Broward Palm Beach Food Blog

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There's a new moon rising at the Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale and it's called Via Luna. 

The unpretentious, moderately priced Italian grill takes the place of the Ritz's ritzier Cero, which struggled to find an audience despite generally positive word of mouth. Via Luna will host its official grand opening party in late April, but the 130-seat restaurant is now open with a menu that will be phased in over the next couple of weeks. 

Though the concept may be more down to earth, the setting is still plenty ritzy, with dramatic ocean views from the posh dining room and spacious outdoor patio, and oversized murals inspired by French artist Jean Cocteau. 

Menu prices are a good deal less ritzy, at least for a haute hotel, with most entrees under $30 and a surprisingly number in the $25 range. What that puts on your plate are linguine with Gulf shrimp and lobster Fra Diavolo, grilled veal chop with rosemary-garlic wine sauce and yellowtail Livornese. Starters include the always-popular meatball the size of your head with marinara, mozzarella and tomato salad, filet mignon carpaccio, and antipasto and cheese plates. 

The by-the-glass wine list is short but impressive, with Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, Jayson by Pahlmeyer Chardonnay, Paul Hobbs Argentine Malbec and Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon sharing space with a quintet of sparkling wines.

Chef Allen will make his Delray Beach debut during Savor the Avenue.

​With some 50 restaurants lining just a few blocks of Atlantic Avenue, there's a lot of savoring to be done at Delray Beach's annual Savor the Avenue food orgy.

Eighteen restaurants will offer multicourse, prix fixe dinners, with each course paired to wines from Chile's Santa Rita winery. Among them are such well-known establishments as 32 East, Tramonti, and Cut 432. But there are also a few new and soon-to-debut restaurants in the mix, and for them, it's a chance to show off their wares to diners who haven't previously made an effort to seek them out. 

Here's a look at who they are and what they'll be doing. 

"They're off!" at the Village at Gulfstream Park. The restaurants, that is. 

Close on the heels of the recent opening of III Forks come the debuts of two more eateries at the sprawling Hallandale shopping-entertainment-residential complex, Cantina Laredo and Tonino Lamborghini's Caffe Corsa. 

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The Gulfstream Cantina (501 Silks Run, 954-457-7662) is the second South Florida location for the 30-site chain of ersatz Mexican restaurants. The formula is hardly original, but it seems to work: hot and cold running margaritas, designer tequilas, yupscale ambiance that's more gringo chic than recognizably Mexican, and a menu that fluffs up traditional dishes by doing things like filling enchiladas with goat cheese and Portobello mushrooms and stuffing our friend the sautéed chicken breast with shrimp and napping it with chipotle-wine sauce. 

Caffe Corsa (501 S. Federal Highway, 954-456-4500) brings the kind of uber-chic vibe to Italian cucina as you might expect from its owner, whose family is, in fact, the Lamborghini of the fabulously expensive, ridiculously fast, breathtakingly gorgeous four-wheeled sports rockets.

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Like the cars, the restaurant is as sleek and contemporary as only the Italians know how to do it, with a red, black, white, and silver color palate, leather banquettes, onyx table tops, and lots of modern art and pix of the Lamborghini clan. Housemade pastas and Neapolitan pizzas are on the menu, as are specialties like branzio with lemon, artichokes and asparagus, and veal Milanese.

Now if the folks at Gulfstream could only put one of those screaming yellow Gallardos on their racetrack against the ponies, we'd really have something.

• If you're a food professional with an idea for a great new product; a caterer looking for an affordable, licensed, and fully outfitted kitchen; an amateur cook looking to improve your skills; or someone who wants a swell place to throw a party, check out the Production Kitchen (1253 Old Okeechobee Road, Suites B8 & 9, West Palm Beach; 561-833-3585), set to debut at the end of the month. The brainchild of Havana Hideout's Chrissy Benoit, the Production Kitchen offers foodies of all types the facilities, classes, resources, and mentoring to develop their culinary ideas with a minimum of pressure and financial risk. For more information, visit theproductionkitchenwp.com.

