It was just the start of lunchtime and already the 11 tables and half-dozen seats at the counter of the new Prado’s Cuban Café in Belle Glade was packing in the customers.

The scents of sizzling garlic and sour orange swirled around Nelsa Prado as she rushed from counter to table, both hands full of smoking hot, fresh dishes.

Imagine what it’ll look like when it’s been open for longer than a month.

Nelsa Prado, co-owner of Prado Cuban Cafe. Photo by Carlos Frías.

“This is completely out of control,” said Prado, the waitress and co-owner.

In just weeks’ time, Prado and her husband, Gustavo, embarked on an idea their 26-year-old son, Adrian, had been pushing since he graduated from college, by opening a restaurant in a town with mostly fast-food options.

The lunch crowd swarm shows the Cuban couple might be on to something.

The family came from Cuba 16 years ago. Nelsa, who was born in New York, had lived in Cuba since she was 2 years old.

Until recently, the 49-year-old mother had been a waitress at a restaurant in Clewiston for 10 years. Meanwhile, Gustavo has been a mechanic at U.S. Sugar for the past 13 after learning the trade in Cuban refineries.

Gustavo, 54, isn’t giving up his day job: He’s still working from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the mill. But he’s helping in the front of the house while his son keeps the books. Read the full story

WINTER HAVEN – Finally, it’s my turn.

I can see the thought forming in my 4-year-old daughter’s mind as we wait in line for the first of more than 50 roller coasters and attractions she can actually ride at the new Legoland Florida theme park, which opened last month on the site of the old Cypress Gardens.

The Frias girls, Catalina, 4 (yellow shirt), Amelia (blue shirt), 6, and Elise, 8. Photo by staff writer Carlos Frias

Catalina holds her little fists up to her face in mock terror — “This is scawy!” she says — as we approach The Dragon, one of the “pink knuckle” roller coasters that are at the heart of the new park.

This time, she’s not holding my hand, waiting with tear-filled eyes for her 6- and 8-year-old sisters at the exit of Space Mountain or Expedition Everest at the Disney theme parks. She’s a rider, at last. In the front seat, no less, ahead of her two sisters.

Our Lego dragon coaster begins with a medieval tour of the inside of the Lego castle, tens of thousands of Lego bricks creating a pixilated world of knights in battle, culminating in a towering red steam-breathing dragon. Catalina cringes from it, just before the ride heads out onto the actual coaster.

There is the harried slow climb to the top, and Catalina grabs the bar in front of her as the ride drops.

Our stomachs lurch as we fly down the track, diving, twisting and turning until we are greeted back at the starting point with applause from the Model Citizens, the name given to Legoland’s employees.

A photo snapped during the ride shows it indeed was scawy, but just the right amount: Catalina’s eyes are as wide as her smile, and the two in the backseat are yelling through smiles.

The folks behind Legoland Florida, the fifth and largest of its parks around the world, decided that theme parks shouldn’t be a spectator sport for kids. Masters of engaging children in constructive toys (literally), their goal for opening the largest of their Legoland theme parks just 45 minutes southwest of the Mouse was to own the 2- to 12-year-old market.

And judging from a recent trip with my three daughters, they definitely are forging loyal fans.

None of my daughters could be classified a Legomaniac, though they love digging out my box of 30-year-old Legos and creating new toys and worlds all their own. But as we walk around the park, where you can find everything from a full-size 2012 Ford Explorer to a sleeping guardsman at the gate of the Lego Kingdom made of the ubiquitous blocks, even they are awestruck at the mastery.

“Daddy, are you going to write about all the amazing masterpieces that they made?” my 6-year-old, Amelia, asks.

One section, Miniland, is a reproduction of some of America’s most famous skylines, from the Las Vegas strip and Ellis Island to Seattle with its Space Needle and the neon of South Beach. There are more than 50 million Lego blocks used at the park, in all.

“Do you know that the people who make these are artists? Artists, I tell you,” Elise, my 8-year-old, says in full-blown art critic mode.

What at first felt like a half-day kind of park, despite its 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours, soon stretched into an all-day affair. And that’s before Legoland expands with a water park, set to open in May of 2012.

When the girls weren’t rattling down Coastersaurus — a wooden coaster highlighted by an array of towering Lego dinosaurs — they were playing at the many forts and playgrounds themed for each of the worlds in Legoland.

These covered play areas provided shade and cover on a rainy day, such as ours, and you wonder why the Disney people haven’t done a better job at figuring this part out.

The Lego folks seem to know all the small things that cater to kids’ attention, and it’s not just coasters.

One ride, the Driving School, lets children drive around a track in electric Lego cars, stopping at red lights and stop signs, yielding the right of way, stopping and starting and turning all on their own, at 3 mph .

