The Corning Museum of Glass (located, as its name cunningly suggests, in Corning, NY, and referred to as CMoG), is a Mecca for all things glass. And after one experience within the campus footprint, the Make Your Own Glass experience, I was hooked. And so will you be, if you make the pilgrimage to this highly fascinating and educational Mecca.

The original CMoG structure, designed in 1951 by the renowned architect Wallace K. Harrison, has long been home to an exciting exhibit space, a formidable research library, a cutting-edge education center, and more. Today, however, having expanded dramatically over the years, the entire campus comprises a unique collection of award-winning, modern, glass structures, stretching over 10 acres and housing even more glass and glass-related archives, exhibition, and participatory programs.

The newest expansion includes The Studio, a state-of-the-art center for glass, glass, and more glass, including the Make Your Own Glass workshop, allowing devotees of silica and sand to explore not only glass blowing (make a flower, a pumpkin, a Christmas ornament!), but also fusing, sandblasting, flameworking, and other glass arts. (Prices for these hands-on experiences range from $15 to $150.)

The Studio, established in 1996 by CMoG, was then a 24,000-square-foot facility that soon garnered an international reputation and became a sought-after destination, offering instruction across a spectrum of techniques and skill levels, as well as residencies for artists, and rentals of furnace, kiln, and cold-working space and equipment. Enter StudioNEXT, a visionary project created to expand the facility’s footprint to a staggering 60,000 square feet and which transforms the already exciting and educational experience to a preeminent global center for artists and students of glass. The $55.3 million project is CMoG’s largest and most forward-looking initiative to date, underscoring the Museum’s commitment to glass as a major medium for contemporary artistic expression, doubling down on the Museum’s support for artists and designers who are innovating in glass.

The Studio offers instruction across a spectrum of techniques and skill levels, residencies for artists, and rentals of furnace, kiln, and cold-working space and equipment. By expanding and enhancing the infrastructure, this expansion creates the only facility in North America that can accommodate large-scale works in cast glass; deepens glassmaking educational programs for students of all levels; offers expanded residency opportunities; and serves many more visitors each day.

Over the years, CMoG has also assumed stewardship of the illustrious and historic Steuben art glass brand, and Corning still produces some select Steuben pieces; proceeds from the sale of Steuben pieces benefit the educational mission of the non-profit Museum. The historic ventilator building Steuben once inhabited, located on the CMoG campus, was renovated and repurposed as the 500-seat Amphitheater Hot Shop – one of the world’s largest space in which to watch live glassblowing demonstrations. Although no longer under the umbrella of the Corning Incorporated brand, the household name Pyrex, also, has its roots in the Corning community.

The Rakow Research Library includes world’s foremost archive and reference collection on the history of glassmaking. A center for scholarship, CMoG publishes glass-focused periodicals, books, DVDs, and exhibition catalogs.

Another jewel in the crown of CMoG is the collection itself, home to more than 50,000 extraordinary works in glass. Spanning the globe and encompassing more than 3,500 years of human ingenuity, the collection includes masterpieces from the great civilizations of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as glass from other parts of Europe, the Far East/Asia, the Americas, and other far-flung melting pots of humanity.

Some of the highlights of the Museum’s 35 centuries of glass include:

• One of the earliest known glass portraits, a rare ancient glass sculpture of an Egyptian king, dating from the late 18th Dynasty, about 1450-1400 B.C.
• The earliest known example of an Islamic drinking horn (only two others are known)
• The Behaim beaker, a Venetian enameled glass that commemorates a marriage heldin 1495.
• One of the earliest known pieces of American glass, a covered tumbler produced at the factory of John Frederick Amelung.

Highlights of the contemporary art and design wing include:

• “The Continuous Mile,” a mile-long sculpture composed of over 4.5 million glass beads created by Liza Lou and more than 50 bead workers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
• “Virtue of Blue,” a self-sustaining chandelier constructed completely out of blue solar panel butterflies

Some of my favorites among the more modern pieces include:

• Celebrated artist Lino Tagliapietra’s “Endeavor” installation is a seemingly in-flight flock of birds, or a graceful, gliding school of fish, or even a waltzing fleet of boats. It features a dozen-plus, colorful,glass swirls and swooshes, suspended from the ceiling. The viewer is metaphorically invited into it, to experience its movement, grace, weightlessness, and elegance

• Also suspended from the ceiling is Silvia Levenson’s “It’s Raining Knives,” an arresting forest of cast-glass knives, which are ground and polished to many a striking point!

• “Forest Glass” by Katherine Gray is composed of some 2,000 found glass objects – mostly tumblers of one form or another – that are arranged on clear shelves, forming three “trees,” recognizable by their brownish”trunks” and greenish, “leafy” canopies. The didactics adjacent to the piece state that the “The title refers to the Waldglas, translated from German as ‘forest glass,’ the typically dark green and brown glass made during the Middle Ages in northern and central Europe. The wood burned to fuel glass furnaces resulted in widespread deforestation. Here, Katherine Gray re-created trees out of the material that destroyed them – ‘recycling’ the trees with recycled glass.”

• Set against a backdrop (on the floor) of a flattened black and white schematic of the world, “Global Cities,” by Norwood Viviano, tells the story of global population change through the individual histories of 33 cities around the world.The bright blue top-like floating forms correlate to populations. It is a striking and evocative piece.
• Beth Lipman’s “All in All” is a typical tablescape for which the artist is known-blown glass forms are the fare of the tabletop – pre-historic plants comprise the design.
• “Lynx after a Sketchbook Page by Albrecht Dürer,” by Polish-born Marta Klonoska, employs thousands of pieces of cut glass, creating the “fur” of the lynx. He looks so cute you might want to pet him, but this lynx is more like a porcupine…and hands off, anyhow – you’re in a museum!
• A charming and inspired work, “108 Meditations in Saffron” by David Chatt is a vitrine assemblage of found objects, covered in intricate fiery-orange beading. Everyday objects – found tchotchkes, if you will – form the basis of this arresting agglomeration of mere stuff!

CMoG is committed to exploring glass in many ways and recently mounted an outstanding show, “Disclosure: The Whiteness of Glass,” which explored subtle racism within this ivory-tower pursuit. It was riveting and as a viewer, you were forced to ask uncomfortable questions and explore emotions.

Additionally, CMoG has a truly fabulous, 18,000-square-feet gift shop – think fine art objets along with gewgaws, fanciful “stuff,” sparkling jewelry, and utilitarian must-haves – that vends everything from books about glass, to ornaments, to functional and stunning or mundane and utilitarian tools. For your comfort, as well, there is a very decent restaurant and other visitor amenities.

Additional info: home.cmog.org
© 2024 Ruth J. Katz All Rights Reserved

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Dear Manhattan-American:

I am planning a trip to New York in June. I have not visited it for 40 or so years. Friends have informed me that Manhattan is now very gentrified and has lost its edge, and I should concentrate on Brooklyn. What is your take on this?

—  Nancy from Denver, CO

Dear Nancy:

Brooklyn, ugh. Isn’t that the place where people who can’t find an apartment to rent in Manhattan decamp to? There is nothing in that borough that is better than in Manhattan. So go ahead, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, take in the view, and immediately turn back.

P.S. If you haven’t visited in 40 years, no doubt you have lost your edge as well.

Death Manhattan-American:

I am from Oregon and very proud of my Irish ancestry. I believe the name ‘Paddy Wagon’ stems from New York. Is the name a slur, something that I should take offense?

— Declan Fallihee of Portland, Oregon 

Dear Declan:

Prisoner vans were called paddy wagons because back in the day the police force primarily comprised Irishmen. If you are seeking things to take offense about, there are a great many more that ought to get your Irish up.

Dear Manhattan-American:

I am an ABC (American Born Chinese) married to a Euro-American male. We’ve never been to NYC before. We have two weeks for our vacation, and I want to explore every inch of Manhattan. The problem is that my husband is terrified to visit Harlem in fear that he will stand out. Is there anything I can say that will alleviate his concern? He is not a racist, just worried.

— Suzy Chang-Larkin, Kansas City

Dear Suzy:

For my entire adult life I have lived in Manhattan. I have never been to Harlem. I believe they have three attractions: Sylvia’s and Red Rooster restaurants and the Apollo Theater. I would be more concerned about traveling to Harlem via our dirty, rat-infested, homeless-sheltering subways than by being in Harlem. Take an Uber, cab, or bus there and back and both you and your husband should be fine.

Meet our Manhattan-American: Susan Breslow

This installment of our advice column comes from Susan Breslow, the Web’s foremost expert on romantic travel. In fact, she breaks out in hives when the words “family travel” are mentioned. A widely published travel journalist, Susan’s assignments have led her from Alaska to Zimbabwe. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Departures, National Geographic, and other major magazines and she is the author of Destination Weddings For Dummies and I Really Want a Dog. She served as president of the New York Travel Writers Association and is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers Editors’ Council. As the former marketing director of New York Magazine, she originated the highly successful “City Weddings and Honeymoons” section, which was spun off into the freestanding New York Weddings magazine. Susan holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism and a B.A. in English and studied Multimedia Technology at New York University.

Read more about Susan.

See the list of Susan’s articles here.

Readers,

Feel free to direct any question of your choice to our advice team at **@**********oy.com. T-Boy has an illustrious team of writers with an acute understanding of their ancestral homeland.

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Ithaca is a “gorges” city, and with 150 waterfalls within a 10-mile radius, it comes by its moniker honestly. Within the city limits itself, a one-third mile hike uphill – the Cascadilla Gorge Trail — was not only exhilarating because of the trek itself, but for the vastness and variety of six different freely flowing floes of cascading waterfalls.

The entire town is enmeshed in tree-laden canopies and small fairy-tale-like cottages. The fact that there’s a top-rated college or two hidden among all the greenery is a surprising bonus. Ithaca is so compact that you can experience an unexpectedly large number of diverse activities within literally minutes of each other from huge waterfalls to beautiful gardens to history museums and goat farms. And Cayuga Lake, the longest of the Finger Lakes, is almost always at your side.

I don’t usually seek out bees. Actually, I do my best to avoid them so I wasn’t sure what to expect at the Honeybee Embassy. Fortunately, the emphasis in on the luscious products they produce rather than personal interaction with the bees themselves. Much of Ithaca, it seems, is encouraging pollinators like bees to further the reproduction of flowers and plants. And the flowers are produced to attract said pollinators. A win-win for the earth.

Honeybee Embassy produces truly raw varietal honey meaning there are no additives, no heat and no pressure used in the processing as is true for most American honeys. Owner Teresa smiled disparagingly: “That’s like taking whole foods and turning them into white bread.”

The samplings bring a variety of tastes, textures and colors to the table. The goal, says Teresa, is “to educate people about the wild world of honey,” which her Czech grand-mother first started doing during Nazi occupation.

Who knew that honey nectar smells range from sweaty socks to cat’s pea to fruity and floral varieties – but fortunately none of that is evident at the tastings. The honey names resonate differently: Basswood, Goldenrod and Japanese Knotwood, for example.

Oh, and just as a diversion since we haven’t been to a waterfall in a while, there’s the nearby Taughannock Falls Overlook which just happens to the largest single-drop waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains. That makes it taller than Niagara Falls. At 215 feet, three stories taller. Take that, Niagara Falls!

Unlike the Honeybee Embassy, a visit to the Cabin View Alpaca Farm had more to do with the actual residents than the products they produce. Christine started the farm in 2009 with 3 alpacas and now there are 50, with whom visitors can interact in various ways from taking them for a walk to feeding them. We chose just to amble among the 9 females and 8 babies in the nearby pasture. All shades of brown, white, grey, fawn and black. My favorite was Patience who at 5 years of age sported a beautiful sandy brown tuft of hair, perfectly coifed – she was her own version of Ithaca gorgeous….

We were close enough to watch the kids gamboling about while the moms gathered to gossip among themselves. We spent a lot of time oohing and aahing at their adorableness.

And yes, alpacas do produce products although fortunately not edible ones. Alpaca yarn apparently is warmer, softer and more hyper-allergenic than sheep’s wool and not surprisingly a wide variety of scarves, socks, hats, mittens and adorable stuffed animals are available in animals are available in the gift shop.

And although I don’t find goats as intrinsically appealing as alpacas, a visit to Lively Run Dairy has its own advantages – among them, a lot of cheese. Unbeknownst to me, goats apparently were one of the first animals to be tamed by humans some 9000 years ago though apparently, they haven’t learned all that much. If you have something in your hand – anything at all – they think it’s for them and will come running after you. So much for well-trained.

In addition to cheese-sampling, there’s petting and feeding, goat shearing and spinning demonstrations. But that’s not really what got my goat! It’s the yoga classes they offer during the summer that 5-7 baby goats attend with you. So yes, you may be doing a downward dog with a goat on your back. On the other hand, dangly earrings may provide an unwelcome diversion from your warrior pose.

So, of course, it’s now time for some liquid refreshment – and although there are any number of wineries and breweries beckoning, Ithaca is better known for its cideries. South Hill Cidery has its de rigueur tastings several times a week, plus a smorgasbord of delectables to accompany the flights but it’s those three nights a week when South Hill more resembles a hoedown that make it unique.

Local bands come to play, a wood-fired oven radiates the smell of pizza, and musician/owner Steve circulates to make sure everyone is having a good time – but only when he’s not playing in the bands himself. Of course, the outdoor concerts are only available six months a year. The rest of the time you just have to drink cider!

If you go: The Hotel Ithaca is a gathering place for Cornell alumni and visiting guests as well as those coming to town for other reasons, and its ambiance provides links to the surroundings.  Walls are covered with photos of the city which focus on the wondrous waterfalls people associate with the destination.  The hotel is close to the popular Ithaca Commons, a wide pedestrian mall that is lined by places to eat and drink, unique shops and inviting galleries, and public art.  Visit thehotelithaca.com. For more information, visit brightravenfarm.com, cabinviewalpacas.com, livelyrun.com, southhillcider.com and, of course, visitithaca.com.