• There's a new top toque at Fort Lauderdale's historic Riverside Hotel. He's Toby Joseph, late of Cero restaurant in the old St. Regis (now Ritz-Carlton) on A1A. He'll be responsible for overseeing the Riverside's three eateries and banquet facilities.

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Big Al's Steaks is getting a little bigger. 

"Big Al" Costilo, the cheerful purveyor of rigorously authentic Philly cheese steaks from locations in Coconut Creek and Delray Beach, will open his first franchise this summer on Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach. 

The menu featuring Philadelphia's iconic sammie and its reliance on direct-from-Philly bread and thinly sliced (never chopped) rib eye will remain the same, but the eatery itself will be considerably grander than the counter-only, sidewalk-table Big Al's on Atlantic Avenue, with 40 seats indoors and a dozen or so on an outdoor patio. 

Big Al isn't thinking small either. He's already looking at another location in Palm Beach County and hopes to expand the Big Al's chain throughout the South, beginning with Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. That's "wit Whiz," in case you're wondering.

•  Adding a Boca Raton location to its Hollywood older brother is Argentango Grill (504 Villa De Palmas; 561-416-2213), known for its 28-ounce skirt steak that comes rolled up like the sidewalks in Boca after 10 p.m., not to mention all the other kinds of meat you could ever hope to eat. There's chicken, fish, and pasta too, but if you're a confirmed vegetarian, you might want to start edging toward the exit before your hair bursts into flames.

•  Local restaurants know that Swank Farms' produce is the best you can get, and now you can get it too, as the Loxahatchee Groves hydroponic grower has instituted a community-supported agricultural program (CSA) that provides eight weeks' worth of fresh herbs and veggies for $320, payable in advance and delivered in Palm Beach County. To sign up, call 561-202-5648.

•  Think you're the next Adam Richman, able to go mano a mano with the world's largest corned beef sandwich for a shot at $10,000? If so, strap on your appetite and head for the nearest TooJay's deli, where anyone who can finish the Jaynormous sammie (with a full 1½ pounds of corned beef) is eligible to challenge ten professional eaters and five TooJay's contestants in a major-league eating competition set for Palm Beach Gardens on March 17. There, whoever downs the most six-ounce corned beef sandwiches in ten minutes walks away with ten grand, not to mention one helluva case of indigestion. For all the relevant details, go here (http://www.toojays.com/jaynormous/) and see if you're man enough to defeat food.

•    Tommy Billante's restaurant empire just keeps growing. The SoFla restaurateur, whose stylish, accessible, and wallet-friendly Italian eateries give new meaning to the phrase "familiarity breeds content," has opened his fourth local Villagio, this one in the Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise (1760 Sawgrass Mills Circle, 954-846-2176). Expect the usual assortment of antipasti, pizzas, pastas, and moderately priced entrées.

•    Look what the Stork's brought. The Wilton Manors bakery and café has opened a second location at 3325 S. University Drive in Davie, 954-473-4460. All the coffees and teas, pastries and desserts, sammies and soups and salads available at the original location are on the menu at the newbie, along with a selection of gelati.

•    Every cork dork knows a wine thief is a long glass tube that enables the winemaker (or anyone, for that matter) to sample wines aging in barrels. According to Delray cops, Alberto Velasco Moran is another kind of wine thief -- one who ripped off two expensive bottles from Tramonti Ristorante on Atlantic Avenue. Reportedly Moran stuffed a bottle of Jordan Cabernet ($110) and Sassicaia ($350) in his pants and walked out of the restaurant, where he was promptly busted. Hey, at least he's got a taste for the good stuff.

C. Stiles

Co-owner Andrew Garavuso samples one of his wood-fired pies.

​Charlie was at the private opening of the new Sicilian Oven in Coral Springs last night. The second location of the popular and (quite frankly) outstanding pizza joint is now in business at  10140 W. Sample Road, formerly home to DiSalvo's Pizza (which makes sense since that restaurant was owned by the family of Sicilian Oven co-owner Ralph DiSalvo). The official grand opening will be this Friday, February 19.

