Javier Bardem and
Scarlett Johansson in "Vicki Cristina Barcelona"
(2008)
❖❖❖
THIS WEEK
OLD IS NEW IN MODERN LAS VEGAS
by Carey Sweet
NEW
YORK CORNER
Atera by John
Mariani
NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
Artisanal Spanish Wines
by John Mariani
❖❖❖
OLD is NEW in
MODERN LAS VEGAS
by Carey Sweet
At
the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, a skull the size of an
RV lies on its back on the ground, like a wickedly
grinning ivory sunbather. It’s surrounded by assorted
five-foot tall random alphabet letters studded with
burned-out light bulbs and a faded, chipped metal sign
that reads: “Cocktails – 24 Hours.” Nearby,
a 20-foot tall metal man aims a pool cue at an
imaginary table. He’s standing next to a sign in the
shape of a dancing button-up shirt and behind an
eight-foot tall burnt-orange chess piece that was
probably a knight before its equine ears snapped off.
I’m wandering the grounds of the
“boneyard," (left)
part of a non-profit museum dedicated to preserving
the rich history of Las Vegas’ iconic art form, the
neon sign. The entity’s organizers have been saving
neon since 1996, and more than 150 donated and rescued
signs sprawl in various states of disrepair across the
two-acre park. Over there is a sign from the late
1930s, and over there is another from the early 90s,
charting the glittery, blinking heritage of motels,
lounges, and casinos. The skull is a more recent
addition, coming from the Treasure Island casino that
opened in 1993 and is unique in that it bears no neon
(but certainly fits the boneyard theme).
It’s rather an ironic start to my
trip to Las Vegas, since I’ve come here to get caught
up on what’s new in this glitzy desert city. Vegas is
one of those blink-and-you-miss-it kind of places,
with constant development and unending one-upmanship
in glamorous casinos and restaurants. And it’s been
nearly two years since I’ve visited. Yet what has me
fascinated right now is the antique sign for The
Moulin Rouge, designed in a sexy, elegant script that
would make modern font designers drool.
My tour guide (for safety and
security reasons, no visitors are allowed in the
boneyard without a guide) explains that the club
opened in 1955, and was the first integrated hotel
casino in America. Until that time almost all of the
casinos on the Strip were off limits to blacks unless
they were the entertainment or labor force. And then,
my next stop is the Smith Center for the Performing
Arts nearby. Just opened in May, it’s a gleaming, art
déco masterpiece of architecture, centered
around a 2,000-plus seat theater, a 1.7-acre park for
outdoor concerts, and a 170-foot tower hung with 47
carillon bells. This is also home to the Cabaret Jazz
lounge, a two-story salute of stage and sound to the
musical style that originated at the beginning of the
20th century in black communities in the South.
Juxtaposition, indeed. This is a modern Las Vegas I
haven’t seen before: showcasing cutting edge style, while embracing seen
before--its deeply layered past.
STAY
You’ve
probably all seen the commercials for The Cosmopolitan
hotel, which opened in December of 2010 for a cool
price tag of $3.9 billion. Thankfully there aren’t
really any rabbits in the elevators, or kittens or
chicks wandering about (a bit creepy, yes?), but this
a property that wants to be the trendiest destination
in town, while saluting a retro "Mad Men"-esque kind
of glam.
The cocktails at Chandelier Bar (right) may nod to
the classics, but the experience is more like a
science experiment. Designed as a three-story tall
chandelier in the hotel lobby, the bar features three
floors of themed lounges that you access by walking
through luminous curtains of two million beaded
crystals. With a menu of more than 250 specialty
drinks, theater is key for signatures like the Fire
Breathing Dragon, a sweet, fiery, pink concoction that
gets its name because the bartender freeze dries a
raspberry in liquid nitrogen, the customer pops the
fruit in her mouth, and breathes a plume of icy smoke
before sipping the libation of Bacardi Dragonberry,
muddled raspberry, lemongrass and Thai chile syrup
from a glass rimmed in pink peppercorns.
Savvy clientele order from the
secret menu, for whimsies like a Piña Colada
Spaghetti drink topped with strawberry Daiquiri
geleé, or a Verbena Sipper of lemon verbena,
ginger and lemongrass syrups, yuzu sour and Milagro
Silver tequila topped with a Sichwan bud that numbs,
then tingles the taste buds. Cleary, it’s what the
public wants - the spectacular lounge earned $100
million in revenues last year, the highest receipts
for cocktail-only sales in the world, says lead
mixologist Mariena Mercer.
