It’s no secret that a drinker’s palate becomes more discerning with time and exposure to better products. That peach chardonnay that seemed so delicious to 21-year-old you can taste like cough syrup-flavored soap after years spent drinking higher quality stuff. (Trust me on that.) The same comparison can be made between the cheap, throat-burning stuff that’s called vodka in your cheaper bars, and the deliciously smooth Hard Rock Premium Vodka.

We sampled the vodka recently when it made its debut at a star-studded party at Bongos Cuban Cafe at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, featuring musicians Timbaland, Asher Roth and Shontelle. Made in England and marketed by Boca Raton-based Ultimate Beverages, the vodka is filtered six times, eliminating impurities and whatever makes cheap vodka go down like paint thinner.

It’s delicious mixed with just about anything – we tried it with Diet Coke and also with cranberry juice – but Ultimate Beverages CEO Serge Abecassis says it’s smooth enough to be enjoyed without a mixer. And it’s true, making the prospect of doing vodka shots not exquisite torture but a pleasure.

Hard Rock Premium Vodka is available throughout Florida and, eventually, nationally.

- Leslie Gray Streeter

MIDTOWN SHIMMIES TO A LATIN BEAT

Revelers got their fill of empanadas, ropa vieja, chorizo, fish tacos and thick guacamole and spicy salsa – washed down with wines from Argentina, Chile and Spain – during last week’s Latin American Food & Wine Festival on Main Street at Midtown in Palm Beach Gardens.

The second annual festival, organized by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Palm Beach County, turned the downtown into a fiesta. Dancers performed a mesmerizing Argentine tango as the wonderful aromas of hand-rolled cigars wafted in the breeze. And the rhythms of Tairon Aguilera and the Florida Latin Beat Band beckoned dancers to get loose and shake off the week’s troubles.

- John Bisognano

BON JOVI OPENS ‘PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN’ CAFE

RED BANK, N.J. – In three decades as one of the world’s biggest rock stars, Jon Bon Jovi has eaten in some of the world’s best restaurants, savoring the best food the planet has to offer.

Yet there’s no place he’d rather have dinner than The Soul Kitchen, a "pay-what-you-can" restaurant he and his wife, Dorothea, established in a former auto body shop near the Red Bank train station in central New Jersey.

The restaurant provides gourmet-quality meals to the hungry while enabling them to volunteer on community projects in return without the stigma of visiting a soup kitchen. Paying customers are encouraged to leave whatever they want in the envelopes on each table, where the menus never list a price.

The restaurant is the latest undertaking by the New Jersey rocker’s Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, which has built 260 homes for low-income residents in recent years.

"With the economic downturn, one of the things I noticed was that disposable income was one of the first things that went," Bon Jovi told The Associated Press in an interview before the restaurant’s recent grand opening ceremony "Dining out, the family going out to a restaurant, mom not having to cook, dad not having to clean up – a lot of memories were made around restaurant tables.

"When I learned that one in six people in this country goes to bed hungry, I thought this was the next phase of the Foundation’s work," he said.

It started several years ago when Dorothea Bongiovi (she uses the legal spelling of her husband’s name) and Jon started helping out at a food pantry at nearby St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church. They later moved their focus to the Lunch Break program, which feeds 80 to 120 people a day, dubbing it "The Soul Kitchen."

They brought that name with them to a former auto body shop down the street from the Count Basie Theater, where Jon and his self-titled band have played many fund-raising shows .

It took a year and $250,000, but the restaurant now rivals any of its competitors in trendy Red Bank, with entrées such as cornmeal crusted catfish with red beans and rice, grilled chicken breast with homemade basil mayo and rice pilaf, and grilled salmon with soul seasonings, sweet potato mash and sautéed greens, many of which were grown in the herb and vegetable garden right outside the restaurant’s doors.

Bon Jovi, who has a home in next-door Middletown, is adamant about one thing.

"This is not a soup kitchen," he emphasizes. "You can come here with the dignity of linens and silver, and you’re served a healthy, nutritious meal. This is not burgers and fries.

"There’s no prices on our menu, so if you want to come and you want to make a difference, leave a $20 in the envelope on the table. If you can’t afford to eat, you can bus tables, you can wait tables, you can work in the kitchen as a dishwasher or sous chef," he said.

After volunteering at one of those places, a person will be given a certificate good for a meal at The Soul Kitchen.

Bon Jovi and others at the restaurant want those who can afford to dine out to patronize the restaurant as well and pay what they consider market prices, or even a bit more than that, to help sustain The Soul Kitchen as a true community resource.

The Soul Kitchen is open for dinner Thursday through Saturday, and offers Sunday brunch.

