prime One Twelve and Casa Tua as go-to spots, but Table 8 was the consensus favorite. [Miami Herald]

• Rochelle Koff finds The Jib Room to be a fun place. We're thinking of stopping by just for a slice of that pistachio pound cake, which sounds heavenly. [Miami Herald]

• Stick to the basics at Macchiato Boutique Restaurant, which is trying hard but still feels amateurish. [Miami New Times]

• Gail Shepherd celebrates Fidel's stepping down with a meal at Little Havana. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

Photo, duck-fat fries at Bourbon Steak in Detroit: Flickr

Sure it's totally kitschy now, but did you that in its height, Mai-Kai was one of the top-grossing restaurants in the country and the largest consumer of rum in Florida? That's what this Sun-Sentinel article about the death of Mai-Kai co-founder Jack Thornton says:

The location now sits along a noisy, traffic-clogged artery, just north and across the street from a Target-anchored shopping center. But at the time it was on a two-lane road with no other development or street lights.

Ex-wife Diane Thornton described the novelty of driving up to the restaurant upon her first visit. It looked like a torch-lit island in the dark.

"If there was no moon, you felt like you were in black hole. Then you saw a light ahead," she said.

"It got brighter and brighter and — remember in those days there was no Disney World, no theme parks — you were suddenly in these lush exotic gardens and there were rushing waterfalls and sumptuous dishes that only world travelers had ever tasted."

The inspiration for the Mai-Kai came from the brothers' favorite restaurant, Don the Beachcomber, an island-style eatery they visited with their father during their childhood in Chicago. Their mother put up everything she owned to secure the loans to help her sons open the restaurant.

It became a runaway hit.

Co-founder of famed Mai-Kai restaurant dies at 78 [Sun-Sentinel]
Mai-Kai [MenuPages]
Mai-Kai [Official Site]

Photo: Flickr

We get so few good hot chocolate days. Not that we're complaining -- we like our winters nice and warm. But it's nice to have an excuse, at least a couple times a year, to indulge in a wonderfully thick hot chocolate. If you're thinking the same thing this morning, here are a few places you might want to try:

• Jimmie's Chocolates and Cafe bills itself as Florida's oldest chocolatier, so we're sure they've learned a thing or two about making hot chocolate in the 60 years they've been open.

• La Palma Restaurant (6091 SW 8th St in West Miami) has some of the best churros around. And as you all know, churros are perfect for dunking in hot chocolate.

• A La Folie Cafe offers a regular hot chocolate plus three other varieties: a 'chocolat parisien' with cream and vanilla, a 'chocolat viennois' with whipped cream, and a 'chocolat fou' with grand marnier. Pair with a croissant for a perfect breakfast.

• Romanico's mostly sells boxed chocolates, but you can go in there and ask for a hot chocolate.

Photo: Flickr

We'd recommend you head to Rascal House for a final pastrami sandwich -- they're closing:

Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House Restaurant in Miami Beach is to close in April.

The restaurant, at 17190 Collins Ave., notified the state that it would lay off 97 employees between April 4 and April 16.

A spokeswoman for Jerry's Famous Deli, the Studio City, Calif.-based company that owns Rascal House, Epicure Market and Bakery and its namesake restaurant, said the company has notified employees and would absorb as many into its other restaurants as it could.

There's not much time. Seriously -- go get your pastrami!

Rascal House to Close in April (for real) [Save the Deli]
Rascal House to close [South Florida Business Journal]
Rascal House [MenuPages]
Rascal House [Official Site]

Photo: Flickr

Oh man, we love beignets, and these from Grand Lux Cafe in Sunrise. The menu lists only that they're served warm with three sauces, but we called and learned that the red one is raspberry, the dark one is chocolate, and the lighter one is a Jack Daniels whiskey sauce. Add a nice espresso to the mix, and we're set.

Grand Lux Cafe [MenuPages]
Grand Lux Cafe [Official Site]

Photo: Flickr

L'Anjou in Lake Worth offers a $20 dinner every day of the week during the season, but you've only got a 45-minute window to get it. Show up between 5 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. and make sure to bring cash; no cards are accepted for the early dinner. Here are your options (choose one for each course):

First Course
• soupe du jour
• vichysoisse
• onion soupe gratinee
• pate de canard
• rillettes de canard
• tomato and blue cheese tart
• fresh fruit cup
• house salad

Second Course
• pasta of the day
• veal francaise
• veal cordon bleu
• sole meuniere
• tilapia a l'estragon
• seafood crepe
• snapper and seafood en croute
• beef bourguignon
• chicken basquaise
• veal liver lyonnaise
• NY bordelaise ($24)
• duck a l'orange ($26)

Third Course
• house dessert with coffee or tea

We're pretty impressed by the number of options. Even if the portions are on the smallish side, if you order correctly (i.e. don't get the house salad or the pasta of the day), it could be a really great deal.

L'Anjou [MenuPages]

As far as we know, Las Olas is a typically gay-friendly area, so we were surprised to hear of a hate crime right outside the door of The Floridian, the popular 24-hour diner at 14th and Las Olas. Here's the story:

According to the police report, Melbourne Brunner, his partner Mitchell Mart and a friend visiting from out of town sat down to breakfast about 3 a.m. at an outdoor table. They ordered sandwiches, tea and juices.

Police said a man got out of his pickup truck, walked by them and promptly began yelling slurs at the three.

''He was yelling, `Were you looking at me, if you were, I'm going to come back there and break your neck. . . . And then he twisted his hands together,'' Mart recalled.

Words were exchanged, and the man repeatedly used a derogatory term aimed at gays.

The men decided to cancel their order.

They told the waiter to call the police, Mart said. 'He said, `What are they going to do?' ''

The men started to get into their car, which was parked two feet from the table.

More slurs were yelled.

As Brunner tried to climb into the passenger seat, the man punched him several times, pushing the car door on him, police said. Brunner fell to the ground, striking his head.

''I came around and he was bleeding,'' Mart said.

Mart helped Brunner into the car and then attempted to get the pickup driver's tag number.

The man ripped off his shirt and threw it over the plate as he yelled, ``I'll kill you before you get my tag number!''

The pair dropped their dismayed friend, who represents an agency that caters to GLBT travelers, off at his hotel.

They then drove to Broward General Medical Center.

Brunner suffered severe bruising but no broken bones. ''His jaw is out of whack,'' said Mart, a retired dentist.

According to the Herald article, the restaurant has called to apologize to the couple. Could they have done more? The attacker began yelling insults to the men as they were sitting down eating at an outdoor table. There's no mention of anyone requesting that the man leave or calling the police at that point. Instead, Mart, Brunner and their friend felt the need to cancel their order and leave. While the restaurant shouldn't have to be completely responsible for the safety of its patrons, one might think they could have done something a little earlier before it escalated to the physical level.

Beating was a hate crime, couple says [Miami Herald]
The Floridian [MenuPages]

The accolades keep pouring in for Michael's Genuine Food & Drink. This time, it's from New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, who recently did some restaurant research across the country. Michael's is on his top 10 list, although we won't know exactly how it'll rank for another couple of weeks since it's a four-part series. But here's what he had to say about it on his blog:

I can’t imagine Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink anywhere but Miami, and that’s not just because there are scattered palm fronds around the tables in its spacious outdoor area, usable even on an early February night.

It’s because of the prevalence and quality of the citrus in dishes, the freshness of the whole red snapper, and the adulatory attention servers draw to this fish.

Coast to Coast, Restaurants That Count [New York Times]
What New Yorkers Are Missing [Diner's Journal]
Michael's Genuine Food & Drink [MenuPages]
Michael's Genuine Food & Drink [Official Site]

There were spit cups everywhere. Did we use them? Of course not. Why waste perfectly good wine, right? We also made the mistake of not availing ourselves of enough food samples. Sure, we had a few good bites, but it was so hot, and we felt sticky and the last thing we wanted to do was eat. So let's review: lots of wine + not enough food + hot sun = one very drunk blogger. Our only consolation is that almost everyone else at the festival was in a similarly tipsy state.

OK, we'll start from the beginning. We had a ticket to "He Says, She Says: The Sexes on Wine" at 11 a.m. So yes, we got an early start on the drinking. When we first got the ticket, we hadn't really paid attention to the name on it: Andrea Robinson. Only when we got there did we realize that it was Andrea Immer; Robinson is her married name. That's when we got all excited -- we were going to a class given by a Master Sommelier!

We initially thought the class would discuss any differences in how men and women taste wine. That definitely wasn't the case, although we did learn that women, on average, tend to be better tasters than men. There was a reason given, although that's one of the many details that we cannot remember. (Did we mention we drank a lot?) The seminar was actually a competition between Andrea and her husband John. We loved both of them. They were fun, witty and incredibly down to earth. And she's not the only wine expert in the family -- he can hold his own pretty well.

Each seat was set with eight wine glasses, four on each side, and a plate of food: manchego, pesto, smoked salmon, tapenade, and Humboldt Fog cheese. (An aside: that cheese was excellent. Ugly-looking, but really tasty.) Andrea and John had divided up the winemaking regions of the world -- John took Burgundy, Spain, South America and California, while Andrea had the rest of France and Italy -- and chose four wines each that they thought would pair well with each food on the plate. After trying their suggestions, we all voted on whose pairing we preferred.

We didn't stick to just two pairings per food item though; Andrea kept suggesting different combinations beyond the straightforward ones, and many of them worked. And most votes were pretty close, so it really goes to show how subjective pairings can be. In the end, John won 3-2. They were tied heading into the vote on the manchego, which he nailed with an excellent Rioja.

Our two favorite wines happened to be the least and most expensive ones in the bunch, oddly enough. We loved the 2006 Zolo Torrontes, an Argentinian white that retails for $14 and was a heavenly match for the Humboldt Fog. We also could not get enough of the $85 Romitorio de Santedame Ruffino 2003. In fact, we asked for a little extra pour on that one and were indulged.

A few tips we learned:
• Pair country to country. A region's wines are often developed to match its foods.
• Manchego is "magic for any wine." It'll pair well with pretty much anything.
• When tasting, make sure to exhale. You get some taste reverberations in your nose.
• '05 vintages are all the rage now. It was a good year for grapes, so keep an eye out for those.
• For a good bargain, look to Spain. The wines are excellent and the prices are reasonable.

Oh my God. What a mess. If you're home, we'd advise you to stay put. Traffic lights are out everywhere due to the crazy power outage that's affecting millions in the area. FPL has managed to restore power to most places, but we heard that much of downtown Miami is still without light. And more importantly, without a/c on a hot day. We'd suggest getting out of the building, and if your office is anything like ours (i.e., nothing gets done when there's no power), heading to the nearest watering hole for a cold beer. We made a few phone calls and found a handful of places in downtown Miami/Brickell that have got power:

• The lights at Hooters in Bayside flickered on and off a few times, but they never really lost power.
• Gordon Biersch lost power, but it's back now, so the beer is cold and it's flowing. The kitchen's still recuperating though, so food selection may be limited.
• Andu Restaurant & Lounge lost power for about an hour and a half, but they're back up and running now.
• The Bar at Level 25 also lost power, but it's back.