EAT
At
the Cosmo, you can dine at Scarpetta, a branch of the NYC
original, where chef Scott Conant takes a contemporary
approach to classic Italian cuisine. The crudi are
sublime, such as silky raw tuna layered with marinated
vegetables and preserved truffles, while prawns come
wrapped in buttery
lardo on a bed of chile-kissed rosemary
lentils. There are fancy plates, like thick pici noodles
wound with succulent red wine braised duck and earthy
truffles. Yet probably the best pasta I’ve ever had
outside of Italy is the simple spaghetti, dressed
purely in tomato, basil and olive oil, with
ingredients so fresh and pristine they practically
sparkle.
Still, for the true staying power
of old school Italian, it’s impossible to forget Spago (left) in The
Forum Shops at Caesars, half a mile up the boulevard.
It’s celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and
shows why chef Wolfgang Puck remains so relevant,
offering casual dining in the front and fine dining in
the back, all overseen by executive chef Eric Klein.
I love the approachable favorites
of grilled loup de
mer, served skin-on atop a swath of sunchoke
mousseline, a puddle of deep purple saba and velvety
mascarpone emulsion, or red wine-braised beef short
ribs with leeks, hand-made ricotta gnocchi, and rich
braising jus.
Yet the highlight is a show stopping ahi sashimi
served atop crunchy wakame
on spoons nestled inside a handmade ice igloo.
For more Asian flair, Japonais (right) opened in
2006 at The Mirage, though it remains entirely
current, from the luxe minimalist space to the parade
of small plates that are served continuously and in
whatever order the busy kitchen gets them done. The
sashimi is excellent, and clearly this is no place to
drown the delicate fish in soy sauce, since the
condiment is served only on request. A chorus line of fried prawn heads is
strong flavored with the creamy “mustard” (the fatty
goo inside the shell), while “Le Quack Japonais” is a
playful take on duck, the meat maple leaf smoked and
moistened in hoisin sauce and sweet mango chutney, to
be wrapped in lacy moo shoo crêpes. For a
crowd-pleaser, “The Rock” is an interactive treat of
paper-thin sliced raw New York steak that cooks in its
sweet marinade as you lay strips across a sizzling hot
rock.
Gastropubs continue to be a popular
trend, and so it is with Public House in Grand Canal Shoppes at
The Venetian that opened last December. We browsed
among more than 200 selections, including 24 beers on
tap and three seasonal cask beers from artisanal cask
brewers, while corporate chef Anthony Meidenbauer
offered a menu focusing on dishes incorporating beer.
My server proudly noted that the
dark wood and leather-clad pub has two out of the
three certified cicerones
in Las Vegas (a cicerone
is the equivalent of a wine sommelier for beer) and
thus is well equipped to handle challenging pairings
like grilled octopus with pepperonata and fingerlings
(recommended: Uinta Organic Monkshine); or Irish
Coffee cheesecake with a dollop of Jameson
whiskey-laced chantilly cream and scattered hazelnut
crumble (Uinta Labyrinth, a 13.5% very dark and bitter
like espresso). And it’s all good. I visited for lunch
but had no trouble polishing off hearty plates such as
ribs braised with Black Butte Porter, briny bouchot mussels
in a broth of Hoegaarden beer, and retro-chic Welsh
rarebit sauced in Tenaya Creek IPA and Cheddar.
RELAX
Regardless
of the era, I’ve now decided that afternoon tea is something we should
all do, every day of our lives. Especially if it is at
the Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas’ Tea Lounge (left), served
from 2 to 5 p.m. daily. The posh salon in the Sky
Lobby overlooking Las Vegas Boulevard brims with
freshly brewed loose leaf teas and divine pastries,
served from multi-tiered hors d’oeuvres caddies as we
relax on elegant couches and sip Veuve Clicquot. For my $36 feast, I savored
delicately perfumed organic lychee green tea, a
jade-colored Imperial Spring Dragonwell tea of leaves
that are pan-fired for a sweet, toasty flavor, and
Jasmine Pearl white tea, featuring fragrant leaves
hand-rolled into a tight pearl--when submerged in hot
water, the pearls unfurl, releasing an enchanting
floral perfume.
It could easily have been a light
dinner as well, in trays of tiny sandwiches stuffed
with smoked salmon and cucumber finished in watercress
spread, chive egg salad on brioche, curried chicken
salad, and Black Forest ham, plus warm scones
slathered in Devonshire clotted cream and house
made marmalades and jams, rounded out by an array of
pastries and chocolates.
PLAY
Doubtless,
the finest salute to the “new old” Las Vegas is the
Mob Museum, debuted in February under the umbrella of
the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law
Enforcement. Al Capone. Bugsy Siegel. Eliot Ness.
