Broward Palm Beach Food Blog

Chicago dogs are coming into port in Boca.

​• Says a Boca Raton friend to me a few weeks ago: "There are no good hot dog places in Boca Raton!" Not so now, as Hot Dog-Opolis opened on November 16 at 6020 N. Federal Highway. The hut slings Chicago-style weiners made with Vienna Beef in a plethora of sizes from mini to jumbo as well as Maxwell Street Polish sausages with any combination of toppings you like. HDO is cheap too: A Chicago special with daily-cut French fries fried in peanut oil and drink will run you just $3.95. You'll find plenty of other Chicago-style treats, too, like Italian beef and brisket sandwiches, cheese fries, burgers, and chili. I'm getting heartburn just thinking about it. Call 561-988-5959, or visit hotdogopolis.com.

• Next Wednesday, Fort Lauderdale's fab-tabulous drag revue Lips will host Drag Down Cancer, a nightlong celebration benefiting Gilda's Club. In addition to a knock-down, drag-out show by La-di-da's best female impersonators, Lips will throw down with prizes, drinks, and a prix fixe dinner menu from 7 p.m. to midnight. $50 gets you in a ticket to the show. Call 954-567-0987.

• Let's face it: brunch is just an excuse to wake up late and keep drinking from the night before. And I'd be curious to see just how many late night hook ups return to YOLO on Sunday mornings to reprise their adventures with the restaurant's new brunch menu. Salmon BLTs, made-to-order omeletes, smoked pork hash, and breakfast burritos may fill the stomach, but they can't cure regret. Only copious amounts of booze can do that, which YOLO has in fierce supply. There's even a custom bloody mary bar where patrons can instruct tenders just how they like their liquid love. The brunch runs from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 954-523-1000.

E.R. Bradley's in full swing.

​•    New to the ever-burgeoning restaurant scene in Delray Beach is Jimmy's Bistro, a casual, affordable café on Swinton Avenue from long-time East Coast chef Jimmy Mills. Po-boys are on the menu at lunch, while dinner might see anything from braised short ribs to pasta with salmon.

 •    The Coniglio family, operators of E.R. Bradley's in West Palm and Cucina Dell'Arte and Nick & Johnnies on the island, have taken over the restaurant and bar at the just-renovated West Palm Beach Golf Course. Called E.R. Bradley's Hole-in-One, it will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and boasts big-screen TVs and a billiard room.

•    La Bonne Bouche, the Lake Worth café best known for its stellar pastries and croissants, is now open for dinner Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Chef-owner Eric Regnier's bistro-style menu might include escargot in garlic cream sauce, coq au vin and steak au poivre.

A face only a mom and pop could love.

​• The space that once housed Broward's Best New Restaurant is now a sports bar. Mugs Bar & Grill has taken over where Christine's used to operate on Oakland Park Boulevard. At one time, Christine's doled out contemporary American food to the sound of sultry jazz music. Now you can eat a "mound o' taters" and watch games on the tube in your old favorite seat. Mugs also serves burgers, pasta, and bar food, and has a sizable selection of draft beer. Maybe what the location needed was a place where everybody knows your name? Best of luck, Mugs.

• I've always wondered what strip steak and pizza would taste like together. Now we can find out, thanks to Toscany (sic) Steakhouse and Pizzeria, opening early in December on Sample Road in Coral Springs (9711 W. Sample Rd., to be exact). The menu will feature two of Argentina's specialties: rich, grilled meat and thin-crust pizza.

• Boca, this year you should be thankful for the gift of Rocco. As in Rocco Mangel, owner of Rocco's Taco's and Tequila Bar, the second location of which is finally opening the day before Thanksgiving in Town Center (5250 Town Center Circle). Rocco is all over the place these days -- even Kelly Ripa is getting a piece. What's the secret? "We're a new breed of mom and pop operation," says Mangel. Ah, yes, I always think about hard working small business when I hear the name Big Time Restaurant Group.

