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Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked restaurants in Delray Beach in March.

1. Boston's on the Beach
2. Taverna Eros
3. Sazio
4. Vic & Angelo's
5. Dada

The James Beard Awards, the biggest awards in the food world, will be announced on Monday and three South Florida chefs are nominated in the "Best Chef, South" category: Zach Bell of Cafe Boulud, Douglas Rodriguez of Ola, and Michael Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink. We'll be catching up with the three nominees over the next few days before the awards ceremony. Next: Douglas Rodriguez.

Congratulations on your nomination! What does the nomination mean to you?
Thank you. It’s a great honor to be nominated.

Who do you think is your biggest competition in the category?
Everybody’s big competition, but I think the favorite is Michael Schwartz. He’s had a good year, come out in a lot of major magazines and his name is a big name this year. It’s a good way to get nominated and a good way to win.

If you win, how do you plan to celebrate?
I’d like to do it back home in Miami. Maybe I’ll have a double celebration, one in New York and one in Miami. I’m going to be alone on Monday; no one in my family could come this year.

Which restaurants will you be checking out while in New York?
I haven’t made any plans yet, but a lot of people want to take me to different places, but I don’t have any set plans yet. Every time I’m in New York, I eat some Korean food. Korean food is high on the list. There’s a particular one on 36th Street. I don’t know the name of it, but it’s much higher end than 32nd Street. They serve this frozen beef tartare with a raw quail egg yolk, sesame oil, diced Asian pear, and fried shallots. It’s very unusual, because the beef tenderloin melts in your mouth. After it defrosts in your mouth, you start chewing it. I love that dish.

Where are you eating out in South Florida these days?
Besides Michael's Genuine? I love that place. I’ve been to Sra Martinez, and all the new places at the Fontainebleau. I was at Prime Italian last week, and tonight I’m going to the W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale for the grand opening. But my favorites are Michael's Genuine and Pacific Time. I like Fratelli Lyon. I think the Design District has my favorite restaurants in Miami.

Photo: James Beard Foundation

So Kobe Club is closing tomorrow, but just temporarily — Terry Zarikian, China Grill's director of product development, told the Miami New Times that the steakhouse is reopening in August. He had mentioned this to Florence Fabricant, who wrote the initial report of the restaurant's closing for The New York Times, but she had to leave that key little detail out because of space constraints. One would think she could've cut an article here and there to make room for "but reopens in August." [Short Order]

Free ice cream!: Carvel is handing out free 8-ounce samples of Icebergs today to celebrate the ice cream chain's 75th anniversary. The Iceberg (anyone else automatically think of lettuce upon hearing that?) is a new Carvel specialty with orange soda, root beer or Coke, ice, and vanilla soft serve. Get your free iceberg at any Carvel today between 3 and 7 p.m. [SUP]

• Wow. The list of offenses committed by Angelo & Maxie's Steakhouse is a long one. The New York steakhouse "doesn't translate to the tropics." [Miami Herald]

• "A tired tarragon sprig arose from [the key lime pound cake] like a tattered flag of surrender." Yeah, Lee Klein did not like the Canyon Ranch Grill. [Miami New Times]

• The Herald suggests checking out Mex Cafe, Fajitas, and Azteca for Cinco de Mayo. [Miami Herald]

• You can get both Mexican and Cuban fare at the Guacamole Restaurant in Hollywood. Check out the papa rellena or the tongue tacos. [Miami Herald]

• There are lots of wonderful things about New York Prime, but surprisingly, the steak is not one of them. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

• The Sun-Sentinel reviews the seven-month-old Culinary Cafe in Delray Beach and finds excellent short ribs and perfectly cooked fish. [Sun-Sentinel]

• Fajitas gets another mention; try the fajitas (of course) and the steak burrito, finished off with a tres leches. [Sun-Sentinel]

Straight from Starr's mouth: The Sun-Sentinel's food blog interviews Stephen Starr, whose Steak 954 opens today. He says the King crab and lobster ceviche is "incredible," and the Australian Tajima Kobe steak is "one of the best things I've ever eaten." Starr also says his restaurants have been re-focusing on hospitality and service since the economy began to go sour. Good policy. [SUP]

• More than 71,000 pounds of lobster tails — about $1 million worth — disappeared from Carlos Seafood in Miami. Two women were later seen trying to sell frozen lobster tails to a Hialeah restaurant. [Miami Herald]

• Applebee's is being sued for making "low-fat" and "healthy" claims for certain dishes on its menu that actually were laden with fat and calories. [WPTV]

• America's comfort food cravings are good news for root beer, which is suddenly trendy again. [Wall Street Journal]

• Starbucks (whose profits dropped 77% last quarter) is sick of its rivals talking about how expensive the chain's drinks are, so they're lowering prices on some of the most popular drinks. [Wall Street Journal]

The James Beard Awards, the biggest awards in the food world, will be announced on Monday and three South Florida chefs are nominated in the "Best Chef, South" category: Zach Bell of Cafe Boulud, Douglas Rodriguez of Ola, and Michael Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink. We'll be catching up with the three nominees over the next few days before the awards ceremony. First up, Michael Schwartz.

Congratulations on your nomination! What does the nomination mean to you?
You know, it's always really nice when someone else recognizes something that you are doing that you feel good about. When the restaurant's busy and guests really love the food, that's really great. But when you're recognized by your peers, that's something that's even more important in terms of personal accomplishment.

Who do you think is your biggest competition in the category? What attributes do they have that you don't?
I can only say that two of the other candidates I know and respect. But the other two, I only know what I've read and what I've heard. The only thing I know for sure is that anyone that's in that category has to be a pretty damn good cook.

If you win, how do you plan to celebrate?
For me, going to the awards presentation and the dinner is a celebration. We're going to go up and have a great time, no matter what, to celebrate just being nominated. I'm happy to just be in that category. There's no losers.

Which restaurants will you be checking out while in New York?
We're going to go eat in as many restaurants as we can. We have reservations at some restaurants: Corton, Esca, Prune, Minetta Tavern. I can't believe I got a reservation there actually. But those are the places that we want to check out.

Where are you eating out in South Florida these days?
Anywhere Michelle's cooking. We like to go to Red Light. I love what my friend Sam Gorenstein's doing at BLT Steak. We don't eat out too much. A lot of the time when we do it's with the kids, which affects our choices and experiences. We take the kids everywhere, and they eat what we eat, but it's never just a quick bite with them.

Photo: Jim Fairman, courtesy of Brustman Carrino Public Relations

Eat at a participating Dine Out For Life restaurant tomorrow and a portion of your dinner check will go to Care Resource, an HIV/AIDS organization that serves Dade and Broward counties. At each of the participating restaurants, 25 percent of the day's (or in some cases, just one meal's) revenue will be donated to Care. On the list: Bulldog BBQ, Piola, Shooters, and Tap Tap, among others. Check out the whole list at Dining Out For Life's site.

The Food Network Magazine's June/July issue, which hits newsstands on May 5, has a feature on the 50 best burgers across the country, one for each state. Florida's winner is the frita — that wonderfully satisfying fried Cuban burger topped with crispy shredded potatoes — from El Rey de las Fritas. Here's what the magazine says about it:

This spot’s name means “King of the Fried Burger,” a fair claim: The small Miami chain reportedly has family ties to Havana’s first restaurant specializing in the frita, Cuba’s take on a slider. The thin, beef-and-chorizo patties are fried, then topped with shoestring fries and a secret tomato-based sauce.

Like its New York cousin which closed last week, the Kobe Club in Miami Beach is closing on Friday, May 1. Such a loss for the local dining scene. Where else will we go to dine with the threat of death looming overhead in the form of samurai swords? [New York Times]

• Despite the fact that swine flu cannot be transmitted by eating pig, analysts are predicting a huge drop in pork sales. [New York Times]

• The beef industry is spending millions to find new cuts of meat that will appeal to consumers. [New York Times]

• Fans of NBC's Chuck are buying footlongs at Subway to demonstrate their buying power and try to convince the network the show should stay on the air. [Crain's New York]

• In an effort to minimize water and food waste, colleges are cutting out cafeteria trays. [New York Times]

Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked restaurants in Lake Worth in March.

1. Ouzo Blue
2. John G's
3. Dave's Last Resort & Raw Bar
4. Saito's Japanese Restaurant
5. Rendezvous Restaurant

Mercadito, a popular upscale Mexican restaurant in New York, is coming to Midtown Miami sometime this winter. The company operates Mercadito, Mercadito Grove and Mercadito Cantina in Manhattan, and is planning to open another branch in Chicago this summer. Here's what we know about the Miami location: it will have a 157-seat dining room, a 110-person outdoor dining area, and a separate taqueria for takeout and delivery. Check out the menus on the MenuPages NY site to get an idea of what's heading our way.

Some sad news in the local restaurant scene today: Serena Kaytmaz, who co-owned Cafe Centro and Le Pizza Allora in West Palm Beach with her husband, was killed in a horseback riding incident late last week. According to her husband, she was trotting on her horse when she slipped off and the horse's knee hit her chest. "It's a one in a billion not one in a million...It's a freak accident," he told WPTV.

Horse-riding accident kills WPB restaurant order [WPTV]

The new W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale opens Thursday, April 30 and with it will be Steak 954, Stephen Starr's first foray into the South Florida dining scene. The 224-seat restaurant is the latest spot to offer a "modern interpretation of the classic steakhouse menu." Chef Jason Smith, formerly of Table 8, is in the kitchen. In the dining room you'll find a 15-foot-long reef aquarium with a school of jellyfish. The restaurant opens for lunch and dinner on Thursday and will add breakfast in the coming months.

