Wine and Spirits Travel

As much as I love to sip the champagne at the Moet & Chandon bar, I have to give credit to the Heineken people for their innovative spaces at the US Open this year. It’s actually been 22 years since Heineken began their sponsorship of the tournament. While at first it meant the supply of the Dutch brew chilled at all the stands, it expanded to the original Red Star, a bar located near the President’s Gate. Last year, this “bar” turned into a two story building, the top of which housed the new Red Star Café, a full service restaurant and bar. This year they have gone one step further, creating an entire village on top of the food court. I took a walk through Heineken House and I was impressed. Not only is it a great place to relax away from the crowds, you’ll find a selection of food and drinks, as well as games and televisions showing live action of the Open. All of this with incredible views of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.  Tyler Kord,

For more years than I’ll admit, I have spent weeks at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships covering tennis. It’s one of my favorite times of year. I catch up players and friends from the media. I also get to sample tons of delicious food and drinks, a task that has become more prevalent since I’ve focused on lifestyle writing. I got started this year at the U.S. Open Food Tasting Preview. It was enough to convince anyone to come to the tournament whether or not they wanted to see tennis and the tournament is ready. The restaurants are prepared to serve 27,000 people during the tournament. The tasting included appearances by chefs David Burke, Tony Mantunao and Masaharu Morimoto. They showed off their signature dishes and also told us about what’s new this year.  Here’s what was sampled (my friends Melanie and Meredith took care of the seafood sampling for me) from each restaurant: Wine Bar Burrata Cheese on French bread- light, tasty and a perfect wine accompanimen

My itineraries are usually made up for me. Occasionally, I piece everything together on my own. I’m usually pretty good at it, but sometimes I forget to bring out the map when it counts. That’s how I ended up spending a day and night back and forth between Sonoma and Napa . Despite the excess driving, I’m glad I didn’t eliminate any of the stops. I started the day with breakfast at Vintner’s Inn in Santa Rosa at a quiet table on the patio. The waiter brought me a warm scone which was delicious with the homemade jam and butter. I ordered the Heart Healthy Breakfast Wrap, a perfect mixture of egg whites, avocado, tomato, cheese and grilled veggies, served with a side of fruit. My mom had decided to stay in a bit so I brought her what she called, “the best oatmeal I’ve ever had” before I took off for Domaine Carneros in Napa. I had never been there before and I was a bit surprised by the huge, perfectly manicured estate in front of me. As beautiful as it looked fro

It’s often hard to go back to places I love when there are so many new ones to try. Sonoma is one place where I often make that exception and this trip was no different. I was heading back to Francis Ford Coppola’sWinery and the Girl and the Fig restaurant. I still had plenty of new things to check out also, starting with the Four Diamond Vintners Inn in Santa Rosa. A big gate with just the name COPPOLA greets you as you get off the freeway. It is just the beginning of the statement as the winery looks more like a large Italian villa or even a castle.  Despite the huge staircase, I managed to quickly and easily find an elevator to take my mom, traveling in a wheelchair, upstairs in I had gone to Francis Ford Coppola’s when the pool was first beingconstructed and in the fall or winter, so I had never actually seen it being used. It actually turned out just the way it was meant to be. Families were swimming and lounging in front of their cabines (small cabanas). An ou