MARIANI’S
Virtual Gourmet
January 30, 2022 NEWSLETTER
Cary Gran
❖❖❖
IN THIS ISSUE
GOING HOME TO LAURINO, ITALY
By John Mariani
NEW YORK CORNER
LINDENS
By John Mariani
ANOTHER VERMEER
CHAPTER FIVE
By John Mariani
NOTES FROM THE SPIRITS LOCKER
LOUISE MCGUANE ENTERS THE TOUGH,
MALE-DOMINATED IRISH WHISKEY MARKET
By John Mariani
❖❖❖
❖❖❖
GOING HOME TO LAURINO, ITALY
By John Mariani
A few weeks ago I wrote of a hill town on the Adriatic in the Abruzzo region of
Italy from which my
paternal grandparents emigrated at the beginning
of the 20th century. The other side of my family
was from Campania, the region south of Naples and
north of Calabria. They had lived in Laurino,
another hilltop town whose steep, winding inclines
discouraged invaders from attacking. 
Now a World Heritage Site, Laurino, once called “La Perla del Calore,” dates back to the 3rd century BC, set 1,700 feet above the Calore Lucano River (right). By the 12th century the town had what was then considered a significant population of about 3,500, but after Laurino was destroyed by Frederick III of Sicily during the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1232-1302), their numbers decreased, and, following a long period of impoverishment, many people, like my ancestors, left town to make their fortunes in America. Today only 1,500 people live there. Tourists have increased, especially those who are naturalists and know the surrounding forests and woodlands as ecologically sound.
It
is believed that the town took its name from
the laurel trees that are everywhere around it. When
I visited Laurino, I found it looking nothing like
impoverished, although there was little about it
that one would characterize as grandeur. Instead, it
has a blissful, quiet charm, wholly antithetical to
Italy’s big, tourist-engorged cities. And unlike
many hill towns that are still impoverished, dark
and often dreary, Laurino is a place one could
readily imagine returning to after a lifetime in
America, or as a place where you can rent a villa
remarkably cheaply. At the moment I’m seeing an
array
of six-week rentals for about $1,300, even in the
summer months. (At the moment the Convento (above
and right), once a nun’s convent with
beautiful cloisters, is closed but books its simple
rooms at prices under $100.) Its interior cloisters
are evocatively beautiful of when this was sacred
space, now a place to sit and have a glass of wine.
The town is about two hours from Naples (trains and buses service the area), an hour from Marina Casalvallino on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and, driving through the gorgeous National Park through Puglia, just three hours from the Adriatic Coast and the city of Bari. Thus, Laurino is a good place for staying put while discovering the region of Campania and Puglia to the north and east.
Owing to the destruction wrought by successive invaders, Laurino is not rich in historical monuments. The ruins of the Ducale Palace are of negligible interest, but the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (left) is both beautiful and finely restored to its true vibrant colors, with its arched ceiling devoted to images of the Virgin Mary’s life. Its painted wooden carvings also give you a good idea how statues were not left in their natural wood but effusively painted and gilded.
There is a medieval bridge that leads into the hills, fragrant with laurel in springtime, where natural springs fall in lovely, melodious cascades. Within the town the roads wind in and out, up and town, always revealing a new view around the
next
corner or a panorama of the
Apennines. Those tourists the town draws are most
often trekkers in those mountains.
Throughout the year hotels of good quality (three stars by the European rating system, which means modest but comfortable) go for $100 or less. Just outside of town, the Antico Frantoio (below) is $80. Terrazza di Laurino ($76) is a two-bedroom house with garden and pool.
The food in Campania is,
typically, like that of Naples, very strongly
Southern Italian, with rich sauces based on
seasonality, wonderful macaroni with tomatoes and braciola meat
rolls. Set up in the mountains, Laurino is not ideal
for seafood, but you can depend on robust
tomato-based dishes (Campania is where the tomato
from America was first planted) so a simple plate of
spaghetti with marinara sauce or pommarola
(with tomato, carrots, onions and celery) is a local
treat. In the autumn the woods teem with wild
mushrooms put to good use in the kitchens
here. 
Il Rifugio Dei Briganti
(Refuge of the Brigands) is a restaurant located
in town and dining al fresco there is a joy, when
they light up the grill for steaks, veal, pork and
sausages. It's very much a place where the people
of the area hold celebrations. La Villa
is a local drop-in trattoria noted for their
freshly made pastas and long-simmered meats (right),
and there is good Neapolitan-style pizza at Pizzeria
Sant’Antonio.
The increasingly modern-style wines of Campania have euphonious names like Taurasi, Lacrima Christi, Greco di Tufo and Fiano Avellino. The area is also known for its olives like Ogliara, Rotondella, Leccino and Frantoio. Laureana Cilento, in nearby Serra Marina, is a producer particularly known for its fine olive oils.
In August
Laurino hosts a well-regarded Jazz festival that
draws Italian and local musicians. Year-round the
nature lover will seek out Laurino for its
surroundings, while Italians from Naples will drive
there on weekends for the peace and quiet it offers.
For me, the isolation of the town and the palpable spirit that this is where my people came from centers myself and reminds me of the flavors and aromas of my grandmother's kitchen. In ancestral places like Laurino, I can go home again, and even if I go away again, those memories never leave me.
❖❖❖
LINDENS
Arlo Hotel
2 Renwick Street
212-390-8484
By John Mariani
Photos by Emily Andrews
You
enter into a large dining room whose Green Wall is
a mossy hanging, with 80 seats inside and 40 in a
lovely courtyard, which has two heated wooden
cabins for ten people each, beyond the wraparound
bar and raw bar. The lighting is low at night—the
tables against that Green Wall are better—so that
with the bare, dark wood tables, it is impossible
to see just how beautiful chef-partner Carsten
Johannsen’s food is, as the photos here 
show
during the daytime. Piping in pounding
contemporary music might work at the bar, but it’s
an earsore while dining.