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When the couple, there for their 20^th visit, commented that it was the first time they had taken the house tour -– one of the staples of the Mohonk Mountain House experience — I asked what they had been doing all those years. Liz and Dan Gleason from Haddon Heights, NJ replied: “There’s just so much to do all the time, you just can’t fit it all in. Every year, there’s a new surprise. This year, it’s the Smiley family parlor.”

And therein lie two of the greatest pleasures at this glorious old resort in New Paltz, NY –- activities to keep you busy all day (but only if desired) and the connection to the Smiley family, who has owned and operated the resort for over 154 years.

That connection reverberates throughout the property, which has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21^st century. First bought in 1869 by twins Albert and Alfred Smiley, the 10-room tavern that sat on 300 acres of lake and farm area has been expanded to encompass 259 rooms in connected buildings spanning a sixth of a mile, while the property now extends to 6500 acres, all of which has been treated to accommodate the uninvited virus so that their more welcome guests can feel safe and comfortable.

One of their most recent nods to architectural modernity came in 2005 when they added an ecologically sensitive, geothermally heated spa wing and the first and only –- and long overdue (at least to my way of thinking…) –- cocktail lounge. The other, 2016, when Mohonk unveiled Grove Lodge, the legendary resort’s first new accommodations in more than 100 years. The structural expansion prior to that? 1910, when they added the rounded window section in the main dining room.

Which leaves you very unprepared for the grandiose creation greeting you as you drive up. The mammoth building sitting atop a hill more resembles a haunted house than a mountain resort. All jutting angles and balustrades, widows peaks and turrets, circular, angular and pointed wood, stone and rock cliffs result in a hodge-podge of architectural styles for which eclectic is an understatement. It’s an imposing mish-mosh of disparate styles, all tacked one upon the other, without thought to form or aesthetic. You don’t know whether you’ve arrived at a world-class hotel (which it is), Rapunzel’s castle or the Addams Family abode; you do know that it’s wonderful.

A walk through its many halls presents a similar adventure. A labyrinth of hallways, stairways, cubicles and cubby halls features a surprise at every turn: an aquarium, library, billiard room, activity center. The life-size stuffed Basset Hound and Russell Terrier in front of the gift shop were so real I was sure I heard them bark.

A Rogue’s Gallery of famous people and family members who contributed to the long history of Mohonk features pictures of Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Carnegies who vacationed here along with several presidents and other heads of state. Around every corner, a rocking chair, lounge chair, or settee looking out on yet another beautiful view. Long porches and outdoor alcoves everywhere lined with more rocking chairs, many facing the lake caressed by canoes, rowboats, kayaks and paddle boats beckoning for attention. The whole idea is to get guests to look at, get out in and enjoy the surrounding nature. Or not. Sitting also is good.

Some resorts boast multiple restaurants and swimming pools –- at Mohonk, it’s rocking chairs and gazebos. Thus many a guest can be found sitting in any one of 125gazebos spread throughout the property — the Smileys put them in areas they identified as beautiful locations, which accounts for their large number — either reading a book or just staring out at the lake or mountain before them. Or equally entranced by flower-laden, canopied pathways interconnected by wooden bridges, trellised walkways, green bushes and rock outcroppings. The connection with nature is all-encompassing. Be prepared: there are so many places -– gazebos, benches, chairs, hidden nooks, alcoves, both indoors and out — enticing you to just sit and read that you should carry a book with you at all times (or, if you’re under 18, your iPod).

Sitting on our balcony –- there we had to make due with yet another rocking chair, which are the only things that outnumber the gazebos — overlooking the views was so peaceful we had to force ourselves to get up and start undertaking the myriad of activities awaiting us. As an incentive to get moving, the map of the building lists 58 different destinations –- and those are just indoors! We’ll talk about the outdoor options later.

Just as the current structure is essentially unchanged since 1902, the same goes for the initial mission of the resort, as first espoused by Albert Smiley: it remains dedicated to a renewal of the mind, body and spirit in a beautiful natural setting. That vision still permeates the property, embodying an old-world ambience that adds charm and character that no modern-day hotel complex can come close to matching.

You want to do some hiking, rock-climbing or mountain biking? You’re in the right place. Want to ride a snowmobile, a Jet Ski or watch TV – you’re not. Mohonk is all about tranquility. And simplicity. This is not the kind of place where they bring you umbrella drinks by the pool. That same Quaker philosophy also limits any raucous nightlife options. In lieu of the usual resort band and dancing, there may be a lecture on the Geology and Paleontology of the Hudson Valley. Seems like a fair trade-off… 

Okay, there actually is a TV located in one of the meeting rooms but a guest survey taken over five years ago in which 97% of respondents said they didn’t want them in the rooms probably assures that there won’t be many more making an appearance. And the 15-20 local Smileys still involved in day-to-day operations probably also guaranty that the same ideal will continue. But make no mistake: this is no out-dated, out-of-touch, old-fashioned resort experience; I predict an exciting, activity-laden, fun-filled time to which, like the Gleasons, you’ll want to return to year-after-year.

Now, about those other activities? There’s swimming, inside and out, fitness center and spa, boating, fishing, yoga, guided nature tours, croquet, golf, tennis and, in winter, ice skating, snowshoeing and tubing. Over eighty-five miles of carriage roads and trails are available for hiking, running, biking, horseback riding and cross-country skiing. And most recently — to especially accommodate social distancing — they’re offering outdoor concerts on the Boat Dock every night, have transformed one of its parking lots into a drive-in movie theater and launched a series of live campfire performances. 

Strolling the grounds is an activity in itself, past fish ponds, a putting green, stables, a Barn Museum chock-full of fascinating antiques and historic memorabilia, and extensive award-winning gardens. Some are laid out in a well-marked precisely structured design, an interesting antidote to the resort’s chaotic architectural structure; other less manicured foliage spill out over more trellised walkways and, yes, more gazebos, leading around, through, between, beneath and beyond an intricate maze — literally — of evergreen trees.

Rates start at $840 per night, based on double occupancy. Three meals daily plus afternoon tea and cookies are also included in the room rates, as is a Kids’ Club providing as many hour-by-hour activities for children ages 2-12 as for adults. Although there’s an additional charge for some of the usual suspects (horseback riding, carriage rides, spa treatments), all those other activities are complimentary.

Mohonk is also well-known for its more than 40 theme weekends throughout the year from Mystery Weekends to Rock ‘n Roll to Culinary to Hiking to Yoga and so much more. If you have an interest, they probably have a weekend.

For more information, call 1/855-883-3798 or visit www.mohonk.com.

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Large floor to ceiling windows render an eerie dream quality to the stormy sea, creating an otherworld intensity of nature’s unsettled grandeur as the immense low-slung clouds drop out of the sky nearly covering the white-capped waves that are sinking and rising in an uneven rhythm as if gasping for breath.

The Cunarder unmarked by the grumble of weather compiling more than 300 transatlantic crossing is an elite ocean liner positioned high above the cruise ship throng of today with 40 percent more steel than the typical cruise ship, and specifically designed for the trials of the open seas. The Flagship of the historic Cunard fleet dating to 1840 is maintaining the grace and elegance of a previous era with a dress code that highlights a sensation of occasion with festive gala balls, the largest library and dance floor afloat, and with a notable collection of creative chefs and cooks.

Cunard Traditional Afternoon Tea – A Broad Aesthetic Sophistication

Ignoring the sigh of the open seas, the Queen Mary 2 is sailing west bound from Southampton to New York City celebrating the 100^th anniversary of Cunard’s Southampton connection, while hosting their traditional Afternoon Tea in the Queens Room, the dress code elevated in respect to the celebrated cruise line, Captain Christopher Wells and his staff. An attractive musician, her eyes closed, is passionately playing a harp while formally dressed servers march into the room greeted by a hearty applause.

The elegant setting in absolute disparity to a tempestuous sea feels as if we are in the middle of the world sheathed in a wayward cloud skimming across the Atlantic while enjoying a festive afternoon party sharing the moment with strangers from throughout the world.

The mood is established with the aid of a sparkling chandelier, the strings of the harp, a tantalizing aroma, and the movement of the ship. A classic Cunard tradition for more than 150 years, Afternoon Tea is a show of staff members who gracefully move about the tables with carefully prepared sandwiches, tasty scones and cakes, and a selection of specially blended Assam, Kenyan and Ceylon, Twining Teas. London based since 1706, Twining is the perfect liaison for Cunard with history to match.

Executive Chef Roland Sargunan – The Power of the Palate

Gregarious like a long-lasting pal, Chef Sargunan emanates the passion, creativity and challenge of managing a hard-working galley. Smiling, “Malaysia is my country. I began cooking at home with my mother who was a wonderful cook and she understood the beauty of vegetables and fruit. I’ve been cooking with Cunard for 22 years and have a wonderful assembly of talented cooks. We present multi-national options as well as vegetarian, low sugar, gluten and lactose free choices, and Canyon Ranch Spa selections, a carb gratification.”  Exceptionally striking is the chef’s  Prime Darragh O’Shea beef, an eighth generation Yorkshire establishment noted for grass-fed Black Angus and renowned as providing the finest meat, game and poultry to the city of London. Chef’s Tip: For those sailing with food allergies pre-ordering is an asset.

Steakhouse at the Verandah Deck Two

Sous Chef Surat Gujadhur, born and raised in Mauritius, cooking for Cunard 16 years, creates a carefully orchestrated grilled lemon sole with strands of asparagus and a green bean fricassee, a popular vegetarian burger with crispy onions, and a 28-Day Aged Prime Angus Sirloin Steak prepared to order. Sides of Clam Chowder and Cured and Salt-baked Baby Beets with a touch of goat’s cheese arrive at table in small copper containers with a handle.

A relaxing and comfy Alternative Dining room with small wall lamps adjacent to vibrant Toulouse-Lautrec art, circular booths and draped windows that overlook the sea, set an ideal atmosphere for a sip of 1995 Central Washington State Merlo.

Kings Court Alternative Dining (Stairway C) Bamboo Pan Asian Cuisine

Ronard Cortez, Chef de Partie from the north of the Philippines, another intricate team member of Executive Chef Sargunan’s staff, has clocked 14 years with Cunard and feels at home serving golden brown and crisp kataifi shrimp in a tangy and light tamarind sauce tucked into a Bento Box.

A long-stemmed fresh-cut rose for Chef Cortez and his team, for their lush steamed king scallops with a zesty spiced seafood sauce, long slender enokitake mushrooms, and a soft shell crab creation with a pleasing Thai taste, crowned with a sweet chili sauce, and a dash of Szechuan pepper with slight lemony overtones.

Golden Lion Pub Feast with Live Music

Passages from a unique 22 string guitar resonate throughout the crowded pub as servers hustle from table-to-table brushing past British born Paul Garthwaite performing Liquor and Poker on his unique 22 string guitar. The ambience is that of a London Pub, chatter at a high level, and the opportunity to enjoy a steaming plate of Fish and Chips with their galley-made ketchup.

Britannia Restaurant Dining Stylish and Chic

Elaborate and distinguished in the timeless Cunard style, upon entering the two level dining complex it seems as if Bogart and Bacall should be dancing down the steps in gala dress while at another entrance Lady Ga Ga and Leonardo DiCapiro are gracefully strolling to a table of friends carrying the poise and mode of the future. While dining on corn chowder adorned with flakes of red bell pepper, a crispy goat cheese with mushrooms and walnut pesto, passengers are informed the Queen Mary 2 is passing 200 miles north of where the Titanic lies.

Later that night after dancing to a big band that knows how to swing we stopped at the Champagne Bar for a Titanic remembrance toast and the rich sense of sea-going culinary imagination.

www.cunard.com

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In fall, 2019, I set out for the West Village in a monsoon. It was the last night of a small, culturally significant exhibit that I wanted to catch. At the designated address, I walked into a darkened courtyard, seemingly the patio of a shuttered restaurant on the far side of the enclosure, certainly not a gallery. More perplexingly, the doors to the eatery were locked. I looked at the address again, walked back out to the street, hunted for the building number, scratched my head, and plunged into the shadowy patio again. Where the heck was this elusive exhibit? Aha! I spied a doorway, kitty-corner, and when I opened the door, I figuratively tumbled through the looking glass, into the gallery!

Well, expect the reverse prelude to your dining experience at Frevo, (a Portuguese word meaning to boil, simmer, seethe), and, indeed, this boite percolates with appetizing, mouthwatering offerings. You’ll hit the proverbial jackpot if you can score a reservation here (the restaurant serves dinner only, see below), as The New York Times gave it two stars, when it opened in spring, 2019. Be forewarned to expect an experience that is the polar opposite of my autumnal outing, when I went from a barely lit restaurant into an art gallery.

At 48 West 8th Street, you’ll commence your evening in a jewel box of an art gallery. Barely six paintings hang on the white plaster and red-brick walls. The brightly lit space is no larger than 14′ x 18′. This is a restaurant? Here, a gracious young woman will greet you when you query, “I was looking for Frevo. I’m not sure I’m in the right place.” “Yes,” she’ll retort. “You’re here!” But, you’ll wonder, just where is the restaurant? Well, voila! An outsize canvas, hinged to the wall, swings away, and there you are, in the entryway of Frevo. Glide through the doorway and into the atmospherically lit, intimate dining room, and experience the transformation.

