Lisa Ling on why Asian food in Los Angeles matters.
A black cod goes from the Pacific to Shibumi.
Keeping cool when the kitchen gets hot.
One restaurant’s many pandemic pivots.
Two different takes on Indian food.
Every day’s a hustle at Woon.
From Asian farms to Los Angeles restaurants.
Why in L.A. they’re not boring.
Three restaurants breaking boundaries.
Mastering values at Yang’s Kitchen.
Two chefs go behind the blade.
Omakase and ramen join the neighborhood.
The coronation of soju and makgeolli.
Three women open the bar they want to walk into.
Indonesian community through cuisine.
On working with Mom and Dad at Anajak Thai.
Los Angeles before sushi.
Inside the staff ritual of eating together.
Three Vietnamese restaurants expand the city’s palate.
One chef has some thoughts.
Waking up Los Angeles to Burmese cuisine.
The couple behind Shiku goes with the flow.
An ode to those who keep them going.
Michelle Bernstein embraces the competition.
One restaurant’s epic journey from debt to success.
The couple behind Boia De and Walrus Rodeo play by their own rules.
Vermouth gets a bar of its own.
On the business of BBQ in Miami.
Recipes for navigating an uncertain economy.
The secret to never getting old in a town obsessed with what’s new.
How two pioneers of omakase introduced Miami to a new way of dining out.
Chasing a childhood memory one arepa at a time.
Why Miami’s mainstays of Middle Eastern food aren’t phased by the influx of glossy newcomers.
David Foulquier on his shapeshifting ambitions.
The Black chefs behind a vegan movement in Miami.
Two Cuban sandwich masters talk shop.
A new generation’s take on the classic Jewish deli.
Miami’s mavericks of sustainable growing and dining.
An intimate glimpse inside restaurants after the last customer leaves.
Creating a culture where employees stick around.
A new kind of bottle service takes root in Miami.
The art of staying put in a changing city.
The city’s ventanitas created a culture all their own.
Philadelphia Magazine’s food critic on the irrepressible attitude that is the key ingredient of the city’s restaurants.
How one restaurant gave birth to many.
The cheesesteak may be the global mascot of Philly. But a contingent of pioneering chefs and restaurateurs have made the city a hub of vegetarian innovation.
The city’s Eritrean-Ethiopian restaurants serve up more—way more—than delicious food.
How Juan Carlos Aparicio baked his way to running a restaurant (that isn’t a bakery).
How Alex Tewfik went from being a food editor in Philly to owning one of the best restaurants in town.
Two restaurants that share a belief in how cooking can be force for change.
How Chutatip Suntaranon channeled her upbringing in Thailand—and life spent flying around the world—into one of Philly’s most singular restaurants.
Stopping by the warehouses in Kensington where artisan upstarts are breathing new life into the city’s food scene.
The Ongoing Evolution of Philly’s Classic Sandwiches.
Chloé Grigri, Amanda Shulman, and Ellen Yin on upending the rules of the game.
Mike Solomonov takes stock of his journey.
When a customer becomes a friend.
Ange Branca was forced to close her beloved restaurant in 2020. That was just the beginning.
How do you build a restaurant in a space that was never meant for a restaurant? In Philly, a city of Revolutionary Warera buildings and colonial row houses and ancient warehouses, it can be a bit like playing Tetris with Benjamin Franklin.
Three Philly couples get frank and intimate in sharing their recipes for romance.
Inside the world of homespun pop-ups and unexpected collaborations that have made Philly’s dining scene like nowhere else.
The classics are easy enough to master by anyone with fine liquor and a recipe.
The city has long been a vibrant hub of Vietnamese food. Today, a new generation is striking a balance all their own—between creativity and tradition, innovation and memory.
An ode to the unsung heroes of restaurant kitchens from a comedy writer who couldn’t take the heat.
A cell phone has been invented that allows you to send one text message to your younger self. What do you write?
Miami has long attracted big names in the restaurant world, but the recent pace of outsiders setting up shop is like nothing the city has seen before. Local legend, Michelle Bernstein, doesn’t think it’s a bad thing.
When you catch the blinding reflection of the glittering disco ball and hear the slow melody of the Trova guitarist, then you know you’ve arrived at Café La Trova. In this lively Calle Ocho setting that’s an ode to vintage Cuba, diners come for the island-inspired food and drinks and stay for the entertainment, which on any given night is boisterous and loud, just as it should be.
