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One of the things that a lot of folk don’t know about the Dispensa Pani e Vini in the heart of Franciacorta wine country is that the restaurant is arguably the number-one spot in Italy to drink classic method sparkling wine.

Franciacorta, of course. In my experience, there are more labels from Franciacorta on the list at the Dispensa than at any other restaurant in Italy. The selection of French sparkling wines is also robust there.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed many unforgettable lunches and dinners there. And the to-go gourmet deli counter is extraordinary.

Ever since its beloved founder and chef Vittorio Fusari passed a few years ago, the restaurant has gone through multiple chef and ownership changes. There have been ups and downs but the restaurant has remained the see-and-be-seen dining destination for the appellation.

And every once in a while, during my two or three yearly visits, the kitchen there delivers something truly compelling.

The last time I was there in March 2023, one of the specials was the beet tagliolini in the first image above. Man, what a dish! The earthly flavors of the beets and the creamy texture of the pasta and sauce… It was one of the best things I ate all year. The octopus, also above, wasn’t half bad either.

Of course, no lunch at the Dispensa is complete without a post-meal visit to nearby Mt. Orfano and my friends’ winery Arcari + Danesi.

That’s a view of their southern-facing Chardonnay vineyard above. And just breathe in the wild flowers that grow between the rows, in the image below. I can’t recommend the restaurant and the winery highly enough

Please consider giving to our yearly GoFundMe campaign to raise an MLK billboard over the Neo-Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas in time for MLK Day (January 15) and Black History Month (February). If you can’t donate, please share. Thank you for your support and solidarity! Click here to donate.

Fritos, chili con carne, Velveeta, freshly chopped white onions, and pickled jalapeños… It’s a recipe for a big bowl of wrong. And I loved every bite.

As much as I loved it through my childhood and adolescence, I’m not eating much junk food these days. Gotta keep that heart healthy.

So when the opportunity to eat something really special comes up, I jump at the chance. The once-a-year Houston Rodeo is a no-holds-barred triglyceride feast for me.

The only thing not perfect about the Frito pie in the image above was that it was served in a checkered deli basket and not a Fritos bag.

It’s a quintessential Texan dish. After all, Fritos were invented in San Antonio. And the chili is that uniquely Texan version of ragù, made with just chiles, spices, and ground beef — absolutely no beans! One writer for Texas Monthly put it this way: “don’t look for a united Texan front when it comes to defining ‘authentic’ (except for a near universal, almost hysterical aversion to the inclusion of beans).” See the link for a classic recipe.

We had a blast at this year’s Rodeo, our first time back since the closures. The Frito pie was immensely delicious. And Dr. Green was none the wiser.

Please consider giving to our yearly GoFundMe campaign to raise an MLK billboard over the Neo-Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas in time for MLK Day (January 15) and Black History Month (February). If you can’t donate, please share. Thank you for your support and solidarity! Click here to donate.

There are restaurants where you go for good food, drink, and ambiance.

And then there are restaurants where you go not just for the culinary experience but to be transported to another place and time.

That’s not to say that I love the Cerbone family’s Manducatis in Long Island City, Queens, New York, just for the nostalgia. Over the years, I have found the food there to be consistently and reliably excellent, homemade, wholesome, and wonderfully balanced.

And the wine list continues to stand apart and above as one of New York City’s most compelling wine destinations.

But there’s a lot of nostalgia there to enjoy as well, evoking a time when family-owned, literally mom-and-pop Italian restaurants could be found throughout the city.

In February of this year, I had the great fortune of visiting my longtime friend Anthony Cerbone (in the first image) with a group of top wine professionals.

Anthony’s father Vincenzo was a pioneer of Italian wine in the U.S. And the program he created is now guided in equally brilliant measure by the son.

While the list would be exceptional by any measure because of its breadth, it’s also and primarily the vertical depth that makes it so unique in the panorama of today’s wine world. Case in point: look what we drank that day (I wasn’t buying!).

At the same meal, we also opened a 1969 Taurasi by Mastroberardino. It was a bit oxidized so we drank it as an aperitif.

I can’t think of anywhere else in the world where you could go from 69 Taurasi to 86 Bordeaux with just the flip of a page. Incredible!

When you go visit Manducatis, please tell Anthony — a wonderful guitarist as well — that I sent you. Don’t even ask to look at the menu. Just let his mother cook for you. And when you’re sated, ask for dessert.

I really, really love this place. Not just for the many unforgettable nights I’ve spent there but for the warmth and humanity of the people who run this national culinary treasure. I can’t recommend it enough. You’ll never forget it.

