
French Bistro Argentinian Steakhouse is a delicious experience in every way
Tucked away in Palmetto Bay, this charming eatery is run by Melina Traituros, a pint-sized bundle of energy and mother of three girls, who often needs a step stool to greet her customers face-to-face.
"We bought the restaurant three years ago and this is like our home," Traituros explained with enthusiasm.
The restaurant's unique concept came from an unexpected source: her daughters.
"When we bought it, my daughters came and told me, 'Mom, we have to say it's Argentinian too because after the World Cup we say come on French Argentina... celebrate it all,'" Traituros said.
Behind the scenes, her husband Christian Ramirez made a bold career change, trading 14 years in aeronautics to return to his true passion for cooking. He's crafted a menu that honors their family's rich heritage, seamlessly blending traditions from France, Argentina, Italy and Uruguay.
For Traituros, the restaurant is more than just a business.
"I love it. I totally love it," she explained. "This is my home and I like to have fun here and meet the clients, who to me are friends."
Return to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival
The couple's success has earned them a spot at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival for the third consecutive year.
"It's lovely. It's party party party. It's more than drinks, more than food. It's an experience," Traituros described.
Their standout dish, the Flank Steak al Malbec, is a testament to their culinary fusion. Cooked for three hours with herbs and vegetables, it's their unique take on beef bourguignon.
"This is a dish my mom used to make at home in my childhood, like a Sunday lunchtime in cold Buenos Aires," Traituros reminisced.
The menu seamlessly transitions from Argentina to France with elegant escargot prepared in a traditional butter, parsley, and garlic sauce. Their octopus chimichurri, served with roasted potatoes and kalamata olives, rounds out the international offerings with a perfectly tender texture and beautiful sear.
You can catch French Bistro Argentinian Steakhouse at the Steak and Whiskey event in the Miami Design District and at Sunday's Grand Tasting Village during the South Beach Wine and Food Festival.
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Boston Globe
11 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Dance poles and leopard-print walls: Love motels ready rooms for climate summit
'We're taking out anything too erotic from the rooms,' said Yorann Costa, 30, the owner of Motel Secreto, Portuguese for 'Secret Motel.' 'And the location is perfect.' The 12-day summit, the first global climate gathering to be held in the Amazon region, has set off a rush to prepare Belém, a port city of 1.3 million, for tens of thousands of visitors. To meet the demand for hotel rooms, officials vowed to nearly triple the city's stock, from 18,000 beds in 2023 to 50,000 for the event. Advertisement As the summit nears though, uncertainty over whether there will be enough lodging has pushed hotel rates above $1,000 a night and threatened to cause a diplomatic crisis, with some delegations complaining that eye-watering prices may bar poorer nations -- often grappling with the worst impacts of climate change -- from attending. Advertisement Seeking to calm jitters, Brazil said this month it had struck a deal with two cruise ships to provide some 6,000 additional beds, which will first be offered to developing and island nations at discounted rates of up to $220 per night. New hotels are also being built and old ones refurbished. Schools are being fitted with beds. Sporting clubs are being transformed into dormitories and residents are rushing to revamp homes into rentals. Still, with less than four months to go, much of the new lodging is still not complete and the city is thousands of beds short of its target. Against this backdrop, Belém's numerous love motels -- short-term accommodations that charge by the hour and often lack a reception area or amenities like gyms and pools -- are preparing to fill the gap, already tweaking and outfitting many of their 2,500 rooms for visitors attending the climate summit. 'It's the time to join forces,' said André Godinho, who represents Belém in the planning of COP30. 'The possibility of a love motel as accommodation -- it's not ugly, it's not wrong. It's part of the solution.' Love motels surged during Brazil's repressive dictatorship in the 1960s, when homes were often being surveilled. They have since become ubiquitous across the country, Latin America's largest nation, where young people often live at home well into adulthood. Inspired by American roadside lodging that charges by the hour, the Brazilian love motel quickly gained popularity by offering short-term stays for a bargain and adopting a romantic aesthetic similar to Japan's love hotels. (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.) This is not the first time an emergency has forced Brazil's love motels to adapt to a different clientele. Facing hotel shortages ahead of the World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Rio Olympics, thousands of motels were similarly revamped to welcome visitors. Advertisement This time around though, the country's love motels are preparing to welcome a different kind of guest, arriving for business rather than pleasure. (END OPTIONAL TRIM.) On a recent afternoon in Belém, efforts to refresh the city's motels and make them a touch less sexy were on full display. At Fit Motel, circular beds, a classic feature of many rooms, leaned on walls, cast aside to make space for more conventional rectangular mattresses. A few miles down the road, at Love Lomas motel, fresh coats of paint were drying and new sheets lined the beds. In the premium suite, the flashing red, green and blue lighting would remain, but guests could ask for the erotic chair -- a metal-and-leather contraption resembling a dentist's chair that was bolted to the floor for safety -- to be removed. 'People think it's like a brothel,' said Ricardo Teixeira, 49, who manages both motels and is trying to buff up their reputation. 