There is even a smaller track where children under 6 can drive smaller cars. This is the ride everyone who ever visited the Magic Kingdom hoped for out of the overpromising Tomorrowland Speedway.

In a day where we were the last ones to leave the park – and my daughters suggested rightly that the coasters could be so much more fun after dark – I realize building with Legos was the least of what we did. The two big girls built slot car racers and ran them at Build & Test in the Imagination Zone while Catalina played with Duplo blocks in an adjacent area.

The question I kept coming back to was, “Will your family have fun here?” And the answer depends on how old your children are.

The minimum height for most rides is 36 inches, and my taller-than-average 4-year-old met the requirement for most rides. My 6- and 8-year-old found something fun in just about every ride.

But on the Royal Joust, which has an age restriction (12) and a weight limit (170 pounds), my 8-year-old looked a little a giant teetering back and forth on a Lego horse as it went around on a track.

How did it go, I asked her after. “Eh. It was so-so,” she said.

But many parents may like that Legoland isn’t loaded with teenagers sloughing through the park, pointing out the rides that are so bo-ooring. It may even be a stretch with some preteens, but the 4- to 10-year-old crowd seems to be a direct hit in Legoland’s wheelhouse.

Sailing off into the land of Nod as we drove past the illuminated Legoland sign, Catalina muttered one last thing amid a big yawn before drifting off for good.

“Legoland is awesome,” the little voice from the back seat said.

If you go

Tickets: $75, 13 and over; $65, children 3 to 12; free for children under 3.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. most days. See http://florida.legoland.com/ for more information.

Directions: From Palm Beach County: Turnpike north to Yeehaw Junction. West on State Road 60 about 46 miles to U.S. 27 north. Go 6 miles to Cypress Gardens Boulevard and turn left. Follow the road for about 4 miles until you see the entrance to Legoland on the left.

When J. Edgar Hoover called Phil Carr into his office one morning in 1954, the young FBI cadet knew his career hung in the balance.

Every FBI trainee, regardless of stellar field-test scores or passing grades on an eight-hour exam, knew he ultimately had to pass the eyeball test with the director of the FBI.

"If he disliked your personality, your demeanor, your responses to his questions, you were no longer in training school at the end of that day," remembers Carr, 84, a Stuart resident who went on to be national president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.

Read the full story

Radio personality Paul Castronovo, shown at his home in Lighthouse Point, is still proud that he was once voted the person you'd most like to have a beery with by Miami magazine, but he says he has grown up, and so has his taste for wine. (Thomas Cordy/The Palm Beach Post)

It’s 10 p.m. on a Wednesday, Paul Castronovo is stuffed and he has to be up in five hours for his radio show, and the chef at Casa d’Angelo in Boca Raton is still sending out courses.

More than an hour ago, he admitted he could use a nap. By now, he’s sure it’s going to be a rough morning.

“Paisan, I gotta get going, man,” he whispers to the waiter.

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One of numerous paintings created by Boynton Beach resident Tina DeGeorge, 84, to honor victims of the 911 terrorist attacks. (Damon Higgins / Palm Beach Post)

Life has always inspired Tina DeGeorge to paint – and, in turn, her paintings have inspired others.

Touring her two-bedroom condo in Boynton Beach, she leads a guest from room to room, each of which is adorned with some of the dozens if not hundreds of canvases she has painted in her 84 years. There are portraits, depictions of animals and tranquil landscapes of places she’s visited.

Tina DeGeorge with another of her paintings. (Damon Higgins / Palm Beach Post)

As she heads to her room, she stops to peek through her bifocals.

"I don’t usually invite men into my bedroom. But you’re special," she says with a twinkle and a chuckle. And you can see why she once co-owned a New York comedy club and one of her sons grew up to be a comedian.

She shows off paintings she made of quarterback Y.A. Tittle dropping back to pass in his New York Giants uniform and a landscape of one of the Rangers-Canadians hockey games the family of eight used to attend in the old Madison Square Garden, and you can see why one of her sons went on to become a sports broadcaster.

And if you know her, you can understand why just days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, she began to paint again.

The images from Ground Zero were emblazoned into her mind. The images that appeared on television and in newspapers made their way onto her canvases.

And when she was done, she had a poster-sized compilation of her works printed and sent to former mayor Rudy Giuliani, who placed the canvas in his New York office.

"I am pleased to that you chose to share your creative talents with me," he wrote her in a letter she has next to the 9/11 artwork. "Every piece of artwork that seeks to commemorate the events of September 11th pays tribute to the men and women who gave their lives on that day. I applaud your efforts."

"I was watching television when it happened. I was horrified," she said as the 10-year anniversary of that day nears. "After that, I started painting, just to get it out (of me). It was therapy."