About 680,000 without power in Florida [Miami Herald]

Photo: CBS4

You know that frozen yogurt craze that's sweeping certain parts of the country? (OK, so mostly just California.) We'd been wondering when it would hit Miami, which just seems like a perfect market for fat-free fruit-topped yogurt. Enter That Cool Yogurt Place, which is opening in three weeks on 10th Street and West Avenue in Miami Beach. This will be the first location; a second one is slated to open in Aventura in two to three months. We're excited about the variety of flavors offered, much more than Pinkberry's plain and green tea. These guys are going to offer plain cool, green apple, pistachio, white raspberry and mango, in addition to some rotating special flavors like chai tea, hazelnut, pineapple and blackberry. Then there are the toppings: lots of different fruits, granola, cereals, nuts, chocolate sprinkles, coconut flakes, honey and maple syrup.

The Miami Beach location will be having a soft opening sometime soon, although the owners haven't settled on a date yet. Of course, we'll fill you in when they do.

That Cool Yogurt Place [Official Site]

Photo: Flickr

Blog content this week was very South Beach Wine & Food Festival-heavy. Not surprising. We promise to have our own account of the events we attended later today. Here's what everyone else has to say about it:

• Sara was everywhere this weekend. Check out her accounts of the Best of the Best event and Emeril's Sugar Shack. [All Purpose Dark]

• Charles Passy gives us 10 observations about the food festival. Among them: it's become the Sundance of the food world. [The Hungry Man]

• Paula gives her thoughts on the Best of the Best event. [mango&lime]

Looks like Dunkin' Donuts is taking advantage of the fact that the competition is closing down for a few hours today. From 1 p.m. until 10 p.m., Dunkin' Donuts stores will be offering 99-cent lattes. It could save you a couple bucks on that regular 4 o'clock pick-me-up.

Starbucks Closing For Three Hours On Feb. 26 [MP: South Florida]
Get Dunkin Donuts latte for 99 cents on Tuesday February 26 [Slashfood]

LaBelle is a world away from the Florida with which we're familiar, which is perhaps why we were so intrigued by the Swamp Cabbage Festival. We've also got a soft spot for country festivals replete with interesting foods, and this certainly fit the bill.

Never heard of swamp cabbage? Neither had we. It's the heart of the sabal palm, which also happens to be the state tree of Florida. This designation means that you can't just cut down a sabal palm to cut out the heart; there are all sorts of permissions to get and administrative hoops to go through. It's nice that the festival organizers took care of all of that stuff for us.

A full account, with photos, is after the jump.

The festival was packed. This is obviously a big deal in the area. There were classic cars, motorcycles, a bluegrass band, a roaming Swamp Cabbage festival beauty queen and lots of arts and crafts, particularly Seminole jewelry. There were armadillo races and a rodeo, but unfortunately we missed both events. And of course, there was food. Lots and lots of food. Our first taste of swamp cabbage came from a huge pot of simmering hearts of palm and pork. We expected it to taste something like the hearts of palm that we buy in jars at the store, but this stuff is different, mainly because it hasn't been brined like the store-bought kind. And despite the greyish unappealing color, this dish was actually quite tasty. We definitely preferred it to the swamp cabbage fritters, which we thought were mediocre.
Really, anything battered and fried can't be that bad, and these fritters had little bits of pork inside working to their advantage. But the batter needed something else, like a nice hot chili pepper, and the swamp cabbage's texture was a bit too ... leafy. It definitely needed a bit more softening before hitting the deep fryer.

Other culinary highlights of the festival included boiled peanuts (we made a beeline for that cart as soon as we saw the sign), alligator fritters (didn't get a chance to try those) and tacos. We had read about Indian fry bread before the festival and were hoping to try some there; sure enough, we found a booth whose sign proudly proclaimed "Iona's Fry Bread." The line was long, which was a good sign. This woman clearly had a following.

The woman on the right was kneading the flour dough and forming it into discs, while the one on the left took the discs and dropped them into hot oil, where they almost immediately puffed. When they were golden brown, she'd lift them out. You could get the fry bread by itself, with a fruit filling, as a taco, or with sausage. We had a hankering for some sweets, so we asked for it stuffed with cherries. The bread was bursting with them; it was huge, and we couldn't finish, but that bread was great. Wonderfully chewy and surprisingly light, given the fact that it had been fried in lots of oil. Next time, we're skipping the fillings.

We made one more food stop, inside a store that had a sign outside that just said "HONEY." That's all the advertisement we need. It's the retail store for LaBelle-based Harold P. Curtis Honey Co., which gets honey from bees that pollinate plants like mangroves, seagrapes, palmetto trees, orange blossoms, and wildflowers. We were initially drawn to the dark mangrove honey, but when we tried it, we found it resembled molasses a bit too much for our taste. The palmetto honey, our favorite, was the lightest and smoothest, while the seagrape tasted a bit like a cross between the two.

Oh yeah, and we almost forgot: we took home some pickled swamp cabbage. It's soaking in vinegar and a bit of jalapeno. That should last us until next year's festival.

The Swamp Cabbage Festival [Official Site]
Cabbage, Swamp [University of Florida IFAS Extension]

Did you know that Le Bon on Lincoln Road has a "Beat the Clock" special? Show up between 5:30 and 7 p.m., and all of the half-kilogram mussel pots are $9.50. And that's with fries. It's not a bad deal; the regular mussel pot prices can be almost double that.

Le Bon [MenuPages]
Le Bon [Official Site]

Photo: Le Bon Restaurant

We read consumable Joy's review of The Smoking Rabbit with interest, since we'd visited there recently and had a similar experience. The restaurant was also totally empty when we went, which is really not a good sign on a Friday night at 9 p.m. There were people all over Ocean Drive, but only two others were seated inside the gastropub. And while we liked it overall, we agree with cJ that a few things were disappointing, in particular the lack of beer on tap and the crust-less mac & cheese. (The crust is our favorite part!)

As we enjoyed our meal, we tried to figure out why it was so depressingly empty on what should have been a busy Friday night. We decided the location was the problem. One would think an Ocean Drive location would be excellent, but that's not necessarily the case when trying to attract a local crowd. Not one of the four of us (two of whom live on South Beach) could remember the last time we'd eaten at an Ocean Drive restaurant. It's tourist central. Most tourists aren't going to end up in a place like The Smoking Rabbit, and most locals are going to avoid that stretch entirely.

We were thinking that ISHQ, on the same block as the gastropub, might be suffering a similar fate. Has anyone been there recently and seen how full/empty the dining room is? We're curious to hear how they're doing.

One final thing: We cannot fully convey how much we loved the shoestring fries at The Smoking Rabbit. Thankfully, they came in a very large bowl, which we shared with our dinner companions. (Next time, we might not be so generous with our fries.) The chef told us they were fried in oil with sage before being tossed with salt, pepper and fresh rosemary. Totally addictive.

The Smoking Rabbit [consumable Joy]
The Smoking Rabbit [MenuPages]
The Smoking Rabbit [Official Site]
ISHQ [MenuPages]
ISHQ [Official Site]

No, really. We're serious this time. They're opening. But there's a catch: it's reservation-only, and there are just two seatings, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. We were told that it'll likely stay reservation-only for another one to two weeks. These guys clearly aren't big on setting firm deadlines for anything.

We're in the process of getting our hands on a menu. It has been difficult, but as soon as we get it, we'll post more about the fare.

Por Fin Restaurant [Official Site]

It was a long, fun weekend for us. We spent Saturday at the Swamp Cabbage Festival in LaBelle, and Sunday at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. We regret not buying more mangrove honey at the former, and we regret drinking all of the wine, instead of just tasting it, at the latter festival.

We're working on posts with lots of details and photos; expect them over the next two days or so. In the meantime, check out some other posts about the South Beach festival:

• Sara at All Purpose Dark got to go on trade day. We've got to figure out how to get in on that.
• A chowhound was not happy with Tyler Florence and his Kidz Kitchen event.
• Danny at Daily Cocaine reports that Anthony Bourdain appeared very tanned and rested at the festival. He provides video evidence as well.

• The South Beach Wine & Food Festival. But you already knew about that.

• If you're up for a drive, there's the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival over in LaBelle on Saturday and Sunday. There will be fried gator tails, swamp cabbage salsa (swamp cabbage is the heart of the sabal palmetto), arts and crafts and armadillo races. For those of us who can't afford the Food Network-sponsored bash on the beach.

• And on Saturday, if you happen to have $90 burning a hole in your pocket, you might want to use it towards the Wish Culinary Night of Magic, a rooftop pool party with dinner prepared by Wish chef Michael Bloise. There will be sausage, Thai basil crostini, paella and beer-barbecue chicken.

• MP: Boston gives a few suggestions for throwing an Oscar party this Sunday.

• MP: Philadelphia tells us that Anthony Bourdain suggests dinner at Masa as a good first-date litmus test. That kind of policy could make a guy broke very, very quickly.

• MP: San Francisco comments about the city's planning commission's new measure that would seriously restrict alcohol sales.

• MP: Chicago brings us a lovely looking photo of a dessert called "Tunnel of Fudge."

We had heard lots of rumors about The Mint Leaf, a London Indian restaurant that was supposedly opening up in the Gables. We tried investigating a while back, but that led nowhere. But recent reports of actual construction at the site gave us hope. And we were happy when we called up and were told the restaurant will be opening on February 29 for lunch and dinner.

We've got to say, these people are organized. The website is up and running with copies of the complete menu and wine list a full week before opening. That's pretty unheard of around here.

So, on to the menu. There are two pages of text explaining that the cuisine hails from both north and south India, what the tandoor is, etc. There are tons of appetizers, half vegetarian, half meat. In fact, there are a ton of vegetarian options throughout the menu; that's not uncommon for Indian restaurants, but this place seems to go above and beyond. We see a lot of standard dishes on the menu, which isn't a bad thing, since we're lacking a really solid upscale Indian restaurant in the area. If they execute well, this could be pretty exciting.

The Mint Leaf [Official Site]

• Sara points out a few of the latest trends that have been popping up on Miami menus: rabbit, polenta, fancy mac & cheese and figs. [All Purpose Dark]

• Danny really digs Boteco, the new-ish neighborhood Brazilian spot on NE 79th Street. Might be a good way to avoid the hordes that will be invading South Beach this weekend. [Daily Cocaine]

• Charles Passy is sad to learn that Iron Chef America is mostly a sham. [The Hungry Man]

• L2M skipped town last weekend for a short offal-themed trip to New York City. [Spangdish]

You're probably sick of hearing/reading constantly about the South Beach Wine & Food Festival already. (Did we mention it's on? This weekend?) It's especially difficult to read about all of this when prices for the different events start at around $150. That's a lot of money, and it won't even get you into the big parties.

We managed to get tickets to two events on Sunday, so we'll be sure to give you all a detailed account. In the meantime, check out Paula's take on the 2004 and 2006 festivals over at mango&lime. And the Miami Herald has a pretty good guide to the festival.