The turnout was great for the Oven's first official night in business, packed with huge parties trading bites of the Sicilian stack (the restaurant's signature fried eggplant dish) and shrimp Palermo, and couples sharing crisp, wood-fired pies.

Photo by Flickr user raychel deppe

Now that's a tower of steak.

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You may not need three forks to demolish 18 ounces of USDA Prime bone-in ribeye, but if you want to try it at Hallandale's ambitious Village at Gulfstream Park, you'll need to head for the new III Forks steakhouse (501 Silks Run, Ste. 1130, 954-457-3920). 

The fourth Florida meatery of this Dallas-based chain made its debut just a few

•    Well, that didn't last long. Carousel Can Can Café, the CityPlace restaurantainment venue whose high-kicking can-can babes were supposed to make its ersatz French food go down easier, has kicked the bucket after only six months. Reportedly the CP folks are negotiating with a new tenant, whose concept will need to show better, and longer, legs.

•    Top TV toque Todd English has opened his second Wild Olives in PBC, this one a Wild Olives Café in the old Italian Oven Café spot in CityPlace. A more casual and less pricy eatery than the posh Boca Raton Olives, this one features mostly starters, flatbreads, pastas and panini, with entrée prices all under $20.

•    Former Forte d'Asprinio chef de cuisine and Roxy's consulting chef Mark Liberman's bid to represent the U.S. next year in the prestigious Bocuse d'Or culinary competition has sadly come up short. The winner was James Kent of Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan, who beat out Liberman and 10 other American chefs. Also sad is the news that Liberman, one of South Florida's finest young chefs, has moved to San Francisco. Our loss.   

•    Medic! Delray's new Heart Stoppers Café may be on life support with the filing of a federal lawsuit alleging the local temple to caloric and cholesterolic consumption illegally swiped its unhealthy medical theme from an Arizona eatery called the Heart Attack Grill. Heart Stoppers' owners don't see it that way, though, so you can bet it's the lawyers who will make a killing.

•    As a restaurateur, Carlos Santana is a great. . . musician. At least that's how it seems at Boca Raton's Town Center mall, where the long-promised debut of Santana co-owned Maria Maria proved to be as ephemeral as a guitar solo. Though the chain of upscale Mexican eateries recently opened a fifth outlet in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Town Center location just ain't gonna happen, though a Southwestern restaurant will reportedly take over the space.

•    And to the list of stick a fork in 'em, they're done local restaurants, add two more. Bice Bistro in Palm Beach Gardens and Gigi's Tavern in Mizner Park have gone to that great dumpster in the sky. Rumors have long had it that local restaurateur Karl Alterman, one of the original owners of Gigi's when it opened more than a dozen years ago, will be involved in its replacement but for now that can neither be confirmed nor denied.

​For years, the Funky Buddha Lounge in Boca Raton has been a destination for beer drinkers looking to sample something crafty while getting down on a hookah. But tonight, the Lounge is officially launching the newest facet of its operation: homebrew.

That's right, the Funky Buddha will now be brewing and selling its own beer on premises, as well as hocking all manner of homebrew supplies, from how-to books to transfer kits. Stop by tonight and sample a homebrew -- or any of the over 40 craft beers they carry -- and groove to live music or just... well, get down on a hookah.

Find the Brewery at 2621 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton. Call 561-368-4643, or visit thefunkybuddha.com. 

​Here's what came and went in January:

• The Office (opened, 201 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach)
• Surf Sliders (opened, 6 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach)
• SoLita (opened, 1032 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale)
• Heart Stoppers Sports Grill (opened, 1100 Linton Blvd., Delray Beach)
• Borgo Antico Pizzeria (opened, 288 S. County Road, Palm Beach)
• Mambo Italianos (opened, 308 Clematis St., West Palm Beach)
• Tulio's (closed, 309 Via de Palmas, Boca Raton)
• Big City Dogs (opened, 2451 S. University Drive, Davie)
• Shinju (opened, 1269 S. University Drive, Davie)
• B.B. King's Blues Club (opened, 550 S. Rosemary Ave., Ste. 236, West Palm Beach)
• Johnny Brown's (opened, 301 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach)
• Bellini's Coal Fired Pizza (opened, 1535 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale)
• Wild Olives (opened, 575 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach)
• Taco Vida (opened, 477 S. Rosemary Ave., Ste. 197, West Palm Beach)

