Category: restaurant review

review: reprise…

In 1998, Pierre Koffmann sold his restaurant space on Royal Hospital Road to Gordon Ramsay and moved his three Michelin-starred la Tante Claire into the Berkeley Hotel.*  There he stayed until 2004, when he closed the restaurant and turned consultant. Nearly six years later, he reappeared in a tent on the roof of Selfridge’s in […]

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review: reprise…

In 1998, Pierre Koffmann sold his restaurant space on Royal Hospital Road to Gordon Ramsay and moved his three Michelin-starred la Tante Claire into the Berkeley Hotel.*  There he stayed until 2004, when he closed the restaurant and turned consultant. Nearly six years later, he reappeared in a tent on the roof of Selfridge’s in […]

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review: genesis…

I awoke to the gull’s cry against a pink sky, the ocean in my backyard. It was morning in Whistable, the second day. My ledger was blank, save a long seaside walk and lunch at The Sportsman.  And it was good.

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review: genesis…

I awoke to the gull’s cry against a pink sky, the ocean in my backyard. It was morning in Whistable, the second day. My ledger was blank, save a long seaside walk and lunch at The Sportsman.  And it was good.

Continue

review: return to salt marsh umami…

In those moments when we’re able to escape the undercurrent that sweeps us along blindly, we surface to discover the world, steady and still, peaceful and patient. There, we find a tavern, just this side of the sea wall, beyond which a windswept shelf of shells slides into the sea. This is the coast of […]

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review: return to salt marsh umami…

In those moments when we’re able to escape the undercurrent that sweeps us along blindly, we surface to discover the world, steady and still, peaceful and patient. There, we find a tavern, just this side of the sea wall, beyond which a windswept shelf of shells slides into the sea. This is the coast of […]

Continue

review: fugue…

John Shields, the chef of Town House, was unnaturally familiar with the forty-two dishes that were recently set down before us at el bulli. Having tried unsuccessfully for years to get a reservation at the restaurant, he had spent a considerable amount of time reading about and canvassing the internet for pictures of Ferran Adria’s […]

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review: fugue…

John Shields, the chef of Town House, was unnaturally familiar with the forty-two dishes that were recently set down before us at el bulli. Having tried unsuccessfully for years to get a reservation at the restaurant, he had spent a considerable amount of time reading about and canvassing the internet for pictures of Ferran Adria’s […]

Continue

review: time colors it rosy…

Inexperience and hunger flatter food. Time colors it rosy. Having said all my goodbyes, I celebrated my last day as a Chicago resident by running a half marathon, indulging in a massage, stealing a nap, and treating myself to a quiet dinner for one.  That was the summer of 2005. I asked Chris Nugent, the […]

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review: time colors it rosy…

Inexperience and hunger flatter food. Time colors it rosy. Having said all my goodbyes, I celebrated my last day as a Chicago resident by running a half marathon, indulging in a massage, stealing a nap, and treating myself to a quiet dinner for one.  That was the summer of 2005. I asked Chris Nugent, the […]

Continue

review: zeitgeist…

Once derided for their culinary ineptitude, the British have invaded us all over again with a new Fab Four: nose, tail, trotter, and jowl (and everything in between). Indeed, the pig has become a modern-day proxy for a larger umbrella of thematic eating, under which fall beer and tattooes, mustaches and suspenders, piles of meat […]

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review: zeitgeist…

Once derided for their culinary ineptitude, the British have invaded us all over again with a new Fab Four: nose, tail, trotter, and jowl (and everything in between). Indeed, the pig has become a modern-day proxy for a larger umbrella of thematic eating, under which fall beer and tattooes, mustaches and suspenders, piles of meat […]

Continue

review: olio…

I wanted to catch up with two friends whom I hadn’t seen in a while. Anticipating that I wouldn’t be particularly peckish (there was a whole lot of eating going on those few days in San Francisco), I was more fixated on my good company than the venue. They suggested Luce, the newly Michelin-starred restaurant […]

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review: olio…

I wanted to catch up with two friends whom I hadn’t seen in a while. Anticipating that I wouldn’t be particularly peckish (there was a whole lot of eating going on those few days in San Francisco), I was more fixated on my good company than the venue. They suggested Luce, the newly Michelin-starred restaurant […]

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review: sweet heat…

The fact that Kevin Gillespie was one of my favorite cheftestants from Season 6 of BravoTV’s Top Chef reality show factored little in my decision to visit Woodfire Grill.* In fact, I hadn’t intended on eating at Woodfire Grill at all on my recent stop in Atlanta. When Gillespie passed through Kansas City earlier this […]

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review: sweet heat…

The fact that Kevin Gillespie was one of my favorite cheftestants from Season 6 of BravoTV’s Top Chef reality show factored little in my decision to visit Woodfire Grill.* In fact, I hadn’t intended on eating at Woodfire Grill at all on my recent stop in Atlanta. When Gillespie passed through Kansas City earlier this […]

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review: retrospective… (alinea)

Nashville, Tennessee, 2004.  A ruddy-cheeked cherub came out of the kitchen after dinner to say hello. He was just a kid.  I was just a kid. We both loved food. He cooked. I ate.  We started talking. Though our conversation drifted from here to there, it moored mostly around a new restaurant that was opening […]

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review: retrospective… (alinea)

Nashville, Tennessee, 2004.  A ruddy-cheeked cherub came out of the kitchen after dinner to say hello. He was just a kid.  I was just a kid. We both loved food. He cooked. I ate.  We started talking. Though our conversation drifted from here to there, it moored mostly around a new restaurant that was opening […]

Continue

review: cheeseburger o’clock…

It’s not on the menu, yet it’s the most-coveted item at Holeman & Finch Public House in Atlanta, Georgia. The restaurant only makes twenty-four of them each day, and they’re only offered late at night.* At ten o’clock, the bullhorn sounds: “It’s burger time!” Blissful Glutton had arrived ahead of me to reserve a couple […]

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review: cheeseburger o’clock…

It’s not on the menu, yet it’s the most-coveted item at Holeman & Finch Public House in Atlanta, Georgia. The restaurant only makes twenty-four of them each day, and they’re only offered late at night.* At ten o’clock, the bullhorn sounds: “It’s burger time!” Blissful Glutton had arrived ahead of me to reserve a couple […]

Continue