Please The Palate Pick of the Week: Pebble Beach Food & Wine and Dinner with Champagne Billecart-Salmon and Chef Alain Passard

Written by Allison Levine on April 20, 2019

Lifestyle Food Wine

If there is one event I look forward to each year, it is Pebble Beach Food & Wine. The wines, the food and the people, set among the beauty of Pebble Beach, makes for a spectacular weekend. There are seminars, lunches and dinners featuring wines and chefs that you might have thought could only happen in a dream. And this year was no exception.

Almost one year ago to the date (April 10 2018), I was honored to be invited to a magical dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Champagne Billecart-Salmon. The dinner was prepared by three-star Michelin Chef Alain Passard of l’Arpege restaurant in Paris, as well as two-star Michelin Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. One year later (April 13, 2019), at Pebble Beach Food and Wine, I was again invited to dinner with Champagne Billecart-Salmon for a Decadent evening wit h Chef Alain Passard. Not once, but twice I had an exquisite meal and that is why Pebble Beach Food & Wine and Dinner with Champagne Billecart-Salmon is the Please the Palate pick of the week. Read More +

Childhood Dreams Become Reality for Megan McGrath Gates of Lucas & Lewellen

Written by Allison Levine on April 18, 2019

Lifestyle Wine

I love meeting winemakers and hearing their stories of how they fell onto the path of becoming a winemaker. Every person has a different journey as to what drew them into the wine industry. When I sat down with Megan McGrath Gates, winemaker at Lucas & Lewellen in the Santa Ynez Valley, she shared her story with me, which started with a childhood dream. But, even with a dream, she never imagined she would end up making wine. And yet she has. Megan’s childhood dreams have become her reality as I wrote about recently in the Napa Valley Register and am sharing here.

When Megan McGrath Gates was a little girl, she would listen to the stories of her grandparents. A ninth-generation Californian, Gates was raised in Riverside. But, her ancestors were ranchers and she is a direct descendant of the historic Olivas family in Ventura, California.

Despite her ancestors, Gates was a typical suburban kid. Her dad is a lawyer and her mom is a teacher. She is one of six children and has a twin sister. With all of the romantic stories about her family, she dreamed about being a rancher and living a bucolic life.

Margot Culver City Shines with a Rooftop Bar, Cocktails and More

Written by Allison Levine on April 11, 2019

Lifestyle Food Cocktails Wine

Living on the west side of Los Angeles, I find myself regularly heading downtown and even further east to try new restaurants. But the west side is also worthy of exploration and one of those places is Margot, a rooftop restaurant located at The Platform project in Culver City.

A friend invited me to dinner and selected Margot. I had not heard of it and had only been to The Platform once before. With all of the construction in the area, it had not been on my radar. But, now it is and I have already been a few times. Read More +