Wine. Travel. Food.
It’s testimony to the wonderful childhood my parents provided for me that I had little idea how precarious our family finances were. I should have seen it because, after all, we had three families living under one roof. But the actions they took to keep us fed didn’t seem born of necessity – maybe because […]
As a kid growing up in central Illinois, I would always look forward to my dad’s two-week summer vacation. Along with my aunts and uncles (they were the ones with the car), my parents and I would head for a fish camp in Walker, Minnesota, about four hours north of the Twin Cities. We would leave […]
During our past visits to London, Joanne and I have visited iconic restaurants….well-known and often physically imposing rather large formats like SCOTT’S…BRASSERIE ZEDEL…CLARIDGE’S and J. SHEEKEY. All good, all large. But during our recent visit in October, we shifted gears and also smoked out several lesser-known places, typically family run, with carefully curated menus and […]
Few hotels in the world possess the prestige of CLARIDGE’S in Mayfair, a London institution since the 1800s. This Grande Dame has an historical aura built on the patronage of royalty, politicians, sheiks, and movie stars. Crowned heads of Europe came to Claridge’s to wait out World War II. It has glamour by the boatload. […]
Truffles…hmm. I’ve never really thought much about truffles. They just didn’t seem to be a good fit for any of our restaurants…a little too expensive for our polished-casual formats…to fussy, too dainty and picky-picky for a brawny steakhouse like MANNY’S. Not that I wasn’t keenly aware of fancy fungi. But truffles are typically associated with […]
Years ago, in my previous professional life as a commercial interior designer, I traveled to New York every couple weeks to meet with clients. It was a double-edged sword (for Joanne) in that I had three kids at home and was gone a lot, but it’s also what led me into the career that I […]
Back in 2019, I wrote about the legendary FOUR SEASONS RESTAURANT losing its lease after nearly 60 years housed in the soaring Seagram Building on Park Avenue in New York. They relocated a few blocks up the street on 49th St. – and just a few months later ran out of gas and closed for good. […]
With the arrival of over 100,000 migrants – adults and children – in New York City during the past few months, Mayor Eric Adams has been desperate to find housing for the influx and has resorted to partnering with several Manhattan hotels to provide temporary accommodations. One of those hotels is a 260-room boutique property […]
A couple of weeks ago we took a dining trip to New York. As part of my preparation, I came across a wildly enthusiastic review of KOLOMAN in the New Yorker. Opened in 2022, this French-Viennese restaurant adjoining the Ace Hotel in NoMad seems to be on every New Yorker’s hot list. Knowing that the […]
About a month ago, as we were planning a dining trip to New York, I wanted to revisit a favorite of mine: MINETTA TAVERN in the West Village, near Washington Square Park. Despite our calling almost two months in advance, they were fully booked on the Friday and Saturday nights that we had available. DRAT! (We […]
