I have to admit, I was a skeptic. I didn’t think the Margaritaville chain was much more than a gimmick attached to an old song by an old MOR artist. Boy, was I wrong. Margaritaville, clearly, is part of a lifestyle. Last weekend I attended the first of two parties celebrating the opening of the [...]

Hidden amongst the skyscrapers of Downtown LA’s Bunker Hill, Nick + Stef’s was reinventing the modern steakhouse back when most of today’s foodies were obsessing on Olive Garden’s unlimited breadsticks and salad. They may not have been the very first, but when Joachim Splichal’s Patina Group opened N+S in the late ‘90s, most steak joints [...]

The Los Angeles Food & Wine festival (ambitiously declared “First Annual…” I guess they have a crystal ball) was an incredible assemblage of Star Chefs from both LA and elsewhere in the US, modeled after the Pebble Beach and Aspen events organized by much of the same team–but perhaps bigger than either.
I would love to [...]

… at least, that’s how I think you say it en Espanol.

Cristina Callejo, of Bodegas Felix Callejo, just sent these pix of the crush starting yesterday at their winery in Ribera Del Duero, Spain (Burgos, to be more specific). “Extraordinary quality grapes!” says Cristina. No doubt. Ribera is one of my favorite wine regions [...]

Most food festivals tend to emphasize the savory over the sweet, but Indulge Los Angeles flipped the script, focusing on chocolates, pastries and beverage pairings. With two world-class pattissiers demonstrating, as well as the winner of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, the event benefitting St. Jude Children’s Hospital (tix only $35!), it was pretty impossible to [...]

This week, The Tasting Panel Tour 2011 came to Los Angeles, so naturally I had to be there. Even as an Editor for the magazine, I don’t always get a chance to taste every single bottle that’s reviewed, or wins the affiliated San Francisco International Wine and Spirits Competitions, so even for me, the Tour [...]

I sat and stared at this DVD for several months before finally watching it, and even though I have no excuse, I know exactly why. The film is a documentary about Tool/A Perfect Circle singer Maynard James Keenan’s foray into winemaking, and while I have no prejudices against career changes (Kurt Russell is making interesting [...]

Being that this Friday is National Oyster Day, it seemed like a good time to talk about what almost everyone considers the best wine for pairing with oysters, Chablis.
I will admit, I’ve never been a big fan of Chablis. Part of that is probably because a huge amount of boring white wines from around the [...]

I’ll be honest. The first time I ate at The Bazaar by Jose Andres, I didn’t get it. It was very soon after the restaurant’s opening, my friends and I knew nothing about the restaurant other than that it was something new and different, and the waitstaff were not only ill-trained, but unable to give [...]

What’s in a glass? Some people, such as the wine shop that recently “tasted” wines for me in small Dixie cups, would assume not much. Others, like me, might recognize that a wine or cocktail will taste a little different in glass, crystal or plastic.
Georg Riedel, on the other hand, will tell you that even [...]

The Palazzo’s Double Helix has long been one of my favorite wine destinations on the Las Vegas Strip: it was one of the first to have an extensive by-the-glass selection, and with owner Ray Nisi frequently on premises, it’s also always had a very well trained and knowledgeable bar staff–regrettably still a rarity.
It also seems [...]

You can learn important things from a spirits ambassador. Especially if it’s Mitch Bechard, official US Ambassador for Glenfiddich (which is pronounced Glen-Fiddick, by the by) Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
Scotchy Scotchy Scotch Scotch.

It’s been a while since I’ve attended an art gallery opening where you can’t buy the art. Not because it’s obscenely expensive, but because it’s actually not for sale.
Also, it was all behind thick glass. Which makes me think either someone feels this gold-lame flecked Technics 1200 is the new Mona Lisa, or they weren’t [...]

Jeff Norman is like a rock star in the liquor business. And not just because he is the Master Taster of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, one of the most popular brown liquors in the world, one of the best selling American liquors overall, and one of the best known American brands of any kind. No, Jeff Norman is like a rock star mainly because he’s like a rock star. I’m not exactly saying he’s Steven Tyler or Robert Plant, but the guy wouldn’t look out of place next to them, for sure.

