Category Archives: At the Bar

On the Menu Now: Passion Fruit, Philly Pretzels & Indian Tuesdays

Thought you’d want to oogle some food porn, so here’s a dose of what’s new and on our mind at our restaurants.  In Miami, local passion fruit can be found all throughout this new dessert, on the menu as of yesterday, here assembled for me by pastry sous chef Amy. Coconut Brownie Sundae is dripping in the good stuff: passion fruit ice cream, passion fruit curd (anchoring the brownie in place,) toasted macadamia nuts, toasted coconut, rum toffee sauce, and my favorite part when eaten alone together — the garnish of whipped vanilla cream and fresh passion fruit.

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[UPDATE] Kummelweck, Ahoy!

Oogle this piece of meat. Then eat it!

Update: Read more about the origins of the Kummelweck, and how it is made, here

Hello, from Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.  It’s a sea day, and we’re headed to our first stop on the Western Caribbean route, Labadee, Haiti!  We’re here until next Saturday, rolling out Michael’s new farm-to-ship menus, that we celebrated yesterday with a reception at 150 Central Park attended by, among others, Jodi Swank of Swank Farms and Royal Caribbean President and CEO Adam Goldstein.  Great news came in this morning… We’re fully booked for our second service tonight!

I thought this might be a fun time to talk a little about what we eat onboard when we’re here working…  It’s one of the most frequent questions that Michael, and the whole of us for that matter, get asked… ‘Where do you like to eat?’  While we of course like to eat our food, the truth is we like going out and trying new things, especially tasting what friends of ours in the industry are up to.  And you can make a pretty sound bet that if you drop a chef in a new and unfamiliar place, it’s only a matter of time before he or she has found the best, most reliable thing to eat.

So take, for example, a cruise ship. And we’re talking not your ordinary cruise ship, but the largest one in the world with 22 dining venues, many of which operate as independent restaurants, like our newest project 150 Central Park by Chef Michael Schwartz. Here are two of our go-to items that keep us going at sea:

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Harry’s TV Makes Drinking Easy

Harry’s Pizzeria, our new casual, neighborhood joint in the Design District, will tune its TV at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 2 to Drinking Made Easy’s Miami Episode!  While enjoying Florida craft beers on tap including Tampa’s Cigar City Jai Alai IPA, watch our skilled beverage director Ryan Goodspeed squeeze some serious poundage of local produce with host Zane Lamprey and his stunt drinker Steve, as they ham it up in the name of fresh juices and specialty cocktails for our Sunday brunch service at MGFD.   The HDNet series follows their travels in the US in search of the local drinks and drinking customs that have contributed to the birth, growth and distinction of our great country. This season the pair travels to Monterey, Miami, Tampa, Cape Cod, Washington D.C., Seattle, Santa Barbara, Aspen and more.  Zane’s first hit show, Three Sheets, has a cult following, especially for its drinking game embedded in each episode.  The instigator, Pleepleus the monkey, made a cameo in Drinking Made Easy Miami, too, so click his picture above to learn how to play along.  Harry’s Pizzeria is located two blocks west of MGFD, at 3918 North Miami Avenue (786.275.4963.)