Back to Chicago… neighborhood by neighborhood, in a multi-part series, I’ve been covering some haunts during my last visit. Here’s my three previous columns on Chi-town. NORTHWEST SIDE Hot Doug’s – So much has already been said about this fairly recent addition to the Chicago dog landscape. I thankfully got to try about 8 dogs here and they were all… Read more →
I’ve been privileged to savor the wonder that is molecular gastronomy done right, whether it be at Alinea, Baume or even the creativity of Coi. In visiting The Bazaar at the SLS Beverly Hills Hotel, I arrived with tempered expectations but left wowed. From DC/Spanish chef genius, Jose Andres, the meal is a wonderland of inventiveness that never commits the… Read more →
Last issue, I wrote about recent eats in Los Angeles… this week it’s cocktails. The cocktail renaissance of the past decade plus has taken a long time to hit LA. For a major city, they’ve been behind the NY and SF curve. I’ve been eagerly waiting for that sort of standard to become more prevalent in LA. It’s getting there,… Read more →
Having spent a large part of my youth and post-high school years in OC, I was in LA all the time for concerts, films and food. Never could its endless sprawl enchant me as the great cities of the world do – it remains fiercely un-walkable, an endless network of overgrown suburbs and eye-sore strip malls lacking in Bohemian spirit.… Read more →
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 →
“Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse. One comfort we have – Cincinnati sounds worse.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1880 Back to Chicago, where my husband once lived for a Summer (part one here). The city remains much as I remember it: gritty, even at it’s “prettiest”, middle America in a big city/New York reminiscent package. It doesn’t woo… Read more →
YOSEMITE’S BRACEBRIDGE DINNER 9005 Ahwahnee Drive Yosemite National Park, CA 95389 801-559-4884 www.yosemitepark.com/bracebridge Driving through snow-laced Yosemite Valley in Winter… there’s a quiet that is richly restorative. The sound of dripping icicles and waterfalls in the distance create a gentle hum as the backdrop to what is nothing short of Ansel Adams’ photos come alive. A little fog in the… Read more →
“Hog butcher for the world, Tool maker, stacker of wheat, Player with railroads and the nation’s freight handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of big shoulders.” – Carl Sandburg, “Chicago,” 1916 Back to Chicago, where my husband once briefly lived, my first visit in nearly a decade. Certainly much has changed, yet the city remains much as I remember it: gritty,… Read more →
“As soon as I arrive to how it all fits together, I have to fathom out the ‘system’ of the city, have to walk, sniff, observe, sit in the buses and trams, make the city my own.” – Cees Noteboom, “Nomad’s Hotel” Back for yet another installment on the one and only New Orleans (last article was on French Quarter… Read more →
A recent weekend trip to the Monterey/Pacific Grove/Carmel area was ‘just what the doctor ordered’ for my deadline/detail-overloaded mind lately. The Renaissance Man and I took to the rocks along the sea like kids, climbing as far out as we could get, oohing and aahing at big waves and shimmering blue. California is one gorgeous place and there’s a reason… Read more →