Messy and Picky head out to Mixto looking for a good brunch without the long lines.

Although the service was kind of slow, overall, our meal was a pleasant experience. It was our first brunch outing in a while (we like to sleep late, and Picky makes killer omelettes on the weekends) and we were both very happy to find a good, decently priced and convenient location for brunch. Mixto also seems like a good place for a group brunch outing, as we were pretty much surrounded by larger parties sipping Bloody Marys (Bloody Marys are gross). We’re both glad we found Mixto for those rare occasions when we go out to brunch � we won’t need to wait an hour at a time for those Philly brunch favorite spots anymore!

Messy ***1/2
Picky ***
The final word: A very good, no-wait brunch, with some Cuban flair.

Mixto [Messy and Picky]
Mixto [Official Site]

¡Pasión! chef Guillermo Pernot has become executive chef at Cuba Libre, whose menu he helped create six years ago. The highly regarded chef is looking for new bosses Barry Gutin and Larry Cohen to take him to the next level. Lets hope it turns out better than Pernot’s last branching out, the ill-fated Trust.

Pernot will remain involved in ¡Pasión! with Ben Davison picking up the day to day.

¡Pasión! chef is branching out [Inqlings]

Craig LaBan visits Casona in Collingswood and finds the new Cuban restaurant there is surprisingly the real deal.
“Not quite “Nuevo Latino,” as Casona touts it, but quite traditional preparations recast in contemporary ways.”
For appetizers the mariquitas are the plantain version of nachos, and the Habana maduro “puts some salsa into the old banana split.”
Rice dishes shine among the main courses, arroz con pollo is a mix of tender chicken with yellow rice, but made original with the tastes of chorizo, beer, green olives and sweet peppers. The seafood paella was another shining example of the kitchen’s comfort with rice dishes.
For the carnivore, the grilled churrasco skirt steak was “fabulous, crackling with the savor of its rosemary-olive oil marinade next to fried yucca and a wild mushroom ragout.”
Bring your own rum for the mojitos and Haddon Avenue might just start to seem like Cuba.