Category: Wandering Traveler

Las Vegas Dining Guide: 15 Places to Eat Now from Upscale to Casual + Where to Stay

While many seek the bustle, party, slots and commercial lights of Vegas, I’ve never been such a person. The nearly-gone Rat Pack, old school, kitschy-glitz Vegas is much more my scene, growing up a jazz and old movie lover as a kid in the 1980s and 1990s. I don’t find much of that anymore (see Golden Steer below), even as I saw glimpses of it during my first visit to Vegas in the 1990s before the Flamingo and other great pieces of history changed their look dramatically.

Despite the exhaustion I feel even after one day of Vegas’ heat, crowds and partying, even since my 20s, there are gems worth seeking out. Here are 15 places to eat, from high to low, upscale to fast casual — and three hotels with different strengths. Read more →

Charleston Dining Guide: Where to Eat & Stay Now

Charleston’s Colonial-era architecture with colorful Caribbean influence in soothing blues, pinks and yellows is one-of-a-kind. The small, walkable city has grown greatly in notable restaurants and bars the 16 years I’ve been visiting, far beyond its size in terms of the quality-to-size ratio. Its palmetto-lined streets are like stepping back in time. The city is by turns bright and vibrant, at turns a bit Gothic and moody, reminiscent of, but very different from, Savannah and New Orleans.

Alongside my hotel recommendation, the nine eateries below stood out, not always for good reasons, but the first few are among my top food recommends now in the “Holy City.” Read more →

Interviewing Robert Dawson of Kō Hana Distillers, Oahu, Hawai’i

In the Spring 2023 print issue (Vol. 19, Issue 4) of Distiller Magazine, my interview with Robert Dawson of Kō Hana Distillers, Oahu, Hawai’i. My video in the fields with owners/founders Robert Dawson and Jason Brand the first day they were using their new John Deere harvester after years of hand-harvesting in April 2022: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Mg20wFth4&t=6s. ARTICLE HERE: My Distiller Magazine features… Read more →

Eating & Drinking Around Raleigh-Durham: My 12-Stop North Carolina Guide

Though I have been to Charleston over four times the past 16 years, I hadn’t been back to North Carolina in 16 years, when I took my first (of multiple) two week road trip across the Deep South to study my barbecue styles. North Carolina is famed for BBQ and I include a couple stops here, along with 10 other standout restaurants and bars in Raleigh and Durham. It was good to be back and I only wish I had more time, but as you can see, I packed in a lot of tastes in two and a half short days. The region is unrecognizable foodwise since I was last here. Read more →