Chef Talk: Francis Casciato of TableSeide Restaurant Group
Francis Casciato is the executive chef for the Sarasota-based TableSeide Restaurant Group that includes Libby’s Café + Bar, Louies Modern, Muse at The Ringling, Oak & Stone, Banyan Cafe, The Francis and Modern Events. He grew up in a culinary-minded Italian-American family and studied his craft in Pennsylvania before moving to Florida and working f...
Review: A square deal at Sicilian Oven
I had pizza on the brain, but not in my belly, after the troubled recent inaugural edition of the Fort Lauderdale Pizza Festival. Like other attendees who felt short-sliced, I wound up hankering and hunting for cheesy goodness in the aftermath. Such is the power of pizza. It is America’s ultimate communal comfort food, the stuff of teen sleepovers,...
Get a Taste of Italy in South Florida, the Heaven of Seafood
Are you looking for a weekend gateway and wondering where you can go? Enough of the hustle bustle of the city. Why don’t you get the taste of sea therapy? Yes, salt water, breeze, sand and food; this is the combination that can melt anyone’s heart. And if you want a perfect combo of all the above-mentioned things, visit South Florida. Don’t you thi...
There’s a new Italian restaurant opening in Boynton’s Las Ventanas
Father and son restaurateurs Steven Pellegrino Sr. and Steven Pellegrino Jr. are the latest to give Boynton Beach’s Las Ventanas a try. On April 12, they will open Baciami (Italian for ‘kiss me’) Italiano in the spot formerly known as Lucertola Ristorante & Birreria and before that, Bad Ragaz Restaurant & Bar. You might be familiar with the Pell...
Casual Dining: Marozzi's Pizzeria offers Italian-American favorites
I have an intense love affair with pizza. It’s my favorite food. The hot, crisp and buttery crust combined with the acidic and juicy tomato sauce tinged with whispers of sweet undertones and a blanket of melted, caramelized cheese all send me to the moon. When pizza commercials come on television, I get excited. When the pizza cutter crashes throug...
'O Munaciello Brings Neapolitan Black Pizza to Miami's MiMo District
In Naples, Italy, visitors and locals alike flock to Via San Gregorio Armeno for its Old-World craftsmen. The street, better known as Christmas Alley or Nativity Alley, is filled with small shops and stalls, each offering meticulous hand-made nativity and restaurant scenes. The same care goes into 'O Munaciello's pizzas. The restaurant, which recen...
Oxford Restaurant Fat Eddie’s Brings ‘Old-School’ Italian To The Table
Hottytoddy.com ventured into Fat Eddie’s (the former Lamar Lounge) this week to see all the new things they had to offer. Located on North Lamar Blvd., just a minute or so from the Square, we found what could easily be called the best Italian food offered in town. Logan Little, manager of Fat Eddie’s, and Chef Rusty Anderson greeted us at the door...
Buy This: Italian products you can find in Atlanta
Chefs love the distinctive flavor of Calabrian peppers, small hot Italian cherry peppers that usually come to us in the States packed jars of olive oil and preserved with a little salt. Tuscany at Your Table in Virginia-Highland offers prepared Italian foods like Tuscan Soup, panini and Orecchiette with Broccolini. But their shelves are also stocke...
Italian Food With Southern Soul
Andrew Ticer met Michael Hudman on the basketball court in the sixth grade. Back then, when they played for rival Catholic schools in Memphis, no one could have predicted they would become the city’s restaurant royalty, winning national recognition for their restaurant Hog & Hominy. Mr. Hudman has always been bigger, louder and gregarious. Mr. Tice...
Barilla Bites On The Beach, Bountiful Italian Tasting At SOBEWFF
The annual South Beach Wine and Food Festival (SOBEWFF) is a foodies dream. From celebrity chef sightings to parties all night long, the annual festival is must for the serious food lover. At the beginning of the multi-day event, Barilla Bites On The Beach showcased the brightest and best Italian foods and cocktails. The Thursday night event was ho...
He watched the ‘nonnas’ cook and that inspired this culinary salute to Italy
If you think farm-to-table restaurant cooking is a relatively new concept, think again. Michael Schwartz, who helped bring to Miami an emphasis on seasonal local ingredients 10 years ago with the opening of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, knows this from his days as a young cook watching the nonnas make pasta and other traditional Italian fare at h...
Pinocchio, un angolo di Italia a Miami Beach
Da Pinocchio c'è tutto. Ci sono le brioche appena sfornate e la ciambella casereccia. Ci sono il cappuccino, l'espresso e anche il caffè d'orzo. Anche i Pan di Stelle e il Crodino. C'è la radio che trasmette le hit del momento. C'è persino la Gazzetta. Insomma, la perfetta atmosfera – con qualcosa in più - del bar italiano. Con un solo particolare...