South Beach Wine & Food Festival [Official Site]
Should I stay or should I go? [mango&lime]
Insiders' guide to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival [Miami Herald]

It was a pretty decent week: more helpful reviews than unhelpful ones. In fact, this week we'll lay off the guys who insist on using the caps lock key or who leave one-word reviews. Instead, we'll feature just those reviews that made it onto the site. First up is a very informative review for Marie's Pizza in Jupiter:

I've only used these guys for delivery and really like them. The food is good, reasonably priced, and service is prompt. My only complaint is if you like your wings wet, get em somewhere else. They say theirs are wet but they aren't. Everything else is good. I'll use these guys before using any other big chain places.

As first timers at the restaurant we were promptly welcomed and indoctrinated by regulars with cultural background and menu descriptions and recommendations. The crowd, in general, although rather loud and casual created a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
The live entertainment (lone resident musician) on Thursdays and Sundays was good quality, if a little repetitive, and encouraged participation.

Place has a tired atmosphere. Not pleasant. Food wierd, and poorly cooked and bland. Service slow and clumsy. Parking - Forget abot it. Legacy Place is not the place to try to park

The food may be a bit pricey at Brosia, but the happy hour deal is pretty good. Every day from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. you can get two for one sangria, which is usually $8 a glass. They've got a red version (malbec, brandy, licor 43, amaretto, orange juice, simple syrup and soda) and a white one (prosecco, peach nectar, peach schnapps, apricot brandy and simple syrup).

Later on in the evening, there's a party just a couple blocks away at Domo Japones. "Cocktails Anyone?" starts at 9 p.m. and features food by bar chef Albert Trummer and music by DJ Induce.

Brosia [MenuPages]
Brosia [Official Site]
Cocktails Anyone? [Miami Nights]
Domo Japones [MenuPages]
Domo Japones [Official Site]

Gansevoort South, a branch of the Gansevoort Hotel in New York City, is scheduled to open in early-to-mid-March with two new restaurants (among other things, like a rooftop pool and a David Barton gym). One of the restaurants will be Philippe by Philippe Chow, also a branch of a New York restaurant. We don't know too much about Philippe Chow, so we thought we'd do a little research.

Here's a sampling of what MenuPages users had to say about the Upper East Side restaurant in the last year:

This meal was one of my top five in New York (and I've lived here for 7 years). The shrimp lettuce wrap was a great start and the duck is truly their signature dish ( it's amazing and worth the 40 minute wait). The crab legs were also delicious. Our waiter (Nick) was incredibly attentive and knowledgeable. The music was a great mix and almost seemed like your favorite playlist on your ipod. Weekdays recommended for manhattan natives.

Despite the small space, there are some other great attributes that make Phillippe a special and a homelike place. I agree sometimes you find this place overcrowded but it's nothing more than a sign of good restaurant combined with great food, great atmoshere, great sheff and, of course, GREAT OWNER. He took care of us (5 people) so well, giving us his table.... Food is over the top...Many probably know this place for Chicken Sautee but....I highly recommend the DUCK! It was just outstanding and taste was overwhelming.... Great appetizers and Grea Wine! You also can enjoy a cigar, in a secret room which can yet discover...

Viewlicious: A Sneak Peek at the Gansevoort South in Miami Beach [HotelChatter]
Gansevoort South [Official Site]
Philippe [MenuPages]
Philippe [Official Site]

• No Dade review from the Herald this week; instead, Victoria Pesce Elliott gives the SoBe Wine & Food Festival guests a guide to some local new favorites in the area. [Miami Herald]

• Did you know that classic cocktails are back in style? [Miami Herald]

• Fork on the Road highlights a restaurant/grocery store that makes authentic Jamaican food in Kendall. [Miami Herald]

• Lee Klein gives a rundown of what's to come at the SoBe Wine & Food Festival this weekend. [Miami New Times]

• Atrio and The Bar at Level 25, both at the Conrad Hotel, get two thumbs up for the new decor and the pintxos small plate fare. [Miami New Times]

• Gail Shepherd discovers quick beachside noodles in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

• A roundup of neighborhood hot spots in Broward. We're bored. [Miami Herald]

• Chef-driven Bentleys Seafood & Grill turns out some very well-executed fish dishes. [Palm Beach Post]

Two neighboring Long Island restaurants end up not too far away from each other in South Florida:

“On Nassau’s famous Jericho Pike (which could double for Federal Highway), there have been two landmark restaurants for about 50 years: Umberto's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria in New Hyde Park (operated by the Corteo family) and Arturo's Italian Restaurant in Bellerose, run by the Gismondi family.”

“Both places are about a mile apart, have distinguished themselves as solid, neighborhood restaurants serving ‘old world’ family recipe Italian cuisine,” said Frank.

“An odd coincidence came to me recently,” he said. “With all of the places to vacation and go in America, both of these restaurants spontaneously wound up a short distance apart in southeast Florida.”

And it was done, he noted, without any communications between the two families.

Umberto's actually has two locations – on State Road A1A in Pompono Beach and on Commercial Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Frank said. Arturo's is on North Federal Highway in Boca Raton.

Vincent Gismondi, who owns Arturo’s in Boca Raton, seemed amused by the coincidence.

Long-distance neighbors [Boca News]

We're assuming Padma Lakshmi is really in town for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, but she cleared enough time in her schedule to stop by Books & Books in Bal Harbour on Friday for a bit of champagne and some signing of her latest cookbook, Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet. The event starts at 1 p.m. and is at 9700 Collins Avenue.

Books & Books [Official Site]
Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet [Amazon]
Padma Lakshmi [Official Site]

There's a great discussion going on over at Chowhound about the frustrating nature of Florida produce. Everything is grown down here, but it always seems to get shipped up north before the locals can get their hands on it. And it's frustrating to think that New York City gets the best of our produce while we have to settle for fruits shipped from California. Here's what lax2mia had to say about it:

After endless attempts at finding local, Florida grown or sourced produce and seafood I've almost had it.

Was in NYC this weekend and dropped into Dean and Deluca. While looking through the produce I saw picture perfect meyer lemons and some not so good looking fava beans. Where were both of them from? Yep, Florida grown baby. At the fish counter what did I see? Whole pompano and skate wing. Guess from where?

I'm so sick and tired of our best local product being shipped out and almost impossible to find locally. When was the last time Publix had pompano? But I'm sure every Publix will have farm raised Chilean salmon at $5.99 a pound. And meyer lemons? Last time I saw them at a local market specializing in produce (Norman Brothers) they were imported from California. And fava beans are non-existant until spring when we get them in from the West Coast?

I've got plenty of theories, all of which tick me off. One is that growers and fisherman get more for their product if they export it out of state. To me this doesn't hold water because the lemons and beans were going for the same price as the specimens we get from California. Is it that Floridians don't care about what's growing in their own backyard and farmers don't have a choice but to export their product? Possibly. Ask your friends if they know (a) what a meyer lemon is and (b) that they're grown in Florida.

As for restaurants, we're still way behind the curve on this one. The only one we can think of that gets a good portion of local items on its menu is Michael's Genuine Food & Drink. According to another Chowhound post, Table 8 also uses some local citrus and lettuce, as well as fish. Local fish is common (although not as common as one would think). We also learned from that same post that Florida is the 12th largest beef producer in the country -- who knew? It'd be nice, for once, to see one of these steakhouses that seem to open up every five minutes around here use Florida-raised beef.

Does FLA export its best stuff? [Chowhound]
Going Local Florida [Chowhound]
Michael's Genuine Food & Drink [MenuPages]
Table 8 [MenuPages]

Photo: Flickr

Spring training games at Roger Dean Stadium kick off on February 26 with the now-annual Marlins-University of Miami game. We're hoping the fish can duplicate their win from last year.

Both the Marlins and the Cardinals play at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, which means that when they play each other, they take turns being the home and away teams. If you're headed to a game this spring to see either (or both!) teams play, here are a few places you might want to consider for a meal nearby. The most obvious place to eat is the Abacoa Town Center, which is pretty much next door to the stadium and hosts a number of restaurants:

• JJ Muggs, a sports bar that serves the usual wings, burgers, nachos and sandwiches.

• Thai Grand Palace lacks atmosphere, but the food is solid, and they offer a lunch special under $7.

• If you're looking for an Irish-themed pub, Rooney's Public House is a good bet. They've got some tasty-looking burgers and a good selection of fish sandwiches.

• Jumby Bay Island Grill is a good place for drinks, if you're into the loud, raucous crowd, which you very well might be after a good ballgame.

JJ Muggs [MenuPages]
Thai Grand Palace [MenuPages]
Rooney's Public House [MenuPages]
Jumby Bay Island Grill [MenuPages]

Photo: Flickr

We found a little nugget about the Cobb Theaters at Dolphin Mall buried in a New York Times article about different ways that movie theaters across the country are trying to coax people off their living room sofas:

Real estate developers want the upscale cinemas because they attract high-income customers. Taubman Centers, a real estate investment trust that owns malls nationwide, carved out 20,000 square feet at its Dolphin Mall in Miami so Cobb Theaters could experiment with its new cinema restaurant. Cinebistro, which will have built-in cocktail tables, oversize love seats and service at seats, will open next to Cobb’s 16-screen theater this May. Taubman executives say such theaters give people a reason to drive past another mall and stop at the company’s shopping center.

Aiming to Stem Attendance Losses, More Cinemas Try a Full-Frills Model [New York Times]

Photo: Flickr

A group of friends were a little annoyed that their 8 p.m. reservation actually became a 10:15 meal, which is when their food finally arrived. They complained, and in return received a "Suck My D--- F--- Face" (free of charge!) on their bill. Classy, no?

Joe Delucci's owner Mr Langsdon said the message had been meant to be seen only by kitchen staff and he did not know how it ended up as an item on the receipt.

He said: "That shouldn't come out on the bill, so we've got to find out what's gone wrong there.

"But we have apologised unreservedly to the girls concerned and said that they're very welcome to come back and have a free meal and we'd like them to."

He has also offered to donate the bill for their meal to charity.

The cost of the meal came to £284.68, including a 10% service charge.

Restaurant owner sorry over F word bill [BBC]

Via Chow

We just read on Deborah Hartz-Seeley's blog that Steve Petusevsky, who writes the Vegetarian Today column for the Sun-Sentinel, will be filming a pilot for the Food Network. He's also the author of The Whole Foods Market Cookbook.

We imagine it'll be a show focused on health and nutrition. Will it be exclusively vegetarian? As far as we know, they don't really have a meat-free show, so he could really fill a void there. At any rate, we're excited to see the pilot.

Did you hear? Martha Stewart and Emeril? Steve Petusevsky and the Food Network? [From the Test Kitchen]
Chef Steve's [Official Site]
The Food Network [Official Site]

When Sara at All Purpose Dark described the wine list at Bourbon Steak as "epic" and included a link to it, we thought we'd take a look. We kept scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and oh-my-goodness-it-keeps going. Epic is certainly an apt description.

A note here, while we're on the topic. We've had one or two people request that we include wine lists along with menus at the MenuPages South Florida site. Bourbon Steak is a prime example why we generally don't include wine lists with the online menus: they're too long. If it's a short one, we'll consider it, but often wine lists can be as long as the food menu, and they tend to change regularly. So it just makes our lives a little easier to not include them online.

So, back to this crazy-long wine list at Bourbon Steak. It's the kind of place that deals in decadence (duck fat fries anyone? How about some butter-poached prime rib?), so it's fitting to have a collection of 7,000 bottles of wine. But can anyone actually make a decision in, say, 15 minutes when there are so many choices? There are over 100 types of pinot noir alone. We'd feel overwhelmed; then again, that's what the sommelier is there for.

