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