People & Places >>

• Best Mafia Hangout
  Café Martorano
  Owned by relatives of famed Philly mobster Raymond "Long John" Martorano, this pricey ristorante serves up some fine pasta. Just ask our finest suspected local mobsters. Wiseguys like "Sideburns" Cerrella, Vinnie "The Fish" Romano, and Jimmy Tortoriello have all frequented the place, according... More >>
• Best Place To See Someone Feed Alligators (Though it's not a good idea to feed alligators)
  Buffalo Tiger's Florida Everglades Airboat Tours
  Buffalo Tiger's is a little shack by the side of the Tamiami Trail on the Miccosukee Indian Reservation. They give a fine airboat ride, complete with fancy maneuvering and a stop at an abandoned Miccosukee village on an island. The real thrill, however, comes when you're waiting for the ride.... More >>
• Best Venue for National Acts
  Sunrise Musical Theatre
  Once we discovered this concert venue, we vowed never to go to one of those megastadiums where you need binoculars to see the act -- on the screen! With just 4000 seats, this theater provides an intimate setting in which all ticket holders can actually see the performer. We think there isn't a... More >>
• Best Daily Newspaper Writer/Palm Beach County
  Paul Reid
  Paul Reid is The Palm Beach Post's big hitter -- and deservedly so. He does what he wants and does it well. We still recall a Reid piece on cockfighting from a couple years back that was as beautifully raw as a peck to the eye. His prose is elegant, concise, witty -- in short, everything... More >>
• Best Scandal
  Tonya Whyte's run-in with the morality police
  Whyte got the shaft (pun intended) when sheriff's deputies busted her and others doing their thing at Athena's Forum, a swingers' club, in January 1999. Whyte claimed all along that she was engaged in nothing more lewd than a little suggestive dancing with her fiancé. Two undercover cops... More >>
• Best TV News Anchor
  Ben Mankiewicz
  If a good newscast is aired in a sensation-drenched market and nobody watches, did it really happen? While you're pondering that one, tune in to WAMI at 10 p.m. on a weeknight for The Times. Though often uneven, The Times never suffers from a lack of ambition. Better yet, the show displays that... More >>
• Best Public Art
  Accordant Zones
  No, the term "Best Public Art" isn't necessarily an oxymoron, even though a lot of what passes for public art in South Florida may be public but is hardly art, or at least good art. We used to wonder what on earth possessed the county to spend money on Accordant Zones, the pair of 1995... More >>
• Best Political Gaffe
  Jeb Bush uncensored
  The governor wins this easily for getting caught on camera saying, "Kick their asses out." It's not so much the words, which aren't exactly governorly, but it's that he said it at a sit-in at Bush's executive office suite while two black legislators protested his "One Florida" plan. Jeb made his... More >>
• Best Flack
  Mike Reed
  Police departments in general are notoriously secretive and manipulative with their information. Some of the secretiveness is for good reason -- if a crucial fact in an ongoing investigation gets out to the press, it could hurt the case. The manipulation comes into play when a key fact could... More >>
• Best Political Battle
  Broward County's strong mayor proposal
  It had all the ingredients of an epic: A diminutive wannabe dictator (Ken Jenne) angling behind the scenes for a colossal power-grab; a protectionist gang of ethically questionable politicos who will stop at nothing to retain their preeminence (county commissioners); and a horde of profiteers... More >>
• Best Daily Newspaper Writer/ Broward County
  José Lambiet
  Admit it. You read Lambiet's "South Florida Insider" in the Sun-Sentinel. Everybody does. (That's why The Herald tried to lure him away, unsuccessfully.) While the rest of the Sun-Sentinel aims for -- and usually achieves -- a sleepy weave of the banal and irrelevant, Lambiet's writing is... More >>
• Best Correction
  Sun-Sentinel, November 23, 1999
  One has to ponder the reliability of a newspaper when it gets the name of its own employee wrong. Makes you wonder exactly how badly the daily hacks butcher the name of your average Joe Blow whose house burns down or who gets busted for snorting coke off the toilet seat at his local dive bar.... More >>
• Best Politician
  Stephanie Kraft
  The best -- and worst -- politicians are the renegades, the ones who challenge the good old boy system and aren't afraid to be impolite. The best of these generate a better and more just government, while the worst simply hem and haw at everything while getting absolutely nothing... More >>
• Best Political Activist
  Pete Brewer
  Since tasting outrage at his first glimpse of that circus otherwise known as the Hollywood City Commission some three decades ago, Brewer has led a plucky group of activists who keep an eye on the often questionable dealings at Hollywood City Hall. Some politicians brush aside Brewer, a... More >>
