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Please The Palate Pick of the Week: Little Damage Charcoal Ice Cream

I love ice cream and never need an excuse to eat it. But, when there are added health benefits, it becomes that much easier to justify. That is why the...

31 March, 2018

NoMad Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles

Located on the corner of Olive and 7th street in downtown LA, the 1923 neoclassical neutral-colored building is rather nondescript from the outside.

But inside is another world. The NoMad Hotel has transformed the one-time Bank of Italy building into warm opulent space with dark jewel-toned velvet everywhere. The towering lobby can be entered through the doors on 7th Street. The space is broken into several areas, including a bar, a library and the casual Lobby Restaurant. Overlooking the lobby is the Mezzanine Restaurant, the more formal dining option.

29 March, 2018

Five Reasons to Say Goodbye to Your Champagne Flutes

This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.

OK, I admit it. I watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I watch it for some mindless, vapid fun. But, recently I was annoyed by a story line that took place. One of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills had the other women over to her house and rosé wine was accidentally served in a Champagne flute.

Another of the housewives, Dorit, proceeded to make a big deal about this mistake, embarrassing the host. Dorit arrogantly stated, “The fact that I know a wine glass from a Champagne glass is etiquette” and that she feels “like it needs to go in the right glass.”

Well, the reality star needs to know what the right glass is, and it is not a Champagne flute. While the Champagne flutes are synonymous with sparkling wine, ask most sommeliers and they will tell you the same thing. Nathaniel Munoz, wine director of the Rose Café in Venice, California explained, “Champagne has a gorgeous complexity of aromatics from red apple, to golden raisins, to chalk, to rich marzipan and milk chocolate. Restricting those notes because someone thinks it's fancy to watch carbonation bubbles float to the top of the glass just seems uneducated.”

Maurizio Zanella, founder of Ca’ del Bosco, one of Italy’s foremost Franciacorta producers, offers five reasons why we should never use a Champagne flute.

27 March, 2018