You can check out the whole dinner menu after the jump. Of note: a Kobe cheesesteak that costs $100. MP: Philadelphia wrote recently about the pricey cheesesteak, also featured in Starr's Philadelphia steakhouse Barclay Prime; it's got foie gras, Kobe steak, truffles, and Taleggio cheese. And according to the restaurant, it seems the recession hasn't stopped people from ordering it.

Raw Bar & Seafood Cocktails
east & west coast oysters 15
jumbo shrimp 16
maine lobster MP
stone crab claws 27
colossal lump crab 15
lobster & crab coconut ceviche 10
snapper tiradito 10

Appetizers
tajima beef tartare 19
big eye tuna & foie gras tacos 19
nueske bacon & scallops 16
the original kobe sliders 17
crab cake 24

Soups & Salads
french onion soup 10
lobster bisque 12
the wedge 14
tomato & mozzarella 13
caesar salad 12
chopped salad 11
chilled asparagus 12

Seafood Platter
for two 58
for four 85

Steaks
8 oz. filet 35
16 oz. bone in filet 55
12 oz. filet 42
18 oz. dry aged rib eye 48
16 oz. dry aged ny strip 47
24 oz. dry aged porterhouse 65
14 oz. veal chop 43
12 oz. prime ny strip 40
kobe cheesesteak 100

Australian Tajima Kobe
8 oz. kobe filet 65
36 oz. kobe porterhouse 245
16 oz. kobe ny strip 80

Entrées
pan roasted whole pompano mp
butter poached maine lobster mp
miso glazed black cod 2 7
organic scottish salmon 28
roasted natural chicken 28
seared duck breast 26

Vegetables 8
creamed spinach
broccolini
asparagus
glazed carrots
caramelized onions
mixed mushrooms

Potatoes 9
whipped potatoes
truffle potatoes gratin
lyonnaise potatoes
tater tots
stuffed hash browns
french fries
glazed sweet potatoes

• Frodnesor discovers NAOE, a Japanese restaurant in Sunny Isles Beach, and "one of the most unexpected and special dining experiences I've had in Miami in quite some time." [Food For Thought]

• Here are a few suggestions for Sunday brunch in Miami. [Chowhound]

• The olive-oil poached shrimp at Neomi's Grill looks amazing. [Chadzilla]

• $20 unlimited Bloody Marys? Yes please! Check it out at 8 Oz Burger Bar every Sunday. [Short Order]

The Forge shut its doors yesterday for a major multimillion dollar renovation. The restaurant will be closed until the fall; when it does reopen, it'll feature a new menu and new furniture and decor. Owner Shareef Malnik figures it's a good idea to use the down economy — and what's sure to be a really slow summer — to re-invest in the business. [Miami Herald]

• A restaurant in Tallahassee is plagued by rumors that it's closing. The thing is, it's not. [Tallahassee Democrat]

• Mexico is testing Smithfield Food hogs, but the company denies any responsibility for the swine flu outbreak. [Wall Street Journal]

• Since pork isn't kosher, Israel's deputy health minister would prefer swine flu to be called Mexican flu. [New York Post]

• BYO is on the rise, thanks to restaurateurs looking to maintain sales. [Nation's Restaurant News]

Want free burritos? Head to the new Chipotle at 8000 NW 154th Street in Miami Lakes on April 29 from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. — the burritos, burrito bowls and drinks will be free all day long.

At the grand opening, on Friday, May 1, there won't be free food, but you will find t-shirt giveaways and a contest to win free burritos for a year.

Photo: yummiec00kies/flickr

Here at MenuPages South Florida, we add new restaurants to the site every day, whether they're just-opened or just-acquired-a-fax-machine. Here's what's new this week.

• Lighthouse Cafe
• Bravo!
• Petit Rouge
• Zushi Flirt
• Bash Wine Cafe & Catering

What do you do when the fishing business gets too tough? Well, two Keys fishing guides decided to open a restaurant: MA's Fish Camp in Islamorada near mile marker 81. Naturally, the focus is the freshest possible local seafood at reasonable prices. According to co-owner Andy Butetti, the restaurant buys in small batches, so it can serve fish like mutton snapper or tripletail that normally aren't found on restaurant menus. Sounds like a good place to try something new. [Keynoter]

We just got our hands on the new menu at Eos, the recently opened Michael Psilakis/Donatella Arpaia venture at the Viceroy hotel. The two are known for their sophisticated Greek cuisine at New York's Anthos, so we were surprised to see a menu that's certainly Greek inspired but pan-Mediterranean in scope.

The restaurant offers just four entree-sized portions: grilled loup de mere (a Mediterranean sea bass), fried red snapper, roasted rack of lamb and grilled sirloin. Everything else appears to be a tapas portion. And if you've got a big party, they'll actually roast a whole animal for you, whether it's a spring lamb, kid goat, or suckling pig. (With a few days' advance notice, of course.)

The menu will be on the MenuPages site tomorrow. In the meantime, you can see it after the jump. And check out Sara's preview of Eos; she recommends the fonduta, the lobster risotto and the ceviches.

Eos @ Viceroy Miami [All Purpose Dark]

raw
Yellowtail (Hamachi) Sushi/Sashimi fennel • spice • cantaloupe 12
Tuna Sushi/Sashimi watermelon • feta 12
Niaragi Sushi/Sashimi pistachio • speck • apricot 12
Salmon Sushi/Sashimi mastic • pickled mushrooms • rhubarb 10
White Tuna (Escolar) Sushi/Sashimi pomegranate • yogurt 12
Uni Sushi/Sashimi burrata • fava • caviar 14
Botan Ebi Ceviche papaya • guava • celery 12
Beausoleil Oyster Ceviche tomatillo • peruvian chili • plum 11
Black Grouper Ceviche mango • chipotle • cumin • cilantro 11
Lamb Tatare egg yolk • caviar 12

vegetable & cheese
Petit Lettuces Salad aged pecorino romano • lemon • extra virgin olive oil 10
Heirloom Tomato Salad feta • spicy basil 9
English Peas  Braised Artichoke kefolatari • chives • extra virgin olive oil 10
Mushrooms bone marrow  garlic confit 11
White Asparagus marcona almond • chervil • argan oil 11
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes greek olives • cherry tomatoes • feta 8
Chilled Corn Soup crab • fig • yogurt (may be requested without crab) 10
Burrata local fruit • fennel • red onion • balsamic (for two) 18
Fonduta young pecorino • hazelnuts • thyme honey • crostini 12

fish
Smoked Octopus pineapple • spicy sopressata • skordalia 13
Salmon a la Plancha greek “salad” 16
Grilled Swordfish watermelon • peas • bacon • manouri 16
Smoked Escolar goat milk yogurt • american sturgeon caviar 15

pasta
Tagliatelle 6 minute farm egg • black truffle • chives 14
Greek “Paella” prawns • merguez • orzo 14
Lobster & Sea Urchin Risotto caviar • fried herbs • egg yolk 16

poultry, meat & game
Spanish “Tapas” serrano ham • olives • peppers • boquerones croquetas • cabrales (for two) 22
Poached Chicken leg balantine • corn 13
Crispy Rabbit remoulade 13
Spiedini “Mia Dona” pork involtini • quail diablo • merguez • sweetbread • lamb tseftalia 15
Calves Tongue Slider sauce gribiche • spring onion • pickle potato chips 12
Pork “Scallopini” Parmigiano cherry tomato • herbs 14
Smoked Pork Ribs dried chili • coffee • lime 14
Grilled Flatiron Steak bone marrow  garlic hktipiti • fried parsley 16

simply prepared (large format)
Grilled Loup de Mere (boneless) 38
Fried Local Red Snapper (boneless) 32
Roasted Rack of Lamb 44
Grilled Dry –Aged Sirloin 48

• The owners of Cafe Bustelo want to give the coffee the hipster cachet of PBR. [New York Times]

• The peanut processing plant responsible for the recent salmonella outbreak has been repairing equipment with duct tape and cellophane since 2001.[USA Today]

• Hedy Goldsmith, pastry chef at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, suggests cooking at home as a way to save money during these difficult times. [Miami Herald]

Frodnesor photographs La Cofradia's new menu through the window (we've done that more times than we care to admit...) and notes that it's a simpler, more pared down menu than the last Cofradia, which closed recently after filing for bankruptcy. But now it's ready to come back as a "ceviche bar" in early May. You can check out the new menu online. [Food For Thought]

Top Burger: The Chowfather sends out a burger alert; the cheeseburger at Red Light is easily in the city's top five burgers. "It was an organic beef burger with caramelized onions and sharp cheddar for $9. Great meat + great seasoning + great bun + great cheese + great tomato = awesome burger." [The Chowfather]

Will the Dwayne Wade lawsuits ever end? Now the majority owner in D. Wade's Place, the two short-lived sports bars that opened and closed last year, has filed suit against Wade, his business partner, and his agent. The suit accuses Wade of depriving the restaurants of "the Wade-centered publicity necessary to support the ... business model" after his request for a 30 percent stake in the business was denied.

You might recall that Wade was also sued last year by D Wade Place LLC for breach of contract for pretty much not showing up to his restaurants enough — that was in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, while this is a federal lawsuit. And we can't even keep the personal drama (and lawsuits) straight, between the divorce proceedings and then the defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife for her claim that he'd given her an STD.

