Beer Alcohol Cocktails cocktail recipe beer festivals Restaurant Review

There are many great cities today that are a great choice for a beercation, but only Grand Rapids calls themselves "Beer City". It's a great destination that is located a close to Chicago, Detroit, and Indianapolis making it a great place for a weekend getaway. With more a Beer City Ale Trail boasting more than 80 breweries, it is certainly one of the top beer producers in the country. Experience Grand Rapids invited us to visit and see what all the fuss was about. Here's what we found!

Las Vegas has some of the best bars and some of the best restaurants in the world but no matter how much talent and desire to be the best... most are good at one or the other, not both. During a visit last night to Libertine Social inside of Mandalay Bay, I was treated to an experience that frankly I wasn't expecting based on the relatively unassuming entrance.

Rum sometimes has a bad rap since there are a lot of inferior products out there, but thankfully there are some fantastic rums out there too. It all comes down to craftsmanship and market demands. Luckily, over the past few years we've started to see high quality products such as Don Q Gran Añejo make it to store shelves and bars around the United States. People from Puerto Rico probably laugh at this being a new trend since they've known the greatness of rum since Destilería Serrallés started producing the spirit on the island in 1865.

There are two things in life that I love the most (outside of my wife of course!) - Traveling and Food. That's really one bigger thing: exploring new cultures. That's why I love trying new restaurants that work hard to transport you to new times and places like Havana 1920 does. Havana 1920 is a new Cuban-themed cafe and bar in the heart of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter - very close to the convention center as well as most of the bigger hotels. Here's what we loved about it!

Making a classic cocktail is a skill that will impress your guests at a party, but sometimes that can prove to be challenging to get things "just right". Here's a way to cheat a bit and make some classic drinks such as an Old Fashioned or a Boulevardier quick and easy.

Johnnie Walker is the most popular brand of whisky today... and apparently that's true in 2049 too since they've partnered with the new movie, Blade Runner 2049. To celebrate their inclusion in the movie, the brand has released a limited edition "Johnnie Walker Black Label The Director's Cut" bottle and sent in these fun futuristic cocktails as well.

One of my favorite things about visiting Las Vegas is the food scene. There's always something new and fun popping up and because of the competition, innovation is constant. On this most recent trip, we were invited to check out Rice & Company, a pan-Asian restaurant located right between Blue Man Group and Carrot Top's theaters inside of the Luxor resort at the south end of the strip. It's the perfect spot for pre/post show drinks as well as a complete dinner to keep you going all night long.

Islands is one of my favorite restaurants to take my friends and that's because the food is always good and while the classics never change, they always have new offerings to switch stuff up too. On our recent guys weekend to Palm Desert, California they invited us to stop by and fuel up as well as taste their new Islands Golden Ale brewed in collaboration with Karl Strauss Brewing.

The mountains of North Carolina have a rich tradition of producing whiskey and frankly trying new things to produce a unique product that other distillers may consider unconventional. While it is unlikely that you'll ever be able to hike out in the woods and see how illicit moonshine is made, this is the next best thing... maybe even better!

While Vegas has trended away from lavish buffets, the tradition of a casino buffet being the crown jewel of a resort is alive and well in San Diego. Last week we were invited to check out Viejas Casino Resort's buffet during their new Friday Crab Legs feast and we were not disappointed!

It's time to cook down and enjoy one of summer's most delicious treats, but like everything in life - we can make it even better! So, with that in mind, here's a roundup of some of my favorite Watermelon Cocktail recipes. These are perfect for cooling off this summer, cheers!

Crabfest^® is back at Red Lobster and we stopped by to check out some of their new creations including the Crab Cakes and Crab-Oscar Salmon and the Crabfest® Ultimate Surf & Turf - both are new this year. Don't worry, your favorites are still here like the Crab Lovers Dream^® and they have limitless cheddar bay biscuits (as long as you ask nicely!). 

Last night I had the opportunity to not just visit a fantastic new brewery but also meet with five of the best chefs in San Diego. We were assembled to help raise money for Feeding San Diego, while also celebrating the launch of Flesh & Blood - Bitter Brothers new Golden Sour that has a stunning color and flavor of tart cherries and raspberry. Each of the five courses was inspired by and paired with one of their beers, for a culinary experience that I wish could be shared better than just my words and pictures.

We love tequila and whether you are sipping, shooting, or enjoying it in a cocktail it's always a spirit to enjoy with friends.  While there are plenty of bars where you can celebrate we wanted to create a list of some of our favorite recipes provided by friends at our favorite Tequila brands including: CRUZ, el Jimador, Partida, Herradura, and others.

As you probably know by now, one of my absolutely favorite restaurants is Fogo de Chao. There is little out there that's better than the experience of enjoying great cocktails while enjoying an endless parade of meat served by friendly gauchos - well, except doing it in Brazil itself I suppose! Each season the folks at Fogo also update their harvest table with seasonal selections but they've now updated their bar menu too. They are so excited about their new offerings that they invited me back again to try some of their new cocktails and small plates before the full dinner that I already knew would be awesome.

There seems to be two main types of seafood restaurants that I'm invited to visit. There are fancy ones with waiters in suits and white linen table cloths and others are casual shacks where the only thing that matters is the food. Thankfully, Grand Isle is the later of those two options and is inspired by the classic coastal Louisiana fish camps from Grand Isle. However, along side extremely fresh seafood served steamed or raw, guests will find creative dishes that wouldn't be out of place in the fanciest restaurants in New Orleans.

Breakfast Republic seems to be on the list of every foodie I know in San Diego right now. With lines on weekends that might you second guess stopping by, I know plenty of my friends have simply just passed it by but still wondered what it was like to dine there. Luckily, they continue to expand and now have locations in North Park, Liberty Station, Encinitas and recently opened in East Village San Diego. The menu here is exactly what you'd expect from a California brunch place and in particular one that's growing up in San Diego's modern food scene and we were thrilled to be invited to check it out.

My wife tells me that I'm weird since i don't love pizza. Unfortunately because of that, I've generally avoided California Pizza kitchen since I'd always seen it as a pizza joint. Since earlier this year though when I helped them kick off their new location at The Park in Vegas, it's become one of my favorite restaurants.

It should be quite clear by now that I am a huge fan of Brazilian steakhouses or Churrascaria as they are also known. There's something magical about a buffet of meat that comes to you. Since you and your friends can simply sit at the table for most of the meal and not worry about getting up to load your plate with more food, conversation seems to flow more freely and it's certainly a more relaxing form of celebratory eating than other options out there. I've been lucky to be treated so well by the folks at Fogo de Chao and so after my visit to their Vegas location last week I figured it was a good opportunity to share some of my expert knowledge on how to maximize your experience at a Brazilian Steakhouse!

There's something special about southern cooking. It's a craft that has been honed by generations and has a unique sophistication that really isn't based on "price" but rather simply a love for flavors and textures that transcend economic divides. When I lived in North Carolina, food was a celebration and "Sunday Dinner" represented a time when friends, family, and neighbors would gather at my friend's grandmother's house for stories, drinks, and meals that I still remember today. That's the magic Southern Cooking and Yardbird Las Vegas has taken that experience and elevated it to a level that is sophisticated - but still approachable.