Читать книгу A Taste of Coral Gables - Paola Mendez - Страница 5

Foreword

A few years ago, after my wife and I had moved to Coral Gables, the restaurateur Danny Meyer from New York asked me to suggest one place to eat while he was in Miami for a work trip. The pressure! I went through my mental Rolodex of what was new and hot. The restaurants that immediately came to mind, clustered mostly in South Beach and Wynwood, were very good. But I didn’t feel that they were Danny Meyer good. So I went out on a limb and pointed him to Eating House in Coral Gables. Open for a couple of years then, some of Eating House’s new-restaurant buzz had worn off. But I believed that talented chef-owner Giorgio Rapicavoli was cooking at the top of his game at that moment. He was: Danny loved everything about Eating House and was wowed by Giorgio’s creative cuisine.

That memory exemplifies what I love about dining in Coral Gables. We, too, have our share of flashy new restaurants and hotly anticipated openings. But we also have—more than many of our neighboring communities—established restaurants that are acclaimed by critics and beloved by locals. Places like Ortanique, where I know chef Cindy Hutson is going to make me happy with her Caribbean-infused cooking and the best mojito in town. Places like Mikuna, where the Peruvian food is some of the best I’ve tasted outside of Lima. Places like Palme d’Or, where chef Gregory Pugin’s food is served with such exquisite care and hospitality, you feel like a VIP every time. And places like Eating House, where Giorgio’s food seems to evolve with changing seasons, tastes, and trends.

Miami is fortunate to have pockets of great dining options in just about every neighborhood. But there’s something special cooking in Coral Gables. If you ask me for a restaurant recommendation, it’s probably going to be somewhere in The City Beautiful.

Evan S. Benn

Former Food Editor, Miami Herald

and Editor-in-Chief, INDULGE magazine