Well, at least this drama in the courts hasn't affected his playing on the court — he scored 33 points in yesterday's game against the Atlanta Hawks.

Dwayne Wade sued over eateries bearing his name [Miami Herald]

Photo: compujeramy/flickr

Make-your-own sea scallops: An editor at The Erickson Tribune thinks she nailed the recipe for Blue Heaven's garlic sea scallops in her kitchen. Check out the recipe, along with some lovely photos of the Southernmost City, in her blog post. [Cooking Single]

Photo: Lisa Sanderson/flickr

The Clevelander Hotel is re-opening its outside patio bar and inside sports bar tonight at 6 p.m. Miami Beach 411 is hosting a party there with an open bar and appetizers between 8 and 9 p.m.

MB411 Meetup: The Clevelander Bar Grand Opening Party! [Miami Beach 411]
Photo: aforero/flickr

• You were right all along: a team of researchers found out that bacon does scientifically cure hangovers. [Always Hungry NY]

• The French government will pay for a thousand Americans to host wine and cheese parties on June 4 in an effort to publicize the nation's exports. [Wall Street Journal]

• Unilever plans to reduce the salt in all of its products. [The Food Section]

• The price of tin is skyrocketing, leading food manufacturers to seek alternate packaging. [Wall Street Journal]

Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked restaurants in South Beach in March.

1. Prime Italian
2. 8 Oz Burger Bar
3. Barton G
4. Joe's Stone Crab
5. Gourmet Carrot

Is it just us, or has Miami Spice become a year-round thing now? The next round of discounts — $23 for lunch, $36 for dinner — begins May 1 and runs through the end of the month. The list of participating restaurants should keep diners busy throughout the month. Particularly good values (i.e. places where you'd normally pay three or four times as much for your meal) include DeVito, The Restaurant At The Setai and Bourbon Steak.

Miami Spice [Official Site]

Missed the South Beach Wine & Food Festival? Check out the smaller-scale Miami Wine & Food Festival, which kicks off tonight with a party at the Village at Merrick Park. Tickets are still available online for $75 for the wine tasting at 7 p.m. featuring wines from over 60 international wineries and hors d'oeuvres from 30 local restaurants. All proceeds benefit Camillus House and United Way of Miami-Dade.

Friday's event — an interactive dinner with Michael Schwartz and Hedy Goldsmith, both of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink — is sold out, but you can still get tickets to Saturday's "Bubbles, Bids and Bites" dinner and live auction. The night begins with a champagne reception, followed by a live auction, and then dinner. It doesn't come cheap though — you'll have to shell out $500 per seat.

Miami Wine & Food Festival [Official Site]

Peanut Island is one step closer to getting a restaurant. Palm Beach County commissioners approved a new zoning designation — public ownership as opposed to conservation and preservation — which would allow the Palm Beach Maritime Museum to pursue a restaurant. It could still take more than a year for that to happen though. [Sun-Sentinel]

Previously: Palm Beach Commissioners Considering Peanut Island Restaurant

How do I eat this? It seems diners at Neomi's Grill (and Paradigm) have been asking quite often for advice on how exactly to eat the plate of food in front of them. The chefs are finding it a little frustrating: "It's not like you were placed behind the control panel of a 747 and asked to parallel park it. Take back control of your own free will. Eat the food whatever way you feel impulsion driving you. Taste a little of this element, then that element, or just eat several of them combined in various combinations. It's your choice." [Chadzilla]

• The food and decor at Asia de Cuba will wow you — and so will the check. [Miami New Times]

• Everyone needs a dependable, affordable spot for a quick dinner. The Herald offers a few ideas: Moon Thai & Japanese and Miss Saigon Bistro in Coral Gables and Lighthouse Cafe inside Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne. [Miami Herald]

• Jane and Michael Stern (who, through their books, expertly guided our family to excellent eateries on countless road trips) have a couple of favorite spots in South Florida. For the best Cuban sandwich, they recommend Las Olas Cafe on South Beach. Key lime pie? Quinn's. And for stone crab, aside from the obvious, they suggest Keys Fisheries. [Miami Herald]

• Fork on the Road profiles Pic Chocolate and Art Cafe, where one can take a watercolor class, eat a pizza, and/or snack on chocolate-dipped fruit. [Miami Herald]

• The verdict on Origin Pan Asian & Sushi: very good, but not awe-inspiring, with large portions at reasonable prices. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

• The Herald revisits Eduardo de San Angel and finds that 16 years later, the restaurant is still putting out excellent, refined Mexican cuisine. [Miami Herald]

• The halawet el jibn at Modca Grill is translated as "pillows of heaven." Apparently the dessert lives up to its name. [Sun-Sentinel]

• Portions are generous at Tee-Jay Thai Sushi, and the tuna tower — raw tuna with kimchi, scallions and wasabi — is fabulous. [Sun-Sentinel]

• Hamburger Heaven is good diner food, and it's one of the few places on Palm Beach where your zip code doesn't matter. [Palm Beach Post]

Sunday Supper: Beginning this Sunday, da Campo Osteria is offering a family-style Sunday Supper from 3 to 9 p.m. The menu will change each week, but expect dishes like butternut squash agnolotti and seafood frittata. It's $37 for adults and $17 for children under 12 for four courses plus one carafe of wine or sangria per table. [SUP]

• In an effort to compete with Pizza Hut, Domino's is now selling bread bowls filled with pasta. [WSJ]

• The conventional agribusiness industry is mad about the Obamas' all-organic garden and sent Michelle a letter asking her to use pesticides. [Telegraph]

• Because of last year's salmonella scare and resulting oversupply, less peanuts are being planted this year. [WSJ]

We're suckers for happy hour oyster deals, and here's the best one we've heard of so far: Manny's Steakhouse has free oysters every Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Seriously. [Short Order]

Photo: avlxyz/flickr

We've got a great one this week for Di Napoli:

Di Napoli has the best Cheese Pizza in Miami. However, the food there is not good! The calamari I ordered was ok, except for the fried eggshells! The spaghetti and meatballs was really bland. The mussels were tough...generally every time I have gone there I have been disappointed by the food. Except for the cheese pizza, which is EXCELLENT

After months of waiting, it looks like Au Pied de Cochon is finally on the brink of opening. The French restaurant, with branches in Paris, Mexico City and Atlanta, lists menus on its site already, although there's no word yet on when exactly there's going to be a grand opening.

But in the meantime, lax2mia over on Chowhound has begun to compare the menus from the Atlanta restaurant and the new Miami spot, and he's noticed one little thing: the prices in the Miami location are much higher. For example, a plate of 12 escargots in Atlanta run $14, while in Miami it's $17. But that pales in comparison to some of the meat markups: a 14-ounce NY strip steak in Atlanta is $24, while in Miami the steak is $41 and it's two ounces smaller. Same goes for the bone-in ribeye — $28 for 20 ounces versus $46 for 18 ounces. We'll attribute the high prices to the difference in rent between Atlanta's Buckhead and South Beach, but still. Ouch.

Au Pied de Cochon - Miami [Chowhound]

Photo, of oysters at Au Pied de Cochon in Paris: ayustety/flickr

• Delray Beach Greenmarket: mid-May
• Boca Raton Green Market: May 2
• Oceanside Farmer's Market in Lake Worth Beach: May 9
• Pompano Beach Greenmarket: April 26
• Greenmarket at Abacoa Town Center in Jupiter: May 30
• Upper East Side Greenmarket in Miami: April 25
• Pinecrest Gardner's Farmer's Market: May 3
• Surfside Marketplace in Miami Beach: April 26

The Las Olas Outdoor Gourmet Market, the Lincoln Road Farmers Market, and the Normandy Village Marketplace, all run by The Market Company, are staying open year-round; during the summer, the focus will be tropical fruits as opposed to vegetables. The company is also introducing a new farmer's market at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Alamo Park; beginning May 7, fruit and prepared food vendors will be there every Thursday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Let the countdown to mango season begin.

Photo: kthread/flickr

Restaurant Gal logs on to Twitter only to find that a food writer in South Carolina is using her copyrighted name. So she contacts the writer and the writer's boss and is told to do one of two things: 1) get a lawyer, or 2) fork over $10,000. Now she's going as RestaurantGal1 on Twitter. Some readers have suggested she take it up with Twitter, which can investigate this woman for "user name squatting." Who even knew such a thing existed? [Restaurant Gal]

• Lionfish are swarming North Carolina's coasts, but researchers are trying to keep the population in check "with spears, nets and tartar sauce." Tastes like grouper apparently. [News & Observer]

• Boxed wines are a good buy, since they have lower packaging costs. [AM New York]

• A woman in Belfast is tweeting 140-character recipes. [New York Times]

Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked restaurants in Islamorada in March.

1. Braza Lena
2. Marker 88
3. Bentley's Restaurant
4. Uncle's Restaurant
5. Manny & Isa's

GR Restaurant Management, the folks behind the popular Coal Mine Pizza in Boca Raton, are venturing south to North Miami Beach with Rack's Italian Bistro & Market. While Coal Mine is more of a family-style pizzeria, the company is targeting an older and more upscale clientele with this new spot — it'll have a coal oven and offer pizzas, but there will be much more to the northern Italian menu. The marketplace will sell fresh breads, salamis, and the restaurant's own pasta sauces, among other things. The restaurant, at 3933 NE 163rd Street in North Miami Beach, is scheduled to open on Monday, May 7.