​•    By Dec. 1, Todd English's Wild Olives in Boca Raton should be going full bore. The former Opus 5 is currently transitioning to Wild Olives' Mediterranean-esque menu, with the full dinner menu said to be in place by Tuesday, Nov. 24, and lunch a week later. A few items on the menu: crispy skin Florida snapper, porcini-crusted organic chicken, house-made veal agnolotti and English's signature "carpetbagger oysters," fried bivalves with beef carpaccio and truffled whipped potatoes.

•    If you want to eat Greek today, I'm Greek Today is now dishing all the familiar Hellenic staples in Royal Palm Beach. Former Canadian restaurateur Chris Pappas opened the casual, moderately priced eatery in the old Naylah space, where he's trying to lighten up classic dishes by using less salt and heart-healthy oils.

•    Oyster slurpers (and shuckers) can rejoice. The federal government has decided not to implement a plan to ban sales of raw oysters from the Gulf of Mexico during warm-weather months. The ban was proposed to halt the 15 or so deaths per year caused by eating oysters infected with a bacteria prevalent in coastal waters between April and October. But oystermen and bivalve junkies from Apalachicola to New Orleans raised hell and the feds backed off. So grab your lemon and Tabasco and start slurping.

​The bons temps will roll into Pompano Beach come Monday, December 7, with the opening of The French Quarter Bar & Grill, a moderately priced N'awlins-style eatery from former Tarpon Bend general manager Gene Beach and local chef about town Michael Buterbaugh. 

The Quarter adds to Broward's meager stock of Cajun/Creole restaurants, dishing such Big Easy staples as jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, and gumbo, along with such all-American faves as crab cakes, burgers, and wings. It will be open daily for lunch and dinner, with prices ranging from $7 to $12 for apps and $10 to $25 for entrees. 

Look for live music on weekends and acoustic music on the covered outdoor patio, plus a 2 a.m. closing time to wring every last second out of those bons temps.

French Quarter Bar & Grill
2341 N. Federal Highway, Pompano Beach 33064

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Photo by Flickr user kondro86

​Almost lost in the hype about all the newbies and newbies-to-be heading for Atlantic Avenue and environs in Delray -- Linda Bean! Mark Militello! Allen Susser! -- is cute little Atlantique Café.

It's the second local eatery for Francis Touboul, who also owns La Cigale a few blocks away, though unlike its tonier big brother, the café is a breakfast-and-lunch-only joint, serving simple, hearty, inexpensive fare that's more

​•    Allen Susser, one of the original Mango Gangers (with Norman Van Aken and Mark Militello), will open a gastropub, Taste, in the Pineapple Grove area of Delray Beach sometime early next year. Look for small plates of comfy food and a roster of swell cocktails.

•    Also in Delray, Joey Giannuzzi's Green Gourmet made its debut in the Shoppes at Addison Place. It features traditional and contemporary American dishes prepared with organic, all-natural ingredients, available to eat in or take home. The eatery itself is green too, making extensive use of recycled and repurposed materials.

•    Trying to entice locals to enjoy its quirky Old Florida charms, the restaurants and businesses on Lantana's East Ocean Avenue are holding a "reopening celebration" this Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. There will be live entertainment, free food and wine samples, specials sales, raffles and more.

Bill Citara

​

The folks who have been dishing up huge and hugely delectable meat blankets to sammie-savvy Browardites for 36 years have brought their overstuffed hoagies across the border to Boca Raton. 

The fourth LaSpada's Original Hoagies is now slapping together their appetite-busting eight- and 12-inch subs in The Commons shopping center, just across the street from the mammoth Town Center mega mall. The same fresh-baked bread, mounds o' meat, and signature sweet and hot peppers that grace LaSpada's dozen-plus hoagies and earned them Best Sandwich honors in New Times' 2009 Best Of listing are already attracting a steady trickle of customers to the modest little shop. 

