Restaurant Reviews

Over the years, the most popular pages on this website have been our farm to table Dining Directories. There are dozens of directories that span the 50 states and Puerto Rico in the U.S. and the ten provinces of Canada as well as directories for Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. In addition, there are ten directories […]

Kristin Kimball, whose two memoirs The Dirty Life, A Memoir of Farming, Food and Love (2011) and Good Husbandry, Growing Food, Love, and Family on Essex Farm (2019) we’ve highly recommended, also shares much appreciated weekly Farm Notes. She writes from Essex Farm in upstate New York’s north country near Lake Champlain, where she and her husband farm […]

If you are fortunate to live in the only suitable terroir in the world for maple syrup, the Greater Northeast, described as a triangle running from Michigan to New Brunswick (Canada) to West Virginia, you may also have luck in finding a farm to visit that is part of the fantastic revival of the art of […]

A molcajete is a three-legged bowl, traditionally made of basalt, which has been used as a mortar for food-grinding for thousands of years in Mesoamerican cultures. Because it retains heat for a very long time, it’s also used for food presentation, and you’ll find it as the centerpiece of a spectacular entrée at Greenane Farms […]

The state of Vermont’s status as the greenest state in the United States is indisputable. Over the years, we have reported on Strolling of the Heifers’ annual Locavore Index, on which The Green Mountain State has consistently been atop, as it has been since the first Locavore Index was compiled in 2012. Due to the […]

Jose Andrés is much more than a restaurateur and an author of cookbooks. In our recent review of his cookbook, Vegetables Unleashed, we noted that his humanitarian visits to disaster areas where he and his crews have fed masses of people through his non-profit World Central Kitchen have made him well-known for his empathy and […]

Until a recent pancake lunch at the wonderful Phoenicia Diner in the heart of the Catskill Mountain region of upstate New York, this pancake/waffle indulger never before had buckwheat pancakes: What a delicious eye-opener, especially when enjoyed with a couple cups of this remarkable diner’s coffee from Java Love Coffee Roasting Company based in Bethel […]

Our most popular webpage for farm to table dining listings has consistently been the Massachusetts dining directory, which now includes over 100 listings. The Prairie Whale in Great Barrington (Berkshire County) is unquestionably a star in the Massachusetts listings. And it’s undeniably a farm to table restaurant. It’s been more than ten years, since knowwhereyourfoodcomesfrom.com went […]

It’s no surprise that the vibrant small city of Northampton in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts is home to the wonderful Hungry Ghost Bread, which has been providing delicious breads, naturally leavened with sourdough starter and fermented for 24 hours, and pastries for nearly 20 years to appreciative customers. Easy to see why Hungry Ghost […]

A few weeks ago in a news article, Pizza! Pizza! A comfort food has risen to become a big pandemic winner for families and restaurants (2/12/21) by Julie Creswell in the NY Times, this pizza lover was reminded of the start of the 2020-2021 pandemic year when I took an hour’s drive from home in […]

I’m guessing that you and I share an enjoyment of cooking at home, and that we initially viewed the closure of dining-out possibilities a couple of months ago as no great loss. I’m further guessing that, as soon as we learned it was possible to visit an eatery again for something other than take-out, we […]

In this pizza lover’s humble opinion, our directory of Farm to Table Pizza is a go-to resource when traveling. The directory now lists nearly three dozen pizzerias (and some bakeries), from Arizona to Wisconsin, which serve artisinal, hand-crafted pizza utilizing fresh and local ingredients. On a recent trip to attend a wedding in California, it […]

In suburban New Jersey, not far from the intersection of the Garden State Parkway and Interstate I-78, is Arturo’s Osteria & Pizzeria in Maplewood (Essex County). Arturo’s is included in our directory for Farm to Table Pizza, which lists nearly three dozen praiseworthy pizzerias (and some bakeries) which serve artisinal, hand-crafted pizzas utilizing fresh and […]

When the Mohawk Valley village of Fort Plain in upstate New York was hit by flooding in the summer of 2013 – four years to the day after a similar horror – nearly 90 businesses told the town’s mayor that they couldn’t afford to reopen. Aaron Katovitch had only recently opened his restaurant, The Table […]