Howard Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover, and all those heroes
from the origins of the FBI. The opportunity to sit in
a real electric chair or "fire" an actual Tommy Gun.
Does it get more fun anywhere?
The centerpiece of the $50 million
Mob Museum is the second floor courtroom, once the
location of one of fourteen national Kefauver Committee
hearings to expose organized crime held in 1950 and
1951. Visitors can see the actual blood-stained wall
where the St. Valentine's Day
massacre took place and learn about the
true dirty secrets of Mob violence and clever
wiretapping by law enforcement. I spent more than two
hours scouring every nook and cranny of the
three-story building, fascinated by the gory soap
opera stories of Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, George
"Bugsy" Moran, Meyer Lansky, Sam Giancana, and so many
more villains who ruled the city in the 1920s through
the 1950s. Through high-tech interactive
presentations, I got the skinny on casino money
skimming operations, too. Good information to have, I
figured, since you just never know what adventures a
Sin City vacation will bring.
How delightful, from boneyards to
crazy cocktails to mayhem, all packed into one
electric city. It’s proof that as much as Las Vegas
has evolved, it’s wonderful to know that some things
never change.
❖❖❖
NEW YORK
CORNER atera 77 Worth Street (near Church St.)
212-226-1444 ateranyc.com
Atera
is
something of a conundrum. On the one hand
Chef Robert Lightner proves that the more sensible
concepts of molecular cuisine and foraging
can produce small wonders of innovative, quite
beautiful dishes. His service staff also demonstrates
that courtesy and calm description can make an evening
here an education, with none of the longwinded
pretensions that you find at restaurants like Alinea
and Moto in Chicago or Catbird Seat in Nashville. On the other hand, Atera is one of those new
restaurants where guests have no choice in the matter
of what they will eat—here seven main courses that can
balloon to twice that number and more when
canapés and pre-desserts are added in.Also,
although the prix fixe is $150 + $90 for beverages
(chosen by Alex LaPratt), it’s hard to know how a
restaurant with 13 seats (not always filled every
night and only open for five) can possibly survive,
but I’ll leave to that problem, if it is a
problem, to well-heeled owner Jodi Richard. You will be cordially greeted at the sign-less
door by manager Eamon Rockey and shown to a single
room with a U-shaped counter built around the open
kitchen, where a hushed crew of cooks, including Mr.
Lightner, most recently at Castagna in Portland, OR, work away, with tweezers
seemingly their principal utensil, with which they
place tiny ingredients, micro-greens, and
preparations on all manner of serviceware.There is
also a five-seat table off to the side. It’s a
minimalist décor, with lots of terra firma
colors and accents, gray barn siding, and a vertical
wall of herbs and flowers to be used by the kitchen.
There are flowers in the room to give more color and a
touch of vibrance.I don’t quite understand why the windows are
frosted, thereby keeping out the city light. The critics have
raved, but with reservations. Adam Platt of New York
Magazine wrote that, “Like lots of
artsy, cutting-edge cooks, however, Lightner isn’t
necessarily concerned with making his food delicious
in the standard, accessible ways.” The New Yorker
asserted, "Lightner isn’t just playing with his
food; there is a method to his modernism.” And Pete
Welles of the Times,
who gave Atera three stars, noted of some
canapé dishes, “After
a few more such mouthfuls, I decided that, if I were
ever invited to a Super Bowl party at Mr. Lightner’s
house, I’d bring the guacamole.” Atera seems a place you
may love or hate, but it will give you something to
think and talk about. I
haven’t the space to describe every one of the 14+
dishes I was served, but, especially at the beginning,
when you
are served fantastic house-baked bread. I was
fascinated by items like lumpfish roe, peas, amaranth,
and sourdough, and a little serving of green almonds
with cucumber and fresh almond milk. (You eat most of
the canapés with your fingers).Morel
mushroom with veal sausage and pine nut gravy was a
delight, but a very complex riff
on the humblelobster
roll with yeast neglected to taste much like lobster.A shell of
dry bread painted with squid ink masqueraded as a
razor clam. For something heartier there was a well-fatted
beef strip with a marrow ragù and smoked onion,
and then came several sweets, including a peach with
sunflower toffee and a fairly simple strawberry
shortcake with wild strawberries and raw milk ice
cream. I was not in love with the smoky “bourbon cask”
ice cream sandwich that concluded the meal. Lightner is a forager, and he worked at
Copenhagen’s now famous Noma, and gets a tad twee in
giving you toe Latin taxinomic names for ingredients
like purslane and magenta spree, but one can hardly
fault him for his intensity. Atera is not for everyone; indeed, it’s for
people who are willing to spend, with tax and tip,
$620 for two and sit out a counter for three hours.
