Why I Travel: For the Food, But Also For the Unexpected
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…
Best Travel Blog! Best Culinary Travel! Best Travel Photography! And this just in: Finalist, Food Photographer of the Year
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.
Headfirst into the Dawn: Los Angeles to San Francisco on $700 a Day (a Memoir)
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...
Hotel Review: Cara, Los Angeles
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...
Quick Look: La Peer Hotel, West Hollywood
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...
Devastating Losses at Calistoga Ranch and Meadowood
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...
OC’s Best Places to Eat 2020
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.
Quick Look: Niner Wine Estates, Paso Robles
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.
Motel Review: Stables Inn, Paso Robles
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.