Johannsen (right) and veteran restaurateur Gary Wallach (below) of Renwick Hospitality Group run Lindens with “a produce-forward ethos [that] encompasses the food and beverage experience, with both menus centered on evolving seasonality
in
support of local growers and purveyors.” Fair
enough; the sentiment is clearly followed through
on the menu, which is very much
ingredients-driven, starting with the raw bar with
items such as fresh East and West Coast
oysters ($22/$24), also available as a
sampler (prepared three different ways), and
excellent hamachi ceviche with jalapeño peppers,
pink lemon and smoked salt ($22) and tuna tataki with
avocado, ponzu, sansho
pepper and puffed farro ($22); there is also
an oyster happy hour (prices half off)
with drink specials. 
By the way, the many signature cocktails categorized as herbal, vegetal, and floral are priced at $16, slightly lower than comparable restaurants these days. Prices for the food, too, are moderate, especially for a restaurant of this refinement, with no main courses over $29.
Begin with "Herbs and Veggies" that include thyme-scented Parker House rolls (a little dense one night) with sweet acorn squash butter ($8) that will go well with all else. Shoestring potatoes with seasoning salt, herb mix and truffle aïoli ($10) are listed under this appetizer category, but do not fail to have them with the main courses. They are a big portion four people can share, without leaving a single one in the paper sheath.
The
idea of a root vegetable tart ($18) takes on
succulence from ricotta and a
truffle vinaigrette in a very good puff pastry.
"Pizza & Pasta" follows, and the margherita variety ($26)—always my standard for judging pizza—was very thin-crusted and very tasty, making for a good snack for the table. Two pastas—butternut gnocchi with caramelized parsnips, cipollini onions and a mushroom jus ($18) and a kabocha squash ravioli with pancetta, sage, and five-year-old Banyuls vinegar ($24)—were both flavorful and had acid balance to their sweetness, though al dente they were not.
Charred & Roasted entrees included a juicy striped bass ($26) well served by celery root, Port wine, the surprise of a diver scallop and the tang of Meyer lemon. The hanger steak with welcome parsnips, the bite of chimichurri and sweetness of fried shallots was a delicious departure from the usual steak frites ($29).
There are two cheeseburgers on the menu. Oddly enough the nice beefy, juicy option, with sweet grilled onions, crisp
lettuce
and hot cherry pepper relish, was only $16—a very
good buy—but the “Impossible cheeseburger,” which
is vegetarian with the same condiments, was a
dollar more. I try to keep an open mind about
vegetables masquerading as meat, but the latter
was impossible for me to really get enthused
about, especially after one bite of the other
burger. I'll stick with the delicious real thing
here.
By the way, every dish is noted with an alphabetic letter— “v” for vegetarian, “gf” for gluten free, “pb” for plant-based and “n” for “contains nuts”—if you need that sort of guidance.
Desserts are all $14 and worth every penny, not least a plate of chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven, and a root beer float with cake batter soft serve ice cream and captain crunch, which my dining companions did not quite get but I sipped down with pure childish pleasure. The lemon and bourbon donuts, not as airy as they might have been, were dusted with cinnamon, sugar and luscious chocolate sauce. A gluten-free PB&J Brownie with extra virgin olive oil is also on the menu.
Wallach oversees the spirits and wine list, and, though modest in size, the selection is judicious and goes with this kind of food and does so at a fair price. There is a choice of a dozen different teas ($4) and as many coffees ($3.50-$5.50).
It is always good to see a serious restaurant with a chef whose ideas match the inventiveness of the décor. And Lindens’s location on such a quiet street is an added attraction in a neighborhood with few others.
Lindens is open daily for dinner, Sat. & Sun. for brunch.
Note: NYC Health Dept. rules require both staff and guests 12 or older to show proof they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
ANOTHER VERMEER
By John Mariani
IN THIS ISSUE
GOING HOME TO LAURINO, ITALY
By John Mariani
NEW YORK CORNER
LINDENS
By John Mariani
ANOTHER VERMEER
CHAPTER FIVE
By John Mariani
NOTES FROM THE SPIRITS LOCKER
LOUISE MCGUANE ENTERS THE TOUGH,
MALE-DOMINATED IRISH WHISKEY MARKET
By John Mariani
❖❖❖
On this week's episode of my WVOX
Radio Show "Almost Golden," on Wed. February
2 at 11AM EST,I will be
interviewing Jeffrey 
Sussman, author of
the new book Holocaust Fighters.
Go to: WVOX.com.
The episode will also be archived at: almostgolden.
Sussman, author of
the new book Holocaust Fighters.
Go to: WVOX.com.
The episode will also be archived at: almostgolden.❖❖❖
GOING HOME TO LAURINO, ITALY
By John Mariani
A few weeks ago I wrote of a hill town on the Adriatic in the Abruzzo region of
Italy from which my
paternal grandparents emigrated at the beginning
of the 20th century. The other side of my family
was from Campania, the region south of Naples and
north of Calabria. They had lived in Laurino,
another hilltop town whose steep, winding inclines
discouraged invaders from attacking. Now a World Heritage Site, Laurino, once called “La Perla del Calore,” dates back to the 3rd century BC, set 1,700 feet above the Calore Lucano River (right). By the 12th century the town had what was then considered a significant population of about 3,500, but after Laurino was destroyed by Frederick III of Sicily during the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1232-1302), their numbers decreased, and, following a long period of impoverishment, many people, like my ancestors, left town to make their fortunes in America. Today only 1,500 people live there. Tourists have increased, especially those who are naturalists and know the surrounding forests and woodlands as ecologically sound.