As the downside of industrial food production has become more widely understood, the demand for grass-fed beef and other meats has increased in a big way. Offering a win-win for the environment and consumers — with their healthier balance of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids and disease-fighting conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), pastured-raised meats have moved […]

What should be the cost of a healthy meal made with farm fresh ingredients? We suspect that it’s going to be more expensive than a meal made with conventionally sourced and cheaper ingredients, whether home-cooked or at a restaurant. The camaraderie at a farmers market eases the pain of spending perhaps a little more money […]

Traveling along the I-95 corridor (including the New Jersey Turnpike) is seldom an easy drive and often stop and go. But when studying the AAA road map of New Jersey and spotting the historic college town of Princeton mere miles off the traffic-jammed highway, a lightbulb moment. On another long drive along I-90, the few […]

Sullivan Street Bakery founded in 1994 by Jim Lahey in the Big Apple’s Greenwich Village may be the longest running bakery included in our directory of craft bakeries. We take some pride in noting that our listings now number 80 bakeries, from Alaska to Wyoming in the United States, from British Columbia to Prince Edward […]

As a child, Jinah Kim’s favorite dish was pan-fried yellow croaker. When her mother would prepare it for the family, it reaffirmed their Korean roots. The family had moved from Inchon, South Korea, to Framingham, Massachusetts, when Jinah was three. Other family members had a jewelry store there, which probably kindled Jinah’s entrepreneurial spirit. But […]

Grazin’ Hudson on Warren Street, the lively main street in downtown Hudson (Columbia County), New York, is grilling up what is hands-down the very best burgers money can buy. This small diner in New York’s Hudson Valley should be a destination for anyone hungering for a flavorful, juicy and tender beef burger. A mindful eater would […]

In the heart of Cambridge (MA) near Central Square is chef Ana Sortun’s renown Oleana Restaurant serving farm to table Eastern Mediterranean (Turkey, Lebanon & Greece) food. No surprise to many that Boston Magazine included, what it called, “dazzling”  Oleana in its updated list of the 50 Best Restaurants in Boston, noting that chef Sortun’s […]

On travels away from home, our directory for craft bakeries, offering naturally leavened breads and baked goods, made from scratch and hand-crafted, with the mindful sourcing of ingredients often including local grains and fruits is a handy resource to break up a long drive and connect up with the good bread movement that is taking hold […]

Our most popular webpages, especially in the summer season, are the directories for farm to table dining. And our most popular webpage is consistently the Massachusetts dining directory, very likely the result of the state’s attraction for vacationers. Our Massachusetts dining directory has over one hundred listings including twenty listings in Berkshire County, from Chester to Williamstown, […]

Had I wanted more food, I probably could have strolled into the fields just beyond the dining area and helped myself. But that would have meant bypassing the creative, harmonious transformations effected by chefs Joan Porambo and Kyle MacPherson. They’re offering brunches and dinners (they call their farm to table meals Field Notes) at the […]

A Business Traveller article published on-line by CNN Travel (and updated this spring) has spotlighted resorts and hotels that grow their own food. Reporter Allison Tibaldi’s Farm-to-hotel: 10 resorts [and hotels] that grow their own food includes four destination resorts in the United States: The Lodge at Woodloch in Hawley, Pennsylvania; Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee; Omni […]

After crossing the new and visually striking Tappan Zee Bridge, officially named the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, over the Hudson River, this highway traveler decided to exit the NYS Thruway at the first exit after the bridge, Exit 10 for Nyack in Rockland County. Relying carefully on the highway signing for Nyack, the zigzagging […]

Earlier this year, we reported on the death at 98 of Lorenzo Servitje, whose Grupo Bimbo (a company with sales of more than $14 billion and 130,000 employees), brought “bread across borders” in the words of the notice of his passing in the New York Times (2/7/17). Grupo Bimbo operates worldwide with “more than 100 […]

What you see is the beautiful array of produce, the shelves of spices and carefully chosen packaged foods, the case of chilled meat and seafood, the coffee bar, the tables, the cookies and brownies and scones. What you feel is the welcoming ambience provided by a sunny, attractive space and the pleasant vibe of pleased […]

