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Chopped judge, TV personality and the man behind plenty of the country’s top restaurants, Scott Conant, is back in South Florida with his newest concept, Corsair, inside Aventura’s Turnberry Isle Hotel. Chat Chow TV sat down with the charming chef to learn more about Corsair, its inspiration and what rituals he has for his restaurants. The welcoming restaurant located close to the property’s massive golf course plays off its maritime-inspired name with a warm palate and interior tones designed by popular designer Meyer Davis. “It’s a celebration of sorts of this area,” Conant adds about the design. The restaurant serves a blend of Mediterranean and local flavors to create its unique spins on dishes like a deconstructed lasagna, polenta waffles and porcini braised veal. For the beverage program he enlisted California’s Rob Floyd who has set up bar programs for the SLS in Hollywood, CA and several of Conant’s restaurants. As for his other popular restaurant on Miami Beach, Scarpetta, that has produced some of Miami’s top chefs including Macchialina’s Mike Pirolo and Top Chef’s Nina Compton, he says they are all good friends still and enjoy getting in the kitchen together. “It’s nice to know we can bring the band back together and play some cover songs,” Conant says with a slight laugh. Want to know what Conant’s favorite indulgence is? Or what ritual he has at every restaurant of his? Watch the video above to find out.

Threefold Cafe, Coral Gables’ newest all-day breakfast spot, serves up a unique combination of Australian dishes with a Florida twist. Opened this Summer by two Melbourne transplants, Teresa and Nick Sharp, they offers diners a taste of their native Australia dining philosophy with fresh local food. Chat Chow TV sat down Teresa to find out more about the restaurant, its extensive coffee offerings and some of the restaurant’s top dishes. The pair relocated to Coral Gables after Nick was transferred for work. Missing Melbourne’s “off the charts” coffee the duo decided to open Threefold Cafe. All the coffee is sourced locally from Panther Coffee with all the baristas professional trained on-site by their coffee “Yoda” from Panther Coffee. The menu encompasses their love of breakfast featuring dishes made with plenty of free range eggs, Zak the Baker bread and lots of creativity. Some top sellers according to Teresa are the “Pope Benedict” served on top of hash browns instead of English muffins; the “Smashed Avocado” bread and the “Not So French Toast” — a savory take on a classic breakfast dish. Curious what lunch offerings Threefold offers? Or where they source their products from? Find out all that and more in the video above.

The Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce and Samuel Adams partnered for a fourth year to present this mouth-watering burger event. Congrats to 1st place winner Rok:BRGR, Pincho Factory who came in 2nd place, to Swine Southern Table & Bar for placing 3rd and to Sushi Maki for winning “People’s Choice.” Participating Coral Gables restaurants included: • Bricktop’s • Bread and Butter • Bulla • Christy’s Restaurant • The Café @ Coral Gables | Books & Books • CRAVE Coral Gables Restaurant • Eating House • Epicure • Pardo’s Peruvian Cuisine • Pincho Factory • Rok BRGR • Shula’s 347 Grill • Shake Shack • Sushi Maki • Swine Southern Table & Bar • Tarpon Bend Raw Bar & Grill • The Westin Colonnade, Coral Gables Restaurant • Tum Tum’s Asian Street Food

Tea is making its mark in Miami with the help of the newly opened Ticety on Coral Gables’ Miracle Mile. The tea-centric shop and restaurant carries organic tea from around the world. Chat Chow TV sat down with the store’s partner Damien Ceulemans to learn more about the concept, how it sources its tea and interesting decor. Ceulemans said him and his two partners got the idea for a tea store while visiting Miami from Europe. They noticed that there was a void in the market with very few places offering a quality tea selection. Once they saw tea’s popularity rising, especially with the sale of Teavana to Starbucks for hundreds of millions of dollars, they decided now would be the time and settled in Coral Gables to open Ticety. The store carries loose leaf teas in three different “flushes” that are determined by the time of year and size at which they are harvested. The teas can be served hot or cold and Ticety also offers a variety of sandwiches, salads and pastries to accompany them. The tea selection isn’t the only thing wowing customers. The store’s unique decor with two living plant walls complete with hundreds of plants add a a different, serene twist to the stores unique atmosphere. Wonder what the difference between a first, second and third flush is? Or which classic dish Ticety adds truffles to in order to make it extra special? Find out all that and more in the video up top.

