This month's food and drink news straight from the pages of Ocean Drive.
Breaking Bread: Sandwiches are having a moment, so much so that Bread + Butter chef and owner Alberto Cabrera made them the star of the show at Little Bread Cuban Sandwich Co., an unconventional sandwichery in the heart of Little Havana. “We’re focusing on the old-school Cuban classics but adding a present-day American twist,” he says. “We’re reinventing the sandwich wheel.” Cabrera changes up the classic Cuban with pork belly rillette instead of sliced pork; his Media Noche is a triple-decker club on brioche with porchetta and mustard caviar. Little Bread’s menu also proffers not-so-little snacks like smoked chicken wings with kimchi and Florida honey as well as sweet afterthoughts in the form of guava pound cake with cream cheese frosting, which pairs extremely well with a game of dominoes on the eatery’s backyard patio. 541 SW 12th Ave., Miami, 786-420-2672
Foolproof: Proof Pizza & Pasta’s wood-burning oven produces between 850 and 900 degrees of heat. “It’s the Neapolitan standard [and] makes the crust rise quicker,” says chef and owner Justin Flit, who prior to opening the Midtown eatery was executive sous chef at Bourbon Steak. At Proof, he and chef de cuisine Matt DePante sling pies topped with house-made fennel sausage, oxtail, or Parmesan fonduta. Also try the pasta selections, like angel hair with crab, Calabrian chili, and lemon breadcrumbs. Save room, if you can, for the colossal macaron ice cream sandwich. 3328 N. Miami Ave., Miami, 786-536-9562
Aw, Shucks:“Chefs love eating oysters on their days off,” says chef Jamie DeRosa, who won’t have to travel far for his bivalve fix, as he’s opened Izzy’s Fish & Oyster down the street from his Tongue & Cheek. Named after his daughter Isabela, the quaint 40-seater is a tribute to the seafood shacks of eastern Long Island and New England. “Being from Long Island, we knew how important authenticity would be to this kind of concept,” he says, a truth evidenced by the Point Judith littleneck steamers or New England clam chowder with house-made oyster crackers. 423 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 305-397-8843
Keep it Down Now: In an out-of-the-way setting, a block from Lincoln Road, you’ll find Hush Bar + Lounge, an unfussy watering hole geared toward locals looking for a shadowy spot to let loose and hear live music. Open seven nights a week, Hush offers food from neighboring Oolite, craft beer, simple cocktails, and a pool table. “I like this place because it’s off Washington Avenue and off the [radar],” says manager and nightlife veteran Bobby Brandt. “It’s quiet.” 1661 Pennsylvania Ave., Miami Beach, 786-540-4874
Sweetbread milanesa with Swiss cheese and country ham vinaigrette.
Vagabonding: Alex Chang, a chef and star of Paladar (a documentary about two USC students who operated an illegal, underground supper club restaurant on campus), is at the helm of Vagabond Restaurant, part of the iconic Vagabond Hotel’s resurrection. Chang’s approach is to act locally and think globally, using his travels and Mexican-Chinese descent as an inspiration for the menu, but sticking to ingredients from Florida. “No apples grow in Florida, so we’re not going to put apples on the menu,” he says. Instead, jerk chicken wings smoked over fresh allspice leaves and served with pikliz (Haitian spicy pickled vegetables) pay tribute to Miami’s Caribbean influence. 7301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, 786-409-5716
PHOTOGRAPHY BY REINALDO FERNANDEZ (VAGABOND)