not drinking poison in paris

There are myriad indicators of good hospitality in restaurants: prompt service, thoughtful suggestions, graceful reservation systems, et...

It's embarrassing to admit, but my vegetarian upbringing has left me squeamish about chicken. I grew up surrounded by them - my moth...

Not Paris ! Barcelona ! To mitigate the drop in readership that occurs whenever I begin talking about cities other than Paris, I've ...

I learned relatively recently that a restaurant I often passed in the 10ème arrondissement - a miserably named,* anonymous-looking estab...

My friend L and I hadn't intended to go to Racines for lunch. We'd planned to go to Gyoza Bar , a very contemporary Japanese co...

For various reasons, updates will be sporadic for the next week or so. I'll eventually post a few musings on Greek wine, should find I...

Exclamations are ridiculous words. We emit them in surprise or joy or horror with little forethought, and this spontaneity places them in...

Brunch in France is sort of a sham.  It is as though at some point in history a Frenchman visited America and observed an American diner ...

Most wine geeks learn to take the recommendations of non-aficionados with a cellar full of salt. This is because wine, or rather the idea...

My excuse for the recent blog drought: I've been traveling. The Native Companion and I spent twenty-four hours in the town of Bordeau...

Earlier that evening, the wine director of renowned Barcelona wine fortress Monvínic , Isabelle Brunet, told me something that surprised ...

Whenever conversation turns to the subject of hospitality in Paris - which is to say, very, very often - I try to remind myself and oth...

When I mentioned to a friend that cave-à-manger pioneers  Le Verre Volé were to open an épicerie beside their well-established wine shop...

This past fall my friend / colleague R and I were sent to Barcelona to install a display in a department store. I was delighted to at la...

One uses metaphorical language to describe wine because our language is under-equipped with literal terms to describe taste and smell. W...

On whom can we blame the undying, slightly questionable fad for Brit nostalgia  ? Pete Doherty ?  The Kinks ? More recently, perhaps my f...