When you think of West Kendall, dining hub doesn’t typically come to mind. That is quickly changing though with the addition of Finka Table & Tap from the family behind Islas Canarias and the popular CubanCube food truck. Chat Chow TV sat down with the restaurant’s head chef and owner Eileen Andrade to learn about her inspiration for the restaurant, the cocktail program and why they chose to make its home in Kendall. The restaurant is the brick-and-mortar variation of the CubanCube food truck with the addition of a plenty of seating and an extensive bar program, created by the guys behind Bar Lab Elad Zvi and Gabe Orta. Bar manager Eddie Fuentes oversees the drink program that offers ten different cocktails and a tap room with eight different rotating brews, which the neighborhood is quickly embracing. “The reaction has been really good,” Andrade adds about the drink program. “We’re running out of beer every day.” Living and growing up in Kendall, Andrade realized that she would go to the other side of town to drink and eat so she decided to open her restaurant in the area, right down the street from her family’s restaurants, to bring more dining options to the area. “Kendall needed something different,” adds Andrade. “CubanCube was something different but we wanted somewhere people could come whenever they wanted.” The restaurant serves a unique blend of Cuban, Peruvian and Korean cuisine with fun inventive twists on classic dishes. The restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner now but has plans in the near future to launch a brunch, happy hour and late night menu. Curious where Andrade gets her inspiration from? Or what famous film prop is on display at the restaurant? Find out these things and more in the video above.

Cuban Old Fashioned Contributed by Eddie Fuentes • 2 dashes of Orange Bitters • 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters • ½ oz of Bustelo Coffee Syrup • 2 oz Bulleit® Bourbon Add all ingredients in a mixing glass, add ice, stir, strain over a hand carved ice, squeeze an orange peel and coil it up for the garnish.

Full Mast Contributed by Robert Ferrara • 2 dashes of Orange Bitters • ¼ oz of Laird’s Applejack • ½ oz of Bénédictine • 1 oz Oloroso Sherry • 1.5 oz Bulleit® Bourbon Add all ingredients in a mixing glass, add ice, stir, strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with some lemon oils.

Provencal Sour Contributed by Ashley Danella • 2 oz Bulleit® Bourbon • 1 oz Lavender Infused Honey Syrup • ¾ oz of Fresh Lemon Juice Add all ingredients, give it a good shake, strain over an old fashioned glass with ice and garnish with a fresh piece of lavender.

Barn Swallow Contributed by Ben Potts • 1.5 oz Bulleit® Bourbon • 3/4 oz Byrrh Grand Quinquina • Dash of Lemongrass Tincture • Dash of Cherry Bark Vanilla Bitters Add all ingredients, stir over ice, strain over a rocks glass with a big ice cube and garnish with a lemon zest.

OTC is the popular Brickell restaurant known for its extensive craft beer selection, artisanal American eats, and ever-popular brunch. Chat Chow TV sat down with owner Michael Sullivan to find out more about the restaurant, its new and improved menu and it’s take-away growler beer program. Sullivan got his start in the restaurant industry in New York City, working his way up through some of the city’s most popular spots. Being from Miami, Sullivan returned to his hometown with a desire to bring what he saw and experienced in the NYC dining scene to South Florida and that’s when OTC was born. OTC opened up originally as a fast casual concept but changed to table service restaurant in late 2013 so it could fully educate diners on the menu without being rushed. With a new way of serving diners also came a new chef, Jacob Anaya formerly of Azul at the neighboring Mandarin Oriental Hotel, who brought his high-end cooking techniques to the casual menu. “He brings the same mentality and focus,” notes Sullivan. “Just with a playful neighborhood vibe.” Everything on Anaya’s revamped menu is homemade, right down even to the mayonnaise and pastas. He also added a new healthy lunch menu filled with dishes like Tuna Poke and Grilled Chicken with Quinoa. Utilizing its extensive craft beer selection, seven varieties on draft and seven by the bottle at any given time, OTC recently introduced its to-go growlers. For just $10, guests can get a growler filled with a beer of their choice to then enjoy at home — giving them access to brews typically reserved for restaurant and bar consumption. Curious what Sullivan’s favorite dish is on the OTC menu? Or what makes the restaurant’s brunch so popular? Get all the details in the video up top.

