Miami's Restaurant Power Rankings ~ A Miami Restaurant Blog ~ A Miami Food Blog

May 14, 2013 Quick Hits

Ryan @ MRPR — Wed, 15 May 2013 03:02:11 +0000

QUICK HITS:

♦ This week, Short Order took one for the team and scoped out Gold & Pepper, a new restaurant on South Beach where the whole shtick is that their food is sprinkled with 23k gold. Guess what? “[T]he flavors fall flat,” according to the Short Order blogger. Looks like somebody is confusing the words gold and salt…

♦ The Coral Gables outpost of SushiSamba is getting ready to open its doors as early as next week, according to Eater Miami. In a photo provided to Eater Miami by the restaurant, it’s refreshing to see a big Sysco box sitting behind the bar. There’s no shame in that, SushiSamba!

May 7, 2013 Quick Hits

Ryan @ MRPR — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:46:22 +0000

QUICK HITS:

♦ Unfortunately, the only award that a Miami restaurant took home at the 2013 James Beard awards, handed out last night, was for looks and not food (insert Miami joke here). Congrats to Juvia, which won the award for best restaurant design in the 76 seats and over category. The complete list of winners is here (PDF). The other Miami nominees were Hedy Goldsmith for best pastry chef and Jeff McInnis for best chef in the South region.

♦ Opening this Friday? Cipriani on Brickell and Umami Burger on South Beach. Also set to open soon is the second location of Panther Coffee, which will be in Sunset Harbour.

May 2013 Power Rankings

Ryan @ MRPR — Thu, 02 May 2013 03:20:27 +0000

(Note: If you’d like to read about the methodology, you can find it at the beginning of this post.)

1. NAOE

2. Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink

3. Eating House

4. NeMesis Urban Bistro

5. The Dutch

6. Momi Ramen

7. Lucali

8. Blue Collar

9. Bourbon Steak

10. Michy’s

11. MC Kitchen

12. The Federal

13. Josh’s Delicatessan & Appetizing

14. My Ceviche

15. Harry’s Pizzeria

16. Pubbelly

17. db Bistro Moderne

18. Las Tapas De Rosa

19. PB Steak

20. Sakaya Kitchen

On the bubble: Buena Vista Bistro; Mandolin Aegean Bistro; Captain Jim’s Seafood

April 30, 2013 Quick Hits

Ryan @ MRPR — Wed, 01 May 2013 01:40:01 +0000

QUICK HITS:

♦ STK, the steakhouse with the fewest letters, is closing temporarily to move from its current home in the Gansevoort/Perry/whatever-it’s-going-to-be-called-next, to a new site on 23rd and Collins, so says Miami.com. Short Order says it’ll be reopening in the same property, just a different part of it. That makes sense since the hotel is right off of 23rd Street. Perhaps the repositioning will free up room for my three new restaurant concepts: CHKN, FSH, and PRK.

♦ South Street, the neo soul food spot in the Design District, has closed its doors. As has Midtown bakery Acme Bakery & Coffee. I suggest you call your favorite restaurant tomorrow and tell them you love them. You never know when it’ll be too late.

April 23, 2013 Quick Hits

Ryan @ MRPR — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:44:28 +0000

QUICK HITS:

♦ May is National Burger Month (mothers get a day, burgers get a month) and Blue Collar is debuting a specially designed burger each week of the month. To kick things off, Blue Collar has asked yours truly to design a burger which will be available from May 1 through May 8. What’s in the miamirankings.com burger? Well it begins with a ground duck patty, topped with shallots, muenster cheese, and mayonette on a Portuguese muffin. What’s mayonette, you ask? According to Urban Dictionary, it’s the lovechild of mayonnaise and mignonette, and its delicious. So go check out the miamirankings.com burger, beginning May 1, as well as the other burgers to follow throughout the month of May. Best of all? One dollar from each special burger sale will go to Common Threads, a charity we are very happy to support.

