I’ve been collecting the frequent flyer miles, and right now I’m in Rome for the next week (for the first time). I’m here because on Thursday I’m speaking at the TTI/Vanguard conference about the future of the social web, this new group of humans called Born Digitals, etc. The speaker lineup is pretty great, and I’m humbled to be here. But, like any good globe trotter, I’ve got some time to burn this trip (by design), and I have planned, wait for it, yep– nothing. Why would I come to Rome with nothing planned? Well, I figured a few of my faithful readers have been here and can lend a hand in recommendations. Where should I eat? What should I visit (other than the obvious city attractions?) Where should I shop? Who wants to get gelato with me? Drop me a note or leave a comment below. Ciao!

We recently had the pleasure of dining and drinking at Vanilla, a new London restaurant blending high-end design with upscale food. For those of you in the know of London restaurants, Vanilla was created from the ashes of Firevault— also known for its decor as much as its food.

Vanilla works on a color scheme of whiter than white. It takes you back the second you walk in the door. The bar feels like an eloquent bath– an eloquent bath of champagne. Which is fitting because the first thing you will see on the menu are vanilla champagne cocktails. The neat thing about a design scheme relying on white is the lighting possibilities. Vanilla runs the entire lighting system on LEDs, so the mood can be changed at the rotation of a dial letting different reds, blues, and greens bounce from the white.

Manager Matthieu Destandau has put his heart and soul into creating the restaurant from every detail of the placement of the LEDs, to the gorgeous food on the menu. If you get a chance to check it out, tell them we sent you– they’ll take good care of you. Can't make it to London anytime soon? Have a look at a few more photos after the jump.

READ MORE…

Paper just got a little more obsolete. A week after Orange and UK ad agency The Alternative debuted a much buzzed about no touch interactive phone menu in the window of its Carnaby Street store, NYC's legendary St. Regis Hotel has taken the new-age menu up a notch.

The St. Regis is home to celebrated chef Alain Ducasse's Adour Restaurant and, despite the opulent old-skool feel of the sheepskin covered gold wine bar, ordering a drink is decidedly high tech. Created by Potion Design, an electronic touch sensitive menu is displayed onto the bar from a built-in projection system in the ceiling. Foodies can check out Adour's extensive wine list just by tapping their hands on the interactive menu before them. Once you've narrowed it down to a specific wine, a flower icon appears displaying info about the bottle on each of its petals; country, vineyard, grape varietals, and all that fancy sommelier stuff is displayed, literally, right at your fingertips.

One of my new favorite places to go out in London is certainly The Groucho Club, a members-only club with three bars, a brasserie and a formal dining room. The best part, really, are the people — everyone invited or involved in the club has a deep history in publishing, arts, media or creative fields. Unlike most clubs in London, everyone was actually very nice; they knew if you were in there, you were probably doing something interesting. The space also has a constantly evolving and fantastic art selection (when I was there, Banksy and Damien Hirst were on the dining room walls). In addition to all the open space for some good partying, the club has 19 bedrooms for members coming in from out of town that need a place to call home. The name was naturally inspired by one of Groucho Marx’s famous quips; “I don’t want to join a club that will accept me as a member,” which I absolutely love. Find someone respected in creative arts or media who knows the London scene and they’re likely a member — this place is worth a visit on a Saturday night.

On one of our evenings in Bali a few weeks ago, we thought it was time to treat ourselves to something truly special (okay, every night felt special), and after reading many reviews about the über famous Ku De Ta restaurant in Seminyak, we went for the crown jewel. Only seconds after opening the menu, the prices were a bit of a shock, coming from a place where you can eat delicious fresh fish for only a few dollars; seeing a $35 entree was hard to stomach, but the service, atmosphere and overall experience made up for it in spades. Tables were set around the outside of an enormous reflecting pool with a DJ set right at the edge. Soft red umbrellas were scattered along the catwalk above the beach — an incredible and idyllic place to share a drink at sunset. The scene was littered with the rich and pretty looking tourists (or rich locals, which there are very few) from Asia and Australia. The eclectic mix of local Indonesian food infused with French and Italian elements were elegantly presented and deliciously cooked by New Zealander, Chef Philip Davenport — who at this point is a local celebrity (and not to mention, probably very rich man). All said, Ku De Ta is definitely worth it for a special occasion — but not a deal you should be hunting for in Bali by any stretch of the imagination. If I could have done it any differently, I would have just gone for the environment, the drinks, and the view.

