The writers' strike may be over, but not everything is going
well in Hollywood, I read in yesterday's Corriere della Sera (Milan).
The latest trend of shows and movies abandoning the city for cheaper
locales leaves the film industry capital increasingly isolated.
And if things continue down the same path, soon nobody will be filming
there (that prediction is courtesy of Carsten Lorenz who made it
in an interview with the Financial Times)...
Read the rest of: "Frankie Goes To... New York?"»  One of the most frequently photographed sights in Madrid that's nevertheless completely ignored in the city guidebooks is the Tío Pepe sign in Puerta del Sol. Given the number of tourists taking pictures in front of the sign (with many opting for a silly trick where they pretend to be "holding" the giant bottle behind them... very creative, guys, but it's been done before) and consequently, given the sign's status as the city's de facto second emblem (at least in tourists' minds... the first still being the bear, of course), it seems almost unbelievable that no guidebook provides at least a cursory look at the sign's story.
Allow me to take the onerous task upon myself..
Read the rest of: "Glowing Above the Sun: The Tío Pepe Sign"»  There are many restaurants in this town proving their worth by hiring the right chef, PR agency or interior designer, attracting the "in" crowd or serving the most "creative" (sometimes absurdly creative) nouvelle cuisine dishes.
And then there are restaurants that don't need to prove anything: as long as they stay true to their mission and character, they will be deservedly popular.
L'Express at 3927 rue St-Denis belongs to the second category. In the 20-odd years that the place has existed, it slowly transformed its status from that of a "cool new thing" to that of a Montreal institution...
Read the rest of: "L'Express Way"»  If there's one place that symbolizes the quirkiness of Madrid's
history for me, it is the Sabatini Gardens next to the Palacio Real.
Of course, it's not the quirkiness that draws hundreds of
people here every day - the gardens are beautiful and for
anybody who's tired of the city's heat (in summer), or
crowds (all year round) it's a perfect place to chill,
relax a little bit, read or just people-watch. And did
I mention the location? Quite literally in the shadow of
the Palacio Real, perhaps Madrid's most famous landmark:
it just doesn't get more central than that.
But still, that's not the whole story. The whole story
would need to mention a few quirky facts. Here's one, for
example: the Sabatini Gardens are named after Italian architect
Francesco Sabatini who... had nothing to do with them...
Read the rest of: "Sabatini Gardens: Chilling With the Kings"» 
photo by newyork8080
I have a love and hate relationship with Strand. The "hate" part, for those interested, will be explained at the end of this posting, but let me start with the "love" one. For a hardcover-loving bibliophile rat I am, Strand is simply a great place - one of the best in the world. It's big, cavernous (they claim to offer "18 miles of books") and full of surprises...
Read the rest of: "Stranded on Broadway"»  I am not exactly a frequent visitor at tea salons
- a fact pretty much ensured by the very presence
of the Y chromosome in my DNA.
Yet, since about a year ago, I regularly find
myself at a place that ranks suspiciously well on
the tea connoisseurs' list of Montreal cafés and
restaurants.
And what do I order there? Tea. And cookies...
Read the rest of: "Tea and Cookies at Nocochi"»
 For all of us who like to go to restaurants
and imagine we've been invited to somebody's
dinner party, there's now a perfect place
to do just that.
Chicago native Daniel Rose (who originally came
to France intending to study philosophy... more on that later)
runs his 16-seat restaurant called Spring
almost as some sort of a one-man show...
Read the rest of: "Spring in Paris"»  There are many methods of discovering good restaurants and avoiding bad ones in an unfamiliar city.
The simplest one I know of involves walking secondary streets of the target neighborhood in the evening, taking note of restaurants that quickly fill up with locals. Avoid the empty ones, avoid the ones with people who look like tourists. Above all, avoid the ones with menus in English. Obviously, read the menus. That's pretty much it.
As simple as the method may be, most of the time it just works. Et voici my latest Parisian discovery: L'Absinthe Café in the 3rd arrondissement (not to be confused with the restaurant L'Absinthe in the 1st)...
Read the rest of: "L'Absinthe Café: First Impressions"»  |