But there’s no blasting music here,no one
dressed as if he’d just gotten out of bed, and no
in-your-face attitude that they know best and you know nothing.When you
leave Atera, you will know a great deal more than when
you left, right down to the Latin for oxeye daisy,
which is leucanthemum
vulgare.
Atera
is open five days a week, Tues.-Sat.
❖❖❖
NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
The Best Spanish Wines Are
Now Coming from the Artisanal
Wineries By
John Mariani
Wine
writer and importer Gerry Dawes is nothing if not
highly opinionated about Spanish wines.As well he
should be when novelist James A. Michener says, “His adventures [in Spain]far exceeded mine
in both width and depth.” In 2003 Dawes was awarded
Spain's prestigious Prémio Naçional de
Gastronomía, and Spanish super-star chef Ferran
Adria said of him, “Spain wouldn’t be as known to
Americans without the stories Gerry tells and writes.” So, when Dawes (on the right, with winemaker Francisco Dovalo,
founder of the Assoc. of Bodegas Artesanas),
summoned me to New York’s Le Cirque restaurant for
tastings of his Spanish Artisan Wine Group Gerry Dawes
Selections, I expected to be as delighted by the wines
as by Dawes’s opinions. True to form, he began by
lashing into how so many contemporary Spanish wineries
are making wines in an international style. “These big
wineries are losing their souls,” he said. “Their
wines are deliberately made in that overripe, high
alcohol style that the wine media like Bob Parker
applaud.The
wines are all starting to taste the same and they give
you no sense of their terroir at all.The wines
might as well come from anywhere in Spain.Don’t get
me started on what’s happened to most of Ribera del
Duero, Rioja, and Navarra!” The wines—20 of them—Dawes was pouring came
from small growers, some of whom just began bottling
their wines, grown from their own clones of unfamiliar
grapes like espadeiro, tinta hembra, hoja redonda, and
godello.There
was a remarkable array of whites, and an extraordinary
rosado from the region of Cigales--Hermanos Merino
Viña Catajarros ‘Elite’ 2011 ($14), with its
dark rose color and a blend of 80 percent tempranillo,
5 percent garnacha, 10 percent verdejo, and 5 percent
albillo that really turned heads at our table of wine
media and sommeliers. “Absolutely delicious” was what I wrote next to
a rich 100 percent albarino, 2010 ($25) made by
Antonio Gondar of Adegas Avo Roxo (right) on just
1.5 hectares of land in O Salnes. Its Burgundy-like
power was achieved with no oak aging. Another white
wine—actually golden with a hint of pink—lush with
fruit and dense with minerality was a 2010 Cabaleiro
do Val Albariño ($25). The wine is made by
Francisco “Paco” Dovalo, founder and president of the
Association of Bodegas Artesanas, who makes his vino
de autor (signature wine) in an old granite farmhouse
dating to 1834. Were I enjoying a shellfish lunch on the harbor
on Mallorca, I could find no better match than O
Barreiro ‘A Silveira 2010 ($20), made from 100 percent
godello, from 30-year-old vines grown in a high
altitude vineyard in a mountain village named Seadur
above the Sil River Valley. We tasted five wines made from the mencia
grape, which, said Dawes, ““The
mencia grape is to ribeira sacra as gamay is to Morgon
or syrah is to Côte Rôtie–-a grape
perfectly matched to its terroir. A few years back mencia
showed a lot of promise, but too many vintners went
the high alcohol, in-your-face route, which is
unnecessary because mencia is a big wine with a lot of
character on its own and a distinct aroma.”
