Category Archives: Weekly Column

SAN FRANCISCO— Whenever I’m in a new city, I always go to the front desk of the hotel and ask, “Where is the best independent breakfast joint?” I tell them, “I want to go to the place where the old men sit around a table every morning talking about sports and politics.” It never fails,Continue reading “Breakfast By the Bay”

One of the more unique and unusual pleasures of my life is sitting in the stillness of one of our restaurant dining rooms at dawn before anyone arrives. I like to go in early, before anyone is there, and just “be” in the space. There is something about the solitude of that act in thoseContinue reading “To the Morning”

The older I become the more I appreciate crossroads in life. All of us reach different crossroads at various times during our lives. I can look back over the course of my 62 years and clearly see where I made wise and healthy decisions that impacted my future, and other times when I made theContinue reading “Location, Location, Location”

The third season of the Hulu original program, “The Bear” will air this week. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it’s an intense, frenetic, high-paced show about disfunction, passion, commitment, growth, failure, and success. Or more succinctly, it’s about the restaurant business. “The Bear” tells the story of a Michelin-starred chef who returns home toContinue reading “The Bear Truths”

By the time this column is published Father’s Day will be several days in the rearview mirror. That may be the case when it comes to the calendar, but I’m still basking in the afterglow of that fine day. There was nothing monumental, or out of the ordinary, that happened this Father’s Day. At leastContinue reading “Father’s Day 2024”

This month kicked off my 44th year in the restaurant business. The first seven years were spent working for other people. Mostly as a server while I worked my way through college. But for the past 37 years I’ve owned restaurants. I love my line of work and consider myself overly blessed to have aContinue reading “For the Love of Fish”

BROOKLYN— Growing up I had relatives in New York. My maternal grandmother and grandfather lived here for 10 years or so. He worked on Madison Avenue for the entire decade of the sixties. My first visit here was as a three-year-old in 1964 during the World’s Fair. I don’t remember any of it other thanContinue reading “Big Apple Birthdays”

CHICAGO— No one would ever accuse me of being a creature of habit. Other than my morning breakfast routine, I have managed to live a life free from getting pigeonholed into repetitive activities. There aren’t too many places I visit on an annual basis. For the past quarter of a century my wife, two kids,Continue reading “My Kind Of Town”

The view from my desk is inspirational. I’ve been in the same office for 27 years. There are no windows, but I have surrounded myself with things that inspire me and things that I love. There are a lot of photos of family all over the room. There are also a lot of photos ofContinue reading “My Top 25 Cookbooks”