Frevo is an unusual restaurant, in that it seats a mere (but, certainly fortunate) 18 diners at a long, bar-style counter; there is a chef’s table in the corner, accommodating up to six. (COVID restrictions are enforced, so, at present only 10 may dine at the counter.) I was wondering just how could someone truly relax sitting on a bar stool long enough to appreciate a multi-course, haute cuisine meal? However, rest assured, the charcoal-gray, upholstered stools have seat backs, and are extremely comfortable. During non-COVID times, Frevo has two seatings, each with a slightly flexible window for arrival; with the dining times staggered, there is no orchestrated banquet-style service, where everyone is presented each course in an assembly line, as they would be at a banquet for 500 at a wedding, say. (During this COVID-altered time warp, the restaurant has changed its policies, to include one seating weekdays, and two seatings, weekends; see the info below.)

Seated at the bar, you face the work counter where the kitchen staff of four (sous chef, pastry chef, and two line cooks) in long white aprons are busy getting toothsome meals prepared and plated. They do this seamlessly, quietly, like ninjas. I swear, I never even saw an open flame, and I’d testify in court that there isn’t one! There is, indeed, a tiny kitchen in the back netherworld of the restaurant, but it is used, at least during meal service, for dishwashing, and earlier in the day, for prep. All the action, intriguingly, takes place right in front of you, yet you do not see it happening. A black-cloaked busman removes plates and restores flatware magically. (And, a propos flatware, the gorgeous dinner knives are distinctively unique, and each is perched on a cross-section of polished bone, so that the utensil stands at attention.) Two maître d’s do the more serious menu consulting with diners, in case you don’t or can’t eat one of the courses. (There are always substitutions for particular courses for those who have dietary restrictions—as in, “I can’t eat oysters,” or some such—although during this altered time, Frevo cannot accommodate a vegan, vegetarian, or lactose-free diet for its multi-course meal.)

Inspired by classic French cuisine, Frevo’s co-owner and chef, Brazilian-born Franco Sampogna, has crafted a menu that changes seasonally. Simplicity is the keynote, but that refined menu is exquisitely nuanced, with surprising flavors. For example, the night I dined in the spring (just before lockdown), the second course was seasonal (and prized) white asparagus, with sorrel and blood orange. At another time, that course was a cup of remarkably tasty and creamy hummus, accented with crispy quinoa and chives. Our first course was hamachi, with coconut and sea urchin, topped with golden kaluga caviar; I passed on the raw hamachi (but my dining companion raved), while I was offered one of the most mouthwatering dishes I’ve ever savored—a thick  artichoke soup, smothered in black truffles, punctuated with foamy, ethereal truffle juice and bread crumbs. I can still taste it and am still dreaming about it. I did not have to dream long—as I returned for the take-out Christmas menu and ordered extra soup!

After culinary school, Sampogna further advanced his education, working under Michelin-starred chefs Fabrice Vulin (at a Chèvre d’Or in the South of France); Guy Savoy (at the Rue Troyon in Paris); and Alain Ducasse (at the Hotel Plaza Athénée, also in Paris). His extensive in-kitchen training is apparent in the artful amalgam of flavors he has melded into each course.

I could not believe how tasty the celery root tagliatelle pasta course was, and, as it was accented with black truffles, it was all the more satiating. That was followed by a delectable scallop dish, with crispy salsify, resting on an airy cloud of roasted salsify. When the main course arrived, chicken Albufera (named for the Duke of Albufera), it looked like a chocolate brownie, smothered in hot fudge sauce, bisected with thin, striated lines of vanilla crème. Of course, it was not; it was a lovely three-inch square of poached, tender chicken, in a blackened (with squid ink), cognac-infused cream sauce. It was simply heavenly. Celestial is also an adjective suitable for the luscious dessert — dulce de leche gelato, hazelnut foam, with caramel and a sugary tuile.

A cheese course, 36-month-aged comté de garde from French cheese monger Fromagerie Antony, was served with a giant, crispy, house-made, tuile-like bread-cracker, the perfect accompaniment to the paper-thin, nutty cheese.

And, oh, yes, if you are interested, the paintings in the foyer-entryway are for sale. They have been created by the French artist Toma-L., whose work Chef Sampogna discovered in Paris. When Sampogna and his partner, restaurant manager, Portuguese-born Bernardo Silva, were planning Frevo, they invited the painter to the city to create art for the restaurant and gallery (which, parenthetically, was previously a panini restaurant). The idea was to create artwork that reflected the constant state of vibrancy and exhilaration that Gotham engenders, and that would suggest the simmering or bubbling spirit of the restaurant.

If you opt to buy the painting that is Frevo’s front door, then Toma-L. will simply have to create a new doorway for Alice and her anointed guests who are lucky enough to snag some of the precious seats at Frevo.

The Details:

Frevo Restaurant, 48 West 8th Street, New York City, NY  10011; 646-455-0804

Open for dinner only: Tuesday through Thursday, at 7 pm; Friday and Saturday, two dinner seatings, 5:30 and 8:30 pm.

Reservations, a must. The tariff for dinner is $138 per person; an additional $88 for the basic wine-pairing; $220 for the premium wine-pairing.  There are a few other supplemental fees for extras, if desired, such as additional caviar.  (Frevo, however, is a non-tipping restaurant.)

View the current menu

The post Restaurant Frevo: Fabulous Feasts That Percolate with Flavor appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s first poll for 2021 is dedicated to favorite domestic destinations: Cities, Towns and Sites. We felt this would be an appropriate theme as traveling to domestic destinations is slowly opening up.

You’ll find members’ selections to be deeply personal, reflective and educational; experiences that helped shape their lives. I know I did. Here’s looking for a spectacular year of travel.

Visit our past polls

— EB

Richard Carroll — T-Boy writer:

For me New Orleans is like a spirited island unto itself. Music swirls about the city in a marvelous mix of church gospel, the 12 bar blues, R&B, Zydeco, Cajun, Latin, and timeless New Orleans jazz, all captured throughout the day and night in Jackson Square, and free concerts in the St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic Cathedral in the country dating to 1720 when New Orleans was a Spanish colony. I feel the Square resembles Paris along the Seine or Prague in summer. Artists sit jauntily under umbrellas displaying their work as the ubiquitous street entertainers juggle, tap dance, play the tuba, strut and mime, and work one-liners off the audience. It’s such a blast to dance to Tuba Skinny or Superband or the Smoking Time Jazz Club, all New Orleans’ street jazz bands, usually performing on Royal St. with great passion.

I believe New Orleans is the most European of U.S. cities with convincing Caribbean influences hovering about. With the Mississippi River a stone’s throw away, the city has the feel of a vibrant 1860’s seaport town, where mystical voodoo shops flourish, and music, art, and dining are revered aspects of the city’s lifestyle. After numerous visits I discovered there are more than 50 historic locations in the Quarter, eight museums, tree-lined parks and aged churches with character. It’s exciting to feel that the Vieux Carre or French Quarter is a heady concoction of Paris, Trinidad, and the Caribbean spiced with a touch of other cultures including Italian, Spanish, Irish, Central America and Africa, and yet remains purely American.

I’ve observed that the Quarter and Bourbon Street are a setting for a youthful adult playground with a dress code beyond a fashion queen’s worst nightmare. College kids deep in their “Go Cups” sporting T-shirts, jeans, seven inch platform heels, and leopard skin mini-skirts roam the Quarter in a mesh-mash of rampaging hormones, and new best friends, though the excitement fades into the mists of the fast-moving Mississippi River when reality sets in.

With each visit I notice that New Orleanian’s have stubbornly refused to release their heritage and the city has retained a distinctive character that is reflected in their language, cuisine, music, architecture, neighborhoods, and celebrations. New Orleans with character to share is among my favorite domestic destinations for sure.

Stephen Brewer — T-Boy writer:

A Trip Up Steens Mountain, Oregon

According to the official count, only 12 people live in Frenchglen, way over in the southeastern corner of Oregon. I would have guessed that with so few neighbors for company, you’d be eager to chat with just about anyone who crossed your path. Then again, you’re probably pretty taciturn by nature if you choose to settle in such a remote spot.

Or so I’ve learned over the years. On my last visit I arrived just in time for dinner at the Frenchglen hotel (served at 6:30 sharp, no exceptions). The paneled, brightly lit, linoleum-floored room feels like a homey ranch kitchen, and heaping platters of baked chicken and roasted potatoes were set out on the long trestle tables. An aproned woman who seemed to be in charge of things came within earshot, so I informed her that a rather large rattlesnake was stretched out under a tree on the front lawn.

“Yep,” she said, “better eat those biscuits before they get cold.”

Another conversational gambit was no more productive.

“Think I could have another piece of that marionberry pie?”

“Nope.”

The other business in Frenchglen is a general store with a gas pump out front. This is where you top up the tank before heading out on the 50-mile-long gravel loop road that crosses the flank of Steens Mountain. It’s slow going up the rutted track, through steppes covered in aspen and mountain mahogany, but the leisurely pace makes it all the easier to enjoy the sights along the way. Cowboys on horseback and herds of grazing cattle appear as silhouettes against the horizon. A cloud of dust and the thud of hooves signals the fleeting appearance of a herd of wild horses. Pronghorn saunter onto the road, apparently  with no intention of moving along anytime soon and seemingly mindful that most of us have no idea how to get a huge, furry, fearsomely horned wild animal out of our way. A faded marker identifies a pretty little patch of greenery as Whorehouse Meadow, where enterprising women used to set up tents to service Basque and Irish shepherds. Just shy of 10,000 feet the road comes to a viewpoint. Far, far below, at the bottom of a sheer precipice, spreads the Alvord Desert, the dried-up bed of an ancient lake that’s now a glaring expanse of white, crinkled earth.

A little farther along another turnoff leads to the edge of Kiger Gorge, a cleft in the mountain half a mile deep and more than twice that in width. Looking over the snow-dusted furrows and folds I sensed a slight disturbance and turned my head to see an enormous eagle just over my shoulder, floating on some unseen current. I had time to notice a keen eye and the delicate ribbing of an enormous wing, then the creature was far away, high above the gorge.

I was still experiencing a rush of excitement when I sat down to dinner that night. “I saw an eagle,” I reported to the serving lady when she set a heaping platter of carved ham on the table. “So close I could almost touch it.”

“Yep,” she said. “The baked beans will be out in a minute.”

A little later, unsolicited, my friend brought me a second piece of pie, this time blueberry. I like to think she was helping me celebrate that magnificent creature soaring over those timeless landscapes.

Ed Boitano — T-Boy editor:

Chicago, IL: Isn’t Seattle a super city, Dad! This I proclaimed to Louis Boitano while driving through downtown Seattle as a young adolescent. It was a magical summer evening. Illuminated by neon and city lights, the fleet was in town and furloughed sailors marched past Pike Place Market and down First Avenue in search of unknown pleasures.

My father finally broke the news, Seattle is not a city, Eddie. Chicago is a city. He knew the BIG city well after receiving months of technical training at Chicago’s Navy Pier in preparation for his involvement in WW2.

Years later, I found myself riding the 1.79-mile Chicago Loop, with no intention of ever getting off. That is until a gaping hole in my stomach told me it was time for an exploration of the city’s delectable food scene. I was not conflicted upon the choice of my first meal, Uno Pizzeria, the birthplace of the deep-dish pizza. The following days included more deep-dish at Gino’s East, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria and my personal favorite, Giordano’s, which offered a Northern Italian interpretation. A walk to the South Side led me to Little Italy for Italian beef and ice, with stops in between at vendor carts, selling the Chicago Dog or Chicago Red Hot, an all-beef frankfurter on a poppy seed bun, topped with mustard, chopped white onions, sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices and absolutely no catsup. After all, I did need to keep my strength up.

At night, entertainment consisted of the riveting blues clubs: Kingston Mines, B.L.U.E.S. and Buddy Guy’s Legends. By day, Millennium Park; the Magnificent Mile; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Science and Industry; Lincoln Park Zoo; and two major league baseball stadiums (if you live north of the Chicago River, your team is the Cubs at Wrigley Field, south the White Sox at the new Guaranteed Rate Field). Then, the unequivocal  highpoint of my Windy City experience; miles upon miles of Chicago’s architectural treasures witnessed on a Chicago Riverboat Tour. We can thank Mrs. O’Leary’s cow for that.  And all this with a BIG midwestern sense of politeness and hospitality.

Baltimore, MD: It’s pronounced Balamor or Balmer, explained Joel, my lifelong Baltimore friend. Then, beaming with pride, It’s also the birthplace of the Coddy — salted codfish cakes, cheaper than crab, served on two saltines with mustard; the Snowball — crushed ice and syrup served with liquid marsh mellow or ice cream; Chesapeake Blue Crabs, Fort McHenry and Babe Ruth. Joel’s insider tips were helpful as I prepared for my first trip to this Mid-Atlantic city, just south of the Mason-Dixon Line. I was a goner upon just setting my eyes on the now pristine Baltimore Inner Harbor. In the neighborhoods beyond, blocks of white marbled stepped rowhouses; Lexington Market, the oldest market in America circa 1782 and home of the Faidley crab cakes; and the retro-modern Oriole Park at Camden Yards, with my seat on the hotel room deck overlooking the baseball stadium. Baltimore loves its artist and personalities, and Edgar Allan Poe dominates much of the old city with his last house, now a museum, and the Baltimore Ravens football team naming itself after his narrative poem, “The Raven.” I was a tad disappointed with the city’s bus tour, but was enthralled upon discovering the Baltimore Harbor Taxi, with stops at the National Aquarium, a real working Little Italy, and the terraced waterfront homes of former maritime captains at Fells Point, dating from the 1790s. In its middle, the must-eat eclectic restaurant, Bertha’s Muscles. Though still shrouded in mystery, many believe Poe himself was found lying in a Fells Point gutter on the day of his death at Washington College Hospital. But, no one really knows for sure.

