The New York Times - January 15th 2006
Going to South Beach by Stuart Emmrich

WHY GO NOW Type the phrase "the next South Beach" into Google and you get roughly 390 hits, with references to, among other places, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Palm Springs, Calif.; San Juan, P.R.; and - improbable as it may sound - Marfa, Tex. All have, at one point or another, been anointed as possible successors to this hedonistic sliver of a Miami Beach sand bar. But South Beach remains the unchallenged original, the same glamorous destination it has been since heat-seeking (in more ways than one) model agencies, magazine editors and hipster New Yorkers first claimed it as their own in the early 1980's. Only now it has better restaurants and more expensive hotels.

WHERE TO EAT It's hard to beat either the setting (an outdoor garden illuminated both by candles and by the glowing ice cubes in the house signature cocktails) or the crowd (very attractive and fashionably dressed) at Wish, at the Hotel of South Beach. But the food comes close. Appetizers include a Wish salad (green mango and baby bean sprouts, with cashews and a litchi mint vinaigrette; $10) or tuna tartare with pickled ginger sorbet ($16). Standout main courses include caramel-glazed wild salmon ($31) and Cuban coffee-braised osso buco ($34).

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