• Best Local Boy Gone Bad
  FBI Agent David Farrall
  Some are undoubtedly on a power trip, but most people who choose law enforcement as a career do so out of some sense of community service. That puts them on the ladder of humanity a rung above the apathetic masses. But it doesn't mean they're perfect, and when they use or abuse their positions... More >>
• Best Place To See A Virgin
  DiVito by the Sea
  We're not talking about some long-limbed nubile tourist girl who's down for the season and looking to get deflowered. We're referring to the real deal, the blue-robed diva of Catholicism, the Mother of all mothers. For roughly 40 years, the DiVito motel and its Virgin Mary statue have hosted... More >>
• Best Mile Of Broward/Palm Beach
  SW 136th Avenue, south of I-595
  You were expecting us to say A1A, Las Olas Boulevard, or Clematis Street. But we're contrarians to the core, so we're going to impart a warm sense of confusion by naming this out-of-the-way residential through street as the finest little drive in our neck of the woods. Before you get all... More >>
• Best Place To Beat The Heat
  Broward County Main Library
  There's a reason you can get really cheap flights to Fort Lauderdale in, say, mid-August: The weather sizzles. It's not that the weather here is significantly worse during the summer months than it is in any other East Coast city south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but it seems to go on forever. In... More >>
• Best Place To Walk Your Dog
  Poinciana Park
  It doesn't look like much, just a big square of vacant land with a few benches thrown around, but for your pet this park is like doggy Disneyland. Cooped up all day while their owners are making a living to keep them in Kibbles, the canines are turned loose at Poinciana Park. There is no... More >>
• Best Rich and Famous House Tour
  Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club
  Why wait till next season for the heavily attended Boca Raton Historical Society's annual house tour that'll cost you big bucks (that's because it's a fundraising event) when every Sunday at the non-security-gated Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club in Boca Raton, you can casually walk through at... More >>
• Best Place To Poll God
  Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church
  It's here that the people of Broward County, and indeed all the world, can come to find out God's stance on all the hot political issues of the day. The good Rev. D. James Kennedy calls his white, towering church, "God's house," and that's where the Creator lets his political views be known. Gay... More >>
• Best Tourist Trap
  Jungle Queen Riverboat
  You, too, can get taken -- in this case for a three-hour ride on a river no wider than a couple of back yards, past some houses owned by rich people (and known as Millionaires Row) and a couple of thatched-roof buildings known as "Indian Village." It's all very nice and safe, and the big... More >>
• Best Place for a History Lesson
  The vacant lot at the northwest corner of Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street
  Before the sign went up, most people drove past this vacant lot and didn't give it a second thought. Shame on them. Actually, shame on all of us. Shame on the South Florida history we never learned and still don't teach. This is no empty lot. This is a mass grave -- unmarked -- where almost... More >>
• Best Website
  You Don't Say
  Are you convinced that illegal drugs are a Chinese plot to destabilize American society? That public schools are nothing but indoctrination camps for liberal ideology about gays, premarital sex, and revisionist American history? Do you think the United Nations is Satan's presence on Earth? Then... More >>
• Best Name For A New Business
  Crime Scene Clean-Up
  Nothing like being direct, we always say. This Broward County business has a moniker that, emblazoned on the side of its van, certainly inspires curiosity from other motorists. Walter Philbrick, a former Hialeah police officer who worked in homicide, decided to cash in on an untapped market when... More >>
• Best Hotel/Palm Beach County
  The Breakers
  Your first glimpse of the Breakers' history of indulgence comes as you approach the imposing Italian Renaissance structure from the driveway. Walk past the limos and into the lobby, where Venetian chandeliers and gold leaf ceilings accentuate the feeling of opulence. The tapestries and fresh... More >>
• Best Place To Spot Tight-Bunned Boys
  The Coliseum
  Yeah, there's a hint at a Greek motif because of the sporadic temple columns jutting from floor to ceiling, but club revelers care less about décor and more about where the boys are. And some of the hottest are grinding ass on the bar with barely a shoestring dividing one glorious cheek... More >>