Natchez, Mississippi: You came all the way over here from Los Angeles California to see us… well, I better get you a good room, said the kind woman at the hotel’s front desk. Moments later on the elevator, I turned to the quiet teenage Africa-American bellhop. You certainly live in a beautiful city! His under the breath reply, Get me out of here. I took pause, realizing that a Yankee boy from the West Coast had much to learn about the duality of the polite bellhop’s Deep South City. Located high on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, Natchez  is home to more than one thousand structures that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with a number  of Antebellum (“pre-war,” “pre Civil War”) mansions with many open for tours. Characterized by neoclassical and Greek Revival architectural style, they were once the lavish dwellings of prosperous plantation owners, built by the hands of slave labor. I decided to take a pass on the tours and save the analysis of the city’s duality for later, and chose to simply lay around on the lawn in a quiet little park, basking in Natchez’s sublime ambience.

Seattle, WA: Kennedy was shot, whispered my grade school friend, Ricky Meyers. Many of us know the exact time and place when we first heard this horrific, almost incomprehensible news. My place was the sacred playground of Magnolia elementary school on Nov 22, 1963. Its holy grounds also offered a spectacular view of the building of the Space Needle. As a first-grader, each day at recess Ricky and I would rush out to the playground and watch this architectural wonder’s construction, marveling at its new growth and futuristic space age splendor. And with its completion for the 1962 Century 21 Exposition — Seattle World’s Fair, my little maritime town, seemingly hidden in the northwest corner of America, became a world-class city for the rest of the planet to see.

New Orleans, LA: Red beans and ricely yours, was how former Black Storyville resident Louis Armstrong would often end his letters, due to his passion for New Orleans’ traditional Monday night meal of red beans and rice. Passion and emotion  screams New Orleans with its unique fusion of Spanish and French Creole, Amerindian and Afro-Caribbean history and culture, music and architecture; relished by tourists and locals, who seem to live in the moment with plenty of free time. This includes its regional cuisine, a diverse mix of the culinary traditions of French Acadians, Spanish, Sicilians, African-Americans and Afro-Caribbean slaves, and AmerIndian nations. It’s hot and humid in Nola, and with the blending of local produce and seafood from the Gulf, its recognizable cuisine is justifiably known throughout the world. Personal favorites include  po’ boy and Italian muffuletta sandwiches, Gulf oysters fried or on the half-shell, boiled crawfish and seafood etouffée (smothered), jambalaya, gumbo and yes, Satchmo’s favorite, red beans and rice. But why on Mondays?  It’s wash day, of course, and the ovens and stoves needed space for boiling water.

T.E. Mattox — T-Boy writer:

1. Memphis — B.B.King said it best, ‘Memphis is the Home of the Blues.’ Spend an afternoon visiting the Blues Hall of Fame, and just across the street is the Civil Rights museum. Then take in the night life along Beale Street. The Rum Boogie Café and a hundred other jukes and bars will truly enchant. Sun Studio’s and the Memphis Recording Services, Stax Records… Gospel, R&B and Rock and Roll… Memphis is a musical wonderland.

2. About an hour south down Highway 61, you’ll find Clarksdale, Mississippi — better known as the Blues Crossroads. Legend has it that’s where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil. Visit the Hopson Plantation and spend the night at the ShackUp Inn. The evenings are filled with blues at Ground Zero, Red’s or the Juke Joint Chapel. An amazing cultural and musical emersion you’ll want to experience again and again.

3. Julian, California — an easy drive east of San Diego. A step back in time. The local drugstore still serves egg creams like they had in the 1800s. You can still pan for gold and tour the depths of a gold mine. Julian Pies are the stuff of legends. A fun day for the whole family.

4. Old Town Temecula, California — Old Town Blues Club is known for its appearances of national and international artists and some of Southern California’s finest musicians. The boardwalk runs through the entire town and is lined by antique shops and restaurants for every appetite. Temecula vineyards provide world-class tastings. Guaranteed you’ll take home at least a bottle or two.

5. Austin, Texas — Where BBQ lives and the music scene thrives. A college town, Austin is known for its high energy clubs, bars and entertainment. The Continental Club, Antone’s and the Saxon Pub are but a few must-experiences. The party rarely stops so plan to have a little fun.

Allan Troy Smith — T-Boy writer & photographer:

A few years ago, I discovered the Quilieute Oceanside Resort located on the Quileute Nation, at La Push, Washington.

In the northwest corner of the United States, alongside the Pacific Ocean, it is one of the most peaceful, majestic ocean vacation sites there is in North America.

With an assortment of lodgings ranging from RV parking, cold-water A-frame cabins, small cabins with wood-burning stoves, to deluxe accommodations with stone fireplaces and floor-to-ceiling views of the mighty Pacific, there is something to please everyone.

No wi-fi ensures a completely relaxing stay. Huge pieces of driftwood litter the beach, which is covered with rounded stones of all sizes worn smooth by millennia of waves crashing on the shore.  The sunsets are memorable. I guarantee you will start thinking of your next visit as soon as you return home.

It’s a long drive from anywhere to get there, but well worth it. Although currently closed to visitors due to the pandemic, hopefully they will reopen soon. I have stayed there several times in different seasons, and it is always a wonderfully relaxing experience. I recommend a two-night stay because one is just not enough.

Richard Frisbie — T-Boy Writer:

I love to travel internationally (an impossibility this pandemic) and rarely travel domestically. Still, there are a few places in the US I go every year or so just to veg out.

A summer visit to Portsmouth New Hampshire and Southern Maine is a MUST. The seafood and seacoast are the main reasons, but family ties to the area round it out. I’ve even been known to take a day-trip there (8 hours round trip from New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley) just for a lobster roll and the rejuvenating smell of the salty sea air.

The exhilaration of walking the streets of Manhattan in all-weather day or night, soaking up the sights and smells while people watching, gets me on MetroNorth several times a year. I rarely spend the night in the city, unless an event makes me miss the last train, but the lure of a concert, a show, or an important museum opening is impossible to resist.

Finally, I love Ithaca and the Finger Lakes Region. That college town has so much action, and the natural beauty of the surrounding area begs to be viewed from a boat or a hiking trail. When that builds an appetite, I’m lucky, because the food scene is fantastic there, with an unlimited variety of great wines to wash down the creative dishes.

Mostly, though, I stay home. My town in the Mid-Hudson Valley is on almost every “Best Village”, “Most Charming Weekend Trips”, and “Best Destination” list every year. The Mid-Hudson Valley is beautiful, the art & culture scene is second only to Manhattan, and the overflow of chefs graduating from the Culinary Institute of America keeps this foodie very happy. I just stay here and let the world come to me.

Fyllis Hockman — T-Boy writer:

Key West, Florida

I don’t think Key West would ordinarily come to mind as a town worthy of being a domestic favorite but having just visited it is at the forefront of my mind.

Key West, Florida is more than a place. It is a spirit, a funky energy that enters your soul and takes residence in your worldview as well as your inner vision. A state of mind more than a city; a way of life more than a place to live. It’s a lifestyle, not a destination. All expressed in the absurdist poetry that is Key west, a language not spoken anywhere else in the country.

Renovated cigar factories share space with Victorian mansions laced with gingerbread trimming; upscale art galleries reside next to tacky t-shirt shops. Fashion, funk and frivolity define the town; art and shlock and whimsy co-exist on the same bar stool. And yes, those stools are there in abundance, many of which claim that Ernest Hemingway, the most famous Key West resident, occupied that seat as well. But even recognizing all this, I didn’t fully have a grasp on the essence of the town until I spotted several elderly old men playing Bocce ball. I asked another observer if lawn bowling is popular because many people of Italian descent live in Key West. “Oh no,” she chuckled. “It’s popular because you can play Bocce with one hand and hold a drink in the other.” I bet Hemingway loved Bocce ball. Welcome to Key West!

Rourke — Musician & composer:

Lower East Side/Greenwich Village, New York City — This would be home if I hadn’t married a small-town girl who hates traffic and noise.  There’s never a dull moment here.   I’ve spent many days trekking the neighborhood to see where Charlie faced off with Beg Bug Eddie (Pope of Greenwich Village), or where Johnny-Boy blew up a corner mailbox in (Mean Streets).And then there’s Katz, with corned beef and pastrami cured up to 30 days.

The Mission District, San Francisco — Easily the coolest area in S.F. (the Castro is a close 2nd).   There’s really no reason to leave the Mission District.  It has the best food, the coolest bars, the best cultural mix in the Bay area.

The National Mall, Washington D.C. — I’m a geek for politics and American history.   I remember posing for a picture with Barry Goldwater when I was eleven, and marching for the environment in 2017.   I remember going to Brad Sherman’s office to check-in for a tour of the Capitol and the son of a bitch didn’t even shake my hand.   I walked every inch of every museum to suck up every ounce of American pride until my feet bled.  And I would do it every year if I could.

Maine — It’s quiet up there.   That’s probably why George and Barbara loved it so much, that and the seafood.   And all the small little towns, each one with their own lobster shack, and many of those lobster shacks closed for the off-season.  Driving through Maine is about as American as it gets.  There’s no left or right, no red or blue, just good people living a good life.

Wailea, Maui — Yes, all the islands are a treasure in their own way, and there are other parts of Maui that are amazing too.   But sometimes in life you just want to curl up in the lap of luxury, drink Mai Tai’s all day, stare at the bluest ocean, watch the sunset, not lift a thought for anything else in the world, and do it all again the next day.

Brent Campbell — Musician & composer:

Big Domestic City — Chicago. I love NYC but Chicago has a very special place in America. It is the heart of America. Great museums, history, restaurants, and of course, the blues. Check out Buddy Guy’s club just south of the city and you will know what I am talking about.

Mid-size American city — Nashville. This mid-sized city has it all. Free music on every street. A great country music museum. Schedule a week in Nashville and it will take a while to stop smiling.

Small American city — Madison, WI. I call Madison small because they have no national teams (go Badgers). I have only visited on several summer weeklong stays, go to Madison any time. There is a constant energy in this place! The student union terrace is amazing in the summer. Dancing in the streets till dawn! Since 1983, Memorial Day the World’s Largest Brat Fest has sold more than 4 million brats to help raise almost $2 million to benefit 100+ local charities.

Tiny American city — Chelan, WA. Although the world has discovered Chelan, I can still claim it as a favorite. I went there often as a kid with my family. There was an old wooden roadhouse next to where we stayed. NW music ruled the night(s). It influenced my early exposure to music. Imagine sleeping on a cot next to the Sonics, the Wailers, the Kingsmen, etc, night after night.

Chelan’s climate is typical for Eastern Washington. Located behind the rainshadow of the Cascade Mountains, it receives a near-desert amount of precipitation each year.

Tony Chisholm — The Canadian Connection:

The Lost Boys

“The road to oblivion is easily traveled, the road back hard to follow.” — Chinese Proverb

A California Trip to Yosemite and Mono Lake

Chris, Steve and Andrew flew in from Canada and met up with me in San Francisco over a US Labour Day weekend  a few years ago to try some mountain biking at Mammoth Mountain and kayaking on Mono Lake.

From the coast of California, we traveled through the Central Valley and 105ºF temperatures then into the foothills of Yosemite National Park and spectacular mountain vistas.  Can four men with three maps get lost when there are only two roads?  Of course not, but our group of Lost Boy Canadians did manage to see an hour more of Yosemite then we had to.  In an effort to make up lost time, or just for the thrill of it, Chris managed to set the rental car brakes on fire flying down the mountains.   From the eastern side of Yosemite, Mammoth was only a short 20min drive away.  The Lost Boys had managed to make it from Toronto to exotic Mammoth Mountain is a mere 10 hours.

I was considered the experienced tribal elder, and immediately hauled the young braves to the best little restaurant in Mammoth for the local delicacy of “Chicken Fried Steak”.  A brick of Crisco would have been more nutritious and probably more tasty.

Friday, our first full day in California, the tribe set out to Mono Lake for a two hour kayak.  This was Steve’s and Chris’s first kayaking experience.  Mono Lake is a deceptively huge mountain lake laden with calcium bicarbonate.  The calcium forms into weird mineral towers of formations called “tufas.”  The only life in the lake was brine shrimp so thick that the water was cloudy with them.  The few seagulls and ospreys were their only visible predators. The lake is so base that the water is said to “eat your clothes”.

The four seasoned kayakers headed straight out to an island in the middle of the lake formed of mud that had been pushed up from the bottom.  Having not looked back to shore to take our bearings on the trip out, the four Lost Boys went a little off course on the way back (but definitely not lost).  The problem was that the lake was round and so was the island. After hitting shore, we decisively headed in the wrong direction until a solo paddler turned them around after several hours of wasted paddling. A two hour paddle had turned into a four hour paddle.

Chris’s custom paddling technique had managed to cover him in dried calcium.   Steve, who shared a double kayak with Andrew on the return trip, had a curious technique that managed to cover Andrew with calcium.  The calcium got into Andrew’s eyes and partially blinded him for the rest of the paddle.  Andrew was the group’s first casualty on our growing injury list.

Looking like guest stars from Gilligan’s Island, the Lost Boys dragged their sorry, stiff muscles back to their condo in Mammoth for their mountain bike adventure.

None of us will ever forget the strange landscape of Mono Lake.

Canadian Destinations

Weave Cleveland of British Columbia — Musician, composer and Travel Guys cinematographer:

If I ever pick up a visitor to Vancouver at the airport [YVR] and we have a little extra time, I will take them to discover this interesting gem. It is a dilapidated old fishing village just inside a little spit of land on the banks of the southernmost tributary of the Fraser River. The tide ebbs and flows and affects everything inside the little water channel.

