By: Laurie Jo Miller Farr While the grape vines are settling in for a few months’ rest, Downtown Napa is definitely not. Napa’s vibrant downtown scene is hidden in plain sight in one of the world’s best wine regions. All you need is 48 hours, a girlfriend or two, sunglasses for day and…
By: Laurie Jo Miller Farr Diva, regardless if you are evergreen or strapped for cash, if you live in the Bay Area, you have at one time or another ridden BART. BART is to us—and visitors, what the Underground is to Londoners—well, minus the “Mind the Gap” warnings. So, we ask that you raise your glass and…
I’m not getting any younger and I haven’t been immortalized by a vampire, yet, so I did the next best thing…I went and got a Vampire Facial. So, is it as bad as it sounds? Well, I wanted to find out so I went to see Dr. Lisa Kang at Serenity Med Spa in San…
By: Laurie Jo Miller Farr At the intersection of cable cars and Provençal scents, beauty and well-being have found a new home high atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill. The Ritz-Carlton landmark luxury hotel opens a new Spa L’OCCITANE, a sanctuary of rejuvenation for visitors and residents in the City by the Bay. What’s your favorite…
“Brilliant!” “I wish I thought of that!” Those are the few positive expletives that Alison Bernstein receives when people learn about the incredible service she created while pregnant and in graduate school at Columbia. It helps that Alison is super smart and driven. How smart? One of her first careers was working in investment banking for…
A few French winemakers are taking note of an incredibly surreal and otherworldly tasting room that has just opened at la Maison in the Burgundy village of Vougeot. The tasting room is a first for the region, a short hop from the Château du Clos Vougeot in the home village of the Boisset family. Here, they have created the…
With a name like Stolen Fruit, it sounds like the makes run into vineyards in the middle of the night and steal the fruit they use to create their delicious cocktail mixers. Actually, it is the complete opposite! The non-alcoholic mixers are made using three ingredients that most likely go to waste during the…