Modest too are prices, topping out at $10.95 for a "Monster," 12 throbbing inches of ham, roast beef, turkey, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, pickles, sweet or hot peppers, oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, and oregano approximately the size of a duffel bag.  It's so big your appetite may need a fluffer.

LaSpada's Original Hoagies Boca Raton
2240 NW 19th St., Boca Raton
561-393-1434
www.laspadashoagies.com

​If you want to get high at Roxy's, come Saturday, Nov. 28, you actually can. Legally, even. That's when the Clematis Street complex that includes Roxy's Pub, 10@2 Saloon and Rome Nightclub is throwing a street-wide beerfest to celebrate the debut of its rooftop bar and restaurant, Roxy's on the Roof.  

The 7,500-square-foot space will feel like de islands, mon, complete with palm trees, waterfalls, bamboo, a gazebo, twin bars and 1,500-square-food teak dance floor. There will be live entertainment some nights too, as well as an extensive roster of mojitos and martinis to go along with lunch, brunch and dinner service, which, btw, won't begin immediately but is slated to kick off some time in December. 

Photo by Jacob Katel

Chef Mark Militello

​ Chef Mark Militello has left 1 Bleu at the One Resort and Spa (formerly The Regent Bal Harbour) to join The Office, a gastropub in Delray said to be opening in late November.

Last December Militello took the reigns as executive chef of culinary operations at The Regent Bal Harbour. That was only six months after the last of his four namesake restaurants, Mark's in Boca Raton's Mizner Park, closed. The Regent Bal Harbour was sold in June.

The Office is the concept of restaurant impresario David Manero, owner of Vic and Angelo's restaurants in Delray and Palm Beach. The menu will feature burgers, seafood and brews.

As for 1 Bleu, there is no word yet on who will take Militello's place. Director of food and beverage Oscar Morales said they have a couple of candidates but a final decision hasn't been reached.

We wonder if Militello's new title will be Chief Culinary Officer...and where he'll be next year.

By Paula Niño

Chef Oliver cooks at Ikea tonight.

​• There's more to IKEA than cheap furniture for suddenly impoverished yuppies. Today from 6 to 8 p.m. Café Maxx chef-owner Oliver Saucy will be at the Sunrise store doing a free presentation under the auspices of Family Circle's Food University to help you cook something you might actually want to eat. Ingredients, spices, appetizers, and easy and healthful recipes are on the menu. Why not learn from the best?

• One of Clematis Street's staple eateries, Cabana Las Palmas, is moving a few blocks up the road to expand its space and leave room for owner Glenn Frechter's new Italian restaurant. The new, improved Cabana, at 533 Clematis, will debut "soon," according to its website, while sometime early next year should see the opening of Mangia Bevi in the old Cabana space at 118 Clematis. Look for a New York-style Italian eatery with pizzas from a wood-burning oven and nothing over $20.

• If you just can't face the wreckage of Saturday night without the hair of the dog on Sunday morning, Delray Beach is the place to be. Last week, the City Commission voted to allow restaurants and bars to begin selling happy juice at 7 a.m. on the Sabbath, so now -- you lush -- you don't have to wait until noon to keep your buzz on. Don't get too giddy, though. If you want to crawl into your neighborhood Publix or 7-Eleven and get a six-pack of Bud for breakfast, you're still SOL. 

Nicko McBrain behind the kit.

​For nearly 30 years, drummer Nicko McBrain has toured the world as part of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, Iron Maiden. He's played arenas and festivals, in front of tens of thousands of people in places Bangalore, India and Gothenburg, Sweden, and hundreds of thousands in Brazil. And throughout that time traveling from city to city, McBrain didn't just perform great; he also ate exceptionally well.