She wonders how the upcoming anniversary of September 11 will affect her painting. Because, somehow, it must.

She grew up in Brooklyn and lived in Long Island for most of the 33 years before she was divorced. New York and the arts were her passion. When she started painting in 1960, the married Katherine Minervini became Tina DeGeorge, using her nickname and her maiden name from the beginning to sign her art.

"Doesn’t DeGeorge sound very artistic? I guess I wanted to be a modern woman," she said.

She would take the train into the city to listen to Frank Sinatra sing or to watch a play. And at home, she taught herself how to play piano, even as she was raising six children – five of whom were born in a span of six years.

"There are songs, to this day, that I will hear – songs from West Side Story, Sinatra – and I think of my mother playing it on the piano," said her youngest son, Craig Minervini, who works as a Florida Marlins broadcaster for Fox Sports Florida.

Three of her children acted in high school, Craig playing alongside Rosie O’Donnell as teenagers. Today, she loves hearing her grandchildren, such as the one studying photography or another who is a graphic artist, say they get their artistic genes from their grandmother.

When her oldest child entered college, she reentered the workforce to help support the family. She eventually became the office manager and bookkeeper for Contractors Layout, the company that made many of the initial surveys for the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. So when she saw the towers come down, it struck a personal chord.

"When it happened, she was touched like a lot of Americans," her son, Doug Minervini, said.

In between her working life, she continued painting. She would tune in and follow along as the late Bob Ross painted his "happy little trees" on Sunday morning on PBS.

But she has a style all her own. In the corner of her painting studio is a van Gogh-esque red-haired girl resting her chin on her hand with a faraway look.

"I think I was having trouble with my daughter at the time. She was a little bit of a hippie," she said, tracing the portrait with her eyes. "You look at her and say, ‘Hmm, she must have problems.’ "

She stops and laughs. "Or maybe her mother does."

Today, when she starts painting, her family knows not to call. She goes on a painting binge. She slips out to her studio – the enclosed patio overlooking the lake in her community – and contemplates the herons that land just outside her door as she begins to paint.

"She’s passionate about (her art)," Craig Minervini said, "and I think that’s what she passed down to us – an incredible passion for life."

Hedy Goldsmith is the executive pastry chef at Michael's Genuine in Miami. Her newest desserts feature Macalian scotch. (Photo courtesy of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink)

Standing by the head of the table, Hedy Goldsmith folds her hands in front of her and peeks over the 12 diners with the anticipation of a school girl.

When someone asks whether the rumor is true that one of the three desserts she has made especially for a pairing with high-end Macallan scotch will end up on the regular menu at Michael’s Genuine in Miami, she slips into a shy grin.

“Depends how this goes,” she says, nervously.

Read the full story

We think with our stomachs in this section of the newspaper.

So when a congressman from Missouri called the debt-ceiling compromise a “sugar-coated Satan sandwich,” it made our stomachs rumble in wonder: What would you put in a Satan sandwich, anyway?

Now that's an angry-looking sandwich, courtesy of Talay Thai chef Charlie Soo.

Enter chef Charlie Soo, the owner of Talay Thai in Palm Beach Gardens, a former investment banker of mortgage-backed securities who gave up a life of dime to open a home-cooking Thai restaurant as popular for its fare as for its down-to-earth style and prices.

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Mike Russell was an undercover officer with the New Jersey State Police and went undercover to infiltrate a New Jersey organized crime syndicate. (Brandon Kruse/The Palm Beach Post)

More: Spielberg to tell story of mob-busting cop

Bring down one crime family, and, all of a sudden, Hollywood is beating down your door.

Delray Beach’s Mike Russell, the retired New Jersey State Police officer who helped bring down the mob family that inspired The Sopranos, is going to be featured on AMC’s “Mob Week,” which runs today through Sunday.

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You might remember Miranda Khan as the smiling, fresh-faced anchor at Channel 5 news.

But the Khan you’ll see on television Sunday night is darker and racier – and that’s new to her, too.

Khan, the former investigative reporter and co-anchor of the 5:30 news at WPTV, will play a stripper on A&E’s The Glades at 10 p.m. – which is why she didn’t shout her newest acting role to her family and friends.

"I play a stripper, for crying out loud! I went from such a serious profession to this," she said. "I wasn’t feeling news anymore. I wanted to do something more creative."

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Steven Bauer as Manny in the 1983 movie 'Scarface'.

His cellphone doesn’t stop vibrating as actor Steven Bauer tries to rehearse a new song.

Microphones, a pair of Peavey speakers and a mixing board are set up in the Delray Beach craftsman cottage of his songwriter friend Glenn Goss, a man he’s known half his life. Read the full story