Our Table is a regional cooperative which farms 58 acres in a spectacular location with a view of Mount Hood, about 15 miles south of Portland in Sherwood (Washington County, Oregon) in the Tualatin Valley. All of its plant-based crops, as well as its chickens and eggs are Certified Organic under the USDA’s National Organic […]

Nine miles east of Upstate New York’s Saratoga Springs and down an unpaved, dusty road in historic farm country (that once was crossed by Burgoyne’s troops on their way to defeat in 1777 at the Saratoga Battlefield) is 9 Miles East Farm. The 29 acre farm has become well-known for its farm pizza. The farm […]

With inlayed tiles of fiddlehead ferns above the windows the only identifying features (and the colorful façade more suggestive of Tuscany than the rustic Adirondacks), you might easily drive by without registering that this was your farm-to-table dining destination in New York’s Adirondack Region, but it would be your loss. The Fiddlehead Bistro is the […]

There’s a conviction shared by some top Montreal-based chefs to keep food local, explore heritage Canadian dishes and celebrate the fruits of the region’s lands and seas, harkening back to the days of Quebec’s fur trappers and tree tappers. Au Pied de Cochon (in English, pig’s foot or pig’s trotters) and Manitoba are two standout restaurants […]

Tusk, a new dining option in Portland, Oregon, opened last fall to the delight of diners looking for flavorful Middle Eastern food at a restaurant with a commitment to sourcing its food aggressively and seasonally from local sources (as emphasized on its website’s homepage). With more than 30 food sources, including small farmers and artisans, […]

Heavy rain pelted the window pane behind us, but inside Thistle it was warm and cozy. Outside, a blustery late winter downpour drenched downtown McMinnville. Tucked just off the small city’s famous 3rd Street, this farm-to-table dining destination attracts locals and tourists alike who appreciate its impressive dedication to local farms. With a menu that changes […]

It’s often said that being committed to a fully organic and local ingredient-based menu takes dedication. To do it for 23 consecutive years is another thing entirely. One of the first fully organic restaurants in Washington, D.C., Coppi’s Organic has remained steadfast in its commitment to organic local sourcing, despite a number of ups and […]

It’s a place that winter-welcomes you with a sign reading Seasoned Greetings but it’s a literal welcome because the Culinary Institute of America wants you to share the fare that its students are learning to cook – which, last Tuesday, meant a Tuscan extravaganza of hearty peasant dishes served in its Ristorante Catarina de Medici. […]

On a grey, mid-November day, with post-Election Day malaise prompting anxiety about the future, lunch at New Hampshire’s Hilltop Café in a cozy restored 1765 farmhouse on Abbot Hill (at 923 feet, the highest elevation in the rural town of Wilton in Hillsborough County) raises the spirits and rewards the taste buds. Committed to “using […]

On a cross-country trip from Vermont to Oregon, friends invited us to break up the trip midway with a stopover at their home in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our friends, who belong to a local CSA farm and love good food (and even have a clay oven to prepare delicious meals), knew that breakfast or lunch at […]

Mary’s Restaurant, located at the Inn at Baldwin Creek in Bristol, Vermont (Addison County) features an eye-catching blurb of approval on its website from Vermont Magazine: “A visit to Vermont and missing Mary’s is like visiting Paris and missing the Eiffel Tower. . .” A proud farm-to-table restaurant since 1983, Mary’s Restaurant sources its food […]

The sweeping vistas of the Hand Melon Farm, a 425-acre estate in upstate New York’s Washington County, are broad enough to showcase row after row of growing crops, some of them in open fields, the more vulnerable under protective netting. On Thursday, August 4, the view was complemented by rows of split chickens sizzling on […]

Before serving piping hot pies from their 800 degree oven, Lovely’s Fifty Fifty in Portland, Oregon was Lovely’s Hula Hands for seven years.  Owners Sarah and Jane Minnick decided to shutter Hula Hands and redirect the space into a pizza and ice cream parlor, but not for lack of success. It was their desire to […]

