<strong><a href="http://delacruzcollection.org/restaurant_blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/blue-collar.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-729" title="blue collar" src="http://delacruzcollection.org/restaurant_blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/blue-collar-300x203.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="203" /></a>6730 Biscayne Blvd.
(305) 576-0366
bluecollarmiami.com
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Daniel Serfer, Chef de Cuisine for 5 years at Chef Allens in Aventura, and most recently, 15th Street Fisheries in Fort Lauderdale, has created a much buzzed-about neighborhood restaurant along Biscayne Boulevard. Now open a little more than a year, he is sending out some ambitious, mouthwatering, if oversized, plates in this tiny (25 seats) interior with an additional outdoor patio. Blue Collar certainly implies the working-class are being catered to, but the crowd is also young singles, and families who are joining the crowd for a sampling of Serfer's widely varied American comfort food.

Appetizers to "nosh on " seem the perfect place to start. Do not skip the shrimp and grits, which is outfitted with a Piedmontese trugole cheese charged with chunks of bacon, and a New Orleans style bbq sauce.  It doesn't get any better than this marriage of flavors topped off with lots of local pink shrimp. What blue-collar meal would be complete without a healthy portion of pork and beans and Berkhire sausage under an oozing egg? While "healthy" as in size, not as in "nutrition," the menu is heavy on carbs and fried foods. The daily chalkboard always includes: Ribs with warm German potato salad, a “Parm,” that could be chicken, veal pork on angel hair with a red sauce, and a Braise which could be a tender brisket, pot roast or ox tails, accompanied by mash potatoes.

I don't know of another eatery that offers more than 20 different vegetables, and at recession prices of $4.00 a plate. This is a vegetarian paradise of grilled asparagus topped with blue cheese, roasted butternut squash or fennel, sautéed kale and artichoke hearts in a lemon aioli among others. The choice of crispy snapper with rock shrimp, grilled Cobia, and Mahi Mahi are simple and pleasing local offerings.

Thirteen brews from Delaware to Belgium and some old fashioned sodas, such as orange, or black cherry cream soda, conclude the beverage list. The bread pudding is a popular conclusion to the meal.  Be ready for small tables and close quarters, but it's recommended over the outdoor patio, which is far too close to the Biscayne traffic.

<strong>Monday - Friday: 11:30 am - 3:30 pm
Monday -Thursday, Sunday: 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Friday - Saturday: 6:00 pm - 2:00 am
Saturday - Sunday (brunch): 11:00 am - 3:30 pm</strong>