Outstanding in the Field - Double Check Ranch

Roka Akor

Caffe Medici

Momofuko Noddle Bar

Momofuko Milk Bar

Ninth Street Espresso

Grumpy Coffee

Duck Donuts

Every summer many families from the mid Atlantic states travel to the outer banks of North Carolina for a week at the beach. On your way to North Carolina, everyone stops to purchase carts worth of food since their isn't much anything to purchase once you arrive at the outer banks. One deviation to this rule is Duck Donuts.

In Duck, North Carolina, a little donut shop sits inside a small strip mall. A line 20 people deep forms outside the standing room only shop and the smell of donuts frying is worth the wait. At Duck Donuts, all donuts are made fresh and are topped to order. My only challenge was which donuts to eat first? The Cinnamon Sugar or Chocolate or Maple - hmmm... it ended up being a little bit of all of them.

Ipsento Coffee House

Do you like Nutella? For me, Nutella would be in the top 10 foods that I would want to have on a desert island. I can spread it on any kind of bread, any enjoy it for any meal of the day. While in Chicago, I stumbled upon the Ipsento Coffee House. The little coffee shop in the Bucktown neighborhood make the best of both of my worlds, combining Nutella and a Latte to make the divine Nutella Latte. The hint of hazelnuts in the latte is subtle and does not take away from the fresh ground coffee or frothy milk, instead the hazelnut enhances the drink and takes it to a new dimension.

Hot Doug's

After waiting for about 1.5 hours outside of Hot Doug's, we were finally entering the "mecca" of delicious dogs! Doug greeted us took our order (he also recommended a few dogs) and gave a thumbs up on the duck fat fries. You really cant beat the duck fat fries. Out of all four dogs that were sampled, two are the most memorable:

1. The Dog. A classic Chicago-style hot dog with all the trimmings! Simply perfect.

2. The Foie Gras and sauternes duck sausage with truffle aioli, foie gras mousse and fleur de sel. You wont find this hot dog anywhere else and although it was a little on the rich side, it certainly was decadent.

Fontera Grill

Blue Bottle Coffee

Blue Bottle is one of my favorite boutique coffee shops. They are the first place to introduce single drop coffee and siphon style coffee in San Francisco. If you can visit their location on Mint Street, you need to also order some food to compliment your outstanding coffee. The poached eggs on thick Acme Toast is filling and creamy; another option is their buttermilk waffle (much better than any other waffle I have had).

Ubunto

Coming soon

Namu

Coming soon

Old Soul at Weatherstone

The Old Soul at Weatherstone is located in the midtown section of Sacramento. The cappuccinos and Lattes at Old Soul were one my first ventures into boutique coffee drinks. Each drink at old soul is made with tender love and care. Although the drinks are outstanding, the pastries are delicious and memorable (especially the pumpkin muffin or chocolate croissant).

At the end of the day, a cappuccino from Old Soul should become the daily staple for anyone who needs a daily dose of coffee to start their day.

Ad Hoc (another review)

Another BFC (Buttermilk Fried Chicken) night at Ad Hoc

more details to come soon...

Toby's Coffee Bar

In the middle of the secluded hills and grasslands of Northern California the small little town of Point Reyes rises. The town is full of small little shops that aspire to be sustainable local and organic providers. Toby's Coffee is tucked in the garage adjacent to Toby's Market, the coffee and baked goods are delicious; the service is genuine and sincere. Overall one of the best and most remote coffee destinations I have ever experienced.

Perbacco

Revisited...

under construction

Heirloom

My first fine dinning outing in Arizona was a great experience. The chef's table gave us the benefit of both getting our food with precision timing and being able to chat with the chefs throughout dinner. The multi-course meal had a lot of good highlights, the veggie and beet cucumber "roll" was very flavorful and fulfilling. Both the salmon and sea bass were cooked very well and presented beautifully.

Ad Hoc

I have wanted to try Ad Hoc‘s food since I learned about this one of a kind restaurant. Thomas Keller’s Yountville restaurant was initially supposed to be a temporary restaurant based on a prix fixe family-style menu. Today, the menu still stands, but its short-lived status does not, due to popular demand, the restaurant became a permanent fixture in the Napa restaurant scene.

Perhaps part of the reason for the restaurant’s popularity is its fried chicken, which has a cult following like none other. Fried chicken night is hard to catch (pun intended), as the chicken is made twice monthly and only on Monday nights. To date, I've been to Ad-Hoc 7-10 times and have experienced fried chicken night three times (but only once since I started writing this blog).

This night we started with a Baby Iceberg Lettuces Salad with marinated cucumbers, shaved radish, pickled red onion, haas avocado, nueske bacon crumbles, green goddess dressing. As always a great salad, it was well-balanced and light, a perfect start for the rest of the courses to follow.

But it was really nothing compared to our second course of Buttermilk Fried Chicken, which always tastes better than the last time. It is everything you ever want in fried chicken: crispy on the outside, with a substantial breading that put every other fried chicken crust to shame; moist, juicy and tender on the inside, yet cooked through and not greasy; meaty, with little to no bones; just seasoned and spicy enough and an Ad Hoc honey for dipping.

By the way, the couple next to me, finished their chicken and got a second helping. I should have done the same since it was so so so good!

After the chicken, we go our cheese plate Redwood Hill Farm’s Cameo, palladin toast, brooks cherry & red onion marmalade. As good as the cheese was, I was still thinking of the chicken (sorry cheese lovers).

We finished our amazing Ad-Hoc meal with Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting and Banana Nut with valhrona chocolate icing.

As always the best $49 per person meal you will ever enjoy (period).