In the 1890’s a group of Finnish people found their ideal spot. They cleared farming fields for the land owners and earned their access to easy fishing. By the 1920s people were taking to putting motors on their boats. There were no bridges to help make one’s way to Vancouver. For the Finn’s it was an entire day’s trip to go to Vancouver and back by boat.

As the century passed the Finn’s left and squatters moved in. They’re not all squatters, some are fairly old people who want some solitude. It has been a sometimes contentious issue as they have been provided electricity but they don’t pay taxes. This is the romantic story I have been told and I do not care if it is true or not. It is always a special singular adventure for people to come and see Finn Slough.

Though not as isolated as it once was it’s still a little hard to find which is why it is a special secret discovery.

The village developed without the organization of property boundaries, city ordinances, provincial regulations or any governing body.

It’s the length of a football field, it’s falling apart at the seams and it’s home for some people.

Ringo Boitano — T-Boy writer and feeling rather Canadian today:

In Montréal you will you hear it pronounced “bah- gal” and yes, they are different.  In contrast to the New York-style bagel, the Montréal bagel is smaller, thinner, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt, and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked. You will also hear from locals that they are the best and most authentic bagels in world.  I once took a homeless man, a Montréal expat living in Vancouver, for coffee and asked if he would like a bagel, too. He declined, adding that they were not real bagels; only Montréal has real bagels. His favorites and now mine: the bagels from Montréal’s historic St.-Viateur Bagel and Fairmount Bagel.

Québec City was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 and is the only walled city in North America. The best way to explore this historic city is to stroll its narrow, cobblestone streets lined with stone houses, cathedrals and cafes. The city itself is nothing less than a living museum. Québec City has embraced its history, which is reflected with more than 32 museums, exhibition halls and interpretation centers. Pedestrian streets are populated with local artisans and musicians in this city were 95% of the residents are French-speaking. A quick journey down the funicular leads you to Lower Québec, the birthplace of the city. A ferry ride on the St. Lawrence River is mandatory for stunning photo opportunities; in particular the Château Frontenac which towers over the city and is, in many respects, the iconic symbol of Québec City.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park consists of 366 square miles of magnificent highlands and rugged coastal wilderness. Established in 1936 as the first national park in the Atlantic Provinces, it is for many the highpoint of a journey to Nova Scotia. The Cabot Trail, named for Italian navigator and explorer, Giovanni Caboto, (John Cabot), runs through the park, offering seemingly endless hiking opportunities. On foot, I spotted whales, bald eagles and even a moose, swimming across a lake. From the car I enjoyed picturesque valleys and unforgettable vistas of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

On the other side of the park is the Acadian town of Chéticamp. La Société Saint-Pierre is a cultural center whose main objective is to preserve Acadian heritage in Cape Breton. The French-speaking Acadians pre-dated the arrival of the English, but most fled the area after the defeat of France by the British in the French and Indian War. Many headed down to Louisiana to an area now known as Acadiana, where the Acadian name evolved into Cajun. The center features traditional crafts and food items. I made a note that Acadian chowder, unlike New England chowder, consists of a clear broth.

Halifax’s Old Town Clock sits on a grassy bluff, overlooking its historic downtown and waterfront. Erected in 1800 for the British garrison at the Citadel, it is the most important symbol of Halifax’s rich historical past. As I rested on the lawn below the octagon tower, I could see a hybrid city of elegant 18th-century architecture alongside modern buildings of glass and steel. Groups of tourist, locals and laughing school children strolled past me, while ships glided in the distance on the world’s second largest natural harbor. As the September sun shone down, I realized I could sit there forever.

Vancouver Island is located in British Columbia, along Canada’s West Coast. It is a region renowned for spectacular coastlines, rolling fields, old-growth rainforests, quaint towns and seemingly unlimited recreational activities. The only thing better than hiking in a rain forest is following a trail that leads to an ocean beach, and that is what you will get on the East Sooke Coast Trail. The park features 3512 acres of natural and protected coastal landscape and is considered one of the premier day hikes in Canada. The trail leads you through a dark, second growth forest of Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock to a protected beach, lined with driftwood and massive boulders. There’s even a little waterfall that cascades onto the beach. This is a west coast wilderness experience unlike any other. The hike takes approximately six-hours roundtrip. Leave early and remember to pack a picnic lunch for the beach.

Back to Livin’ in the USA

James Boitano — T-Boy Writer:

Favorite Domestic Cities
San Francisco
New Orleans
Boston
Washington DC

Favorite Domestic Small Towns
Walla Walla, WA
Solvang, CA
Sitka, AK
Montpellier, VT

Favorite Domestic Sites
Steptoe Butte State Park, WA State
Shiloh National Battlefield, TN
The National Mall/Smithsonian Museums, Washington DC
Yellowstone NP, Wyoming

Raoul Pascual — T-Boy illustrator, webmaster:

California:

1. beaches
2. golf courses (I don’t normally go because I don’t play, but I would like to just walk around there)
3. parks
4. orchards
5. mountainous areas like Big Bear
6. swimming pools
7. camp grounds
8. vineyards
9. parades
10. fishing

Specific local destination:

1. Huntington Library
2. Disneyland
3. Knotts Berry Farm
4. Yosemite/ Redwood
5. San Francisco
6. Carlsbad
7. Hollywood
8. Palm Springs
9. Orange County Fair
10. Sea World
11. Universal Studios/Warner Bros Studios

Sandy Lorrigan — Former director of Sitka Tourism:

Valdez, Alaska

There are hidden small towns that are full of robust adventure and Valdez, Alaska is one heck of unforgettable experience! Boat tours, kayaking and halibut and salmon fishing excursions entice adventurers from around the world and Valdez should be on your bucket list for outdoor fun! Jagged glaciers, seals, sea lions, porpoises, and huge whales are just part of the exciting ocean scenery! Surrounded by lush, deep green forested mountains, Valdez is tucked at the end of a fjord and the destination can be a trek to reach. The population is just under 4,000, and with several campgrounds, hotels and bed and breakfasts in the downtown area, the variety of visitors compliments the friendliness of the locals. The sea walk that aligns the harbor is a magnet each afternoon as boats unload their day’s catches and skilled boat crew filet fish with fast precision. Valdez is a pristine playground!

See Readers’ Poll Favorite Domestic Destinations

The post The T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s Favorite Domestic Destinations appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Top Thanksgiving Destinations

Americans are planning their trips and packing their bags for bright lights and warm beaches, according to the Allianz Travel Insurance Top 10 Thanksgiving Destination Index, which found that travel-ready Americans have made New York City and Cancun, Mexico their top picks for 2021 turkey-day destinations.

Allianz Partners reviewed more than two million travel itineraries* around the Thanksgiving holiday for roundtrip flights departing from United States airports from Saturday, November 20 to Thursday, November 25, and returning Friday, November 26 to Tuesday, November 30 and revealed the hottest domestic and international destinations for Thanksgiving 2021.

With the return of Broadway and exciting outdoor seasonal activities like the annual Thanksgiving Day parade, New York City reclaimed the top domestic spot with Seattle, Washington slipping to second and Boston, Massachusetts in third place (up two slots from 2020). Atlanta, Georgia and Dallas Fort-Worth, Texas round out the top five, while Los Angeles, down three spots, came in at sixth place.

A popular fixture in Allianz’s annual survey, Mexico is the top international Thanksgiving destination darling for Americans with Cancun, San Jose Del Cabo and Puerto Vallarta claiming all three top spots. All but two of the top 10 international locations, with London and Paris in fourth and eighth place respectively, are beach destinations, showing that this Thanksgiving, in addition to the stuffing, Americans are searching for a side of vitamin D.

“Americans are craving a return to the good old days and nothing beats a traditional Thanksgiving surrounded by the sights and sounds of New York,” said Daniel Durazo, director of marketing and communications for Allianz Partners USA. “Whether you’ll be enjoying your Thanksgiving in the Big Apple or on the beaches of Mexico, it’s smart to protect your trip with travel insurance. In an increasingly uncertain world, travel insurance offers peace of mind by protecting pre-paid travel expenses from unforeseen covered events that may cause trip cancellations or interruptions, significant travel delays, baggage issues and medical emergencies.”

With more Americans traveling this year compared to 2020, it’s important to understand the COVID-19 guidelines in travel destinations. Earlier this year, Allianz Partners USA announced enhancements** to many of its travel insurance products in most states through an Epidemic Coverage Endorsement. Products that include this endorsement may include covered reasons that provide coverage to customers who become ill with COVID-19 or a future epidemic, are individually ordered to quarantine, or are denied boarding due to a suspected illness. Specifically, products with these enhancements may include epidemic-related illness as a covered reason to cancel or interrupt a trip, or seek reimbursement for emergency medical care, emergency medical transportation, change fees and loyalty points redeposit fees. Availability of the Epidemic Coverage Endorsement, and specific covered reasons under that endorsement, varies by product and by state. See your plan for details.

Allianz Partners offers travel insurance through most major U.S. airlines, leading travel agents, online travel agencies and directly to consumers. For more information on Allianz and the policies offered for travelers, please visit: http://www.allianztravelinsurance.com.

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*Methodology: The data of U.S. travelers’ 2021 Thanksgiving plans was gathered by analyzing the number of customers that went through the online booking process of airfare and package paths for partners offering Allianz Global Assistance travel insurance, to generate itineraries for roundtrip flights departing from U.S. airports from 11/20/2021 –11/25/2021, returning 11/26/2021 – 11/30/2021. In total, 2.3 million itineraries were analyzed using this methodology.

World’s Historical Landmarks

With the prospects of travelling again at the tips of our fingers, all of us are eager to visit monuments in a different country so magnificent we just can’t resist sharing on our social accounts. With this in mind, TheKnowledgeAcademy.com sought to find out which of the world’s historical landmarks is the most popular on social media by combining the total social shares across Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.

Key Findings:

• Tulum tops the charts as the most popular historical landmark across social media, earning a whopping 1,584,562,637 hashtags and pins. Located along the picturesque coastline of Mexico, it’s almost impossible not to share Tulum’s idyllic white sand beaches and Mayan ruins while you are there! Winning by a landslide, Tulum also ranks first with the most shares on TikTok (1,576,600,000) compared to the Eiffel Tower which comes in second with (398,895,800).
• In second place with more than 400 million social shares is Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower. Nestled in the beautiful grassy Champ de Mars park, the lattice tower figure has dominated social media feeds for many years. This iconic French landmark also earns the title as the most shared site on both Instagram (8,253,820) and Pinterest (312,675).
• Taj Mahal in India takes third place with 352,758,040 shares on social media. The beautiful mausoleum hewn from white marble and its elegant lotus dome draws more than 7 million tourists every year.
• In fourth is Machu Picchu in Peru with more than 199 million shares. The ruins of the Incan citadel are set atop Cordillera de Vilcabamba of the Andes Mountains and overlooks the majestic Urubamba River which makes it a must-post on socials.
• In fifth place with 146,482,664 shares is the Statue of Liberty Monument in the United States. Holding up the torch of enlightenment on New York’s Liberty Harbour, the green-tinted statue is an unmissable share on socials for visitors from all over the globe.
• The Mayan city Teotihuacán places tenth with 38,406,867 shares across social media. Located just outside Mexico City, Teotihuacán is home to ruins of a major central road, the Street of the Dead, as well as the Pyramid of the Sun. The perfect collision of scenic views and culture has made Teotihuacán a popular addition to social feeds.
• Mexico dominates the top 10 charts, with three landmarks making the ranks (Tulum, Chichén Itzá, and Teotihuacán).

EU Set to Add United States to Safe Travel List

European Union governments agreed on Wednesday to add the United States to their list of countries from which they will allow non-essential travel, EU diplomats said. Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 countries approved the addition of the United States and five other countries at a meeting on Wednesday, with the change to take effect in the coming days.

Albania, Lebanon, North Macedonia, Serbia and Taiwan will be added, while Chinese administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau will be included with a requirement for reciprocity removed.

EU countries are recommended gradually to lift travel restrictions for the current eight countries on the list – Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

Individual EU countries can still opt to demand a negative COVID-19 test or a period of quarantine.

Courtesy Aine Givens, ARCAMAX

Travel to many top destinations around the world was severely curtailed or even stalled for much of 2020 as the world grappled with the coronavirus pandemic. A year later, these locations are beginning to welcome the return of visitors.

Countries Most Dependent on Tourism

Courtesy World Trade Council

Here are the top 30 locations globally that will need an influx of big-spending visitors as soon as it is safe to welcome them. Data is from the World Travel and Tourism Council. It includes direct, indirect and induced impacts of travel and tourism.

Destinations and total travel and tourism contribution to GDP as percentage of total GDP to that economy:

• Macau SAR, China 91.3
• Aruba 73.6
• UK Virgin Islands 57
• Maldives 56.6
• US Virgin Islands 55.5
• Bahamas 43.3
• Antigua and Barbuda 42.7
• St Lucia 40.7
• Grenada 40.5
• Seychelles 40.5
• Cape Verde 37.2
• Belize 37.2
• Anguilla 37.1
• Dominica 36.9
• Vanuatu 34.7
• Fiji 34
• Montenegro 32.1
• Jamaica 31.1
• Barbados 30.9
• Other Oceania* 28.6
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines 28.6
• St. Kitts and Nevis 28.2
• Cambodia 26.4
• Georgia 26.3
• Cayman Islands 25.2
• Philippines 25.3
• Croatia 25
• Former Netherlands Antilles 23.5
• Iceland 22.8
• Albania 21.2

*Other Oceania includes American Samoa, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Samoa and Tuvalu.

The Most Luxurious All-inclusive Resorts Around the World

COURTESY LINDSAY TIGAR , MAYA KACHROO-LEVINE & ELIZABETH RHODES; T+L Daily Transporter

(Each property has been reviewed and inspected by T+L Daily Transporter editorial team.