Now McBrain -- who lives in South Florida when he's not embarking on world-wide tours with Maiden -- is taking that knowledge of food he's gleaned over the years and partnering up with close friend, guitarist, and restaurateur Rick "Moby" Baum to open Rock 'N' Roll Ribs. A barbecue joint with a musical bent, RnR Ribs will showcase the pair's love for smokey Southern cooking with food like barbecued pork and chicken and clever takes on Maiden songs like "Run to the Hills" wings. Clean Plate Charlie spoke with McBrain and Baum about their plans for the rib shack, their BBQ background, and how it all came together in the first place.

New Times: So Nicko, sounds like you're something of a foodie.
Nicko: Oh, without a doubt. I'm a right snob when it comes to food. I know what I like and what I don't like.

So when did you first get into barbecue?

​•  A little recognition for the local folks comes from the James Beard House, where chef Adam Savage, top toque at Seacrest Grill in the Delray Beach Marriott, has been invited to strut his stuff on Dec. 3. On the menu, among other dishes, butter-poached Maine lobster with autumn cup squash puree, vanilla bean and pumpkin chips, and cocoa-rubbed rack of lamb with golden beet and potato soufflé, huckleberry foam and Kona coffee sauce.

​• Who says the hamburger has to be the symbol of American junk food? Not Hans Hess, founder of Arlington, VA based chain, Elevation Burger. The recently franchised burger hut pays much credence to its slogan, "Ingredients Matter," building its double-meat patties out of 100% organic, free-range, grass-fed beef. The company also promises all its ingredients -- including toppings like caramelized onions and hot pepper relish -- are fully sustainable, and local when possible. There's even a burger called the "Vertigo" that allows you to stack up to 10 patties on one bun (that can't be sustainable... for my belly). Elevation has quickly expanded since opening its first location in 2005; the one and only South Florida venue is currently in the works and will go into the old Baja Fresh spot in the Walk in Coral Springs. It's slated to open in January.

​As a philosophy, "Love often, laugh a lot" is not half-bad, certainly better than Jon Gosselin's "Loser often a little shit" or David Carradine's "Lonely onanist loves a knot." As a name for a restaurant it's not bad either; nobody gets into the business unless they love it, and if you don't have a sense of humor you'll go around snarling at puppies and flowers like Dick Cheney. 

There's no snarling at puppies and flowers at Wendy Rosano's LOLA, her sleek new restaurant and ultra lounge in Delray, just a few steps away from her hearty Italian Cucina Mio. Inside, the LOLA is all about light and color--ever-changing LED lights and bright, vibrant colors. The lounge features flashing LED lights on a wall and the ceiling, plus live entertainment four nights a week and a roster of modern "mixology" cocktails. The restaurant seats 130 and opens onto an outdoor patio and bar.

Florida Design

​With all the restaurants closing their doors lately, it's easy to get a little jaded. But it's a shock when a powerhouse like Bova Ristorante quits, which, according to employees at the restaurant, is just what happened Saturday night.

The restaurant, at 1450 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton, closed for good following service on Saturday evening. It's unclear at this time exactly what led to the closure, but Clean Plate Charlie will keep you posted.

Bova's loss is a big one. In 2006, we called it the Best New Restaurant in Palm Beach in a write-up that poked a bit of fun at the long lines and high prices (the two in tandem are usually a good sign). In recent years, the Bova brand has expanded under the management of attorney Scott Rothstein and includes the popular Las Olas location and two upcoming ventures, one in South Beach's famed Versace Mansion called Bova @ Casa Casuarina and the other in in the former Jackson's Steakhouse spot called Bova Smoke. Bova Group officially announced its two new locations today.

According to employees still at the restaurant, the group is already planning on opening a new concept in the Bova Ristorante spot in early 2010.

​Pete's Tuscan Hibachi Grill was the Joey Bishop to Cafe Bella Sera's Sinatra: classy, oddly entertaining, a good sense of humor. But now, the unique concept that fused Japanese hibachi-style cooking with Italian-American eats is officially closed.

