In this article:
—Stay & Dine at Michelin-Starred Auro at Four Seasons Napa Valley
—Still One of Napa Valley’s Very Best: Michelin-Starred Press, St. Helena
—Kansas City-Style BBQ in Napa Valley: Stateline Road Smokehouse, Napa
—New Napa Steakhouse: Ember Steak at Meritage Napa Read more →
One of many things I adore about living in my beloved San Francisco for 23 years, far above my bi-coastal upbringing in the suburbs of LA and NYC and midwest Oklahoma and Kansas City roots, is the endless layers and beauty of tiny SF. Thus I am ever experiencing my City anew and rarely get “staycations.” I travel so much for dining and drink research, judging and consulting, it’s a gift when I am home, relishing the world class and unique joys abundant all around me.
However, it’s a privilege when I get a media invite to stay overnight to check out a hotel minutes from home after checking out a new menu or chef at said hotel. I recently visited two notable SF hotels offering feasts creative (Luce) or comforting (MKT). What worked (and didn’t) at each: Read more →
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 →
From recent staycations in the Silicon Valley town of Sunnyvale to the coast in Half Moon Bay, for 21 years I’ve researched and written of hotels, food and drink across the Peninsula. The Bay Area’s “south Bay” is yet another rich and diverse county in our wonderland of NorCal food.
My 10 Time Out dining recommends in Palo Alto still stand — as does a totally different getaway off the 101 freeway in Palo Alto, Four Seasons Silicon Valley. But here are three key newcomers in dining and a boutique hotel worth a local getaway. Read more →
One of the most enchanting lodging options literally a stone’s throw from San Francisco is Cavallo Point, tucked into Fort Baker cove at the base of the hills right off Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito, gazing out at SF, the Bay and the Bridge. Besides its breathtaking views, it could almost be a part of the city, it’s so close. Yet it’s worlds away. Read more →
The old Russian River logging outpost of Guerneville has long been a redwoods escape, tucked away in West Sonoma County towards the ocean. It also has been a LGBTQ+ haven (and weekending or second home for San Franciscans) since the 1970s. It’s the kind of small town where over the years (a couple of my past articles here and here) I’ve stumbled upon Pride parades and fire station BBQs, American flags alongside rainbow flags, and where I restore with sacred walks in one of my favorite redwoods forests, Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, which reopened late fall 2021 — majestic and nurturing as ever — despite the charred scars it wears from the Walbridge fire.
Here’s your latest Guerneville checklist:
As COVID rages on, local trips and overnights beckon for easy, close-to-home getaways that don’t require flights. It was 2011 when I last wrote about Santa Cruz highlights, though I’ve stayed there and passed through numerous times in between, including visiting the chill town of Aptos, eight miles down the road. Here is my guide to a few highlights in the laid back, surfer city of Santa Cruz (SC), a brief 70 miles south of San Francisco.
Published at Haute Living Magazine, the November-December 2019 issue includes my feature on Wine Country Inns — from Mendocino to Sonoma Counties — that offer exceptional, world class dining and grow their own produce in their gardens or farms: SingleThread in Healdsburg, Harbor House Inn in Elk, Boonville Hotel in Boonville. Online here. MY HAUTE LIVING ARTICLES— A visionary San… Read more →
Visionary businesswomen can be found all over Wine Country. But one place has a high concentration. Healdsburg’s peaceful town square is home to shops, boutique hotels, wine tasting rooms and restaurants. Though miles of vineyards, rolling hills, farms and redwood groves surround Healdsburg, it’s easily Sonoma’s most chichi, high-end town. Healdsburg female Winemakers roundtable discussion Well, good news is that… Read more →
My June print article in Oakland Magazine and Alameda Magazines covers Peninsula/South Bay/Silicon Valley hotels and where to eat around them, from luxury escapes to walkable downtown urban hotels. Article online here and below. My other Oakland and Alameda Magazine articles:— Walkable OC: Huntington Beach in one walkable mile— Romantic getaways in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica— Going well beyond… Read more →