We're turning our attention south for the moment to the Keys, where a few noteworthy restaurants have opened up in the past month:

• It's been 12 years since the Chappy's Steak & Seafood owners bought the land next to the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon. Three weeks ago, the restaurant finally opened. It's entirely open-air, affords excellent views of the bridge, and even has a swimming pool where diners can take a pre- or post-lunch dip. The owners are still working on the menu, but expect, of course, a wide variety of both steak and seafood. [Keynoter]

• Puerto Vallarta is a Key Largo offshoot of the Homestead Mexican restaurant with the same name. So many Upper Keys residents would drive to Homestead to eat at the original restaurant that the owner decided Key Largo would be a good spot for a second location. If you're a local, you can get a card that'll give you 10 percent off your meal. [Keynoter]

• And way down in the Southernmost City, there's a new spot for barbecue. Daddy Bones opened earlier this month with a wood-fired pit and a menu of brisket, pulled pork, dry-rubbed pork spare ribs, and Kansas City baby back ribs. [Keynoter]

We had to chuckle a bit when we read that Nina and Tim Zagat visited Cuba recently hoping for good food. They obviously underestimated the toll that communism has taken on the country's cuisine:

And what about the food? We expected to find exciting Cuban cuisine with dishes we've never had before. We didn't. What we ate pretty much boiled down to rice and beans and pork and chicken, with salad being "too risky."

Cuba in a Time Warp [The Atlantic]

Photo: Space Ritual/flickr

Head to Ben & Jerry's today for a free ice cream cone between noon and 8 p.m. Or head to Dunkin' Donuts for a small 50-cent iced coffee; five cents of each coffee goes towards the Homes for Our Troops charity. [Grub Street]

Photo: Collin Anderson/flickr

• Tom Colicchio is "so over" banh mi and thinks the next big thing in sandwiches will be Indian street food. [Yum Sugar]

• The Food Network Magazine plans to double its circulation. [Ad Age]

• In the face of changing customer behavior, the packaged food industry is learning that it may not be entirely recession-proof. [Wall Street Journal]

• Though U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend only 2300 mg of sodium per day, the average American consumes 3400. [Wall Street Journal]

The final new restaurant in the Fontainebleau is open. Hakkasan, a branch of the London restaurant by the same name, held its grand opening party on Saturday and is now officially open for dinner each night. We don't have a preview of the menu yet (we're told it hasn't been finalized), but here's what was served at the opening night bash, according to Lee Klein of Short Order:

A few of the passed snacks snatched: shrimp on garlic toast, duck egg rolls, braised short ribs (amazing), assorted steamed dumplings of astonishing delicacy, and Peking duck carved and rolled into mini-pancakes with celery, scallion, hoisin, and beluga caviar.

Sara at All Purpose Dark also raves about the food, and says she spotted Alfred Portale. Let's hope he uses his time in South Florida to remedy the situation over at Gotham Steak.

Hakkasan Open For Business [Short Order]
Hakkasan Miami Grand Opening [All Purpose Dark]

Photo: Wolfiewolf/flickr

In case you were wondering about the results of Heart of a Chef's cookoff, Chad Galiano of Neomi's Grill has the scoop: Top Chef's Sandee Birdsong beat Oceanaire's Sean Bernal (who apparently now goes as the "Puerto Rican Prince of Pescado") in a 30-minute pork cookoff.

Heart of a Chef 2009 [Chadzilla]

• Miami Beach's Chesterfield Hotel serves free booze — vodka, rum and gin in particular — daily between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. [Short Order]

• Jeff declares The Palm Beach Steakhouse a winner, despite the fact that the place makes him wear pants. [Jeff Eats]

• Check out the sheer amount of cheese in the French onion soup at Sage French Cafe. Mmm... [Food of Miami]

• The Chowfather gives his five favorite burgers in South Florida. Char-Hut tops the list. [The Chowfather]

Larry, Fratelli La Bufala's restaurant manager, went on the offensive on Chowhound this past weekend, posting about the restaurant's authentic Neapolitan pizza on every pizza- and Miami-related thread on the Florida board. The posts were all deleted — clearly Larry didn't quite understand how Chowhound works — but they lived on in Google Reader. Aside from the fact that the restaurant serves Neapolitan pizza, we gleaned one interesting fact in a thread on where to buy pizza dough: Fratelli La Bufala sells its pizza dough for $3.

• When chefs want to become celebrities, they seek out the services of agent Jon Rosen, who represents Rachael Ray and Katie Lee Joel and who views his clients not as chefs, but as "lifestyle personalities who we can build great businesses for." [New York Times]

• Investigations of food-related illnesses vary greatly from state to state, which makes it much more difficult to identify the culprit of an outbreak. [New York Times]

• The "Saggy Pants Bandit," who's held up 28 restaurants and gas stations in Broward, is caught. [Miami Herald]

• The food at three of Gordon Ramsay's UK restaurants is prepared off-site, though the defensive chef is quick to note that it's cooked to order at the restaurant post-preparation. [New York Post]

• The product placement for Subway on last week's Chuck was intense - in addition to a visible sandwich, one character actually uttered the phrase "$5 foot-longs", a central piece of Subway's current ad campaign. [Crain's New York]

The new Chick-N-Grill branch in Miami Lakes has been given a green certification, the first in Miami to get one, from the Green Restaurant Association. Among the eco-friendly features are cups and utensils made of corn, energy efficient kitchen and bathrooms and eco-friendly cleaning products. The other branches aren't green certified, but restaurant executives plan to implement green measures in other locations soon.

The restaurant's grand opening is on Wednesday, which also happens to be Earth Day.

Chick-N-Grill in Miami Lakes gets green certification [Miami Herald]

Zushi Flirt had a soft opening earlier this week, but tonight it officially opens its doors with an invitation-only party celebrating not just the new restaurant but the new hotel too — the Regent hotel is now the Z Ocean Hotel, a Crowne Plaza. As of tomorrow, the restaurant is open for regular lunch and dinner business.

The name may seem familiar; it's a variation on Flirt Sushi, which opened a little over three years ago at Washington and 12th. That location didn't last long, but owner Marko Radisic (who owns the original Flirt Sushi in Allendale, New Jersey) is hoping that this second stab at South Beach will be more successful.

The menu, which is identical to that of the New Jersey location, features sushi rolls with names like Sexyshimi, Viagra, Foreplay, Passion and Menage a Trois. Oh, and who can forget the classic Mi-so Horny Soup?

We wrote about Driven to Dine earlier this week, but there's more to the Heart of a Chef festival, which benefits the Florida Heart Research Institute.

The marquee event is a celebrity chef cookoff, where two male chefs (Jeff McInnis, of Top Chef season five and DiLido Beach Club, and Sean Bernal of The Oceanaire Seafood Room) and two female chefs (Sandee Birdsong of Top Chef season three and Kira Volz of Creek 28) will pair up against each other in a cookoff judged by, among several other chefs, yet another Top Chef alumnus: Howie Kleinberg. The two victors in the single-sex preliminary round will then battle each other to determine the overall winner.

But that's not the only thing going on — other local chefs will be hosting cooking demos. You can learn about Italian salads and how to make fresh mozzarella from Ken Lyon of Fratelli Lyon and Seth High of da Campo Osteria. Or try stepping into the molecular kitchen with Kurtis Jantz and Chad Galiano of Neomi's Grill. There will also be wine seminars and plenty of local foods to sample.

Tickets for the event are $25 per adult, $10 for children 12 and under. Admission to Jungle Island will be discounted to $12 for anyone with a Heart of a Chef ticket. The event begins at noon on Sunday.

• Each year, the day after Passover is one of the busiest days for bagel shops. [New York Times]

• In the wake of food contamination scares, some California facilities are paying government agencies to perform additional inspections. [New York Times]

• The US is one of few countries not to require proof of foods' health claims. [Atlantic Monthly]

• An ex-employee of a pizzeria tries to get even with his former employers by breaking into their house in Palm City. Apparently he failed to realize that she has a gun and is unafraid to use it — after a shootout, both ended up in the hospital. [WPTV]

Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked restaurants in Boynton Beach in March.

1. Pei Wei
2. Mamma Mia
3. Banana Boat
4. Vito's Gourmet Pizza
5. Captain's Catch Seafood Restaurant

We've got two new restaurants to tell you about today. First up, Calamari Italian Seafood now open in the old Sammy C's spot in Coconut Grove, offering, as one might imagine, lots of seafood Italian-style. There are a few non-fish options, but clearly pesce is the focus here. Like Grouper Acqua Pazza, with clams, mussels and tomato; Snapper Oreganato, Risotto Frutti di Mare. The restaurant opened on Monday and is currently serving lunch and dinner daily.

And over in downtown Miami (at 17 E Flagler St, to be exact), a new Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurant called Mezza Miami is slated to open May 1. The restaurant will offer delivery throughout downtown and Brickell and has some express lunch meals on the menu that seem to be a good value — gyro, kafta kabob, kibbeh, falafel, or grilled vegetables, each paired with Moroccan rice and a salad for $8.95.

Serious Eats pointed us to a story (subscription required) in the latest issue of the New Yorker about what a difficult time Florida is having fighting off invasive species, specifically the Burmese python. As regular readers of this blog know, this happens to be one of our favorite topics, particularly the idea of eating them to extinction. The article is an excellent, if a bit depressing, read, explaining in great detail how impossibly difficult it is to control an invasive species.

