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!

Above: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo can be used to produce a wide range of styles. On Monday, December 11, at Mama Oakland in Oakland, we’ll be tasting a youthful, fresh Montepluciano, a rich and age-worthy Montepulciano, and, of course, a couple of Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo made from lightly macerated Montepulciano. I hope you can join us! Thank you for your support!

Please join me on Monday, December 11 when I will be presenting a dinner and tasting of Abruzzo wines at Mama Oakland. The event is being hosted by the Consorzio Vini d’Abruzzo, the association of Abruzzo grape growers and winemakers.

The dinner is open to anyone who works in the wine/restaurant/food trade. And it’s free (thank you, Abruzzo consortium!).

If you’d like to attend, simply send me an email at jparzen [at] gmail [dot] com or by clicking here.

The idea is for us to get together, taste a flight of Abruzzo wines paired with great food (menu forthcoming), and spread awareness of the compelling viticulture that’s happening there.

Abruzzo growers are facing mounting climate change challenges. Last year when I visited the region right before harvest, growers were dealing with a prolonged, nearly nine-month drought. This year when I visited following harvest, growers had lost an average of 70 percent and up to 90 percent of their crop because of excessive rainfall and the resulting peronospora issues. See link to learn more.

Abruzzo needs us now more than ever before.

So, please come out and share my table as we raise a glass — many glasses — in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Abruzzo. Thanks for your support!

The response for our Atlanta dinner on December 4 has been wonderful! It’s currently at capacity with a small waiting list. Thank you, Atlanta! You rock!

You can imagine my surprise when my friends from Brescia (in Lombardy in northern Italy, about an hour and a half east of Milan) called me to tell me a month or so ago that Joe Bastianich had opened a restaurant there.

It’s called Artemis Persian Tapas Bar and as the restaurant’s site says, “è il nuovo progetto di Joe Bastianich con un concept mai visto prima” (“it’s Joe Bastianich’s new project, with a concept never before seen”).

None of my friends have been there yet. But there has been at least one sighting of Joe, an avid guitar player, busking in the streets of the city (I doubt he’s got a tip hat out but in my day, when you played in the street, that’s what it was called). A friend shared a video of him singing and playing Prince’s “Purple Rain,” unaccompanied, with just him on guitar and vocals.

Joe is a major television star in Italy and he’s even had his own line of McDonald’s sandwiches there. I’ve heard that he spends a great deal of time in Milan these days.

Why open a restaurant in Brescia? I have no idea. What I do know that Brescia has a even more vibrant nightlife than it did before the lockdowns in 2020. Because of my deep ties to the city, forged over the many years I’ve been hanging out there, I’ve seen its transformation from an industrial and university town to a top tourist destination. Especially over the last two years, its historic center and incredible campus of Roman ruins (the largest outside of Rome) have become a favorite destination for European tourists. I don’t see a ton of Americans there. But I imagine that’s beginning to change as well.

It used to be that the Brescia food scene was populated by old school trattorias and the occasional (and exceptionally delicious) hamburger and beer joint. Today, there are tons of sushi and poke restaurants, a handful of American-themed casual eateries, and even an extremely popular Indian restaurant. The city’s population has also diversified quite a bit since I started spending time there in 2011. It’s really magical. They even have a left-leaning mayor, my friend Laura Castelletti. That’s unusual for Lombardy where most tend to the hard right. They call it the “Stalingrad” of Italy!

Check it out next time your in Italy.

That’s the city’s famous Piazza della Loggia in the image below, snapped just last week.

Man, what a trip to Italy! An evening in Brescia, four days of teaching in Piedmont, a night in Lucca, and a Saturday night and Sunday lunch coda in Reggio Emilia. A lot of travel and not a ton of sleep. But some great meals for sure.

I didn’t actually eat the tortellini in the image above (I had had tortellini in brodo the night before). But I just had to share this dish, ordered by my friends’ teenage daughter. She put a glass of Lambrusco in the broth like the old folks used to do back when I was a student here.

That was Sunday lunch at Locanda dei Pontieri along the banks of the Po River in Guastalla (Reggio Emilia).

This griddle-fired coppa was another highlight at Pontieri. Super fun place and highly recommended. Make sure to take a stroll along the river.

Stewed rabbit at Tre Spade in Correggio (Reggio Emilia). Forget Bottura! Eat here! Everything was off-the-charts delicious but the rabbit was a 2023 standout for me. Those are pickled onions in the sauce. This was so good. I’m literally salivating as I write this (sorry for TMI!). Paired with Lini 910 Lambrusco Metodo Classico. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

I found this never-before-tasted Prosecco Col Fondo in the most unlikely of places. Excellent. Note the Lalique stemware.

There’s really nothing quite as good as a plate of Tuscan beans, is there? Paired with a popping Ciliegiolo at Da Giulio in Lucca. This one of those big, classic osterias, with great food. Another solid recommendation (especially for a city with a lot of more touristy dining options).
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