​• Don't forget: The Jupiter Craft Brewer's Festival takes place this weekend at Roger Dean Stadium. The fest starts Saturday at 1 p.m., and although tickets are sold out online there will be 1600 available at the gate (read: get there early if you don't have yours). There are still tickets available for tonight's Field of Beers, also at Roger Dean at 6 p.m., which will feature top chefs pairing creative food with local beer. Read more about it here.

• SoLita -- that stands for "South of Little Italy" -- has opened on Las Olas in the old Mark's spot (1032 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-357-2606). It's the product of two former Cafe Martorano staff, manager Alan Myers and chef Anthony Risoli. Expect nostalgic Italian fare and specialty cocktails. A grand opening is slated for February 10.

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•    Clogging strong arteries 12 ways is the heart-stopping menu at the new Heart Stoppers Sports Grill in Delray Beach. Have your "nurse" (yes, server hotties really do wear lab coats and carry stethescopes) bring you an order of Chili Chest Pain Fries or Flatliner hot wings or the Heart Stopper Three-Pound Killer Burger. Owner Iggy Lena is a licensed paramedic so he can presumably revive you if you eat yourself into a coma.

•    Strong drink and live jazz is what's up at Primo Liquors in Davie come Saturday, Feb. 6. From 6 to 9 p.m. there will be a free (that's right, free) tasting of a dozen different wines, booze from Jack Daniels Single Barrel whisky to Smirnoff Ready to Drink cocktails and jazz by the Moonshine Players. Sounds like a party.

•    Some of the refs' rulings might not be kosher but for the first time the food at the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl will be. Glatt kosher hot dogs, Italian sausage, knoblewurst (really garlicky salami) and grilled salami sliders, all from New York-based Kosher Sports Inc.,  will be offered. You don't have to be Jewish to order them; in fact, according to a study quoted in the New York Times, only 15 percent of kosher food buyers are motivated by religion.

•    It took almost as long as a stone crab to grow another claw, but after months of speculation, the long-awaited McCormick & Schmick's seafood house is set to make its CityPlace debut on Monday, February 8. Expect the usual McSchmick formula -- lots of fresh fish and shellfish done a dozen different ways and a thriving bar scene.

•    Check Please South Florida, the show that makes everyone a restaurant critic, has kicked off its third season, and several local eateries will be featured in upcoming shows. The February 1 show features Sage Oyster Bar in Hollywood, Stained Glass Pub in Fort Lauderdale, and Seafood World in Lighthouse Point. Next week is Palm Beach's turn, with Sailfish Marina, Sushi Rock, and Victoria's Peruvian Cuisine up for discussion. Hosted by celeb chef Michelle Bernstein, it airs every Monday at 7:30 p.m. on WBPT.

•    Victor's Café, the cutest little restaurant you'll ever tear your hair out trying to locate, is now open for dinner. Tucked away in a gorgeous, greenery-bedecked courtyard off Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, the casual, inexpensive café is now dishing its trademark Roman-style pizzas, sammies, burgers, salads, quesadillas, and more Monday through Saturday until 9 p.m.

​The beer and burger craze on South Beach is getting absurd. Can't we go back to Cubanos and cortadito, please?

You know it's time to give up when Burger King gets in on the deal. The company's new Whopper Bar will debut in mid-February in the heart of South Beach. Now you can get cheap, mass-produced beer with your cheap, mass-produced burgers.

A burger and a beer -- selections from Miller Coors and Budweiser available in aluminum bottles -- will run $7.99. Cheaper than 8 Oz. or Beer and Burger Joint, yes, but hardly in the same ball park.

What's next? McSchlitz's?

​Think of the world as a giant meatball. Mambo Italiano's does.  