The Parkland restaurant, which sat right next door to owner Pete Lombard Jr.'s successful Cafe Bella Sera, shut its doors in mid September after struggling to pull its weight in difficult times. Lombard says the restaurant, which he opened in January, was costing him between $20,000 and $25,000 a month to keep afloat. Last month, he was forced to decide to close the concept or risk having it affect Bella Sera as well.

"This is my baby," said Lombard via telephone, citing the poor economy and forclosure problems in Parkland as the main reason for the restaurant's closure. "Closing it now is what I needed to do to keep afloat."

For the past six years, Lombard has developed quite a following for Bella Sera's serious (and seriously expensive) take on Italian classics. But the former executive chef at Anthony's Runway 84 isn't ready to give up on his off-kilter brainchild just yet. Provided business picks up, Lombard hopes to re-open Pete's and have those hibachi tables refired and grilling again by mid December.

"I think the concept is great," he says. "It's never been done before. It was just bad timing."

​Can the folks behind Rocco's Tacos do for seafood and rum what Rocco's did for tacos and tequila? We're about to find out with the debut of Reef Rd Rum Bar, which opened right across Clematis Street from the wildly popular nouveau taqueria.  

Local moguls Big Time Restaurant Group, Rocco Mangel and nitespot hotshot Cleve Mash are all partners in the deal, taking over the old Clematis Social and turning it into a moderately priced seafood shack with a laid-back Key West-y vibe. It doesn't look a whole lot different than it did as Social. . . some different fabrics on the banquettes, bamboo screening behind the bar and on the ceiling, rough-cut wood paneling along one wall, columns concealed with tiki statues is about it. 

The menus aren't reinventing the culinary wheel either.
 

​•    In our all Todd English, all the time news format, word comes that the Boston top toque's latest foray into South Florida, originally said to be Figs and set to take over the CityPlace spot once held by Italian Oven Café, will now be called Wild Olives and is slated to debut in mid-November. In other developments, the celeb chef is reported to have accused his ex-fiancé of assaulting him with her watch, blackening his eye and leaving him (literally) in stitches. You gotta hand it to the guy, though, he takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

•    Just in time for the holidays, the Scrooges at Boca's oh-so-tony Mizner Park have decided to end free valet parking for its Mercedes-Porsche-Bentley-driving clientele. The reason, supposedly, is the Mizner misers can't afford the cost of stashing an estimated 100,000 vehicles this year while their drivers troll the mall. There will still be valet parking, except as of Nov. 1 it will cost all of $6, which probably means those parkers can kiss their tips goodbye. And you can still park for free in the mall's garages, though it means admitting you're not important enough to have someone open your car door for you.

•   You'd think people who steal shit from restaurants would make off with food, right? Not in Palm Beach County, apparently. A few weeks back some perp made off with not one, but two, statues of the Buddha from a Boca Raton eatery. Now some brain surgeon just got popped for ripping off (alright, allegedly ripping off) two parrots and a cockatoo worth some $15,000(!) from a Mexican restaurant in West Palm. William Forbes (that would be the brain surgeon. . . alleged brain surgeon) was charged with dealing in stolen property when the guy he--I know--allegedly offered to sell them to for a piddly $500 turned him in to the fuzz. At least if he swiped some chicken fajitas he'd have gotten a full stomach out of the deal.

​•    The much-anticipated (and feared) Night of the Long Knives for local restaurants is here. Among the latest and most distressing is the closure of Italian Oven Café in CityPlace. The stylish "fast casual" café delivered easy-to-like pizzas, pastas and paninis of a quality that belied their reasonable prices but the recession and a reported two-year delay in opening screwed them over without much hope of recovery. Café owner Jim Frye is said to intend to reopen elsewhere in West Palm, which Clean Plate Charlie, for one, certainly hopes he does.
 