♦ Lesley Abravanel over at Miami.com has powered up the rumor mill again, this time to bring news that Michael Schwartz is ~~opening a restaurant~~ consulting for sbe group (owners of SLS Hotels) in Las Vegas. According to Schwartz’s brand director, Jackie Sayet, he is not only consulting but “strictly consulting.” Strictly is even in italics, which denotes a serious tone. The other rumors that Lesley mentions are the long-mentioned Cipriani restaurant at Icon Brickell is maybe finally actually going to open and a blind item that is sparse on details: a “top chef” is heading to a hotel on South Beach to open a restaurant. We’ll see if it stays open longer than a quickfire challenge (zing!).

April 16, 2013 Quick Hits

Ryan @ MRPR — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 02:50:58 +0000

QUICK HITS:

♦ The unnamed Michael Schwartz restaurant at The Raleigh hotel on South Beach has a name finally, and the name is … wait for it … Restaurant Michael Schwartz. Lesley Abravanel of Miami.com has a preview of the menu, which appears to follow the small-medium-large format of Michael’s Genuine but doesn’t overlap with the dishes at MGFD (aside from some snacks, including the deviled eggs). Dishes include grilled rib eye cap with charred Brussel sprouts with Zima tomatoes (which, as we all recall from senior year of high school, are tomatoes soaked in Zima), parsley sauce, parsley chips and garlic chips, and buffalo rabbit, among many other items.

♦ Short Order reports that Paris restaurant L’Entrecote de Paris will be opening a location on Brickell in May, the first of its kind in the United States. Apparently a restaurant of the same name on South Beach (now defunct) is unrelated to this restaurant which specializes in–and, in fact, only serves–steak frites (with a salad of course, because that makes it healthy). If you’re a francophile, on the caveman diet, or are afraid of choices, this spot should satisfy a craving.

♦ Tongue & Cheek opened to the public this week, but not before first opening its skirt to Miami Herald business reporter Elaine Walker, who wrote in great detail about the process of opening the restaurant. For example, they project 3-3.5 million in revenue during the first year, which explains their $1.5 million Caesar salad (you can add grilled chicken for another $500k). All kidding aside though, it’s a fascinating peak behind the curtain of a new restaurant opening, especially one on South Beach. For a glimpse of the real menu, click here.

April 9, 2013 Quick Hits

Ryan @ MRPR — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 02:49:57 +0000

QUICK HITS:

♦ Over a year ago, we dropped a note about Frita Shop, Alberto Cabrera’s “forthcoming” casual spot serving the popular Cuban hamburger. But fast food does not equal fast opening, and over a year passed with no developments. In fact, Cabrera went and opened Bread + Butter in Coral Gables in the meantime. But Short Order reports that Frita Shop is back on and will appear in the Gables sometime this summer. Better yet? “The goal is to have multiple locations,” says Cabrera to Short Order. And as the old adage goes, count your chickens before they hatch.

♦ Cochon 555, the gluttonous meatfest where five local chefs compete against one another to best showcase their knack with heritage pig breeds, is returning to Miami on April 21 at the Four Seasons on Brickell. This year, the competition is fierce, and for some reason entirely male: Aaron Brooks (Edge Steak & Bar), Timon Balloo (Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill), Jeff McInnis (Yardbird Southern Table & Bar), David Thomas (The Bazaar), and Cesar Zapata (The Federal). Conor Hanlon (The Dutch) will also be on hand for the “Heritage BBQ.” The butcher for the event will be Sarah Bigelow from The Meat Hook in Brooklyn, NY.

April 2, 2013 Quick Hits

Ryan @ MRPR — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:38:12 +0000

QUICK HITS:

♦ Food & Wine magazine has announced their selections for best new chef (not to be confused with their “people’s choice” awards which involve online voting and are therefore wholly unreliable). Once again, there is no Miami representation on the list (last time would be 2004 if you count Scott Conant, who has an outpost of Scarpetta at the Fontainbleau, and 2000 when Andrea Curto-Randazzo, formerly of Talula, won). Maybe next year?

♦ According to Eater Miami, Yardbird Southern Table & Bar is planning an expansion to Las Vegas. No word yet on where in Vegas exactly it is going to lay its next egg, but it appears that 50 Eggs is very expansion-minded. The tipster tells Eater Miami that Yardbird is scouting New York, London, and potentially Dubai for other outposts.