The latest eatery to land on West Palm's ever-burgeoning Clematis Street is all about the 'ball--Italian "nachos" with mini-meatballs, meatball sliders, meatball parmigiana, meatball subs, meatball lasagna, spaghetti 'n' meatballs. You can even get a side order of meatballs to go with your meatballs. 

Sorry, though, no meatballs for dessert. That is just so wrong.

​•    The old Rosa Mexicano in Palm Beach Gardens is getting a new high-concept but moderately priced MexiCal replacement. Early February should see the debut of Cabo Flats, a huge (8,000 square feet) and casual space that channels Mexican food and décor through the Chicano community of Los Angeles. There will be live music, a wall of TVs and a menu that spans everything from tacos and enchiladas to upscale Latin-Asian fusion dishes.

•    His meatballs rule Fort Lauderdale and Vegas, now they're getting ready to conquer the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Those would be the meatballs of Steve Martorano, who next month will open Martorano's, reprising his wildly popular Italy-by-way-of-Philly menu in the old Jazziz Bistro space. Along with his famous meatballs, father and son will reportedly by pulling DJ duty too.

​A seemingly jinxed location and two weeks of shitty weather don't make getting a restaurant off the ground any easier, but Delray's new Surf Sliders is putting the finishing touches on its beachfront property and hopes to succeed where its two most recent predecessors have failed. 

Big City's messy, awesome burger can now be had at two locations.

​Big City Dogs, that New York- and Chicago-style sandwich shack on Commercial Highway in Oakland Park, just got a little suburban up in here. Its second location recently opened at the Shops at Arrowhead in Davie (2451 S. University Drive).

The new digs is slinging all the favorites of the original yellow stand, including overstuffed Italian beef sandwiches dripping with jus, bacon-wrapped Jersey rippers, and a hamburger so damned good, it might just kill a man. In fact, I sampled Big City's burger again just this week, and it's a surefire contender for Best Burger this year. A half-pound of grilled, freshly ground beef on a thick, sturdy bun covered with mayo, tomato, lettuce, thick dill pickle spears, American cheese, and a wad of slowly caramelized onions. It was so juicy and messy and awesome that I'm thinking about picking up another today.

The new location is open for lunch and dinner. Call 954-888-1338.

​Yesterday we posted a comprehensive list of those restaurants that opened in 2009. Here comes the bad news: We had a bunch of closures last year, some by prominent restaurants we're very sad to see go. Such is business in South Florida.

So here's our list, from A to Z, of restaurant closures in 2009. If you know of a restaurant we missed, please leave us a comment.

​We all know 2009 was sort of a strange year for restaurants. On one hand, there were dozens of significant openings, places that really added to our overall scene. On the other, there was more attrition than a super-long game of Risk.

Here's a comprehensive run down, from A to Z of what opened in 2009. We'll follow it up tomorrow with a complete list of closures.

And if you know of a restaurant we missed, please leave a comment. 

•    The coal-fired pizza craze continues to be hotter than a. . . coal-fired oven. The latest example is Bellini's Coal-Fired Pizza, now dishing up those crisp-crusted pies on North Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. The menu goes beyond the usual pizzeria suspects with dishes like truffled mac 'n' cheese, arugula salad with goat cheese, oven-roasted artichoke and a nifty Italian wine list, plus wings, assorted pastas and paninis, and, of course, pizzas that range from margherita to meatball.

•    Exchange an old hand-held communications device for a new hand-held mastication device on Monday, Jan. 11, at your local Pollo Tropical. On that day the company is accepting donations of cell phones, smart phones, PDAs and the like (including battery) and in return will reward the giver with two of its five new wraps and sandwiches. The collected hand-helds will be programmed to dial 911 and then be donated to Women in Distress, a national domestic violence center. A chicken Caesar wrap or guava pork barbecue sammie may not be able to surf the web like an iPhone, but unlike that Apple they're pretty good to eat.

•    If you hurry you can still make a free tasting of wines from the Jess Jackson family of wineries at the Wine Warehouse in Oakland Park. That would be tonight, Thursday, Jan. 7, from 6 to 8 p.m., where tastes of Kendall-Jackson's Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah will be poured, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot of the more upscale Stonestreet label. Remember, everything tastes better when it's free.