Please consider giving to our yearly GoFundMe campaign to raise an MLK billboard over the Neo-Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas in time for MLK Day (January 15) and Black History Month (February). If you can’t donate, please share. Thank you for your support and solidarity! Click here to donate.

Beyond fish tacos and one of my all-time favorite boat-to-table seafood joints, La Jolla, the town where I grew up, is not exactly known as a progressive or creative dining destination.

No, I’m sorry to say, the land of my upbringing is a place where you’re more likely to find a big selection of oaky “Chard” and “big Napa Cab” paired with steaks, scallops, and the occasional lobster. Until just a few years ago, culinary options were limited to safe, predictable menus.

That all changed when the Mexico-city focused Puesto opened a few years ago in downtown.

And that same group really broke it open when they launched Marisi, their gorgeously appointed love letter to Italian cuisine and wine.

Marisi was our family’s first fancy meal of the year. And both Tracie and I loved the traditionally inspired but creatively driven menu.

The service was also excellent, which is something that makes a huge difference when you’re fine dining with children (we were in La Jolla to visit my mom who just turned 90).

But it’s the wine list by Chris Plaia that really takes it over the top. I remember when he was first working on his program, he told me that he wanted to bring natural wine to La Jolla. And he did, making him the first wine director to preside over such an ambitious program for the “beach and tennis” Tom Collins/Gin and Tonic crowd.

When was the last time you drank a groovy wine from Liguria in my hometown? Never… until Marisi.

Don’t go for spaghetti and meatballs and veal parmesan served by old dudes in tuxedos. Yes, there is a tried-and-true La Jolla restaurant for that, too. No, go to Marisi. It’s not a cheap date but doesn’t disappoint. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Click here to donate now to our campaign to raise an MLK billboard over the Neo-Confederate monument in Orange, Texas.

Tracie and I have been organizing protests of the Neo-Confederate monument in Orange, Texas, where she grew up, for nearly seven years now.

As we have done each year since we began, we will be raising an MLK billboard across the road from the site, which includes numerous Confederate flags. The billboard will be in place throughout January, the month of MLK’s birth, and February, Black History Month.

It will stand over the eyesore of a monument, completed in 2017, on MLK Day (January 15) when we will celebrate the legacy of Dr. King as we voice our opposition to this monument to white supremacy (please join us; details forthcoming).

But this year’s protest will be different: since our last demonstration at the site in 2023, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the pseudo-Ku Klux Klan group that owns and manages this obscenity, HAVE RAISED THE FLAGPOLES SO THAT THEY ARE NOW VISIBLE FROM INTERSTATE 10.

The Sons (of bitches) were stymied by the City of Orange who passed a law setting the maximum height of flag displays on private property. And for the early years since the site’s completion, they couldn’t be seen from the freeway where more than 55k cars pass by daily.

But they have now raised them (the city’s office confirmed that they are still within the allowed height).

For those unfamiliar with the geography of Southeast Texas, the City of Orange is the first town on the Texas side of the border with Louisiana. It’s the gateway to Texas from the east. And for those traveling west, it’s the first thing that you notice as you enter the state.

This original rendering of the site shows the designers’ intentions (warning: contains offensive graphic material).

Texans, this is your fight, too. Don’t let the Memorial of the [Breaking] Wind be the welcome mat for our state!

Click here to donate now. Thank you for your support and solidarity.

Luca D’Attoma is a dude whose philosophy and ethos pervade every element of his lifestyle, from the beer he drinks in a tavern to the high-fidelity audio that resonates through his tasting room and atelier outside Lucca.

That’s Luca, above, right, with my friend and client Michele Marsiaj, owner of Nizza producer Amistà, also a client of the Tuscan great.

Luca is just one of those people who are constantly making you think outside the box while never losing sight of the ultimate goal: excellence.

After I finished my recent week of teaching at Slow Food U, I headed south to the gorgeous town of Lucca where Michele, his righthand person Paolo Tondat, and I had dinner at a classic Tuscan osteria (above).

The next day, we rose with the dawn and headed to Luca’s offices in the hills not far outside the town.

The first thing we all noted when we sat down at Luca’s long tasting table was the jars filled with coffee beans.

It was something that Luca picked up during a fragrance/perfumes seminar he had attended, he told us. It helps to “re-center” your olfactory after tasting a wine. Luca reached for his jar after every barrel sample. I had heard of parfumiers using this technique. But I had never seen it in practice during a wine tasting. Case in point, thinking outside the box.

I’ve been so fortunate throughout my career to taste with some of the greatest Italian winemakers of our times. It gives you an insight into how to taste and what to look for in the wines. After all, no palates are more finely attuned than theirs.

