Heading to down South Las Vegas Boulevard to our dinner reservation, I was surprised that the cab driver had never heard of The Golden Steer. (He did, however, seem quite familiar with the dive bar a few doors down.) Before the mega-hotels, before celebrity super chefs, before the booming Vegas club scene, there were places like The Golden Steer Steakhouse.
The New School Old Cool of Brennan’s
The meal began with a Cajun-spiced Bloody Mary. And it just kept getting better. It was the first rain-free interlude during our mostly water-logged family vacation to New Orleans this spring. Day after day of downpour, triggering memories of those 100% humidity bad hair days that were a fact of life for all of us […]
Sunday Night at Galatoire’s
Years ago, on a crowded night in the French Quarter, we had no reservations for dinner and seemingly no prospects of eating anything worthwhile, having been firmly rebuffed by every hostess desk within walking distance of our hotel. All, that is, except for Galatoire’s. With its “no reservations” policy for the downstairs dining room (and […]
Via Emilia in The Woodlands
Do we throw around an expression like “gracious service” these days? And is there a scarcity of places that provide it? In an age when some of the best upscale dining seems to require the symbols of self-consciously “unselfconscious” informality (sleeve tattoos, chef-owners in ball caps, exposed bricks and beams, communal tables, menus full of […]
Delicious Detours: You Want to Eat at Guy’s
You do want to eat lunch at Guy’s Oyster Bar in downtown Amite, Louisiana. When you are heading north on I-55 from around Hammond, Louisiana, not long before you reach the Mississippi border, look for the Amite exit. Yes, Guy’s is a bar, and it’s a little dark in there, and there are die-hard patrons […]
Hello, Gorgeous: California’s Monterey Peninsula is a Head-Turner Without Even Trying
If Monterey Peninsula were a woman, she’d be the one that all the others envy. The one who doesn’t give much thought to hair or clothes or makeup. For her, it all just comes together effortlessly, a unique kind of beautiful that you can’t get from poring over the fashion boards on Pinterest. Like the […]
Dining Well at Disney
Beauty and the Beast: It was 8:30 p.m., and we had hopped two monorails to get to Epcot after arriving just a few hours earlier at The Contemporary Hotel in the Magic Kingdom. We were late for our reservation at the Biergarten in Epcot’s Germany Pavilion, and people were packing themselves in like beached sardines […]
Vancouver 2: TaiwanFest, Granville Island, Stanley Park After Dark & More
(This is Part 2 of our Tour of Vancouver, B.C. Read Part 1: Visiting Vancouver? Eat. Drink. Play. Repeat.): We took the city’s public transit rail, a.k.a., the Sky Train, through downtown to Granville Street, cutting through Yaletown once again, on our way to the southern edge of the city. Unexpectedly we came upon a local festival in […]
Visiting Vancouver? Eat. Drink. Play. Repeat.
(This is Part 1 of our Tour of Vancouver, B.C. Read Vancouver 2: TaiwanFest Granville Island, Stanley Park After Dark & More): What are the key elements of an ideal travel destination? How about magnificent scenery, abundant seafood, a diverse international vibe, well-rated regional wines, and good coffee close at hand? Look no further than […]
Night and Day in Austin, Texas
We make our way through the picturesque farm and ranch country of central Texas, headed for downtown Austin and then to the north shore of Lake Travis. It’s a spur of the moment road trip. An impulse to get out of town before the summer slips away, do a little wining and dining someplace fresh […]
Breadnbottle 