• Best Hair On The Air
  Jennifer Gould
  Let's start by categorically dismissing all male news dudes. When it comes to hair, there's really no variety at all to be found on their heads. (We will reserve comment on what's in their heads.) The only approved style, apparently, is close-cropped. Just once we'd like to see a guy sporting a... More >>
• Best Place To Watch A NASCAR Race
  Freddie's Anchor Sports Grill
  Don't let the anchors, saltwater aquarium, or back-lot dolphin mural fool you. It's not the nautical motif that packs the house on weekends. It's Freddie's reverent devotion to all things NASCAR that keeps local motorheads coming back for more. Three big-screen televisions and 23 regular-size... More >>
• Best Pro Athlete
  Alonzo Mourning
  One syllable. Two letters. Six feet, ten inches of lean, sculpted muscle. ZO! Lots of great athletes have earned their single-name recognition: Michael, Shaq, Sweetness, Magic, the Babe. And although achievement generally precedes such recognition, this year Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning... More >>
• Best Florida Panther
  Pavel Bure
  Even watching at home on an 18-inch television screen, peering through cigarette smoke and sipping beer, this much is clear: Every time Pavel Bure touches the puck, the game is demonstrably altered. Number 10 seems to explode across the ice, gathering the puck at the blue line and snapping it... More >>
• Best Reason To Live In South Florida
  The light
  So many reasons from which to choose… the weather, the cornucopia of exposed flesh, the fact that a Dunkin' Donuts is never more than a block or two away. Yes, these are nice things you can't find in Cleveland, but what really sets us apart down here is the quality of the light. Natives say... More >>
• Best Florida Marlin
  Preston Wilson
  Forearms with tendons that resemble banyan roots, only they move. A cool and collected toughness that spells B-I-G T-I-M-E. Just 7 percent body fat on a musculature that is at once drop-jaw beautiful and downright frightening. Be afraid. Yes, be very afraid, because it's Preston Wilson, a young... More >>
• Best Jockey
  Jorge Chavez
  They call him "Chop Chop," and not necessarily with admiration. In the blueblood circles of horseracing, Jorge Chavez has long been looked upon with a wary eye for his demonstrative (some would say brutal) use of the whip. But at four feet, ten inches -- tiny even by jockey standards -- ... More >>
• Best Weekend Getaway
  On the Banks of the Everglades Bed and Breakfast Inn
  If you're like us, you're repelled by the very idea of a bed-and-breakfast. Who in his right mind can relax in somebody else's house while surrounded at the breakfast table by a bunch of overfriendly yahoo tourists? Ugh. A friggin' Motel 6 sounds better than that. But the Banks of the Everglades... More >>
• Best Hotel/Broward County
  Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty Six
  When we pulled into port and took a turn to starboard, there it was: 16 floors of rest and respite from the seas. We had brought our 148-foot yacht (The Lucky Journalist) in from a winter tour of the Caribbean. Our captain, Raphael, thought it best to bring the ship to the mainland before... More >>
• Best Bed-and-Breakfast
  Hibiscus House
  There's something for everyone's taste and budget at Hibiscus House, built in 1922 and situated in the quaint historic Old Northwood section of West Palm Beach. There's the garden room with its four-poster bed and private terrace; the burgundy suite with its own private staircase that leads to... More >>
• Best Place To Spot Celebrities
  Mar-a-Lago
  In 1985 Donald Trump bought this famous mansion on the Atlantic, added lots of gold plating, and turned it into a private club and spa for very special people. Sort of a bed-and-breakfast for the well-to-do. Mar-a-Lago is open to just about anybody who can pony up the $100,000 membership fee... More >>
• Best Matchmaker
  Betsey Chesler
  Before there was online dating, Betsey Chesler met her husband through a dating service. Now he's her ex-husband. "So, I know how not to match people," Chesler likes to say. When she decided to start her own online dating service, one of the only ones that also offers video dating online, she... More >>
• Best Place To See What's Left Of Broward's Undeveloped Coastline
  John U. Lloyd Beach State Park
  Egad. Two hundred and fifty three acres of primo Broward coast with nary a condominium or strip mall in sight? Yep. John U. Lloyd unfurls its sands and native Florida flora and fauna between Dania Beach and Port Everglades with a narrow tidal waterway winding through the park's length. Rent a... More >>
• Best Scenic Drive
  Hollywood Boulevard between Young Circle and the beach
  Hollywood founder Joseph Young planned one part of this city right: You'd be hard-pressed to find a prettier place in all of Broward County to whiz by than this stretch. We despise those treacherous circles, but once you navigate your way through them, you reap the reward: four spacious lanes... More >>