As for prices, we did a quick, unscientific check of the prices using cut-and-paste and Google. Here's what we found:

• A search for Melville Donna's Santa Rita Hills 2004 Syrah, which is $93 at the restaurant, turned up prices around $32-36.
• Next, a malbec from Mendoza, Catena Alta 2004. It's $95 in the restaurant, and $45-50 retail.
• Alta Rangi Pinot Noir 2004 from New Zealand is listed under the "Secrets of the Sommelier." It's $99, and we found it listed at a wine shop's website for $60.
• And finally, the Aubrey Brut NV, one of the various Champagnes offered, is $111. We found prices that varied from $50 to $55 online.

All in all, not bad. Those are pretty standard markups for a fine dining restaurant; actually, that pinot noir is a pretty good deal.

Bourbon Steak [All Purpose Dark]
Bourbon Steak [MenuPages]
Bourbon Steak [Official Site]

It's one of our favorite times of the year, when pitchers and catchers report to ball fields across Arizona and Florida, and the promise of another baseball season is on the horizon. Spring training has arrived, and very shortly, the games will begin. And for Marlins fans, given the sheer number of rookies on the roster, it's going to feel like spring training all season long!

We're fortunate enough to have two stadiums, which host three teams, right here in South Florida. The Baltimore Orioles train at the Fort Lauderdale Stadium, while the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins split time at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter. Of course, if you're going to the game, you'll have to eat, and while a fourth-inning hot dog is great, sometimes you just need a bit more than that. If you're headed to see the Orioles play in Ft. Lauderdale, here are a few ideas for pre- or post-game grub:

• Frog & Toad Pub uses categories like "pond water," "little leaps," and "the whole lily pad" to separate its menu items. We find it quite charming. In addition to staples like spinach dip, quesadillas and chicken fingers, they've also got a number of traditional British items on the menu. Think bangers 'n' mash, sheperds pie, and Guinness-marinated beef.

• If it's pizza you're craving, Gino's Italian Ristorante isn't too far away. There's pizza, with all the usual toppings, pasta, and meat and seafood dishes. Gino's also makes a number of hot and cold subs that we're thinking could fit easily into a purse or other bag to take into the stadium.

• Where there's a stadium, there's a Hooters not far away. Wings, beer, cleavage, short shorts -- you know what to expect here.

• Head to the Moonlite Diner for burgers, melts, egg creams and or one of the 29 different milkshakes. We can't think of a better way to end an afternoon of baseball than to indulge in typical Americana diner food. The fare can get a bit greasy here, but the burgers and shakes are solid.

Tomorrow, we'll go over some restaurants closer to the Marlins' and Cardinals' spring home: Roger Dean Stadium.

Marlins pitchers and catchers start workouts [Miami Herald]
Frog & Toad Pub [MenuPages]
Gino's Italian Ristorante [MenuPages]
Hooters [MenuPages]
Moonlite Diner [MenuPages]

Photo: Flickr

• After dinner at Bourbon Steak, Sara is ready to name her firstborn after Michael Mina. And really, the meal sounds amazing. She's included photos too, for our benefit. [All Purpose Dark]

• cJ checks out Hiro's Yakko-San and deems its reputation well deserved. [consumableJoy]

• Michael Schwartz, of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, made a hot sauce that seared Danny's tongue and sent him sprinting to the nearest sink. [Daily Cocaine]

• Oh man. Homemade croquetas, with step-by-step photos. Awesome. [Cuban Home Cooking]

• How to make kebab kofteh, also with photos! [From the Test Kitchen]

• Gables residents are a little sick of the chains invading the Mile, but at least the planned Chili's might be good for happy hour drinks. [Coral Gables]

Surely by now you've heard the news that Granma leaked out early this morning about Fidel Castro resigning. (Didn't he do this already, when he effectively ceded power to Raul? We're not totally convinced he's still alive.) We hear that Versailles is already mobbed with reporters, news trucks and satellite dishes, as usual. If you don't mind giving a sound bite while getting your morning cafe and croqueta, then head on over there. If not, you might also want to avoid that other center of Cuban-ness in La Sagüesera, La Carreta Restaurant on 87th Avenue and Bird Road. Some other options in the area for a Cuban fix that will be decidedly quieter: Casa Larios, Casavana, Habana 1900, Havana Miami Restaurant, Las Culebrinas, and Tinta y Cafe.

Fidel Castro will step down after 50 years at Cuba's helm [Miami Herald]
Cautious optimism in South Florida [Miami Herald]

This restaurant is certainly earning its name. Remember how last week we wrote that Por Fin Restaurant was finally going to open today? It's been delayed again. We called to ask about how the first day in business was going and to try to get our hands on a menu, but a) there apparently are no menus printed and b) the restaurant isn't opening for another two weeks.

Opening (Finally): Por Fin Restaurant [MP: South Florida]
Por Fin Restaurant [Official Site]

Brickell just got a new pizzeria, and this one comes with a brick oven, which is generally a good sign. Another good sign? The fact that there are no pastas on the one-page menu, which we just received. We generally think it's a good idea for pizzerias to focus on one thing: the pizza. You've got 11 pies from which to choose plus seven different salads. Or you can start with a cheese pie and add all sorts of interesting toppings, including a bunch of unusual (for pizza) cheeses like brie, fontina, gouda, asiago, feta and gorgonzola.

We'll have the menu on the site tomorrow, but in the meantime, we thought we'd tease you with a few of the more interesting pizzas:

• Mare Pie: Ah! Our specialty! Clam and garlic on top of melted mozzarella and tomato sauce
• D Bacon Pie: Diced apple wood smoked bacon, crumbled feta cheese, green olives and mozzarella cheese
• Olé Pie: Kalamata black olives, marinated hearts of artichoke, creamy goat cheese, thin slices of organic chives, sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil
• Deep Forest Pie: Fresh organic spinach, sweet onions, fresh slices mushrooms, garlic and bell peppers, on top of a mozzarella and tomato sauce sprinkled with pecorino romano cheese

Pieducks, 1451 S Miami Ave, Ste C-2 in Miami, 305-808-7888

If you've got the day off today, you can still catch the last of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, which ends today at 6 p.m. There will be works from artists who use all sorts of different media: clay, sculpture, paint, wood, metal and jewelry. There's also a Culinary Pavilion, which, of course, is what we're most interested in. Today there are presentations from Oscar del Rivero from Jaguar and Eleanor Hoh of The Wok Star. We also hear that there are chicken chili and wine tastings.

Coconut Grove Arts Festival [Official Site]
Greetings from Coconut Grove Arts Festival [Miami Herald]

Photo, of last year's festival food offerings: Flickr

The restaurant industry is a tough one. Something like 90 percent fail, and the profit margins often are very small. And then they have to deal with small-time crooks trying to get a free buck or two. Take the following case from Manatee County, where a man managed to get $410.09 from two different restaurants using fraudulent checks.

At a restaurant in the 7100 block of Cortez Road at 6:20 p.m. Saturday, a suspect, who represented himself as being from a national insurance company, ordered food for 200 people, according to a Manatee County Sheriff's Office report.

The food bill came to $1,718.91 plus $100 for a tip. The suspect paid with a business check made out for $2,000, the report stated. A restaurant employee then gave the suspect back $181.09. Later, it was discovered that the check was not issued by the insurance company and was fraudulent.

The sheriff's report said a second business in the 3600 block of Cortez Road was victimized the same way three days earlier on Wednesday, a report stated. That incident was reported to the sheriff's office on Friday.

In the second restaurant, the suspect ordered $1,771 worth of food and paid with a business check for $2,000. The victim gave the man the difference, $229.

The man never returned to get the food, and it was found that the check was fraudulent, the report stated.

Oh man. Ew ew ew. We're rethinking our lemon-wedge-in-water habit.

Lemon Study [YouTube]

• MP: Chicago presents a great photo essay of heart-shaped foods.

• Oh, man. Cooking with Coolio. Thanks to MP: Boston.

• We'd never heard of the "Hawaiian Ex-Lax," but thanks to MP: Philadelphia, we now know to steer clear of large portions of butterfish.

• MP: San Francisco shows us how to make Saigon Sandwiches at home.

The City Cellar on the Mile is closed. We called our 'secret source' in the Gables to ask about it; he hadn't realized it was closed (just happened this very weekend, apparently), but he used the word "tambleando" (shaky) to describe how business had been there recently. There's another City Cellar that has done well in West Palm Beach, but this one, which had opened in December 2005, just didn't cut it on the Mile.

Interesting that the other recent Palm Beach transplant, Max's Grille, also didn't last long in downtown Coral Gables, despite having two successful locations in Boca Raton and Palm Beach Gardens.

City Cellar [MenuPages]
City Cellar [Official Site]
Poof Goes the Restaurant: City Cellar Edition [consumableJoy]
Max's Grille Boca Raton [MenuPages]
Max's Grille Palm Beach Gardens [MenuPages]
Max's Grille [Official Site]

• Alesh finds much to like at Canela Cafe. [Critical Miami]

• "Your grandmother can take her teeth out and eat these ribs." They're called Tenderoni, and you can get them at Fat Man's BBQ on NE 79th St. [Daily Cocaine]

• Charles Passy likes a little spice with his chocolates. [The Hungry Man]

• So it's a little late for a Valentine's Day picnic, but Paula's suggestions would work well for even non-holiday picnics. [mango&lime]

• Blind Mind makes it to Michael's Genuine Food & Drink and finds that it lives up to the hype. [Blind Mind]

We know there are some of you out there who cannot function without a Starbucks coffee at various times of the day, so we thought we'd give you advance warning that 7,100 Starbucks stores will be closing for a three-hour training period on Tuesday, February 26. They're wisely doing it in the evening, from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.; we imagine a morning closure would lead to riotous behavior from the severely caffeine deprived. Why the nationwide shutdown? There are going to be some changes in Starbucks everywhere:

"We will have all new standards for how we create the drinks," said spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil. "They will be trained in creating the perfect shot, steaming the milk and all the pieces that come together in a drink."

Some people have speculated Starbucks will return to manual espresso machines, but O'Neil said the espresso-making equipment will be the same. "It's really about ensuring that the customer experience that we provide is the best that it can be."

. . .

The retraining is part of Starbucks' plan to revive its brand and sales growth, which by one measure sank to an all-time low last quarter. Chairman Howard Schultz last month returned as chief executive to oversee the turnaround.

Starbucks already has said it will slow U.S. expansion, grow faster in foreign countries and stop selling warmed sandwiches.

Monday, it announced a switch in wireless Internet providers and said it will offer two hours a day of free Wi-Fi to certain customers.

Starbucks stores to shut 3 hours on Feb. 26 for retraining baristas [The Seattle Times]

Casa Toscana [MenuPages]
Casa Toscana [Official Site]

At MenuPages, our legions of users submit reviews regularly for their favorite (and often least favorite) restaurants. Some make it onto the website, others don't. Here, we'll go over the week's best and worst reviews.