'But it's just a space like any other.' He is not sure yet if he will swap the menus in the rooms, which offer beers and burgers, as well as sex toy rentals. (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.) At the Pousada Acrópole (Portuguese for 'Acropolis'), the word 'motel' was swapped out for 'inn' and the red facade was painted a muted gray, though the plaster bas-relief of a mythological romance -- a chiseled Greek hero and a nude Aphrodite holding a red apple -- still flanks the entrance. 'This is a big opportunity for us,' said Alberto Antonio Braga da Silva, 55, the owner. Motel guests normally pick up room keys from a parking lot attendant, but he plans to add a makeshift reception for the summit. 'And in there,' Silva said, pointing to the second story, 'I'm going to have one of those -- what are they called? Coworking.' Advertisement (END OPTIONAL TRIM.) Back at Motel Secreto, Costa prepared one suite by adding bunk beds and taking down an oversized framed picture of a person's rear end that hung on the wall. But he stopped short at getting rid of the dance pole, the leopard-print wallpaper and the red, heart-shaped hot tub. 'I have to think about what comes after COP30,' Costa said. 'I can't just spend a ton of money and tear everything out.' As we stepped out of a suite into the dark hallway connecting the rooms, Costa whispered apologetically over the sound of loud moans. 'This might be a bit awkward,' he said, waving to the red lights flashing above a handful of rooms, signaling that they were occupied. 'There's lovemaking going on.' Those lights, he says, will also stay in place. So far, most motels have struggled to convince summit attendees to give them a chance. Delegations from at least half a dozen countries have inquired about booking motels during the summit, according to owners and real estate brokers, but few have reserved rooms yet. Even with few options, many visitors heading to Belém for the summit remain hesitant about the racy decorations, said Giselle Robledo, a property broker working with delegations seeking accommodations. 'The embassies are really conservative,' she said. 'They don't want to go to a love motel.' Advertisement And then there is the cost issue. Even as Brazilian officials have warned property owners to rein in prices, many motels are still asking guests to pay hundreds of dollars per night to stay in these redecorated rooms. 'The prices have been absurd, they need to come back to reality,' Robledo said. Lovers who frequent Belém's motels typically pay from $10 to $35 for the first hour, while an overnight stay in a premium suite costs more than $150. But, during the summit, some motel owners hope to charge from $300 to $650 per night. 'The market is setting these prices,' said Teixeira, who is also the regional director of the Brazilian association of love motels. 'And it's still a better deal than a hotel.' (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.) At a less romantic three-star hotel across the road from the conference center where the talks will be held, rooms are going for $1,250 per night, according to booking sites. 'The demand is wild,' said Jeimison Louseiro, the hotel manager, whose landlord recently asked him to vacate his nearby apartment, so that it could be rented out to summit attendees. Costa, for one, has no doubt that visitors will change their minds and pack his motel by the time the climate summit starts. In the end, he said, lodging is going to be very tight. 'Unfortunately, there won't be a room for everyone,' he said. 'And what we're offering is an option.' This article originally appeared in


Hamilton Spectator
11 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
U.S. politics threaten to complicate Canada's co-hosting of 2026 World Cup
OTTAWA - With less than a year to go until the 2026 World Cup, political tensions and U.S. policy threaten to pose problems as Canada, the United States and Mexico prepare to co-host the tournament. Next year's FIFA World Cup will be the biggest ever, with the three countries hosting a record 48 teams. Between June 11 and July 19, they will play 104 matches, most of them in the U.S. With millions of fans expected to cross borders to attend the games, U.S. President Donald Trump's harsh immigration policies — which include travel bans on some countries, immigration raids and mass deportations — are generating anxiety. 'This is all being driven by the United States. And we're entirely the guilty party here,' said Victor Matheson, a professor at College of Holy Cross in Massachusetts who specializes in sports economics. 'You could have significant immigration problems with fans and players going across borders.' The U.S. has travel bans in place for 12 countries and restrictions in place for seven, and is considering banning travellers from another 36 countries. Though there are exemptions for athletes, staff and families, the unpredictability of Trump's administration means no one knows for certain what kind of rules might be in place by the time the tournament starts. Economist Andrew Zimbalist, who wrote a book on the economics of hosting the World Cup, said Trump has the ability to make it difficult for people to travel, but it's not clear whether he will actually do so. 'I think probably Trump himself might not have the answers because … he responds very impetuously to changes in his environment,' he said. Concerns about visas or political opposition to Trump might lead some soccer fans to decide not to attend at all, while others opt to attend the games in Canada instead, Zimbalist suggested. But he also pointed out that the quarter, semifinals and final are all taking place in the U.S. A spokesperson for Canadian Heritage said Canada could see a million international visitors during the tournament. 