Part One: Why does wine cost so much in the restaurant?
    In short, spoilage and spillage. Unlike that bottle of creme de menthe that can sit on the back bar until the end of time (as long as they’re keeping the fruit flies out), wine is parishable. Wine is especially suseptable to the harsh […]

I love Portland. I think you can read volumes about a city by looking at its architecture. And Portland has made a real effort to hold on to the working class, warehouse, industrial buildings of its past. The brick and steel theme carries through most of the newer builds. Even Starbucks is forced to alter […]

Well, I’m back from Mexico. And goshdarnit if I wasn’t hit with an email campaign for a new arena for the Seattle Supersuckers NBA team while I was gone. (A team owned by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz) So I interrupt my own travel round up….
Allow me to respond:
Dear Schultzie,
I like Key Arena, and I don’t […]

As a chick, I face prejudice everyday in this business. Just last week an older man asked me (in an undeniably condescending tone), “Do they let you help pick out any of the wines here?”; By they; do you mean the boss? Because that would be me.
Now, I’m not a Doogie Howser by any means. […]

 You get invited to an obscene amount of lunches in this business that is wine. The trick is, knowing when to say yes. So when I was asked to lunch with Giuseppe Mazzocolin of Felsina, I said "hell yes."
Felsina is the benchmark by which I judge all other Chianti. Set on the southern-most edge […]

It seems like I’m obsessed with value these days. Not really. But I am getting a bit pissy about the giant balls it takes for some wineries to charge what they’re charging for their product (notice I use the word product, and not wine). If we weren’t so brand obsessed, they wouldn’t be able to […]

OK, part of the addictive nature of typepad.com is that you can not only see how many people have visited your site, but also see from whence they’ve come. Whenever I see that someone has been directed to the site from Google, I have the unquenching monkey-need to know why. If I click the link, […]

Repeat after me:
I will never feel bad about how much money I’m willing to spend on a bottle of wine ever, ever again.

Good, hopefully you said it like you meant it. I get so aggravated telling people it’s OK to tell me that you only want to spend $9 or $15 or whatever! I […]

I don’t have many comments on my website, but man o man am I getting email. Especially regarding my post alluding to nefarious waiter sabotage. A lot of people wanted to know where it is safe to eat and what makes you a target.
Do you really want me to answer that? I […]

European style hot chocolate is made from a healthy amount of shaved, bittersweet or dark chocolate, warmed until it’s liquid, and then mixed with hot milk.
And like everything else having to do with the cafe experience, Starbuck’s has now fucked that up, too. "Chantico." WTF? At only 6 ounces, it has 25% more fat calories […]