Restaurant Coffee Revelation (Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:39:00 -0400)

The F&W team is fanatical about coffee. We are constantly searching for the absolute best coffee experience and, sadly, it’s usually not at a restaurant. A meal should end on a high note, but often, it’s the dessert and never the joe&...

Seattle's New Super-Restaurateur (Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:29:43 -0400)

Seattle chef Ethan Stowell, one of this year’s excellent Best New Chefs, is proving to be the Northwest’s über restaurateur: He’s just announced plans to open his fourth restaurant in five years. Called Anchovies & Olives (...

Must-Have Halloween Treats (Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:09:00 -0400)

Happy Halloween, everybody! To send you off on your trick-or-treating way, we've got the ultimate F&W Halloween planner, and better still, a gallery of the world's scariest foods, including Mexican ant-egg tacos and a German cheeseburger ... [More]

A Preview of NYC's West Branch (Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:25:00 -0400)

I’m lucky: After hounding NYC chef Tom Valenti for weeks about the opening of the West Branch, his new place on 77th and Broadway, I finally got to go to friends and family night. Tom said putting together the menu was a tricky balance between...

Concord Grapes, Nature's Candy (Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:27:00 -0400)

Concord grapes, in season right now, are quite possibly the fruit that tastes most like its artificially-flavored candy counterpart. Raspberry candy rarely tastes like actual raspberries and banana-flavored candy never tastes anything like the real t...

Murray's Cheese Goes Eco (Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:57:00 -0400)

In New York City, Murray’s Cheese owner, Rob Kaufelt, has come up with an ingenious idea for keeping his costs low while minimizing his carbon footprint. In the past, Murray’s shipped its fabulous artisanal cheeses across the country mult...

1997 Brunellos: A Deal for this Weekend (Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:03:00 -0400)

With the manic-depressive economy, it might seem inappropriate to write about buying wine at auction. But if you’re a serious wine lover, auctions often offer some of the best deals—at least on rare and older wines. For bargain hunters wi... [More]

Value Wines for Asian Food (Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:11:00 -0400)

I recently chatted with Master Sommelier Alpana Singh, director of wine and spirits for the Chicago-based restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. She's just revamped the wine list for one of L.E.Y.E.'s concepts, Big Bowl, with bio...

Cape Ann's Best Food (Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:23:00 -0400)

I love going to Cape Ann, Massachusetts in the off-season. Recently, on a glorious fall day, a group of us—including my sister, Susie, and her husband, Jeffrey—found ourselves in the town of Gloucester on the hunt for breakfast.  As ...

A Foodie's New Graphic Novel (Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:51:00 -0400)

I'm thoroughly charmed by the new graphic novel French Milk (Touchstone), in which 23-year-old New Yorker Lucy Knisley documents a six-week trip to Paris with her mom through drawings, photographs and musings written in speech balloons. Her take ...

The Hippest New Restaurant Side Dish: The Cotton Tee (Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:33:00 -0400)

 While fashionable restaurants tap noted clothing designers to create staff uniforms (Narciso Rodriguez for Del Posto, Maria Cornejo for Buddakan and Morimoto), the owners and seriously talented chefs at supercasual restaurants and bakeries (Mom...

First Look: Ryan Skeen