not drinking poison in paris

My first move, upon being freed from my recent restaurant work somewhat sooner than anticipated, was to belatedly accept a lot of press...

Well, that was quick. As of earlier this month, I've left the manager and wine director position I held for the past eight months at ...

Early the other evening a client came into the restaurant and ordered a glass of Beaujolais primeur. There were few other clients at ...

For a number of reasons, only one of which was my lack of money, the Native Companion and I wound up in Marseille for a micro-vacation ea...

The Beaujolais is barren for good restaurants, and the village of Régnié-Durette is no exception. Any business in Régnié-Durette has the...

UPDATE Aug. 2nd, 2017: David Loyola tells me he has named, or renamed, his primeur "SUPER," whereas until now everyone had refe...

I sometimes worry I come across as too principled . I so rarely get invited on press junkets. I suspect many PR people imagine me to be a...

A few Saturdays ago my friend N and I found ourselves staggering north in Lyon after a lunch at Café Comptoir Abel ,* where the greatest ...

To recommend a restaurant on the basis of anything other than food, service, or wine has always seemed very foolish, like recommending a ...

As of early May, Montreuil micro-brewery  Deck & Donohue  has teamed up with 18ème-arrondissement vegetarian canteen  Bob's Bake ...

I stand in awe of the sheer cheek of Yves Camdeborde's L'Avant Comptoir wine bars. Camdeborde had the insight to reproduce San Se...

The latter-day service-industry explosion of Paris' 10ème arrondissement is remarkable for its enthusiastically globalized aesthetics...

Vignes' opening party, before the terrace seating was installed. The great legacy of the  cave-à-manger  neologism has been to turn...

The similarities with between the restaurant Sicilian chef Fabrizio Ferrara opened last fall -  Osteria Ferrara  - and his former restaur...

I harvested a few days with Chiroubles-based natural winemaker Gilles Paris back in 2015. It was a disorienting experience. It was the...

A few years ago during the Loire tasting salons I had a brief but memorable conversation with a friend who was then in the initial stages...