Summer 2009 Gift Guide

All your warm-weather gifting needs met.

The Year in Food 2006

From bad spinach to exploding lattes: The tastiest moments of 2006.

Mole in the Mountains

A gastronomic adventure in Xalapa, Mexico.

The CHOW Guide to Eating and Drinking in Austin, SXSW edition

From Tex-Mex to high-end, CHOW brings you the best eating and drinking locations in Austin.

Buenos Aires: Faded Elegance, High Design

Buenos Aires’s up-and-coming San Telmo neighborhood.

posts I found out about this artisan chocolate maker in the Lumberyard plaza in Encinitas. They also have a shop in La Jolla. Named after the cacao-producing region of Chuao in central Venezuela (pronounced chew-wow), Chuao...

It’s a nice, clean shop. We went on Sat 2/16/08 and there 4 people there to help customers, no Christopher Elbow. I overheard he’ll be there Mon. They don’t give out samples. His chocolates are hella pretty. I got...

Valerie Chocolates is next door to L'Artisan & sells a more hard toffee-ish candy. Cristian (owner)had been selling his chocolates, that his lovely wife hand makes, at several farmer’s Mkts. around town. The old Picholine...

The term “artificially flavored” has long drawn scorn from food lovers. Products besmirched with the term are deemed cheap, vapid, and vaguely evil. Such foods declare themselves to have been produced via methods...

I’ve eaten at Artisanal many times for brunch, lunch, and dinner, both in the bar area and in the restaurant proper. The waitstaff can sometimes be distant, but never rude in my experience, even when we’ve had to send...

I’ve been to Artisanal several times, and the only thing that is worth going for is the cheese, platter or fondue. The rest of the stuff is good, but nothing exceptional.

The seafood platter is wonderful, as is the cheese fondue (don’t get the chocolate).

I made reservations for Artisanal this weekend and I was just wondering if anyone has been there and how it is. Any thoughts on what to order? I’ll be going with my father who loves french food. Maybe there is somewhere we...

I had absolutely no plans/desire to go to Artisanal til I read the rave review that Erica Marcus posted a couple of weeks ago. I brought my cheese-lovin friend, who also reacts very badly to inattentive/snotty service so I was a...

I went to brunch at Artisanal last Saturday and it was wonderful! They are usually packed at any time of the day, but Saturday at noon we were one of only about a dozen tables. The service was excellent! The food was great! And...