He’s back to footing the bill for his meals. He no longer has to decide how many stars to award the restaurants he visits. And he doesn’t have the area’s largest newspaper repeating whatever he has to say about the agnolotti carbonara at Valentino Cucina or the Wagyu beef cheeks with pumpkin gnocchi at Sassafras.
So, what does a dining critic do when he sets down his fork and knife and calls it quits?
For Mike Mayo, who moved on two years ago from his position as dining critic and food writer for the Sun Sentinel, the answer is simple: Keep dishing about eating. And, of course, keep eating.
Not surprising for someone who once said that being a dining critic was his dream job, “because the only thing I love more than writing is eating.” His 292 restaurant visits in 2019 is the proof in the pudding.
That turned out to be Mayo’s last full year of his more than four years as dining critic. He has remained a South Florida dining influencer and commentator primarily through online and local media platforms: most notably as the self-described “ringleader” of the Sun Sentinel‘s 87,600-member Let’s Eat, South Florida Facebook group, and on Mike Mayo’s Lunchbox With Defo, a noon weekdays radio show and podcast on Pompano Beach-based WWNN-1470 AM.
On the show, Mayo gets to dish with veteran SoFla broadcaster Jeff “Defo” DeForrest not only about food and dining, but also about one of his other passions and former newspaper beats — sports. That show is an offshoot of a dining and sports segment on Defo’s previous show on Fox Sports 940 AM called “The Gambling Gourmet.”
“Because he knew I like to eat and play the ponies,” Mayo says.
Mayo had planned to leave the newspaper in March 2020, which turned out to be a stroke of fortuitous timing.
“Yeah,” he says, “it couldn’t have worked out any better to not be a critic anymore when all the restaurants in the world were closing down. And it was the right time also for some personal reasons. I was able to chill out and just decompress and lose a little weight because, from the time that I started at the paper until I left, I had put on 55 pounds. I took off about 35. I still have a ways to go, but now I’m back on the yo-yo, eating a lot.”
Mayo’s 31-year career at the Sun Sentinel began in 1989 as a sports reporter and columnist for 13 years, followed by 14 more as local news columnist. He was part of the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.
The Brooklyn-born Mayo, 56, lives in Dania Beach and has a 16-year-old daughter. He began a recent conversation with City & Shore by describing what could’ve been a disaster for someone in his line of work — a loss of taste and smell due to a COVID infection in May.
“It’s the strangest thing. I went into the fridge to get a slice of leftover pizza. I put it in the toaster oven and I started eating it. It was completely like cardboard. I was like, no, this was a good slice of pizza. I was like, oh, something’s up. Then I took a swig out of a glass of juice and it was completely tasteless. And I realized I also didn’t have any sense of smell. So I did a rapid test and it came up positive. The taste came back after three days. The smell was trickier. I didn’t get it back fully for about a week and a half.
That was lucky. Let me begin with the most obvious question: Do you miss being a dining critic for the paper?
Oh, the thing is I’m still involved in the food world. I’m still able to do a lot of the stuff I was doing as a critic, just without the weekly deadline of cranking out a thousand words. Now I’m doing it on my own terms. And I still definitely have an opinion and points of view that I’m not shy about sharing with people on different platforms. I still write mini reviews for [the Sun Sentinel‘s] Let’s Eat South Florida, which I helped start. And I’ve stayed on as an admin there. It’s grown to [86,700] people, which is kind of insane. It’s like trying to corral a football stadium-size community of people. And you know how people on social media behave. And I started The Lunchbox daily radio show and podcast last November.
How did that come about?
The station basically said to Defo, do you want to take over an hour of the day? I would come on his previous show once a week and we developed this segment, ‘The Gambling Gourmet.’ His idea was to kind of let me be the star of the new show and call it Mike Mayo’s Lunchbox. He’s the co-host and the two of us spend an hour talking about food and sports. Somebody described it as a smorgasbord, a little bit about anything and everything — except politics. We’ve been lucky enough to get the support of some sponsors and make a go of it.
How do you like talking as opposed to writing?
