We visited this 2012 James Beard Award winning American Classic in the early afternoon for lunch. Located on the west side of El Paso, just off the interstate in a semi-industrial area, the H&H is an old, cavernous car wash with multiple, covered bays and high ceilings, to handle trucks. The look is all business and like it had been there for 50 years. In one corner is a small building with a sign “Coffee Shop”. The door on the main street side is sealed so you park on the side and walk through the car wash area to get […] Read more »

I expected Texas to influence Japanese cuisine or Japan to influence Texas cuisine (BBQ, beer and all that) but at Uchiko we had a very Japanese menu with influences being more from modern gastronomy and farm to table sourcing. Uchiko is the second Japanese restaurant from Tyson Cole, 2011 James Beard Award winning Chef Southwest for Uchi. His Executive Chef, Paul Qui won the same award for 2012 with Uchiko, a larger space in what they describe as a Japanese farmhouse setting. You enter one long room to dine with traditional tables set in the middle and booths along the […] Read more »

Chef Donald Link presides over a fine dining collection in New Orleans including Herbsaint, our choice for Saturday night and the restaurant that won him Best Chef South from the James Beard Organization. Maybe it is culinary fatigue, but our experience here was less than what we expected. The food was very good and the atmosphere lively, more like a bistro/bar than a formal environment. I guess that makes sense as the name is derived from a famous New Orleans based anise flavored liquor introduced after the end of Prohibition as absinthe, which was outlawed. The federal authorities challenged this […] Read more »

Stop the presses. The Hot and Hot Fish Clubis what great dining is all about. Chef Christopher Hastings won this year’s James Beard Award for Best Chef South and it is well deserved. Chris had worked under Frank Stitt, a winner of the same award for his Highlands Bar and Grill,and is part of the, excuse the pun, “hot” culinary scene in Birmingham, much of which is centered around Highland Park where our B&B is located.Joan and I sat at the Chef’s Counter facing the open kitchen where the crew worked most of the kitchen stations exposed to the watching […] Read more »

  Last night we had what may well be the surprise meal of the trip at the Blue Apron Restaurant and Red Rooster Bar in Salem, Virginia. Joan and I use the Zagat ratings often to evaluate restaurants we do not know but would like to try – so we have a good feel for the relationship of the ratings with value ( on a scale of 0 to 30) offered. I would rate the Blue Apron with a 27 for food, 25 for decor and 25 for service. The Blue Apron is the first restaurant for husband and wife […] Read more »