• Best Local Landmark
  Stranahan House
  If you live here, you've heard this name many times, sometimes as the subject of political squabbles and usually as a place commanding the respect of history lovers. The politics seems typical: a developer wanted to put up a 38-story high-rise on the site of the market next door, and Stranahan... More >>
• Best Place To Take Out-Of-Towners
  Heliflight Helicopter Air Tours
  Let's get serious -- driving your visitors around the crowded roads of Broward or Palm Beach county to get to the beach or the restaurant or the Everglades is OK if you like traffic jams and they don't mind not seeing it all. But there is a way around that which we figure is cheap at the... More >>
• Best Tacky Florida Kitsch
  The Finger
  It's hard to believe that this monument to bad taste has been with us for so long already, but it was back in April 1998 that Al Goldstein, publisher of the fine skin mag Screw, installed the giant stone sculpture of a disembodied palm and fingers in his back yard. Now on view to all who pass by... More >>
• Best Church on the Other Side of the Tracks
  Greater Trinity Baptist Church
  Greater Trinity Baptist is literally west of the railroad tracks that separate Dania Beach's haves from the haves-not-as-much -- the traditionally white part of town from the black. In one year Rev. Louis Sanders drove off the drug dealers who used to lurk behind his church, scaring... More >>
• Best Little-Known Attraction
  Treasure Coast Wildlife Hospital
  It pays to have friends up north (i.e., Martin County). Otherwise we would never have found out about the Treasure Coast Wildlife Hospital, which provides short- and long-term care for wounded, sick, or orphaned critters 24 hours a day. More than 100 permanently impaired animals call this... More >>
• Best Park
  Snyder Park
  This is a tough category in a county with such gems as Markham Park in Sunrise and the great beach parks maintained by the state, John U. Lloyd and Hugh Taylor Birch. Our pick is Snyder, an unpretentious city park of 93 acres that offers everything you need in a park, and all on a city budget.... More >>
• Best Sign Renovation
  Don Bailey Carpets sign
  Last year in this space we kind of goofed on Don Bailey, who is now a senior citizen but posed nude on his carpet at the age of 40 and has used the resultant painting to sell his wares ever since. You've seen the signs, where Bailey is propped on his side, wearing a slightly suggestive smile and... More >>
• Best Alternative Medicine Man (3 Comments)
  Robert D. Willix, Jr., M.D.
  When was the last time your doctor prescribed laugh therapy? Or spent one-and-one-half to two hours with you on your initial visit? And really listened to more than just the beating of your heart? Robert Willix does. Sure, it'll cost ya -- $375 to $500. (Follow-up visits, usually four to six... More >>
• Best place to bury a pet
  The City of Boca Raton Animal Shelter Pet Cemetery
  It's so peaceful here. So serene. So well cared for. Some people, like 78-year-old Malka Lewin, come every day to visit their dearly departed pets and to tend to the décor they've created at the little gravesites: plants, photos, statues. A lot of credit goes to cemetery manager Jim... More >>
• Best Yoga Instructor (1 Comment)
  Vera Paley
  If you've never done hatha yoga before, instructor Vera Paley is your gal. She specializes in teaching novices (though she teaches intermediate levels too) in a way that's, well, awe-inspiring. Watch Paley do the shoulder stand, the frog, the fish, the spinal twist, and you'll be saying, "Hey,... More >>
• Best Place To Contemplate The Unbridled Development Of South Florida
  The Palms
  Looming precariously over A1A like a Jenga tower ready to topple, the bright pink, perpetually-under-construction Palms is visible from Lauderdale-by-the-Sea down to Port Everglades. Viewed from an airplane, the high-rise condo reaches upward like a rosy flare, warning that you are about to... More >>
• Best Radio Personality
  Scott Kaplan and Sid Rosenberg
  Take a wisecracking sports junkie from Brooklyn whose accent makes De Niro sound like a Harvard grad, team him with a former college and NFL place-kicker who may be the Doogie Howser of pop culture, and you have the two-headed morning-radio monster affectionately known as Scott and Sid. Their... More >>
• Best Place To Kill Two Birds
  Blackstone Liquors
  The grueling workweek is done, and you have that measly little crumpled paycheck in your back pocket. That small piece of paper represents your toil, your sweat, your blood. And it's barely enough to keep a leaking roof over your head. So what do you do? You take it to Blackstone's, where you... More >>
• Best Weathercaster
  Bill Kamal
