Jackie Gutierrez-Jones

Ring the bell… school is now in session. Gin school, that is. Learn what defines this sultry spirit and how it’s crafted—step by step.

Frérot is the people’s Cognac, co-created by hundreds of Flaviar members whose voices guided us through a crowdtasting. It is a sublime and wonderfully complex Spirit blended from several batches of very old Eaux-de-vie originating from all 6 Cognac regions (Crus): an "Assemblage de Crus.” Produced in small batch by 6th generation Cognac makers, Frérot’s Eaux-de-vie were carefully put to rest in French oak barrels and in cold humid cellars for a minimum of 20 and up to 35 years.

We’re not here to rag on your standard PB&J or the BLT. On the contrary. Each one has their place in your lunch rotation. But Latin sandwiches are a lot like Latin grandmothers — they’re on a mission to stuff your face. Basically, if you’re not loosening your belt and carrying home  leftovers, you’re not really eating a Latin sandwich.

The question is: have we jumped the shark? With over half of them still in the works, it’s still too early to call. But with the opening of La Centrale on Feb. 16, we thought a rundown of what’s open—and on the horizon—might help you wade through these spoils of artisan food stalls. But first: what exactly is a food hall? Isn’t it basically what we’ve been a calling a food court at our local mall for decades? Turns out the answer is a hard “no.”

It’s Saturday night and your sitter bailed. Don’t fret: While your plans to hit up a South Beach club are effectively canceled, you can still find lots of things to do with kids in Miami that won’t make your weekend feel like a wash. In fact, there are probably more kid-friendly restaurants in Miami than you even knew existed. With more family-friendly dining than ever before, you can opt to get gussied up for a night of grilled seafood or go for a low-key lunch of foosball and burgers.

Before the craft beer and cocktail scene took over Miami, there were wine bars. Yes. Hard to imagine a time when bespoke drinks and handcrafted hops weren’t crawling all over your social media feed. But once upon a fickle time, wine ruled the 305. While many of these bastions of vino have long since gone to that vineyard in the sky, you can still find a few around the city. There are also a handful of new wine-preneurs interested in testing Miami’s palate.

So you’re about to celebrate a birthday. Soon your social media feeds will be inundated with well wishes from friends and video clips of Uncle Luke suavely navigating a jet ski while pontificating on the merits of each birthday month. Yet, every year, you have the same problem: where can you host a worthy celebration? Here are seven South Florida spots up to the task.

Quick: Where can you find the best Cuban food in all of Miami? If your answer wasn’t “my abuela’s house” or “fulana’s Tia Rosa over in Westchester,” please turn in any relevant Miami-Dade identification card on your persons and think long and hard about what you’re calling a pan con lechon these days.

"You know, Carl and I are very different in terms of our style sometimes, and so when we communicate, he loves to get things in emails and I'll just blow up his phone." That’s Christopher Cohen, co-founder of Bender’s Whiskey. And despite an obvious difference in communication styles, he and Carl Bender see eye-to-eye on what matters most: how to blend an epic tasting Whiskey. That’s the premise behind Bender’s.

Breckenridge Distillery is high. Now, now. Before you get your panties in a bunch, it’s not what you think. Yes, they’re based in Colorado. And yes, the association with their (legal) pot situation is all but dangling in your face. But we’re talking altitude—the distillery sits 9,600 feet up. Which makes it, quite literally, the world’s highest distillery.

Long relegated to a nightlife mecca that had perfected the art of a vodka and tonic, Miami has quietly undergone a magnificent craft beer renaissance over the past decade. And with local breweries consistently winning national beer awards, one thing’s for certain: the learning curve in the Magic City has been significantly cut short when it comes to making memorable brews.

On a relatively unassuming Tuesday night in South Beach, the newly unveiled Washington Park Hotel hums with life. Its sprawling outdoor courtyard—which connects five Art Deco buildings built in 1943—fills the air with gurgling fountains, clinking glasses, and the occasional snippet of conversation. One building stands apart from the rest: the historic Coral House, where Employees Only Miami now permanently hangs its hat.

“We screwed something up…” That’s how Paul Hletko, founder and master distiller of Few Spirits, kicked off our conversation. Turns out, he had recently given a bunch of his barrels to a hot sauce producer who used them to flavor their product. “Then we got the barrels back and put Bourbon in the barrels and… it was just undrinkable garbage. It was like drinking hot sauce.”

Riddle us this: what do Fleetwood Mac and Bourbon have in common? Well, if you’re Chicago-based distiller KOVAL, it’s a kinship with “Go Your Own Way.” Because that’s exactly what Sonat and Robert Birnecker did when they opened Koval Distillery in 2008. These guys ventured to open the first distillery in Chicago since the mid-1800s, leaving their academic careers behind to take on the wild and uncharted territory of making liquor in the Midwest.

If Cognac is the uncrowned King of Spirits, D’Aincourt rules them all benevolently from its perch on the Iron Throne. And just who is this D’Aincourt? Well. They’re the combined powers of an Hors d’Age Cognac enthusiast, a famous designer and a family producer-distiller united by the same passion for exceptional Cognacs.

Some people like weird. It’s in your face. It challenges perceptions. It uses things like clandestine meeting spots and safe words (okay, maybe that’s just us). So when it comes to Whiskey, describing one as “weird” leaves a lot of room for, well… interpretation.

Once in a while, someone comes along and proclaims that the grand tradition of brunch is over. Silly someone. We trust their opinion might be handily swayed with this: The State of Miami Brunch Cocktails. It’s a slideshow of nine deliciously inventive drinks hell-bent on improving your local brunches. You’ll find flamingo garnishes. Bowls filled with rum. Yes, even Cholula. Let’s begin ...

The first thing you’ll note about Matthew Kenney is the glow. It’s unmistakable—even from across a busy room. It’s the kind of glow that begs the statement, “I’ll have whatever he’s having.” And if one thing becomes abundantly clear, it’s this: You definitely want whatever Matthew Kenney is having. At 51 years old, the celebrity vegan chef has quite a bit on his proverbial plate.

“Let’s start with the crickets in brie and then move onto the carp ribs. I think that makes sense,” opined a woman at a table adjacent to the bar. “The crickets are kind of like the cracker in this case, right?” And so went the conversation on a balmy Friday night at Prey, the 1 Hotel’s new sustainable sushi rooftop pop-up. Conceived by James-Beard-nominated chef Bun Lai, Prey’s concept is simple: eco-eating.

Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth make a striking pair. The obvious comparison to Mattel’s infamous blonde-hair, blue-eyed power couple notwithstanding, it’s their culinary chops that’ve put the world on notice. Their latest foray into the restaurant scene: The Sarsaparilla Club, a rustic poolside enclave holding court in the newly renovated Shelborne Wyndham South Beach that’s putting out hearty interpretations of Chinese dim sum starring… American comfort food.