Miami Food Blog

Jacob Katel

Lombardi at work.

​The Wynwood Cafe District is a zoning effort on the part of business leaders, residents, artists, real estaters, and local government to promote foodlife and nightlife in Wynwood by allowing liquor license clusters, and waiving parking requirements. Before the Wynwood Cafe District was founded, liquor licenses had to be a certain distance in feet apart from each other -- something like 1,500 -- and restaurants had to have on site parking, a heavy added cost for those converting warehouses to eateries.

Broker David Lombardi says, "We wanted to try and create a synergy, a strength. The center of the district is Joey's. That's where they want everything to pop up. The cafe district is zoned from 22nd to 27th streets between NW Second and Fifth Avenues. On 23rd through 25th Streets, it starts west from NW First Avenue.

"The thing about Wynwood versus the Design District for doing a restaurant is that the rent is so much cheaper here."

But your stake in it is to get people in here, raise the property value and charge higher rent, right?

"Of course. That's not some big secret you uncovered. I'm a capitalist. I been sitting in this fucking neighborhood for nine years. When I got here in 2000, the rents were five or six dollars a square foot. In nine years they've only doubled. That's not such a big jump as the 20 to 40 double that happened in the Design District. It costs the same to build here, but if your rent is a third of the price, then your bottom line is gonna be that much fatter."

A Michael Vasquez painting in Lombardi, a collector's, office.

​

Jackie Sayet

Judge this book by its cover.

​Last night was one of many funerals for a fallen hero taken before its time, Gourmet magazine. Ruth Reichl, its jilted guardian, gave a remarkably candid and emotional eulogy for her final book tour appearance.

The remarkably (yet not surprisingly) composed former editor-in-chief addressed what she later tweeted as a "smart crowd" at the free Miami Book Fair event in downtown Miami. The profound sense of loss was palpable in the packed ballroom, as was the disbelief still lingering in her delivery. 

This was expected. Fully digesting that something so respected and loved is gone forever takes time, and the news is still so fresh, with the last vestige of the epicurean media icon -- its final issue -- still on stands.

Does your grocery store support modern slavery in the fields of Florida?

A Florida farmworkers union says that Lakeland, Florida based grocery chain Publix continues to buy produce from growers recently convicted of actual human slavery.

Heavy beatings, knife wounds, arms in chains, forced living in box trucks, these are the conditions under which some workers were discovered to be living. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers have aided prosecutors in 6 cases resulting in convictions where more than 1,000 tomato workers were held as slaves.

Yesterday the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the farmworkers union whose stated goal it is to change the whole tomato industry, marched near Flagler and 83rd Ave, close to a Publix in the city of Sweetwater.

Members of the activist contingent hand-delivered a letter to the manager of the West Miami Publix stating their dissatisfaction with the company's policies.

Short Order has reached out to the Publix media relations department for comment. We will let you know how they respond to the recent round of CIW protest actions across the State of Florida.

Here are some more pictures....

How can you tell a politician's lying? If his lips are moving? What about if they are eating?

Monday, we saw Mayor Manny Diaz at a press conference at the Roots In The City garden and urban farm in the middle of Historic Overtown (NW Third Avenue and Ninth Street).

We asked Mayor Diaz what his favorite vegetable is, "I love tomatoes;" he said. And when was the last time he had collard greens? "Ya know, I don't know, it's been a while." Would he try the collards grown in Overtown? "Sure I would try em', sure." Click here to see our video.

Farm head, activist, and Florida historian Marvin Dunn offered to cook and deliver collard greens to Diaz's office and the mayor accepted. "And I don't just go around cooking for politicians, but he's a good mayor," said Dunn off camera.

Watch the above video and you'll notice the greens conspicuously missing from Diaz' bowl, His first bite reaction (to broth and cornbread) tells us he's not the leafy vegetable's biggest fan. So maybe he doesn't like collard greens, no big deal. What's important, and great, is that he supports a green initiative offering Overtown the opportunity for economic revitalization. Thanks Mayor Diaz.

Here are some pictures from the Mayor's office.

Mayor Manny Diaz is like the Bill Clinton of Miami, people just like the guy. Well, maybe not everybody, but here he is at the Roots in the City urban farm in Overtown (NW Third Avenue and Ninth Street, Miami) talking collard greens with South Florida historian Marvin Dunn, who is in charge of the project.

We took the opportunity to ask Mayor Diaz what his favorite vegetable is, when the last time he had collards was, and if he would eat the ones grown in the garden. He said yes and Marvin promised to send a cooked batch over to his office.

The mayor and others were at the farm for a press conference to announce a pilot project taking waste material from local restaurants, mixing it with other bio matter, and creating compost using an in-vessel aerobic composter, a method that speeds compost production.

