Uncategorized

<p>The Loving Hut is a chain of over 200 Vegan restaurants worldwide. Vegans differ from Vegetarians in that they abstain from all animal products. Vegetarian diets may include eggs, dairy and Apiary products. As resolute as a vegan may be about their diet, some feel entirely Differently About It. No matter what your opinion, my dining [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Maverick Meat Processing is a Meat Processing Plant in Lehigh Acres, FL. What is this, you may ask? This is a place where Primal Cuts of beef are processed and sold. When a cow is processed in a slaughterhouse, it&#8217;s carcass is cut into 8 sections and sent to a processing plant. These facilities are federally [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Em-On&#8217;s Thai Cafe is in the Green Tree Center in Naples, Fl. It is located on the Southwest corner of Airport-Pulling and Immokalee roads. Em-On&#8217;s has had the same owner and has been in the center for 20 years. In my book, this is a very good sign. The dining area is very accommodating, with [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Sweet Ginger&#8217;s Gelato is a gelato manufacturing facility a few minutes east of the airport in Fort Myers, FL. The owner started in Chicago with a food truck selling commercially produced gelato. A friend asked her if she had ever tried Italian gelato. On a subsequent trip to Italy she did and caught the &#8220;gelato [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I was recently invited to a food industry event at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club that was sponsored by an international food distributor. There were many food-related businesses there that the distributor bought from. One of them was Mote (pronounced like moat) in Sarasota, FL. They are a private non-profit marine research lab. They [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The Willamette Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Oregon. These were discussed in another Post. Briefly, AVAs are wine production areas designated by the U.S. Government. If a vintner claims to be from a particular AVA, 85% of the grapes used in their wine must be from there. This area is nestled between the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Tony&#8217;s Off Third is the retail wine space adjacent to Ridgway Bar and Grill in Old Naples. Besides a retail wine shop, they also have excellent breakfast selections, pastries, coffees and teas. Their veranda is very accommodating, and gets very crowded during the winter months and the 3rd St. Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. The [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Blue Martini is a chain of at present 12 restaurants that range from Bellvue, WA to Naples, FL. Happy hour is from 5-8 P.M.  You can choose to eat inside or out at the bar as my dining companion (DC) and I decided to do. They allow smoking outside just as an FYI (DC has [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Sushi Thai is a restaurant that has 4 locations in Southwest Florida. My dining companion (DC) and I had lunch at the original location in North Naples. This location has been here for almost 10 years. They have a nice dining area (I like booths) or you can choose to eat at the sushi bar [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Citrus is a seafood restaurant on 5th Ave. S. in Old Naples. They have been open for about 3 years. They have a very nice outside dining area great for people watching on 5th avenue. You can also choose to eat indoors, also a great space. Their menu is interesting and they have a good [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Ruth Chris Steak House is a chain of at present 135 steak houses. Most, if not all of these are franchises. With their first location being in New Orleans almost 50 years ago, they are currently the largest luxury steak company. Recently I was at their Bonita Springs location for their happy hour billed as $7.00 [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The Local is a restaurant in &#8220;The Bed Bath and Beyond&#8221; plaza in North Naples. They have been open since April of this year. They are modeled after the farm to table movement. This is acquiring ingredients from smaller, local food vendors. Generally, these ingredients will be fresher and of higher quality than those obtained from big [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Fall was in the air again and it was time for another wine tasting at Bleu Provence. Bleu Cellar is the wine retailing side of this business and was discussed in another post. There were 4 vintners this day and here is what was served. The reason for this tasting was to celebrate the re-release [&hellip;]</p>

<p> Gourd almighty! Fall was in the air and as part of The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel Restaurant Week 2013 there was an event scheduled at Rabbit Run Farm. This was a tour of the farm followed by a culinary class with Chef Kristina (CK). Usually she teaches at The Good Life, a culinary store [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Walker Farms is an apiary or a place where bee hives are kept. Bees are of the genus Apis which is where the word seems to come from. Alan Walker (AW) was gracious enough to give me a private tour of his apiary, even though his wife was in the hospital having broken her back [&hellip;]</p>

<p>One of the events of Fort Myers Restaurant Week (Fort Myers Restaurant Week) was a farmer&#8217;s market (FM) at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). The number of participants at the FM was fairly small in all likelihood because of this being it&#8217;s first year. Small is not a bad thing as there were some really [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The von Liebig Art Center is the educational and teaching facility of the Naples Art Association (Naples Art Association). They have started an interesting series of events named &#8220;A-Muse:Dinner with Artists&#8221; (AMDA).  These events pair an artist with a chef. This is part of a greater series called Art Connects (Art Connects) which connects the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The start of restaurant week in Lee County (Taste Delicious Lee) was on 10/10/2013 at The Twisted Vine Bistro in Fort Myers. They have a very nice space. Although the restaurant has been around for five years, the present owners have had owned it for about two. The opener was held outside in their garden [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Capriccio Ristorante Italiano is an Italian restaurant in the Pine Ridge Crossing shopping plaza in Naples, FL. Capricio&#8217;s features central Italian cooking (Central Italian Cooking). Although these are generalities, the summers in central Italy are longer and hotter than further north, favoring tomato-based dishes. This differs from northern Italy (Northern Italian Cooking) which has  very [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It was that time of the month again and the first Friday of each month the Naples Sunset Chapter of the American Wine Society meets. As usual there was social hour before the night&#8217;s tasting. There were plenty of nibbles to be had as well with everything from lesco (Lesco) to peach pie. The evening&#8217;s [&hellip;]</p>