Steakhouses, one of the few truly American culinary genres, maintain their appeal by being, in large part, the same the nation over. They typically sport dark wood and leather, a suited host, a wine list heavy on Napa Cabs, iconic starters and sides, melt-in-your-mouth steaks, and frightful prices. Testosterone-dripping man caves, the Scotch flows neat […]
This is it. On Friday, December 21, we’re all going to die. Our Christmas gifts, 401(k)s, and unexpressed love will go unclaimed. It’d be highly irresponsible for me to advise liquidating your bank accounts, but I can suggest liquidating a pearl or two from your wine cellar (or sock drawer) to enjoy with loved ones—and […]
I find few things more exciting than being invited to someone’s home for a dinner party. Not a potluck or cocktail party, but a sit-down soirée with mixed company and food cooked and served by someone other than me. It’s a generous act of yore that seems now to be endangered if not entirely extinct. […]
When I told a wine-loving francophile that I’ve been drinking wine from a box, he looked at me with such horror that I quickly followed up with, “I pour it into a glass first, of course!” His disgust had nothing to do with the image of me holding my mouth below the spigot in my […]
According to karma, I should have a picky child. (I once threw a fit when my parents stopped at Wendy’s because the hamburgers there are square instead of round.) But not only has Maisie never even eaten a fast food hamburger in her nearly five years of life, but she’s a better, more adventurous eater […]
As tightly knit as Charlottesville is, newcomers are likely to feel intimidated—especially so in our food world, which is as inextricably linked an industry as any. Evermore daunting would be taking the helm of a restaurant that’s collected a massive following in the five years it’s been open. But more now than ever, the connections […]
Nothing makes a wine columnist feel the freakishly swift passage of days more than the realization that it’s Thanksgiving wine recommendation time yet again. Every year, I consider taking a different approach—or even skipping it entirely, hoping that no one will notice the omission of what’s become an annual expectation. (Especially tempting after our beer […]
Nowadays, restaurant menus are more likely to tell you where the chicken was raised than how it’s prepared. Four years running, the National Restaurant Association has voted locally sourced foods the top trend. But here in Virginia, where our soil takes a long winter’s nap, what’s a locavore chef to do when the growing season […]
Cider may be indelibly written into American history, but no matter how many pints John Adams drank with breakfast, it’s a beverage that confuses us. Cider, to everyone but Americans, implies the presence of alcohol; here, unless we preface it with “hard,” we picture the hot, spiced variety that warms us up after a romp […]
Merlot is making a comeback. Or so the prediction has gone for the past three years. According to retailers though, sales haven’t even begun to rebound, yet we keep reading that they have. So, has this grape that went from golden child to outcast in the span of 20 years really risen from the depths […]