How I lost 15 pounds. And still ate pizza.

How I lost 15 pounds. And still ate pizza.

It was day 28 of the longest month of the year…perhaps the longest month ever since a guy named Gregory came up with the idea of a new and improved calendar. You see, I wanted to be slim. I hadn’t been slim since I was…well, actually, I’d never ever been...
Nomada. Here’s to thirty more.

Nomada. Here’s to thirty more.

It’s not true that more than half of all restaurants fail within their first year. It actually takes almost two. Don Day’s Wife and I even play a little game. On the way home from our first (and very often only) time at an ambitious new restaurant one of us will just...
Oli Tapas. They’re the tops.

Oli Tapas. They’re the tops.

It was always an awkward space. It was plunked between a bakery, a hotel, some upscale boutiques and a hallway that led to a usually empty Mezcal bar, then opened into a mall-style food court with all but two of the tenants (Birdie’s Burgers and Tacolicious)...
“All I ever wanted was to make music.”

“All I ever wanted was to make music.”

In 1994, a guy named Stuart Bastow walked into an Ottawa piano bar. The 20-something had never sung in any venue except perhaps a shower but, thanks to a pint or two of courage, the next thing he knew there was a microphone where his glass used to be. By the time he...
Four favorite reds from a favorite San Miguel sommelier.

Four favorite reds from a favorite San Miguel sommelier.

Gustavo Aguilar was the first real restaurant sommelier I met in San Miguel de Allende. Sure, when the restaurant Cent’Anni opened a few years ago, he also had a lot of management responsibilities there, but when Cent’Anni’s servers needed to bring some sage advice...