Here are some pictures from Overtown's Roots In The City garden and urban farm.

via whillybermudez.com

​Whilly Bermudez is a right-handed, right-leaning, right-of-way, righteous republican, and as Tim Elfrink reported Monday on Riptide, he's got the support of Tubbs from Miami Vice in his run for a seat in the Florida House of Reps for the 116th district (unincorporated West Dade and Kendall).

Right on!

And in a move that may beguile liberals for generations to come, Whilly Bermudez is giving away food to poor people for free.

According to a press release, "On Saturday - November 21, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. he is leading a massive effort to feed the hungry of the Miami Rescue Mission in downtown Miami located on 2020 NW 1st Ave, Miami, FL, 33127."

The food drive is also very concerned with alleviating the struggles of water shortage. Water donations are highly encouraged.

Whilly Bermudez has already secured 100 volunteers for the food drive, but is looking for more, and is providing free transporttion for them. He also seeks corporate sponsors. Interested parties should dial up 305-807-1621 to be a part of the action.

Order up. Pork Chops, Side of Bacon.

​City of Miami cops want you to think they're clean. Clean arrests. Clean records. Clean city.

But if you believe the State of Florida, the place where they eat is dirty, dirty, dirty.

This past June, state inspectors cited a tiny café in police headquarters on NW Second Avenue with 23 "critical" violations. Among them: "encrusted" and "soiled" material on a slicer, no soap in the men's room, and reuse of dirty gloves.

That's not the only problem at the homey café on the third floor. In 2008, the state fined the eatery $750 for labeling cheap panga fish as grouper. And just last week, state Department of Business and Professional Regulation spokesperson Alexis Lambert said the restaurant would be sent a warning letter because it hasn't paid $22.77 of its license fee. "The Miami Police Deptartment café is listed as delinquent because its license expired on October 1," she explained.

The café is independently owned and serves 100 to 200 meals a day, mostly to officers and state workers from a complex across the street. Riptide sampled some French toast and a cheeseburger last week. Meals went for about five dollars each, tasted OK, and did no harm.

The hard-working, 50-year-old kitchen veteran running the place -- who would only give his name as Hector (and who records show is probably company principal Hector Lopetegui) -- said the state is a pain in the ass. The inspectors, he griped, "don't care you got proof. When the inspectors write it down, they write it down." When problems have cropped up, he said, they've been corrected.

None of several cops at the station was particularly enthusiastic about the restaurant. "I try not to think about the place," said an officer working the front desk when Riptide visited.

Click here for the restaurant's full inspection history. 

 

image via nataliemaynor flickr

No plata for the platano workers.

​A federal judge in Miami ruled that $97 million ordered paid by Dole Food Inc. to 150 Nicaraguan workers who claim to have suffered sterility and other injuries due to pesticide cannot be upheld in the U.S.

The injuries allegedly stem from use of dibromochloropropane (DBCP) pesticide on Dole banana farms in Nicaragua in the 1970s.

Wikipedia says that in 1979 the United States Environmental Protection Agency banned use of DBCP due to its harmful effects on humans, including sterility.

Nicaraguan courts tried the case under a 2001 statute designed to litigate "injury claims against foreign corporations by banana workers and presumes the pesticide dibromochloropropane causes sterility and other injuries," according to the LA Times.

Short Order could not reach Steven Marks, the Miami lawyer representing the Nicaraguan workers, for immediate comment. A secretary told us he was not in the office, and his assistant's line went straight to voicemail.

There's been a lot of ink spilled in recent years over the potential dangers inherent in our food supply chain. Still, the piece by Michael Moss this past Saturday in The New York Times could scare just about anyone into a lifetime of hamburger abstinence. You can, and should, check out the entire article, but here is a lengthy series of highlights, including the entire opening:

Stephanie Smith was in a coma for nine weeks after being infected with E. coli.

Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

"I ask myself every day, 'Why me?' and 'Why from a hamburger?' "Ms. Smith said. In the simplest terms, she ran out of luck in a food-safety game of chance whose rules and risks are not widely known.

Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Yet tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states.

Ms. Smith's reaction to the virulent strain of E. coli was extreme, but tracing the story of her burger, through interviews and government and corporate records obtained by The New York Times, shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble. Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe.

Crist gets a mouthful.

