This issue:
— Top 10 Cocktails of the Month: From clarified goat milk-washed celery bitters to Cocoa Puffs-infused Negronis — 10 top drinks now.
— 9 Intriguing Small Batch Gins from Finland to Minnesota
— Eating in the OC: From the celebrated Playground to house sausages and burgers (and great beer lists), here are 3 spots worth heading to in the OC.
— Top 5 Ciders at Cider Summit 2016
Here are the 10 standout cocktails and new bars of the month I’ve been tasting around the Bay Area. 1. Saison’s Strawberry & Arms Dinner at 3 Michelin-starred Saison is always memorable — so is an hour spent at the bar with Anthony Keels’ exquisite cocktails, up there with the most inventive drinks I’ve had in London, Berlin or Tokyo.… Read more →
With a stellar judging team, I am a judge for awards in double gold, gold, silver and bronze medals for craft (small batch) spirits from around the world for ADI’s annual Craft Spirits Awards. During an intensive few days of blind judging with some of the best in the industry, we all anticipate the final day when post-judging, we can enter… Read more →
As I continue to call out OC food gems (more here) from a County I partly grew up in — but one known more for its chain restaurant blandness and mall-mentality than its culinary gems — here are a few more places worth seeking out in the endless, freeway-laced suburbs of LA. PLAYGROUND, Santa Ana Yes, I finally made it… Read more →
Besides the dreamy lawn setting with Bay views in the ever-stunning Presidio, Cider Summit SF (held April 23) was exciting for its international mix of ciders, most on draft, from small producers. The event is small enough to be approachable but digging there was plenty to taste and some new and interesting discoveries for me, even as much as I… Read more →
— 6 New Chefs Reinvigorating Bay Area Restaurants: 6 restaurants worth revisiting with fresh menus and new chefs.
— April Openings: From upscale Chinese-SF cuisine to lush burgers — and on to two stellar new cocktail havens — which new openings are worth visiting… and why.
— March Openings: Exquisite nigiri tasting menus and Indian street food paired with wine — my top two openings of the month.
This is a preview of a regular column that will be part of the national Table8 blog we are about to launch this Spring — I will cover the Bay Area and am national editor over all cities/writers. With the constant flush of new openings in this queen of dining cities — and so many stellar newcomers — it becomes quite… Read more →
My article was first published here on our national Table8 blog where I am national editor. The key openings of April are: Mister Jiu’s, ‘aina, Wes Burger, Wildhawk, Horsefeather, The Lodge on Haight, Bar San Pancho, Barbary Coast Gastropub. The Lodge is great for affordable, order-at-the-counter eats in the Lower Haight and I’ll save ‘aina for May since it just… Read more →