Pikaia Lodge, Galapagos Islands

Off the coast of Ecuador in the Galapagos Islands, travelers will find Pikaia Lodge, a luxury all-inclusive catering to active and adventurous types. Built entirely from recycled materials, the property is 100 percent carbon neutral and sits between two inactive volcano craters on Santa Cruz Island. It features 14 gorgeous suites set on a private giant tortoise reserve. As for activities here, guests can participate in small group, guided marine programs, which explore neighboring islands and notable wildlife sites in Galapagos National Park while on board the lodge’s 105-foot luxury yacht.

Luxury Galapagos adventure | Pikaia Lodge

Hurawalhi Island Resort, Maldives

When you imagine the Maldives, a beautiful bungalow oasis in the middle of the Indian Ocean is likely what filters through your mind. A 40-minute seaplane flight from Male Airport, guests at Hurawalhi Island Resort are tucked away from the rest of the world, surrounded by the kind of blue you can’t create, even with an Instagram filter. Here, you can choose from ocean villas or beach villas, each of which include king-sized beds, private terraces, and for those over water, access to the waves. Meals and alcoholic beverages are included within the nightly rate, with the option to upgrade to more fine-dining options (like a visit to the Champagne Pavilion), if your getaway calls for a celebration. Each villa also has access to sunset dolphin cruises, kayaks, snorkeling equipment, yoga classes, and more.

Maldives Luxury All Inclusive Resort – Adults Only Luxury Maldives Resort (hurawalhi.com)

andBeyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge, Botswana

As one of the top safari destinations on nearly every traveler’s bucket list, Botswana offers an incomparable glimpse into the heart of Africa. This luxury all-inclusive is located on the renowned Okavango Delta in the northern region of the country. When it rains over these massive, grassy plains, animals flock to the area, creating the opportunity to see rhinos, giraffes, lions, and more. To elevate your experience, andBeyond doesn’t disappoint with included safari and river boat tours, as well as meals, drinks, and round-trip airport transfers. andBeyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge | Botswana Luxury Safari

The Singular Patagonia, Puerto Bories, Chile

After successfully completing any of the strenuous hikes of Patagonia, it’s worth splurging on a luxury resort to recuperate. And if you’d like to go big, book a stay at The Singular Patagonia, which lies deep in southern Chile, overlooking the iconic Fjord of Last Hope. Set on 30 acres, the site was once the Bories cold storage plant in the early 1900s, serving as a focal point for the sheep farming industry. Today, though, it features 57 meticulously designed rooms that’ll have you at ease from the moment you enter. The nightly “Complete Experience” rate includes all food and alcohol, as well as daily excursions such as horseback riding, kayaking, and more local activities. And if you need to soak away the soreness from travel and hiking, every guest has access to the spa facilities for the duration of their stay as well.

www.thesingular.com

Tongabezi Lodge, Simonga, Zambia

The border between Zambia and Zimbabwe is home to the legendary Victoria Falls, which is twice as high as Niagara Falls and often considered among the most powerful – and jaw-dropping – natural wonders in the world. Though this beautiful work of Mother Nature is enough of an attraction for many travelers, when you stay at this five-star property in southern Africa, you have many other unique experiences to choose from, too. Think: an early morning game drive to see lions, hyenas, or elephants, a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River, or a guided tour of the falls – these are just a few of the experiences Tongabezi offers. No matter how you’d like to spend your African vacation, when you stay at this property, home to over-the-top houses and cottages, your private valet can arrange it all.

Tongabezi Lodge (greensafaris.com)

El Dorado Maroma, A Spa Resort by Karisma, Riviera Maya, Mexico

As overwater bungalows become more and more Instagram famous, oceanside resorts around the world are finding ways to recreate the virality generated in the Maldives. For a much shorter flight, but an equally luxe experience, El Dorado Maroma’s Palafitos – Overwater Bungalows were the first oversea chalets on the Riviera Maya. Far from the party in Cancun, 30 modern and pristine suites are perched over the green waters of Maroma Beach, a private stretch of powder-white sand that’s often considered a hidden gem of Mexico. Each of these suites include glass-bottom floors, outdoor showers, private infinity pools, indoor Jacuzzis, and direct ladder access to the water. With the nightly rate, you’ll also enjoy a gourmet dining experience.

El Dorado Maroma (karismahotels.com)

Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle, Thailand

Where Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet, golden memories are made, allowing ambitious travelers to cross off three countries simultaneously. For those who want the star-studded experience on the Thailand corner of the triangle, a stay at this beloved Four Seasons property is a must. Depending on what you seek out of your vacation, there are various all-inclusive packages to choose from. Each inclusive option offers guests meals and alcohol, as well as one spa treatment per person, elephant encounters, and round-trip transfers to the nearby airport. Because of its proximity to other Southeast Asian countries, some excursions could include trips to Myanmar or Laos, giving you more time to immerse yourself in the local culture.

Luxury Camping in Thailand | Four Seasons Golden Triangle

Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

For certified scuba divers or those who prioritize seclusion during vacation, why not stay away from the mainland on an island all to yourself? Actually, make that an all-inclusive resort on the storied Great Barrier Reef. With 24 beaches and 40 luxury suites, you can enjoy practically endless options for exploring some of the most stunning natural wonders on the planet. Seafood lovers, take note: Nearly all of your meals include creative culinary takes on the catch of the day. Many activities – from snorkeling to stand-up paddle boarding – offer a unique perspective of this tropical oasis, all for no additional fee.

Great Barrier Reef Luxury Accommodation | Lizard Island

Fairmont Mayakoba, Mexico

Though it’s not an all-inclusive in the traditional sense, the Fairmont Mayakoba offers an all-inclusive package that gives you access to all of the restaurants and most alcoholic beverages at the resort. Unlike many more crowded parts of Mexico, Mayakoba provides a private and serene getaway in the Riviera Maya region. As the largest resort of this eco-luxury destination, Fairmont gives its guests the chance to not only explore the fine-dining options, but also an ecological immersion, too. When you’re not pool-hopping or riding bikes through the winding paths of the property, you can take a boat tour to learn about the local wildlife and brush up on your botany knowledge.

Bluefields Bay Villas, Jamaica

Bluefields Bay Villas is home to a collection of six all-inclusive luxury villas with all the bells and whistles built in. On the southern coast of Jamaica, where the vibrant countryside meets the Caribbean Sea, you can choose from two- to six-bedroom homes, all featuring private pools, a butler, maid service, a chef, and access to the beach nearby. You can work with your personal chef to create delectable meals suited to your palette and preferences. Also included: paddle boarding, kayaking, snorkeling, tennis, hiking, and other activities. If you want to make your vacation even fancier, Bluefields Bay can arrange for luxurious add-ons like private helicopter transfers.

Jamaica All-Inclusive Luxury Resort | Villa Rentals | Bluefields Bay (bluefieldsvillas.com)

Twin Farms, Barnard, Vermont

A luxurious retreat nestled in the Vermont mountains, Twin Farms is an adults-only culinary destination. At Vermont’s only five-star, all-inclusive Relais & Châteaux resort, guests enjoy meals by chefs who create innovative daily menus with the state’s best produce – sourced from the property and top local and regional vendors. Make sure to pamper yourself during your stay, with a facial, massage, or seasonal treatment at The Bridge House Spa. And while you can’t choose incorrectly when selecting your lodging at Twin Farms, we’re partial to their 950-square-foot cottages, which come with a fireplace and stone hot tub.

Inclusive Vermont Resort and Spa | Twin Farms

Kokomo Private Island, Fiji

Fiji’s most exclusive resort, Kokomo Private Island, is set on the otherworldly Great Astrolabe Reef. The inclusive offerings range from water-based activities and tennis court access to restaurants serving island-grown and locally-sourced produce. A 45-minute seaplane or helicopter ride from Nadi, Kokomo sits within the Kadavu Island Group. The five-star, 140-acre property is a haven for couples and families, and is a perfect spot for a multi-generational family retreat. Guests can sign on for shark diving, waterfall hikes, manta ray swims, and even coral reef restoration with Kokomo’s on-site marine biologist.

www.kokomoislandfiji.com-

Acupuncture for Organizations

By Dr. Kathleen Allen

I’ve been reading Stuck?: Dealing With Organizational Trauma by Phillipe Bailleur, an organizational consultant who works with a living systems mindset. In Bailleur’s words, organizational trauma can’t be fixed, like a car going in for repair. Instead, as leaders, we need to learn how to heal our organization. Because humans and any other living systems organization can only be healed – not fixed.

Our organizations (and the people in them) have been adapting at an accelerated rate for more than 16 months. It doesn’t matter that some of the adaptations we’ve made were already ideas that existed before the pandemic. These preexisting ideas, like remote work environments, were present but still being met with resistance in many cases. The pandemic made that resistance obsolete, and our organizations had to adapt very quickly.

Even though an idea may be “familiar” rapid adaptation still created some form of trauma, mainly because the new routines were not part of our individual and organizational habits. And this new way of working from home rippled across other aspects of our lives, not the least of which was childcare as our kids were also forced to learn at home, and daycares were closed. Adapting to this new remote workstyle impacted many aspects of our lives, from how we showed up at work, to how we interacted with our teams. The fact that many of us had to wear so many different hats at once, particularly parents, created the need for even more sudden adaptations.
The impact of all this adaptation has to be described as trauma that happened to us as individuals and collectively to our organizations. The question now becomes – how do we begin our own healing?

Truncating our Regenerative Capacity

Just like nature, humans have a natural regenerative capacity. But sometimes we don’t nurture this capacity within ourselves. Instead of choosing to listen to our body and respond with an act or space that nourishes us, we outsource our healing to a doctor, a therapist, or perhaps a medication. This practice of seeking solutions elsewhere is sometimes necessary, but the choice doesn’t have to be our first response. My colleague Suzanne Koepplinger is the Executive Director of the Catalyst Initiative. The Catalyst Initiative is helping people understand that primary care is self-care! The Initiative focuses on integrated health and healing practices that are culturally specific and acts as an excellent resource for anyone interested in nurturing their own regenerative, healing capacity.

We need to remember when we don’t take care of ourselves, we cut ourselves off from integrated healing practices like yoga, meditation, acupuncture, Tai Chi, healing circles, and other activities that build our own resilience and strengthen our health. And that slows down our ability to regenerate.

Organizational Acupuncture

On an organizational level, we aren’t particularly good at healing either. Trauma from work experiences (including those caused by the pandemic) is real and occurring in our organizations every day. At a micro level, an action that breaks trust, for example when colleagues or leaders lie to us or when an expected reward is not forthcoming, is a source of trauma. A positional leader who becomes a toxic leader is another example of a trauma that may have far more reaching effects. Suddenly transforming a workplace into a remote or virtual organization causes trauma, even if the adaptation was expected or happening already in some fashion.
What would organizational acupuncture look like to you and your organization?

Johns Hopkins Medicine describes acupuncture as part of the ancient practice of Traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners believe the human body has more than 2,000 acupuncture points connected by pathways or meridians. These pathways create an energy flow called Qi (pronounced “chee”) through the body that is responsible for overall health. Disruption of the energy flow can cause disease. By applying acupuncture to certain points, it is thought to improve the flow of Qi, thereby improving health.

A living organization also has energy flowing through it, and at times experiences a disruption or disturbance of the energy flow. When this occurs, organizational acupuncture becomes the practice of paying attention to disruption and trauma – instead of ignoring them the way we usually do. If as leaders we commit to noticing disturbances or trauma, we can help our organizations, teams, and individuals heal from trauma and regenerate more quickly. As a result, positive energy should return to the workplace much more rapidly.

We don’t usually track energy as a metric for the health of our organizations. Usually, we default to a profit margin or traditional bottom line to determine it’s health. But focusing on profit often means we tolerate behaviors that lead to dysfunction in the organization. Frankly, we don’t pay attention to what we don’t measure. And we need to measure the energy of our organizations if we are truly to lead with a living systems mindset.
I believe that people wake up each morning and decide if they are going to bring positive, negative, or neutral energy to their workplaces. Positive energy and energy flow help improve an individual’s health. The same is true for organizations because at the most basic level, what are they other than a collection of individuals?

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Why These Eight Mexico City Neighborhoods Are Worth Planning Your Next Trip Around

by Michael Snyder

There are few places as dynamic, diverse, or downright enormous as the Mexican capital. In a city layered with history, in which change is an essential part of residents’ DNA, where to begin planning a trip? Michael Snyder, a freelance journalist based in Mexico City. gives his breakdown of the key colonias to visit, whether your focus is shopping, food, art, or design.

A little more than two years ago, I moved to Mexico City more or less sight unseen, taking it on good faith that this urban giant could find space for one more body among the 21 million that already called its metro area home. I came, like many foreigners before me, with vague ideas about its vibrant food and art scenes; its crooked glamour and effortless cool; its rich colonial and modern architectural landscape. I expected to find moments of enervating chaos and sometimes choking smog. But I was rejuvenated by gracious parks and sublime weather, by crisp autumn mornings and springlike afternoons, by spasms of rain and hail and thunder that gave way, just in time, to marigold sunsets blooming across the horizon. Mexico City, it seems, is able to turn a different face to each and every one of its inhabitants.

That’s because, in the past five centuries, Mexico City has become a master of transformation. Flung wide across a seismic, high-altitude plateau, North America’s largest city has survived colonial conquest, years-long floods, a bloody war of independence, a bloodier revolution, and, in 1985, a catastrophic earthquake that killed more than 9,000 and decimated much of the historic central borough of Cuauhtémoc. Thirty-two years later to the day, in 2017, another quake shook the city to its core, bringing down over 40 buildings and damaging many more. Within weeks, the city had bounced back from that, too. Chilangos, as residents are known, continue to deal with shoddy governance, shoddy infrastructure, and fluctuating levels of security. Given the choice, many would just as soon return to the villages they left a generation or three before. But many more – myself included – wouldn’t live anywhere else.