There’s no better example of how a baking resurgence is being woven into the culinary fabric of New York City than at the small but widely acclaimed Runner & Stone bakery cafe, a Michelin-recommended Bib Gourmand (i.e., an affordable and excellent restaurant), located a mere three blocks from the site of one of America’s very first […]

Ken Forkish opened Ken’s Artisan Bakery fifteen years ago in Northwest Portland, an urbane residential and retail area of the city, with Old Portland-style houses, grand old apartment buildings and sleek new condominiums, plus adjoining parkland made for hiking. A perfect neighborhood for Ken’s Artisan Bakery, which has earned national attention and praise for its bread, croissants, and fruit […]

A delicious breakfast presents fewer difficulties, than other meals, when it comes to sourcing local ingredients. The fundamental building blocks of diner-style breakfast food — eggs, meats, and dairy products— are agricultural products more readily procured in a sustainable and ethical manner from local purveyors even in a northern climate. Moreover, in the midst of […]

With 62,000,000 visitors annually, Orlando, Florida is the most visited tourist destination in the United States. But while its theme parks beckon millions, our listings of farm to table dining options in Florida are not many in number. But there is one particular dining destination in the Orlando metro area that deserves kudos for its […]

In London these days, you can’t help but run into one of celebrity-chef Jamie Oliver’s many shiny new restaurants. These outposts of casual upscale dining are both billboard and beachhead for Oliver’s so-called food revolution–a movement that’s built on the work of many before him but that’s brought the issues of healthier eating and local organic […]

  In an airy, sun-filled dining room in the heart of Brooklyn, there’s a place in the popular Williamsburg neighborhood where you can revel in the simplicity of a homey, country meal. And if breakfast is your thing, you’re in luck, because egg serves it all day. But don’t let the name fool you: eggs […]

With all 50,000 tickets for Saturday’s 146th running of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga sold out, and American Pharoah, the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 37 years, set to gallop 1 and 1/2 miles this morning in a workout at the track, open to the public and free of charge, to take […]

  Copenhagen’s Nørrebro, a neighborhood that is humorously labelled by Gawker as the Danish capital’s Williamsburg equivalent, is the home of Relæ, this year’s winner of the prestigious Sustainable Restaurant Award given by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy. This academy is comprised of almost 1000 members, each selected for their “expert opinion” of the international […]

A directory of what we have termed “Craft Bakeries” was recently added to this website.   The decision to include information on bakeries making hand-crafted baked goods, with a focus on using freshly stone-ground flours (made from carefully sourced and often organic, heirloom grains) and baking delicious bread,  which relies on “natural leavening,” was prompted […]

Lofty statement?  The seasonal and locally-sourced dinner cooked by Chef Travis Olson twice a month at Glen’s Garden Market made me appreciate the true meaning of “table” and why this chef’s table (at the popular grocery store in Washington, DC’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, which focuses on local foods) is one of the finest. The table itself is […]

Ten dollars for a hearty dinner of tasty and fast “real food” in pricey Manhattan is a tribute to Dig Inn Seasonal Market, with its ten locations spread around one of the most densely populated areas on our planet (estimated at 170,000 people per square mile on a typical business day).  Farm to counter Dig Inn appears […]

Since the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian ten years ago in 2004, the museum’s unique cafe, the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, has become a popular destination for lunch on the historic National Mall in Washington, DC.   “Mitsitam,” in the Piscataway and Delaware (tribes local to the Washington, DC area) languages, […]

The website of the White Dog Café (with two locations, one in the University City section of Philadelphia and the other in Wayne on the Philadelphia Main Line), has a unique home page with a colorful map showing a dozen red barns and images of farm animals, cheese, fruits and vegetables.   The visitor is invited, by […]

A strong case can be made that Lazy Daisy’s Café makes the finest breakfast sandwich in the Toronto metropolitan area.  The Café’s Rise and Shine breakfast sandwich ($7.25) consists of Mennonite smoked bacon (from Tim & Jacqui Schmucker’s Fresh from the Farm, which sources its meats, vegetables and eggs from Mennonite farmers in the Kitchener/Waterloo region […]

Sharon Springs (a small village with a population of 547 at the 2000 census) in upstate New York’s rural Schoharie County is the home of a terrific farm-to-table restaurant, 204 Main Bar & Bistro.  As starters, my dining companions shared pot stickers ($8.00), local pork and shrimp, house made noodles, Asian slaw, spicy soy dipping sauce, […]