BURNEVERYTHING, my favorite Liverpool-based creative studio, recently dropped a new site featuring their rapidly growing (and consistently amazing) portfolio. The new site is, from what I remember, even more straightforward than their last, but the uncomplicated design does a great job pushing the focus on to Burn’s latest work which has no trouble standing on its own. It appears as though the studio has been turning out quite a bit of identity work, an area that is quickly becoming one of Burn’s strong points. Not that they’re at all weak in other areas — I think everything they do is above par in terms of creativity and execution — but the work that they’ve been doing for a few local restaurants is so incredible I’d consider making Liverpool my next vacation destination. I love the idea of giving a design studio full creative license in identity work; Burn not only developed these invites to the the bar/kitchen/club, Korova; they also did the interior of the restaurant, the menus, the vinyl on the windows, everything. Check out the shots I’ve included after the jump to see the place in its entirety, then, if you live there, ask me out on a date. No, seriously.

READ MORE…

Best described as darlingly innovative cuisine, we had a chance to dine at Beddingtons Saturday evening in Amsterdam. Usually a near impossible reservation to get, we lucked out with a cancellation literally seconds before we called to inquire. Jean Beddington, the well known globe trotting woman über-chef blends nearly half a dozen influences– British, French, Italian, Indian and Japanese. The atmosphere was simple and wonderful, a classic black and white dining room. We enjoyed a few different options off the fixed menu like an unusual fruits de mer platter and beautifully cooked mullet as well as a fresh eel appetizer (served on a skewer over rice and edamame) that tasted more delicious than most offerings at high-end Japanese restaurants. This was excellent world class dining, sans attitude– a refreshing treat and an unusual stroke of luck.

Yamazato is a traditional Japanese restaurant tucked on the ground floor of Amsterdam’s Hotel Okura. Zagat readers gave their nod to the restaurant as being one of the best Japanese restaurants in the whole of Europe– and being the Asian food snob that I am, I figured I had to find out for myself. It was Yamazato that introduced Kaiseki style cooking to Europe 30 years ago– and not far into our appetizers it was clear they knew exactly what they were doing. We enjoyed extremely fresh salmon sashimi, beautiful tofu dishes, exquisite sushi and some of the best rice I’ve had in months– it reminded me of the quality of food I experienced in my travel across Japan. The atmosphere was simple, the staff attentive and very knowledgeable. It’s no wonder Yamazato received a Michelin Star– and the property still remains the one and only traditional Japanese restaurant to receive this accolade across Europe. This place is not to be missed, delicious!

A late arrival in London last evening left me at myhotel (no pun intended) famished. I stumbled down the road to a gem of a restaurant called Patara. With locations in South Kensington, Knightsbridge, Oxford Circus and Soho, the self-proclaimed Fine Thai Cuisine is no mystery to locals (not to mention award winning locations in Bangkok, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan). The atmosphere, while nice despite a loud-and-unhappy couple next to me, was Zen-like and perfect after a long day of travel. The menu offered everything from braised New Zealand lamb in curry to more traditional seafood dishes, like the one I had, a crispy whole sea bass served with lemon-grass tamarind sauce. Patara is best described as a poor mans Hakkasan, and is definitely a nice addition to the section of my rolodex titled perfectly acceptable, easy to get into Thai restaurants worldwide.

Executive Chef Michael Gilligan is no stranger to the kitchen– we were glad (and very pleased) to try his newest creation called Atrio, a gem of a restaurant tucked inside the Conrad Hotel in Miami during our trip to the area last month. Gilligan’s resume is impressive– food has been in his blood ever since he was born in a room above the family-owned pub in his home town of Birmingham, England. A graduate from The College of Food and Arts, he has done everything from sous-chef at the Ritz Carlton in NYC to owning and operating several restaurants such as Candela, as well as cooking everywhere from Antonio’s Ristorante to Metro 53 in NYC, and Rumi on South Beach–we feel like it’s safe to say he has made it around. Atrio really shows off his power of creation, and of course, his imagination. He calls many of his creations ‘la-sian’, a cross between Latin American cooking and Asian cuisine. Rarely on one menu do you find such gems as a Sushi of the Day, delicious crab cakes, chilled avocado soup with lime and jalepeno, and a broiled miso marinated black cod (our favorites). Interesting combinations, exquisite tastes, and a wonderful atmosphere off the beaten path.

If you go to one restaurant in Miami, make sure it’s Wish. Wish is in The Hotel in South Beach, and it impressed Josh and I in a way restaurants rarely do. The atmosphere had that classy, yet South Beach feeling to it, the service was top notch, and the food was absolutely exquisite. Some of the flavors that graced our taste buds: Wish Salad with green mango and baby bean sprouts, cashews, and lychee-mint vinaigrette (there were actual lycees in the salad); pan-seared diver scallops with lamb sausage, two-bean cassoulet with fennel sofrito, dijon and lemon confiet, skin-on blackened Pacific turbot (this Pacific whitefish was the chef-reccommended special); chai creme brulee; and finally, a dessert they called PB&J– it was an out-of-this-world take on a peanut butter and jelly sandwitch, complete with marshmellow, rasberry coulis, and the richest and creamiest chocolate mousse with peanut butter gelato on the side. Conde Nast Traveller named Wish one of the 50 top new restaurants in the world– and it definitely earned our nod of approval.