The final section of the article focuses on a new up-and-coming (and terrifying, we might add) invasive: the Nile monitor lizard, which has taken over a section of Southwest Florida near Cape Coral. They can grow up to seven feet long, are incredibly aggressive, and according to one biologist, can "tear off your cat's head with one twist," yet for some inexplicable reason, they used to be popular as pets. Most people are just trying to avoid confrontations with the massive lizards, but some are going a few steps farther:

People are actually eatin' 'em over at Pine Island," [Robin] Snyder said. "A guy I went to school with said they're pretty good."

Photo: Jeppestown/flickr

• Victoria Pesce Elliott calls the fare at Bulldog BBQ "BBQ Lite." The chicken wings and white chili are both good, but she doesn't have much praise for anything else on the menu. [Miami Herald]

• Lee Klein also heads to Bulldog BBQ and is lukewarm about it — some items are hits, but quite a few are pretty average. [Miami New Times]

• Fork on the Road heads to Izzy's Cubi Thai; perhaps we were wrong, and the same kitchen can turn out great food from both cuisines. [Miami Herald]

• Bash is tiny, tucked away in a shopping plaza, but the food it's turning out is excellent and at very reasonable prices. [Miami Herald]

• The owners' breakup has changed Sunfish Grill a bit — but the food is still great. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

• Carlo of Boca gets three-and-a-half stars for its great Italian fare. [Sun-Sentinel]

Being hungover is usually excuse enough for eating eggs benedict, but here's another good one: today is National Eggs Benedict Day, so go out today (or tomorrow, or Sunday) and enjoy some hollandaise-soaked goodness. Traditional eggs benedict are a dime a dozen, but here are a few places that put a twist on the classic dish:

• At Brosia, the poached eggs come with sliced hanger steak on a toasted baguette with pancetta and the the requisite hollandaise for $19.

• Oriente serves breakfast until 1 p.m. On the menu: traditional eggs benedict (English muffin, Canadian bacon, hollandaise, etc.) with tomatoes for $11, or with smoked salmon for an extra $2.

• Prime Catch offers three different versions during Sunday brunch: the Classic for $10.95, the Neptune with crab cakes for $12.95, and the Key Largo with sherry-glazed lobster for $14.95.

• Turtle Kraals serves up a tasty variation with chorizo and chipotle hollandaise for $9.95 every day for breakfast. Or try the vegetarian version with tomato, spinach, avocado and chipotle holandaise.

Photo: boo licious/flickr

• Burger King's stock hit a record slump last quarter. [Bloomberg]

• Publix handed over a $68,000 check to Florida City-based Farm Share, a nonprofit group that collects, sorts and distributes food to the needy. [Miami Herald]

• According to a tipster, Toby Young will return as a judge on the next season of Top Chef. [My Memoirs]

• Two genius Domino's employees who videotaped themselves doing disgusting things to a customer's sandwich and put it on YouTube have been arrested and charged with delivering prohibited foods. [New York Times]

This year's hot spots in South Florida are Pacific Time and
Sra Martinez, according to Conde Nast Traveler's Hot List 2009, which lists hot new restaurants, hotels and spas all over the world. Nothing we didn't already know, of course. Check out the list to see where else in the US (and the world) the magazine editors think you should be eating.

Conde Nast Traveler: Hot List Tables 2009 [Official Site]

We didn't get a lot of duds this week, so we thought we'd focus our attention on a review that actually did get validated and is very helpful for other diners. Here's one that came in for Shorty's Bar-B-Q:

I had heard about this place...and wished I hadn't b/c I think my expectations were too high. And that wasn't fair to poor shorty. First, I think all the servers I spoke with were great. And if the world wasn't what it was, they'd all be doing well elsewhere. Seriously. The prices are pretty good, and you can go to their website for coupons to save even more. The food was tasty. However, their wings are kind of burned tasting and for some reason appeared on our table with zero sauce. I think that's how it was supposed to happen though. Their ribs need a little more slow cooking time to make them less tough and more fall off the bone. At least, that's how I like it. From the popularity of the joint...I'm probably in the minority. They tasted good once you loaded on the bbq sauce they provide with your plate. Their chicken was perfectly done though. Both BBQ sauces I tried were excellent. I will be going back to try the pulled pork plate soon b/c that with the BBQ sauce might be way way up my alley. French fries were good, corn was good, bread was good. Even though the corn and bread may have both been victims of fake butter. If you have kids...they can make noise here. The seating is all long tables and seat yourself though. I'm not a fan of that if you arrive when it's busy. All in all though, I will go back in the not too distant future. I love bbq and I think this is one of the few places that specializes in it in the area.

If you're looking for some good reading this afternoon, check out this in-depth profile of Steve Martorano, owner of Cafe Martorano in Fort Lauderdale. It's a great story — the nephew of a South Philly mob boss starts by serving sandwiches from his apartment, heads to Florida to start over again, and 15 years later he's the guy explaining to Madonna that if she wants a table, she'll have to wait an hour for it. Here's our favorite among a number of colorful quotes:

"You don't go to a Frank Sinatra concert and tell him what to sing. So don't come to my restaurant and tell me how to cook. Let me do what I do. I tell customers who complain, 'Look, there are 1,200 restaurants in Fort Lauderdale. If you don't like it here, nobody is holding a gun to your head.'

Cupcakes? Fro-yo? Sometimes, it's so hard to pick one over-hyped dessert item over the other. Enter Allegria Frozen Yogurt & Cupcakes, which opened recently in Pompano Beach and actually guarantees "happiness in every cup." The shop offers four flavors of yogurt — original, green tea, chocolate and pomegranate — with an array of toppings, in addition to a number of cupcake variations like red velvet, Caribbean coconut, strawberry shortcake, and vegan carrot. They come in mini sizes too for $1.

You've sent off your tax forms (if you're like us, you mailed them this morning), and are, hopefully, waiting for your tax refund. If you're not waiting on a refund, you can at least take advantage of a few deals that local restaurants are offering for tax day:

• AltaMar, Andú, Area 31, and The Grill on the Alley are offering tax-free food (and drinks!) today. The deal applies to both lunch and dinner at each restaurant except for AltaMar, where the tax-free fun begins at 5 p.m.

• Eat at any P.F. Chang's today (we've got six listed in South Florida) and get 15 percent off your meal.

• McCormick & Schmick's will be handing diners today a $10.40 certificate good towards future meal purchases.

• Maggie Moo's (locations in Davie and Fort Lauderdale) is giving away a free scoop of ice cream to anyone who stops in today.

Food for FREE on Tax Day! [WPTV]
Tax Day Dining Deals [SUP]

Photo: RogueSun Media/flickr

• The new grilled chicken from KFC is just one sign of the fast food industry's upscale revolution. [New York Post]

• Germany has banned genetically modified corn. [New York Times]

• A new line of low-calorie sweeteners derived from the stevia plant could shake up the non-sugar sweeteners market. [New York Times]

• P&O Cruises has recruited Marco Pierre White to spend the year traveling aboard one of their ships. [Opodo]

Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked restaurants in Coconut Grove in March.

1. Sekai
2. George's in the Grove
3. Monty's
4. The Knife
5. Jaguar

It's like Burger King is just looking for negative press. The company is under fire over a recent ad for the "Texican whopper," a cheeseburger with chiles and spicy mayonnaise which is available in Europe. The Mexican ambassador to Spain saw it and took offense at the inappropriate use of the Mexican flag, which is draped over a wrestler like a poncho. No word yet on whether or not BK will drop the ad.

Burger King ad angers ambassador [Reuters]

Talk about cheap: Taverna Opa in Fort Lauderdale is offering $10 dinners between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. every Tuesday. It includes a bowl of avgolemono (Greek lemon, chicken and rice soup); moussaka, pastitsio, gyro platter or souvlaki platter; and a dessert of baklava. Wash it down with two-for-one drinks at the bar.

In other Taverna Opa news, there's a new one opening sometime early next year at Dolphin Mall.

Photo: BarnyardBBS/flickr

For those of you who have an extra $625 — and seven other friends who do as well — here's a fun idea: Driven to Dine, an extravagant event benefiting the Florida Heart Research Institute on April 25. It's $5,000 per limo, eight people to a limo, and it starts with a cocktail reception at Don and Mary Anne Shula's Indian Creek house. There, you pick an envelope that will tell you to which of the 11 participating restaurants (listed below) the limousine will be taking you for a multi-course meal. It's all included in the cost, except for a way to get to the reception and home from the restaurant. You can get the limo to pick you up and drop you off for an extra fee. Interested? Go here for more details.

Check out the participating chefs and restaurants:
Acqua at the Four Seasons - Chef Patrick Boucher
Casa Casuarina - Chef Dale Ray
Escopazzo - Chef Giancarla Bodoni
Gaia Ristorante - Chef Gaetano Ascione
Gia- Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar at the Eden Roc - Chef Virgil Brandel
Meat Market - Chef Sean Brasel
Neomi's Grill at the Trump International - Chef Kurtis Jantz
The Oceanaire Seafood Room - Chef Sean Bernal
Red the Steakhouse - Chef Peter Vauthy
The Capital Grille - Chef Odel Arencibia
The Restaurant At The Setai - Chef Jonathan Wright

To those of us who don't have that kind of money, Escopazzo has a back room menu available from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. with a selection of wine by the glass, a number of antipasti for $9, and some pastas for $12.

