“Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.” – Rainer Maria Rilke I’m in the Silver Lake neighborhood of LA as I write, adventuring and tasting with family and friends… to share with you at a later date. Meanwhile, February feasting continues with Top Tastes in food (from… Read more →
Author: Virginia Miller
Top Tastes: Of Ice Cream, Italian in Oakland, Southern Comfort & More
Top Tastes, rather than a list of all-time favorites (another thing altogether), is highlights of the best things I’ve been eating since my last newsletter, often from new openings. Many don’t make the cut, being a revisit previously written about or simply not as stand-out as dishes mentioned. SPECIAL OCCASION After years of longingly perusing Oliveto’s emails about their annual… Read more →
Notable Cocktails, Spirits, Wine, Beer & Sake in Winter 2010
Here’s two brand new openings I’d recommend for sipping a glass of vino: • Brave 6th Street and duck into Passion Cafe, a spacious French bistro with rooftop garden and multi-room space so cool, it’s a pleasure to linger over a glass. • I’ve been a big fan of Kitchenette’s fabulous food since they opened… so it’s an easy win… Read more →
Chicago, from Alinea to Paulina Meat Market
Back to Chicago (part one here; part two here)… the city remains much as I remember it from earlier visits: gritty, even at its “prettiest”, middle America in a big city/New York-reminiscent package. It doesn’t woo me like San Francisco or New Orleans, nor secure my eternal loyalty as NYC does, but it’s the only real city in the middle,… Read more →
February 1, 2010
“I just want to drink the day’s loveliness in… I feel as if she were holding it out to my lips like a cup of airy wine and I’ll take a sip at every step.” – L.M. Montgomery, “Anne of Avonlea” February… how did you arrive so swiftly? It has already been a rich start to the year and decade.… Read more →
Notable Eats in Sausalito, Petaluma, Burlingame, Berkeley & SF
Top Tastes, rather than a list of all-time favorites (another thing altogether), is highlights of the best things I’ve been eating since my last newsletter, often from new openings. Many don’t make the cut, being a revisit previously written about or simply not as stand-out as dishes mentioned. MID-RANGE RESTAURANTS • has a new chef de cuisine, Sophiane Benaouda, from… Read more →
Science of Cocktails to a Glenmorangie Party: The Latest in Cocktails, Coffee, Beer, Wine & Spirits
WINE • Oh, 2006 Puligny-Montrachet, you are such a gorgeous Chardonnay… thankfully, RN74 serves you by the glass. • I was delighted by the drinkability of Angove’s Nine Vines Rose, a South Australian wine that came across my desk. A blend of 70% Grenache/30% Shiraz, it’s zesty but rich, with spicy cherry notes, light but with satisfying depth. The winemakers… Read more →
On the Town
FANCY FOOD at Moscone Center, 1/16-19 Fancy Food is the largest showcase of specialty foods in North America, held annually in NYC and SF, and walking through literally thousands of products from around the world (not to mention tasting them) is massively overwhelming and exciting. It’s a place for industry folk to discover and buy new product, and, in my… Read more →
January 15, 2010
“All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.” – Albert Camus Well into January, I’m looking ahead to travels and adventures for the new year – what will yours be? I love to dream and plan – it’s almost as sweet as… Read more →
SF’s Best Sushi & Italian, South & North Bay Eats & Vegan Mexican
Top Tastes is my usual run-down of favorites. Rather than a list of all-time favorites (another thing altogether), it’s highlights since my last newsletter, often from new openings. Many don’t make the cut, being a revisit written about before or simply not as stand-out as dishes mentioned. MID-RANGE RESTAURANTS At the start of a new year, I visited some… Read more →