–The Associated Press

Dolce de Palma owner-chef Anthony de Palma has closed his shrine to gourmet peasant food in West Palm Beach. (Gary Coronado / 2008 staff file photo)

Not so sweet news for West Palm’s food scene: Dolce de Palma, chef Anthony de Palma’s shrine to gourmet peasant food, has closed abruptly, leaving a notable void in the city’s dining landscape.

“I had to close,” de Palma said, citing a rent dispute with the landlord. “They put me on the street.”

One of the property owners, Howie Bubis of HMB Property Inc., would not address the details of the dispute when reached by The Post Friday, saying only that de Palma “had a lease. He signed it. He knew what he was getting himself into. But I would prefer to have no comment. It’s not the newspaper’s business. He just closed the place.”

Read the full story

'Black Swan', 'Toy Story 3' and 'King's Speech' have all been nominated for an Oscar.

More: Leslie Streeter’s top picks | Local movie listings

As I said in my Oscar nomination speculation column a few days back, I didn’t think I’d be surprised by today’s announcement of the Best Picture hopefuls, mostly because there are now 10 slots to fill rather than five. And on any given year, finding five movies that don’t make you go “Really?” is a stretch. Read the full story

Reports say Michael Jackson died today at the age of 50. (AP)

See photos of Michael Jackson | Sign the online guestbook| Rhonda Swan: RIP Michael
What is your favorite Michael Jackson moment? | Share your photos of Michael memories
Timeline of Jackson’s life | Scandals | Even he couldn’t kill his legend | Health woes
Like Elvis, Jackson was a King who died young | The nation mourns | Photos
Delray woman recalls ‘a beautiful young boy’| Fans reaction to the death of a pop icon

Browse a playlist of Michael Jackson videos

Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop” who once moonwalked above the music world, died Thursday as he prepared for a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

“It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known,” his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson’s death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album “Thriller” – which included the blockbuster hits “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” – is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.

As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson’s heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York’s Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

“No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow,” Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. “It’s like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died.”

The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and “I’ll Be There.”

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

“For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words,” said Quincy Jones, who produced “Thriller.” “He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music’s biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson’s death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.

As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure – a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him “Wacko Jacko.”

“It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It’s as if he was trying to defy gravity,” said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a “disciple of P.T. Barnum” and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was “much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew.”

Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.

The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers – Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito – in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.

The album “Thriller” alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of “Billie Jean,” the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on “Beat It,” and the hiccups and falsettos on “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.”

The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through “Billie Jean.”

The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.

By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical “The Wiz,” a pop-R&B version of “The Wizard of Oz,” that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.

During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson’s scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.

He had strong follow-up albums with 1987′s “Bad” and 1991′s “Dangerous,” but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy’s family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.

Jackson’s expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album “HIStory,” which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson’s music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.

Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.

Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.

Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson’s star power was unmatched. “The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it,” Werde said. “He’s literally the king of pop.”

Jackson’s 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.

“He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit,” he said. “People might have started to think of him again in a different light.”

When the King of Pop popped in to Palm Beach County: In 2003, Michael Jackson was a surprise guest at the Palm Beach International Film Festival’s black tie gala at the Boca Raton Resort & Club along with Rush Hour star Chris Tucker. A guest of Rush Hour director and honoree Brett Ratner, Jackson reportedly entered through the resort’s kitchen and took his seat mostly undetected by the other attendees until his image was flashed, large and brightly lit, on the gala’s large screens. He didn’t speak, but still managed to steal the star-studded thunder from then-recent Oscar winner Adrien Brody, legendary King Kong actress Fay Wray and producer Robert Evans.

Earlier, he and Tucker made two other surprise visits at the Gardens Mall and the Palm Beach Mall, where he reportedly dropped $900 on sweatpants at The Finish Line, $200 worth of CDs at FYE and a Hot Wheels set at KB Toys for one of his children. At the time, Finish Line manager Dave Johnson told The Palm Beach Post that he’d initially requested that Jackson to remove the “really bad Spider-Man-style mask,” which violates mall policy, until realizing who he was dealing with and escorting Jackson to a back room.

Elvis vs. Michael

How the King of Rock ’n’ Roll compares with the King of Pop:

Presley:
Age at death: 42
Famous home : Graceland
Billboard No. 1 hits: 17
Signature songs : Don’t Be Cruel, Hound Dog , Love Me Tender, Jailhouse Rock, Suspicious Minds
Wives : Priscilla Presley
Fashion statement : White jumpsuit

Jackson
Age at death: 50
Famous home : Neverland
Billboard No. 1 hits: 13
Signature songs : Billie Jean , Beat It , Thriller, Bad, Man in the Mirror
Wives : Lisa Marie Presley, Debbie Rowe
Fashion statement : Single white glove

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