It
is believed that the town took its name from
the laurel trees that are everywhere around it. When
I visited Laurino, I found it looking nothing like
impoverished, although there was little about it
that one would characterize as grandeur. Instead, it
has a blissful, quiet charm, wholly antithetical to
Italy’s big, tourist-engorged cities. And unlike
many hill towns that are still impoverished, dark
and often dreary, Laurino is a place one could
readily imagine returning to after a lifetime in
America, or as a place where you can rent a villa
remarkably cheaply. At the moment I’m seeing an array
of six-week rentals for about $1,300, even in the
summer months. (At the moment the Convento (above
and right), once a nun’s convent with
beautiful cloisters, is closed but books its simple
rooms at prices under $100.) Its interior cloisters
are evocatively beautiful of when this was sacred
space, now a place to sit and have a glass of wine.The town is about two hours from Naples (trains and buses service the area), an hour from Marina Casalvallino on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and, driving through the gorgeous National Park through Puglia, just three hours from the Adriatic Coast and the city of Bari. Thus, Laurino is a good place for staying put while discovering the region of Campania and Puglia to the north and east.
Owing to the destruction wrought by successive invaders, Laurino is not rich in historical monuments. The ruins of the Ducale Palace are of negligible interest, but the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (left) is both beautiful and finely restored to its true vibrant colors, with its arched ceiling devoted to images of the Virgin Mary’s life. Its painted wooden carvings also give you a good idea how statues were not left in their natural wood but effusively painted and gilded.
There is a medieval bridge that leads into the hills, fragrant with laurel in springtime, where natural springs fall in lovely, melodious cascades. Within the town the roads wind in and out, up and town, always revealing a new view around the
next
corner or a panorama of the
Apennines. Those tourists the town draws are most
often trekkers in those mountains.Throughout the year hotels of good quality (three stars by the European rating system, which means modest but comfortable) go for $100 or less. Just outside of town, the Antico Frantoio (below) is $80. Terrazza di Laurino ($76) is a two-bedroom house with garden and pool.
The food in Campania is,
typically, like that of Naples, very strongly
Southern Italian, with rich sauces based on
seasonality, wonderful macaroni with tomatoes and braciola meat
rolls. Set up in the mountains, Laurino is not ideal
for seafood, but you can depend on robust
tomato-based dishes (Campania is where the tomato
from America was first planted) so a simple plate of
spaghetti with marinara sauce or pommarola
(with tomato, carrots, onions and celery) is a local
treat. In the autumn the woods teem with wild
mushrooms put to good use in the kitchens
here. Il Rifugio Dei Briganti
(Refuge of the Brigands) is a restaurant located
in town and dining al fresco there is a joy, when
they light up the grill for steaks, veal, pork and
sausages. It's very much a place where the people
of the area hold celebrations. La Villa
is a local drop-in trattoria noted for their
freshly made pastas and long-simmered meats (right),
and there is good Neapolitan-style pizza at Pizzeria
Sant’Antonio.The increasingly modern-style wines of Campania have euphonious names like Taurasi, Lacrima Christi, Greco di Tufo and Fiano Avellino. The area is also known for its olives like Ogliara, Rotondella, Leccino and Frantoio. Laureana Cilento, in nearby Serra Marina, is a producer particularly known for its fine olive oils.
In August
Laurino hosts a well-regarded Jazz festival that
draws Italian and local musicians. Year-round the
nature lover will seek out Laurino for its
surroundings, while Italians from Naples will drive
there on weekends for the peace and quiet it offers.
For me, the isolation of the town and the palpable spirit that this is where my people came from centers myself and reminds me of the flavors and aromas of my grandmother's kitchen. In ancestral places like Laurino, I can go home again, and even if I go away again, those memories never leave me.
❖❖❖
NEW YORK CORNER
LINDENS
Arlo Hotel
2 Renwick Street
212-390-8484
By John Mariani
Photos by Emily Andrews
Lindens is a handsome, brand new
restaurant within the four-year-old Arlo Soho
Hotel on an unusually quiet block off the
frenzied clamor of Canal Street. Its name is
inspired by the many linden trees that line
Gotham’s sidewalks—27,433 of the Littleleaf
variety alone—though none on Lindens's own
street.
You
enter into a large dining room whose Green Wall is
a mossy hanging, with 80 seats inside and 40 in a
lovely courtyard, which has two heated wooden
cabins for ten people each, beyond the wraparound
bar and raw bar. The lighting is low at night—the
tables against that Green Wall are better—so that
with the bare, dark wood tables, it is impossible
to see just how beautiful chef-partner Carsten
Johannsen’s food is, as the photos here show
during the daytime. Piping in pounding
contemporary music might work at the bar, but it’s
an earsore while dining. Johannsen (right) and veteran restaurateur Gary Wallach (below) of Renwick Hospitality Group run Lindens with “a produce-forward ethos [that] encompasses the food and beverage experience, with both menus centered on evolving seasonality
in
support of local growers and purveyors.” Fair
enough; the sentiment is clearly followed through
on the menu, which is very much
ingredients-driven, starting with the raw bar with
items such as fresh East and West Coast
oysters ($22/$24), also available as a
sampler (prepared three different ways), and
excellent hamachi ceviche with jalapeño peppers,
pink lemon and smoked salt ($22) and tuna tataki with
avocado, ponzu, sansho
pepper and puffed farro ($22); there is also
an oyster happy hour (prices half off)
with drink specials. By the way, the many signature cocktails categorized as herbal, vegetal, and floral are priced at $16, slightly lower than comparable restaurants these days. Prices for the food, too, are moderate, especially for a restaurant of this refinement, with no main courses over $29.
Begin with "Herbs and Veggies" that include thyme-scented Parker House rolls (a little dense one night) with sweet acorn squash butter ($8) that will go well with all else. Shoestring potatoes with seasoning salt, herb mix and truffle aïoli ($10) are listed under this appetizer category, but do not fail to have them with the main courses. They are a big portion four people can share, without leaving a single one in the paper sheath.
The
idea of a root vegetable tart ($18) takes on
succulence from ricotta and a
truffle vinaigrette in a very good puff pastry.
