Brad A. Johnson
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Brad A. Johnson

Food & Travel

Brad A Johnson
  • Blog
  • About
  • Photography
    • Food Photography
    • Travel Photography
    • Restaurant Photography
    • Hotel & Resort Photography
  • Writing
  • Contact
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Why I Travel: For the Food, But Also For the Unexpected

  • April 25, 2021
  • Brad A. Johnson
My rickshaw driver keeps pace with Hanoi’s speeding taxis as he peddles me through the Old Quarter. The cool wind against my face brings temporary relief from Vietnam’s stifling summer…
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Best Travel Blog! Best Culinary Travel! Best Travel Photography! And this just in: Finalist, Food Photographer of the Year

  • April 1, 2021
  • Brad A. Johnson
Awards season is here, and it has been a very good year indeed for this blog. My sincerest thanks to all the judges around the world for taking the time to consider my work.
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Photo of the Week: Rye Goods, Newport Beach

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Headfirst into the Dawn: Los Angeles to San Francisco on $700 a Day (a Memoir)

  • December 26, 2020
  • Brad A. Johnson
It's been 25 years since my first visit to California. This is the story of that incredible trip in 1995 when my editor sent me to Los Angeles and San Francisco to see what was happening in the restaurants there. It was the height of media extravagance, and a food revolution was underway...
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Hotel Review: Cara, Los Angeles

  • November 7, 2020
  • Brad A. Johnson
The investor/developer who owns Laurel Hardware, a super-sexy indoor/outdoor restaurant and bar in West Hollywood, has launched the first of what’s expected to be a string of mid-luxury boutique hotels focused on Southern California. For the brand's debut, they purchased the tawdry old Coral Sands Motel on Western Avenue and flipped it — rather beautifully — into the Cara Hotel Los Feliz...
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Quick Look: La Peer Hotel, West Hollywood

  • October 24, 2020
  • Brad A. Johnson
Here’s a really quick look at the Kimpton La Peer Hotel in West Hollywood, which opened a couple years ago. From what I’ve heard, this place is normally quite the scene. But not on this visit. I checked in for a quick overnight stay in the middle of the pandemic when no one else was traveling and most hotels in LA were still fully closed...
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Devastating Losses at Calistoga Ranch and Meadowood

  • October 17, 2020
  • Brad A. Johnson
There’s no official word yet from Calistoga Ranch or Meadowood as to the full scope of devastation wrought by the Glass Fire that rampaged through Calistoga and St. Helena in September and October. Parts of the area are still smoldering and are thus still under evacuation orders...
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OC’s Best Places to Eat 2020

  • October 9, 2020
  • Brad A. Johnson
The Orange County Register has begun rolling out the sixth edition of my guide to the Best Places to Eat. The previous five iterations have served as an annual scavenger hunt in the form of a bucket-list ranking of the 75 best restaurants in OC. But it looks a bit different this year because 2020 changed the way we eat. So this year we offer a guide to dining in the pandemic.
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Quick Look: Niner Wine Estates, Paso Robles

  • August 15, 2020
  • Brad A. Johnson
The Niner Wine Estates in Paso Robles is nestled into the dramatic lower slope of Heart Hill, a picturesque vineyard of cabernet sauvignon, malbec and petit verdot.
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Motel Review: Stables Inn, Paso Robles

  • August 8, 2020
  • Brad A. Johnson
The team behind Hotel Cheval in the heart of Paso Robles have opened a much more casual offshoot, the Stables Inn, a vintage 18-room roadside motel just a few blocks from the heart of downtown.
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Hey, OC. Do you know about this one? Cool new modern Thai restaurant in Irvine: Nara Thai Kitchen . Beautiful food, but the kitchen doesn't do spicy. The flavors are not nearly as exciting as, say, @thai_avenue (still the best) in Garden Grove, but this is easily one of the nicer Thai restaurants in OC. Great potential here.  It just opened a couple weeks ago. You'll need a reservation. It's been packed every night.  #orangecounty #thai 290 10
Hey OC, do y'all know about this new wood-fire pizzeria @theparlorsp in Tustin? Really good stuff! They're open only for weekday lunch, no weekends or dinner, located next door to the new @ryegoods. It's an odd location (adjacent to the chef's commercial catering kitchen, maybe?), with limited seating inside the tiny parlor itself. But they also have extra seating in a common indoor/outdoor area shared with Rye Goods.  I hope they eventually open for dinner/weekends. ⁠ 333 25
I might have found my new favorite place in OC for chicken pho @pho.nicfv⁠ 174 19
My sincerest thanks to the North American Travel Journalists Awards!⁠ 129 19
Hey, OC. FYI in case you missed it, @ryegoods has opened a new location on Red Hill in Tustin, just down the street from Flight/Mess Hall. Same incredible breads and pastries as the original on the peninsula. No lines here, plus a huge seating area. #sourdough #pastries #coffee #orangecounty 337 10
One more post from our lovely stay at @fstokyo. Delicious lunch at @maisonmarunouchi, the casual sibling to @sezannetokyo. Excellent all around. And clearly popular with Tokyo's ladies who lunch: the clientele during our visit, almost entirely women. Quite the see-and-be-seen crowd. 70 1
Brad A. Johnson
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Writer. Photographer. Traveler. Restaurant Critic.

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