Restaurants

St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Austria

Spending time in Vienna, Austria should involve seeing St. Stephen’s Cathedral, enjoying the gorgeous cityscape maybe even from a horse drawn carriage, chatting over tea or coffee at a traditional café and partaking in some home cooking at a beer house or bier beisl.

We found Beethovenhaus Bierteufl on a previous business trip and had a great experience, we would definitely go back. It has over one hundred beers available, thirty-six of which are Austrian. It is in one of Ludwig von Beethoven’s many ex-residences in Vienna. There are signs on the outside of buildings noting the dozens of homes he had in the city.

It isn’t too hard to find as it is down the street from the former Imperial Riding School, now a hotel so you would need to find some stables if you won this contest wanted to go horseback riding. The décor inside is dark and pleasant with heavy wood beams everywhere.

Beethovenhaus Bierteufl also serves food like savory garlic beer soup and comforting Eiernockerl. The Eiernockerl is not something you want to eat all the time as it involves fried dough but it sure does taste good when you are having a beer, or after spending an afternoon touring Vienna’s gorgeous Kunsthistorisches Museum.

My favorite memories of Vienna did seem to revolve around foods like Eiernockerl because I never get tired of the combination of dumplings with butter or cheese. If you take the tram, get off at the Rennweg Bahnhst tram station, or better yet if you’re like me and plan to eat besides have a beer, then maybe skip the tram and walk.

1030 Vienna (Wien)
Ungargasse 5
Austria

Tel: + 01-712-65-032

Photo by Sharon Castellanos

Scotty's Brewhouse: worth the wait

I did it!

On attempt #3, I finally got into Scotty’s Brewhouse on Walnut Street before a basketball game. Of course, I had to leave my house 2.5 hours earlier than tip-off to give myself enough time to wait for a table  (and we still missed the first few minutes of the game, despite the fact my wonderful husband dropped us off and parked the car in Timbuktu himself). They run a full house just about every hour they’re open, and the theories behind this are as varied as the items on the menu. Some say it’s because of the burgers, others vote for the pork tenderloins, college students are attracted naturally to the beer list.

I’m telling you they’re all wrong. Although I’ll agree the burgers here are worth my money, Scotty’s masterpiece is the waffle fries.

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Ebisu Sushi Restaurant @ SFO International Terminal

Ebisu Sushi in the Sunset District of San Francisco is one of my favorite places to eat when visiting Golden Gate Park. Trust me, before you step into one of the long lines at the California Academy of Sciences or a special exhibit like the recent King Tut extravaganza at the De Young Museum, a full stomach of delicious food will only enhance the experience, especially for those visiting the park with toddlers.

This delicious restaurant has been family run for more than 30 years. It is therefore a treat to discover that Ebisu has an outpost in the international terminal at SFO. We just flew to Spain for two weeks, and needed to get a healthy meal to hold us over during the ten hour flight. Finding the familiar Ebisu menu and quality of food at the airport, drew us like moths to a flame. Read More »

There are times that you just have to eat out. There is nothing in the refrigerator and you don’t want to go out for a fancy expensive lunch or just drive thru. I have the solution for you. Fatburger!

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From Nancy D. Brown of What a Trip

Cruising & Dining - A Match Made At Sea

Killer coffee, healthy halibut and fresh cornbread with caribou chili; throw in a side of Alaskan king crab legs and you have yourself one heck of a party. As I’ve been known to say on a recent trip to Alaska, “when in Alaska, eat like an Alaskan. And so it began when I boarded Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas ship, bound for…you guessed it…Alaska!

This was my first time on a cruise ship other than a two night stay on the Carnival Splendor, floating around the San Francisco Bay as the company introduced its newest ship.

I can see why the cruise industry is so successful; floating hotels offering gourmet, international-inspired cusine and no dishes to clean up. I could get used to this. I particularly enjoyed Royal Caribbean’s Portofino specialty restaurant with its Northern Italian menu. I recommend the filet of halibut over a citrus, crab and shrimp risotto, finished with salsa verde and lemon butter sauce.

Portofino Halibut with Crab & Shrimp Risotto

Raven's Brew - the Last Legal High

Deadman’s Reach - Coffee for Seafearing Souls

One of my favorite Alaskan discoveries is Deadman’s Reach, a flavorful caffeinated jolt from Raven’s Brew Coffee. My husband loves the coffee, while I’m captivated with the graphic designs on their packaging.

For the sweet tooths in the bunch, stock up on handmade fudge, truffles and chocolate candies from KetchiCandies in Ketchikan. Sarah Palin’s not the only thing going in Wasilla, Alaska, I discovered cashew brittle made by Klondike Candies.

Denali Bound

Halibut Fish and Chips

Heading to Denali National Park while you’re in Alaska? We stayed at the McKinley Village Lodge where I ordered halibut fish and chips from the Gold Rush dining room. I wanted to get a quick bite before our visit to the Husky Homestead Tour and my waitress rose to the occasion when I requested a speedy turnaround. Good food, good service.

