Krik's Picks

While my wife and I were on vacation in California (see the next post in my blog), we walked A LOT. I know that because I wore my activity tracker throughout the day. We logged 11 miles of walking on two consecutive days in San Francisco. I think even my wife was surprised by that. One day, we took a city bus to Golden Gate Park. We walked around in the park, and then we walked to Haight-Asbury and then all the way back to our hotel in the Financial District. According to the tracker, that was 11.32 miles, 24433 steps. The next day, we walked from our hotel around the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf, and then continued up Van Ness to Union Street. There we shopped around, had lunch, and then walked back via the Wharf and North Beach. That was 11.41 miles, 24861 steps. Whew! I bought the activity tracker in February. My wife questioned why I needed one, and I probably don’t. I don’t use it to motivate myself to exercise more. I have a pretty regular exercise schedule and I’m discip...

In March, my wife and I spent 8 days in California. It was kind of an ambitious trip. We covered a lot of ground, starting in Los Angeles, then to the Paso Robles wine country, ending in San Francisco. It was a busy trip. But probably because we’ve traveled to California many times in our married life, we had things pretty well planned out. At least part of it was the weather. California’s climactic misfortune – an extended drought – meant that we had generally gorgeous weather the whole time. I’ll post more details about some of the restaurants we visited. But here’s an overview of the trip. Los Angeles: Like our trip last year , we started in Los Angeles where I had a board meeting for Mazon, the anti-hunger advocacy organization that I serve on. We stayed again at the Hotel Palomar near the UCLA campus. I’ve said it before, I’m a big fan of Kimpton Hotels. But after this second stay, I’m tempted to say that the Palomar is my favorite of all. It certainly is an ideal location. I...

I planned my dinner at Casa Luca in DC for almost a year. I had previously eaten at Fabio Trabocchi’s other two DC restaurants. I had lunch at Fiola in 2012. It was fabulous. (Click here for the review I wrote.) Then a year ago, I had dinner at Fiola Mare, specializing in fish and seafood. Great food and beautiful venue, but I had trouble with the service. (Click here for that review.) For me, the appeal of trying his third restaurant was partly curiosity. I wanted to see what the chef did differently from his other two places. It also was partly because I so enjoyed the Italian cooking served at his DC restaurants, quite different from what’s served at Italian restaurants in Minnesota. So I was in DC alone on a Saturday night. My plane arrived early evening, so I made a later dinner reservation. I didn’t have any trouble getting a table. But in retrospect, I think that was because it was a little later than the usual dinner rush. When I got there, Casa Luca was hopping! It se...

Before I retired, I came to think of Bistro Bis as my favorite DC restaurant. It has the ideal intersection of convenience, ambiance, good service, creative menu, consistently reliable meals. I’ve been there for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. They’re all great. I did post a review on this blog once before. But it was several years ago (2007) and a recent return visit refreshed my enthusiasm for the restaurant. Food: 5 (Ok, a little hyperbole here. My rating scale says a “5” is so good it would make angels weep. I don’t know if I’ve ever actually tasted food that good. But this is really good.) Service: 5 Ambiance: 5 Value: 5 Not to say that it’s inexpensive; it’s not. But it’s really worth it. Since I retired, I don’t get to DC nearly as often as I did. Consequently, when I do travel there, I tend to want to try emerging new stars in the DC food scene rather than return to an old favorite. But when I met members of my old team and colleagues for lunch in early ...

Serious reviewers generally dine at a restaurant multiple times before writing a review. Makes sense. You ought to try several items on the menu (for nothing else but to determine consistency from the kitchen). And a repeat visit gives you a chance to test whether the first time was just a bad night, or alternatively perhaps it was an uncharacteristically good night. So this post is both a confession and testimony to the wisdom of making multiple visits: Most of the reviews I post on Krik’s Picks are based on just a single experience. But after my third time at Coup d’Etat in Minneapolis, I’ve changed my mind about my initial first impression, which was not favorable. There’s a lot to like about the restaurant, starting with the space and ambiance. It’s a big open room with high ceilings. Tables on the second level have a great view of the bars (there are multiple) and action on the lower level. It does tend to be quite loud, but that just adds to the energy and vibrancy of the re...

We had a hard time finding a good place to eat on Frenchmen Street, during our January trip to New Orleans. Our son and all of the guide books and several other people recommended going to Frenchmen Street for music. Early in our trip, we walked through the French Quarter to Frenchmen Street and were frustrated. We ended up at a Creole restaurant that served lots of fried food. It was ok, but not really what we were looking for. After that, we went into a few of the clubs, but they were jam-packed and no chance to get a seat. We had better luck when we came back a couple nights later. This time we had a reservation at 3 Muses . It was one of the few places on Frenchmen Street that will take a reservation, offer a creative menu, and present talented jazz performers. Our reservation got us seated in time to catch the last set of the early evening performer and we stayed through the first set of the later performer. We enjoyed both very much. They weren’t big name jazz performers, bu...

One of the things that really impressed me about New Orleans, during our trip there in January , was the friendliness of nearly all of the local people we met. They were cordial and welcoming and eager to share their personal tips on what to see, where to go, and where to eat. The day after we arrived was overcast and damp. I carried an umbrella all day but didn’t have to open it. So we spent that day perusing the shops and galleries in the French Quarter. At one of them, we got a couple of restaurant recommendations. The way it came up, we were in the shop late morning, and we mentioned a restaurant on the corner where we planned to have lunch. The shopkeeper’s comment was something like: “Well that’s ok. But I think you’d like Amelie better.” So we made our way over to Royal Street. It was only a couple blocks farther than the restaurant we had originally planned. We were immediately charmed by Amelie’s quaint courtyard and regretted that the threatening weather prevented us f...