"Pizza & Pasta" follows, and the margherita variety ($26)—always my standard for judging pizza—was very thin-crusted and very tasty, making for a good snack for the table. Two pastas—butternut gnocchi with caramelized parsnips, cipollini onions and a mushroom jus ($18) and a kabocha squash ravioli with pancetta, sage, and five-year-old Banyuls vinegar ($24)—were both flavorful and had acid balance to their sweetness, though al dente they were not.
Charred & Roasted entrees included a juicy striped bass ($26) well served by celery root, Port wine, the surprise of a diver scallop and the tang of Meyer lemon. The hanger steak with welcome parsnips, the bite of chimichurri and sweetness of fried shallots was a delicious departure from the usual steak frites ($29).
There are two cheeseburgers on the menu. Oddly enough the nice beefy, juicy option, with sweet grilled onions, crisp
lettuce
and hot cherry pepper relish, was only $16—a very
good buy—but the “Impossible cheeseburger,” which
is vegetarian with the same condiments, was a
dollar more. I try to keep an open mind about
vegetables masquerading as meat, but the latter
was impossible for me to really get enthused
about, especially after one bite of the other
burger. I'll stick with the delicious real thing
here.By the way, every dish is noted with an alphabetic letter— “v” for vegetarian, “gf” for gluten free, “pb” for plant-based and “n” for “contains nuts”—if you need that sort of guidance.
Desserts are all $14 and worth every penny, not least a plate of chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven, and a root beer float with cake batter soft serve ice cream and captain crunch, which my dining companions did not quite get but I sipped down with pure childish pleasure. The lemon and bourbon donuts, not as airy as they might have been, were dusted with cinnamon, sugar and luscious chocolate sauce. A gluten-free PB&J Brownie with extra virgin olive oil is also on the menu.
Wallach oversees the spirits and wine list, and, though modest in size, the selection is judicious and goes with this kind of food and does so at a fair price. There is a choice of a dozen different teas ($4) and as many coffees ($3.50-$5.50).
It is always good to see a serious restaurant with a chef whose ideas match the inventiveness of the décor. And Lindens’s location on such a quiet street is an added attraction in a neighborhood with few others.
Lindens is open daily for dinner, Sat. & Sun. for brunch.
Note: NYC Health Dept. rules require both staff and guests 12 or older to show proof they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
❖❖❖
ANOTHER VERMEER
By John Mariani
CHAPTER FIVE
Complicit in frauds that involved
forgeries, bribing scholars to render favorable
judgments, extortion and blurring geo-political
lines were dealers, curators, tax experts and
bankers, even dictators. Though perfectly legal,
the acquisition of a rare, expensive painting from
an unknown source was often little more than an
investment in a work of art to be taken out of
circulation until it could be sold for far more
money. In some cases, art experts would try to
protect collectors’ investments by refusing to
accept the authenticity of a work, thereby keeping
it out of catalogs they themselves compiled. Often
the major auction houses, like Christie’s and
Sotheby’s, would arrange private sales between
sellers and buyers.
It was not a world David Greco knew at all, for there had been few instances where the New York mobs dabbled in art collecting. David once told Katie, “These guys have probably the worst possible taste in the world. They’d rather have a cheap, one-quarter size statue of Michelangelo’s David on their pool patio, or a bad copy of a naked goddess in their bedroom, than put out money for the real thing.”
Nevertheless, there had been incidents investigated by Interpol of the Italian and Russian mobs dealing in stolen artwork, helping private collectors to acquire ancient art from war zones, especially the Middle East. Stealing a Vermeer seemed very farfetched to David but not impossible to believe, which is why he called a colleague at the F.B.I.
The private line of F.B.I. investigator Frank English rang and when he picked it up his phone began recording the conversation.
“Frank? David Greco.”
Frank English turned off the recording machine and leaned back in his chair.
“I thought you said you’d wring my neck if you ever saw me again,” he said, recalling how David felt betrayed about information English had kept from him in the Capone case.
“Yeah, or words to that effect,” said David. “I still think you’re a shit, but I figure you owe me one to get off my shit list.”
“I don’t owe you anything, David, but humor me.”
“Who deals with fraud in the international art world?”
“Interpol, you know that. If a crime is committed in the United States, we get involved.”
“O.K., so give me a contact at Interpol and someone in your office who has worked on such a case. I won’t bother you again.”
English was quiet for a moment, then said, “A guy at this office who worked on such cases actually was recruited by Interpol about five years ago. Name was, uh, Gerald Kiley. I’ll have to look up his contacts, then ask him if he wants to speak with you.”
“Fair enough,” said David. “Do that and you’re off my shit list.”
“I’ve been lying awake nights worrying about that. Now I can sleep again. Goodbye, David.”
With the opening of so many
borders after the break-up of the Soviet Union,
Interpol had had its hands full tracking and
tracing illicit traffic in works of art as
“cultural heritage,” especially the black market
that had grown out of Iraq after the Gulf War in
1991. Since 1995 Interpol had built a database of
stolen art works accessible to law enforcement
agencies around the world, especially the U.N. and
International Council of Museums. It also
set up specialized police units, for which Gerald
Kiley worked, while training other police
organizations on a local level.
Frank English was as good as his word, for within twenty-four hours David’s phone rang and the caller asked for him.
“Speaking.”
“Yeah, this is Gerald Kiley, with Interpol. Frank English said you were working on a story about art fraud and had some questions.”
“I do. You have some time now? Where are you located?
“I’m here in the New York office.”
“Well, could we get together for an hour or so, say, tomorrow morning?”
“Make it eleven-thirty.”
“Perfect. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to bring along a journalist who’s writing a story about the international art world.”
“She the one who helped you with the Capone story?”
“More like the other way around.”
“All right, bring her along, see you tomorrow.”
David met Katie the next day at a coffee shop near the U.N., where the New York Interpol offices were located. Katie told David what she’d found out from O’Keeffe and asked how David’s research was going.
