…and all I got was this lousy photo. To be fair, that popcorn was unbelievable. Salty, cheesy, and spicy. Perfect with the sweat and sour notes of an Abita Amber. To be balanced, the Sazeracs were fair to midland. A little too sweet from an uncaring hand on the Herbsaint.
I know the place dwells […]

I pity the sommelier who choses wine over fresh spring veggies. Stupid sommelier, wine can be drunk anytime, but these veggies? They’re only perfect once a year.
Banishing the Myth of the Wine-Killer
in this issue of the Seattle Weekly
tags: south africa, sauvignon blanc, seattle weekly

I am taking 30% more baths lately because I’m feeling partially brined. I wanted to test olives for a piece about finding a better martini olive. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but so far it’s not going very well. And I am very, very thirsty. Now, I love olives. I can […]

Sure, you could do a cafe crawl, or you could just….
Seattle’s Only Truly Pro-Choice Cafe
in this issue of the Seattle Weekly
Any place that is smart enough to have a Synesso and carry Borogove and Lighthouse just can’t suck.
tags: microroast, coffee

First, start by asking yourself, what do you want from wine? Do you want a new hobby or are you just looking for Mr. Goodbottle of red?
My last gig as a wine director, in a specialty food store not a restaurant, we had any number of ways in which we completely overwhelmed people, whether the […]

Nero d’Avola is the New Chianti
in this issue of the Seattle Weekly
There was another Nero d’Avola that I was going to recommend in my column, a really great and really cheap one (two words, first one starts with “F”). But the ass monkeys at the distributorship couldn’t even find it in their system so as […]

In my continuing series about those cool bottles on the back bar that few know what to do with, I give to you Herbsaint, a liqueur synonymous with New Orleans:
Herbaint: Tasty, Pedigreed, and 100% American
in this issue of the Seattle Weekly

**This series was started by my love of Galliano (the quintessential neglected bottle) and Strega.

Puh-fewww. That’s all I can say about the last two months. Tonight is the first night since New Year’s Eve that I can just sit on the couch and watch TV. The TiVo menu is full, I have a huge bag of fresh rocket and some squid tubes to stew. Mmmm….squid tubes. Sorry, my […]

Washington tries something new, bill gets passed, some greedy people get angry, farmers are happy, and you get to sample booze:
State Will Keep Craft Distilleries Local
in this issue of the Seattle Weekly
We’ll all live happily, locally ever after…

THe downtown Top Pot Doughnuts is my favorite place in the city. No restaurant comes close to the design triumph and impact of it. Take that local designers! J’accuse! Yeah, I wanna fight. Actually, I just want people to design something that doesn’t look like 1994 or a fucking IKEA catalog threw up. Seattle has […]