By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK – I stumbled across Raccoon Lodge while making the trek from the Financial District to the Tribeca Whole Foods.  Based solely on the name I was dying to try this place and – when I finally visited – I was rewarded with pure dive bar joy. I can’t say this is a strictly locals place [...]

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK – I’m somewhat bi-polar about my drinking and dining preferences.  On the one hand, I love dressing up (sort of) to go out to a classy cocktail lounge for an evening of dirty martini indulgence.  On the other hand, I equally love finding a fun scuzzy place for slumming away the evening.  The thing that [...]

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK – I’m just going to put it out there – while I love Rolf’s any time of year, I really, really adore this German bar/restaurant during the Christmas season.  I’d never heard of Rolf’s until a friend described it as being a place where “Santa threw up.”  Beginning right around the 2nd week of November [...]

    By MONICA BYERS LONDON – I admit I am biased, having resided in two different flats near Hoxton Square during my London years.  Having duly disclosed this, I still say that this setting is, to me, one of the reasons why London is so fab.  Situated in the East End, Hoxton Square is one of the city’s oldest [...]

    SAN FRANCISCO  – So, I’m what you’d call comic book challenged.  I’m the guy who asks (while watching the recent Avengers movie) whether Captain America can die and whether Black Window and Hawkeye actually have super human powers and, if they don’t, then how can they be super heroes, let alone members of the Avengers (okay, perhaps in [...]

    SAN FRANCISCO – I miss so many things about Hong Kong:  the perfectly temp-controlled, the over-the-top shopping malls, that incredible skyline (one of the best, up there with Chicago), the blunt and often endearing pessimism of the locals (who claim “HK died in 1997”).  I even miss the city’s fascinating (and often frustrating) yin and yang aspects – [...]

  LOPBURI, THAILAND – We were headed to a small town called Lopburi.  I had never been to Lopburi, nor had I heard of it prior to this trip.  In fact, I had never even been to central Thailand (where Lopburi was located).  My Thai travels had always centered on Bangkok and the various islands, with periodic jaunts to the [...]

  NEW YORK – Located smack dab in the middle of NYC’s Upper East Side is one of my favorite NYC art venues, the always interesting but often-overlooked Asia Society Museum (ASM).  I say overlooked because it’s not officially grouped in with the nearby venues along Museum Mile (that includes the Met and the Guggenheim) nor is it officially part [...]

  TOKYO - Okay, some might say that Japan tries too hard when it comes to art but, for me, some of the most original and engaging shows I’ve seen have been in Tokyo…and I don’t mean those mega put-ons at the National Museum in Ueno or those over-hyped, what-were-they-thinking exhibitions at the Mori. Rather, it’s the small-to-medium sized venues that [...]

    TOKYO – Summer, spring, winter or fall?  Due for a Tokyo fix but not sure when to go?  As with everything in Japan, it’s all about choices and options, quite often way too many.  Just have a look at the beverage section at any Japanese convenience store or the pen/pencil selection at any stationery shop (Ito-ya in Ginza [...]