'Given the tri-national nature of the event, it is anticipated that international and domestic travellers will move back and forth between Canada and the United States. The focus will continue to be on the flow of movement, the safety of travellers and the security of the borders,' the spokesperson said. A spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency said the agency is working closely with federal government departments, host cities and FIFA 'in the safety and security planning for this international event.' Matheson said fans — particularly those from countries that have found themselves in Trump's crosshairs — have good reasons to be worried. 'I would be very concerned about planning a vacation that has you travelling from Mexico or from Canada into the United States and back. I don't think that you can guarantee that vacation of a lifetime is actually going to be there for you to actually take,' he said. He said it's one thing to be denied entry, another to end up in jail and deported — potentially to a prison in El Salvador. 'No one wants to go to the World Cup to watch some soccer games and then end up in jail,' he said. Trump's moves to impose tariffs on much of the world, including Canada, could also affect the World Cup. Matheson offered the example of someone who makes jerseys for a country's team who would want to ship those jerseys across the border with the team. 'Tariffs make that type of inventory management pretty challenging,' he said. Tim Elcombe is a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University whose areas of expertise include sports, politics and international affairs. He said 'there was a sense that having the event in Canada, the United States and Mexico would almost be a bit of a calming of the political waters,' as the cup returned to Western countries. Instead, he said, the 2026 tournament may be even more politically charged than the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Canada is co-hosting one of world's biggest sporting events with a country whose president has instigated a trade war and threatened annexation. Canadians have cut travel to the U.S. and stopped buying American products — and it's not clear what all of that might mean for the World Cup. While Vancouver and Toronto will host some games, 'really this is an American-centric competition,' Elcombe said. 'So how will Canadians feel about this? Will we get behind it? Will it become the event I think they were hoping it would be?' In early July, labour and human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, wrote to FIFA president Gianni Infantino to say U.S. policies under Trump pose a 'serious threat' to individuals, especially non-citizens. The letter accused FIFA of ignoring 'the clear evidence of the significant deterioration of the rights climate in the United States.' Elcombe said while the United States is likely to take the brunt of scrutiny, Canada is not immune. 'Canada is going to have to be prepared for a very critical eye in terms of focus on some of the issues in Canada from a human rights perspective, because I think they will be exposed,' he said, citing Canada's relationship with Indigenous Peoples as one example. MacIntosh Ross, a fellow at the Scott McCain and Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health at Saint Mary's University, said Canada should put pressure on the U.S. government 'to make sure that things happen in a safe or as safe a manner as possible.' 'The Canadian organizers and the Canadian government need to be very clear about their expectations for their partners in this World Cup and reiterate them and state them over and over again,' he said. Elcombe noted Infantino, who has 'very much established himself as a friend and supporter of President Trump,' could be a key player in determining how the coming months unfold. It's difficult to predict what Trump might do, Zimbalist said. If there are political issues in the United States that he wants to distract people from, 'you can see him doing crazier and crazier things internationally to get people's minds off of what's actually happening.' But Trump also has shown that he cares about the World Cup and looking good as he hosts the tournament. 'I think he does care about image and he does care about being on the world stage,' Zimbalist said. 'So I can see that being a significant deterrent, actually.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2025.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Morocco to spend billions on airports ahead of World Cup
Morocco is set to invest 38 billion dirhams ($4.2 billion) over the next five years to overhaul its main airports, preparing for the World Cup it will co-host with Portugal and Spain. The Moroccan government announced on Thursday that an agreement has been signed with the national airports authority, ONDA, to facilitate this extensive project. Under the deal, 25 billion dirhams will be allocated for airport expansion, with 13 billion dirhams designated for maintenance and land acquisition. The government plans to expand its airport capacity to 80 million passengers by 2030 from 38 million currently. In May, Morocco issued two expressions of interest to identify bidders for its plan to build a new terminal that will increase capacity at its largest airport in Casablanca by 20 million passengers. British tourists are increasingly choosing north Africa as a holiday destination, with travel firms reporting a shift away from traditional European hotspots. The rise in popularity is due to the availability of high-quality hotels in countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, which are significantly cheaper than similar options in Spain, France, and Italy, experts say. Aviation analysts Cirium have reported a significant increase in flights from UK airports to north Africa, with 19,847 flights projected for this year. Tui has increased its flights from the UK to north Africa this summer to meet growing demand, with new routes from Stansted to Enfidha in Tunisia and from Newcastle to Agadir, Morocco. Online accommodation marketplace said it recorded a 68 per cent increase in the number of searches for summer breaks in Tunisia during the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2024. Egypt and Morocco saw rises of 64 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.