“I made some calls and they led us here. Interpol has had a lot of experience with stolen art, with some pretty amazing heists over the past few years. Frank English told me this guy we’re about to see will have details and give us some leads to follow.”
“Frank English? You two are speaking to each other?”
“Not as friends, just as professionals.”
“Does he think there might be something illegal going on with the Vermeer sale?”
“Not Frank, but I don’t think this Interpol guy would speak to us if there wasn’t something in the wind.”
As Katie did her rounds of New York’s art world, David was contacting old colleagues in the NYPD and F.B.I., some, like himself, retired, others still on the job. David had no particular reason to believe there was fraud or foul play being committed with regard to the Vermeer sale, but he also knew that the art world of private collectors was a shadowy place where participants played their roles as finaglers, enablers and go-betweens for super wealthy people around the world, many of whom did not wish to know or even ask from what source a painting was coming.
Complicit in frauds that involved
forgeries, bribing scholars to render favorable
judgments, extortion and blurring geo-political
lines were dealers, curators, tax experts and
bankers, even dictators. Though perfectly legal,
the acquisition of a rare, expensive painting from
an unknown source was often little more than an
investment in a work of art to be taken out of
circulation until it could be sold for far more
money. In some cases, art experts would try to
protect collectors’ investments by refusing to
accept the authenticity of a work, thereby keeping
it out of catalogs they themselves compiled. Often
the major auction houses, like Christie’s and
Sotheby’s, would arrange private sales between
sellers and buyers. It was not a world David Greco knew at all, for there had been few instances where the New York mobs dabbled in art collecting. David once told Katie, “These guys have probably the worst possible taste in the world. They’d rather have a cheap, one-quarter size statue of Michelangelo’s David on their pool patio, or a bad copy of a naked goddess in their bedroom, than put out money for the real thing.”
Nevertheless, there had been incidents investigated by Interpol of the Italian and Russian mobs dealing in stolen artwork, helping private collectors to acquire ancient art from war zones, especially the Middle East. Stealing a Vermeer seemed very farfetched to David but not impossible to believe, which is why he called a colleague at the F.B.I.
The private line of F.B.I. investigator Frank English rang and when he picked it up his phone began recording the conversation.
“Frank? David Greco.”
Frank English turned off the recording machine and leaned back in his chair.
“I thought you said you’d wring my neck if you ever saw me again,” he said, recalling how David felt betrayed about information English had kept from him in the Capone case.
“Yeah, or words to that effect,” said David. “I still think you’re a shit, but I figure you owe me one to get off my shit list.”
“I don’t owe you anything, David, but humor me.”
“Who deals with fraud in the international art world?”
“Interpol, you know that. If a crime is committed in the United States, we get involved.”
“O.K., so give me a contact at Interpol and someone in your office who has worked on such a case. I won’t bother you again.”
English was quiet for a moment, then said, “A guy at this office who worked on such cases actually was recruited by Interpol about five years ago. Name was, uh, Gerald Kiley. I’ll have to look up his contacts, then ask him if he wants to speak with you.”
“Fair enough,” said David. “Do that and you’re off my shit list.”
“I’ve been lying awake nights worrying about that. Now I can sleep again. Goodbye, David.”
With the opening of so many
borders after the break-up of the Soviet Union,
Interpol had had its hands full tracking and
tracing illicit traffic in works of art as
“cultural heritage,” especially the black market
that had grown out of Iraq after the Gulf War in
1991. Since 1995 Interpol had built a database of
stolen art works accessible to law enforcement
agencies around the world, especially the U.N. and
International Council of Museums. It also
set up specialized police units, for which Gerald
Kiley worked, while training other police
organizations on a local level. Frank English was as good as his word, for within twenty-four hours David’s phone rang and the caller asked for him.
“Speaking.”
“Yeah, this is Gerald Kiley, with Interpol. Frank English said you were working on a story about art fraud and had some questions.”
“I do. You have some time now? Where are you located?
“I’m here in the New York office.”
“Well, could we get together for an hour or so, say, tomorrow morning?”
“Make it eleven-thirty.”
“Perfect. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to bring along a journalist who’s writing a story about the international art world.”
“She the one who helped you with the Capone story?”
“More like the other way around.”
“All right, bring her along, see you tomorrow.”
David met Katie the next day at a coffee shop near the U.N., where the New York Interpol offices were located. Katie told David what she’d found out from O’Keeffe and asked how David’s research was going.
“I made some calls and they led us here. Interpol has had a lot of experience with stolen art, with some pretty amazing heists over the past few years. Frank English told me this guy we’re about to see will have details and give us some leads to follow.”
“Frank English? You two are speaking to each other?”
“Not as friends, just as professionals.”
“Does he think there might be something illegal going on with the Vermeer sale?”
“Not Frank, but I don’t think this Interpol guy would speak to us if there wasn’t something in the wind.”
© John Mariani, 2016
❖❖❖
NOTES FROM THE SPIRITS LOCKER
Irish whiskey production has long been an all-male industry, but now, with sales soaring worldwide, Ireland has its first woman heading a new label, J.J. Corry Irish Whiskey. Louise McGuane wanted to bring back the tradition of Whiskey Bonding, becoming the first Whiskey Bonder in Ireland in well over 50 years. Her bottlings have already won numerous awards, including a Gold Medal in the Irish Whiskey Awards and the SF World Spirits Awards. I conducted an interview with McGuane to find out about edging into the industry and her intention to be different from her now numerous competitors.
Give me some of your background before you went back to the family farm.
I left Ireland when I was 18 years old to go to university in the UK, and the day I graduated I immigrated to the USA. In the intervening years I built a career in the global drinks industry with major multinationals such as Moët Hennessey, Pernod Ricard and Diageo. That took me to work and live in New York, Paris, London and ultimately Singapore.