​

• Did Short Order beat a Jewish paper to the Kosher Subway story. Yes. Yes we did. [ShortOrder] [JewishWeek]
• Teacher puts tabasco in her soda, let's special needs students try it, may get tossed in the slammer. [NBCmiami]
• Suites at Land Shark Stadium to offer technological advances, like phones you can use to order food. [SunSentinel]
• Good news for the Port of Miami, WIL Lines secures contract for shipping 80 to 90 large containers of food and beverages a year from New York and Miami to Rotterdam. [BusinessWire]
• Betsy Klein, a registered dietitian based in Miami, teaches Chi Town fatties how to take it easy on dessert calories. [ChicagoTribune]
• Culinary trend mapping report finds "a new wave of ingredients, flavors and cuisines from Latin America is surging through Miami and New York, LA and San Francisco." [PRnewswire]
• Future food prices, in addition to many, many other factors, may affect future earnings results, but Carnival Corporation still cleared over a billi in $$$ as reported in 3Q earnings. [MarketWatch]
• W2 Energy had a meeting in Miami earlier this month. They will use their NT Plasmatron non thermal reactor to process coal "in a closed loops system, producing Synthetic Fuel, Electricity and sequestering the greenhouse gasses to produce algae. The algae then can be used as a source of oil for biodiesel producers, or as a protein source in the pet food industry." [PRnewswire]

Hooking up a café con leche. price - $1

​

via Susan Berg Gladstone's facebook

​

Jacob Katel

Waiting for the work bus outside La Fiesta #3 in Immokalee, Florida.

​ Whether you're in school, work, or prison, if you bite into a tomato in America it may very well come from the fields of Immokalee, Florida. That's because major corporations like Aramark and Sodexo are huge buyers of Immokalee product and distributors with contracts for school and prison cafeterias. Immokalee farms also sell to major grocery chains like Wal Mart, Publix and Whole Foods, as well as the giants of fast food known as "The Big 4" -- McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Subway.

The migrant farmer pattern currently predicts that traveling workers are in places like New York, Michigan, the Carolinas and Georgia, but starting around October when the season hits, the parking lots of Immokalee will flood with a labor force waiting mostly at the La Fiesta #3 parking lot to be picked up by buses that will transport them to the fields of agro-corporate farms like 6L's, Gargiulo, Agmart, Pacific, and Noble-Collier.

Short Order took a midnight drive across the Tamiami Trail and north into Immokalee to see what the workforce who actually pulls the food we eat off the vine were up to on Labor Day. For the men and women in the lot it was business as usual, though there is less of it til October. Next time you bite into a tomato think of where it came from, and consider the fact that the people who pick them are frozen into wages from 30 years ago, and are caught in a system of institutional servitude that sees them not as human workers, but as cogs in a machine.

Log on to CIW-Online.org to learn more about the struggle and see what the workers are doing about it.

Jacob Katel

A sugar cookie with some of the AFSCME Solid Waste contingent in the background.

​

Fudge covered pretzels, huh?

​Beginning this week, gay and lesbian couples can marry in the state of Vermont -- and in recognition and support, Ben & Jerry's has renamed their "Chubby Hubby" flavor "Hubby Hubby".

The company states:
"Ben & Jerry's has a long history of commitment to social justice, including gay rights. Its partnership with Freedom to Marry, a national leader in the movement for marriage equality, aims to raise awareness of the importance of marriage equality and to encourage other states to follow the blazing trails of Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Maine.

Ben & Jerry's aims to raise awareness of the importance of marriage equality and, to show its support, will serve "Hubby Hubby" sundaes in Vermont Scoop Shops throughout the month of September."

And yet, the flavor of Hubby Hubby:
"Fudge covered peanut butter filled pretzels in vanilla malt ice cream with fudge and peanut butter"...
...doesn't it seem like a spoof or caricature of what a gay ice cream flavor would be?

The lunch lady rules.

​

image via farmshare.org

Don't take food out of their mouths.

​What happens when a government starves its people? Dade County will find out the hard way if it axes Farm Share from its budget as proposals suggest.

Farm Share is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization that provides food directly to at least 6,500 Miami-Dade families a month.

They also supply 250 agencies using volunteer and inmate labor to distribute food donations from local farms, USDA commodities and other sources.

Their mission's focus is the distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables, as opposed to the canned offerings of most other organizations. Furthermore, these items move through a sophisticated distribution network that operates locally, and statewide. The county will literally take food out of the mouths of working class families, kids, and the elderly all over Florida if they decide to eliminate funding for Farm Share.

Demand a conscientious local government. Call Commissioner Joe Martinez, who has vowed to fight for the program, at 305-575-5511 and tell him it's important to you. Or email his office at district11@miamidade.gov

Log on to http://www.farmshare.org for more info

ciw-online.org

Slavery Sucks!

​How's that Chipotle burrito taste? Is there enough possibility of slavery in it? Care for a side of exploitation? Need a little extra sub-poverty wages in that?

Strange that Chipotle, a company whose corporate persona is built on their slogan of "food with integrity," refuses to partner with the Florida farmworkers union whose mission it is to insure it. The Coalition Of Immokalee Workers are famous for exerting enough pressure on big business to get Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods and Bon Appetit to work toward establishing and maintaining humane standards in farmwork.

