I’ll be brutally honest: Oklahoma-born, with even my parents briefly living in Dallas, it’s long been one of my least favorite American cities. I had a job in my younger years that brought me there almost every month and after many visits, I never found its charms. Even though I sought out “artsy” areas like Deep Ellum, it was the… Read more →
I wrote this article for Food Republic, originally published September 22, 2015. Here is the unedited article with an additional 5 bars at the end and also Berlin shops selling rare spirits. The article and all photos are by Virginia Miller. Not having been back to Berlin since 1999 when the city was flush with cranes, construction and raw energy,… Read more →
Though I drove briefly through Germany’s stunning Berchtesgaden region in the Bavarian Alps recently during a second and third return to Austria and Switzerland, when I spent 8 days this May in Berlin, I actually hadn’t been back to Germany since 1999. At that time, when I was backpacking around Europe for 3 months, Berlin was all cranes and construction… Read more →
As in so many of the world’s best cities these days, coffee has risen to an art form, whether influenced by the hot, flat white-driven coffee scene in Australia, or the decades-long history of superlative coffee on the US’ West Coast (Oregon, Washinton and California), whether pulling from Italian coffee drink perfection or Japanese equipment precision (Hario, siphon, etc.) Berlin… Read more →
My Summer 2015 feature for Distiller Magazine on Los Angeles, with an 11-page print spread, my photos and article: ______________________________________Past issues (top 10 bars, local distiller and bar manager interviews in each city): Save Read more →
As I went to Aspen Food & Wine this June, I also spent a few days while in Colorado in Denver with my brother and sister-in-law, catching up on the latest in a city I’ve been talking about it for years when it comes to their ever-growing food and drink scene. I fueled up with excellent coffee at Little Owl… Read more →
A quick overnight for a U2 show (a girlhood favorite) provided one shot to eat and drink in LA for the night. While that’s always a tough call when my go-to list is continuously long, I decided to forgo the barbecue and hole-in-the-wall favorites I’ve already been to in sketchy Inglewood surrounding the Forum to check out one of the… Read more →
The OC dining wasteland that was one of the homes of my youth — a place I lived a total of 12 years of my life — is still not remotely in league with even the dining scenes of the US’ great mid-size cities. But better eats continue to pop up and increase around the massive county, which is an… Read more →
The world’s largest and most revered fish market is one of those “musts” during a visit to Tokyo. But to go with a Japanese-born sushi chef is a whole other experience, one I am grateful to have had. The Renaissance Man and I were privileged to share our morning exploration through Tsukiji Fish Market with Chef Ken Tominaga and his… Read more →
For lovers of Japanese whisky — akin to and birthed from Scotch and Scotland but entirely Japanese in its sense of balance and harmony — Yamazaki is a special whisky. Privileged as I have been to taste many variations and special casks of Yamazaki over the years, including the acclaimed 1984 and Sherry Cask bottlings, and being the whisky that… Read more →