• Mmm...mango. A lovely photo of a fruit that's hanging from the tree, taunting us as we wait for it to ripen. [Miami Every Day Photo]

• Smokey Bones' Smokehouse Burger is good, but you're better off sticking to pork products there. [Burger Beast]

• Le Banyan is a new Thai spot in North Beach, where the food is good but the prices are a bit high. [Food For Thought]

• Going to Sardinia, Indomania or Talula? Here are a few ideas of what to order. [Chowhound]

• Check out the spread at this "Spring Thanksgiving" — looks delicious! [Miami Dish]

• Pepsi is suing Coca-Cola over an ad that claims Powerade is a more complete sports drink than Gatorade. [Crains New York]

• Seamless Web is introducing a mobile service so users can order from their phones when, say, they're trapped in a meeting or don't want to get up from the couch to get their computers. [New York Times]

• Mexico is angry about a European ad for Burger King that shows a short wrestler wrapped in a Mexican flag. [AP]

B.B. King's Blues Club just signed a deal to open in the old Legal Sea Foods spot in CityPlace, according to the Palm Beach Post. Not only will you get live music there — blues rock, soul and R&B — but you'll also find a restaurant serving Creole and Southern food. The club promises two venues, one of which is dedicated to acoustic music, and outdoor seating. Should be a while though — the restaurant isn't planning to start the hiring process until August.

Thrill is here: B.B. King club plans local site [Palm Beach Post]

Photo: Rebel Sights/flickr

Here at MenuPages South Florida, we add new restaurants to the site every day, whether they're just-opened or just-acquired-a-fax-machine. Here's what's new this week.

• Stained Glass Pub
• BOCCA
• Torange
• The Sports Exchange
• The Pita Bar

Le Bistro in Lighthouse Point is offering a new $35 tasting menu featuring Dover sole with noisette butter, lemon, parsley potatoes and tartar sauce. Or you can opt for grilled lamb chops with goat cheese, red onion, tomato, ragout, mint vinegar olive oil and grilled lemon, or pan-sauteed lady fingers of salmon with pink grapefruit salsa. The rest of the menu includes a gazpacho or roasted baby beets, spring green asparagus and fingerling baby potato salad, and Swiss chocolate covered vanilla cheesecake lollipops.

Drowning in Girl Scout Cookies? A Chicago pastry chef offers a few recipes using the cookies — Do-si-dos, Samoas, and Shortbread cookies — as ingredients. MP: Chicago has the recipes.

Malika Ameen of Aigre Doux Loves Girl Scout Cookies [MP: Chicago]

Photo: brighterworlds/flickr

We've been trying to get some more information on Norman's 180, Norman Van Aken's return to Coral Gables. As we reported before, the restaurant will be opening in the Hoja Nueva spot in the Westin Colonnade. Van Aken is apparently keeping a tight lid on any new developments. But we did manage to glean one piece of information: the restaurateur is hoping for an opening sometime this fall.

Grub Street points us to Donatella Arpaia's new blog on iVillage, where she mentions that her newest "baby" at the Viceroy Hotel will be open in just a few days. A call to the Signature Restaurant at the Viceroy confirmed that the new menu will be rolled out by the end of next week. There are no plans to change the name of the restaurant.

Psilakis Miami [Grub Street]

Our sister site Grub Street tells how Top Chef has reached new heights in shilling: Top Chef-themed flower arrangements from Teleflora. Available soon!

Also in Top Chef news, the Chowfather notes that there are no South Florida representatives in the upcoming Top Chef Masters.

Top Chef Discovers Entire New Level of Shilling [Grub Street]
Top Chef Masters [The Chowfather]

• Grocery store food auctions are thriving in communities hit hard by the recession. [USA Today]

• Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin is moving to the Food Network — his show, "Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin," will feature him traveling around the world and sampling exotic foods. [Reuters]

• The slider craze has caught on in fast food burger restaurants, which are trying to give the illusion of a deal. [USA Today]

We just got word that there's a gastropub coming to Sunny Isles Beach. Calafate Grill is opening in the old PrimArepa spot at 17100 Collins Avenue. The location has been completely redone, and it should just be about three weeks before the doors open. The menu will feature fish-oriented Continental cuisine. That's all we've got for now, but we'll have more information soon.

Tickets are on sale now for the Legacy Place Food & Wine Experience, which will feature food from a number of Palm Beach Gardens restaurants like Entre Nous, Ironwood Grille, Leila Restaurant, Ouzo Blue, Petit Marmite, and The Capital Grille. In addition to food, there will of course be wine, music, and entertainment. And all proceeds go to the American Lung Association's Florida chapter — it's always fun when we're given a good excuse to eat and drink. The fun happens on Thursday, April 23 from 7 to 9 p.m.; tickets are $40 in advance or $50 at the gate.

Legacy Place Food & Wine Experience [Official Site]

It's list time again! This time, we have Travel and Leisure's opinion on the 50 best new restaurants in the country. The sole South Florida mention is, of course, a New York transplant: Scarpetta, in the Fontainebleau on Miami Beach. Here's what the magazine says:

His sybaritic urban-rustic Italian specials—succulent baby goat, the best pasta al pomodoro this side of Naples—taste even better here, with those beautiful ocean vistas.

If you were making the list, which South Florida restaurants would you add, if any?

50 Best New Restaurants [Travel + Leisure]

• High-end restaurants are becoming more amenable to BYOB with no corkage. [Wall Street Journal]

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention withheld evidence that contaminated tap water was giving children lead poisoning. [Salon]

• For the first time in decades, American food safety is not improving. [New York Times]

• The commercial salmon season in the U.S. has been banned for the second year in a row. [San Francisco Chronicle]

Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked steakhouses in March.

1. Bova Prime
2. Prime 112
3. The Knife
4. La Parrilla Liberty
5. Miami Prime Grill

L.L. Bean's granddaughter is trying to bring Maine lobster rolls to the rest of the country, and she's starting with Delray Beach. The first location of Linda Bean's Perfect Maine Lobster Roll outside of Maine will be opening on Atlantic Avenue in June. The restaurant started last year inside the L.L. Bean store in Freeport; this summer, the company is opening five more locations throughout Maine, and is looking at a few other locations in Florida: St. Augustine, St. Petersburg and Naples.

The Delray Beach spot will be a sit-down, upscale fast-food spot with a small, focused menu:: a lobster roll with a quarter-pound of lobster meat on a toasted bun, a shrimp roll, a salad topped with either lobster or shrimp, and hot dogs for those who aren't seafood-inclined. The drink menu will be Maine-centric: beer from Maine microbreweries, Maine wines and Maine Root sodas.

According to company spokeswoman Caryn Harris, they chose South Florida because of the snowbird factor, figuring lots of people down here would be familiar with lobster rolls. They also wanted a spot with lots of foot traffic, which shouldn't be hard to come by on Atlantic Avenue. Opening at the beginning of the low season wasn't the company's plan, said Harris, but they're hoping the locals will develop a taste for Maine lobster.

Check out MP: Boston's post about how Linda Bean wants to be the "Frank Purdue of lobster."

• Area 31 is named after the UN-designated Area 31 fishing area, which extends from Miami south into the Caribbean and the northern tip of South America. So there's red drum, mackerel, snapper, wahoo, mahi-mahi, lobster and shrimp (among others) on the menu, and all of it is excellent. [Miami Herald]

• The Palace in Davie serves good versions of North Indian dishes like naan, paratha, biryani, saag and vindaloo. [Miami Herald]

• The $30 meatball at Prime Italian is the size of a meatloaf, and is "about as close to a perfect meatball as one can make." [Miami New Times]

• The chef's soups and moules frites are worth ordering at St Tropez Bistro on Las Olas Boulevard. [Miami Herald]

• Instead of one long restaurant review, this week we get bite-size reviews of four restaurants from Fort Lauderdale to Boynton Beach. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

• The silverware at The Lobster House is plastic, but the seafood is fresh and excellent. [Palm Beach Post]

• Street food comes to small towns: the recession has led to a surplus of hot dog vendors who see a cart as a good career backup. [Wall Street Journal]

• Three separate groups of researchers have recently found that every human has "brown fat", a type of fat that burns calories when activated by the cold. [New York Times]

• The rise of food litigation has forced food manufacturers to go on the defensive, toning down claims about the nutritional benefits of their products and limiting the marketing of sugary foods to kids. [Wall Street Journal]

• The increasing availability of kosher-friendly appliances has promoted an interest in kosher kitchen renovations. [New York Times]

Here's an interesting one we got this week for Beach Watch:

Take note of the broken english in all the glowing ratings. The owners are Austrian and German and they write in English the same way they speak. They write their own reviews because their place is being slammed with bad reviews. BeachBen is one and BeachGirl is the other. Davey Jones wants to buy the place. Now THAT would be great.

"December, like opening day for the Marlins, means season begins and hope springs eternal. Shaky numbers for the month lead to an anxious January, then much tinkering and worrying through February. March comes in like a lion and brings with it an onset of panic; it goes out like a lamb in denial. April is hail-mary-two-for-one-specials time, but sometime in May, reality takes a seat at the dining establishment and gently informs the owner that to continue through summer is neither wise or feasible. The CLOSED signs generally begin to appear around Memorial Day."

– Lee Klein at Short Order on the trajectory of struggling restaurants

Miami Restaurants Hang Tough In Recession (so far) [Short Order]

Miami-Dade County tax collectors recently released the hotel tax figures for February, and they are not good: tax revenues for the month were down 24 percent, after a 17 percent fall in January. That bodes poorly not just for hotels, but also for restaurants, the Marlins (the new ballpark will be paid for almost exclusively by hotel taxes), and for the South Florida economy in general.

