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When I landed in San Francisco, my first order of business was a little unconventional: finding a place to watch the U.S. men's national soccer team take on Australia in the World Cup. Kel and I headed straight from the airport to Bartlett Hall, an award-winning brewery just a block from The Clift Royal Sonesta San Francisco. The Clift Royal Sonesta San Francisco occupies a historic building just two blocks west of Union Square in downtown San Francisco.

Before I visited Charleston for the first time, I thought I knew Southern food pretty well. Living in Texas, I see biscuits, shrimp and grits, pimento cheese, and deviled eggs on menus all the time. I expected Charleston restaurants to have fantastic seafood and plenty of comfort food, but I was surprised by how different it all felt. Fresh oysters at The Ordinary restaurant Over four days in Charleston, I made it my mission to try as many traditional Lowcountry dishes as I could.

Disclosure: Dinner at Circa 1886 Restaurant was hosted as part of a media visit organized by Explore Charleston. As always, all opinions are my own. Charleston is packed with great restaurants, but Circa 1886 caught my attention for its mix of fine dining and history. The restaurant is tucked behind Wentworth Mansion in a former carriage house, and over time, it has become one of the city's most respected dining rooms, earning both AAA Four Diamond and Forbes Four-Star recognition.

I'd been dreaming about my first trip to Charleston for years. After my first visit to New Orleans ten years ago, I started to think of Charleston in a similar light: a city with a long history, beautiful architecture, memorable food, and that famous Southern hospitality. Wentworth Mansion occupies a restored Gilded Age mansion in Charleston's Harleston Village neighborhood.

Charleston was high on my food travel list for years before I finally visited. The city's historic neighborhoods, oyster bars, and Lowcountry cooking traditions have helped it earn a reputation as one of America's best places to eat. What surprised me was how different each meal felt. One night, Kel and I shared smoked oysters in a grand seafood hall that used to be a bank.

New York City has always been part of my story. For as long as I can remember, I've kept a running list in my head of NYC restaurants I hoped to try one day. My parents met in a bar on the Upper East Side and were married within a year. They later moved to a suburb just outside the city before I was born, and I spent the first decade of my childhood about 15 miles from Midtown Manhattan. The Palm Court at The Plaza Hotel remains one of New York City's most iconic dining rooms.

The East Village is packed with coffee shops, but what I appreciate most is how different they are from one another. In just a few blocks, you might find yourself sipping a pandan latte with roots in Vietnamese coffee culture, squeezing into a tiny Italian-style espresso bar, or taking your time with a deconstructed latte flight that allows you to taste each element on its own. Cardamom latte and pastries at La Cabra in NYC's East Village.

Few dining experiences capture New York City's spirit quite like an old-school steakhouse. These historic restaurants-some dating back to the 1800s-have weathered changing neighborhoods and shifting trends, yet still draw locals as well as visitors for timeless steak dinners beneath pipe-lined ceilings and in white-tablecloth dining rooms. The historic dining room at Keens Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan.

Kauai has its own easygoing rhythm, and that pace carries over naturally into the island's coffee shops and bakeries. Many are closely tied to local farms and growers, giving them a strong sense of place. During my last two trips to Kauai (October 2025 and February 2026), I made a point to carve out time for as many coffee shops, bakeries, and farm visits as possible between meals.

On my last two visits to Kauai, I made it a point to eat my way across as much of the island as possible. That meant everything from sunset dinners in Poipu and historic favorites in Hanalei to quick lunches by the beach, classic snack stops, memorable breakfasts, and a few special-occasion splurges.