I know it is not everyday that friends show up for dinner with an entire Jamón Ibérico de Bellota from Ibierico, Spain, but you might want to find some friends who will.

February and March is Mussel Madness time. No this is not National holiday, or a California Oktoberfest, but it is an opportunity to spend an afternoon at some of the most scenic coastline in the world, sampling sweet, plump mussels. From the rock, to the steamer, to the table.

I will have to admit, as a veteran in the restaurant business, that Valentine’s Day is challenging. Now this is not because of the popularity of the event, or the amount of pressure placed on an establishment to get everything right, or even that inevitable fact that you cannot please everybody. But mostly because, for the last 20 or so years, I have missed out.

Taking the helm of a popular hotel lounge in the middle of economic calamity was not exactly what I had penciled in on the calendar. Lucky for me, however, the bar has withstood more than enough history since its 1931 introduction.

Maybe it was my upbringing in Los Angeles, surrounded by the film industry, but I really haven’t had much of the starstruck excitement that follows celebrity day to day. I don’t have any autographs, …

While the East Coast may have their lobster and clam season, here in the Pacific Northwest, November brings us Dungeness crab, and it does so in abundance, at just the right time.

The French tart, isn’t just dessert… I have to admit, that Curtis made this as the final course for our Thanksgiving dinner, but in all fairness, I finished it during breakfast for the week to follow.

We have named our fall cocktail (a spiced up play on the sidecar) after Austrian born actress (and scientist, apparently), Hedy Lamarr. How is this fitting? Well, the combination of rum based Austrian …

At Benziger Family Winery nestled in the uber-quaint town of Glen Ellen in Somoma County, the Cabernet Franc grapes were days away from harvest. For winemaker Mike Benziger and the rest of the crew, early October means a lot of “all nighters”.

For the last days of Summer (well, in California we are not quite sure when that is, the warmest days sometimes show up in late September) we have been trying to squeeze in some more …