We absolutely must start this week with one review that came in two days ago for Rincon Nica, titled 'wow:'

ggggggoooooooooooooooodddddddd ffffffffffffoooooooooodddddddd

Next up, a review for Jimmy'z Kitchen:

What a great place for locals to pick up fresh food ! The quality is a perfect 10 ! And the taste is even better !

On to the winner for this week for Pierre's Restaurant titled 'dump the french accent':

Food, scenery and atmosphere are top notch, very expensive though.
only setback: the maitre-d pretents to be french, speaks with the accent, but when adressed in french suddenly struggles for answers: foolish

Adam over at MP: Chicago led us to the James Beard Award ballot. Not the final one, mind you; the names on these lists are the ones that could be nominated for a James Beard Award. The voters will be whittling these down to just a few names, and then they'll vote for winners in each category. There are a few South Florida names on the lists, so we thought we should share. These are the people/restaurants who might be on the official James Beard Award ballots in a few months:

Best Chef: South
Florida is grouped here with Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. There's a whole other 'Southeast' region; we were a bit confused at first to not see Florida there.
• Zach Bell, Cafe Boulud, Palm Beach
• Michelle Bernstein, Michy's, Miami
• Hubert de Marais, The Restaurant at the Four Seasons, Palm Beach
• Ravin Nakjaroen, Four Rivers, Fort Lauderdale
• Douglas Rodriguez, Ola, Miami Beach
• Philippe Ruiz, Palme D'Or, Coral Gables
• Michael Schwartz, Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, Miami
• Tony Sindaco, Sunfish Grill, Pompano Beach

Outstanding Chef
• Allen Susser, Chef Allen's, Miami

Outstanding Service
• Palme D'Or, Coral Gables

Outstanding Wine Service
• Palme D'Or, Coral Gables

Best New Restaurant
• Michael's Genuine Food & Drink

James Beard 2008 nominees (.pdf) [Eater]
James Beard Foundation [Official Site]
Is It Time For The 2008 Beard Award Noms Already? (Nom Nom Nom) [MP: Chicago]

• Quite a few married couples also run restaurants together, and surprisingly, they haven't killed each other yet. Seriously, we're not sure we'd be able to do that, so we congratulate any couple who stays together despite the stress of 80-hour workweeks in a restaurant kitchen. [Miami Herald]

• Lee Klein isn't all that impressed with Brosia. [Miami New Times]

• Enrique Fernandez checks out the new eateries along the 79th Street Causeway. [Miami Herald]

• "If the devil is in the details, Little Saigon is a church." Heh. [Miami New Times]

• The very new Saratoga Ristorante Italiano in Hollywood still needs a little fine-tuning, but it's looking pretty good. [Miami Herald]

• Stick to the tequila, chips and salsa and guacamole at Rocco's Tacos. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

• McCarthy's Restaurant & Pub is back, re-opened with a new team of owners. Go for the chicken pot pie and onion rings. [Palm Beach Post]

It's Valentine's Day, and we've got chocolate on our minds, so we went over to the Kilwin's site. Did you know that they have live video of their chocolate factory? We took a snapshot (there's a feature for that too!) of the machine that makes chocolate-covered nuts. The nut clusters move on a conveyor belt through what appears to be a cascade of glorious chocolate. We imagine that if we worked there, we'd be constantly tempted to stick a finger underneath that flowing chocolate.

If you're looking for chocolates to buy your sweetie, there are Kilwin's in Coral Springs, Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Palm Beach Gardens, Pembroke Pines and Weston.

Kilwin's [Official Site]

Look at that. South Florida made it onto the list of the nation's best sandwiches, according to Esquire. The editors chose the Cuban sandwich at one of the Latin Americans:

Little Havana’s specialty, an eight-inch roll wet with butter, plus sugar-cured bolo ham, lechon asado (slow-roasted marinated pork), Swiss cheese, and pickle, toasted in a plancha (press). The later the hour, the better it tastes. (9796 Coral Way; 305-663-2600)

Go with the French bread, not the croissant -- it’s appropriately crusty and soft in the middle. And get it to stay -- the seating is outdoors, and the seafood salad (jumbo lump crab, shrimp) goes well with the salty air. (229 Fourteenth Street; 305-532-8934)

The Best Sandwiches in America [Esquire]
La Sandwicherie [MenuPages]
La Sandwicherie [Official Site]

These buttery crabs are making us swoon right now. So the Rustic Inn isn't exactly the typical romantic date place, but it's definitely fun, and that is some good-looking shellfish. A to-go order for a candlelit dinner at home might be a good idea.

Rustic Inn [MenuPages]
Rustic Inn [Official Site]

Photo: Flickr

Miami Beach is getting another steakhouse. This time, it's Morton's, which announced today that it signed a lease for a space at The Crown on 40th and Collins. From the press release:

With a total indoor seating capacity of approximately 240, the new Miami Beach Morton's will seat 135 guests in the main dining room, 65 in Morton's exclusive private boardrooms and 40 in Bar 12*21, Morton's new bar dining concept, the place for specialty cocktails and Morton's appetizing Bar Bites menu. The restaurant will also feature a 1,000 square-foot outdoor patio with seating for 36 guests. The new Morton's is expected to open in late 2008/ early 2009. It will be the third Morton's The Steakhouse in the Miami/Miami Beach market and the eighth in Florida.

Morton's to Open New Steakhouse in Miami Beach [Sun-Herald]
Morton's, The Steakhouse [Official Site]
Downtown Coral Gables Restaurant Gossip [MP: South Florida]

Post columnist Frank Cerabino has a humorous take on how to get the golden arches onto the island, despite the Palm Beach City Council's recent vote to ban chain restaurants. Just imagine: Cafe Ronaldo, with valet parking and McCaviar.

Big Mac can use sneak attack to elbow onto island [Palm Beach Post]
Palm Beach Bans Chain Restaurants, Fun [Palm Beach Post]

Apparently Mark Bittman likes to show love the same way we do: with coffee-chile braised short ribs. We're using bison, he's using beef (the former has less cholesterol, by the way), but it's essentially the same. It made our morning to see the video of Bittman making his short ribs. He's using a different recipe from the one we're following, although we like his use of a chipotle pepper instead of the jalapeño called for in our recipe.

If you're craving short ribs, Michy's does a good version served with mashed potatoes. The ones at The Food Gang come with roasted root vegetables. Tuscan Steak offers chianti-braised short ribs with a chocolate espresso demi-glace. Bistro Ten Zero One makes a braised version (is there any other way?) with garlic and mashed potatoes, and Cafe Sharaku has a short rib stew in red wine sauce on the menu. And finally, one of the specialties at Vincent Restaurant is braised short ribs with wild mushroom gravy and creamy polenta.

Recipe: Short Ribs With Coffee and Chilies [New York Times]
Coffee-Marinated Bison Short Ribs [Epicurious]

Photo: Flickr

We prefer to stay home on Valentine's Day and cook a lovely meal for our sweetie (on the menu this year: coffee-marinated bison short ribs). But if you prefer to head out on the town, here are a few good options for treating your valentine:

• Blue Door at Delano is having a four-course dinner for $95 per person between 7 and 11 p.m.

• If you're going the vegan route, there's Sublime of course. Their dinner is $59 per person and includes three courses; for the entree, you can choose between artichoke tofu quiche or seitan steak wellington. There's also a champagne and sea caviar supplement for an extra $20.

• At Kavanagh & Morrissey's, they'll be serving fresh oysters, three special entrees, and a special dessert of a frozen heart-shaped mousse topped with cherries and white chocolate truffle. YUM.

• If you're in the mood for steak, Morton's has a $69 per person menu that includes a salad and an entree of filet mignon and Alaskan king crab or filet mignon and Australian lobster tail.

• The price is a little higher, $150 per person, at 3030 Ocean, but the menu looks really good. Oh, and that includes one glass of champagne. You get oysters or shrimp, bison tenderloin carpaccio or Maryland crab, Tasmanian salmon or Hawaiian mero, grilled beef tenderloin or roasted rack of lamb, and if you're still not full, you can choose a cheese plate, a winter lemon tart or chocolate fondue.

• If you'd rather stay at home but not cook, L & L Market Bistro will do the cooking for you for $50 per person. You get beef, lamb chops or Chilean sea bass with polenta 'hearts' (awww) and chocolate-covered strawberries.

• Social Miami at Sagamore is offering a special tasting menu in addition to its regular menu for $75 per person. That gets you three courses; the entree options include pan-seared duck breast with candied pecans and butter poached rock lobster tail with jumbo lump crab gremolata.

• And finally, Andu Restaurant & Lounge, which just opened yesterday, will also be offering a Valentine's Day menu that will include four courses, an amuse and a glass of champagne, all for $80 per person. The goat-cheese crusted lamb loin caught our eye. Sounds good.

All right, so they're not really banning fun. But the city council is considering a zoning ordinance that would ban televisions and recorded or live background music in restaurants after 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and 10:45 p.m. every other night. Which fits in nicely with the moneyed fuddy-duddy image we have of Palm Beach.

The council also unanimously voted yesterday to ban any restaurant with more than three locations and a standardized menu:

The ban is an effort to "lock the barn before any more horses get out," as William Guttman, chairman of the planning and zoning board, said in December.

The horse that got out is Starbucks, which operates a 25-seat shop at 150 Worth Ave. The coffee giant opened in March amid worries of the flip-flop-wearing crowd it would attract.

The move to preserve the town's character would have prevented the upscale Italian eatery Grotto Ristorante from opening on Royal Poinciana Way last year.

The restaurant is one of at least four of the same name operated by Dallas-based Landry's Restaurants.

The change in the zoning code that the council approved defines "formula" restaurants as three or more of a chain with either similar names and trademarks; standardized menus and food; or similar architecture, interior design or uniforms.

Still, a chain operation could move into town in disguise, as Houston's did in 1999 by tweaking its menu and changing its name in town to the Palm Beach Grill.

The ban must be approved by two votes on an ordinance in April and May.

Palm Beach moves to bar chain eateries to protect character [Palm Beach Post]

There's a new California Pizza Kitchen down here, this one in Boca Raton's Town Center. It opened yesterday at 4 p.m. and is already quite busy, or so we gathered from the cacophony of noises in the background when we called. We're sure they serve the favorite barbecue chicken pizza, pictured here. We will never understand the appeal of chicken on pizza, but, well, if that's your thing, head on over there.

California Pizza Kitchen [MenuPages]
California Pizza Kitchen [Official Site]

Photo: Flickr

• More great photos of the Upper Eastside Farmers Market. Is it lunchtime yet? [Daily Cocaine]

• Hilda went to Michael's Genuine Food & Drink with some friends and loved it. [FoodTastic!]

• Speaking of the Design District, cJ ate with her hands at Sheba, one of the few Ethiopian places in South Florida. [consumableJoy]

• Deborah tells of a celebratory hat work by a man behind the counter at Pomperdale New York Style Deli for the Chinese New Year. [From the Test Kitchen]

• Colombian candy! We're intrigued by ChocoRamo. We love pound cake and chocolate, but we're just not sure they would hold up well to being packaged like that. [mango&lime]

• L2M checks out a new Spanish wine and discusses the state of wine distribution in Miami. It's pretty informative, and we're thinking this new feature will be great. [Spangdish]

Alert reader Emily Contreras let us know that Chef Innocent at the Hotel St. Michel has closed. Here's what she had to say about it:

Another closing to report. The Restaurant at St. Michel in Coral Gables previously Chef Innocent at St. Michel, closed it's doors last week. The two partners whom were leasing the restaurant from owner Potamkin, simply ran it into the ground. Now, will Potamkin get back into the restaurant business and re-open St Michel??

