Bobby Van’s is well established in Manhattan as one of the premier steakhouses, operating multiple locations throughout the city.  I’ve dined at several of their locations over the years and have always been pleased with their service and fare.  But it was in the summer of 2011 that I came across a wonderful new surprise [...]

It’s generally safe to expect great stuff from the kitchens of Daniel Boulud, and he continues to deliver at DBGB with this excellent Steak Tartare. Hand chopped and topped with a quail egg, the frisée salad and citrus vinaigrette was a perfectly balanced contrast to my favorite appetizer. This serving was perfect as a light [...]

Trying out the Papas, Nopales and Chorizo, and Bistec tacos at La Esquina. Although I’m a big fan of several of their other varieties, I was a little underwhelmed by the high ratio of potatoes to chorizo and cactus, but the salsa verde adds some nice balance. The Bistec, with onions and cilantro (on the [...]

Why? Because it comes at you from land, sea, and air! Constructed from an Angus third pounder, McChicken and Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, who could possibly challenge this barrage of fast food. The indomitable bear, REI Jonez, that’s who. He took down the armed forces of McDonald’s in less than one minute, banquet beer in hand. Tip [...]

After four years at Richmond, I’ve happily journeyed through the entire menu of 18 specialty burgers at Carytown Burgers & Fries. They are all incredibly delicious. But my hands down favorite, both in name and taste, is easily The Rodeo. Topped with onion rings, BBQ sauce, lettuce, tomato, and bacon, this burger lives in the [...]

For my second annual New Year’s Day Feast in the Atlas, I decided to take advantage of several fun recipes from Saveur to set the buffet for my guests.  As many of y’all already know, there’s a strong Tex-Mex bent to my culinary style as an eighth generation Texan, so it’s probably not a surprise [...]

When I started cooking more seriously again in college, I found myself dependent on discount grocery stores and occasionally a specialty food shop (at the time known to me as the famous Ukrop’s, Richmond VA’s brilliant equivalent to Whole Foods) to supply my kitchen with meats, produce and the like. My affair with grocery shopping [...]