I was fortunate to work with some of the most brilliant people and learn the industry from the street up. Ultimately, though, in corporate life I was a square peg in a round hole. Once I hit a certain level, I found that I was not actually producing much anymore other than spreadsheets and PowerPoints, and I no longer enjoyed it. I was privy to industry intel and could read that Irish Whiskey was about to follow the path of American craft whiskey in that the time was right for radical growth and change.
After almost 20 years abroad I decided to return to Ireland and founded J.J. Corry Irish Whiskey and become one of the first new wave of independent producers.
What was the farm producing?
The farm is still operational; it’s a dairy and beef farm. My Dad raises grass-fed beef and has about 50 cattle and produces milk.
What
is meant by “the only Bonded Rackhouse in Ireland
to resurrect the lost art of Whiskey Bonding”?
Up until the 1930s there were hundreds of whiskey bonders in Ireland. Rather than maturing, bottling and branding whiskey themselves, many distillers in Ireland sold directly to whiskey bonders, who handled that. Bonders like J.J. Corry were very often small mercantile owners, retailing everything from ammunition to alcohol and tea. They would source whiskey from their local distillery and mature it in casks previously used to house sherries, rums or wine. Bonders would custom blend whiskies for their customers, leading to a huge variety of flavors. All of the bonders died out when the whiskey industry collapsed, and the remaining few distilleries cut off the supply to the bonders.
When I set about founding an Irish Whiskey company, I looked locally at the history of whiskey making in County Clare, where I am based, and I discovered the J.J. Corry brand, which was operational from 1890 until 1932. After extensive research into local and British parliamentary archives, I discovered that whiskey bonding was once a vital part of the industry. So, rather than setting up a grain-to-glass distillery, I decided to bring back this lost art for modern whiskey consumers.
I purposely built a Rackhouse [warehouse] on the family farm and began to build a library of Irish Whiskey flavors (below). We source whiskey from distilleries all over the island and casks from all over the world. We match spirit to cask and mature here on the west coast. We then blend selections from that library to create our own unique expressions.
Are there any other women involved at your level of whiskey making in Ireland? Has there been pushback
by the
old-line distillers?
I’m the only solo female Founder in Irish Whiskey and I have a team of women who work with me. Ireland has been slower to welcome women into the industry than other countries and that is largely because the industry was very small until recently. However, we are seeing women take up senior roles, in blending in particular. I’ve not experienced gender specific pushback from the Old Guard, rather as an independent modern producer my approach has always been to modernization, innovation and transparency, because I believe that is what the industry needs to grow and be competitive.
I co-founded the Irish Whiskey Guild, which is made up of new independent producers, so that smaller players would have a voice in the regulatory elements of the industry, which we were excluded from prior. If I’ve experienced pushback, it’s been around that, rather than my gender specifically. My open and fresh approach to communication and my sometimes-critical stance on elements of the industry that needed change possibly means I won’t be getting invited to various old school Irish Whiskey & Cigar industry events anytime soon. I’m ok with that.
Who is your master distiller?
I don’t have one; we don’t distill. I work with distillers all over the island of Ireland, and coopers all over the world for cask selection. We focus on the blend (below), and I work with a team of noses to do that.
By 1966 the number of distilleries had fallen to just two, and by 1972 the remaining distilleries, Bushmills Distillery and Old Midleton Distillery, were owned by just one company, Irish Distillers. In 1987 Cooley distillery came on line, and now there are 32 distilleries in operation, with more either planned or under development. Is the Irish Whiskey industry overbuilt?
No, what is happening in Irish Whiskey is simply a market correction. Ireland is the only historic whiskey producing country that essentially stalled in whiskey production or expansion. In the late 1800s over a 50-year period, the Irish Whiskey industry effectively collapsed. We lost all regional and local production, and we lost whiskey bonding during that time. We went from having several hundred distilleries on the island and a whiskey bonder or two in every market town in 1880, to having almost no whiskey bonders at all and only a handful of distilleries by the 1930s. After that time period every Irish Whiskey on the market was produced by one of two distilleries until Cooley came along.
The apparent radical sudden growth spurt is in line with the growth of whiskey in general, and in line with consumer demand for ‘craft’ or independent spirits with real people behind them. It was not beneficial for the industry to have two foreign multinational companies producing all Irish Whiskey; it led for some time to a race to the bottom in terms of pricing and category perception.
Many of the newer, smaller independent players are aiming for the high growth Super Premium end of the market and are bringing new or re-visited heritage techniques to the industry. To be competitive against bourbon, Japanese, or even Canadian whiskey, Irish has to have quality, innovation and variety to offer consumers that is only going to be driven by independent producers. Like any industry, there will be some attrition as time goes on. Whiskey tends to be a generational cyclical business, but 30-plus distilleries in Ireland is here to stay. The bigger issue in Irish Whiskey is the dominance of a single multinational player skewing growth figures.
What kind of financial resources does one need to start up a brand?
Whiskey is extremely capital intensive and Irish Whiskey in particular, which has to age for minimum of three years, is a precarious business in the early years. You need to essentially park a lot of cash and then just wait. Debt is hard to come by as a smaller player, since Irish banks don’t understand the asset class. If you wish to have a lifestyle business, a starting point of $500,000 is good. Looking back, I certainly would not have started without at least one million in the bank and I would not advise anyone else to do so either, as bootstrapping a global whiskey brand is exceedingly difficult.
Was it easy access to the U.S. market?
It was not. The United States has the most difficult alcohol market to access in the world due to the three-tier system. This, compounded with distributor consolidation and producer proliferations, means that getting noticed and finding an importation partner is extremely competitive. I am fortunate enough to have a working knowledge of the market and was able to navigate it and land an excellent importer with a national reach. This sets us up with an engine for growth in the USA, the most important market for Irish Whiskey.
What—and please be very specific—makes J.J. Corry distinguished from other Irish Whiskies?