  It's not his 21-year résumé as a TV meteorologist, his two Emmys, or even his batting average in predicting hail versus heat that singles out Kamal. It's his style. His hair's always plentifully gelled, his tightly tailored suits gleam with a pseudo-sharkskin veneer, and his tie is... More >>
• Best Romantic Getaway
  Harborfront Inn
  Spend the night in a king-size bed in a spacious suite with Jacuzzi and private deck overlooking the St. Lucie River. Imagine candles around your whirlpool tub -- or walk-in shower for two; breakfast (ambrosia-stuffed French toast, perhaps) in bed or on your deck -- at noon or anytime. Owner... More >>
• Best Junkyard
  U-Pull-It
  There's a dichotomy inherent in junkyards. On one hand, they're brooding, melancholy places filled with the ruins of other people's lives. You never have to look far to find a head-size hole in a windshield or car seats heavily stained with black splotches of dried blood. On the other hand,... More >>
• Best Private School
  The Sagemont School
  Weston's the quintessential safe American suburb -- critics call it an escape from reality -- but don't make the mistake of thinking that your small children will miss out on the rich diversity of American culture if you send them to an expensive private school there. They won't. The... More >>
• Best Place To Meet Members Of The Opposite Sex
  Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale
  Praise Jesus! On Saturday nights at Calvary Chapel, the place is literally swarming with hundreds of beatific young hotties in the throws of passion. Of course they're all hot and passionate about the big J.C., but don't let that dissuade you. Just think: What would Jesus do? We think he... More >>
• Best Public Bathroom
  Weston Hills Country Club
  We shudder when entering most public bathrooms (think any Greyhound bus station toilet). But we found one we want to move into. Check out the ladies' lounge at the Weston Hills Country Club next time you're out west. (Yes, they'll let you use the lounge even if you're not a member.) You'll... More >>
• Best Landed View Of Broward County
  The Tower Club
  For a landed view, it's best to land among the landed gentry, of course. You can do that in this little corner of the wealthy universe high atop the Bank of America Building. How high above the earth is 28 stories, the altitude of the Tower Club? About a million miles for those of us who toil... More >>
• Best Miami Dolphin
  Zach Thomas
  Imagine you're the personnel director of an NFL expansion team and you have the opportunity to pick any player from the Dolphins roster for your new squad. Cornerback Sam Madison is one of the best in the league at his position, and wide receiver O.J. McDuffie led the league in receptions a year... More >>
• Best Place To Speed
  Alligator Alley
  South Florida is congested as hell. Yet it seems that every other car on the road is a Corvette, Porsche, or some other high-horse ride that was born to run. What to do? You can take the tack most do around here and drive like a freakin' idiot from stoplight to stoplight, or you can point that... More >>
• Best Place To Break Up
  Queen of Heaven Cemetery
  Love, sex,… and death. So you're gonna drop the bastard, eh? You're gonna, what, tell a good woman it's not really her, it's you, you're the problem, so don't worry while you just tear her heart out? You're gonna let him know -- you feel suffocated. He's a great guy, he has changed the... More >>
• Best Place To Make Up
  Colee Hammock
  No more beautiful city site awaits your need for resurrection -- the resurrection of old love into new, perhaps -- than this flawless and tiny park, awash in history. Here the Colee family was massacred (no need to bring this up) on January 6, 1836, unleashing the Second Seminole Indian War.... More >>
• Best Place To Find A Dinner Date
  Sushi For Singles at the Palm Beach School of Cooking
  Who needs singles bars -- or, for that matter, sushi bars -- when there's Sushi For Singles? The brainchild of Doreen Moore, owner of the Palm Beach School of Cooking, Sushi For Singles is a series of three-hour monthly (sometimes bimonthly) cooking classes in which singles learn how to make... More >>
• Best Reason To Watch The Miami Fusion (On Television)
  Ray Hudson
  Perhaps sportscaster Ray Hudson is the reason the Fusion can barely get a paltry 8000 fans into the seats at Lockhart Stadium. Instead of shelling out $12 to sit in the hot sun, everyone's at home in the a/c watching and listening to Hudson's overheated commentary on the Sunshine Network. We... More >>
• Best Place To People-Watch
  Balcony of the Elbo Room
  High up in the bird's nest better known as the second floor of the Elbo Room, the world is a fishbowl. A fashion show. A freak show. Nowhere in Broward and Palm Beach counties is the people parade more entertaining. Grab a beer, pull up a seat, rest your elbows on the railing, and take a gander... More >>