Ame, which opened in 2005 in the St. Regis Hotel in SOMA, is run by Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani, who also operate the well-known Terra Restaurant in the Napa Valley.  The restaurant emphasizes what it calls “New American” cuisine and my meal here was a highlight of my stay in San Francisco.
The St. Regis hotel itself seems to channel art, and what comes out of ame’s kitchen and wine cellar would qualify as art as well.  The unique use of materials on floors and walls was elegant and understated; …

One doesn’t have to go to Germany to find a reasonably authentic Biergarten.  In fact, in New York City, there’s a new Biergarten adjacent to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on the site of a former filling station.
Loreley, the Brooklyn outpost of a popular Manhattan Biergarten of the same name, is festooned with Radeberger umbrellas and communal pine tables and benches.  While it doesn’t have shady chestnut trees, it does have one of the best selections of beer and typical Biergarten Schmankerl (delicacies) that one would expect to find in the heart …

The Biergarten (literally, beer garden) dates back to Munich in the first half of the nineteenth century and the reign of Ludwig I of Bavaria. Thanks to a royal decree specifying brewing temperature (fermentation had to take place at temperatures between 4° and 8° Celsius), beer was brewed in colder months and breweries would dig beer cellars (Bierkeller) along the banks of the Isar River to keep the beer cool in warmer months.
To keep temperatures down, the banks were covered in gravel and the brewers planted chestnut trees, whose …

One of the most beautiful parts of Italy, Alto Adige, is actually German speaking.  It’s known to many as the Südtirol, or South Tyrol, and was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918. Today, it is part of the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino.
The borders of the region, comprised of the Austrian province of Tyrol and the Italian provinces of South Tyrol and Trent (Trentino in Italian, Trient in German), are formed by the former former Austrian County of Tyrol (Gefürstete Grafschaft Tirol), which was divided between Austria and Italy after the …

[Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles about Munich and covers museums and music. Virtual tours of both Munich and the BMW Museum are at the bottom of the page.]
The letter “B” is not found in “Munich” but it might as well be.  The letter B is everywhere in the city, whether it’s on the street (BMW), in a restaurant (Bier), or in a political discussion (Bayern, or Bavaria).  It’s probably the most important letter in the city as a result.
Munich is one of four …

Pianist Yefim Bronfman is not a household name but his concert at Carnegie Hall this past Monday may go a long way towards changing that.
Bronfman’s program brought together a variety of works and composers that one would not immediately think of grouping together.
Written in 1806, Beethoven’s Thirty-Two Variations on an Original Theme in C Minor is indeed a major but less performed work.  Based on a theme devised by the composer himself, the piece gave Bronfman the opportunity to display his incredible dexterity and endless energy.  The variations themselves provide …

Perhaps the most prominent city in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle is situated on Elliot Bay, with a backdrop of lakes, mountains, and forest.  Indeed, the city itself is surrounded by lakes, including Lake Washington, Lake Union, and Lake Sammamish.  The Olympic Mountains are to the west and the Cascade Mountains are to the east.  Two volcanoes, Mount Rainer and Mount St. Helens, complete the picture.
With a population of ca. 3.5 million, Seattle is the center of a business-friendly region that includes the headquarters for such firms as Microsoft and …

Here’s a quiz: the Art Restaurant, located inside the Four Seasons Seattle and across from the Seattle Art Museum, gets its name from
a.)  Its location across from the Seattle Art Museum
b.)  The collection of art by leading Pacific Northwest artists housed in the Four Seasons Hotel
c.)  The restaurant’s philosophy that a restaurant should be designed as thoughtfully as a work of art
d.)  All of the above
The correct answer, of course, is d – all of the above.
In Art, art is all around. The walls are sculpted from woods of …

500 meters above sea level, the town of Bled is a scenic alpine resort in northwestern Slovenia. Bled is perhaps best known for Lake Bled (Blejsko jezero in Slovene, Veldeser See in German) a 2,120 m long and 1,380 m wide lake surrounded by mountains and forests. The lake surrounds Bled Island (Blejski otok), home of the Assumption of Mary Pilgrimage Church, a popular tourist destination where visitors ring the church bells for good luck.
Bled Castle (Blejski grad), perched on a 130 m cliff overlooking Lake Bled, is …

One block from Carnegie Hall in New York, just visited by the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic), is the Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar.  Seasonal provides a year-round taste of Vienna and is representative of the new generation of Viennese restaurants in Austria and elsewhere that have moved away from the formal, dark, and gilded Habsburg era style to elegant and casual dining.
There is ample reason to go to Seasonal for the food alone but diners should be aware of the unparalleled cellar of Austrian and German wines that co-owners Wolfgang Ban …