jabberva and his wife are coming down to Miami at the end of March and will be getting together with myself and my wife for an offline. The location will be Graziano's Next Door which is a casual Pizzeria/Enoteca that offers good Italian food and Argentinean tapas with plenty of great wine at retail and there will be no corkage fee. We will meet at 2:00 PM and if anyone is in the area and would like to join us please reply here and I'll be happy to give you directions. We don't need reservations so you can let me know up until the day before.

Emilio, we won't be down there then, but the place sounds like it's certainly worth a visit. Please post the address. Is the $0 corkage their routine policy or is it just for you? Tia

Just one more sip.

Board-O,

The address is 3922 SW 92 Ave. in Miami. It's on the corner of SW 40 St. (Bird Rd) and SW 92 Ave. I don't believe they charge a corkage fee at all (at least our waitress has never charged us) and we also enjoy their wine tastings on Thursday (also no charge). If there is any chance you might be able to make it down here when you're here in April let me know and we'll arrange to meet. The April 9th dinner will probably saturate us but we always enjoy Graziano's. If not this time maybe next time you're down.

Deal!

Just one more sip.

I'll be on my way back from the Bahamas, so I won't be able to join you.

The restaurant does sound great. Is this the place you described to me at our last off-line?

It looks like Mr. Cocktosten & I will be around that weekend, and would love to join! (I'll let you know for sure the beginning of next week)

Rothko,

It sure is. We love the place. Good food and a great selection of wines and great prices.

mona lisa vito,

Hope you can join us. Just post here and I'll make sure we have a place at the table for both of you.

Hope you can join us Mona Lisa.

We're in. We look forward to meeting you! Are we buying wine from the restuarant's retail location, or should we tote something along?

mona lisa vito,

Happy to hear you can make it! If you need directions let me know. We're going to buy retail as they have an excellent selection and good prices, same as you'd get at Crown or ABC. They do have several wines from Argentina and Italy that you won't find anywhere else. The place is casual so dress comfortably.

Right now we have six...

Emilio-2
jabberva-2
mona lisa vito/Mr. Cocktosten-2

Anyone else?

We are looking forward to it.

Shameless bump up for advertising purposes.

Looking forward to it!

I'm in Miami Beach this weekend - staying at the Alexander at 52 & Collins - and I'd be interested in joining in if I may.

Let me know.

On the wine, it would be good to have you. Its at 2. Here are the directions, from Emilio:

The best way to get there if you're coming from the beach is to get to Hwy 836 and head west and exit Hwy 826 heading South (Palmetto expressway). You'll then exit SW. 40th St. (Bird Rd.) and go west. When you get to SW. 92nd Ave, you'll go through the intersection and turn in at the second entrance (only about 200 ft) on the right, and you'll be in the parking lot. The restaurant is right out front and has a Neon sign on the building that says pizzeria/enoteca. Hope this helps.

on the wine,

We'd be glad to have you join us. Is it just yourself or will you be bringing someone? Let me know and we'll make sure we have enough table space.

jabberva,

Thanks for posting the directions as I wanted to make sure that mona lisa vito and Jcocktosten knew where it was as well.

See you all on Sunday at 2:00 PM!

It will just be myself joining in tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it.

And thanks much for the driving directions.

I'll be at the NASDAQ tennis tournament today but if you need to reach me/leave a message, I'm at room 1614 Alexander Hotel 305-341-6553. Or better yet, my cell # is 416-407-6038.

on the wine,

We'll have a place for you, glad you can make it!

It was a real pleasure to meet you all at Graziano's. I always get a much better appreciation of what a city has to offer from people who live there, than as a tourist/visitor.

The restaurant was exactly as as described by Emilio - a casual neighbourhood cafe focussing more on good food and value than on pretension. A real counterpoint to South Beach.

Their markups on wine are absolutely amazing! (Nada! - Rien! - Zero!) I wish other restaurants would get the message that you can be a profitable business without making the choice of a good wine a painful experience.

The wine I liked most was the '98 Sottimano Barbaresco. Lots of tannin and oak but has fruit coming through quite clearly. It was excellent now, and should be better in another couple of years.

I also enjoyed the '00 Shafer Relentless. Although I've read numerous reviews, it has never been released in Ontario to my knowledge. It's a real mouthful - spicy and fleshy with loads of woody tannins. The Petit Sirah really blends well with the Syrah.

On the way out, I bought both wines to take away.

It was a pleasure. Emilio started a brief tasting thread on in the tasting notes section.