Chef Innocent [MenuPages]
Chef Innocent [Official Site]

Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza is expanding at a break-neck pace. Not only are they planning to have 15 South Florida locations by the end of next year, they're also looking to break into the holy grail of the chain restaurant business: Orlando.

Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza Inc., a South Florida chain of pizza restaurants, is looking to break into the Orlando market. The pizza eatery is sniffing around the region for real estate, according to Tom Prakas of the Prakas Group, which is handling the leases. As its name implies, Anthony's uses coal-fired ovens to bake pizzas in about four minutes. The Fort Lauderdale company has eight locations in South Florida and is reportedly looking to open five or six locations in Central Florida. The chain has no connection to existing Central Florida pizza parlors operating under the Anthony's name.

Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza Expands [MP: South Florida]
Coal-Fired Pizza needs a home [Orlando Sentinel]
Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza [Official Site]

Karu is closed, but not forever, which is good, because otherwise we'd have to feel really badly for the owners who sank a ton of money into renovation just 16 months ago:

Opened at a cost of $25 million in September 2006, Karu seemed over the top even by Miami standards, with a massive chandelier by glass artist Dale Chihuly, Mercedes-Benz shuttle service to the nearby performing arts center and a chef trained in Spain's cocina de autor.

The decor will remain, but the menu ''will go to the Mediterranean side,'' Sotomayor says, with ''a big-name chef'' replacing Alberto Cabrera.

A $3 million lounge renovation will be finished in time for the March 25-30 Winter Music Conference, Sotomayor said, with the restaurant reopening thereafter with backing from ``a high-roller company, not from Miami.''

Putting a pricey restaurant in a depressed area was not necessarily folly, says Karu's former publicist, Susan Brustman: ``In other cities, restaurants have turned neighborhoods around.''

As for the changes, we're curious to hear who this big-name chef will be. (We're wondering if said chef has already been selected, or if the owners just decided they need to look for someone with a 'big name.') As for the proposed menu changes, towards a more Mediterranean theme, we're underwhelmed. It's been done. A lot.

Closed: Karu Restaurant & Y [MP: South Florida]
Posh Karu restaurant closes -- for now [Miami Herald]
Karu Restaurant & Y [MenuPages]

We know food isn't miami fever's specialty, but his food photos still manage to make us salivate and make us crave whatever it is in the photo. In this case, it's fajitas from Tijuana Taxi Co. According to the menu description, the meat in that skillet is skirt steak cooked with onions, bell peppers and tomatoes and served with cheese, pico de gallo, guacamole and tortillas. Yum.

Tijuana Taxi Co [MenuPages]
Tijuana Taxi Co [Official Site]

Photo: miami fever's Flickr

Remember the Whopper Freakout? It was genius:

Burger King, which began running the TV ads Dec. 9, credits the campaign for helping boost Whopper sales in the quarter that ended in December by a double-digit percentage. It "drove significant brand relevance and incremental sales," executives said on an earnings conference call last week.

The videotaped hoax was a twist on a market research technique called "deprivation research," in which marketers measure how loyal consumers are to a brand or product by taking it away from them. The insight gained helps marketers design new marketing and ad ploys that will resonate better with consumers.

Hey, No Whopper on the Menu?! [Wall Street Journal]
The Whopper Freakout [MP: South Florida]
Whopper Freakout [Burger King]

• Fly JetBlue often? MP: San Francisco tells us that you may be getting some free samples of low-fat Kraft cream cheese soon.

• According to MP: Philadelphia, six couples are getting married on Valentine's Day inside the Reading Terminal Market. We love the Reading Terminal Market. But not that much.

• MP: Boston informs us that Ruby Tuesday is now offering craft beer in 900+ locations. We're ... still not tempted to go.

• We're very happy that MP: Chicago wrote a rather lengthy update on the farm bill, so that we could link it here without having to do the research.

This restaurant is so aptly named, don't you think? ('Por fin' means 'at last' in Spanish.) If you visit the website, it still says that the restaurant "eagerly anticipates its grand opening in Spring 2007." Heh. Right. Anyway, we gave them a call today after a chowhound posted about some activity at the restaurant on Wednesday. The very nice man who answered the phone informed us that they're shooting to open on Friday, February 15, but given how things have been going, it will likely happen the following Monday. So that's good news!

Here's the description from the website:

Por Fin offers diners a unique experience by serving authentic dishes from Spain, Southern France, and Italy, fused with creative touches of the 21st century. Por Fin's 2nd floor is laced with plush seating in a lounge setting; a perfect place to enjoy your favorite cocktail after work or to begin your evening out.

Anything newer or on the way to Dade? [Chowhound]
Por Fin Restaurant [Official Site]

So we're a teensy bit late on this, since All Purpose Dark and South Florida Gourmet already covered it, but we feel that we should continue to spread the word about Karu Restaurant & Y's closing. The restaurant is gone, but the lounge/club will stay open.

Did anyone see this coming? The food didn't get great reviews, but mediocre food has never stopped a sleek, lounge-y place from succeeding in Miami.

The $25M question: Why isn't K&Y better? [Miami Herald]
Karu Restaurant & Y [MenuPages]
Karu Restaurant & Y [Official Site]

• Fried mahi mahi, dirty rice, and ripe plantains at Chef Creole. There's a photo too! [All Purpose Dark]

• Bom bagay to you! We learned that it's a Haitian greeting that means 'nice people.' It's also the name of a small hole-in-the-wall with a tasty 'taxi driver special.' [Daily Cocaine]

• L2M's proposed week-long locavore experiment only lasted one day, but it was a tasty day. Well, except for the canistel ice cream disaster, for which we feel partially responsible. [Spangdish]

• Would you like to eat all of today's allotted calories in one simple meal? Try the Hardee's Monster Thickburger, which weighs in at 1,410 calories. We don't want to see the calorie count after the addition of the soda and fries. [The Hungry Man]

• Too many people and celebrities at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival for Deborah. It's true. And it costs a bundle too! [From the Test Kitchen]

• The food is both plentiful and tasty at DJ's Diner. [Riptide 2.0]

Damn, that is a lot of food. We're sure it tastes good, but it's like breakfast, lunch and a mid-afternoon snack all rolled into one really heavy meal. Out-of-towners would often ask me if there was the same pressure in Miami to be rail-thin, tanned and beautiful as there is in LA, and while that may be the case in South Beach and certain other parts of the county, it's never far to a place like El Rinconcito Latino, where you can sit down to a bistec a caballo for breakfast and be applauded for your healthy appetite. Our personal preference would be to skip the plate entirely and go for just the tostada cubana dipped in that cafe con leche. With, perhaps, a croqueta on the side. Yum.

El Rinconcito Latino [MenuPages]

Photo: Flickr

At MenuPages, our legions of users submit reviews regularly for their favorite (and often least favorite) restaurants. Some make it onto the website, others don't. Here, we'll go over the week's best and worst reviews.

We were looking at this week's reviews thinking, where should we start? Almost immediately, we knew: with the review with no words. It's for Park Avenue BBQ & Grille, and what follows is the entirety of the review:

...

On to the next winner. This one is for The Whale Raw Bar and Fish House. It's from a 'mr.420' and is titled 'we need it this thank you:'

the best seafood in town,ect....

Finally, our winner for the week, for Java Room:

The coffee is excellent and the latte my husband got was superb, but the pastries we ordered were overpriced and a bit hard. Stick with any of the beverages and this place will win you over in no time.

The federal government has already instituted some strict restrictions on red snapper fishing, and today Florida legislators vote on whether or not to mirror the federal legislation for state waters, which extend about nine miles out from shore:

Under the rules, commercial fishermen would be allowed to catch up to 2.55 million pounds of snapper, while recreational anglers would be limited to 2.45 million pounds per year. In previous years, officials have allowed up to 9.1 million pounds to be caught.

The state's charter industry is already hurting from rising gas prices and a downturn in vacation spending, the fishermen say. And cutting the snapper season, which runs from April 15 through Oct. 31, to June 1 through Sept. 30, would be devastating, they argue.

''School ends in May and families start coming and a lot of them won't go out if they cannot catch snapper,'' Graef said.

But Chris Dorsett of The Ocean Conservancy said it is crucial Florida follow the federal guidelines. That's because 76 percent of red snapper caught throughout the entire Gulf in states' waters from 2004 to 2006 came from Florida.

Short-term sacrifices from the charter boat industry will pay off with the long-term health of the species, he said.

''We believe they will pass the regulations, but they will hear from a lot of angry charter boat captains,'' Dorsett said.

Red snapper, valued for their flaky white meat and unique taste, have been overfished since the mid-1980s by recreational and commercial fishermen, who ship their catch to restaurants worldwide, Dorsett said.

Years of ineffective regulations created by compromises among the industry and regulators have depleted the species and the new restrictions are the last, best hope for recovery, Dorsett said.

Our family has a small business, so we often sympathize with small-business owners who have to give up because of government over-regulation. But this ... there's just no way around this. Everyone knows fish stocks are plummeting, and if something isn't done, there will be no fishing industry to speak of.

We were reading the comments that accompany the article, and we surprisingly found something insightful from 'Old Gator,' in response to a commenter named 'CITIZEN' who accused the government of strangling any and all businesses:

Citizen: forty years ago, after fighting tooth and nail against Canadian fishery authorities who sought to control the catch on the Grand Banks, the commercial fisheries of Labrador and Newfoundland were virtually annihalated when the populations of a half dozen species crashed almost simultaneously. You can take cruises along the coasts up there and pass by one ghost town after another, all of which used to be thriving fishery villages. They have been nothing but gull and rat infested shells for decades. Rather than accept oversight, the fishing industry of maritime Canada literally destroyed itself. If you think that our fisheries ought to commit suicide in the name of ideology, or more to the point, if they think they ought to, more power to them. Vegetarian diets are reputedly much healthier anyway - and there's no methyl mercury in soybeans.

We recommend checking out the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch page for a good guide on the best sustainable fish choices when buying fish or eating out. Gulf red snapper is listed as 'avoid.'

