The Northern end of Napa has long been my favorite part of the Valley, namely for increasing oak trees towering over vines, and the way Highway 29 morphs from straight arrow into winding road (just like the beautiful and far less congested drive parallel along Silverado Trail). A recent weekend in Calistoga afforded one of the most relaxed I’ve had… Read more →
Here just a few photo highlights from this year’s bigger-than-ever SF Cocktail Week… read about the event here. Read more →
“San Francisco is really divine… The streets are steep like Edinburgh and Chinatown right in the middle of everything. There’s a Rock just outside the town by the Golden Gate covered with seals! They’re so sweet.” – Noel Coward, 1926 letter to his mother I hope your fall is off to a sweet start… Adventures in Colorado with family (a… Read more →
Ireland is a green land of rolling hills, sheep and craggy coastline, to be sure. The people enchanted even more… a generous, welcoming, hilarious lot. One of my favorite people in recent Ireland travels was Liam O’Leary, distillery operations manager at New Midleton Distillery in County Cork, near the southern coast of Ireland. The name New Midleton may not mean … Read more →
HOT SAUCE & PANKO, Inner Richmond (1545 Clement St., between 16th & 17th Ave., 415-387-1908) Pretty much my favorite opening in recent weeks is Hot Sauce & Panko. Not only is the hot sauce collection about the best around (reaching from the deep South to Japan), but just glance through their blog to witness the owner’s quirky hilarity. As a… Read more →
Consistently, St. George Spirits wears the crown for renegade inventiveness. As I wrote last year, Lance Winters, master distiller, and distillers Dave Smith and Chris Jordan, lead the way in out-of-the-box creativity. Never have I seen the like of their test tube apothecary of experimentation where they’ll try anything, from foie gras and beef jerky, to carrots and Dungeness crab,… Read more →
It’s a unique time in Bay Area winemaking. We see more California winemakers finding harmony between New & Old World-style production, laying off heavier-handed extremes of overly-oaked or high alcohol wines, honing in on our region’s true terroir. While global love for big, bold California wines isn’t going anywhere, it’s ever more apparent that our range is far beyond what… Read more →
CHEFS NIGHT OFF at Radius Chefs Sarah and Evan Rich (who also happen to be husband and wife), come with a fine dining, creative pedigree cooking in kitchens of the caliber of Coi, Quince and Michael Mina. On August 29th, I attended their first Chefs Night Off pop-up dinner at Radius, and they are also hosting pop-up Fried Chicken Dinner… Read more →
For those of you who attended last year’s San Francisco Cocktail Week, you know it was jam-packed with some downright magical events, celebrating our city’s rich cocktail heritage, bar talent and innovation. Monday begins the 5th annual Cocktail Week, bigger than ever, with numerous national and local brands represented, an extensive schedule of seminars, parties, events, and the first ever… Read more →
“The morning smelled like a freshly opened bottle of wine – leaves, earth, the damp woods, berries, grass. There is still more than enough beauty in one morning alone on earth to break a heart wide open… For every person who has ever lived there will come, at last, a spring he will never see… Glory then in the seasons… Read more →