The CIW's latest campaign encourages you to call Chipotle headquarters toll free at 1-888-899-0017 and tell whoever picks up that you want Chipotle to stand up for Florida farmworker's rights and deliver on their "food with integrity" slogan.

The CIW guarantees that if Chipotle partners with them that the workers who pick their tomatoes will be treated fairly and paid a living wage.

Town

Going to town

​You could smell it like the Burger Beast smells searing chuck from a mile away.  After last week's story on the ownership change at The Gastropub at Jake's, plans also changed for its chef, Richard Plasencia, who was to stay on board with new owner Baruch Pletner.  There was talk of him helping to start up the kitchen at The Cherry on Top in Coconut Grove.

"Baruch offered me the position but there is absolutely no hot food at The Cherry on Top," explains Plasencia, with some other details off the record in between.  "I am very excited to be on-board with Town, they're a company going in the right direction with an ambitious future ahead."

Prior to his time at Jake's, Plasencia had many restaurant stops along the way, including such kitchens as the Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne and Norman's.

"Richard is a good chef, and we wish him luck at Town, but I am quite certain that our executive chef, Yolanda Honeycutt and our classically trained Sous Chef, Prashanth Ravi are more than capable of taking Jake's to a whole new culinary level," writes Pletner, in an email to Short Order yesterday.  "Yolanda will be the Executive Chef at The Cherry on Top as well and we are now looking for a full time Garde Manger chef for that position."

Plasencia will be able to settle in as Executive Chef Michael Altman turns his attention to Town's BBQ concept planned for the old JJ's American Diner site at 1450 South Dixie Highway in Coral Gables.

Most people believe that a "naturally raised" label implies animals have access to sunshine, fresh air, freedom of movement and the ability to perform, um, you know, natural behaviors. Yet the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently allowed companies to slap a "naturally raised" label on meat and meat products that come from animals whose upbringing was anything but. For instance, the labeling is being applied to cows and pigs being raised in cramped crates -- unable to engage in "natural" behaviors such as grazing and rooting for food, taking mud baths, and raising their young.

Farm Sanctuary, the nation's leading farm animal protection organization, is in the process of collecting 10,000 signatures on a "Truth Behind Labels" petition that will be sent to the USDA. The group is currently at 9,556 signatures -- 96% of the way there. If you'd like to let the USDA know that you disapprove of their deceptive claims, go ahead and sign this petition.

Disney

Louis the Chef from The Little Mermaid... Disney is evil!

Ok, well maybe they didn't barbecue out back or light up the city in fireworks on the Fourth of July...  But the people who brought you such culinary classics as Jacques Pépin, Le Cordon Bleu, les poissons, les poissons, he-he-he-ho-ho-ho and les croissants have been celebrating their independence for several hours now, when we were fast asleep.  Now it's our turn to do like the Frenchmen do.  In case you missed the Alliance Francais gig in Little Havana, we've taken the liberty to suggest ten more ways to celebrate the best and worst of France. Bonne chance!

10. BEST: Pay Pascal's on Ponce a visit. You know it's been a while, but they're still rocking it without need for trendiness or fuss.

9. WORST: S'il vous plait... merci... voila! Speak to your server in French.

This post is not about fast food it's about a food fast. Yesterday, at the YWCA in Overtown, Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones and members of local faith-based, and anti-violence organizations along with community members came together for a press conference in response to a recent Overtown birthday shooting.

Pastor Richard P. Dunn II of Faith Community Baptist Church called for a 7-day fast along with prayer and guaranteed that within that time, the shooters will be caught. Dunn encourages fasters to pick at least one thing to give up, "a sweet, meat, some starches, something, and during that time period, to pray."

According to Wikipedia, fasting has been in existence "since before written history," though if nobody wrote it down, it's not clear how they know that. Fasting has religious, health, medical and political histories. Some say it can lead to a higher state of consciousness, science says it can lead to hallucination. In any case, if fasting leads to pistol-packing, assault-rifling, goons who are willing shoot into the crowd at a birthday party being apprehended, then pass the water, I'm in.

Jacob Katel

Powered By Java

Jackie Sayet

Taberna owners Ignacio and Laura are the bread in this mayor sandwich

Jacob Katel

Certified Kosher Sushi

Walgreens on Biscayne and 31st stocks Kosher Sushi made locally by Sushi Mann Express. But what makes sushi kosher? Short Order set out to investigate.

Sushi is famous for its raw fish. Jewish biblical law states that only certain fish are fit for consumption, but unlike meat, their blood is viewed as clean.

Rabbi Sholom Blank of Congregation Lubavitch Russian Immigration Center on Miami Beach is listed on a beachside rabbi directory on the internet called

Don Slesnick from Miami New Times on Vimeo

Jacob Katel

Marijuana? What have I got myself into?