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CHICAGO— Almost every year since 1988, I have made a late-May journey up here to attend the National Restaurant Association’s annual trade show. It is a massive gathering that brings together every component of the food-service industry under one roof. It’s a yearly kid-in-a-candy-shop moment. McCormick Place on the shore of Lake Michigan is theContinue reading “Chicago 2018”

Over twenty years ago my hometown newspaper called my office and asked if I would be interested in writing a weekly column. I begged off. They called again, and again, and again. I finally said, “yes.” It was a dubious beginning. I was almost 40-years old when I began this weekly column. At the timeContinue reading “My South 2018”

SEMIFONTE, TUSCANY— Wyatt Waters and I arrived in Tuscany around the first of April. It was still cold. The grapevines were bare, and the olive trees had yet to be pruned from the winter break. It’s May now. Today the grapevines are flush with leaves and the olive trees have been pruned and are readyContinue reading “Tuscany 2018 (Part V) The Last Day”

TAVARNELLE VAL di PESA, TUSCANY— No matter where I am in the world— if it’s morning— I can usually be found in some type of breakfast place. When I am here in Tuscany, my go-to is Bagnoli Pasticceria. It’s a great little bakery that I discovered back in 2011. I come here almost every morningContinue reading “Tuscany 2018 (part IV) Bagnoli”

PETROGNANO, TUSCANY— There is a line in the 1981 Talking Heads’ song “Once in A Lifetime,” in which David Byrne poses the question, “…well, how did I get here?” That song keeps coming up on a music playlist I made for this trip. I’m sitting in a small little apartment located under the terrace ofContinue reading “Tuscany 2018 (part III) The Accidental Tour Guide”

BARBERINO VAL D’ELSA, TUSCANY— There is something that attracted me to this place the first moment I set foot on Tuscan soil in 2011. It was a “familiar” feeling, and it was instant. Something about this part of the world speaks to me in a way no other town, city, or country— outside of myContinue reading “Tuscany 2018 (part II) It’s the People”

BARBERINO VAL D’ELSA, TUSCANY— In a lot of ways I feel like I’m “back home” in this region, and especially at Villa il Santo. I first discovered this area while on a lengthy tour of Europe with my wife and two children. I was also working on a collaborative book project at the time withContinue reading “Tuscany 2018 (part I) Home Away From Home”

Over the 19 years that this weekly column has been in existence, there have been thousands of column inches spent covering my early years in the restaurant business and how I got my start. Though in all of those columns, I don’t think I ever really focused on my very first restaurant job. As withContinue reading “In the Beginning”

Mississippi restaurateur, promoter, arts advocate, and my good friend, Malcolm White, has just released his second book. “The Artful Evolution of Hal & Mal’s” (University Press of Mississippi, 2017), is a thorough and creatively presented history of White’s iconic restaurant/bar— Hal & Mal’s— in Jackson. The book is filled with stories of the restaurant’s originsContinue reading “The Artful Evolution From Restaurateur to Author”