By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
THE 1st ANNUAL COCOA BEACH WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL On March 13, Lori Wilson Park will be transformed into an international tasting village as part of the inaugural Cocoa Beach Wine & Food Festival. Conceived by Cocoa Beach attorney Tony Hernandez III, the Festival has been three years in the making, and the result of his, Event Manager Matt Gunter and countless others’ tireless work to help showcase the best and most eclectic selection of food Brevard has to offer while helping fill local... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
Coconuts on the Beach By: Tobin Bennison When Punxsutawney Phil pokes his head out of his burrow this February 2 — Groundhog Day — there’s no telling whether he’ll see his shadow or not. You’d think that the recent frigid weather would suggest a protracted winter, but we’re talking about weather — and we all know what a slave to certainty the climate is, much less to the whims of a somnolent varmint. Portentous rodents and tricks of the light aside, one... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
One of my favourite customers from my bartending days was a man named John Phillips. As a retired Philadelphia fireman who served during the ‘50s and ‘60s, you’d figure John would have some great stories about raging infernos, near-death experiences, and improbable rescues. But like many a modest veteran of tough work or battle — and very much in keeping with every fireman I’ve known — John never spoke about the bad stuff. For John, the mundane events that unfolded during the... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
According to the British Beer and Pub Association, Britain has seen the closure of 52 traditional pubs each week since mid-decade, and figures for the first six months of 2009 show that number increased by one-third. To many, the pub is a solid cornerstone of English life, as integral to its collective identity as the red, double-decker bus, the phone box, bearskin hats, tea cozies, and thatched-roof cottages. Once beloved arenas of public discussion, encroaching modernization and changes in the... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
They say you can’t go home again, but places like the Blueberry Muffin prove you can still get pretty darn close. Like thousands of small, independently owned restaurants scattered all over the country, Indialantic’s Blueberry Muffin acts as a home away from home for individuals throughout its community and beyond. It’s a place where the spirit of home isn’t nearly as irretrievable as we’ve resigned ourselves into believing, and where feeding the soul is as important... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
Roberto’s Little Havana In Paris, it’s La Coupole. In New York, it’s the Russian Tea Room, and in London, it’s Rules. And to scores of locals and visitors, Roberto’s Little Havana is the similarly symbolic stomach of Cocoa Beach. And though some may argue in favor of other candidates, Roberto’s owner Roberto Barrial is, to many residents, the de facto face of the City. Roberto Barrial isn’t a surfer, an engineer, or a local politician, but since he first... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
When you’ve visited as many restaurants as we have for this feature, it should come as no surprise that there are times when you find yourself getting a bit jaded — even, dare I say it, snobbish — when it comes to dining out. The relative dearth of dining options in the area is sometimes reason enough, however misguided, to shower the newest place with effusive praise. Now there are basically two kinds of food snobs out there: those who look down their noses at anything that doesn’t... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
Since 1994, Gregory’s has been the place for steak on Cocoa Beach. Countless locals and myriad returning visitors (thanks to Gregory’s attachment to the Ocean Landings Resort) trust Brigitte Krause, Head Chef/Owner Klaus Krause and Chef Jason Tavernier to provide them with some of the best-cooked steaks in the county. Of all the world’s dishes, it seems none incites more passion than steak. If you’re Klaus and Jason, you have to assume that everyone who comes in is a steak... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
In one of the most referenced, praised, and unread books in the world of literature, Marcel Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past,” it’s the chance bite of a madeleine, a small, scallop-shaped cake, that spurs the author on a 7-volume rediscovery of his youth. The episode proved so resonant that “a madeleine” has since become synonymous with any sensory agent that seems to magically evoke a flood of memories. I myself have several madeleines — the smell of... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
If any nation lives up to its hospitable reputation, it’s Jamaica, and Montego Bay native Trevor Dixon is the perfect ambassador for the friendliest tropical isle in the world. To be fair, Jamaica isn’t without its share of problems, but he’s the right man to remind you of the good things; those things that keep you smiling when all about you is enveloped in gloom. And the weather was pretty gloomy the day we visited Trevor, chef and owner of Trevor’s Blue Toucan, in his new digs... [Read more...]