By the time our last night in Miami rolled around (earlier this week), we were ‘restaurant-ed out’ to say the least. We had experienced some great cuisine during the 3 previous nights, but it just gets a little tiring going to the much hyped ‘hot spots’ night in and night out. After deciding the raucous atmosphere at one of the ‘hot spots’ (it will remain nameless) was not our ideal Sunday evening dining experience, we followed the last minute advice from our friend Jonathan and went to La Locanda in South Beach. It was a welcomed plan revision for all of us. We were promptly welcomed by the staff, and the service remained great throughout our visit. They offer reasonably priced food and Italian heirloom family recipes that made us feel at home. I went with a great grouper dish (the daily special), Josh had a traditional and tasty penne dish, and we ordered prosecco for the table (which was brought out in a stand-alone ice bucket– nice touch). It’s an off the beaten path, homey type of restaurant, and you won’t find them online, but here is a link to some info for when you are in Miami next.

Anyone who has been reading this site for more than a few months knows I have high expectations when it comes to Sushi. In fact, I’m not really ashamed to say I’m a complete snob when it comes to eating my raw fish. Quite luckily, my world travels have allowed me to experience a lot of ‘takes’ on sushi, from all you can eat versions in middle-of-nowhere USA, the full luxury ‘Lamborghini of sushi experience in Ginza,’ to eating Toro sliced right off the belly of a 500lb tuna in the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo at 5am right before my eyes, so fresh it was literally swimming in my mouth. Suffice it to say when someone says “this is the best sushi restaurant I’ve ever eaten at” — although I always take them up on an offer to experience it first hand — I’m always a little bit wary of what the ‘best’ means to them. Shoji Sushi in South Beach, despite the hour wait (even though we had a reservation a month in advance) was quite delicious– a top-choice recommendation from a friend. In my traditional ‘reviewing process’ I left it up to the kitchen and wait-staff to order their favorites for us. We had quite the spread. Top picks included spicy rock shrimp tempura, bonito ceviche, and an array of rolls of which I’ll never know the name, but of which I’ll always remember the taste and presentation. Dessert was most memorable though, a tempura cheesecake in a bath of creamy carmel that stopped us all in our tracks– extraordinary and immensely enjoyable. By the time we left we had completely forgotten how long we waited to eat; the cuisine was truly worth every second.

After a long day of travel to Miami, Josh and I were famished when dinner time rolled around this evening. Lucky for us, Novecento is right across the street from our base camp, the Conrad Miami (We know, it’s not South Beach, more on that soon). Novecento has been alive and prospering in NYC (Soho) for nearly a decade, but it’s also thriving in Miami, as we quickly discovered tonight. In true Miami style, the DJ was going at it hard on the ones and twos when we showed up at 8 PM. We were seated outside on the patio, sufficiently far away from the DJ to be able to carry on a conversation without going hoarse. Our food was great– the cuisine can best be described as a ‘refined co-existence of Argentine, Mediterranean, and Pan-Latin cuisines, heightened by French techniques.’ I started with a nice arugula salad and finished with mighty tasty skirt steak accompanied with a beautiful glass of Malbec red– Josh’s Swordfish was equally tasty. I have to say– the combination of the atmosphere, good food, and reasonable prices made Novecento a great ‘first meal’ and welcome to Miami.

On a recent trip to London, I found myself eating pretty much at the very top of the food chain at every meal. Favorites like Nobu, Le Caprice and Cipriani expanded both my credit balance and waistline. Staying as I usually do in Chelsea at the incomparable hideaway myhotel (highly praised and voted one of Conde Nast's 50 coolest hotels in the world), I opted for a light lunch a few blocks from the hotel at what will surely become one of my regular haunts. If you can't find it down the stairs just off the Kings Road on Sydney Street next to the Chelsea Farmer's Market, stop a passerby and ask "Pardon me, can you tell me where I can find the "Phât Phúc"? Just pretend you are Borat looking for a kiss, and once you recover from the assault, get thee to Phât Phúc and sit down at their open-air gem for some of the best homemade noodles and broth this side of Saigon. Lunch cost me less then the taxi ride to my 2:00 meeting in Bloomsbury. A great bargain, Phat Phuc is super healthy, incredibly delicious and a superb value – not even French Connection UK has a better name. Enjoy!