Miami Food Blog

Archive Diver found this ad for the South Side Bar & Grill (8099 S. Dixie Highway) in a 1988 issue of the Miami New Times.

According to ad copy they were open from 10 p.m. - 6 a.m. every night and they wanted you to "Make us your late night place."

This joint sounds cool, but we can't find out anything about it except that there are places with the same name in Allentown, PA; Defiance, OH; and that Lipstik strip club seems to currently be located where South Side Bar & Grill Miami used to be.

The tag line on the ad says "When the bands cook, so does our kitchen!"

Food and drink and music. Fuckin' awesome. Here's the full ad, leave us a comment if you've got anything to say about it.....

This week Archive Diver brings you an ad for La Carreta on Miami Beach at 1676 Collins Ave. from 1988. That restaurant is no longer there, but the most recent incarnation of the property, El Viajante Segundo, now closed, was owned by La Carreta, according to Florida DBPR records, before it dropped the DBA, and formed their own corporation.

• old license. [click]
• newer license. [click]

La Carreta is one of the most popular Cuban food franchises in Miami. El Viajante Segundo served Cuban food also, but at least the one on the beach was aimed directly, and maybe solely at tourists, at least according to this Jen Karetnick article from 1996 [click].

Anybody out there reading this remember this joint when it was a La Carreta, or have something to say anything about any La Carreta ever? Leave a comment.

The Hungry Sailor in Coconut Grove, where Sandbar is now, was well known for its reggae and penny beer nights. According to this web reference, they also made a mean chicken sandwich. Here are some more web references, mostly from the New Times archives.

• Do you remember when a machete wielding Briton got blasted, to death, with guns, by the police, outside the place back in 95'? [click]
• "Remember the seedy raunchiness of Coconut Grove's Hungry Sailor and how cool it was to sit in its dark environs and guzzle ice-cold Red Stripes to the sounds of a live reggae band?" [click]
• High profile DJ "Josh Menendez had his own modest Monday-night party at the Hungry Sailor in Coconut Grove." [click]
• "Closing down at the Hungry Sailor, reggae in an English pub setting, a resolutely low-voltage crowd save for a stunning Ethiopian waitress, luminous and exquisite as an orchid, a beacon of possibility and hope." [click]

Bayside Marketplace, 1988, cocaine, gold chains, bikini broads, and look-at-me money. Happy hour at Bar Balu, pictured above, looks like a sardine tin packed full of Arnold Zimberg shirt wearing office clone mothafuckers, which is fitting, since he owned the place.

A 1988 Nation's Restaurant News article verifies Bruce and Arnold Zimberg's ownership of the 250 seat restaurant Bar Balu at Bayside Marketplace. According to the same article, they also owned Il Palazzo, and Il Bianco in New York City, the Liberty Cafe at the South Street Seaport, and Woodrow's on Route 1 in Princeton, N.J.

Arnold Zimberg is known the world over for his menswear. We don't know and were unable to verify who Bruce is. Arnold Zimberg does business as The Miracle Group, Inc. The company was sued for $593,000 in October of 2008 for breach of contract.

Anybody out there remebember Bar Balu at Bayside Marketplace or Bruce or Arnold Zimberg? Leave a comment.

Did you know that Zephyrhills is a city in Pasco County, Florida? Short Order always thought it was somewhere in Switzerland, where mountain folk make water out of melted snow far away from cars and people. Shoot, Zephyrhills is hardly a stones throw from Tampa. The Zephyrhills Water Corp was founded in 1961 by Don Robinson. In 1987 Nestle bought him out and have taken the brand worldwide. Zephyrhills brand natural spring water is collected from multiple spring sources in the Zephyrhills area. Florida has a great and complex underwater aquifer system that runs clear under the whole state. Nestle has tapped into it and been making a killing ever since. The above ad appeared in an August, 1988 issue of the Miami New Times. Zephyrhills is still offering home delivered water service to this day. Guess advertising pays off, oh and bottling water too.

Back in 1987 the Tavern In The Grove was established at 3416 Main Highway. Twenty two years later it is still there. How many nights of reckless diversion and mornings of blind consumption have started and ended at the Tavern is anybody's guess. Damn near guaranteed are plenty of butt smoking, Bud swilling, bar hopping, juke boxing, drunk singing, dart throwing, bad dancing, ass grabbing, sneak fucking, beer drinking, coke sniffing, bet making, drink gaming, punch throwing, head stomping, bar tossing, in sneaking, shot downing, drink mixing, sport watching, laugh howling, fun making, tip leaving, pint stealing, sleep falling, cab catching, hell of a good times that have been had.

