Will the Mondavi wine dinner be Chef Ruiz's final bow?

​​Don't mourn Philippe Ruiz's departure from the Biltmore just yet; it seems he's got a few surprises still in store, like a much ballyhooed Mondavi wine dinner at Palme d'Or next Tuesday, January 17. And guess who's gonna be in town talking about the heavenly liquid that makes us all swoon? Napa Valley winemaker and proprietor of Charles Krug, Peter Mondavi Jr. His winemaking philosophy, we're told, is "to be true to the variety and land, be minimally invasive, and have balance and honesty, and to produce a wine that is to be enjoyed at the meal, with food." Sold.

Now then, we're not going to tell you the entire menu five-course Ruiz has planned, but suffice it to say it includes shaved and cured foie with sweet Indian curry, farm-raised roasted squab filet (guess he didn't opt to barbecue it like Chopped champ Giorgio Rapicavoli did on Tuesday night's episode), roasted venison chop alongside crispy polenta and grand veneur sauce, and l'opera cake for dessert.

Tickets for the 7 p.m. dinner are $150 for non-members and can be ordered by calling 305-913-3201.

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The Millennium's Grand Buffet

​Foodies, rejoice! Miami-based Celebrity Cruises is rolling out a series of culinary-inspired boat rides set to begin in March.

Celebrity Cruises' lifestyle cookbook, Excite the Senses, was the inspiration for the new food-and-wine-themed luxury cruise series aptly named Excite the Senses Culinary Theme Cruises. It will offer guests an opportunity to get to know the Celebrity culinary team through demonstrations, tastings, and dinners.
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Erika Delgado for Villa Mayfair via Facebook

Tres tres chic.

​Former home of the News Cafe, the Villa Mayfair Restaurant & Lounge finally opened its doors to the public in Coconut Grove. Owner Timo Kipp hired a power team to spearhead the elegant project including executive chef Frederic Joulin and interior designer Francois Frossard.

With a 4,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art kitchen and raw bar with picture window, chef Joulin is expected to offer his finest haute cuisine to the table. (Seeing as he's been working under the guidance of three Michelin Star chef Guy Savoy for 20 years, we expect no less).

Frossard, on the other hand, has used his innate sense of tasteful decor to dazzle guests throughout their entire stay.
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Photo by Alex Rodriguez

Pearl circa 2011.

​The iconic South Beach hot spot, Pearl Restaurant & Champagne Lounge, is making its official comeback December 10 -- six years after closing to the public.

From 1999 to 2005, Pearl (second floor of Nikki Beach) was a favorite among A-List celebrities back in its hay day. Jennifer Lopez, Matt Damon, Paris Hilton, Janet Jackson and Sting were among the regulars.

Owners Jack and Lucia Penrod reopened because of popular demand. "Everywhere my wife [Lucia] and I traveled, people were always asking for Pearl. We figured that since everyone missed it as much as we did, 'Let's bring it back!' " said Jack, founder of Nikki Beach Resorts and Hotels Worldwide.
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db Bistro Moderne

Chef Verbiak's "pressee" of poultry and foie gras.

​There seems to be an abundance of wine pairing dinners happening both on and off the beach, providing a glorious opportunity to do a little high-end boozing. Sure, these prix-fixe gatherings can get a little expensive, but since the executive chefs themselves are custom designing the tastings, it's the ultimate in curated dining and off-menu indulgence.

db Bistro Moderne is featuring the wines of Domaine Lucien Albrecht tomorrow night, alongside a four course menu created by Executive Chef Jarrod Verbiak. A welcome reception starts early, 6:30, and you don't want to run on 'Miami time,' or risk missing out on escargot croquettes and crab salad with tomato confit. Winery owner Marie Albrecht will be on hand to guide you along the Route du Vin d'Alsace, and highlights include a pressee de poule et foie gras with pickled forest mushrooms, as well as roasted sea scallops topped with a creamy endive marmalade, speck ham, and black truffle vinaigrette ($150 per person).
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Aww, shucks. This could be Blue Door Fish's last winemaker dinner.

​We know you're all torn up about the news we broke last week regarding Blue Door Fish's final bow, so might we suggest you celebrate it with a few glasses of wine and five hearty courses instead of simply drowning your sorrows in a vat of Schweddy Balls?
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It's wine time at Capital Grille

​The Capital Grille's Generous Pour promotion, which runs through September 4th, offers patrons the opportunity to sample up to nine wines picked by master sommelier, George Miliotes, especially for the event They include the Tarima Hill Monastrell, which is only available at Capital Grille restaurants before its September, 2011 release to the public.

For $25, Capital Grille guests can choose to sample the entire nine-wine flight or can pick out a few for a larger pour of each. The value is in the choice of wines, which include wines that retail up to $200 a bottle. The key is the generous pour aspect, meaning that guests can feel free to ask for an additional tasting or pour at no additional charge.

The wines are perfect foils for Capital Grille's porterhouses and sirloins, but there are a few whites and lighter reds that pair well with the restaurant's seafood selections, as well.

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Making drinks this good is an art.

​Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill takes cocktails very seriously. This is a blessing for those of us who enjoy libations with complex flavors. South American-inspired, New York-style Midtown gastropub hired mixologists Evas Zvi and Gabriel Orta, who also work with the W South Beach, create possibly the best tasting drinks in the county. They include seasonal ingredients from Paradise Farms in Homestead and complement the food selection.

Short Order sampled some of the newest additions to Sugarcane's booze menu yesterday, and here's what we found.
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Lee Klein

​A virtual tasting of 8 Sauvignon Blancs from Chile (five of which were D.O.'s) took place last Wednesday evening. The promoters of the evening, Wines of Chile, invited me to participate along with 50 other wine enthusiasts, bloggers, writers, etc. We had all received our bottles in advance, along with info and a mat marked with a circle upon which each bottle could be placed. Master Sommelier and Wines of Chile Educator Fred Dexheimer was the host, and a winemaker representing each vineyard spoke, online from Santiago, Chile, as their wine was simultaneously sipped across America.

Just a couple of small problems:
1. I am technologically inept.
2. My computer is so old that when you click on to something necessitating a Flash requirement it links to a YouTube video of a guy exposing himself.

So I tried the Twitter route, as the wine tasters were using that forum as well. Again, my lack of finesse, especially in using hash marks, or whatever they're called, led to me sending off a lone tweet that surely never reached any Chilean wine tasters. It wasn't an especially profound tweet either -- I wondered whether I was correctly picking up pear notes in the Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Reserva 2009 (Casablanca Valley; $10.99). Luckily there was a third participatory option involving a technology that I've come pretty close to mastering: The telephone.
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​Make note: Next Sunday, March 14, is Daylight Savings Time. Because if you don't make note, you might arrive at The Deauville Hotel at Collins Avenue for Big Band Sunday at what you believe is the precise starting time of 6 p.m., only to find that you've missed the first hour of the show. Which would be a shame, because producer/host Mark Fernicola and his Last Flight Out Big Band, along with The Deauville Hotel Diamond Dancers, will already be in full swing; plus you may be too late to catch the stand-up comic. Cost for this magical evening (3 hours) of live entertainment? Twenty bucks. There's a full bar, an appetizer menu, and a pre-fixe dinner menu as well, so you can do the whole supper club thing.

Deauville Hotel
6701 Collins Ave.
305-865-8511