Author: Ann Bauer

Here’s my theory: the brains behind Parasole Restaurant Holdings (owners of Manny’s, Chino Latino, Good Earth, Muffuletta, Figlio, Salut, and Pittsburgh Blue; and originators of Oceanaire and Buca di Beppo) have buried enormous, powerful magnets beneath all their restaurants. Then they abducted the entire citizenry of our state, one by one, and implanted corresponding metal…

Here’s a winery on Mt. Konocti in Napa Valley’s Lake County that produces exactly ONE wine: a Sauvignon Blanc made of 100% Musque clone grapes. “My husband believes in doing one thing well before he moves on to something else,” said Barbara Snider, co-owner of Fortress Vineyards and — by the way — mother to…

He looks like a waiter out of a New Yorker cartoon. Crisp shirt, ramrod straight back, tray held aloft on his fingertips. He wears reading glasses on a chain around his neck, makes the best wine recommendations, calls all the ladies “dear” no matter what their age, and sports a wild, white mane of hair.…