Here's a sampling of stories published in recent years, loosely grouped by topic. Looking for something in particular? Stories I've written for The Atlantic are indexed here. Stories I've written for the New York Times (mostly travel pieces) are listed here.
COCKTAILS & SPIRITS
The High Tech Higball
The Atlantic, September 2011. At the Aviary, Grant Achatz's new bar in Chicago, bartenders experiment with cocktails that evolve as you sip them.
Can the Manhattan Go Suburban?
The Atlantic, June 2011. Will chain restaurants ever be able to replicate the craft cocktail bar?
America's Top Ten Cocktail Bars
Travel + Leisure Online, May 2011. Where to drink in Boston, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Denver, Washington DC, Seattle, Portland OR, San Francisco and Houston.
Shake it Up
Forbes Life, May 2011. The annual Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans isn't just a sprawling party — it's the graduate school of cocktail culture, where “geekines” gets forged into “cool.
Keep Calm and Drink On
enROUTE (Air Canada) February 2011. London leads the race in cheerful innovation in drink — from the curious molecular mixology at Lounge Bohemia to a frozen Tom and Jerry thawed with flaming brandy at Purl.
The Return of the Restorative Cocktail
Bon Appetit, Jan 2011. The renewed dalliance between apothecary and bar opens the door for exploring lost tastes and social attitudes, even if cures don't follow. (Bonus: links to recipes for health-giving cocktails here and here.)
Holiday in a Glass
Men's Journal, Dec 2010. Eggnog is one of those holiday traditions — like fruitcake or regifting — that result in disaster if poorly executed. But not if you make a proper nog.
The Bitter Beginning
The Atlantic, Nov. 2008. Learning to love Fernet Branca, a bracing Italian liqueur
Cold Fusion
The Atlantic, June 2009. Ice may be the most neglected ingredient in the modern cocktail. That's just plain wrong.
Investment Bourbons
Men's Journal, October 2008. Thanks to booming demand, the best aged bourbons are growing scarce. Of course, scarcity means just one thing: investment opportunity.
The iceberg Wars
The Atlantic, March 2002. How do iceberg vodka makers get those huge icebergs into those tiny bottles? And more to the point, why?
The Old Man and the Daiquiri
The Atlantic, Oct. 2005. Why did the Enrest Hemingway, the manliest of bare-fisted fighting men, love a cocktail associated with sundresses and ice-cream headaches? A journey to Havana offers some clues.
Gunpowder on the Rocks
The Atlantic, Nov 2010. A New Zealand bartender learns what pirates and sailors knew long ago: explosives and liquor mix just fine.
Rescuing Rye
Men's Journal, March 2011. Dave Pickerell, bourbon legend, takes on another classic whiskey. Plus: brief reviews of three ryes.
TRAVEL
Greetings from Airworld!
The Atlantic, July/Aug 2006. A tour of America without ever leaving the airport - six days, five airports, 106 hours of layover-as-vacation.
Back to the Future
The Atlantic, December 2005. A ride on the new Las Vegas monorail raises a question. Why haven't these caught on in cities nationwide? Conclusion: "The monorail was twenty years ahead of its time, and it has been mired there ever since."
The Magic Mix that is Trinidad
New York Times (Sophisticated Traveler), Nov. 21, 2004. On an island defined by its global flavor, people arrive, put down roots and then send tendrils off in unexpected directions.
A User's Manual to Seat 21C
New York Times (Jetlagged Blog), Jan. 3, 2008. Congratulations on selectiing Seat 21C. This manual is intended to familiarize you with the many options available to you.
Bidding the Interstate Goodbye
New York Times, July 14, 2002. Four weeks, 7,052 miles, 23 states, one Volkswagen camper. Taking a road trip that bypasses "Supersize" America.
Rebirth of Main Street
Via Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011. How are Main Streets reinventing themselves in the age of the big box megastore? A road trip through four towns in California and Oregon in search of answers. (Note: enter zipcode 94102 when prompted.)
The New New Orleans
enRoute (Air Canada), April 2011. In a city that cleverly salvages, recycles and reinvents, everything old really is new again.
ESSAYS & COMMENTARY
The Chair That Invented Summer
Yankee, July/Aug 2009. From utilitarian to iconic in a century flat — the Adirondack chair and how it got that way.
Times Up
The Smart Set, Sept. 1, 2009. Marshall McLuhan, or somebody like McLuhan, once said that reading the morning paper is like slipping into a bath. But reading the New York Times on the Kindle? It's more like getting a news douche.
Poultry Slam 2008: A Twistery Mystery
This American Life (public radio), Dec. 28, 2008. An examination of an unexplained meteorological phenomenon involving chickens, tornadoes, and Kurt Vonnegut's brother...and a riddle that's nearly two centuries old. (Six-minute radio segment; fourth of five segments, airs at 40:30 of podcast.)
ARCHITECTURE
Sweat the Details
Architect Magazine, May 2011. Hot, humid climates require their own set of sustainable design strategies, argues New Orleans' Scott Bernhard.
The Nostalgia Trap
The Atlantic, May 2011. In Brooklyn and London, exploring the borderlands between history and public nostalgia.
Katrina's Architectural Revolution
The Atlantic, November 2009. In New Orleans, a new kind of house is rising from the ruins of Katrina. Cheap, green, and radically hip, it may change architecture for a generation.
A Desire Named Streetcar
Architect Magazine, March 2011. A letter from New Orleans: What the oldest operating transit system in the U.S. can teach us about planning for tomorrow.
A Cautionary Tale
Preservation Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008. Amid our green-building boom, why neglecting the old in favor of the new just might cost us dearly.
Little Skyscaper on the Prairie
The Atlantic, July/Aug 2008. A rare Frank Lloyd Wright tower—one of his most bizarre buildings ever—rises high above the Oklahoma plains.
The Cost of Progress?
Preservation Magazine, May/June 2011. Razing entire blocks for a massive hospital complex in New Orleans divided residents and decimated parts of a historic neighborhood. (Excerpt only online.)
BOOK REVIEWS
Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville
Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2011. The two certitudes of life: Death, and that Jimmy Buffett will never find that lost shaker of salt. A review of Mile Marker Zero: The Moveable Feast of Key West.
The Old Man Who Lived on a Shoe
Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2011. L.L. Bean is structured like the solar system. Everything revolves around the sun of the Maine Hunting Shoe. A review of L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company.
The Cities Of the Plane
Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2011. What's beyond Edge City? The Aerotropolis, an emergent city type built around frictionless commerce. A review of Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next.
Wild Cards and Jokers: Roll the Bones, by David G. Schwartz
Washington Post, December 5, 2006. Are we genetically hard-wired for gambling? That's one of the question tackled by Schwartz in his a sometimes entertaining, sometimes a-bit-too-comprehensive history of gambling.
The Art of Doing: On The Craftsman, by Richard Sennett
The American Scholar, Spring 2008. In Sennett’s formulation, shop class might teach us not just how to make a better bookshelf, but how to build a better human being.