SPIRITS • For someone who’s every day is a taste adventure, I will say a private Russell’s Room tasting at Bourbon & Branch of Highland Park scotches was one of the most memorable I’ve ever been privileged to be a part of. There are only two such tastings going on in the country: here and in New York. I felt… Read more →
February 23rd was a night of island breezes and mai tais despite the pouring rain outside in Burlingame’s striking Sub-Zero & Wolf Showroom. Three of Hawaii’s biggest chefs, Roy Yamaguchi (yes, that Roy of Roy’s restaurants), Alan Wong and D.K. Kodama, plus a mixologist, wine-maker, products (like sweet and spicy Kilauea hot sauce), all came over from the islands,… 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 →
“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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
“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 →
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 →
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 →