•    What we laughably call "the economy" is also said to be responsible for the closure of a trio of well-known Broward County eateries. Frankie's 124 (ne: Frankie's Pier 5) in Hallandale Beach is toast after 40 years, though co-owner Louis Perrone says on the restaurant's website, "We might spring up again soon." Cohiba Brasserie in Pembroke Pines has also gone up in smoke.

•    Even in la-te-da Palm Beach, where the economy is so bad the Islanders have to struggle by on only one Bentley, a high-end market can't make a go of it. Market Salamander, which offered a limited but quality selection of meat, seafood, cheeses, wines and assorted "gourmet" products, has slunk off into the sunset, forcing its well-heeled clientele to actually rub shoulders with the peasants at Publix. Oh, the horror!

​
It's become a sad fact of reality in the restaurant scene: businesses are closing every day, and by the dour way in which the best and brightest restaurateurs are talking, there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.

That makes what happened last week at Tamarac's Kuluck Persian Restaurant and Lounge that much more special. News came from Chowhound over the weekend that Kuluck held a fundraiser last Saturday night to save the restaurant. And the community responded: the last ditch effort worked.

"We were in trouble," says Kuluck's co-owner, Ali Shirdel. "So what we did is put the word out in the Persian community, and held a fundraiser last Saturday. We had enough contributions to renew our contract and be able to hang on."

Tired of Chipotle stains? Order Chipotlaway, today!

​•    If Clematis Street weren't smokin' already, it will be by year's end with the debut of Off the Hookah, the second SoFla location for the Fort Lauderdale-based company. We're not talking subtle here. Look for waterfalls, belly dancers and "flair" bartenders to go along with a Middle Eastern-Mediterranean menu and roster of fruit-flavored herbs for smoking, all part of at $1.5 million redo of the old Gallerie space. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

•    The restaurant-eating site at 1198 N. Dixie Hwy. in Boca Raton is getting another meal. This one is Park Avenue BBQ, which hopes to open next month in the space that ate Tom's Place, then Bucky's BBQ, then D. Wade's Place. The Boca eatery will be the 10th in SoFla and will feature all the usual barbecue suspects, as well as fried chicken and catfish and a handful of seafood and steak dishes. 

•    And for a classic "man bites dog" story (or perhaps more appropriately, "corporation doesn't screw workers"), the Chipotle restaurant chain has reached an agreement with East Coast Growers and Packers, one of the top tomato growers in Florida, to increase the wages of tomato pickers. The Coalition for Immokalee Workers has long been pressuring companies to up workers' pay; the agreement boosts the per pound rate by a penny. It doesn't seem like much but it amounts to a 64-percent increase per 32-pound bucket. Actually, it still isn't much, but when you don't have hardly anything, anything more is better than nothing.

C. Stiles

Garavuso sampling his own creation at the Sicilian Oven.

​Check it out: The Sicilian Oven, one of the best pizza joints in Broward County, is planning to open its second location by early next year.

Worstpizza.com is reporting that Andrew Garavuso and crew will move into the 3,100-square-foot storefront formerly occupied by DiSalvo's at 10140 W. Sample Road in Coral Springs. Garavuso hopes to have those hearths churning out pies by January.

We reviewed the Sicilian Oven in Lighthouse Point last month, and if you haven't had a chance to try one of their superlative pies yet then... damn, what the heck are you waiting for? The joint uses wood -- not coal -- to cook its pizzas to a satisfying crisp. According to Garavuso, the temperature of wood is much more stable than coal, which is the reason Sicilian Oven's pizzas are never soggy in the middle or burnt on the outside. What you get is a nice, uniformly cooked pizza with a moderate amount of char, every time.

While I feel bad for Lapp, who laments the new location is even farther from his house (ha ha, not really), I'm excited since it's that much closer to mine. And everyone in West Broward who has had to suffer bad pizza for far too long. 