Click here for 1991 article about partying in the Grove that mentions the Tavern, and click here for the entire library of New Times archived online content that mentions "tavern in the grove," a measley 6 items, sounds like time for a revisit. Short Order's on it.

This week Archive Diver brings you the ads for three South Beach restaurants as they ran in July 1988. Does anybody remember a joint called The Tropics International in the Edison Hotel at 10th and Ocean? It's now Mango's Tropical Cafe. What about a French place called Heritage Cafe in the Tyler Hotel on 21st street? There doesn't seem to be any restaurant there now, just some hotel apartments in a 1940 Deco building. How about Scratch at 427 Jefferson? It's now Tazin, an "upscale, authentic Moroccan restaurant." Anybody's thoughts and or memories about the old or new inhabitants are appreciated.

This week Archive Diver brings you an ad for the Sports Rock Cafe, a bar food/health/entertainment concept at a failed mall, the Bakery Centre. The Bakery Centre, now the location for The Shops At Sunset Place on US1 and SW 57th Ave., was a pink, 9-acre, commercial wasteland that kids used to ride their bikes through, smoke pot, and throw stuff openly inside of. Maybe the only success story to come out of it was the AMC movie theater that was on the ground floor. Did anybody ever eat at the Sports Rock Cafe? Leave a comment. Here's the full ad as it appeared in the New Times in July, 1988.

This week Archive Diver takes you to the original Old Cutler Oyster Company and Raw Bar, which was located at 20535 Old Cutler Road.

The restaurant has a storied past in the media. The first Oyster Co was destroyed in 1992's Hurricane Andrew. It reopened 3 years later in Cutler Ridge only to catch the first fine for violating the Florida restaurant smoking ban in 2003. The OC also openly violated the ban in the interest of smoke and profits.

This week Short Order's Archive Diver brings you a June, 1988 ad for the Irish House Pub at 1430 Alton Road on Miami Beach.

For a pub established in 1938 that operated at least 50 years much doesn't exist in the way of google records. However, Sunpost June 8, 2006 archives report in a blurb entitled Feeding Frenzy that  "The Quarterdeck Seafood Bar and Neighborhood Grill, founded in 1966, recently opened its first Miami-Dade County location on South Beach. Founder Paul B. Flanigan decided to open a Quarterdeck restaurant in Miami after partnering with Ben Wagman. The Quarterdeck found its new location at the Wagman family's Historic Irish House Pub that operated for 67 years on Alton Road."

According to the math on that, the Irish House Pub closed in 2005.

There's also this reference we found from a July 22, 1999 Bomp List message board thread entitled "Re: bowling with the little balls" authored by Ivan Osorio. It reads...

Welcome to Archive Diver - Short Order Edition, where we scour past print issues of Miami New Times for interesting food related content. Today we bring you a "Wet Paint Cafe" advertisement from 1988. Back then, Lincoln Road offered a decidedly cracked-out vista. The Cafe owner's prescience to the potential of said location marks their pioneering saavy.

According to a 1987 article in Nation's Restaurant News by Marilyn Alva, The Wet Paint Cafe was opened by Bernard Matz, the current executive chef, manager, and co-owner of Books & Books Cafe Miami Beach, and Carlos Prio Jr., the son of a former President of Cuba.

A 2008 thread on the Chowhound Florida message board also links the article and there our own local food historian Frodnesor claims that Wet Paint Cafe is where recent James Beard Award nominee Chef Douglas Rodriguez got his start.

The Wet Paint Cafe also finds mention in the comments section of an Art Lurker article entitled "Remembering...Miami Before Art Basel." A commenter posting under the name Andy Whorewall incorrectly characterizes the cafe as a post mortem incarnation of an art gallery/party hole called Wet Paint House. Commenter Candy Darling corrects Andy Whorewall.

Booksandbooks.com also mentions Matz's history on The Beach, and offers to sell you his book, "Bernie's Kitchen," which is available at all their locations.

And here is a review by Victoria Pesce Elliott of the Miami Herald that also recalls some Wet Paint Cafe history.

Finally, we leave you with a scan of the three other restaurant ads that ran in the same column as the Wet Paint Cafe's that same fateful week in 1988. Leave a comment if they bring back any memories.