Ribera is unquestionably one of my favorite regions, both for its philosophies and its output. I appreciate the passion that clearly goes into the wines, almost all of which are produced by family estates, and estate wines (as required by law!) that encourage, if not force, the winemakers into their individual expressions. Tempranillo is a very terroir-driven grape, and the high altitude micro-climates of this Northern Spanish region (actually four regions, linked together by the river valley) give the grape such a variety of flavor you might have a hard time identifying some of these wines as cousins, no less brothers!

I’ve attended Aureole’s Wine Weekend for the past two years, and I remain convinced that this small, rather under-publicized affair, is among the best annual food and wine events in the country. The first year, 2009, I documented on this website, here. The second, 2010, on EscapeHatchDallas.com, here.

This just in: Rich people drink wine, too. As I was reminded at the Vintage Hollywood Foundation’s annual fundraising wine & food fest (cum live auction), at a private home in the Pacific Palisades. This year’s beneficiary was the Ocean Park Community Center, a multi-program organization to help the less fortunate in Santa Monica.

Locals providing [...]

For anyone who still questions Los Angeles’ legitimacy as a food town: It’s a good thing you didn’t make it to Taste of the Nation LA yesterday in Culver City’s Media Park. Because it would have blown apart every preconception you have, like Gallagher on a watermelon (dated reference?).

Originally not an important part of the operation (as you can tell from the four available stools), Michael’s galley-like bar is now being tended by one Jason Robey, most recently at downtown LA’s Death & Co outpost, but prior to moving west, at Washington DC’s New Heights.

I will always have a soft spot for a category killer: that intrepid soul, that rugged individual who decides that his or her place must have the largest, widest, most expensive or strangest selection of any one thing. Somehow I feel it echoes the pioneering spirit that made this country great. Even if its not really unique to America. Still, Las Vegas has always been a safe haven for category killers, and now it has one more: The Pub at Monte Carlo.

Though coastal city snobs can continue to sneer, few if any cities can come near to rivaling the chef star power that is available in Las Vegas, where over the past 15 years, a fine food scene of remarkable breadth, depth and sheer volume has been gathered at the major resorts—and increasingly off-Strip, too. And the best representation of that scene, the best assemblage and celebration, remains Vegas Uncork’d by bon appetit.

Why pink? Pink is the color of at least two new tequilas (Pasion, Mejor), designed to attract women to the liquor (no, they don’t taste different, they’re just pink). It’s also the color of Chambord’s new-ish liqueur and bottle color of new Rouge vodka, and… I could go on. I’m wondering just how the fairer sex found alcohol before it was color-coded for them. Insert emoticon.

In the realm of prominent Food & Wine festivals, few have the cache of Pebble Beach—and it isn’t hard to see why. Take the muscle of American Express Publishing—Food&Wine magazine, Departures, Executive Travel ($$$) and combine it with the captive audience of one of the richest private developments in the country ($$$$) and, well, you [...]

I’m not one to be starstruck–often–but there’s always something cool about meeting the namesake of a wine, and Hailey Trefethen can claim that twice. Not only is she one of the daughters of the well-known Trefethen wine family (the scions of the Oak Knoll A.V.A.) but their single vineyard reserve HaLo was named after Hailey and sister Loren.

Fuzzy Zoeller Meets the Tasting Panel Magazine

Well, maybe not so much song. But the Universal Whisky Experience, which gathered together dozens of distilled malt beverages from around the world at the Wynn resort in Las Vegas March 19-20 2010, was both educational and entertaining. Covering for The Tasting Panel, I took some candid snaps. Here’s the album:
And here’s my Tasting Panel [...]

One of the best kept secrets of the wine world is the fact that there is a steadily growing high-quality wine industry right across the US border in Baja, Mexico’s Valle de Guadalupe, just outside Ensenada. Owing to Mexican government export tariffs favoring tequilas, and a general disbelief in Mexican dedication to quality, most of these wines never make it out of their country. But things are changing, aided by growing attention to the Valle de Guadalupe’s annual Fiestas de la Vendimia every August. I got the opportunity to visit one of the top producers, Monte Xanic, and taste many of its competitors during a crush season visit a few months ago for a story in The Tasting Panel.

Would you believe me if I told you one of the most creative, satisfying and entertaining dinners I’ve had so far this year was at a country club? In Palm Desert, no less? I’ll avoid repeating what I wrote in the article for The Tasting Panel (see below) and just post some pics… Chef Ralph Fernandez, I like your style.