Miami-Dade hotel taxes plunge 24 percent in February [Miami Herald]

A new wine bar is coming to Aventura. Bar Rosso should be opening in the coming weeks with a menu of small plate Italian fare and a list of 40 to 60 different wines by the glass. The wine list will be about 85 percent Italian, although eventually they'd like to include a wider range of wines from other countries. Other features include a mozzarella bar, an exhibition kitchen, and a wood-burning grill. According to general manager Ian Falconi, the fare won't be influenced by any one particular region of Italy.

Falconi said the restaurant is in the last stage of permits and inspections, which means it can get the OK from the county either tomorrow or a few weeks from now. His educated guess is that the restaurant will open its doors in the first week of May.

The menu isn't ready yet, although Falconi offered a few sample items: arancini, burrata salad, wood-grilled ribeye steak, and pastas like carbonara and amatriciana, which will be available in full and half portions.

Joe's Stone Crab comes in third on a list of the top 100 independent restaurants in the country according to Restaurants & Institutions magazine, with $28,827,328 in 2008 sales, 320,000 meals served at an average of $65 per dinner check. Other South Florida restaurants on the list include Prime 112 and DeVito South Beach.

Top 100 Independents [Restaurants & Institutions]

• A huge fight involving 30 people broke out at Red Fish Blue Fish in Key West. One police officer is awaiting oral surgery for his missing teeth, and the man who hit him is sitting in a jail cell awaiting bond. [Key West Citizen]

• Dolce de Palma gets a big feature in the Boston Globe, thanks to chef Anthony de Palma's New England roots. [Boston Globe]

• The stats for 2008 are in, and it turns out that Florida, Georgia and Alabama were among the very few states who showed an increase in restaurant traffic — just two percent — that year. [St Petersburg Times]

• Though there's plenty of talk about seasonal vegetables, few realize that meats also have a season. [The Atlantic]

Beginning with tax day, Chef Allen's is bringing back Wine Down Wednesdays, when every bottle on the regular wine list will be half off. And on the last Wednesday of each month, the restaurant will feature a complimentary wine tasting with finger foods from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked spots for barbecue in March.

1. Mississippi Sweets
2. Scruby's Bar-B-Q
3. Bulldog BBQ
4. Smith & Jones
5. Tom Jenkins Bar-B-Q

A review copy of Sublime's new all-vegan cookbook landed on our desk recently, and we thought we'd give a recipe or two a run-through in our kitchen.

Among the 60+ recipes are a few unnecessary one (how to blanch spinach? seriously?), a few cringe-worthy ones, at least for this omnivore who shudders at the thought of soy "cheese," and a few real gems, particularly in the soups, salads and sushi sections. Take this carrot ginger soup. We chose this recipe because of its lack of fake meat or cheese, its intriguing spice combination and the fact that it seemed pretty easy to make. Turns out that it's really tasty. And healthful too, if a little high in the calorie and fat department, thanks to the creamy coconut milk.

Check out the recipes for Carrot Ginger Soup and Blond Vegetable Stock, along with a few of our notes, after the jump. The cookbook is available through Sublime's website (or at the restaurant itself) and Amazon.

Carrot Ginger Soup

Keep in mind that this recipe makes a lot of soup. We halved the recipe and now have enough for the rest of the week in the fridge and an extra container of soup in the freezer. We went with regular coconut milk, but if you're counting calories, light coconut milk would probably work just as well.

4 tbsp canola oil
1/2 c peeled and sliced fresh ginger
5 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced
1 c sliced shallots
1 tbsp whole fenugreek seeds
1 tbsp whole fennel seeds
3 c Blond Vegetable Stock (see recipe below)
3 c coconut milk
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp thinly sliced chives

Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the ginger and cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add the carrots and the shallots and cook and stir for 5 to 10 minutes, until the carrots are almost tender. Add the fenugreek and fennel seeds and cook and stir for 2 minutes, until they are toasted.

Add the vegetable stock, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the carrots are very soft and dark orange. Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut milk. Process the soup in batches in a blender until it is smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with the chives.

Blond Vegetable Stock

LOVE this stock. The white peppercorns really give it a distinctive taste. We think it'd make a great base for lots of different soups.

1 lb chopped white onions
1 c chopped carrot
1 c chopped celery
6 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp whole white peppercorns
8 qts cold water

Combine the onions, carrot, celery, parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cover with the water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour.

Remove the stock from the heat and strain it. Let cool to room temperature. Stored in a sealed container, Blond Vegetable Stock will keep for up to 4 days in the refrigerator or 4 months in the freezer.

Both recipes reprinted with permission from The Sublime Restaurant Cookbook, Book Publishing Company, 2009.

• No Florida chefs made Food & Wine's Best New Chefs list, so Short Order comes up with a group of best old chefs from South Florida. [Short Order]

• And Frodnesor replies with a list of his own: best new chefs in South Florida. [Food For Thought]

• The "best steakhouse in Miami" discussion is re-opened. Given the sheer number of steakhouses in the area, consensus is unlikely. On the upside, there's some type of beef for everyone. [Chowhound]

• Here's an Easter brunch deal we missed: a $39 buffet at Michy's. [The Chowfather]

• Publix is the third-highest rated grocery store, according to a nationwide Consumer Reports survey. The only two that beat it: Wegman's and Trader Joe's, neither of which has a branch in Florida. [Florida Times-Union]

• The Palm Beach Post's editorial calls for a "no" vote on the proposed Peanut Island restaurant. [Palm Beach Post]

• A couple of Southwest Florida schools have started gardening programs. The benefits? At one school, 60 percent of students were eating salad for lunch. [Marco Eagle]

• The Obama administration's response to the pistachio salmonella scare signifies a shift in food policy to one that's tough on safety. [New York Times]

• A job opening for a Client Relations Manager at OpenTable sounds...inappropriate. [Gawker]

Here at MenuPages South Florida, we add new restaurants to the site every day, whether they're just-opened or just-acquired-a-fax-machine. Here's what's new this week.

• POC Buffet & Grill
• Atchana's
• Thai Jo
• Kyojin Buffet
• House of Siam

Last Friday, we gave you Passover suggestions. This time, it's Easter, which happens to be this Sunday. If you're looking for a place to eat out, here are a few ideas:

• Shooters: Chances are that this buffet will have something you'll like. There's an omelet station, a waffle station, sausage, bacon, muffins, bagels, ham, prime rib, fish, pasta, salads, a raw bar, and assorted desserts. The buffet starts at 10am and ends at 2:30pm. and is $28.99 for adults and $14.99 for children under 12.

• Henry's will be serving its regular menu along with some Easter specials on Sunday night: roast turkey dinner, roast leg of lamb, lasagna bolognese, pistachio-crusted local black grouper, and crab-crusted lemon sole.

• The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is hosting a lavish Easter brunch in its Fleur de Lis ballroom. On the menu: Champagne, charcuterie, sushi, Alaskan king crab, and white chocolate mousse cakes, among many other things. There's a special kids menu of mini pizzas, roasted chicken and veggies, and they'll be kept busy by decorating and hunting for Easter eggs. The price is $75 per adult, $37.50 per child age 4 to 12, and free for any kid under 4.

• Le Bistro is offering an Easter dinner with choices of a beet and goat cheese salad or tomato soup, and lamb chops or filet mignon. The three-course menu is $29 per person.

• Area 31 is offering unlimited mimosas, bloody Marys, prosecco and juice at its Easter Brunch. Buffet options include ceviche, caviar, charcuterie, waffles, pancakes, steak frites, a meat carving station and an omelet station. There will be live music too. The party begins at noon and lasts until 3 p.m. It's $60 for adults and $20 for kids 6-15.

• Blue Door at the Delano is offering a $75 Easter brunch from 11:30am until 3:30 p.m. The price includes a glass of Champagne or a bloody Mary and complimentary valet parking.

• Cafe Protege at the Florida Culinary Institute has a kid-friendly brunch planned with egg decorating and hunting planned. The restaurant will be offering a cold buffet, a hot buffet, and an omelet station plus a few desserts. Adults pay $32.95, senior citizens $22.95, kids 7-12 $16.95, and kids 6 and under eat for free.

• Bogart's Bar & Grill is offering Easter brunch from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Brunch items include apple pancakes, banana and cream cheese stuffed waffles, lobster and asparagus quiche, and cinnamon raisin challah French toast.

Looking for more ideas? Check out OpenTable's list of restaurants with Easter specials.

Visiting family for the holidays? Use our network to get Passover food options in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

Photo: ButterflySha/flickr

The newest location of Segafredo Espresso, on Española Way in Miami Beach, is hosting a grand opening party tonight at 8 p.m. The open bar lasts for two hours, and there will be plenty of hors d'oeuvres and entertainment. Get there early and you might be able to score a Segafredo goody bag. To RSVP, send an e-mail to events@verestaurants.com.

Speaking of Segafredo, the Bal Harbour location is hiring. Specifically, the cafe is looking for young women who speak Russian to serve beverages. Russian? We'd heard that Russians were buying condos in droves, but this is the first we've seen of employers seeking out people who spoke the language.

Frodnesor picks up on a great Twitter mini-conversation between Grant Achatz and Rocco DiSpirito. The former, of Alinea in Chicago of course, was treating his chef de cuisine and his girlfriend to a dinner in Miami and wanted restaurant recommendations. Rocco DiSpirito immediately jumped in with a vote for Casa Tua and suggested the ravioli de plin. A few days later, Achatz relays the chef de cuisine's verdict: Casa Tua's outside patio is great, but the food at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink was better. DiSpirito's response:

roccodispirito: @Gachatz wow cant wait to try m.genuine then. is that a new place in miami?