​In case you haven't heard the news, Gourmet Magazine, that 68-year-old veteran of food and travel writing, is hanging up its apron following the publication of its November issue. Mag owner Conde Nast announced that the glossy -- still one of the most respected venues for food writing in the world -- was no longer economically viable. 

Personally, Gourmet has always been an inspiration for me, a mag where food and culture converged. Its stories were always about food first but managed to describe something greater in the process. Editor Ruth Reichl never fell for the trap of chronicling solely what's hip but instead delved into what's interesting. That rag had some passion -- it was worlds better than its contemporaries, which often chose to cling to celeb chefs and trends instead of braving new paths. Based on the closure, it's obvious how that business decision turned out.

My only complaint: My last subscription was shorted by two issues, damn it. So if anyone in subs is listening, you may want to get on that. Soon. Please?

​•    Stick a fork in 'em, they're done. Memphis BBQ & Blues, which took over the West Palm location of the late (and inexplicably lamented) Tom's Place, will smoke no more (not that they did that much or that well to begin with). Also gone belly up is Culinary Café in Delray, the Continental-esque eatery of local toque Dominick Laudia. Ditto NexStore Marketplace in Boca, a "gourmet" grab 'n' go eatery that got into a pissing match with food service giant Sysco and never really recovered. RIP.

•    From the "crime doesn't pay, dumbass" file. PBC sheriffs busted a 360-pound Lake Worth man for twice in one week robbing a pair of local restaurants within blocks of his own house. Lawrence Balduf (that would be size 6XL) was said to have confessed to the robberies of a Subway shop and El Churrasco Cafe, where he allegedly (yeah, right) stuck 'em up with his finger under a jacket making like he had a gat, all to feed his addiction to. . . Fatty pieces of cheap steak? Mounds of deep-fried plantains? Those vile-tasting meat- and cheese-like substances that made Jared Fogle into the world's most annoying slop-humping zeppelin? Nah, Roxycodone. Jeez. . .

•    It may seem like the mating of a snake and a hippopotamus but Sixty Minutes and Vanity Fair have teamed up to poll Americans on. . . well, just about any goddam thing. Their first effort revealed that 33 percent of us said the hardest thing to give up during our Great Recession is dining out. It was the highest percentage of any response, which I'm sure will make all the owners and employees of the restaurants that have gone down the shitter lately feel sooo much better. The lowest response, four percent, was "alcohol," presumably because the respondents were already high on Roxycodone. And five percent said installing scales in restaurants would help combat obesity; no word on whether they'd help combat restaurant robberies by obese addicts.

​

• As part of the continuing Food Writers' Full-Employment Project, another restaurant has announced it's coming to Clematis Street. This one is Don Ramon, the mid-scale Cuban eatery that's pegged to debut in the old Paradise Bar spot in November. There will be no reinventing the wheel here, just all your Cuban favorites, moderately priced, with cocktails and a few specials to cater to the hip (?) downtown crowd.

• A pair of Mexican restaurants responsible for creating two of the world's most iconic dishes have gone under, victims of a universally rancid economy and the reluctance of tourists to get pig flu or have their pale, pudgy bodies well-ventilated by automatic weapons fire from Mexican drug gangs. One is Caesar's in Tijuana, where in 1924 Caesar Cardini first tossed romaine lettuce with croutons and a dressing of egg, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, Parmesan and Worcestershire sauce. The other is Restaurant Moderno in Piedras Negras, where waiter Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya is credited with assembling tortilla chips, cheese and chilies into a dish that makes lovers of authentic Mexican cookery want to shove their heads into a mocajete. 

• This time the mouse catches the cat. That would be Walt Disney World in Orlando snagging Iron Chef Cat Cora, who just opened the Mediterranean-esque Kouzzina (Greek for "kitchen") in the well-scrubbed BoardWalk complex. Proving that branding is truly the wave of the future, the restaurant will feature "Cat's Ouzo-tini" and her own wine lable ("Coranation") to go along with dishes like goat cheese-stuffed grape leaves, cinnamon-stewed chicken and grilled lambburger. Will her cuisine reign supreme? Frankly, who gives a shit...

