In town for the sales and looking for someplace new and different to eat, shop or visit? Let the TDN help! Following up on our popular Best Bets on the Jersey Shore series during Breeders' Cup week, TDN subscribers now regularly recommend dining and shopping options to our out-of-town readers.

CASA TUA (Miami, FL - Dining)

1700 James Avenue, Miami Beach, FL
Phone: (305) 673-1010
Web: www.casatualifestyle.com
Type: Northern Italian food served in an old Mediterranean house

Casa Tua is set in an old Mediterranean house, and serves Italian food–Northern Italian rather than Southern. It’s very understated from the outside, there’s no signage indicating that it’s a restaurant; just a house with a lot of foliage. When you walk in, to the left, which used to be the house’s dining room, they’ve put one huge table which seats about 30 people, and you’re sitting right in the kitchen and can see the chefs working. The upstairs is a private club, available to members only. The downstairs is available to the public. When you go through to the outside dining area, it has Moroccan lamps with candles inside, which makes the light very soft. There’s a lot of foliage and it gives you the feeling of being lost in a little island. It has a great wine selection, with literally hundreds of different bottles. On the appetizer menu, the orecchiete with seafood is outstanding, the Casa Tua tuna tartare is stunning, the Taylor Bay scallops with Ligurian olive oil are very good, and the grilled octopus is very also very good. When I go there, I try to eat something light, so I haven’t had many of the meats, but the pappardelle with lamb ragu is quite good, the beef tenderloin is good, and I like the spaghettoni with ricotta. The diver scallops with artichokes are also excellent. For those that are still smokers (I’m not), you can be outside and puff. For somebody who knows the way down to South Beach, with no traffic, it’s a half-hour from the sales grounds, and it’s quite simple. Take 95 south to 395 to 5th Street. Now you’re on South Beach, and you go up 5th to 17th Street, and turn east. One block short of the ocean, James Avenue cuts across 17th, and it’s on the corner of James and 17th.

-- MICHEL ZEROLO

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