New York City in December is a magnet with its museums, theaters and urban attractions decked out for the season. In less than 3 hours, the Amtrak train was a pain free way to travel south the 140 miles along the Hudson River from my hometown of Albany in upstate New York to meet up […]

In the countryside a couple of miles outside Cooperstown (Otsego County), NY, is an extraordinary café, Origins.  It is housed in the greenhouse of a family-run garden center, Carefree Gardens.  From the nursery’s small parking lot, the café is approached by a short footpath that winds through thickets of perennials, edged by trees and potted […]

Nestled at the southern end of central Dublin’s busy Dawson Street, just a stone’s throw from the verdant oasis of Trinity College, is Farm Restaurant.   In Ireland up to about thirty years ago, locally produced food was something taken totally for granted.  It was a country blessed with an abundance of native food.  Ireland’s produce, […]

Ten Tables, the wonderful farm to table restaurant in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood (reviewed this past fall), hosted in April a unique seafood dinner sponsored by  Eating with the Ecosystem.  Fisherwoman and environmental activist Sarah Schumann, who in addition to her fishing license has a degree in Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, […]

Known as the “Garden of Ireland,” County Wicklow lies to the south of Ireland’s capital,  Dublin.  Between the mountains and the sea, Wicklow has earned the sobriquet due to its wealth of farms and gardens that have supplied Dublin with meat and produce over centuries.  The village of Rathnew (population 2,964) is buried deep in […]

The Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts (SBN) is dedicated to “building economies that are green, local, and fair.”  The organization hosts farm to table dinners and other great events (like the Boston Local Food Festival) to bring the Boston-area community together, and last month they held an all-local dinner at Granary Tavern in downtown Boston.  […]

From a certain perspective, Warrenton, Virginia (population 9,735 in 2011) is the ideal of a Piedmont Virginia town. Its revitalized historic storefronts teem with cafés and antique stores. It’s perched up on a hilltop with the picturesque Blue Ridge mountains off in the distance. But more importantly, Warrenton sits right smack dab in the middle […]

On a wintry day, a roaring fire from within the kitchen’s brick oven greeted us at The Fireplace in Brookline’s Washington Square.  The Fireplace’s sophisticated fare perfectly matched with impeccable service and an upscale atmosphere, reminiscent of an old New England lodge, satisfies the desire for fine farm-to-table dining in the Boston area. Instead of […]

Tucked away in an unassuming storefront in a quiet St. Louis neighborhood is one of the city’s best restaurants.  Like its close neighbor, the famous Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, Farmhaus is set to become a St. Louis institution thanks to the creativity and skill of an excellent staff and focus on locally sourced ingredients of […]

The Green Mountain state of Vermont has an inspirational number of CSA (community supported agriculture) farms, weekly farmers markets and the most remarkable cheese trail.   The Vermont Cheese Council, dedicated to the “production and advancement of Vermont cheeses,” offers a cheese trail with 41 Vermont cheese making members (www.vtcheese.com/cheesetrail.htm).   No surprise then that Vermont […]

Northampton in Massachusett’s Pioneer Valley is a lively destination offering a stimulating urban scene including art galleries, crafts stores, an excellent Smith College Art Museum and botanical garden as well as superb farm to table dining at Bistro Les Gras.  After enjoying a visit to the wonderful William Baczek Art Gallery on Northampton’s Main Street,  […]

Jamaica Plain is a remarkably green Boston neighborhood, with a palpable closeness to nature.  Frederick Law Olmstead in the late 19th century designed and built Boston’s Emerald Necklace of parks with much of the southern section of the connecting parkland in or bordering on Jamaica Plain.  Residents and visitors to Jamaica Plain can easily enjoy […]

Nestled back among clusters of riverfront homes in Gloucester on Massachusett’s scenic Cape Ann (30 miles north of Boston), sits a seasonal restaurant to be treasured.  With a dock along the water and the freshest seafood around,  Lobster Cove Market & Restaurant is a hidden gem on the Annisquam River surrounded by picturesque views and […]