Check out the whole conversation at Achatz's and DiSpirito's respective Twitters.

I'm not Twittering yet, but... [Food For Thought]

• South Florida grocery stores are ridding shelves of any and all pistachios thanks to the salmonella scare. [Sun-Sentinel]

• The federal stimulus money is beginning to trickle down to Florida — this week, more than 1.8 million Floridians will receive an increase in food stamps. [News-Press]

• Chain restaurants are rolling out smaller, cheaper menu items to boost sales. [Reuters]

• In the wake of the recent salmonella scare, Georgia is promoting peanuts more than ever. [New York Times]

Passover starts this Wednesday night, and if you're not up for cooking a whole Seder meal, here are a few places that can help:

• David's East Side Deli: The deli is offering packaged Seder meals with a choice of chicken ($62.99), turkey ($72.99), and brisket ($79.99), with a choice of one appetizer, two salads, matzah ball soup, two sides and one dessert. Keep in mind that those prices are for two people. Extras include charoses ($17.99/lb), a full Seder plate ($25), and matzah shmurah ($15.99/lb). Check out the full menu here.

• Mary L's Gourmet Glatt Kosher Deli: Packages, intended for 10 or more people, come with entrees and six sides and start at $29.95 per person. Entree options include roast chicken, stuffed chicken breast, roast turkey, salmon, tilapia, eggplant rollatini, and the ever-popular brisket. Those who are entertaining smaller groups can order by the pound from the a la carte menu.

• Shalom Haifa: If you'd rather put a Middle Eastern twist on your Seder, check out Shalom Haifa, which will be open during Passover.

• Le Bistro: Le Bistro doesn't have a kosher kitchen, but is offering a Passover menu on April 8 and 9, complete with a Seder plate, matzah balls and brisket or roast chicken. It's $39 per person, or $15 for kids 12 and under. Check out the full menu here.

UPDATE: The Chowfather asked in the comments about Chef Allen's and North One 10. So we did some quick research and have two more options for you:

• Chef Allen's: A Seder will be served on the first two nights of Passover; proceeds from these meals will go to the Rose Rosenkranz Philanthropic League to benefit less fortunate families. A few items from the menu include a mahi-mahi cake, zucchini matzo lasagna, zaatar grilled lamb steak, preserved lemon rotisserie chicken, and olive oil poached salmon. The meal is $75 per adult and $50 per child.

• North One 10: The charoses at North One 10 is made with mango, cumin, pear, mint and papaya. The rest of the menu includes organic chicken and basil soup with toasted garlic and calabaza dumplings, braised short rib, roasted duck, yellowtail snapper and a three-potato kugel. Adult meals are $48, while children pay half that.

Visiting family for the holidays? Use our network to get Passover food options in Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston, New York, Philadelphia

Photo: Liz Henry/flickr

Dim sum is coming to the Gables: Mr. Chu's, which until a few months ago was serving up dumplings, noodles and fried rice on South Beach, is opening in a new spot in Coral Gables: 2728 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Mr. Chu is hiring servers and bartenders, so it shouldn't be too much longer before the restaurant opens.

• Where would you want to go on your 30th birthday? Here are a bunch of South Beach recommendations. [Chowhound]

• Lee tells of deals at The Grill on the Alley. [Short Order]

• We generally subscribe to Alton Brown's rule against unitaskers, but that Oxo ginger peeler does look tempting. Check out what other gadgets Jan reviews from the housewares show in Chicago. [Jan Norris]

• Healthy Choice is spending almost $100 million on a new ad campaign, including commercials starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and directed by Christopher Guest. [NYT]

• High-end restaurants are ramping up their bars, sometimes even adding free food, in order to lure in customers. [WSJ]

• People really didn't like those new Tropicana cartons. During the brief time where the redesigned cartons were in stores, the line's sales fell 20%. [Advertising Age]

• Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV vlogger, has gotten a seven-figure ten-book deal based on his Twitter. [WSJ]

Welcome to High Five, a feature where we let you in on some of the most popular restaurant listings on MenuPages in the past month, as determined by what you (yes you!) click on. Today: the most-clicked spots for Greek food in March.

1. Ouzo Blue
2. Ouzo Blue
3. Mythos Greek Taverna
4. Taverna Eros
5. My Big Fat Greek Restaurant

The recession is claiming Laffing Matterz, downtown Fort Lauderdale's comedy venue/dinner theater. The restaurant just announced that Sunday, April 19 will be its last day, so you still have time to get in a comedy show. Seating for the very last show is at 8 p.m. and will be $31 per person.

Mr. Chow, the legendary swanky Chinese restaurant with locations in New York, Beverly Hills and London, is coming to the soon-to-be-opened W Hotel on South Beach. The hotel will also feature a Mediterranean-themed restaurant — someone has been chosen to run it, but the hotel couldn't release those details yet — that'll open on June 2, with the hotel. We'll all have to wait a bit long for Mr. Chow; we're told they're hoping for a July opening, although nothing is definite yet. And we all know those restaurants always open right on schedule.

For a good idea of what we're getting, check out this profile of Michael Chow in New York Magazine:

To eat at a Mr. Chow restaurant is to participate in a roving party, one that has migrated through four decades, three continents, and an awful lot of soup dumplings. It is to acknowledge that the rich and famous will get better tables than the rest of us, and everyone will have a better time for it. In his L.A. restaurant, Mae West got a standing ovation just for finishing her dinner. And it was at Mr. Chow on 57th Street that John Lennon took his last meal before walking home across the park. It was the center of London’s swinging sixties, L.A.’s silky seventies, and the glamorous debauch of the Manhattan art world, circa 1984. Mr. Chow on 57th Street is still a party—now starring Lenny Kravitz or Jay-Z—seven nights a week.

The Sayings of Chairman Chow [NY Magazine]

Photo: Of the inside of Mr. Chow at the W Hotel South Beach

• San Pocho serves Colombian comfort food in a Calle Ocho strip mall. Check out the photo of a dessert of green figs in syrup with dulce de leche and fresh cheese. Sounds heavenly. [Miami Herald]

• Osteria degli Amici puts a Miami spin on Italian fare. The creamy homemade burrata looks delicious. [Miami Herald]

• Don't bother with the non-fish selections at Fifi's Place, especially when the seafood is exceptionally fresh. [Miami New Times]

• You'll have a great Frech meal at Saint Tropez Bistro. Just skip the quiche. [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

• Another Asian buffet roundup? Last week, it was MIami-Dade; this week, Broward. [Miami Herald]

• Margarita in a box, anyone? In an effort to get more consumers to make drinks at home, liquor companies are selling more pre-mixed products. [Wall Street Journal]

• More and more men's clothing stores are adding in-store bars to get customers to stay longer. [Wall Street Journal]

• A shande: beloved kosher candy company Bartons has not been able to fill all its Passover orders this year. [NY Post]

• Spiny lobster season is over, and it was one of the worst seasons in a long time. [Key West Citizen]

Food & Wine magazine is announcing its picks for Best New Chefs 2009 tonight. Judging from Dana Cowin's cryptic clues yesterday, we don't really think there are any South Florida chefs among the bunch, but if you're curious, MP: Boston's Leila is live-tweeting the event.

Our favorite review this week came in for a certain Thai/Sushi restaurant that will remain nameless. The title: "you cheated on husband." The review:

you service suck d**k your food taste like dog s**t

This must be a joke, right?

VERO BEACH — Two times we went to Ruby Tuesday and the wait was longer than 30 minutes, so we left. This time around, the wait was 20 minutes, so we felt lucky and stayed. Surprise! This chain takes reservations. For the most part, the food is fresh and good, with none of the dreaded microwave reheating that usually plagues a chain.

Sadly, a speaker for the canned music was directly overhead, so we were serenaded by elevator music throughout our meal.

Restaurant critic review: Ruby Tuesday breaks the chain of mealtime blahs [Treasure Coast Palm]

Photo: NNECAPA/flickr

The steakhouse craze continues. The newest entry into the fray is Boca Dolce, an Argentinean-style steakhouse in West Boca. All of the usual suspects are there in the beef section of the menu: lomo, bife de chorizo, vacio and entraña. Other options include lamb, veal, salmon and chicken, and, of course, mollejas (sweetbreads), chorizo and morcilla. Veggies? Well, there are potatoes, mushrooms, and a nod to greens with some lettuce and asparagus, but they clearly seem like an afterthought.

As steakhouse-saturated as we are down here, West Boca actually doesn't have too many good options in that category (Roadhouse Grill, anyone?), so this could fill a nice little niche in the neighborhood.

Meat Cravings Satisfied at Boca Dolce Steakhouse [Short Order]

• Fort Lauderdale-based Pizza Fusion's first international expansion spot will be in Saudi Arabia; the company signed a franchise agreement with Samir Food Co., which plans to open a Pizza Fusion in Jeddah in June. [South Florida Business Journal]

• Oops: Domino's had to give away 11,000 free pizzas after someone discovered an online code that wasn't intended for usage. [Consumerist]

• In their quest to draw in broke consumers, chain restaurants keep pumping out the promotions. Denny's has offered two free meals in as many months. [Wall Street Journal]

• America's corn crop is expected to drop for the second year in a row. [New York Times]