It was fascinating to hear Luca tell the stories of the many 100-point, blue chip wines he has made over the years. But it was also refreshing to be served a Prosecco Col Fondo that he likes. It was even more fun to him blasting Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young through his tube-driven stereo.

Not long after we met, Luca was awarded the Giacomo Tachis prize for “Best Enologist” by the editors of the Bibenda/Italian Sommelier Association guide. As it turns out, I’m not the only greatest fan!

Thank you again Luca for one of the richest experiences of my career in wine. Looking forward to 2024 and our work together!

Super special thanks to the entire team @mamaoakland for an incredible evening and a fantastic menu last night for our packed @vinidabruzzo dinner! And warm thanks to the wine professionals who took time out for an industry night at one of Oakland’s most Italian wine-friendly and fun destinations. Lastly, a heartfelt thanks to @steviestacionis who didn’t think I was crazy when I proposed the event for a Monday in December. Apologies to all the folks we couldn’t fit in. I feel so blessed to be part of the international community of wine people. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. It was my last event of 2023! It couldn’t have been sweeter. Now time to get my butt back on a plane to Houston. Oakland, I love you.

Happy Hanukkah!

May your holiday be filled with light, hope, and joy!

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season…

Image by Jaxon Photo.

When the Consorzio dei Vini d’Abruzzo asked me to organize a December wine dinner in Atlanta, the challenges seemed formidable.

It’s hard enough to get a group of wine professionals together during “OND” — October, November, December, as we say in winespeak, when more than 50 percent of all wines are sold.

But the greater mountain to climb, at least for me, was that Atlanta is a market where I’ve spent next to zero time over the course of my career. I’d been there for this or that in-and-out speaking gig. But I had never taken that deep dive into the wine professional community there.

So, I rolled up my sleeves a few weeks ago and began reaching out to people individually on social media.

Before long, what started as a drip became a stream of rsvps from some of the coolest people working in wine in the U.S.

By Monday of this week, we had a waiting list 10 persons deep!

I can’t thank the Atlanta wine community enough for the warm welcome.

And I believe my experience is a reminder that U.S. and European winemakers and wine marketers need to look beyond the usual suspects when it comes to destination cities for their campaigns.

Luckily for me, the Abruzzo wine growers association is among those groups who have recognized how important these markets are. And more significantly, they have understood that these wine communities are among the most vibrant and energized in the country.

I’m feeling so blessed to do what I do for a living. And I’d like to give a heartfelt shoutout to Sarah Pierre of 3 Parks Wine for encouraging her staff and colleagues to join our event; Tahiirah Habibi for being one of the most inspiring members of our greater U.S. wine community; my good friend Gina Christman who recommended the venue and also generously helped with outreach; and Chef Marco Betti for giving me a night in his private dining room at Antica Posta during the busiest time of the season. Thank you!

Stayed tuned: the Abruzzo tour is coming to Mama Oakland next Monday. We already have a deep waiting list for that event. But please hit me up if you’d like to attend (there are always last-minute cancellations).

One of the begging questions that emerged from a tasting of (mostly) California wines yesterday in Houston was why do people think that kosher wines are inferior to treyf wines?

It just so happens that all the wines poured, by the excellent urban winery Covenant in Berkeley, California, were kosher.

Nearly everyone present had already tasted at least one Covenant wine: each of the tasters were part of a recent judging panel where said winery was a contender. There was no question that the wines in question were high-quality and expressive of the California where they were grown and vinified.

But the conundrum remained. In the perception of most consumers, kosher wines can’t be as good as conventional wines.

I’ll leave the parsing of what makes a wine kosher to the wineries and their minyans (pun intended). But in my experience, it’s the way that kosher wines have been marketed over generations in this country that has cultured the misconception.

Most American-Ashkenazi Jews my age had parents who rarely drank. Our generation, X, of U.S. Jews is arguably the first to become wine lovers. My wine appreciation didn’t begin to develop until after I finished grad school, for example.

Until that point, I believed, like most American wine enthusiasts, that kosher wines were limited to the “contains up to 50 percent grape product” wines that were heavily marketed to us through the ubiquitous — and one might say, insidious — presence of one brand.

But the renewal of interest in viticulture has reshaped wine enthusiasm among middle class Jews just as it has the rest of bourgeois America.

Covenant has been making high-end kosher wines in California and Israel for two decades now. And their popularity in Texas is growing rapidly. (Like so many misconceptions about my adoptive state, there is a widespread, erroneous belief that there aren’t many Jews here. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Just visit the Houston neighborhood where we live!)

The wines were delicious, fresh and food friendly. Unless someone had told you otherwise, they wouldn’t taste Jewish at all.

May everyone have a peaceful Sabbath this weekend! Shabbat shalom, yall!