Fla. considers tough limit on snapper [Miami Herald]
Seafood Watch - Southeast Guide [Monterey Bay Aquarium]

Photo: Flickr

• Hey look! We got a mention! Along with a number of other local food bloggers. [Miami Herald]

• Loud decor, a three-ring-circus-type atmosphere, cooks in tie-dye shirts and unimpressive food. Victoria Pesce Elliott's review of Michael's Kitchen makes us never want to set foot in there, yet she somehow still manages to give it two stars. We're not quite sure how that worked out. [Miami Herald]

• It's been five years, but Timo still doesn't disappoint, says Lee Klein. [Miami New Times]

• Need some help finding chocolates for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day? Here's an idea: Chuao Chocolatier. [Miami Herald]

• Did you know that The Melting Pot Valentine's Day packages are $125 per person? That's a lot of money for food you have to cook yourself. At any rate, there are nine other Broward restaurants listed here as good date spots for Valentine's Day. [Miami Herald]

• If you've ever wondered what a pastrami egg roll tastes like, head over to Mister Chopstick in Miami Beach, where the Chinese food is kosher, if not entirely authentic. [Miami New Times]

• Happy Vietnamese New Year! Celebrate with some pho and banh mi at Sakyo in West Palm Beach. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

• Like the spinach dip at Kavanagh & Morrissey's? Here's the recipe. [Sun-Sentinel]

• Three-and-a-half stars for Marumi Sushi in Plantation. Sounds like it's worth a visit. [Sun-Sentinel]

• Padrino's serves all of the Cuban standards. Recommended: the 'amazing' flan. [Sun-Sentinel]

• Awww, how cute. A bunch of newlyweds rated different chocolates for Valentine's Day. The winner? Scheurer's Chocolates in Atlantis. [Palm Beach Post]

Stories like this one make us thankful that we toted our own lunch to school and rarely ever had to eat whatever the cafeteria was providing. (And especially thankful to our dad, who made excellent lunches for us every morning for many, many years.) It seems there was a bit of a problem with one of the beef suppliers for a good number of Broward schools:

Students at Fort Lauderdale High School were mostly shocked to learn Thursday morning that their cafeteria beef will not be served because the meat had come from a company where food inspectors found "egregious violations of humane handling regulations."

In response to those reports of extreme animal abuse, the federal government closed a California slaughterhouse that supplies meat to many of the nation's schools, including hundreds across South Florida. The suspect beef was pulled this week from the schools' cafeteria menus.

"That's kind of nasty," said Neville Smith, 18. Students enjoy burritos, double cheeseburgers, and tacos on a daily basis, he said.

"I wish they let us know what exactly we're eating," he said. "Maybe we would try to eat healthier, like a salad."

...

Investigators say they have yet to uncover evidence that shows tainted meat has entered the country's food supply. But because the investigation is ongoing, federal authorities told school officials to yank Westland's products just in case.

"It's strictly precautionary," said Lori Dornbusch, operations manager for Palm Beach County food services. "The meat has not been declared dangerous."

Dornbusch and her counterparts in Broward and Miami-Dade counties were told to place beef "on hold," immediately after the federal government started its investigation on Jan. 30. That set off a flurry of e-mails to food managers with product codes and packing numbers.

"We told everybody not to serve them. But have we? Yes," said Broward's nutrition manager Barbara Leslie. "We've been receiving these products for over a year."

Broward has received more than 40,000 pounds of Westland beef since January 2007. The most recent delivery arrived a week before the federal investigation began, Leslie said, adding that no students or employees have reported any illnesses as a result of their meals.

And now her staff, along with campuses in all three districts are scrambling to rewrite lunch menus, replacing meatballs with chicken tenders and cheeseburgers with ham and cheese sandwiches. Principals will post the substitutions in classrooms and mentioned during morning announcements.

Last year, more than 27 million pounds of Westland's beef found its way to lunch trays in 36 states, including Florida, through the National School Lunch Program, according to the Humane Society of United States. The group released a video on Jan. 30 showing workers dragging and pushing cows with bulldozers as the animals squeal in pain.

At least four sick animals were slaughtered for food, the organization said.

...

Slaughterhouses are prohibited from butchering "downer" cows, or those that can't walk because their leges are broken, tendons severed or nerves paralyzed because they tend to have a higher incidence of what's known as mad cow disease, an illness that devastates the brains and nervous system of the animals.

Suspect beef pulled from South Florida schools [Sun-Sentinel]

If you like pancakes, you'll want to make sure to schedule breakfast at IHOP on Tuesday, when the chain is giving out free short stacks in celebration of National Pancake Day, despite the fact that it's a week late. See National Pancake Day was last Tuesday, aka Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday. But it also happened to be Super Tuesday, so IHOP decided to move its promotion, so that the promotion wouldn't be overshadowed by the democratic process.

The event is part of a fundraising effort for Children's Miracle Network; the idea is that you'll be so happy to have received free pancakes that you'll be motivated to make a donation.

So, let's recap. Free pancakes. Tuesday, February 12 between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Need to find one? Here's a list of IHOPs nationwide.

Restaurant Chain To Stack Up Hotcakes For Free [CBS4]
IHOP [Official Site]

Ready for this weekend's Garlic Fest in Delray Beach? We have never been to a garlic festival (we've always thought it would be fun to visit Gilroy, Calif. during garlic festival time), but we are huge fans of the odiferous bulb, so festivals that celebrate garlic are all right in our book. There will be cooking demonstrations and even a Garlic Chef Competition featuring some local chefs. Add tribute bands, games for the kids and, of course, lots of garlicky dishes. It sounds like fun on paper (or rather, on the computer screen), but the chowhounds didn't seem too enthusiastic about it; there are complaints about underwhelming food, expensive food and a $2 charge per kid per ride in the bounce house. So go, but understand that it might strain the wallet a bit.

Delray Beach Garlic Fest [Official Site]
Garlic Festival, Delray 2/8-10 [Chowhound]

Ladies and gentlemen, we present The Wine Rack, a sports bra that can be filled up with alcohol, so that one can surreptitiously drink from a tube attached to said bra. Seriously. The scariest thing is that size medium is out of stock, which means that people are actually buying this thing. It can hold up to 25 ounces of wine and increase cups size by two full cups. (Guess it's cheaper than implants?) The only problem is that the thirstier you get, the more they shrink.

Hey Dave, think this could make your annual Christmas gift list?

The Wine Rack [Firebox.com]

Photo: Metro UK

Via Slashfood

We just came across some unpleasant news concerning the food court at a certain South Dade mall:

MIAMI (AP) - Health inspectors say several food court restaurants in a Miami mall were temporarily shut down because of unsanitary conditions.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation found health violations in several restaurants at Dadeland Mall.

Inspectors say they found about 30 roaches crawling on walls, shelves, over bags of croutons and under food prep counters at a Chicken Kitchen.

At a Sarku Japan restaurant, inspectors say they found rodent droppings on top of a walk-in cooler.

Other restaurants had minor violations.

Mall officials say all the restaurants have reopened following a successful inspection by the Division of Hotels and Restaurants.

Health inspectors shut down food court restaurants in Miami mall [ABC7]

Sara, of All Purpose Dark, has been writing so many reviews of new restaurants for Miami.com, that we just had to list them here, especially since there's a good chance we won't be quite as prolific today. (Forgive us, it's Ash Wednesday, which isn't the easiest day on which to write about food.) But you should definitely check out her reviews for Atrio, Kobe Club, Domo Japones, and Bourbon Steak.

Notes from a Writing Machine [All Purpose Dark]
Atrio [MenuPages]
Kobe Club [MenuPages]
Domo Japones [MenuPages]
Bourbon Steak [MenuPages]

These aren't new restaurants, in the sense that we've already had them up on the site, but all of these restaurants recently changed their menus. Most of the time, it's just an increase in prices; other times, a few items are changed; and still other times, the new menu looks completely different from the old one. Here are a few restaurants that have been updated recently:

• Scotty B's Drafthouse, 9477 Hwy A1A Alt in Lake Park, 561-863-4466

• Thai House South Beach, 1137 Washington Ave in Miami Beach, 305-531-4841

• Jason's at the Harrison, 411 Washington Ave in Miami Beach, 305-672-4600. (This one's the exception -- it's new, not an update.)

• O'Malley's Ocean Pub, 101 N Ocean Dr in Hollywood, 954-920-4062

We're sure you've all heard about the proposed Mississippi bill that would force restaurants to turn obese people away from restaurants with more than five seats. (Small cafes are exempt?) Basically, the state's department of health would set a definition for obese, and restaurant owners would have to refuse to serve food to people who fit the definition. If they didn't, they'd risk losing their permits. The interesting thing is that the representative who proposed the bill, Rep. John Read, is 5'11'' and 230 lbs., so he might run into some problems with the bill himself. Thankfully, another lawmaker has vowed to prevent the bill from ever getting to the floor:

A state lawmaker on Monday promised a quick death for a bill that would prohibit Mississippi restaurants from serving obese people.

Advertisement
House Public Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Steve Holland announced his intention to kill House Bill 282. The proposed legislation has outraged advocacy groups critical of the legislation and intrigued the national media.

"It's dead on arrival at my desk," Holland, D-Plantersville, said in a news release. "While I appreciate the efforts of my fellow House members to help curb the obesity problem in Mississippi, this is totally the wrong approach."

The bill filed by State Reps. Ted Mayhall, R-Southaven, John Read, R-Gautier, and Bobby Shows, D-Ellisville, would make it illegal for restaurants with more than five seats to serve people who are obese. The criteria for obesity would be set by the state Department of Health, and restaurants that do not comply would have their permits revoked.

The legislation has been referred to a subcommittee, where Holland said he will use a "pocket veto" to kill it. It would have advanced to his committee if it had survived.

The complete boneheadedness surrounding this whole situation boggles the mind. Obesity is a big problem, and it is putting a strain on the state's Medicaid system, but the notion of banning obese people from restaurants .... unbelievable. Can you imagine some poor restaurateur trying to figure out who is obese and who isn't? Would health restaurants be exempt from the law? How would the state even go about enforcing this thing? And yes, there are lots of calories in restaurant meals, but there are also lots of calories in homemade meals and things that can be bought in grocery or convenience stores. This is just not the way to go about it.

At any rate, we're thankful that the bill will soon be dead, and we're hoping that no Florida lawmakers get any crazy ideas in their heads.

Miss. Law Would Ban Serving Obese Diners [New York Times]
Lawmaker: Obesity bill won't make it to floor [Clarion Ledger]

That, dear readers, is orecchiette with duck sausage and wilted greens from Michy's. We're particularly fond of the way that the herbed ricotta is just scooped on top, so that the diner can mix it as he or she pleases. Here's the description of the dish from Frodesnor on that "must haves" list on Chowhound we linked to earlier:

Orrechiette - pasta w/ duck sausage, "loxahatchee greens" (wilted arugula?), chiles, pecorino and herbed ricotta. This was excellent - great combination of ingredients, really yummy.

Michy's [MenuPages]
What are the absolute "MUST HAVES" at Michy's to insure a GREAT dinner? [Chowhound]

Photo: Flickr

• The verdict on Candela Latin Restaurant: underwhelming.[Ft Lauderdale Today]

• What do you think are the must-haves at Michy's? [Chowhound]

• Where to find organic produce at local farmer's markets. [Chowhound]

• Bonsai gets an A+ from Tere for the price and the pad Thai.[Coral Gables]

• Oh man, homemade mozzarella knots. Yum! [Daily Cocaine]

At first, when we read the headline to this item in the Herald (Tour of wine-belt region costs taxpayers $6,000), we immediately thought of crooked politicians being wined and dined in Napa Valley for vacation. Seems like it was kind of like that ... but not entirely:

Fine wine, hearty food and a cozy bed and breakfast -- a perfect combination for a trio of summer days and nights in upstate New York's wine-belt region.

And that's just where five Miami-Dade County employees and a group of local farmers spent a ''fact-finding'' mission last summer in an effort to pump up South Dade's agricultural woes.

