Food & Drink

By 6:25 p.m., the restaurant was nearly full—the crowd must not be on Cuban time, Laura Padrino Corredoira muses. “Even in the rain,” she continues, breaking into a smile. “You’ve got to love Americans.” From a tufted taupe booth, she fixates on the door, eagerly pointing out the friends and city commissioners and property managers

Despite launching more than 200 restaurants, and becoming one of his country’s undisputed kings of franchising, Stavros Florias didn’t see a future in South Africa. The CEO of Fournews Developments had spent two decades developing popular brands, including News Café, the coffee bar/cocktail venue/restaurant that populates the country and neighboring regions. (It’s unrelated to the

Classic restaurant shows its wild side with a new candy-garnished cocktail Looks can be deceiving at Villa Azur (309 23rd St., Miami Beach). Inside, the French-Mediterranean restaurant exudes the luxury of a château, with its Victorian design and neutral palette, ornate chandeliers and tufted scroll-arm sofas. But outside on the patio, when the sun goes

Coral Gables’ newest Italian restaurant, zucca, brings spice to Hotel St. Michel Hidden on a central but quiet side street in Coral Gables, you can find Hotel St. Michel, a small, European-style boutique inn dating to the 1920s. Blanketed in ivy-colored décor, much has stayed the same inside the vintage hotel, from its antique brass

When Rhythm & Vine attached a hashtag to its laid-back philosophy, it wasn’t just borrowing a marketing page from the South Florida playbook of Jimmy Buffett. The Fort Lauderdale-based indoor/outdoor venue wanted to establish an identity separate from the urban bars and restaurants on Las Olas—an ego-free neighborhood hang where young professionals could loosen their

When you’ve put your culinary reputation on the line as often as Douglas Rodriguez has during his nearly three decades as a restaurateur, your career is bound to have its share of highs and lows from a business standpoint. But as anyone can attest who’s sampled the fare at one of his critically acclaimed establishments,

Roberto Guerios has created a menu that encourages diners to leave their comfort zones. But, as he can attest, some culinary habits die hard. When he opened Pirate Republic Seafood & Grill with his wife and chef, Claudia, in 2010—after a year as a bar—they put fish and chips on the menu among the global

A new South Beach restaurant rethinks its drinks with an Asian-influenced sour A new casual restaurant in Miami Beach offers a solution when one friend craves Latin fare and another wants Asian. Open since November, Doa (2000 Collins Ave.) is the latest from restaurateur Arjun Waney of Zuma, The Arts Club, Coya and La Petite Maison

Dashi adds to the allure of River Yacht Club with Japanese cuisine that stirs the senses Less than a month into its run as the second culinary concept at River Yacht Club, the multidining destination along the Miami River, Dashi went dark at the worst possible time. It happened with a full house on a

Simeon Humphreys always has enjoyed working the brunch shift. A veteran of the fine-dining scene, the Steak 954 bar manager appreciates the slower, more-relaxed atmosphere on Sundays, between the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. He channeled that energy when creating the beachfront steak house’s first brunch cocktail menu, which debuted this spring. “They’re

Hugh Taylor Birch State Park has been compared by Northerners who visit Fort Lauderdale to a certain large patch of greenery in the middle of Manhattan. Hugh Taylor Birch’s famous former estate in Fort Lauderdale is 180 acres of trees and foliage cutting through an urban landscape. Central Park, however, doesn’t have the Atlantic Ocean

The little girl in the red polka-dot dress and matching bow gasped—the mixer churning her ice cream had started to smoke. She put her hands over her mouth, looked at her mother and giggled. “For the kids, it’s like a show,” says Bruce Behren, owner of Chill-N Nitrogen Ice Cream’s Weston location. “Even the adults