We are building the most extensive library of Irish Whiskey flavors in the world and creating whiskies from that library. As whiskey bonders, we source casks from wineries, distilleries, and coopers all over the world, and then we source whiskies from distilleries all over Ireland. We match those individual whiskies to cask types and mature them on site. Each cask we have is then classified into a flavor block and, when ready, we pull flavors from those blocks and blend them to create our expressions. This variety derived from our library of flavors is what distinguishes us from other Irish Whiskies and allows us to create unique blends.
.jpg)
What are the basic rules and regulations that make Irish different from Scotch?
A distinct advantage we have over Scotch is that we can use any kind of wooden casks for maturation. From a regulatory standpoint this really is the only thing that is significantly different.
What is your capacity and is it possible to increase year by year?
Our capacity for growth is unhindered because of our whiskey bonding model. We source from large-scale and small-scale distilleries. It’s a great time to be a whiskey bonder, given the proliferations of new distilleries across the island.
How has climate change affected the whiskey industry?
Distillation of whiskey has historically been environmentally impactful; there is a lot of heat generation needed and wastewater produced. Mature wood is needed for maturation and peat must be cut for peated whiskey. Compounded with elaborate packaging and the shipping of glass bottles around the world, the industry needed to make a lot of changes to come in line. Across the industry, we are seeing radical moves towards sustainability efforts and many new distilleries in particular are aiming for carbon neutrality from day one.
LOUISE MCGUANE ENTERS THE TOUGH,
MALE-DOMINATED IRISH WHISKEY MARKET
By John Mariani
Photos by
MALE-DOMINATED IRISH WHISKEY MARKET
By John Mariani
Photos by
Irish whiskey production has long been an all-male industry, but now, with sales soaring worldwide, Ireland has its first woman heading a new label, J.J. Corry Irish Whiskey. Louise McGuane wanted to bring back the tradition of Whiskey Bonding, becoming the first Whiskey Bonder in Ireland in well over 50 years. Her bottlings have already won numerous awards, including a Gold Medal in the Irish Whiskey Awards and the SF World Spirits Awards. I conducted an interview with McGuane to find out about edging into the industry and her intention to be different from her now numerous competitors.
Give me some of your background before you went back to the family farm.
I left Ireland when I was 18 years old to go to university in the UK, and the day I graduated I immigrated to the USA. In the intervening years I built a career in the global drinks industry with major multinationals such as Moët Hennessey, Pernod Ricard and Diageo. That took me to work and live in New York, Paris, London and ultimately Singapore.
I was fortunate to work with some of the most brilliant people and learn the industry from the street up. Ultimately, though, in corporate life I was a square peg in a round hole. Once I hit a certain level, I found that I was not actually producing much anymore other than spreadsheets and PowerPoints, and I no longer enjoyed it. I was privy to industry intel and could read that Irish Whiskey was about to follow the path of American craft whiskey in that the time was right for radical growth and change.
After almost 20 years abroad I decided to return to Ireland and founded J.J. Corry Irish Whiskey and become one of the first new wave of independent producers.
What was the farm producing?
The farm is still operational; it’s a dairy and beef farm. My Dad raises grass-fed beef and has about 50 cattle and produces milk.
What
is meant by “the only Bonded Rackhouse in Ireland
to resurrect the lost art of Whiskey Bonding”?Up until the 1930s there were hundreds of whiskey bonders in Ireland. Rather than maturing, bottling and branding whiskey themselves, many distillers in Ireland sold directly to whiskey bonders, who handled that. Bonders like J.J. Corry were very often small mercantile owners, retailing everything from ammunition to alcohol and tea. They would source whiskey from their local distillery and mature it in casks previously used to house sherries, rums or wine. Bonders would custom blend whiskies for their customers, leading to a huge variety of flavors. All of the bonders died out when the whiskey industry collapsed, and the remaining few distilleries cut off the supply to the bonders.
When I set about founding an Irish Whiskey company, I looked locally at the history of whiskey making in County Clare, where I am based, and I discovered the J.J. Corry brand, which was operational from 1890 until 1932. After extensive research into local and British parliamentary archives, I discovered that whiskey bonding was once a vital part of the industry. So, rather than setting up a grain-to-glass distillery, I decided to bring back this lost art for modern whiskey consumers.
I purposely built a Rackhouse [warehouse] on the family farm and began to build a library of Irish Whiskey flavors (below). We source whiskey from distilleries all over the island and casks from all over the world. We match spirit to cask and mature here on the west coast. We then blend selections from that library to create our own unique expressions.
Are there any other women involved at your level of whiskey making in Ireland? Has there been pushback
by the
old-line distillers?I’m the only solo female Founder in Irish Whiskey and I have a team of women who work with me. Ireland has been slower to welcome women into the industry than other countries and that is largely because the industry was very small until recently. However, we are seeing women take up senior roles, in blending in particular. I’ve not experienced gender specific pushback from the Old Guard, rather as an independent modern producer my approach has always been to modernization, innovation and transparency, because I believe that is what the industry needs to grow and be competitive.
I co-founded the Irish Whiskey Guild, which is made up of new independent producers, so that smaller players would have a voice in the regulatory elements of the industry, which we were excluded from prior. If I’ve experienced pushback, it’s been around that, rather than my gender specifically. My open and fresh approach to communication and my sometimes-critical stance on elements of the industry that needed change possibly means I won’t be getting invited to various old school Irish Whiskey & Cigar industry events anytime soon. I’m ok with that.
Who is your master distiller?
I don’t have one; we don’t distill. I work with distillers all over the island of Ireland, and coopers all over the world for cask selection. We focus on the blend (below), and I work with a team of noses to do that.
By 1966 the number of distilleries had fallen to just two, and by 1972 the remaining distilleries, Bushmills Distillery and Old Midleton Distillery, were owned by just one company, Irish Distillers. In 1987 Cooley distillery came on line, and now there are 32 distilleries in operation, with more either planned or under development. Is the Irish Whiskey industry overbuilt?
