South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Craving savings?
Miami Spice and Dine Out Lauderdale restaurant deals
But for seven emerging artists, it was all they had.
Connected by little other than the pandemic’s touch on their blooming careers, these young South Florida-based artists will showcase their creations from their lockdowns at an exhibit titled “Future Past Perfect,” opening at the Nova Southeastern University Art Museum Fort Lauderdale from July 30 to Oct. 15.
Each artist will have their own solo exhibit inspired by or created during their lockdown experience.
The artists include Nathalie Alfonso, Lulu Sanchez, Susan Kim Alvarez, Joel Gaitan, Kandy G Lopez, Alejandro Piñeiro Bello and Zoe Schweiger.
Bonnie Clearwater is the director and chief curator of the NSU Art Museum, and she’s most excited for these artists to have the gallery floor to themselves —some of whom she’s known throughout their careers.
“Because there was so much isolation during the pandemic, part of our goal was to bring together artists that didn’t know each other and
Dueling summer dine-out deals
Dine Out Lauderdale and Miami Spice are firing up hundreds of deep restaurant discounts for lunch and dinner in Broward and Miami-Dade counties starting Aug. 1.
Both moveable feasts, which have the ambitious goal of keeping dining rooms humming during the slower summer offseason, tantalize with slick deals at high-end and lower-end restaurants.
Miami Spice, running Aug. 1-Sept. 30, will offer prix-fixe lunches for $30-$35 and dinners for $45-$60. That marks a slight hike over 2022’s deal — $28 lunches — and there will be 211 high-end restaurants, many of them recent recipients of Michelin stars.
For Dine Out Lauderdale, there will be 108 restaurants partaking Aug. 1-31, with multi-course lunches and dinners ranging from $45 to $75 per person, excluding tax and gratuity. This marks a dramatic jump — in some cases, double — what Dine Out charged for its 2022 promotion ($35 to $45). We recommend skipping those $75 splurges and opt instead for
$45 and $55 deals that won’t obliterate your wallet.
Meanwhile, the number of total summer dine-out programs appears to be shrinking. After a smorgasbord of six promotions in 2022 spanning Miami to Palm Beach Gardens, two of them — the Boca Raton-centric Bon Appetit Boca and countywide Palm Beaches Restaurant Month —- left the dinner table in 2023, organizers say.
“Discover The Palm Beaches decided to sunset Restaurant Month,” says Heather Andrews, associate vice president of community engagement at
Discover The Palm Beaches. The county’s tourism arm decided, instead, to fund other programs, including an upcoming series of Palm Beach chef dinners in New York City.
Two more summer promotions in the pipeline, Flavor Palm Beach and Downtown Delray Beach Restaurants, are still scheduled to return Sept. 1-30, although its restaurant lineup and menus aren’t yet finalized.
A note: Some restaurants will exclude the deal on Fridays and Saturdays, and most multi-course meals usually include choice of appetizer, main course and dessert. Call ahead for reservations and confirm menu availability before dining out. For all lineups, go to VisitLauderdale.com/dineout and MiamiandBeaches. com/deals/temptations/ spice-restaurant-months.
Or, much easier: Take this list of three Dine Out Lauderdale and three Miami Spice suggestions with you.
Dine Out Lauderdale
Il Paesano
An Italian cafe and deli that happens to offer swanky indoor dining, Il Paesano, if you can believe it (and we believe it) ranked earlier this year as one of Yelp’s “Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S.” Begin the $45 deal with a caprese tower appetizer of grilled eggplant and zucchini with tomato and mozzarella drizzled with balsamic.
Pair it with chicken piccata or truffle fiocchetti, pillows of pasta filled with truffle cheese and smothered in shaved truffle and a cream of porcini sauce. For dessert, there’s housemade tiramisu. The deal is only offered Monday through Thursday.
2645 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; 954-3961700, IlPaesanoMarket.com
Swirl Wine Bistro
One of the few westof-I-95 eateries on Dine Out’s lineup, this suburban bistro with an adventurous rotating menu from husband-and-wife owners Mike and Judith Able packs serious culinary clout. (Judith Able is a onetime winner of Food Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Games.”) It also packs a strong deal: Two 1.25-pound Maine lobsters with salad and side for $39.99 from 5-8 p.m. Wednesdays only. There’s also its $65 three-course dinner, which starts with avocado salad, continues with jerked double-bone pork chop, oxtail ravioli or New York strip for dinner, and concludes with jackfruit creme brulee. Finally, there’s a Maine lobster tail and steak for $55 on Sundays only. Reservations required.
4976 W. Atlantic Blvd., Margate; 954-458-5407, SwirlBistro.com
Burlock Coast Seafare and Spirits
This oceanfront seafood house and rum-centric cocktail haunt (with an impressive cocktail ice program) inside the Ritz-Carlton will offer a tantalizing $45 lunch (and a less-impressive $75 dinner) Sunday-Friday from 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Begin with housemade hummus or farmers salad with seasonal veggies, fennel, tomato and radish lemonette. Pair with fish and chips or a Southern fried chicken sandwich with lettuce, pickles and maple hot sauce. Finish with a warm, salted caramel chocolate brownie topped with chocolate ice cream and rum sauce or a Key lime bar with mojito gel and dulce de leche cream.
1 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; 954-302-6460, RitzCarlton. com
Marco Pagano, who run the color-drenched shipping-container eatery KAO Bar & Grill in Hallandale Beach, are behind this Argentine-Peruvian-Japanese spot on Miracle
Mile. Its $30-$35 lunch deal begins with citrus and walnut salad or pork buns, tonkatsu ramen or a 12-piece sushi combo for entree and Argentinean flan for dessert. Its
$45 dinner, meanwhile, starts with chorizo buns, continues with a chicken or beer wok with vegetables and rice, and finishes with cuatro leches cake. (There’s a $15 dinner upcharge for two glasses of prosecco, beer, sake or wine.) The deal is offered daily.
127 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables; 786-864-1212, KaoSushiGrill.com
Blue Collar
Danny Serfer’s comfortfood restaurant offers a terrific mix-and-match deal, charging a flat Miami Spice fee ($45) for one appetizer, entree and dessert on Blue Collar’s dinner menu. This can result in a sharp discount for adventurous diners who order, say, Blue Collar’s prime picanha steak ($33) or, better still, its spicy oxtail ($35). Pair either with an appetizer (say, $15 conch fritters) and dessert ($9 butterscotch Heath bar bread pudding), and the value far exceeds the $45 price tag. This deal is offered daily.
6730 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-756-0366, BlueCollar.com
Beauty & The Butcher
You can hardly blame us for singling out the newest meat-centric restaurant from star chef Jeremy Ford, a “Top Chef ” winner who kept his Michelin star for Miami Beach’s Stubborn Seed this year and won a James Beard Award semifinalist nod in 2022. (He also operates a killer steakhouse at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens.) Its $60 menu begins with an appetizer of croquettes stuffed with basque cheese and smoked paprika emulsion. For dinner, there’s truffle organic chicken with pomme puree and baby turnips. (If you’re splurging, there’s a $25 upcharge for wagyu beef tenderloin.) The meal ends with a s’mores graham cracker cake with torched meringue and chocolate ice cream for dessert.
The deal is offered Sunday-Thursday only.
6915 Red Road, Coral Gables; 305-665-966, BeautyandtheButcher Miami.com