Benny's Chop House -- Chicago

By James on April 15, 2013 6:46 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
We had a great meal here with friends. Great bar, extremely good Manhattan, and they started me on the (improbably good) Martini with blue-cheese stuffed olives... don't sneer... they are great. Superb steaks and sides, very nice service both at the bar and in the dining room... nice to see a non-chain local steakhouse...

The web site is here, if you're in Chicago go there...

Hotel d'Aubusson Paris

By James on September 27, 2012 2:54 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
We stayed at the wonderful Hotel d'Aubusson on a recent trip to Paris, it was a great small hotel. The service was excellent, rooms were great, beds comfortable, breakfast was good, bar excellent with great classic Jazz acts in the evening. The area is a good one, close to the Metro, the Louvre, the Seine and in a neighborhood with lots of shops and restaurants.
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O Chateau -- Paris

By James on September 20, 2012 5:08 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
O Chateau is a wine bar / restaurant that specializes in educating people about French wine culture. We attended an excellent wine tasting which was hilarious and informative and contained excellent wine. We also went back and had dinner in their wine bar and had a great time there as well. The food and the wines they recommended were both excellent. Very nice people, not pretentious, welcoming, good sense of humor. 

Grom -- Paris

By James on September 20, 2012 5:04 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Grom is an excellent gelato shop in Paris (and many other places ). Nice selection of different flavors, good mouth feel, good prices, service... and they are called Grom, I could say that all day...

Reinhard's -- Berlin

By James on August 25, 2012 8:01 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Reinhard's is a classic German restaurant with great service, beautiful room, and excellent food quality. You can also sit outside during the summer and they have a nice beer garden.

Aufsturz -- Berlin

By James on August 23, 2012 4:37 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Aufsturz  is a bar in Berlin with an excellent beer and drinks menu, lots of imported and German beers to choose from. Seating outside and lots of seating inside. Can't vouch for the food.aufsturz.jpg

Antipodes -- Berlin

By James on August 23, 2012 4:27 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
antipodes.JPGAntipodes is a coffee shop in Berlin run by a couple of New Zealanders, they have great coffee and food. The "Flat White" is an antipodean invention that is quite good.

Template Update

By James on March 12, 2012 10:21 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
I adjusted the site template to allow a wider left column, this should avoid clipping large size pictures from Flickr.

If you don't see this immediately, pressing the Ctrl key while doing a refresh of the page should cause it to update.

Ctrl-F5 in most browsers will also force a refresh of everything.

Cheers,
James

tartane -- Berlin

By James on March 10, 2012 8:15 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
tartane is a restaurant/bar in Mitte right on Torstrasse, nice place to hang and have a beer and a burger. The burgers are very good, probably the best I've had in Berlin, though my only comparison really is White Trash...

L'Annam Vietnamese Cuisine -- New York

By James on February 10, 2012 10:15 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
L'Annam is a Vietnamese restaurant near Union Square in NYC, it has a great selection of all of the classics. I had some noodles with roast pork, and it was very good. The service is a bit perfunctory, but they were accurate and prompt so not too bad. Room is nothing to write home about, but I'd go there for lunch again.
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