No one trip is enough to unlock the city’s many wonders. For a first-time visitor, sticking to the leafy neighborhoods in and around the Delegación Cuauhtémoc offers an ideal introduction: a walkable, manageable microcosm of the city’s wild, sophisticated whole. From the cockeyed grandeur of the Centro Histórico to the discreet galleries of Santa María la Ribera and the glamorous cafés of Condesa, these are the eight districts every visitor should get to know.

Centro Histórico

Late one Sunday morning, I set out from my home on the far side of the Zócalo, Mexico City’s spectacular central plaza, to the Mercado San Juan. It wasn’t a particularly long walk, but, like most routes through the Centro Histórico, it encompassed many pasts, many presents, and many possible futures. Here you’ll find opulent colonial palaces, crooked Baroque churches, murals by Diego Rivera at the Palacio Nacional and the Secretariat of Public Education headquarters, and the magnificent ruins of the Templo Mayor, the axis of the Aztec Empire’s religious and political universe.

Until the late 1800s, the Centro was Mexico City. Then, from the turn of the century onward, modernity-obsessed elites began abandoning their ancestral homes and moving to the newly created suburbs in the west and south. After the 1985 earthquake, the Centro was all but abandoned. It remained an important place of protest and celebration, but it was not a place you lingered.

Entering the open doorway of the Mercado San Juan, I passed vendors selling rambutans and mangoes, plastic boxes of microgreens, and giant clams from Baja. But I hadn’t come here to shop (for that I go to Mercado la Merced, the bigger, crazier, more beautiful wholesale market on my side of the Centro). Instead, I had come to eat at Don Vergas, an eight-seat market stall that, for the past year, has been turning out some of the best seafood in Mexico City.

Chef Luis Valle, who hails from the northwestern coastal state of Sinaloa, had opened shop only an hour earlier, but already a rowdy line had filled the aisle, singing along to the banda music playing through a loudspeaker perched precariously over the tiny kitchen. “How many crab tostadas?” Valle shouted over the music. Hands shot up: 15 orders.

I slipped behind the bar to help squeeze a few limes and hang out with Valle, who makes great company, no matter how busy he is. I asked how many people he would cook for today. “About 400,” he said. I asked how he coped. “I don’t!” he laughed, then turned back to the crowd, shouting: “How many scallops?”

Even a decade ago, you’d have been hard-pressed to find such excitement surrounding a restaurant in this part of town. But in the past year or so, pop-up parties have begun to appear on rooftops, in basements, and at run-down cantinas like the bizarre and beautiful La Faena, decorated with dusty shadow boxes of toreadors’ costumes. Edgy art galleries have appeared in former office buildings. Bósforo, still the top place in town for mezcal almost 10 years after it opened, draws crowds on weekends, while the nameless restaurant next door serves impeccable Oaxacan food by flickering candlelight.

But despite the fact that a new, younger generation is now gravitating to the Centro, it’s still a place that belongs to everyone. Activists stage regular protests in the Zócalo. Residents from around the city come to shop at stores selling everything from spices to light fixtures and giant handmade candles decorated in lacy wax flowers. Government workers stop in at century-old cantinas for an afternoon beer (try La Ópera for gilded old-world opulence, or Salón España for the city’s best tequila list). Even the exorbitantly expensive Mercado San Juan, where Luis Valle slings his seafood, has a raucous weekend party. Nowhere in this immense, stratified city is more democratic or more beautiful.

Roma & Condesa

At the northern edge of Colonia Roma, a trickle of young, stylish people wandered in and out of a heavy glass door that swung open onto Calle Puebla. They followed a bend of stairs past tall white gallery walls and out onto a sunny roof terrace surrounded by treetops. Monserrat Castera, beer in hand, led me from the open patio into a small, glass-walled room at one corner to show me around the latest edition of her pop-up shop, Momo Room – one of a growing number of nomadic retail spaces now at the vanguard of Mexico’s fashion scene.

This iteration, she explained, was inspired by Juan Rulfo, the mid-20th-century writer whose works are widely considered to be among the finest ever written in Mexico. Rulfo set two of his most important books in a fictional town in the small coastal state of Colima. Among objects selected from local designers, Castera had scattered photographs of Colima, burlap sacks of the state’s famous sea salt, and handwoven straw hats. There were also playful sunglasses from French-Mexican collective Stromboli Associates; handmade box bags in wood and leather by Aurelia, a brand run by three sisters from Guadalajara; and embroidered linen kimonos dyed with indigo and cochineal from local label Korimi Kids. None of these designers had a brick-and-mortar shop. After all, in a city obsessed with collaboration, and replete with spectacular spaces ideal for short-term group exhibitions, what would be the point?

When Mexico City was named the World Design Capital for 2018, many ascribed the distinction to an aesthetic that brings Mexico’s disparate creative traditions – from textiles and earthenware to the great Modernist boom of the 1950s – into conversation with one another. Though that sensibility has existed in Mexico for generations, it has become newly fashionable in Roma and Condesa, two of the capital’s most design-forward neighborhoods. You can witness it at stores like quirky clothing boutique Hi-Bye, at the shops lining the uneven sidewalks of the beautiful Calle Colima, and at Ven a Mi – an appointment-only showroom selling unusual crafts from around the country.

After the 1985 earthquake, many residents fled Roma, and it was well over a decade before artists and designers began moving back into its gracefully dilapidated Beaux-Arts mansions. Condesa, which was the city’s most cosmopolitan neighborhood during the 1930s and 40s, experienced a shorter decline, having rebounded by the mid 90s. With its pretty Art Deco and Mission-style apartments and even prettier residents, Condesa is today the grande dame of Mexico City colonias – stylish, elegant, but never trying too hard. Condesa and Roma were also among the areas most heavily damaged in the 2017 earthquake, but this time both returned to life with remarkable speed. Were it not for a handful of empty buildings dotting the area, deep cracks running like vines through their white plaster exteriors, you might not know that anything had happened here at all.

And while the dialogue between tradition and innovation found its way into restaurant kitchens at least a decade ago in places like Enrique Olvera’s Pujol, in the swanky Polanco area, Roma and Condesa have taken the lead in translating it into more casual – though no less ambitious – settings. At the year-old restaurant Meroma, wife-and-husband team Mercedes Bernal and Rodney Cusic offer some of the neighborhoods’ most refined cooking, taking inspiration from local ingredients, rather than traditional dishes, to create a subtly eclectic menu. And at El Parnita, a family-run taco joint that got hip as the district did, young diners line up for a lunch of fish tacos and craft beer.

And at the chaotic, nameless open kitchen next door, a young chef named Jesús Salas Tornés creates consistently delicious, interesting dishes that bring the flavors, techniques, and oddball informality of the countryside straight to the heart of the city.

Santa María La Ribera & San Rafael

Not long after I moved to Mexico City, I climbed a flight of terrazzo stairs leading to a buzzing, dimly lit terrace in Santa María la Ribera, an otherwise quiet residential neighborhood northwest of the Centro. Glamorous in its turn-of-the-20th-century heyday, Santa María, the first planned suburb of the Centro, was, by the 1950s, overshadowed by neighborhoods like Roma and Condesa. On that chilly evening, however, it was hard to imagine anywhere more elegant.

In the 17 years since Zonamaco, the city’s mammoth weeklong art fair, launched, Mexico City has become an essential stop for regulars on the international art circuit and young artists looking to create and show work in a dynamic, affordable environment. A few nights before the gathering on the terrace, Art Week had started – an annual event that includes Zonamaco and its daring younger sibling, the Material Art Fair. Around me was a crowd of local gallerists, artists from Mexico and abroad, and assorted global movers and shakers. They’d come to celebrate the recent opening of the Mexico City outpost of Casa Wabi, the Tadao Ando-designed artists’ retreat in Oaxaca, on Mexico’s southern coast. Mezcal flowed freely as fairy lights twinkled along with the neon sign for a cheap hotel across the street.

Between them, Santa María and the adjacent area of San Rafael are home to more than a dozen galleries and art spaces. Some represent internationally recognized artists, but most are like Casa Wabi: alternative, informal spaces for young Mexican artists. On a recent morning, I stopped by the gallery to see an exhibition of earthenware pieces by a Swiss resident at the Oaxaca center, displayed alongside Midcentury Modern furniture sold by the design shop Decada. The small space on the ground floor showed work by a photographer from the northern state of Sonora – endless desert horizons punctuated by fragments of industrial architecture. “Mexico City is a nursery for the rest of the country,” said Carla Sodi, director of the Casa Wabi Foundation, as we sat one morning on a balcony overlooking an ordinary street that was waking to the working day. “Eventually, these artists will go back home and plant those seeds.”

Santa María and San Rafael have always been low-key repositories for Mexican design. Around Santa María’s gracious alameda, or central park, families move up and down the marble stairs of the gorgeously old-fashioned Geology Museum, built in 1910, while old couples dance beneath the flamboyant glass dome of the Moorish Kiosk, erected here in the same year. The Art Nouveau towers of the Museo Universitario del Chopo, an important center for contemporary art, soar over a street that, in the early 1980s, was the locus for the city’s punk and goth scenes. The ruins of Cine Opera, a now-defunct Art Deco cinema, stand like a sentinel at San Rafael’s northern edge. And the abstract minimalism of the Museo Experimental El Eco, built in the 1950s by the celebrated artist and designer Mathias Goeritz, brackets San Rafael’s south.

Yet despite all these monuments, both neighborhoods remain typical middle-class barrios. Santa María’s neighborhood tamale shop, Cintli, is my favorite in all of Mexico City. Beer and tequila abound at the local cantina Salón París, and La Polar in San Rafael serves steaming bowls of birria, a regional beef stew, accompanied by raucous mariachi bands playing late into the night.

Juarez & Colonia Cuauhtémoc

The glass-and-steel towers lining Mexico City’s grand ceremonial avenue, Paseo de la Reforma, burst from the low-slung concrete grid like volcanic peaks, monuments to globalist prosperity erupting from the city’s ancient lake bed. Reforma connects the Centro to the Bosque de Chapultepec, the city’s biggest park, and the trio of art institutions clustered at its northern end – the Museum of Anthropology, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Tamayo Museum for contemporary art.

For much of the last century, the neighborhoods that flank Reforma – Colonia Cuauhtémoc to the north and Juarez to the south – were the center of the city’s international population. Wealthy Mexican families, foreigners, and diplomats were drawn here by embassies and banks and streets named for the great rivers and cities of the world they once called home: Ganges, Danubio, and Rhin; Londres, Hamburgo, and Berlín. From their development in the early 20th century onward, these areas have expressed Mexico’s global ambitions. They still do.

Ryo Kan, a guesthouse that opened in April in Cuauhtémoc, takes its neighborhood’s global spirit to heart, bringing the intimate calm of the traditional Japanese inns it’s named after to the heart of the Mexican capital. While other new boutique hotels in the city revel in Mexico’s mid-century elegance, Ryo Kan is tranquil and subdued, compact and efficient, a meditation in pale oak and terrazzo. “Japan and Mexico have a lot in common – our ceramics, our textiles, our uses of natural materials. We wanted to find those parallels,” says Regina Galvanduque, the lead architect on the Ryo Kan project.

Ryo Kan is the most recent of a number of Japanese-inspired businesses to open along Cuauhtémoc’s subdued, tree-lined streets. In the past six years, the Edo Kobayashi restaurant group, run by Edo López, has created a small empire there, with an izakaya and ramen spot called Rokai, a tiny bar called Le Tachinomi Desu serving sake and natural wines, and a listening bar inspired by Tokyo’s Ginza Music Bar.

Wander a few minutes south into the Zona Rosa, the historic gay neighborhood at the center of Colonia Juarez, and you’ll find it hard not to feel transported. Banners for cheap cafés, Korean lunch joints, and neon-lit gay bars obscure the façades of old houses built in an inexplicable (and inexplicably pleasing) hodgepodge of architectural styles from France, Italy, Britain, and Spain.

In the evenings, crowds spill onto the broad pavement of Plaza Washington from the garage-like edifice of Cicatriz, an all-day café run by a sister-brother team of American expats, Scarlett and Jake Lindeman. Most of their customers – who come for coffee and cocktails, natural wines, and fried-chicken sandwiches – wouldn’t look out of place in New York, Los Angeles, London, or Paris. That’s because many of them hail from just those places: the most recent group of immigrants to call Juarez home.

San Miguel Chapultepec

The long communal table that runs down the center of the restaurant Masala y Maíz had been laid out with bowls of spices – some of them familiar to Mexican palates (cumin, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper), others (coriander seed, ginger, and star anise) less so. Chefs Norma Listman, originally from the nearby town of Texcoco, and Saqib Keval, born in northern California to an Indian family from East Africa, circulated, greeting guests. Seated at the center of the table, the restaurant’s first artist in residence, Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, began her talk on the origins of Indian chai. The conversation then segued to the spices in front of us and how some made their way into Mexican kitchens.

Masala y Maíz had opened a few months earlier in the quietly elegant colonia of San Miguel Chapultepec, a triangle of leafy streets that separates Condesa from the Bosque de Chapultepec. Right away, it was a space obsessed with hybridity: an artists’ residency, an ambitious full-service restaurant, and a coffee shop serving house-made doughnuts from a window connecting the kitchen to the street. That evening, it was also a workshop for a handful of curious people, an event that was local in its reach, yet cosmopolitan in its vision.