​Well, the fate of the old Jazziz space in Seminole Paradise Hollywood has finally been determined: (Correction: Bongos will debut in a new space across from Paradise Live/Opium.)

Update: Word on the street is that Fort Lauderdale bad boy Steve Martorano will be the one to move into the Jazziz Space, however Seminole Paradise has not yet confirmed that information.

Gloria and Emilio Estefan will open Bongo's Cuban Cafe, a Latin-themed supper club, in a new space in Seminole Paradise this spring.

Bongos, to be located directly across from Live and Opium will feature two outdoor seating areas in addition to the redesigned, multilevel interior, where live music will play. Aside from the band, the focal point of the room with be a new, 25-foot rotisserie (can you say chicken?) and twin glass elevators that lead up to a posh, rooftop cabana bar with "VIP tower and high-rollers suite."

There's no exact date set for launch as of yet. But the restaurant and lounge will definitely jibe with the music and entertainment theme proffered at Seminole Paradise. This Bongos will mark the third location of the Estafans' young franchise, which they hope to expand into other Hard Rock entertainment complexes worldwide. (The other Bongos is located in the American Airlines Arena.)

First the Dolphins, now Hard Rock. It's official: The Estefans are taking over South Florida.

​The Office will open the New Year in Delray, and we don't mean Steve Carell.  

We do mean Mark Militello and David Manero, the original Mango Gangster and creator of Vic & Angelo's and DeVito South Beach, who will debut their first collaboration in January in the Atlantic Avenue site once home to Louie Louie Too.

•    The entertainment scene at CityPlace just got a whole lot more interesting with the opening earlier this month of B.B. King's Blues Club. Taking over the spaces once home to Legal Sea Foods and Bar Louie, this sixth club in the B.B. King mini-empire boasts four bars, stages for acoustic and electric music, and a restaurant menu of Southern-slash-Cajun specialties, from fried chicken and barbecued ribs to po' boys and catfish and shrimp with jambalaya sauce.

•    West Palm's Nuevo Latino standout, Cabana, has moved into its new Clematis Street location, just a block or so west of its long-time spot near Flagler Street. The new Cabana encompasses 4,000 square feet, and includes a long, curving, under-lit bar and cool, earth-toned color scheme with lots of light and dark wood. The menu features such restaurant signatures as aji amarillo-marinated seafood ceviche and coconut milk-habanero curry with vegetables, chicken or shrimp.

•    If you want to spend New Year's Eve hanging out on Roxy's rooftop Sky 309 bar, you may have to make the top bid on eBay. The West Palm nitespot is auctioning off 10 of its cozy six-person booths for the evening, with bids beginning at $100. Several have already been snapped up at prices reportedly as high as $250. If you want to snag one yourself, go here. There will also be a buffet with everything from prime rib to sushi, priced at $49.95 per person, so at least you won't have to face the new year hungry.

Despite an economy that has many local restaurateurs down to seeds and stems, a second Mustard Seed Bistro has sprouted up in Broward. 

Tim and Lara Boyd's original Cooper City Seed now has a sibling in Plantation, taking over the former Grapevine Gourmet space. This new Seed is a more casual and contemporary eatery than its parent, with seating for about 50 indoors and out. And though it pretty much reprises Cooper City lunch menu of elaborate composed salads and sandwiches, at dinner (beginning Jan. 5) it will feature lower prices and simpler fare. It also has a small gourmet market.

"Not trendy but fun and creative; food people can identify with," Tim Boyd says.  What that means on your plate, courtesy of long-time Seed chef Noam Lipaz, are dishes like Florida snapper francaise with tomato-vanilla concasse and veal Milanese with organic arugula and shaved Parmesan. To complement them is Boyd's roster of boutique wines, not the usual vinous suspects but the products of such respected but largely unknown vintners (at least to the non-cork dork population) as Paul Hobbs and Philippe Melka. 

Trust me, they'll grow on you.