Eats.

I admit I don't go to Revales much, but I decided to take myself to breakfast there today.  Gone.  The head waiter had made noises in this direction earlier this year, but they hung on until they didn't any more.  It was a nice place.  Friendlier and a bit more upscale in its presentation than some other cheap, local eateries.  Oh, well.  I guess Chester and his lads will have to go bestow themselves on someone else.

So I went to Bagel and Co. ("Guns and Bagels").  A good standard, where you run into your neighbors.  Today, it was the Chao's.  (Spells like chaos, if you don't use the apostrophe, but they seemed sedate to me, so I used one.)  The food is good, and it is, in fact, cheap. 

I'm not a Jimmy's denizen, for no particular reason.  I've eaten there, but I just don't make a habit of it.  I also ate at the Gourmet Diner once, and I don't even know why I don't go there.  I don't remember disliking it, and I don't remember if it was expensive.

Some people go to Panera, and I've been there.  It's not bad, and the coffee is excellent.  Who knows how we establish the habits we do?

I pretty much only go one place for lunch.  Kebab, on 167th at NE 6th.  The buffet lunch is Tuesday to Friday, 11:30-3, the food is great (I love Indian food, and I've eaten it at lots of places), and it's dirt cheap for all you can eat.

For dinner, I make the rounds of just a few places when I go out.  Top of the list for me is Ricky Thai on 123rd just west of Biscayne.  The best, and cheapest, Thai food I know, and you see your friends there, unless you brought them with you.  They only have two problems.  The place is so small, that sometimes you can't eat there.  And the service is very slow, so it can take a long time to get dinner ordered, served, and eaten.  But if you have time, that's the place.  Also, you have to be prepared to feel like a thief for paying as little as you do for what you get.  Some of us tried to get Giuliano to raise the prices, and he did a little, but it's still too cheap.  So we tip bigger.

Victor Romano and Steve Taylor put me onto Slices, on Biscayne and the upper 130s.  It's the place that used to be Scorch.  Scorch was so-so.  Slices is great.  The big deal is their "Rodizio" service, which is all you can eat pizza, pasta, and risotto, which they make extremely well.  The price before 7 is $12.95, and after 7 it's $15.95.  Fabulous.  But it's only pizza, pasta, and risotto.  If you want salad or something, it's extra.  And they use a bit more cheese than I like.  But no question, it tastes great.  And it's all you can eat.  (You get my little problem, right?)  They claim to have an even cheaper lunch price, but since they don't open until 5:30, it's sort of a weird loose end.

I think the new/old name is going to be Ouzo.  That's what it was on Normandy Isle.  Then they tried to get really trendy, by going to South Beach.  Then they came up to 78th, just east of Biscayne, and opened as Anise.  This was a wonderful place.  Great, great Greek food.  I don't know what happened, apart from the divorce, but they wound up as RiverShack, which was supposed to suggest road house or something (it was sort of like upscale diner food), and now they're reportedly going back to Greek.  They shuffle chefs like nobody's business, so who knows who's going to be cooking.  But I'm definitely going back.  RiverShack was frankly not a hit.  Their Greek is.

Little Havana at Biscayne in the mid-120s is perfectly good, but I'm partial to La Carreta.  Speaking of which, a couple of blocks further west on SW 8th Street is Cava.  Beautiful place, made up to look like a brick-lined cave, very good Spanish (not Cuban/Caribbean) food, and flamenco at about 8 about three nights a week: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  It's worth the drive.  A most enjoyable venue for the food and the floor show.

Metro, on Biscayne at about 70th, is not cheap, but it is terrific.  Their shtick is meat from properly raised animals.  I was there once.  Wonderful food.

There are lots of other places, and you're welcome to "comment" on them, but these were the few I frequent, and about which I felt like communicating.  Oh, one more, because it's interesting.  Cane A Sucre used to be a long list of other places.  There was a Mexican or two, and it was Dogma north.  I'm talking about 125th and NE 9th.  Nobody makes it there.  I don't know why.  Cane A Sucre has really terrific sandwiches and soup.  And you would expect to pay more.  Check 'em out.