Yeah, you know, I’m learning my way. I’m not a natural-born broadcaster, but Defo is. It’s nice because with just an hour, you line up a guest and do a 15–20-minute interview segment and spotlight some of the local restaurants. We’ve had some different kinds of guests, too. As much as we stay away from politics, I had Debbie Wasserman Schultz on because she’s a big foodie. She has an Instagram page that is devoted to healthy eating ’cause she’s a cancer survivor. It’s called ‘cleancookingcongresswoman.’ So we were mainly talking about that.
And I’ve also been involved in developing this new app that just launched called Best of Delray Beach, a curated listings guide for restaurants, dining and nightlife. It’s also gonna be a services directory app. There’s like 250 different restaurants loaded on there from Delray and the surrounding communities. The food and the entertainment listings were strictly by merit, and that’s where I came into play. It’s very easy to use and it strips away some of the worst things of some of the already existing restaurant food apps.
The first description of yourself on your Facebook group profile is ‘eater.’ I know that’s tongue-in-cheek, but what qualifies you to be a professional eater? Does it have anything to do with your name?
[Laughs.] Right. I was born to be in food. That’s funny. I never went to culinary school. I worked maybe 20 minutes in a restaurant kitchen — actually more like two months when I was in college. But I’ve just always liked food and known food. I have curiosity and I don’t pretend to know everything, but I will always ask. I always have definite opinions and I’ve kind of gleaned a lot of knowledge through the years from traveling, being a sports writer.
You know, nowadays everybody’s a critic because of all the different social media. But it’s all about, are you fair? Do you have a knowledge base? Do you talk to the chef or the manager about your experience? What makes somebody an expert? It’s just curiosity, reading, trying to expand your knowledge base, trying new things and just talking. It’s like basic reporting. So I still do those same things.
I read that you visited 292 restaurants in 2019. Is that right?
That included out-of-town, but yeah, I was keeping logs of different restaurants. I did like 40 formal reviews a year for five years. You do a lot of eating and a lot of times, you don’t even write about a place. It’s just not gonna make the cut. And back then, if a place was mediocre and it was just a struggling mom-and-pop, I would just bite the bullet. I didn’t wanna be the one that would plunge the knife in the back. If it’s gonna sink or swim, it’ll do it on its own in the community.
Your farewell newspaper column envisioned the day when restaurants would be open again. Your last words were: ‘Look for me. I’ll be the one smiling with a martini.’ So where are we likely to find you with that martini today?
One of my favorite places now is Even Keel Fish Shack in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea. It’s just a block away from the beach. It’s outdoors and they’ve got a perfect vibe, really good seafood and a really good bar and happy hour. So, yeah, sometimes I’ll be drinking there. Their specialty drink is Moscow mules and they also have frozen palomas. I gotta mention that they’re one of my radio show sponsors. But I get to pick and choose. I wouldn’t have a sponsor come on board that I wouldn’t go to on my own. That’s the way I do it. I keep the sponsorship and me going out to eat separate. When I go to the restaurant, I want to get a bill and pay my own way. So if something goes wrong, I can still mention it, you know, wherever. I try to be transparent and honest.
Another place you could find me is The Katherine. It’s a really talented chef, Timon Balloo, and his wife, Melissa [middle name, Katherine]. He had a couple of really special restaurants in Miami and had the chance to open this restaurant in the spot that used to be occupied by Foxy Brown [in downtown Fort Lauderdale]. He’s doing great work. It’s a casual, small spot, probably only about 30, 40 seats. I love going in there and just sitting at the bar with a glass of wine and eating one of his dishes.
The other great place is Heritage, this Italian place in Flagler Village [in Fort Lauderdale]. The chef [owner Rino Cerbone] is a young guy who grew up in the business; his dad owned Pizza Time. He’s a character, and he’s putting out good food.
The Lauderdale dining scene seems to be booming. What’s your take on it?
The restaurant scene has definitely gotten better. I’m a little bit amazed about how resilient everyone has been since COVID. I thought there were gonna be a lot more shutdowns. I think we’re blessed because No. 1, so many places had outdoor seating. So they’re able to survive with the outdoors and the takeout or delivery. And No. 2, for better or worse, the governor and his policies — which some people say were in denial or reckless — allowed operators who wanted to keep going with indoor dining to go forward. It allows for individual choice. And everybody keeps complaining about inflation and food prices and restaurants, prices going up. But every time I go to a restaurant, it seems like the place is packed. [Laughs.] So I guess when everything gets taken away from them, people still want to splurge and go out to eat.”
