by anneMoore on December 13, 2011
With the year coming to a close it’s a good time to reflect on the offerings that enriched my days and nights. I read newspapers, magazines, works of nonfiction, but my true love is fiction. In these three novels, the characters and situations were so alive to me I didn’t want their stories to end: Jonathan [...]
by anneMoore on June 15, 2011
After a particularly brutal winter and a long, cold spring we here in Chicago are desperate for sun and warmth. People stand at street corners or outside office buildings, faces lifted to the sun. Not waiting for the Rapture. Or sneaking a smoke. They’re jones-ing for a hit of sunshine. So it’s understandable that we [...]
by anneMoore on October 25, 2010
I’m posting this out of frustration with the bland, dated advice in yesterday’s New York Times Travel section. A couple celebrating their 25th anniversary plans to spend a few days in Chicago in early December. What to do, where to go? Agreed. It will be cold. Let’s review the reasons to visit Chicago any time [...]
by anneMoore on May 10, 2010
With less than a week in Paris, we foodies needed to plan our meals well. Haute cuisine, “le fooding,” brasseries, bistros, Middle Eastern, Moroccan: how to get a taste of it all? We didn’t, but here’s three we’d go to again: Gaya par Pierre Gagnaire (44, rue du Bac). Don’t be put off by Gagnaire’s [...]
by anneMoore on May 3, 2010
Six of us went to Paris last week to eat and shop and look at art. We had no trouble (volcanic ash) coming or going, and while we certainly didn’t plan to benefit from other travelers’ canceled plans, we found it easy to nab reservations at top restaurants, and lines at museums were remarkably short. [...]
by anneMoore on June 12, 2009
I settled in for a bar lunch the other day at Joe’s, an elegant seafood and steak house off Michigan Avenue with my friend and colleague Barbara. I’d been to Joe’s (60 E. Grand St.) several times, for review or to meet with editors. It’s pricey, but the seafood — especially their signature stone crab [...]
by anneMoore on June 4, 2009
A friend who owns restaurants says patrons come back, time after time, for a signature dish. Something no other restaurant makes or prepares in the same way. I’d widen the reasons for returning to a restaurant: portions, presentation, ingredients, certain servers, a special view. Two restaurants in my Old Town neighborhood, opened within the past [...]