NIU Kitchen is the small restaurant making a big buzz in Downtown Miami because of its inventive Catalan-cuisine and electric offerings. Chat Chow TV met with Executive Chef and partner Deme Lomas to hear about the new menu, its authentic inspiration and what makes its menu unique. Lomas hails from Barcelona, where he cooked as an executive chef for a large restaurant group for many years. He came to the U.S. three years ago and worked appropriately enough at Barconleta, the popular Spanish restaurant in Miami Beach, before branching out on his own with partner Karina Iglesias earlier this year. What makes NIU unique from the large array of Spanish restaurants in South Florida is that it focuses on the cuisine of of Lomas’ hometown of Barcelona where the emphasis is more on seafood dishes that are lightly cooked and grilled. The restaurant serves both lunch and dinner using a concise but eclectic menu that features 10-15 items at any given point with unique spins on traditional tapas like gazpacho and tartare along with specials rotating every few days. Curious what makes NIU’s gazpacho so different? Or what NIU means in Catalan? Discover all of this and more in the video above.

A place creating quite the buzz in the bar scene both locally and nationally is the newly opened The Ice Plant in St. Augustine, FL. The craft cocktail bar and restaurant is serving up creative drinks using homemade ingredients in a warehouse that once housed an actual ice plant. Chat Chow TV sat down with Head Barkeep Zach Lynch to find out more about the drinks, what’s make its ice so special and all about the historic space. As the title of the restaurant suggests — ice plays a key roll in every drink. The Ice Plant uses several different shapes of ice for its drinks, all hand carved from 150 pound blocks of ice that are made daily in-house. The ice is made with water that is filtered four to five times to achieve optimal purity and therefore clarity in color. The cocktail menu rotates often, but is filled with drinks made of recipes from each bartender in the staff. Drinks that are an ode to its surroundings and Florida highlight the menu like a “Hemingway Daquiri” and a “Florida Mule” made with vodka made at the distillery next door. Even the tonics, sodas and 14 different type of syrups are all created on site. However, food isn’t an after thought at this bar. The kitchen makes everything fresh from scratch, down to the ketchup it serves on its hand cut french fries. Dishes run the gamut from small, bite-sized plates like fresh pretzels served with a warm cheese dipping sauce to larger dishes such as pork chops and burgers. Curious what Lynch’s favorite dish is? Or how much ice it goes through in a week? (Hint — it’s a LOT) Find out those things and more in the video above.

Last week, Chat Chow TV traveled to Downtown LA to attend Tacolandia. A food festival devoted to Southern California’s favorite street eat. Over 2,000 people showed up on a warm summer afternoon to try 40 of California and Mexico’s best taco chefs. Check out the video above and find out who won “The Nation’s Best Street Food” and “Best of Show”.

The 13th Annual Miami Spice Restaurant program kicks off in just a few weeks on August 1. This year to celebrate, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) launched a series of special of monthly Miami Spice Mash-Ups, where chefs collaborate for a one-night only dinner and prepare dishes from their upcoming Spice menus. On Wednesday, June 25, J&G Grill at St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort kicked off the series with its Chef de Cusine Brad Kilgore and pastry chef Antonio Bachour creating a six-course menu with visiting Chef Jose Mendin of the Pubbelly family of restaurants. The intimate dinner showcased the creativity of these chefs with dishes such as Local Poussin, “Saucisson de Lyon,” Five Spice, Chard Walnut Emulsion from Kilgore, Pork Cheeks, Asparagus, Mushroom Dirt, Parmesan Cheese and Pickled Mushrooms from Mendin; and Salted Honey Yogurt, Candied Tomatoes, Greek Yogurt Custard, Strawberries, and Yogurt Sponge Cake from Bachour. Guests also enjoyed cocktails from Botran Rum and beers from Stella Artois. Check out more highlights from the video above and make sure not to miss the next Miami Spice Mash-Up on Thursday, July 24 at 8 p.m., when chef Clayton Miller of 50 Eggs and Todd Erickson of HaVen Gastro-Lounge team up at Swine Southern Table & Bar. Tickets are $65 per person and can be purchased here www.50eggsinc.com/chefs.

The Floridian is the St. Augustine restaurant that has created buzz among locals and tourists alike for almost four years. The restaurant serves up unique Southern fare, with a healthy and local twist. Chat Chow TV sat down with co-owner Jeff McNally to learn more about the cuisine and its creative dishes and cocktails.