North Texas doesn’t do quiet weekends in late September, and this one might be the busiest of the fall. The State Fair opens Friday. There’s a German festival in McKinney, a Broadway legend at the Meyerson, a honky-tonk headliner at Billy Bob’s, a baseball team that dances between pitches and the Indigo Girls downtown on Sunday night. Here’s how to pace yourself, where to eat and a few tips that’ll save you money and aggravation.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Naples in January is the reason people put up with Naples in August. Mid-seventies, no humidity, the Gulf flat and green, and a sunset every evening that empties the restaurants onto the sand for ten minutes.
That’s when the biggest resort on that stretch of beach reopens under a new name.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
The smell arrives before the skyline does: salt and low tide off Casco Bay, then a thread of woodsmoke drifting off a hearth two blocks in, then something baking that has already pulled a line onto the sidewalk before eight in the morning. Portland, Maine photographs like a postcard, cobblestone streets, brick warehouses, lighthouses strung along the coast, but the reputation it has actually built over the last two decades comes from what’s happening inside those old buildings.
Bon Appétit named it Restaurant City of the Year in 2018, and the city has only grown more serious about food since, packing more James Beard pedigree per block than almost anywhere else in the country into a downtown small enough to cross on foot. It moves easily between a three-dollar morning bun and a hundred-dollar tasting menu without ever feeling like it’s performing for either one. Give it a long weekend, three or four days if a day trip north is on the table, and arrive hungry.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
The fog is still sitting on the water at seven in the morning, and the pier disappears into it about halfway out. A man in waders walks the tide line with a bucket, looking for clams the way people here have for a hundred years. By ten the fog burns off, the pier reappears all 1,200 feet of it, and the smell of butter and clam broth starts drifting up Pomeroy Avenue.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Most wine regions announce themselves. Walla Walla doesn’t bother. Set in the southeastern corner of Washington State, four hours from Seattle, surrounded by wheat fields and framed by the Blue Mountains, it is the American wine destination that the people who know about it have quietly kept to themselves for thirty years. The wineries here — more than 140 of them — produce Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah that belong in any serious conversation about what this country can grow.
The restaurants are better than you would think. The town itself, compact and walkable and genuinely beautiful, is the kind of place that turns a wine trip into something you talk about for years. It rewards discovery. Go find it.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
There is a town in the northwest corner of Arkansas that sits in the Ozark Mountains on streets so steep and winding that no two of them ever intersect at a right angle. The whole downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Victorian buildings are painted in colors that would embarrass a Key West postcard. It has a legendary haunted hotel, a world-class piece of architecture hiding in the woods, a big cat sanctuary, and a local culture that has always attracted artists, eccentrics, and people who just needed somewhere different to be. It is about six hours from Dallas and most people have never been. The town is Eureka Springs, and it is worth every mile of the drive.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Savannah is a city that effortlessly blends history, culture, and modern culinary flair. Known for its oak-shaded squares, cobblestone streets, and pastel-colored historic homes, the city has an atmosphere unlike any other in the South. Visitors can explore its scenic riverfront, wander the squares, or simply enjoy the relaxed pace while soaking in centuries of architecture and storytelling. The city’s charm extends beyond its streets into a thriving food scene that satisfies both comfort-food enthusiasts and fans of elevated cuisine.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Deep in the heart of Jefferson, Texas, the Jefferson Hotel—also known as the Jefferson Palace Hotel—stands as a remarkable testament to the town’s history and charm. Built in 1851 by Allen Urquhart, Jefferson’s founder, the building originally served as a cotton warehouse. Its strategic location along the Big Cypress Bayou made it a hub for the cotton trade, with riverboats regularly stopping to load goods destined for New Orleans.
Over the decades, the building evolved, serving as a brothel, a speakeasy during Prohibition known as “The Crystal Palace,” and eventually a hotel. Each chapter of its history adds layers to its storied past, making it one of Jefferson’s most captivating landmarks.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
