(Gerry Furth-Sides) The soaring space of Hearts & Flame is literally breath-taking. Once housing a two-story agricultural product warehouse it is so vast that live trees look natural in it. Yet charm and personality are ingeniously also a part of this rustic space with gracious indirect lighting and little touches like corne...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) My birthday last month was the second time I was treated to Sharlotka baked by @tableconversation, and the home grown apples and loquats in it got my attention. The attraction from the beginning was the light-as-chiffon stone fruit cake texture. And as it turned out, the cake alone has a surprisingly, royal a...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) “old Traditions from New Russia” is the motto of Premier Restaurant & Bar Banquet Hall – the old being the gorgeous, bountiful banquet tables and flowing “wodka” with new, refined Russian/French/middle easter fusion cuisine leading to a jam-packed evening of dining, music, da...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) “Georgia on my Mind” – this Georgia being the small country in the Caucasus region known for being the first winemakers in the world and where producers still use ancient “qvevri” (meaning underground) clay pots that make them the most exciting recent find of wine experts everywh...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) First it was called Aristoff, then it became a distant outpost of Petrossian, the legendary Paris-based outfit known for its buttery osetra and powerful sevruga. Founded in 1984, New York’s exquisite Petrossian restaurant is housed in the historic Alwyn Court Building on Manhattan’s West Si...
A “star” baker as a relative with a closely guarded recipe automatically bestows bragging rights onto an immigrant family. The family of Marlo Gertz of Marlo’s Bakeshop in San Francisco is no exception. But unlike so many recipes that have disappeared (like my Viennese grandmother’s tissue paper strudel), Marlo not only...
When I test drove a marvelous vintage Porsche last month I had no idea I would soon be tasting caviar at about the same price. Among the most famous and expensive of the precious eggs, Almas (“diamond” in Russian) costs about the same price pound per pound at $25,000 for 1 kg or $700 per ounce. […]...
The whole idea of a limited-edition offering of a vodka with Peppermint even sounds appealing when you hear it. It looks even better when you see the bottle, with red and white and green ribbon swirling from top to bottom (and you cannot see the content inside either!) We’ve given a bottle with a box […]...
Gerry Furth-Sides 
Barbara Hansen 
Chef-owner Alain Cohen 
Roberta Deen 
Jose Martinez 
Nivedita Basu 