N. A MORSEL; A MOUTHFUL; THE BEGINNING OF A HEAVENLY MEAL
They're the chefs, bakers, and culinary magicians who most teased your taste buds.
Jonathan Eismann Pacific Time
After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America, Jonathan Eismann worked in the NY food scene before heading to Miami and opening Pacific Time on Lincoln Road in 1993. The beloved spot closed but was resurrected this spring as a Pan-Asian eatery in the Design District. Read more
Arrival Time
Pacific Time Opens
Do antiaging creams work? Is reincarnation really possible? Why do other people’s cars always look cleaner than yours?
Not all of life’s burning questions have answers. But one does: When will Pacific Time reopen?
When the Cali-style resto closed its Lincoln Road location last year, chef/owner Jonathan Eismann promised to reopen in the Design District — and the waiting began. Today the indoor/outdoor venue, complete with theater kitchen, wood-burning oven, and full-service bar, finally opens.
Eismann’s evolved the Pan-Asian menu: sweet corn and leek soup with peeky toe crab dumpling; sheep’s milk gnudi with baby spinach, speck, and brown butter; and skate with celery root puree. The bar menu includes hot and sour popcorn shrimp and steak frites, plus classic cocktails, sustainable wines, and Florida-brewed beer.
Will dinner appease the masses until lunch service starts (in June)?
Good question.
Pacific Time, 35 Northeast 40th Street (305-722-7369).
Kris Wessel Red Light
After stints in hoity-toity eateries in New Orleans, Miami, and Europe, Wessel settled in Miami and delighted us with his restaurant Red Light, which serves regional fare out of the kitschy Motel Blu. Read more
Red Light, Green Light
Red Light Opens
In the name of love. To smell the roses. In the midst of an intense game of freeze tag.
Sometimes you gotta stop.
Like at Red Light, chef Kris Wessel’s (Mark’s Place, Paninoteca) new restaurant. As of tomorrow, the bar will be serving food, but the phones might not be up.
Located in the up-and-coming MIMO District’s Motel Blu, the space formerly housed a lunch counter (note original glass door refrigerator), Chinese restaurant, and the Gold Dust Lounge.
Friend Jeff Vaughn designed the 1970s, Danish-style lamps, mahogany tables, and creamy yellow booths overlooking Little River.
New Orleans-raised Wessel developed a menu of low-temp, ecoprepared, regional dishes: Junior League conch chowder, a Florida fish plate, sour orange-garlic Glades frog legs, oyster tart, carrot-braised rabbit (cooked five hours). On the side: flax biscuits, cheese grits, collards, callaloo, and the curiously named “smelly gooey macaroni and cheese.”
Trust us: Go for it.
Red Light, 7700 Biscayne Boulevard (305-757-7773).
Carlos Centurion Por Fin
The Guatemalan-born chef sharpened his culinary skills at renowned restaurants in Spain. His education shines through the Spanish-Mediterranean flavors at his Coral Gables eatery, Por Fin. Read more
Fin-ish Line
Por Fin Opens
We’ve seen you — flirting with us from that Coral Gables corner.
Those Mediterranean walls, that tile roof, the second-floor balcony. You made us want it but never put out.
Until now: Por Fin opens today — at last (fitting for a restaurant whose name means “finally”).
We know you’re still taking things slow, only accepting reservations. But after almost a year’s wait, you’re letting us gaze upon your buttery leather chairs and laze about on the sexy sofas in the upstairs lounge.
You deliver what we crave: Spanish-Mediterranean cuisine, like bacalao (cod fritters) with Romesco sauce, sea bass with tomato confit and leak chips, tender braised short ribs, and Eggs at Por Fin (homemade potato crisps, mashed potatoes, Serrano ham, and truffle oil).
Not to mention paella (Catalan style), a list of feisty Spanish wines, and a dessert called Caribbean Passion with passion fruit cream and coconut foam.
Finally, some action on the corner.
Por Fin, 2500 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables (305-441-0107).
