Here's the next update of my Sommelier Studies series, focusing on one of my absolute favorite grape varietals.

While still in the shadow of the legacy of the French Laundry, the food at Auro displays creativity, generosity, and heart.

My sister and I, ever pursuers of excellent mixology, are shameless followers of the "Top 50" list of the "best" bars in the world. Of...

For the next few installments of the Maestro's "Clues for the Clueless," allow me to answer some of your most pressing wine questions.

When it comes to food, the residents of Northern California are spoiled. Some of the greatest produce you can find is grown on area farms...

Until this spring, I’d never done a wine tasting visit to Europe. In fact, until January, I’d never formally gone wine tasting outside of...

I spent two weeks wandering around New Zealand finding myself gobsmacked not just by the natural beauty, but also the quality of the...

When you visit a locale that happens to make excellent wine, make sure you leave room in your suitcase. When I booked my January trip to...

A few years back, the art world was shaken to its core when Italian absurdist artist Maurizio Cattelan duct taped a ripe banana to a wall...

We've all heard of wagyu beef, Japan's absurdly marbled steaks that, according to urban legend, come from cows treated like kings––given...

Virgilio Martínez was just 31 when he took his Cordon Bleu training and line cooking experience back to his native Peru with a goal of...

Tucked in the belly of the glistening skyscrapers of Shinjuku is Tokyo's own "Memory Lane," or Omoide Yokocho, a narrow alleyway housing...

Pre-disclaimer: At the risk of making it seem like this blog is only about restaurants granted three Michelin stars, this blog completes...

The Bay Area is special to me––not only is it my birthplace, but it was the site of my first big foray into foodiedom. Back when I was...

I've been lucky enough (before this meal) to enjoy Kyle Connaughton's cuisine from SingleThread twice––once at the restaurant in...

Both of y'all loyal readers will have to forgive my spotty (i.e., completely absent) blogging for the better part of the last year. I...

Decades before the widespread propagation of the very idea of "fine dining" in America, DC native and self-taught chef Patrick O'Connell...

As covered previously in the latest installment of the "Eat Like the Maestro" series, during my little road trip out east a multi-day...

Car Talk, my very favorite old NPR show, took calls from all over the country, and whenever Tom and Ray got a call from DC, Tom always...

Eater has been doing a pretty cool "Best New Restaurants in America" list of late, and since I found myself with a car and no real...

Once I'd dropped off my friend's new Bernedoodle puppy in Boston and enjoyed some culinary offerings in one of my favorite cities in the...

I made the probably silly but still fun decision to help out some friends by picking up their freshly-adopted Bernedoodle puppy in...

Planning to coop myself up at Mom's in Iowa for much of the summer while I plot my next move meant that I needed to drive myself and my...

I'm on the cusp of bidding "adieu" to Charlotte for good but have many fond memories of the Queen City, particularly its many green...

Y'all already know the Maestro's first item on his to-do list when visiting Los Angeles––eat sushi. Because of LA's proximity to the...

People rightfully make fun of the highfalutin nature of descriptors for wine that wineries, critics, tasting room staff, sommeliers,...

Just over a year ago a fire claimed the original location of Pacific Cocktail Haven, perhaps the most important cocktail bar to open in...

Many restaurants made dramatic changes to their operations as a consequence of the pandemic. Lord Stanley, a one-Michelin-starred...

Deep in a vague suburb of London between Hackney and Islington on a chilly and dark fall evening, the Maestro approached a cozy...

Oooo kiddos––it's been a busy time in the Maestro's life, and I have a backlog of blogs that resembles a California freeway at 4pm. So...

The first time I was even aware that wine was made in Texas, I was in the Austin airport at Vino Volo searching for a flight of wine to...

If I'm in LA, I'm in the best sushi city in the United States. And that means I am almost certainly seeking out a new omakase to sample....

It was a frigid evening and I was about three cocktails deep when a well-agorithmed article found its way to my feed––"SingleThread...

Provisions reliably serves some of the best food in Salt Lake City. When Lugano, the previous occupant of the space, closed some ten or...

Perhaps it was the sense of impending doom resulting from waking up every day in this pandemic, now again in a terrible phase, that...

I am woefully behind on blog posts owing to the end of the semester at Davidson and the ensuing whirlwind travel schedule. I know both of...

Years before I came to understand what fine dining really meant––or rather, what it really could mean––my attraction to the best...

I can't stay away from omakase meals in New York City. My last NYC omakase at Nakazawa just reinforced what I already knew––an excellent...

I am bad at making reservations. I tend to wait to book trips until only a few weeks before, and at that point it's too late to get the...

Charlotte is a budding food city, and a particularly good locale for many varieties of Asian cuisine. The notable exception is...

When I was first preparing to move to Charlotte, I heard all around that South End was the happening-est neighborhood in town. When I...

Certain areas of Charlotte experienced a mass migration of rural Appalachian and Carolina Piedmont populations, as well as formerly...

It's hard to pinpoint a seminal dining experience that made me into the insatiable food lover that I am today, but the closest thing I...

I've always been a staunch defender of northern California's food scene over New York City's, mostly because that's where I learned to...

Sushi omakase meals are a dime a dozen in New York City (or, perhaps more accurately, three grand a dozen). The super-high-end sushi...

The Maine coast has approximately 24,398,423,876,323,907 restaurants serving lobster. This is the land of “lobstah,” especially this time...

Boston is one of those cities I feel bad that I haven't spent more time visiting. I finally got up to Boston to see a dear friend's...

I must admit that I have been pretty bad about exploring my new city and environs and seeing what's on offer. When I had dinner with a...

I hadn't been back to Chicago since my last (brief) visit mid-summer of 2020, when almost everything was shuttered, but my sister and I...

Back in the era of big name European celebrity chefs establishing outpost restaurants, in the heyday of places like the Bellagio, when...