Gastrolinguistics

Language is a tricky issue in South Florida, with many locals getting annoyed when they hear anything but English. Leaving the politics of that issue aside, I can say that gastronomy is an exception, here and anywhere.

I've walked into a restaurant in New York's Chinatown where I had the hardest time understanding or making myself understood. Was I frustrated? Of course. Annoyed? No way. That linguistic hurdle meant only one thing: This was an authentic Chinese restaurant, where the staff, the clientele, and most importantly, the food was the real Chinese thing.

Things get to the point where waiters will put on a "foreign" act. Or at least a different kind of foreign. At an upscale Italian restaurant in San Antonio, the maitre d', who handled the orders, spoke with a thick Italian accent, when all the time I knew he was a homegrown Mexican-American. Even more pointedly, at a Miami French restaurant the waiter addressed a fellow Cuban-American and I in Franglais, i.e. a calculated mix of English and French. My friend, smelling a canard, and not a l'orange but more likely from Hialeah, talked to him in blunt street-Cuban Spanish, which the "French" waiter understood perfectly, yet refused to come out of character and continued to speak French -- the kind of French anyone who dines at French restaurants understands. Mamma Mia! Mon Dieu! Or rather: Que onda, guey? Que vola, asere?

So it was with great joy that I found myself having a hard time on the phone with La Rotisserie, a new casual French joint in Surfside ( 9487 Harding Ave., Surfside; 866-443-5954). When I went, indeed, everyone who worked there was French -- not faux French. And so was the food. As the name indicates, the specialty is roast chicken, but they also serve some casual dishes, daily specials and that bistro classic, steak frites.

Read about it in my restaurant roundup Thursday in The Miami Herald's Food section. Or look for it online. So, to put a twist on the old Latino standup line, you're in South Florida now, parlez francais!