No Drinking, No Problem: Non-traditional, Zero-proof Beverages
Our culinary columnist gives some love to a different kind of drink, but remembers to include at least one mocktail. While zero-proof cocktails gained traction in the last few years,…
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Anne Marie’s Favorite New Restaurants of 2023
Our food columnist looks back on a delicious year. Time seems to have sped up as the year progressed. Blink and it was spring. Summer felt more brutal than usual,…
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Great Places for Cocktails in Orange County, Part 3: New (and Newish) Cocktail Programs
COCKTAILS, PART 3: This is the last installment of a series of stories by our food writers, Anne Valdespino and Anne Marie Panoringan, who took a deep dive into places around…
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Cookbooks Could Be Your Last Minute Gift-giving Solution
Still looking for a holiday present? Our food columnist has a few cookbook suggestions – including a few from Orange County authors. I own too many coffee cups. There is…
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Dynamic (Sister) Duos Command OC’s Restaurant Scene
Our columnist understands that success isn’t always strength in numbers, it’s strength in sisters. She gets to know some of the prominent players in Orange County’s food and beverage scene….
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Maximizing Dining Headroom (or, Managing Dual Concepts In A Single Space)
Our food columnist is fixated on the idea of secondary restaurants residing at the same address as its primary, yet separate concept. What’s more challenging than having a restaurant concept?…
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Celebrating 10 Years at The Blind Pig (or How a South OC Mainstay Reached the Decade Mark)
Our food columnist revisits an establishment that changed the way locals in Rancho Santa Margarita defined dining out. (Hint: It involves a visually impaired farm animal.) Plus, a look at…
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Where I Prefer to Dine
At some point when I strike up a conversation with someone new (and they learn about my food writing), they ask the question that I dread, “What’s your favorite restaurant?”…
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Top Chef’s Amar Santana Dishes About Competing in Season 20
SPOILER ALERT: If you have not watched “Top Chef: World All-Stars” through episode nine, you may want to wait to read this until you have. This story contains spoilers. Attending…
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Where Locals Dine with Cindy Avila
While I do my best to cover brand new as well as established restaurants, I’m reminded that there are many places that go overlooked for one reason or another. So…
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How Restaurant Ambiance Influences Dining
Recently I began reading a new hardcover called “Unreasonable Hospitality” by Will Guidara (the former co-owner of acclaimed Eleven Madison Park in New York City) that is in line with…