Category Archives for Food.
My morning routine is simple. It starts with coffee, and eases into work. That’s true whether I’m at home or on the road. I’m drinking a little less coffee than I used to. For years I joked that you could run my blood through a still once a week to filter out caffeine byproducts, and use that to run a local taxi fleet’s alternative fuels experiment.
Coffee plays an important role in travel – from the airport to the plane, and from the hotel to the city around it.
Bilt Rewards has opened a cafe on the ground floor of their headquarters. It offers really good coffee and pastries. But this is more of a to go place, there’s no space for lounging, and they don’t have staff to talk to you about their program or credit card. So I’m not sure what the value proposition is?
Customers no longer buy tickets just on schedule, price, and perceived reliability. Airline seats are no longer just commodity products.
Several spots that did make the list are overrated. It seems like they’re stretching because once they agreed to rate Austin they needed to rate restaurants in Austin and while the city’s food scene is across-the-board above average there’s actually very little that’s great. Some of the spots that made the list wouldn’t have come close in other cities that the guide rates.
Here’s what well-informed experts say, what they get wrong, and the tools you should really be using.
I first tried Chef Otto Phan’s sushi eight years ago, and it was a revelation – not because he was then serving fish that was better than what you might get at the best places in the country, but because each time I went back he’d gotten better. It’s the passionate drive to keep improving that makes a restaurant great. There are plenty of good restaurants, serving the same meals day after day, and those serve a purpose. But the places to really connect with are those where the chef is trying to accomplish something.
I’ve been known to take a trip just for a meal, like when I flew to Barcelona just to have dinner at El Bulli when that was the toughest reservation in the world. It also involved a two hour train ride. Ferran Adria more than lived up to the hype!
But I’m not sure I’d fly to Singapore for the chili crab – though I’d go for the food – and not sure a hop across The Pond makes sense for an authentic British afternoon tea. Corn masa tacos aren’t my number one go-to in Mexico. So here’s what I suggest.
Michelin-starred celebrity chef Aurélien Largeau, of La Table d’Aurélien Largeau at Hyatt’s Hôtel du Palais Biarritz in southwest France, has been fired after video spread online of hazing in his kitchen. A junior member of the kitchen staff (commis) was “tied to a chair naked for hours with an apple in his mouth and a carrot in his anus with all the chefs – known as the kitchen brigade – looking on, including Largeau.”
Here’s the lowdown on the best barbecue in Austin. I’ve lived in Austin for about a decade and get asked all the time by people visiting the city – and there are a lot more visitors than there used to be! – what barbecue they should seek out while they’re here?
What I’ve realized is that the restaurants that have most impressed me are headed by chefs who are constantly driving for improvement. They aren’t churning out the same meal to guests, month after month and year after year. They’re constantly experimenting, learning, and pushing themselves to higher levels.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