No, what is happening in Irish Whiskey is simply a market correction. Ireland is the only historic whiskey producing country that essentially stalled in whiskey production or expansion. In the late 1800s over a 50-year period, the Irish Whiskey industry effectively collapsed. We lost all regional and local production, and we lost whiskey bonding during that time. We went from having several hundred distilleries on the island and a whiskey bonder or two in every market town in 1880, to having almost no whiskey bonders at all and only a handful of distilleries by the 1930s. After that time period every Irish Whiskey on the market was produced by one of two distilleries until Cooley came along.
The apparent radical sudden growth spurt is in line with the growth of whiskey in general, and in line with consumer demand for ‘craft’ or independent spirits with real people behind them. It was not beneficial for the industry to have two foreign multinational companies producing all Irish Whiskey; it led for some time to a race to the bottom in terms of pricing and category perception.
Many of the newer, smaller independent players are aiming for the high growth Super Premium end of the market and are bringing new or re-visited heritage techniques to the industry. To be competitive against bourbon, Japanese, or even Canadian whiskey, Irish has to have quality, innovation and variety to offer consumers that is only going to be driven by independent producers. Like any industry, there will be some attrition as time goes on. Whiskey tends to be a generational cyclical business, but 30-plus distilleries in Ireland is here to stay. The bigger issue in Irish Whiskey is the dominance of a single multinational player skewing growth figures.
What kind of financial resources does one need to start up a brand?
Whiskey is extremely capital intensive and Irish Whiskey in particular, which has to age for minimum of three years, is a precarious business in the early years. You need to essentially park a lot of cash and then just wait. Debt is hard to come by as a smaller player, since Irish banks don’t understand the asset class. If you wish to have a lifestyle business, a starting point of $500,000 is good. Looking back, I certainly would not have started without at least one million in the bank and I would not advise anyone else to do so either, as bootstrapping a global whiskey brand is exceedingly difficult.
Was it easy access to the U.S. market?
It was not. The United States has the most difficult alcohol market to access in the world due to the three-tier system. This, compounded with distributor consolidation and producer proliferations, means that getting noticed and finding an importation partner is extremely competitive. I am fortunate enough to have a working knowledge of the market and was able to navigate it and land an excellent importer with a national reach. This sets us up with an engine for growth in the USA, the most important market for Irish Whiskey.
What—and please be very specific—makes J.J. Corry distinguished from other Irish Whiskies?
We are building the most extensive library of Irish Whiskey flavors in the world and creating whiskies from that library. As whiskey bonders, we source casks from wineries, distilleries, and coopers all over the world, and then we source whiskies from distilleries all over Ireland. We match those individual whiskies to cask types and mature them on site. Each cask we have is then classified into a flavor block and, when ready, we pull flavors from those blocks and blend them to create our expressions. This variety derived from our library of flavors is what distinguishes us from other Irish Whiskies and allows us to create unique blends.
What are the basic rules and regulations that make Irish different from Scotch?
A distinct advantage we have over Scotch is that we can use any kind of wooden casks for maturation. From a regulatory standpoint this really is the only thing that is significantly different.
What is your capacity and is it possible to increase year by year?
Our capacity for growth is unhindered because of our whiskey bonding model. We source from large-scale and small-scale distilleries. It’s a great time to be a whiskey bonder, given the proliferations of new distilleries across the island.
How has climate change affected the whiskey industry?
Distillation of whiskey has historically been environmentally impactful; there is a lot of heat generation needed and wastewater produced. Mature wood is needed for maturation and peat must be cut for peated whiskey. Compounded with elaborate packaging and the shipping of glass bottles around the world, the industry needed to make a lot of changes to come in line. Across the industry, we are seeing radical moves towards sustainability efforts and many new distilleries in particular are aiming for carbon neutrality from day one.
❖❖❖
HOW
ABOUT, “OH, JUST SHUT THE
F*** UP!”
Eater.com posted new sentiments for 2022 on candy hearts, including:
- U VAXD?
- UGH, FINE
-LET’S GO VIRAL
-WOULD SWAB 4 U
-DEWORM MY HEART
-LET’S PUT OUR ANTI...BODIES TOGETHER
-ROSES ARE RED, I HAVE EXISTENTIAL DREAD
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
The Hound in Heaven
(21st Century Lion Books) is a novella, and
for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance,
inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find
this to be a treasured favorite. The story
concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and
their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their
barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise.
But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and
the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring
his master back from the edge of despair. WATCH THE VIDEO!
“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw
“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight, soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing. Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James Dalessandro, author of Bohemian Heart and 1906.
“John Mariani’s Hound in Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann Pearlman, author of The Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.
“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children, read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling author of Pinkerton’s War, The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To Woodbury.
“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an animal. The Hound in Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara Royal, author of The Royal Treatment.
❖❖❖
 |
The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani (Bloomsbury USA, $35) Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but let me proudly say that it is an extensive revision of the 4th edition that appeared more than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and so much more, now included. Word origins have been completely updated, as have per capita consumption and production stats. Most important, for the first time since publication in the 1980s, the book includes more than 100 biographies of Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller. "This book is amazing! It has entries for everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe. "Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit. |
 Now in Paperback, too--How Italian Food Conquered the World (Palgrave Macmillan) has won top prize 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.
"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, The Modern, and Maialino. |
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❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites: 
Everett Potter's Travel Report: 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."
Eating Las Vegas
JOHN CURTAS has been covering the Las Vegas
food and restaurant scene since 1995. He is
the co-author of EATING LAS VEGAS – The 50
Essential Restaurants (as well as
the author of the Eating Las Vegas web site: www.eatinglasvegas.
He can also be seen every Friday morning as
the “resident foodie” for Wake Up With the
Wagners on KSNV TV (NBC) Channel 3 in
Las Vegas.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish. Contributing Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.
If you wish to subscribe to this newsletter, please click here: http://www.johnmariani.com/subscribe/index.html
© copyright John Mariani 2022.