On a recent night, we tried out a few new bars in the neighborhood.  It wasn’t anything we planned… rather, it happened organically when a bar name caught our eyes or we overheard some cool tunes out on the sidewalk that drew us in.
Inevitably, the first visit to a bar is really a feeling out exercise… a quick scan of the various sizes and shapes of the beer taps might reveal the tell-tale shark of Dogfish Head, the dream catcher-like Magic Hat, or that black shalaylee-shaped handle of Guinness.  A …

It’s around that time of year again… you can sense the first tulips trying to pop up through the snow hardened soil.  The sun starts setting a little later and on the occassional sun splashed afternoon, you can even leave the winter coat at home for a stroll along the Hudson.

This is also the time of year when I really have the urge to visit Sonoma Valley in Northern California.  For sure, this place is beautiful year round, but I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a few times in mid-March and I …

If there is one thing that we love as much as a nice glass of wine, it’s a great beer.  There’s just something striking about a well made beer – when the hops, yeast, malt and water come together in a spectacular symphony of flavor and aroma that make you think to yourself “my… that’s a fine pint.”
We recently had the pleasure of experiencing some truly special beer and tasty “bar food” on a recent trip to Spuyten Duyvil.  Belgian beer is definitely the forte of this tiny, unpretentious-for-Williamsburg, watering …

For those of you not in the immediate New York City metropolitan area, you might not be familiar with Astor Wine.  This wine institution used to be a lovely space near Astor Place (St. Marks/8th St. and Lafayette), which is now a Duane Reade.  Since moving a few blocks south, the shop has received a well deserved facelift, but the biggest change is the addition of the Astor Center.
Sitting above the shop itself, the Astor Center is a dedicated space where events and educational seminars are held periodically… usually open to …

On a recent trip to Red Hook, a still up-in-coming area of Brooklyn even with the addition of a massive Ikea, we passed by a garage/warehouse with dozens of wine barrels stacked precariously high all the way up to the ceiling.  After rounding the corner, we eased our way passed a forklift (parked illegally we’d imagine) on the sidewalk and stumbled on a jaw dropping surprise – the home of The Red Hook Winery (currently no official website).
We ran into 3 guys hanging out in the garage.  There were a …

Last week, we had the pleasure to try some Pennsylvania wine for our Eat Boutique column.

Although we had given Clover Hill’s wines a try a few years ago and did not remember being huge fans of their products, we decided to give it a try again as we literally stumbled upon their winery on our way back from a weekend visiting friends. It was at a time where we drank a lot of California and Burgundy wines and we quickly dismissed the few bottles we tried as sweet grape juice. Maybe …

In an ironic twist of fate, the NYC Department of Health has decided to harass the cleanest, freshest restaurant we’ve had the pleasure of eating in for years. The reason? Not a large enough refrigerator! Perhaps they missed the recent NY Magazine article and we assume nobody read our recent post about Eat… if they had, they probably would have rightly left the poor chef/owner of this awesome BYOB alone.
But since they didn’t, let’s spell this out for the NY Health Department — if Jordan is going …

Concha y Toro is Chile’s largest wine producer (they exported 26.6 million cases in 2008). Following the recent earthquake, they have suspended all production and shipping for a week in a zone where the major north-south highway was severely damaged.

As reported by the Associated Press:
“The area with the largest impact is the heartland of wine production,” said Concha y Toro. “Our company, as well as the rest of the industry, have been heavily impacted by this catastrophe.”
“We have already been able to assess serious damage to some of our main …