''We were up at 6 every morning and down at 10 each night,'' said Miami-Dade County Agriculture Manager Charles Lapradd.

The trip -- approved by county commissioners -- was part of an ongoing attempt by Commissioner Dennis Moss to turn his struggling South Dade farming district into a tourist spot.

On the mission with Moss and Lapradd were a group of local farmers, Assistant County Manager Alex Muñoz, Planning and Zoning Director Subrata Basu and an aide to Moss.

Total cost to taxpayers: $6,097.53.

While tourism is the county's economic cog, scores of potential visitors bypass South Dade en route to the Florida Keys each year.

During a recent Power Point presentation to commissioners, Lapradd highlighted the Finger Lake region, noting a grape pie factory, explaining how farmers still raise sheep near retail outlets and telling of an apple orchard converted into an Ag-Tech park. Even the New York Rangers chose an energy drink based on a tart from the area.

''It was a great opportunity to see where a dying industry . . . had the ability to recreate and renew itself,'' Moss said. ``We have that same opportunity in South Dade.''

There's just one big difference between New York's wine-belt region (we're assuming it's the Finger Lakes) and South Dade: the former fits the typical bucolic scene of rolling hills, glimmering lakes, picket fences, fields of grapes and grazing cows. South Florida? Not so much like that. It's flat, with wide streets on a reliable grid, which is great for finding your way around, but grids don't exactly inspire romantic country images.

Still, it could work, especially given the sheer number of people who pass through the area en route to the Keys. If we can get them to stop in Redland or Homestead for a night, it would help. And we've already got one winery; now we just need a few bed and breakfasts.

Tour of wine-belt region costs taxpayers $6,000 [Miami Herald]
Schnebly Winery [Official Site]

Leila over at MP: Boston alerted us today that TableXChange, which operates in New York City, the Hamptons and San Francisco, has expanded to Boston and will moving to Miami next. It's a genius idea, really. If you have a reservation to a hard-to-get-into restaurant but can't make it, you can sell it on TableXChange for up to $40 to some poor guy looking to make a great impression by taking his date to the aforementioned restaurant. It seems to be fairly popular in New York, but we wonder how well it will work in South Florida. For one thing, how many restaurants down here are that difficult to get into? Sure, for a few places you have to call a couple days in advance to get the time you want, but we just don't see the fuel to start reservations bidding wars. But hey, we could be wrong.

What do you think of this service? Would you use it?

TableXChange [Official Site]
TableXChange Comes To Boston [MP: Boston]

Check out this menu, likely taken from a Mexican restaurant in Naples that miami fever photographed recently. The licuados we know usually include ice, fruit, sugar and either milk or water. (We prefer the latter.) But these things take the regular licuado several steps further. First there's the Rocky Balboa, with chocolate, egg, vanilla and cinnamon. The Bomba Mexicana also contains egg, as well as orange juice, honey, pineapple, plantain and strawberries. (Does that sound appetizing to anyone? Anyone?) This begs the question: are they actually putting raw eggs in there? Because that could cause some serious problems for the restaurant if, say, a customer were to become ill from a bad egg. Maybe they cook it quickly to kill bacteria. Or maybe they go all the way and hard-boil the sucker and then toss it into the blender. Which...ewww.

Photo: miami fever's Flickr

We're sure most of you have heard that Rick, formerly of Stuck on the Palmetto, is back today with the launch of the South Florida Daily Blog. To celebrate, we thought we'd ask Rick to be the first victim of our new feature*, one in which we ask local bloggers and other folks about their dining preferences. He gamely agreed, and here's what he had to say...

Name: Rick
Age: 46
Occupation: If I told you I would have to...oh, nevermind
City: Pembroke Pines

MP: What's your favorite South Florida restaurant?
Rick: I have to say Cafe Ragazzi in Surfside. I went there probably 15 years ago and just recently returned for the first time since then. Same energy and great Italian food makes it a memorable experience.

MP: What's the South Florida meal you crave the most?
Rick: Simple rice, beans and chicken with fried sweet plantains. Chicken Kitchen or Pollo Tropical will do.

MP: Which long-departed restaurant do you miss most?
Rick: Marino's @ Riverwalk in Lauderdale. It was good, solid food served at reasonable prices. I used to hit that place when I had to work in downtown Fort Lauderdale every now and then.

MP: A while back, our colleague at MenuPages Boston asked each of us what we'd want for our "last supper." If you could have anything at all for your final meal, what would it be?
Rick: My mother's Hungarian Goulash with a big slice of her blueberry cream cheese pie. She used to make that for my birthday every year.

MP: Strangest thing you've ever eaten?
Rick:Cow brains in Germany when I was a teenager. I wasn't told what they were until I was half done with them. Tastes like chicken.

MP: Will there be more food/restaurant coverage on The South Florida Daily Blog?
Rick: Well, I do plan on commenting on and covering almost all the blogs in South Florida, including the foodie blogs, so certainly that will be part of what I'm doing with SFDB. Don't look for any of my own personal reviews, however. I can't stand writing restaurant reviews. I'll leave that up to folks like yourself.

* We're kind of stumped in the naming of said feature. "Six Questions" is a little boring, and it locks us into a certain number of queries. We're uncomfortable with that. So we're asking for your help. What would you name this feature? The winner gets to be our next victim in the second installment.

We're, um, still, recovering after last night, so forgive us, but that Giants victory was big for South Florida, as you can tell by the prevalence of 1972-themed articles in today's Miami Herald. What a great game, and what a great outcome.

In honor of the Giants' victory, how about a slice of New York-style pizza for lunch today? If you're in the Miami area, try Andiamo, Steve's Pizza or Miami's Best Pizza. In Broward, there's Piazza Benvenuto, which does a Sicilian pie, and, of course, a number of Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza locations. In Palm Beach, we hear that Dominic's also makes a good Sicilian pie.

Andiamo [MenuPages]
Steve's Pizza [MenuPages]
Miami's Best Pizza [MenuPages]
Piazza Benvenuto [MenuPages]
Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza [MenuPages]
Dominic's I [MenuPages]

Photo: Flickr, of the greatest New York-style slice ever, from DiFara's in Brooklyn

• We have to mention the Moveable Feast fundraiser tonight, as it benefits Best Buddies, an organization that's near and dear to us. (Our mom is very involved in it.) It starts at 7 p.m. at Britto Central on Lincoln Road, where there will be samples from Emeril's, Emeril's Miami Beach, Rosinella and Yuca. Then the party moves to The Courtyard on Lincoln Road for desserts from La Gelateria and Ghirardelli. The cost is $100 at the door.

• Whole Foods in Coral Springs is hosting a "beer-off:" a tasting competition with eight microbrews. The first 50 customers (those who are of age, of course) to sign up get to taste the beer. It's tomorrow at 6 p.m.

• Florida City is hosting its 14th annual Super Chili Bowl Cook Off, which will also feature a jalapeño eating contest, an outhouse race (what is this?!) and a tomato race (also?!). The event is Saturday from noon until 4 p.m. at the Prime Outlets.

• The menu for the Super Bowl Brunch at North One 10 looks awesome. There are so many options, we wouldn't know where to begin. Both New York and New England food choices are represented, but mostly, everything sounds really good. Brunch will be served on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. until 3 p.m., and it's $42 per person, including one mango mimosa. Check out the menu at the restaurant's website.

• MP: Philadelphia has hamburgers on a phone.

• MP: San Francisco has hamburgers in a can. (And might we add, blech!)

• No burgers at MP: Chicago, but there is a photo essay of the surprisingly popular bacon Bloody Mary.

• And finally, MP: Boston provides us with a video essay of the worst fast food commercials.

Every year, sometime in February, our parents would drive us down to the Homestead area to pick tons and tons of strawberries. We'd usually get two big boxfuls of red, juicy berries, most of which wouldn't even last past dinner that night. We were just thinking about those wonderful berries today, so we thought we'd make a few calls and find out if the strawberries are ripe yet. Turns out that they are, at every single farm we called. Lots of local farms have strawberries, but unfortunately fewer and fewer are doing U-Pick, likely because of higher insurance rates. Most u-pick farms also let you pick other fruits and veggies, like tomatoes, lettuce and eggplant. Here's a good list with which to start:

• Knaus Berry Farm 15980 SW 248th St in Homestead, 305-247-0668. Our personal favorite, if only because you can finish an afternoon of berry picking with a sticky cinnamon bun and a thick strawberry milkshake. The u-pick strawberries are $2.25 per pound.

• Beefy U-Pick Farm 9865 Boynton Beach Blvd in Boynton Beach, 561-441-9721. U-pick strawberries are $2.10 per pound.

• Hydro Delight U-Pick Farms 15550 Okeechobee Blvd in Loxahatchee Groves, 561-792-4800. The strawberries here are organic and grown hydroponically, which means they're kind of stacked one on top of the other. It uses less land, less energy and less water, and involves a lot less stooping and crouching for the picker. (We couldn't get someone on the phone, so we don't have any idea about the price.)

• The Girls Strawberry U-Pick 14466 S Military Trl in Delray Beach, 561-496-0188. When we called and asked if the strawberries were in, the person on the phone chuckled and said, "We've got a ton of them." These are also hydroponic, so no bending necessary. (On the site, it's advertised as "senior citizen friendly.") Berries are $4.99 per pound.

UPDATE: JD told us about another u-pick place, which seems to be smack-dab in the middle of Kendall. It's called U-Pick Fresh Produce, and there are two locations: at 137th Ave and 95th St and at 167th Ave and Kendall Dr. They have an ad in The Miami Herald, and if you can find it and bring it in, you get a 10 percent discount on the produce.

Photo: Flickr

• Sara likes the fare at The Smoking Rabbit. Prices are a little steep, but portions appear very generous. [All Purpose Dark]

• Catching mullet off a bridge in Miami Shores. Good enough to eat? We're not sure. [Daily Cocaine]

• Oh man, those Thai doughnuts at Oishi Thai sound good! [FoodTastic!]

• If you're looking for places to celebrate the Chinese new year, Paula's got a good list of celebrations at restaurants. [mango&lime]

We saw this photo in miami fever's Flickr recently. Blue ice cream isn't really our thing, but that photo still makes us want to dig right in. We love ice cream, and we always like learning about new places that do it right. You know, the kind of place where the ice cream is thick and creamy and .... mmm. Yum. Anyway, this particular cone comes from Sloan's, which we are ashamed to admit we had never heard of before. The fact that the four-location ice cream chain (all in Palm Beach County) has a Wikipedia page makes us think we probably should have known of it and should schedule a visit sometime soon. Other things we learned, thanks to Wikipedia: Sloan's was ranked #4 in a list of the most unique ice cream parlors in the country and was ranked #10 by the Travel Channel on its list of the top best bathrooms in the world.

The bathroom has clear glass doors that look right into the parlor. When you turn the door handles, the glass fogs up and becomes completely opaque. The doors are made of two panels of glass. Between the panels is a mixture of polymer and liquid crystals. A constant electrical current keeps the crystals in line and the glass transparent. But when the door handle is locked, the current is stopped, the crystals fall, and the glass looks clouded.

Sloan's Ice Cream [Official Site]
Sloan's Ice Cream [Wikipedia]

Photo: miami fever's Flickr