The city’s unofficial motto, “Keep Austin Weird,” blares from bumper stickers on BMWs and jalopies alike, on T-shirts worn by joggers along Lady Bird Lake and in the windows of independently owned shops and restaurants. It’s an exhortation for a city that clings (Read More…)
Food & Wine
The New York Times
36 Hours in Austin, Texas
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, November 29, 2009
The New York Times
Next Stop: Fine Art Meets Fine Wine in Napa Valley
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, October 4, 2009
It was a crisp and sunny Saturday in Yountville, a wine-soaked town in the heart of the Napa Valley, and a steady trickle of day-trippers was hopping from tasting room to oak-scented tasting room, spearing Manchego cubes and sipping the latest vintages. (Read More…)
The New York Times
Save or Splurge: San Francisco
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, June 14, 2009
ON $250/DAY
SLEEP Carved out of a 1920s hotel, the new Hotel Vertigo in Nob Hill (940 Sutter Street; 415-885-6800; www.hotelvertigosf.com) recently emerged from a cinematic makeover inspired (Read More…)
Elle Decor
Elle Decor Goes to Athens
Published in Elle Decor, Friday, May 15, 2009
Hip hotels, restaurant and museums are transforming the city of Socrates.
Read excerpted article here.
The New York Times
36 Hours in Carmel-by-the-Sea
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, January 25, 2009
With its architectural mishmash of storybook English cottages and Swiss Alpine chalets, the small town of Carmel-by-the-Sea in Northern California resembles a Disneyland version of Europe. You half expect a bereted Parisian to saunter out of one of the ridiculously cute (Read More…)
The New York Times Style Magazine
The Lake’s Progress
Published in The New York Times Style Magazine, Monday, October 6, 2008
Could a Northern California backwater become the next Napa?
My first glimpse of Lake County, California, was a flash of silver through the trees. Clear Lake, the second-largest freshwater lake in California, shimmered and rippled in the sharp afternoon sun. Two hours into my drive north from San Francisco, the familiar sights of Napa — winery-lined roads, faux Italianate tasting rooms, chichi shops — had given way (Read More…)
The New York Times Style Magazine
Captain Kangaroo
Published in The New York Times Style Magazine, Sunday, May 18, 2008
Australia’s answer to the Galapagos Islands makes a giant leap forward.
“People always tell me, ‘Finally I feel like I’m in Australia,’ even if they’ve been in the country for weeks,” Craig Wickham said as we barreled down a red dirt road on Kangaroo Island. Wickham is tall and graceful, with tan skin and a salt-and-pepper buzz cut. He grew up on (Read More…)
Budget Travel Magazine
Secret Hotels of California Wine Country
Published in Budget Travel Magazine, Sunday, April 1, 2007
You don’t have to spend a fortune to visit the fanciest farmland in America. We’ve found a crop of lovely, family-run inns in Napa, Sonoma, and beyond for less than $200 a night.
ALEXANDER VALLEYOld Crocker Inn
In the late 1800s, Charles Crocker, one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, purchased nearly 600 acres above the Russian River and built a ranch and summer home there for entertaining his powerful friends and business partners. The ranch has been (Read More…)
Travel + Leisure
Sonoma’s New Star
Published in Travel + Leisure, Saturday, July 1, 2006
With a mix of chic hotels, creative chefs, and stylish boutiques, Healdsburg, California, has emerged as a cosmopolitan hub that still pays homage to its rural Sonoma roots.
SLEEP Healdsburg’s transformation began in 2001 with the opening of the Hotel Healdsburg (25 Matheson St.; 800/889-7188 or 707/431-2800; www.hotelhealdsburg.com; doubles from $325, including breakfast), co-owned by chef Charlie Palmer. The 55-room hotel is done up in an earthy palette inspired by its surrounding landscape: olive- and leaf-green walls, pecan-wood plank floors, and teak headboards that crown the downiest bed you’ll ever sleep on. (Read More…)
Surface
Winning Streaks
Published in Surface, Friday, July 15, 2005
A mesmerizing interior by Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis will draw you in–and the baked goods will keep you there.
My best-laid plans were scrapped the moment I arrived in Oaxaca City. “You want to see the real, authentic Mexico, right?” asked Alejandro Ruiz, one of the city’s most renowned chefs, as he giddily steered his SUV through narrow cobblestoned streets (Read More…)