Indeed, some of the mencia
bottlings had a little funkiness on first whiff and
taste, but they showed varietal distinctions: the
Bodegas Adria Viña Barroca 2010 is very well
priced at $15; the Adegas D. Berna 2011 ($20) had a
pleasing minty flavor; and Don Bernardino
Tinto Joven 2011 ($17) reminded me of syrah, with rich
fruit and a slate-like minerality, yet it has only
12.5 percent alcohol. Most impressive of the mencias,
Viña Cazoga Tinto 2010 ($27), was a blend with
other varietals, whose bouquet was really quite
beautiful, followed by layers and layers of flavors
and a strong, long finish—the best wine of the day for
me--made by Jorgé Carnero (left). I also loved the 2007 Aliaga Garnacha Vieja
($20)made from old vines garnacha whose grapes undergo
a 20-day maceration that gives it a gorgeous nose,
color and depth, without depending on any oak or high
alcohol (the percentage is under 14). Similar, but
with more complexity, was a 2009 Terra Remota Camino
($29) made
from 40 percent garnacha, 30 percent syrah, 20 percent
cabernet sauvignon, and 10 percent tempranillo. The irony of
these artisanal wines is that few ever reach Madrid,
Barcelona or the rest of Spain, available only to
local people and restaurants in their respective
regions. But Dawes has edged them into the U.S., now
found at notable New York City restaurants like
Picholine, Porter House, and Tertulia in Manhattan,Blue Hill at Stone Barns in
Tarrytown, NY, and Crabtree’s Kittle House in
Chappaqua, NY, as well as at several wine stores in
the TriState area. “There aren’t a whole lot of these wines being
made,” said Dawes over a closing glass of Aliaga
Moscatel. “Many of these guys are farmers who only
made wines for the locals.But if you want to taste the
Spanish terroir and the handiwork of the artisans,
they are well worth seeking out.
John Mariani's wine column appears
in Bloomberg
Muse News, from which this story was adapted.
Bloomberg News covers Culture from art, books, and
theater to wine, travel, and food on a daily basis.
❖❖❖
BOY OH BOY, WE CAN'T WAIT TO SHOW THE LOVE TO
THOSE HIP NEW
RESTAURANTS
WITH THE CLASH PLAYING, BACK-LESS
CHAIRS AND LINES WAITING TO GET IN!!
"Ten years ago, it was most likely one of those `temples
of gastronomy,' a restaurant with 800-thread-count white
tablecloths, entrées hovering around $40, and an
exclusive atmosphere. Five years ago, things started to
relax, and it wasn't just the food: The Clash played on
the speakers, the chairs were backless, and customers
balked at the long lines rather than the high
prices."--Andrew Knowlton, "America's Best New
Restaurants," Bon
Appetit (Sept. 2012).
WRETCHED
EXCESS NO. 5,668
NYC'S
Big Gay Ice Cream and Robicelli's Cupcakes is now
selling the Salty Pimp, made of vanilla cake
around dulce
de leche pudding, topping it with dulce de
leche
buttercream frosting in fudge .
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
My
latest book, which just won the prize for best
book from International Gourmand, written with
Jim Heimann and Steven Heller,Menu Design in America,1850-1985 (Taschen
Books), has just appeared, with nearly 1,000
beautiful, historic, hilarious, sometimes
shocking menus dating back to before the Civil
War and going through the Gilded Age, the Jazz
Age, the Depression, the nightclub era of the
1930s and 1940s, the Space Age era, and the age
when menus were a form of advertising in
innovative explosions of color and modern
design.The book is
a chronicle of changing tastes and mores and
says as much about America as about its food and
drink.
“Luxuriating
vicariously
in the pleasures of this book. . . you can’t
help but become hungry. . .for the food of
course, but also for something more: the bygone
days of our country’s splendidly rich and
complex past.Epicureans
of both good food and artful design will do well
to make it their coffee table’s main
course.”—Chip Kidd, Wall Street
Journal.
“[The
menus] reflect the amazing craftsmanship that
many restaurants applied to their bills of fare,
and suggest that today’s restaurateurs could
learn a lot from their predecessors.”—Rebecca
Marx, The Village Voice.
My new book--Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has just won top prize 2011 from
the Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani
"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.
"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent to
virtual culinary hegemony....Like a
chef gladly divulging a cherished
family recipe, Mariani’s book
reveals the secret sauce about how
Italy’s cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross, thedailybeast.com
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.
"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.
"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square Cafe,
Gotham Bar & Grill, The Modern, and
Maialino.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK:
Eating Las Vegas
is the new on-line site for Virtual Gourmet
contributor John A. Curtas., who since 1995
has been commenting on the Las Vegas food
scene and reviewing restaurants for Nevada
Public Radio. He is also the
restaurant critic for KLAS TV, Channel 8 in
Las Vegas, and his past reviews can be
accessed at KNPR.org.
Click on the logo below to go directly to
his site.
Tennis Resorts Online:
A Critical Guide to the
World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published
by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades
writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch
for Tennis magazine.
He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel &
Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal,
and The Robb
Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis
Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking
Penguin, 1990) and The
Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin,
1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter
to the Wall Street
Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's
Travel Guides, 1991).
nickonwine:
An engaging, interactive
wine column by Nick Passmore, Artisanal Editor, Four
Seasons Magazine; Wine Columnist, BusinessWeek.com;
nick@nickonwine.com; www.nickonwine.com.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani.
Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Suzanne Wright,and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,
Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.