POSTED // Jun 11,2008 - My favorite oyster accompaniment is mignonette sauce, which really isn’t a sauce at all but more of a dressing. It’s delicious. In fact, I sometimes think that, for me, eating oysters is just a method of transportation for getting the mignonette...

POSTED // Jun 11,2008 - Having recently been afforded the pleasure of a trip to Sonoma County, the epicenter of California wine country, I’m already jonesing to return. With more than 350 wineries in Sonoma County and 13 designated wine regions—not to mention 40...

POSTED // Jun 4,2008 - I don’t know about you, but I’m not accustomed to having CEOs personally handle my customer-service inquiries and issues. A recent run-in with Ticketmaster, for example, was handled by someone so clueless that he insisted the nearest retail...

POSTED // Jun 4,2008 - The Mobil Five-Star experience at Stein Eriksen Lodge is sumptuous, from dining at Glitretind and drinks in the Troll Hallen Lounge to wine seminars and spa treatments. And then there are executive pastry chef Raymond Lammers’ award-winning desserts...

POSTED // Jun 4,2008 - Now that City Weekly honcho John Saltas has turned me into a chelada-swiller, the outlook for summer looks very bright indeed. For anyone who has managed to miss out on the whole chelada thing and the Chelada Party at Port O’ Call, a chelada is...

POSTED // May 28,2008 - When Chris Vanocur speaks, I listen. So when I bumped into the ABC 4 newsman at a City Weekly party and he pulled me aside to bend my ear about Baxter’s, I knew it was time to make like a bakery truck and haul buns to the Gateway’s newest...

POSTED // May 28,2008 - With flowers abloom, one of the prettiest places in the state is Thanksgiving Point and its 55 acres of gardens. Harvest restaurant at Thanksgiving Point is open for lunch and dinner with a new spring and summer menu. Among executive chef Rick Allen’s...

POSTED // May 21,2008 - No clowns. No kings. No redhead girls with pigtails. Just a guy in boxer shorts.” That’s what the sign out in front of Layton’s Holy Smoke BBQ & Grill says, not so subtly instructing potential customers that we are not a chain restaurant....

POSTED // May 21,2008 - If you’ve picked up or read online this week’s paper early enough, you might still have time to enjoy the second annual Party on the Boulevard in Layton. It’s a celebration of locally owned, independent restaurants, along with live music...

POSTED // May 21,2008 - Winding one’s way up from the town of Sonoma via the twisting Petrified Forest Road to the town of Calistoga is a beautiful way—for those who don’t succumb to car sickness—of spending part of a day in California’s wine country....