Join Dine Magazine for an evening of great food, fine wine and networking at Racks Italian Bistro. When you walk through the doors of Racks, you are about to get an authentic taste of Italy. Inside you will feel the Old World Italian charm as you walk through the Italian Marketplace and make your way back to the chic bar area. The restaurant is located directly on the Intracoastal Waterway so when the weather cooperates, a step outside on the dock is a must do. Racks offers a selection of rustic, regional specialties and focuses on using locally sourced ingredients.
When: Tuesday, September 8
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Where: Racks Italian Bistro, 3933 NE 163rd Street in North Miami Beach
Cost: $10 (Includes 1 glass of wine and a selection of hors d’oeuvres) Free for members
Menu
Calamari “My Way”
Truffle Fries
Chicken Wings with Lemon, Oregano, Scallion and Pecorino
Assorted Pizza Bites (Black Truffle, Fiore di Latte, White Spinach with Prosciutto)
Field Green Salad
If you are craving delicious Italian cuisine and you are in the Stuart area, there is no better place to go than Gusto. Located on Colorado Avenue in downtown Stuart the Amato family has created a staple where the locals flock to. This is their 2nd restaurant, their first being Vincent’s ristorante e pizzeria in Vero Beach, open since 1978. While Gusto hasn’t been around quite as long, their following is just as strong.
Dine Magazine paired up with Gusto to host a fabulous wine dinner with wines provided by Old Bridge and it was absolutely delicious. This is something new for Gusto. Stuart is a different market than Miami, Broward or even Palm Beach. It brings a casual, neighborhood feel to the restaurant scene and I have quickly discovered that the food in that area is quite delicious. (Though, I’ll admit at one time, Martin County would be the last place I’d go if I was craving a good meal.) There also aren’t wine dinners and wine tastings every night of the week, but they really packed the house tonight.
Homemade Tagliolini with a Blue Tiger Hawaiian shrimp sauté
The meal began with a glass of Prosecco and a trio of Bruschetta. Crispy baguettes splashed with a drizzle of olive oil and topped with tomatoes and basil, grilled vegetables and a Parmigianno with Truffle Oil. Very simple flavors melded together perfectly. A nice beginning to a delicious evening.
It was time to get our greens in for the evening. I must say that this was probably my favorite item of the night. Fresh greens with juicy, plump tomatoes, roasted red peppers, artichokes and hearts of palm all tossed in a balsalmic vinaigrette. I felt like I was picking vegetables straight from the garden. The juiciness of the tomatoes, the sweetness of the peppers, I felt like I hadn’t eaten in a week. That’s how fabulous every bite tasted. You could easily tell that Gusto serves nothing but the highest quality ingredients.
The menu items continued to be rich in flavor and satisfying with every bite. Homemade pasta, Tiger Shrimp, tender filet mignonette saute with Portabella mushrooms in a brandy sauce. Hearty dishes that were bursting with flavor did not disappoint.
After Friday, Gusto will close down for the month of July like many of the other restaurants in Martin County, but come August they will be at your service.
Gusto is located at 301 Colorado Avenue in Stuart. (772) 287-3334
If you’d like to see photos from our event, you can see them here.
Café Martorano is an original. Often copied, but never reproduced, this South Florida favorite was founded over fifteen years ago in Fort Lauderdale and is still phenomenally successful – quite a feat with the notoriously fickle taste buds of the South Florida dining scene, where ‘new’ and ‘hot’ can last only a few months before being dismissed as ‘So last week.’.
The reasons for its success, though, are obvious. Café Martorano combines amazingly fresh, perfectly prepared, no-holds barred American-Italian cuisine with an over-the-top, come to eat, come to party atmosphere unrivaled in the dining or nightclub world. The regulars will tell you, the food is what keeps them coming back.
“Consistency is the most important thing.” Says Michael Salvatore, a regular seated next to me at the bar while I waited for my table. “The food is good, and people come here – you wait. This is exactly what I’d make in my kitchen.” He tells me he returns, long waits or no, because he knows that what he orders will be exactly – exactly – what he wanted, no exceptions, no ‘bad days’.
Obviously I have a lot to look forward to. Continue reading…
WPBF TV 25 holds their readers choice awards every year. Individual businesses may register themselves online under a given category, and may promote their involvement in the contest to their customers, but it is the people who ultimately decide who the winners are for the A List.
Here is a list of the results in the restaurant category
Do you agree? What would be your picks in each of the categories?
Photo Credit [RA Sushi]
