Wolfgang Puck’s latest endeavor is five hundred and sixty feet up, at the tippy top of the Reunion Tower. The circular space holds about 120 seats, all of which have views of Dallas–the Trinity River, the Bank of America building with its glowing green Xs, the web of highways, and the neon-lit convenience stores. The interior is all cool grays and hard wood, [...]
A while back, I mentioned that I had started writing for Louisiana Travel and that they would be launching a new, younger, cooler version of the site. In true Louisiana style, the relaunch happens a few weeks later than planned, and the site is still in its beta phase, but it’s live. Here, my first piece on a [...]
A few months back, I roped my friend Karen into going with me to the Inn at Dos Brisas, a posh vacation home-turned-luxury inn in Washington, Texas, the birthplace of the Lone Star state. She didn’t know that I was going to make her try foie gras, ride a horse, and check out every single antique [...]
The New York Times recently ran an article on Caddo Lake, which lies literally 15 miles west of Shreveport, and is a place I’ve yet to visit. Though I’m not really into creepy crawly things, much less big reptiles that might eat me, I was taken by Jim Atkinson’s description of the place: “Spectral shapes shift in the [...]
In preparation for my upcoming trip to Cajun country, or Acadiana–an area settled by French exiles from Canada, characterized by marshes, swamps, and bayous, and populated by snakes, gators, and birds–I picked up a copy of Donald Link’s Real Cajun. And it’s so much more than a cookbook: It incorporates Donald’s tales of growing up [...]
I recently started writing for Louisiana Travel, a website dedicated to promoting tourist travel to and within the state. As part of the effort, the site is getting a significant makeover–they’ve even brought in a former Conde Nast editor–and will relaunch later this month with a fresh, new look. My first assignment was a travel journal on Natchitoches, the state’s oldest settlement, where I found stellar [...]
I moved to New Orleans in January 2007, one year and four months post-Katrina. I had never been to the Big Easy before, so I didn’t have a comparison point, but what was clear to me from the beginning was that the Cat 3 hurricane that hit the city on August 29, 2005 had redefined [...]
In the beginning, I romanticized the South. I thought it would be all mom and pop barbecue joints, charming Main Street U.S.A., and Southern hospitality. I wasn’t prepared for strip malls and segregation, deer huts and guns, not to mention the fact that I have to drive everywhere [I didn’t have a license before I [...]