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Sun Sentinel • 11th March 2023

Guy Fieri puts South Florida restaurants under ‘Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives’ spotlight

South Florida restaurants are once again in Guy Fieri’s culinary crosshairs, with five Broward and Palm Beach County eateries featured on his long-running Food Network program “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives,” which kicked off its newest season on March 3.

Sun Sentinel • 3rd October 2022

Top 2022-23 film festivals this season in South Florida

Sun Sentinel entertainment writer Phillip Valys gives his Critic’s Picks for the best film festivals and arts exhibits in South Florida.

Sun Sentinel • 2nd June 2022

Seminole Hard Rock chef Buddha Lo crowned ‘Top Chef: Houston,’ wins $250,000

Buddha Lo, executive chef of Marky’s Caviar Lounge in Hollywood and New York, picked up the top prize on Bravo TV's “Top Chef: Houston” on June 2, winning $250,000 by beating out two other finalists.

Sun Sentinel • 30th May 2019

Hunting pythons in the Everglades with Dusty ‘The Wildman’ Crum on Discovery Channel’s ‘Guardians of the Glades’

The Burmese python has managed to curl around Dusty “The Wildman” Crum’s neck like a scarf before he realizes he's on the verge of passing out. Such is the daily routine of Crum and his savvy snake trackers on “Guardians of the Glades,” a new series on Discovery+.

Sun Sentinel • 17th December 2021

Fancy South Florida vending machines dispense raw steaks, $30 champagne and cake

Restaurants, food halls, hotels, hospitals and shopping malls now tantalize customers with touchscreen machines vending $30 grass-fed ribeyes, champagne, grab-and-go salads, cold-pressed juices and other restaurant-quality food. Call them modern-day automats, or maybe the next generation of vending, but their owners call them pandemic moneymakers.

Sun Sentinel • 17th December 2021

75-year-old ‘unsafe’ Dania Beach restaurant to be demolished, reborn as Lucky Fish Dania Beach

Dania Beach Grill, a 75-year-old landmark that has sat empty and run down since April 2019, will be reborn as Lucky Fish Dania Beach after a $5 million transformation to revive the beachfront watering hole.

Sun Sentinel • 17th December 2021

James Beard-nominated chef Timon Balloo opening The Katherine restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

Chef Timon Balloo had climbed the summit of the culinary world pre-pandemic until COVID-19 killed his Miami restaurant. Now the James Beard semifinalist is ambling up to downtown Fort Lauderdale with The Katherine, his seafood- and vegetable-focused restaurant opening this December.

Sun Sentinel • 27th July 2021

Miami Spice 2021 guide: 5 restaurant picks and your excuse to eat discounted gourmet meals

Let’s call Miami Spice what it is: an unconquerable beast of a countywide feast.

Sun Sentinel • 6th August 2021

In quarantine, a Fort Lauderdale mother and son find solace and Instagram success in dumplings

The tapestry of pork dumplings on Calvin Shea’s Instagram feed has been popular in quarantine. But not nearly as popular as his 80-year-old mom, Shirley.

Sun Sentinel • 6th August 2021

Vegan soul food: How South Florida’s Black chefs turn barbecue, burgers and cheesesteaks into plant-based gold

Across South Florida, Black-owned restaurants are driving a renaissance of vegan soul food, with chefs turning common comfort fare – hamburgers, jerk chicken, wings and cheesesteaks – into plant-based gold.

Sun Sentinel • 6th August 2021

Gator bites and bikinis: Jay’s Sandbar BBQ feeds hungry boaters aboard Fort Lauderdale’s only floating restaurant

It’s mid-afternoon when the delivery boy for Jay’s Sandbar Floating BBQ motors up to the charter boat filled with hungry 20-somethings on the Fort Lauderdale sandbar.

Sun Sentinel • 6th August 2021

Tip your robot: South Florida restaurant hires robo-servers to deal with staff shortages

It’s lunchtime and Peanut, the restaurant robot host, greets Vicki and Troy Charlton with a digital eye wink and a cheerful squeak: “Here you are! Please follow me to your table!”

Sun Sentinel • 6th August 2021

‘What the hell am I still doing in New York?’ Pandemic-weary restaurants migrate to Fort Lauderdale, Delray Beach

In South Florida, pandemic-driven Northerners are snapping up restaurant spaces in droves, lured here by warmer weather, lower taxes, fewer permitting hurdles and looser COVID-19 restrictions.

Sun Sentinel • 6th August 2021

Damaged Mai-Kai Restaurant is for sale: ‘Everything is on the table’

Three months after water damage forced the iconic Mai-Kai Restaurant and Polynesian Show to close for repairs, its owners are putting the 64-year-old tiki time capsule up for sale.

Sun Sentinel • 16th July 2021

Which South Florida eateries got the most money from the federal government? | INTERACTIVE

Restaurants and bars across South Florida earned $597.6 million in grants before the Restaurant Revitalization Fund ran out of money in July.

Sun Sentinel • 12th April 2019

Miami Film Festival: How director Billy Corben expanded his movie empire with steroids, hustlers, 'Cocaine'

It’s 10 days until the Miami Film Festival premiere of their documentary “Magic City Hustle,” but directors Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman are still neck-deep in editing at Rakontur, their Miami Beach production company on the second floor of Books and Books on Lincoln Road.

Sun Sentinel • 12th April 2019

Parkland father Manuel Oliver is demanding change one mural at a time

To celebrate what would have been his son Joaquin’s 18th birthday in August, Manuel Oliver gathered his paints and 1,000 supporters and set up a 16-foot-wide canvas outside the National Rifle Association’s headquarters in Virginia.

Sun Sentinel • 12th April 2019

Feds warn South Florida breweries to stop producing marijuana-flavored beer

The newest trend in South Florida’s craft-beer industry is marijuana beer, but local brewers this week face a major buzzkill thanks to a key ingredient in the brew: cannabis terpenes oil.

Sun Sentinel • 12th April 2019

Flagler Village: In Fort Lauderdale, a neighborhood goes from ghost town to funky town

Every morning, architect Marco Ruiz and his 10-month-old dachshund, Chorizo, stroll two blocks from his Flagler Village loft to Bean to Brew, an arty cafe offering views of a flourishing neighborhood.