It’s late winter in New York and we still haven’t been frozen in deep, but my craving for the comfort of a candle lit table and an intimate gathering around soul warming food is deep rooted and pays no heed to this year’s unseasonable weather.   A “Winter Dinner” at The Green Table promises to […]

At this time of year when a non-booted foot is hard to find and water sports are put on hold, the thriving wine tasting scene of the Finger Lakes continues to warmly welcome out-of-town visitors and locals alike.  Perfect for Sunday outings and evening forays, vineyards and wineries, dotting the lake shores, highlight the terroir […]

The 2011 season of the Shaw Festival (www.shawfest.com/) in beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake on the shores of Lake Ontario in Canada’s Niagara Region was winding down, and a forecast of Indian-summer 70 degree temperatures and sunny skies prompted a last minute drive across upstate New York from my home in Albany to enjoy a flawless and joyful […]

A cinder block one-story building barely sets Roberta’s Pizza apart from the surrounding industrial landscape in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.  However, inside a fire roars in the wood-fired oven and five white-coated chefs slide pizzas in and out of the oven creating a warming and inviting environment.  Wood paneling and casual decor encloses a […]

Kansas City, Missouri, the “Heart of America,”  is one of the great centers of American barbecue.  In the early 20th century, the Kansas City Stockyards were second only to those of Chicago in size, and this city of distinctive jazz and blues earned its food reputation for barbecue, while serving as a hub for the […]

With temperatures moderated by the ocean, Nova Scotia “is the warmest of the provinces in Canada,” and it comes as some surprise that with its population of nearly 1,000,000, “it is Canada’s second-most densely populated province” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia].  Historic Halifax, the site of the first permanent European settlement in 1604 in Canada and the capital of […]

Cazenovia, a picturesque village in upstate New York with a well-preserved downtown district, has a long-standing tradition of being a hotbed of reform movements going back to the mid-nineteenth century when it played a key role in the abolition movement, including hosting the famous 1850 abolitionist meeting known as the Fugitive Slave Law Convention.  Today, […]

Café Mae Mae in “olde New York” on Vandam Street off Hudson Street, occupies the street level space of an old warehouse building on the western edge of New York City’s popular SoHo district.  Named in memory of the owner’s daughter, Café Mae Mae with its commitment to local and seasonal foods, honors her memory […]

Situated on 80 acres overlooking the Hudson River in Hyde Park (Dutchess County, NY), The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has become arguably the world’s premier culinary college enrolling more than 2,800 students from virtually every U.S. state and 30 countries in its degree programs.  At its main campus in Hyde Park (the former Jesuit […]

Edwardsville (Madison County), Illinois, home to Fond, an elegant farm to table restaurant, is just a short drive across the Mississippi from St. Louis, but it retains the small town charm of its historic origins.  One of the three oldest municipalities in Illinois, it remains the county seat and hosts Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), […]

Once a week on Saturdays from Memorial Day weekend until Columbus Day weekend, and every other Saturday in the off-season, the Bees Knees Café on Heather Ridge Farm in Preston Hollow (Albany County, NY) serves lunch to the public. This farmhouse dining in an old 1840’s working farmhouse, which has changed little in the past 170 […]

Recycling in St. Louis takes on special meaning with the continuing renewal of city neighborhoods.  Streets are slowly improving, building by building, in the Central West End, the central corridor of St. Louis, just north of Forest Park [www.slfp.com/CentralWestEnd.html].  At one edge of the expanding urbane boundaries of the Central West End is Bowood Farms, […]

When people talk about St. Louis, beer usually comes up early in the discussion.  Before Anheuser-Busch’s rise to market dominance after the 1970s, St. Louis offered a home to dozens of breweries with its combination of ethnic immigration, access to resources, and a proliferation of caves perfect for storage.  With such a long and storied […]

The weekend weather in January was frigid, with light snow, in my hometown of Albany, NY, but not so severe to alter our decision to enjoy another meal at Local 111, a superb farm to table restaurant in Philmont (Columbia County, NY).  A special winter dinner to benefit local farms and agriculture through the work […]