If anybody is an authority on Miami dining, it’s Café La Trova’s founder, Michelle Bernstein. A matriarch of modern Miami cuisine, in the 2000s the 305 native helped push the local dining scene forward by celebrating the area’s natural fruits and harvests while mixing in her background in European and Asian flavors and techniques. The result? Something Miami diners had never tasted before. In 2008, she earned a James Beard Foundation Award in the Best Chef: South category for her namesake restaurant Michy’s. From there, she’s continued opening restaurant after restaurant, and has three more concepts on tap for 2023.
These days, Bernstein and other local chefs are also experiencing an infringement upon their beloved culinary territory. With major restaurant groups from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere creating southern outposts in the Magic City, and global superstars like Marcus Samuelsson, Gordon Ramsay, and Thomas Keller opening glossy restaurants in town, one wonders how this tsunami of well-funded outsiders has affected the city’s pioneers. Here Bernstein gives us her unfiltered take on how a little healthy competition can go a long way.
You grew up in Miami during the ’80s and ’90s. What was the dining scene like then?
During those days, nobody went out to dinner in Miami. It would have to be a really special time or occasion. But when my family did go out to eat, I remember there was a French restaurant where I had my first escargot experience at seven-years-old. It shaped my life so much that when I was nine, I asked my mom for my birthday to teach me how to make escargot because I told her that I wanted to make it for the rest of my life.
Escargot at seven? That’s adventurous.
I just think that’s how we were back then. We were curious, and we liked trying new things.
How has Miamians’ curiosity influenced today’s dining? Because now we’re eating out all the time.
I think there are a few different reasons why it changed, but mostly it’s people having more disposable income and the region becoming more of an eating culture. There’s a store or restaurant around every corner, so it’s getting easier and more accessible. People love to eat and have different flavors in their mouths, and want that experience to be more than once a month.
What about all the New York City and other out-of-town restaurants recently extending their reach to Miami? How has that influenced Miami’s restaurant scene?
When the likes of Thomas Keller, Gordon Ramsay, and the Major Food Group guys come here, local chefs can’t think that we’re going to survive just because we’ve been here longer. Their presence has given us a little pressure to be better, and I appreciate that. Some people might think negatively about all these new, not-local restaurants coming here, but to be honest with you I think it’s made our town better and has given us more choices.
Would you consider it healthy competition?
We can share the love. Having a larger concentration of high-level restaurants can make us all greater in the long run. That means we’re becoming a food destination and travelers will want to visit us. Miami used to be known to travelers for only having an “entertaining” side—the beaches, the night-life—but now it can just be for the food.
How have your restaurants evolved?
We had to grow. Not only have the restaurants changed, but we have changed because the expectations have changed. Our restaurants have found the need to discover great local talent and train our staff to offer the best in hospitality, and our culinary team has been pushed to taste and travel more to expand our palates. The demographic of our customers has changed—age, ethnic background, income levels, everything. When demographics change, you have to change, or you’re out.
“When the likes of Thomas Keller, Gordon Ramsay, and the Major Food Group guys come here, local chefs can’t think that we’re going to survive just because we’ve been here longer.”
And your interactions with the newbies: How have they been?
I’ve gone and said, “Hi, and here’s some powdered sugar if you need it.” But that’s really it. The new guys don’t really reach out to us much. And it’s okay because a lot of us are really reserved and shy. I got into this business because I’m shy, and I wanted to work in the back. I remember during my Michy’s days that my husband would have to hold my hand every time a customer would ask to see me because I was afraid they would throw a tomato at me.
What are today’s diners looking for when eating out in Miami?
They are looking for experiential dining. They are not just looking for a great bite, not just a great night out with friends; they are looking for a whole damn experience. At La Trova, for example, we have authentic Trova musicians playing live music, and it’s a real vibe. People want to be entertained, they want a great cocktail in front of them, they want great music, they want to see and be seen.
That must be challenging.
Some might think so, but I look at it in this way: Can you imagine giving people an experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives? I think it’s amazing! How many people can say that they’ve helped create someone’s entire night, a night they’ll tell their friends about for years to come? That’s something I don’t take lightly.
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