For Listman and Keval, the menu at Masala y Maíz is a reflection of the mestizaje, or cultural mixing, that has defined Mexican culture since the Spanish conquest. Here, huevos rancheros come with South Indian uttapam flatbreads in place of tortillas. Giant prawns are coated in Ethiopian berbere and served with jicama and rose water. Patra de hoja santa, a riff on an Indian snack of spiced chickpea batter, trades the traditional taro leaf for southern Mexico’s emblematic herb, hoja santa.

San Miguel was not an obvious choice for this kind of restaurant. Peaceful and residential, the area is best known for its access to the Bosque de Chapultepec, never more than a few blocks away; for the pretty cobblestoned lanes that line its southern side; and for the beloved white-tablecloth cantina, El Mirador de Chapultepec, that has been a favorite among city politicians for decades. It’s also notable for its proximity to several essential design institutions, including the influential gallery Kurimanzutto, which turns 20 this year. Casa Luis Barragán, the former home of Mexico’s Pritzker-winning 20th-century architectural master Luis Barragán, lies just beyond the colonia’s western edge, and the renowned Archivo de Diseño y Arquitectura exhibition space sits right next door to Barragán’s house.

San Miguel is a perfect place for peaceful walks past magnificent private homes secreted away behind humble Neocolonial façades, for whiling away hours in quiet corners of the Bosque de Chapultepec, or for sipping hibiscus mead brewed right here in the city, a specialty at Masala y Maíz. It’s also a perfect place to reflect on something Chilangos have known for ages: that Mexico City isn’t just the capital of the Spanish-speaking world, or the biggest city in North America. A city of immigrants and innovation, built and rebuilt with a zealous lust for the new, blasted by tragedy, sustained by passion and pragmatism – Ciudad de México is, and always has been, the great city of the Americas.

Plan a Perfect Stay in Mexico City

For a manageable microcosm of this vast metropolis, stick to these parts of the historic Cuauhtémoc borough. Pick one as your base, and spend your days exploring the others.

Getting Around
Despite its size, Mexico City is relatively easy to navigate, particularly if you stay within the central neighborhoods. Comfortable year-round temperatures make it a great city for walking. The Metro is the most efficient way to cover longer distances, though it’s best avoided at rush hour. Uber is also a good option here.

Centro Histórico

Hotels
The Downtown Mexico (doubles from $230), set in a 17th-century palace, has an elegant rooftop bar and pool.

Eat & Drink
Arrive early to avoid the crowds at Don Vergas (Calle Motolinia 32; entrées $7-$32), which serves some of the city’s best seafood. Since time of reporting, the restaurant has moved from the Mercado San Juan to this new location, also in the Centro Histórico. Dip into a historic cantina like Salón España (25 Avda. República de Argentina), La Ópera (10 Cinco de Mayo), or La Faena (49 Venustiano Carranza) to break up a day of sightseeing. For dinner, stop at the beloved mezcal bar Bósforo (31 Luis Moya), then try the chic, nameless restaurant next door (entrées $8-$12).

Activities
Shop for whimsical fashion at Hi-Bye, and pick up a bottle of mezcal at Sabrá Diós (15 Avda. Veracruz), in Condesa. If you’re interested in local crafts, make an appointment to visit the showroom at Ven a Mi and keep an eye out for retail pop-ups like Momo Room.

Santa María la Ribera & San Rafael

Hotels
The boutique hotel El Patio 77 (doubles from $125) makes for a peaceful base in a central but relatively unexplored area.

Eat & Drink
Find the best tamales in the city at Cintli (174 Calle Sabino), a no-frills storefront in Santa María la Ribera. Salón París (152 Jaime Torres Bodet) is a great traditional cantina, while La Polar (birria $7) makes superb birria (beef stew).

Activities
The magnificent Geology Museum, in Santa María’s main plaza, has a beautifully displayed collection. For contemporary art, don’t miss Casa Wabi (casawabi.org) and the Museo Experimental El Eco, a masterpiece of mid-century Mexican design.

Juarez & Colonia Cuauhtémoc

Hotels
The newly opened Ryo Kan (doubles from $150) brings Japanese tranquility to the city’s business district.

Eat & Drink
You’ll find some of Mexico City’s best international restaurants in these neighborhoods, from small plates at natural-wine bar Le Tachinomi Desu (small plates $5-$8) to a remarkable omakase at Sushi Kyo (set menus from $75). Salón Ríos (218 Río Lerma; entrées $8-$30) is a great place for updated Mexican classics, while Cicatriz (entrées $3-$6) is ideal for a salad or an evening cocktail.

Activities
The Anthropology Museum has an extraordinary collection of Mesoamerican artifacts. Next door, Museo Tamayo shows modern, contemporary, and folk art, while the Museo de Arte Moderno focuses, as its name suggests, on modern art.

San Miguel Chapultepec

Eat & Drink
The menu at Masala y Maíz (small plates $5-$9) explores the commonalities among the cuisines of Mexico, India, and East Africa, while El Mirador de Chapultepec (sharing plates $7-$10) is one of the city’s classic cantinas.

Activities
Book well in advance for a tour of Casa Luis Barragán, former home of the Pritzker-winning architect. Nearby, Casa Gilardi, the last house Barragán built before his death, also offers tours by appointment. Next door to the Barragán house is the Archivo de Diseño y Arquitectura, a small exhibition space and reading room devoted to Mexican design with a beautiful garden in back. Twenty years after opening, Kurimanzutto, in the neighborhood’s peaceful heart, is still among the most influential galleries in North America.

Michael Snyder is a freelance journalist based in Mexico City, specializing in food, architecture, travel and culture. He is a regular contributor to T Magazine and has written for a range of publications including the New York Times, the LA Times, The Believer, The Nation, Scientific American, The Caravan, Lucky Peach, Travel + Leisure, Saveur, Food & Wine, Punch, Eater and Roads & Kingdoms, among others.)

Best Time to Use a Plane Lavatory

Expert: Erika Roth, former flight attendant
Time Limit: Five minutes, 10 max. Twenty minutes will get you a knock on the door
The Best Time to Go: As soon as the seatbelt sign is off, before drink service begins.

The Method: According to Roth, who encountered numerous splashdowns in her eight years on the job, unless you’re on a long-haul flight with multiple lavatory options, your best bet is to hold it, as odor is a problem in the cramped cabin of an airplane. “Close quarters, poor ventilation and a lack of efficient plumbing — to be blunt, the stench can fill a cabin quickly,” she explains.

If you have to go, Roth suggests an old flight-attendant trick: “Ask an attendant for packets of coffee grounds, then hang them up in the lavatory. The grounds will soak up the odor.” Of course, the flight attendants will know exactly what you’re doing in there, but your fellow passengers will be none the wiser.

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I left behind a museum devoted to one comedic icon to pursue a more subdued testament to another: From the zany and frenzied Lucille Ball and her museum in Chautauqua to the more philosophic and observational humor of Mark Twain.

Going back a bit further in time than I love Lucy, I know a lot of us shared the glories of romping around with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn – literary classic vs. TV classic. En route to Watkins Glen at the bottom of one of the many Finger Lakes in the area, we stopped to revel in Mark Twain’s small study set on a tiny plot of land on the bucolic Elmira College campus. His authentic study, where he worked and wrote those classics, impacted me a lot more than the recreation of the Ricardo’s apartment, a mainstay of the Lucy and Desi Museum.

The study was originally situated on Quarry Farm, where Twain’s wife grew up and her family lived, and where he spent many summers. During his summer visits, Twain realized how conducive the farm was to his writing, and his sister-in-law gave him the free-standing study as a present in 1874, from which he gave the world The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The farm itself, where Twain chose to write, is now restricted to Mark Twain scholars who come there to do the same but are themselves writing about Mark Twain. Samuel Clemons, no doubt, would have been pleased.

As the story was told to me by the director of Mark Twain Studies, Twain looked out at the river from his study and thought of his own life on a riverboat, and Huck Finn emerged. A powerful image. The study itself was moved to the campus in 1952 to be more accessible to the public.

Copies of his own hand-written notes on a short story he wrote in 1874 lie on the desk. Sitting in the desk chair, I could channel Twain conjuring up Tom Sawyer. Unfortunately, after several family tragedies, Twain stopped writing in his study around 1890, before passing away in 1910. But the study affords a connection to the great author and humorist that feels imminently impactful.

I waved good-bye to Mark and headed to the 1000 Islands. So with another snack box in tow, I moved from cultural icons to a culinary one. In all of my years of savoring the zesty flavor floating atop my salad greens, not once did I make the connection between the dressing and my upcoming destination.  But yes, the 1000 Islands is indeed where the dressing was first concocted and relished – so to speak… There are a number of tales of how that came about but the most celebrated is this.

In the early 1900s, a favorite activity of wealthy visitors to the islands was to hire a fishing guide. It was tradition, after a morning of fishing, for the guide to prepare a Shore Dinner – actually a mid-day feast — featuring the morning’s catch. A tradition that continues to this day.

One particular guide, George LaLonde, included a salad dressing created by his wife, Sophia, as part of his feast. One visitor, May Irwin, Vaudeville actress and cook-book author, so fancied the dressing that she asked for the recipe and shared it with the chef at the Herald Hotel where she and her husband stayed. There the newly named, by Ms. Irwin, Thousand Island Dressing was first served to the public. But it gained real prominence when she returned to New York City and gave the recipe to fellow Thousand Islands summer guest, George Boldt, an owner of the famed Waldorf Astoria who then introduced it to the world.

As an adjunct to the story, the Herald Hotel was ultimately purchased in 1972 by Allen and Susan Benas who renamed it the Thousand Island Inn with its namesake dressing becoming the “official” house specialty. Today, they own the rights to the original recipe and sell it exclusively at River Rats Cheese shop in Clayton, NY. Don’t even think about asking for the ingredients, though – that’s proprietary information – and it still remains the only dressing named for a region of the United States. And yes, there’ are so many things of interest to see on the Empire State Road Trip, but none so intimately connected to the 1000 Islands as their namesake dressing. For more information call (607) 535-3759 or visit the Harbor Hotel Collection; Mark Twain Studies; 1000 Islands River Rat Cheese.

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Ekwa Msangi’s directorial debut, Farewell Amor is a tender story about an immigrant family facing new beginnings.  Essentially a three-hander, the finely fleshed out characters are brought to life by Msangi and the stirring performances of the principal actors.

It’s time for the character’s rediscovery and director Msangi divides the film into three segments to reflect the adjustments each character is trying to make.  The first segment focuses on Walter, amazingly brought to life by Ntare Guma Mbaho. He left his wife and daughter in Angola 17 years ago to escape a civil war.  Since then, he has been working as a cab driver earning just enough money to pay for his claustrophobic Brooklyn apartment, sending whatever is left to his wife.

The time has finally come when all the immigration red tape has been met and his family can now join him. His wife Esther, played by Zainab Jah, embodies the complexities of her character, and arrives at La Guardia Airport with their daughter Sylvia, played by Jayme Lawson.

There is an awkward greeting between them when they meet again almost as strangers, soon finding themselves caught between two cultures. As the newly arrived immigrants take their first ride through the busy streets, Ekwa Msangi and cinematographer Bruce Francis Cole capture both the grittiness of New York and the wonder reflected in the eyes of the newcomers.

At the family dinner, Esther insists that they say grace first, and Walter begins to get a glimpse of how deeply religious she is, which began when she fled to Tanzania.  Confessing that she’s been celibate since they separated, there is an attempt at lovemaking, but Walter is clearly conflicted and turns his back away from her. It becomes also clear that Esther would rather go to church than participate in any spousal intimacies.  He tries to accommodate some of her wishes by attending a church service, but clearly is having difficulties and doesn’t participate in singing any hymns.  Other forbidden things on her list include drinking wine and dancing, both of which he has been enjoying. Osei Essed’s lively soundtrack is a wonderful blend of African roots music as well as popular American selections. Walter grabs a bag hidden in a closet, and we realize that there is another woman in his life.  He subsequently throws the bag in the trash and continues to remain present and distant at the same time. At one point his daughter says, “Poppa do you love us?”

The next segment is from Sylvia’s point of view. On her first day at school, she meets fellow student D.J., nicely portrayed by Marcus Scribner. He grew up in the south without a father, and on discovering that she likes to dance, suggests that she try out for the Step Team. He walks her home, but when Esther sees D.J in their tiny apartment, she forbids Sylvia to have friends or dance, forcing her to kneel and pray for forgiveness.  At school, Sylvia injures her hand and Walter takes her to the hospital.  While waiting, he shares how he and her mother met at university and what great times they had dancing together, adding “This country is very hard for black people and dancing is the one place I can show myself,” encouraging her to dance. Sylvia doesn’t understand why he didn’t send for them sooner, and he explains that it was difficult due to government red tape.

In the segment devoted to Esther, we see her slowly uncovering Walter’s secret when mail addressed to Linda keeps arriving at the apartment. Though she spends most of her time cleaning, cooking, and talking to her sister back home, she finally confronts her husband about Linda and he replies, “She gave me hope.” We begin to understand that although Walter was in this loving relationship, he is committed to his wife and daughter. In an effort to discuss their dilemma, he takes Esther out to dinner in a beautiful restaurant.  She bought a new dress and looks lovely, exuding a softness we haven’t seen before. They discuss their past, and what takes place is surprising; evoking the audience to smile or shed a tear or two.

Farewell Amor could have easily slipped into a soap opera, but the finely honed script and razor-sharp directing, results in an unforgettable family drama, illuminating aspects of the universal human condition and the inherent challenges therein, including sacrifices for the greater good. While all the performances are fully realized, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s totally internalized characterization of Walter is spellbinding and we patiently await his next role.

“Farewell Amor”

Release Date:  December 11, 2020

Where: In Theatres and on Digital and VOD Platforms

Language: English

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

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