Five days in Pacific Grove on California’s Monterey Bay peninsula, with sunny skies, daytime temperatures in the 70s, and the roar of the Pacific through the guest bedroom window of a friend’s beautiful retirement home, is a perfect vacation in mid-November for a snow-country resident of upstate New York.  Still, with San Francisco just 125 […]

I had the privilege of studying Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace as a college student 40 years ago, with a legendary Professor Jonathan Kistler at upstate New York’s Colgate University.  The experience was life altering and turned me into a careful reader.  If you asked me to name another book that rose to the level […]

Three weeks before a recent visit to Washington, D.C., I decided some planning was in order for a special, celebratory meal.  As the proud father of a son, soon due to complete his studies at the University of Maryland for a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences with the presentation of his thesis on the interaction of […]

This past spring, Jonathan Horowitz’s “Go Vegan!” exhibit, first mounted in 2002, was restaged by Gavin Brown’s art gallery in lower Manhattan at the former LaFrieda butchery adjacent to the art gallery at 601 Washington Street. The exhibit which occupied the former white tiled butchery, included photographs of more than 200 celebrity vegetarians (including Albert […]

I was early to meet some friends for lunch, and noticed a display of Chef Davis’s cookbook, Honest and Fresh, near the entry to the main dining room of the wonderful Henrietta’s Table in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The cookbook, with its beautiful cover photograph of a hearty breakfast in an iron skillet, was irresistible and on […]

The longest Saratoga meet of 40 days (instead of the 36 days of the past few years) has come to an end, with only a modest dip in the overall on-track handle to $104,610,307 from last year’s $112,005,878, and overall attendance this summer reaching a respectable 878,284 in the small city of Saratoga Springs, NY, […]

The idea that an historic New England Inn has it own farm (Twin Lakes Farm), four miles down a country road from its perch on a beautiful village green, caught my attention.  With a creative chef, David Miller, trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeepsie, NY, The White Hart in Salisbury, Connecticut became […]

Local Harvest Café in the Tower Grove neighborhood of St. Louis offers diners fresh and globally sustainable meals at reasonable prices. The café is situated at the edge of Tower Grove Park and the Missouri Botanical Gardens, two of the premier green spaces in the city.  It originated in the Local Harvest Grocery store, but […]

The Farmers Diner in Quechee (Windsor County, Vt)- Even in a state promoting a cheese trail of 41 artisinal cheesemakers (www.vtcheese.com/cheesetrail.htm), it still comes as a bit of a surprise and delight to find The Farmers Diner.  Tucked into a corner of touristy Quechee Gorge Village, is a wonderfully preserved 1947 railroad dining car, moved […]

Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca (Tompkins County, NY)- The Moosewood Restaurant, the legendary vegetarian restaurant that has been serving delicious meals in downtown Ithaca (the home of Cornell University) for 30 plus years, naturally came to mind when we were developing the farm to table directory of restaurants. A well-used cookbook from the 1970’s called “The […]

Wild Hive Café in Clinton Corners (Dutchess County, NY)- A few minutes east of the Salt Point Turnpike exit of the Taconic State Parkway brings the traveler to what may be the planet’s best Grilled Cheese sandwich, and a remarkable alternative to Fast Food America.  The day’s lunch specials at this friendly café included an […]

Route7 Grill in Great Barrington, MA- The Berkshire’s Route 7 Grill is not part of the urbane restaurant scene of downtown Great Barrington, with its shops, galleries and pedestrian traffic.  Instead, you have to hop in the car and drive 2 miles south on busy Route 7 to reach this restaurant Nirvana for BBQ meats.  […]

Red Devon in Bangall (Dutchess County, NY)- Who knew there is a bit of California’s Napa Valley in New York’s Northern Dutchess County?  It takes some skillful map reading to find the Red Devon in Bangall, between Millbrook and Pine Plains, but the drive on pleasant country roads ends with a solar paneled, sprawling restaurant/cafe/market […]

Dish in Greenwich (Washington County, NY) has been open only a short while.  The walls are undecorated, except for a photograph of Marilyn Monroe left behind by the prior operators of a former restaurant known as Some Like It Hot, at the homey spot on the main street of this country town.  Big plans are […]