Wednesday January 4, 2012
At the moment, Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand in Vegas is my favorite restaurant. And to put this in perspective, I've reviewed NYC restaurants for a decade.
Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand is as elegant, gracious, and delicious a dining experience as you could wish. You pay a lot, but you get a lot. Including restaurant recollections to feast on ever after.
Joël Robuchon is known for its seasonal menu dégustation, or tasting menu. The tab is $425 per person for 16 courses like Le Foie Gras, a carpaccio of foie gras and potatoes, showered with white truffle shavings. And diners can have all they want of Robuchon's heavenly breads, cheeses, and house-made chocolates.
This is
Vegas, baby, and the restaurant is set beside MGM Grand's casino. But Joël Robuchon is money in the bank --
the memory bank.
Photo: Global kitchen god Joël Robuchon at his Sin City temple, Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand Las Vegas. © MGM Resorts International.
Sunday January 1, 2012
Santa Fe, New Mexico is a town of only 68,000 residents. Yet it has more great restaurants than many cities topping a million.
Santa Fe eateries run the gamut from divine dives like chile-heavy Horseman's Haven to gourmet shrines to Southwestern cuisine like Coyote Cafe. If you're a Santa Fe dining pilgrim with a foodie reputation to maintain, you cannot miss the Coyote Cafe experience.
Coyote Cafe was founded in 1987 by Mark Miller, who is now credited with inventing this distinctive style of American regional cooking. The torch has been passed to Chef Eric DiStefano, a Pennsylvania native who has brought New Mexican cuisine to new heights at Coyote Cafe.
- Now you know why you should dine at Coyote Cafe. But what should you order and drink, where should you sit, and who's the coolest server? Find out in my just-published
profile of Coyote Cafe >>
Above: Well-fed Santa Fe visitors will have encountered the dancing coyote logo of Coyote Cafe. © Max Jacobson.
Monday December 26, 2011
A few hundred thousand lucky New Year's Eve revelers will celebrate in New York's Times Square, cheering as the 2012 ball drops.
A few hundred even luckier New Year's Eve revelers will celebrate in New York's Pierre Hotel. Perched on Central Park's most fashionable corner, this Manhattan landmark is quite possibly Manhattan's most glamorous hotel.
This Saturday night, The Pierre's New Year's Eve festivities will unfurl at Two E, the elegant lounge in the hotel's marbled, frescoed lobby. The mood will be decidedly Jazz Age: an open bar, oysters and caviar, a satin-doll chanteuse, your swankiest duds.
And of course, Two E will raise a Champagne toast at the stroke of midnight, as the ball drops in Times Square, 18 blocks and a world away.
Photos © The Pierre. Above: Abandon boredom, all who enter Two E, the lounge at The Pierre Hotel in NYC. Right: New Year's Eve at The Pierre's Two E info and tickets >>
Thursday December 22, 2011
Santa Fe, New Mexico has been a top U.S. travel destination since the railroad era.
Today, this flavorful, 400-year-old Wild West town tempts with luxury travel lures galore: superb hotels, outrageously good restaurants, nonstop festivals, and more galleries than any city save NYC and LA.
I've stayed at virtually all of Santa Fe's high-end hotels. And one of them stands out for its remarkable service.
Within moments of your check-in to this elegant boutique hotel, every staffer knows your name. You feel more than welcomed. You feel valued. You feel important. (Which of course you are.)
This exceptional Santa Fe hotel is Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi. And beyond its phenomenal service, the Anasazi delights guests with its dead-center Santa Fe location and its superb restaurant and bar.
Photo: There's no red carpet at Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe. But you'll still feel like a celebrity guest. © Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi.