Had a chance to attend the Paso Robles Grand Tasting on March 2 in downtown LA’s unique former cathedral Vibiana—and I have to admit, I was a bit unprepared for the sheer number of wineries represented. Though Saxum (on the cover of the current Wine Spectator) was missing, there were dozens of others, some well established (J. Lohr), others total mom-n-pop operations with case numbers in the three digits. PR has been slowly but steadily gaining ground as a respected wine region, with widely varying potential, and what I tasted reflected that diversity of product and approach.

It’s not often I get to announce big food world news, but a right place-right time conversation with Scott Conant this morning about his wine program brought this bombshell. Master Sommelier Paolo Barbieri, late of the recently shuttered Restaurant Alex in the Wynn resort, has joined Conant’s team as Wine Director of both Scarpetta and D.O.C.G. in The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

Even as the American palate expands dramatically in terms of wines and spirits, Japanese brewed sake remains remarkably misunderstood in the US. The selection is so broad—even just what’s available here—that every tasting provides more opportunity for knowledge and enjoyment.

Just teasing… one of the many outlets I’m proud to write for is the EscapeHatchDallas blog of my friend and colleague Mike Hiller…
Here are a few of the posts I’ve done for EHD…

•How’s Your Drink: An Interview with Cocktail Expert Charlotte Voisey

•Eating the Road: Aureole Las Vegas’ Wine Weekend

•Sneak Peak: New Vegas Resort, Cosmopolitan

•“Tequila Certification”: [...]

Writing for Anthony Dias Blue’s The Tasting Panel magazine not only means I get invited to their regular tastings–it also means I have the pleasure of meeting winemakers from around the world, and even visiting their wineries. Here are some of my recent reports:

And yet, more! on the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas…

Just a fun article I got to write (and produce the photo shoot) for The Tasting Panel, collecting four of the up and coming somms in Vegas, plus two of the hottest mixologists. Definitely a difficult choice among the many talents in town…

It’s true. I had the rare opportunity to participate in the first US Certification class from the Consejo Regulador del Tequila of Mexico, at Dos Caminos Las Vegas. Read all about it in my blog for EscapeHatchDallas!

There are worse fates than being assigned to do a tasting of sake cocktails and the creative, satisfying Japanese/Peruvian/Brazilian fusion menu at SushiSamba. This national chain disproves the notion that all corporate eateries are substandard, just as Rock Sake disproves that an American sake can’t compare to Japanese product. Read the results in Tasting Panel magazine (click to enlarge):

Here’s a Gonzo-ish take on one of my first full immersions into the world of spirits marketing: the annual Nightclub & Bar Show… click to enlarge:

Click to enlarge

I’ve done a wide variety of work for the Las Vegas Weekly–one of the stronger Weekly newspapers in the country, with an award-winning website.

Here are some links:
Funk Legend Jimmy Castor Dies At Henderson Hospital
Vegas Feels Fuku Envy as favorite food truck sets down LA roots
Drinking like Jay-Z with the Ace Of Spades
Drink Locally, Act [...]

I want to tell you about an incredible weekend I had…last June. I know, I know, this “blog thing” is supposed to be a little more current than that. But after I missed the chance to report about the Aureole Wine Weekend at the time, I got distracted by other things. Until now. Because Kevin [...]

You know things are changing when French wines have to fight for shelf space in the US. Click here for my Escape Hatch report on a recent Los Angeles tasting.

I can’t say covering the 2010 Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association convention is the toughest assignment I’ve ever had, but drinking almost non-stop for 48 hours is…well…click on the cocktail contest photo above for the full blog in EscapeHatchDallas. I can’t remember the details anymore.

Emeril Lagasse’s fifth annual Carnivale du Vin brought the charity celebration of food and wine (benefiting his post-Katrina New Orleans-based Foundation for Children) back to Las Vegas, where it was first held, and fittingly so. With four outlets here, Vegas has been a second home of sorts for Emeril, and arguably no city better supports [...]

In late 2007 I spent three months researching and reporting on the previously unpublicized young sommelier community in Las Vegas. The story ended up influencing many imitators.

Download the entire article

And here is an updated look at Vegas’ best wine destinations

Nightclubbing in Las Vegas is more than serious sport–it’s an industry. Talking to movers and shakers like designer Thomas Schoos and master mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim, you realize how much hard work and creativity goes into each experience.

How to be bad, and be good, chapter 27