If you find yourself in the tiny town of Talkeetna, stop by the Road House for some caribou chili and a hunk of cornbread. The homemade cinammon rolls looked amazing, but one can only eat so much. However, I did manage to revive my appetite the next day for some reindeer chili at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. I also tried the reindeer sausage at the Anchorage Marriott Downtown for breakfast on my last day.

Our group of travel writers, on a Royal Caribbean Cruisetour, dined at the Snow Goose Restaurant our last night in Alaska. I wasn’t impressed with the food or the service, (they forgot to fire my order) but the beer drinkers in the group enjoyed the beer on tap from the Sleeping Lady Brewery on premise.

All photos courtesy of Nancy D. Brown

I think I’ve said before that Germans take beer seriously.  Well, if that’s true, then I think it’s fair to say Bavarians treat beer with a reverence that is second only to religion.  (And honestly, for many, you’d think that God isn’t even a close second).  But this is a serious boon for beer lovers traveling in this region.  As you wander around, there are tons of great little brewery guest houses where you can try the local varieties of beer paired with some incredible traditional food.

And certainly the Sperber Bräu in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany has a wide variety of fantastic (and award winning) brews to choose from.  But when I happened upon the the speisenkarte, I found a real treat.  The menu had all manner of the usual knödeln, schnitzel, and wurst to go with my half-liter.  But they also had a three-course Biermenü that featured dishes made with their own brews for a fixed price of under 15 Euro. Read More »

The peppered bacon cheddar burger with fries at the Steelhead Brewing Company in Burlingame.

There are only a handful of destination restaurants in Burlingame. Steelhead Brewing Company is one of them.

My boyfriend David and I met up with his best buddy Joe at the Steelhead Brewing Company because we were in the mood for some beer and some meat. It was a Friday night, so we were mentally preparing ourselves for a hefty wait and were surprised when we got a table right away. It was all about timing, because you will most likely have to wait for a table on a Friday or Saturday night.

I ordered the grilled chicken breast sandwich, which was served on a whole wheat bun with a slightly spiced honey mustard sauce and crispy fries. I paired it with Steelhead’s Hairy Weasel Hefeweizen, which — let’s be honest — is just fun to order. “Yeah, I’ll have the Hairy Weasel” [snickering]. The beer was light and served with lemon. It was perfection with the grilled chicken breast. The fries were yummy. I inhaled all of my fries and most of David’s.

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My brother Eric really enjoyed his burger at Pyramid Alehouse, Brewery and Restaurant.

My little brother is getting married.

Married! God, I feel so old.

As a little pre-wedding celebration, my sister Michelle and I decided to take Eric out to dinner; a little Mansfield sibling bachelor party. Eric is not a fancy guy. He would not be comfortable at a chic restaurant with overpriced and over-sauced food in San Francisco. He’s a real red meat and potatoes guy, while his sisters are more grilled chicken breast and roast garlic potatoes girls. So, we decided to party Mansfield-style at the Pyramid Alehouse, Brewery and Restaurant in Walnut Creek.

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A few years ago, I sat in an Atlanta airport bar awaiting the flight that would take me to my new life in Germany.  As I sipped my beer, I started speaking to the man next to me.  He just so happened to be on my flight — but whereas I was going to start a new life abroad, he was a retired Army Sergeant returning to the Vaterland on his honeymoon.  He had been stationed there nearly 20 years earlier and wanted to share the what he considered to be one of the most beautiful countries in the world with his new wife.

When I asked him the place he most wanted to show his bride, he did not hesitate in his answer:  the Kreuzberg Kloster Brauerei.

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Last weekend we had the good fortune to go sailing with some friends and ended up in Redondo Beach for lunch. We headed to Naja’s Place, because they have good food and good beer and it’s in walking distance of the marina.

Naja’s Place is the kind of place that you order at the counter and they bring the food to your table. That’s probably a good thing, since it takes at least five minutes to look at the beer list.

These are Kabobs?

I ordered the Kabobs, because there are not enough meats on sticks right. We also ordered the chicken strips, 2 different hamburgers and a chicken sandwich.

My Kabobs arrived and I was surprised and a little disappointed to find there were no sticks. They were still delish. The kabobs came with jalepeno relish, which was super spicy and little triangles of pita bread and sour cream and some sort of hummus. It was totally not what I was expecting, but it was really good. All the elements worked together really well.

Yum! Beer!

Naja’s Place has 70 something beers on tap and it’s sort of daunting to look at the menu and decide what kind of beer you want to try. I recommend taking a few minutes to peruse the list and actually find something you haven’t tried before. I didn’t follow my own advice, because I was rushed to order.  Lisa tried the Orange Blossom Ale and Kim tried the Oregon Honey Beer. Both of the girls beers were excellent, but I was happy with my Hoegaarden.

Naja’s Place

154 International Boardwalk
Redondo Beach, California