“I worry about the prospect of collective amnesia. While access to information has never been so universal as it is now… the total sum of knowledge of anything beyond the present seems to be dwindling among those people who came of age with the Internet. Anything beyond 1945, if then, is a messy, remote landscape; the centuries melt into each other in an insignificant magma… Everything is equalized… There is a way out: by integrating the teaching of history within the curricula of all subjects—using whatever digital or other means we have to redirect attention to slow reading and old sources. Otherwise we will be condemned to living without perspective, robbed of the wisdom and experience with which to build for the future, confined by the arrogance of our presentism to repeating history without noticing it.” – Noga Arikha
The most beautiful place on earth? (see Wandering Traveler)
There’s been delightful happenings from “across the pond” this week: this past Sunday, I was featured in the Sunday Times edition of The Times London (print and online), an article I wrote on current trends in San Francisco dining and cocktails.
Simultaneously, Pür in Spirit, the cocktail book I recently wrote the introduction to (I was also featured in a 1930’s-inspired photo shoot we did for the book), just received a strong review in the great, London-based CLASS magazine. We hope to get the book published on a large scale at the same high quality the original printing was done.
This issue:
Live, raw spot prawns (see Top Tastes)
Top Tastes – Holding Strong at SF Standard-Setters: Latest dishes at five of SF’s recent restaurant greats.
Imbiber – Adventures in Bassano del Grappa, Italy: In the birthtown of grappa, visiting the great Nardini distillery, talking grappa and liqueurs with Antonio Guarda Nardini, finding a rare cocktail and absinthe bar haven.
Wandering Traveler – The Most Beautiful Place on Earth?: Visit # 3 to Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland.
Imbiber – Two Fascinating New Spirits: A Washington beet spirit and a California overproof rum.
Around the Bay – Sonoma’s Tasting Menu “Steal”: A top notch, multi-course dining experience with wine pairings for only $50 at a Santa Rosa winery.
As your personal concierge who tells it like a good friend would, I also create personalized itineraries: trips, meals, explorations (under “Services“).
Virginia
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**Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Virginia Miller**