​The shithammer continues to fall on local restaurants.  

At CityPlace, the revolving door keeps spinning with the departure of Bar Louie, a somewhat unwieldy blend of pub, sports bar, and midscale café with a menu that offered something for everyone but hardly anyone bothered to sample. That leaves the BL in Boynton's goliath Renaissance Commons complex as the chain's lone local outpost, though the couple of times Charlie stuck his head inside, it didn't seem as if the world were beating a path to its door either.  

As for CityPlace itself, it recently gained Carousel Can Can Café (which Charlie reported on last week), while construction of the coming B.B. King Blues Club in the old Legal Sea Foods site continues apace. McCormick & Schmick's is supposed to make its CityPlace debut "soon" too, but Charlie advises it's probably not a good idea to hold your breath.

​Tag and bag Las Gaoneras, the modestly ambitious and thoroughly delightful Mexican restaurant across the street from the goliath Renaissance Commons complex in Boynton Beach.

The first U.S. outpost of a Mexico-based chain, it didn't even make it a year before folding.  A bit higher up the food chain than the taquerias -- faux and otherwise -- that are as common in these parts as summer thunderstorms, it got good word of mouth (see Gail Shepherd's review here) but suffered from its niche-adverse position in the market (neither fast food nor truly upscale), a crappy strip-mall location a tortilla's throw from a Chipotle and a Chili's, and food that was probably just too... Mexican for a Chipotle- and Chili's-loving audience. 

At Charlie's pair of visits, the bare-bones space -- no bones, actually -- was practically empty, despite a menu of mostly familiar dishes (albeit done better, with the occasional twist) at wallet-friendly prices. Charlie is really gonna miss this place, the small but well-chosen wine list, the killer guacamole spiked with tomatillo salsa, the charro beans as tender and meaty tasting as prime fillet, and the positively wicked "La Mexico" tacos stuffed with sliced tenderloin, chorizo, and chicharron.

It's enough to make him cry in his Negro Modelo.

​I was never a fan of Dogma Grill in Fort Lauderdale. The "gourmet" hot dog joint prided itself on unique hot dogs made with a wide range of ingredients, from chili to feta cheese. But I just found its take on regional dogs a little uninspired, and frankly (har har) manufactured. On top of that, there were the prices: Paying $5 for a poorly cooked weiner topped with sour cream is not my idea of a cheap or effective meal. Well, seems I'm not the only one who thought so. I was driving by the Dogma spot this weekend on Federal Highway near Davie Road and found it was closed. All that was left at the vacant spot was the Zagat sticker on the door. 

Dogma, which at one time sported four locations, is now down to one, on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. The closure comes a little over a year after the Washington Avenue Dogma Grill shuttered its doors. Owner Jeffrey Akin could not be reached for comment.

Hot dog fans in Fort Lauderdale shouldn't worry. There's still plenty of places to get a quality dog, including the superior Hot Dog Heaven and Big City Dogs. 

​Cancan dancers in poufy white tutus, waitresses in red satin bustiers and butt-hugging short black skirts, a DJ station, two bars, a colorful wooden carousel horse suspended from the ceiling... Karim El Sherif is selling the grésiller along with the steak frites at his new Carousel Can Can Café, which debuted recently in West Palm's CityPlace with a couple of rounds of free food and booze. 

Nowadays there's nothing like the word free to get a place packed tighter than any of those slinky bustiers, so a sizable crowd showed up to scarf down nibbles (chicken cordon bleu croquettes, fried calamari, chicken "lollipops" among them) and swig down wine, champagne, and cocktails. (And, of course, there's always one Palm Beach asshole ragging on the overwhelmed staff because this is all about me, me, me.)