Norman's/South Florida Addendum

Vital, thanks for the thread on South Florida. Planning on spending some time in Key Largo in a couple of weeks.

Anyone have any experience at Norman's in Miami (Norman VanAken). I was interested since he was one of Charlie Trotter's mentors, but wondered if the quality is all that good since he has so many restaurants now.

Just curious if anyone had any recent experiences and if it was worth the trip or should I spend my time elswhere if I make a trip to Miami for one night of the trip.

I checked the Chowhound FL board, but not much on this particular subject.

Thanks

What I've heard about Norman's is that quality/experience has detracted a bit of late because Norman spends most of his time at his new(er) LA place.

I've had several great meals at various Mark's restaurants, but not in many years, so I can vouch for the current state of this upscale place.

I really do not know much else about Coral Gables because it is always far from where I am staying (see below), but there is an upscale Argentiniean steak house, Graziano's, down there that has got great reviews. They reportedly import some kinda special wood from Argentina for their asador or roaster.

The sense I get from other foodie forums is that the upscale places in S. Florida are not great, who knows, but IMO, there is so much other places (i.e., "ethnic") that it is hard to NOT eat well down there.

How far is Key Largo from the rest of Miami? As you can probably tell from my posts, we were staying in Broward, which has great chow options. Still, I gotta bet that will be too much of a schlep from the Keys.

Rob

MJN,

I've been to Norman's and Chef Norm Van Aken's restaurants a number of times over the years. My wife and I have an affinity for Chef Van Aken as he was the chef at Louie's Backyard in Key West when I asked for her hand in marriage.

Louie's outdoor dining area, overlooking the water, is a perfect place to propose and not only was our dinner perfect, but she said yes. Chef kindly came out to congratulate us himself and bought a bottle of champagne.

Specifically to Norman's, last time we were there was about 1 year ago and our dinner was excellent. While I realize that Chef Van Aken has other irons in the fire, Norman's is a long standing restaurant of some note and I have to think the staff can survive a night or 7 without Chef overseeing the kitchen.

Enjoy,
Gary

Norman's
21 Almeria Ave
Coral Gables, Florida
305-446-6767

Looking at the posts from Rob and Gary, I'm reminded that El Mercado imports lump charcoal from Argentina. Not sure if the charcoal is quebracho or eucalyptus, as is common in SA. Not sure if it makes much difference as each is a hard, clean-burning wood without much flavor (maybe surprisingly so for the eucalyptus). Argentina's not so much of a problem, I gather, but tropical woods from places like Brazil and SE Asia (esp. mangrove, which is a good charcoal) are suspect because they can be products of deforestation -- particularly bad when mangroves are disturbed, something that is illegal in Florida, for example.

I found a web site that goes deeper into charcoal than any I could have expected. From Texas, of course.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpindexpage.htm?bag

Thanks Guys. Vital...Key Largo is about an hour from Coral Gables. If you have some good ethnic recs, let me know. We will head there for dinner one night of the trip.