Tag: Beef | Page 4 | Winston Wanders

Mike Winston’s Best Bites of 2014

Post author:Winston
Post published:12.23.2014
Post category:Guides
Post comments:1 Comment

What a year!! I did something like this last year too, but oh boy was 2014 a doozy. I started off living in NYC, then a started a new job that whisked me off the San Francisco and Silicon Valley for a few months before ultimately relocating to San Francisco permanently. And along the way, I squeezed in a couple of vacations too.

Sooooo, I did a LOT of epic eating this year. And truth be told, I found it particularly difficult to narrow down my list as concisely as last year’s, but I somehow managed. So, without further ado, I present the winners (and runner-ups) broken down by category. I tried to cluster similar dish types together, but really they are in no particular order. Let’s begin!

And if you wanna hear about the 2014’s Best Cocktails, read more here.
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Serious Sausage Sandwiches & Epic Meats at 4505 Butcher in the Mission

Post author:Winston
Post published:12.15.2014
Post category:Reviews
Post comments:1 Comment

*Editor’s Note: I’m sad to report that this butcher shop is no longer open.

4505 Butcher Shop is a big deal in SF. Formerly an extremely popular farmers market stall, this brick-and-mortar shop functions primarily as a permanent place to purchase really high-quality meats for home use. But, beyond the gorgeous cuts of steak and other game meats sold, they also make a variety of awesome sausages and hot dogs in-house. In fact, I hear that’s really how they made their name and became so popular.

All of their hot dogs, sausages, and cuts of meat are made sustainably from animals raised locally in Northern California and come with a glowing reputation for being some of the very best butchery around. In fact, these days there are many bars and fine dining establishments that proudly serve 4505 bacon-studded hot dogs in a variety of fancy preparations.

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Crushing Late-Night Bacon-Wrapped Munchies at Crif Dogs in NYC

Post author:Winston
Post published:12.08.2014
Post category:Reviews
Post comments:2 Comments

Let’s face it, New Yorkers love to drink. And with bars that stay open ’til 4 AM, it’s bound to get out of hand from time to time. I know that I, for one, love to drunk eat after a big night out and in my opinion there’s no better place in the East Village to do it than at Crif Dogs.

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The Very Best Airport Food I’ve Ever Eaten

Post author:Winston
Post published:12.05.2014
Post category:Guides
Post comments:0 Comments

It’s getting to be that time when we look back on the year in review and 2014 was a very big year of travel for me. Between working remotely in Silicon Valley while still officially living in NYC, moving from NYC to SF, and other miscellaneous leisure travel, I spent a lot of time in airports.

I know that airports get a bad rap when it comes to dining options and you know what, most of the time the food really does suck. But, every now and then I’ve been able to come across some truly excellent dishes. Beyond that, I’ve even managed to find a number of dishes served in airports that blew me away – the overacheivers – the kinds of things I would get even if I wasn’t stuck eating in an airport. Without further ado, read on below to see the best of the best to eat before you fly in the sky. (more…)

Get a Real, Delicious, Cheap Taste of Italy at Fiat Café in Nolita

Post author:Winston
Post published:12.02.2014
Post category:Reviews
Post comments:2 Comments

I told you guys I’d be back. I knew you couldn’t keep me away from New York for too long. And Thanksgiving was just the right occasion to come back East for a few days of powering through my old stomping ground. To be honest, this rampage sort of turned into a food and drink greatest hits extravaganza. You’ll see what I mean when I get around to publishing everything I ate…

Anyway, while in SF, one of the things I’ve been missing most from my time in NY is access to great, simple, Italian comfort food. I just haven’t been able to find a reliable red sauce joint out here yet. So, I made sure that one of my first stops in NY was at one of my old NYC favorites, Fiat Café in Nolita, for a cheap, filling, and reliably delicious meal.

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Unique Pizza: Beautiful Thin-Crust Bar Pies at Colony Grill in Stamford, CT

Post author:Winston
Post published:11.05.2014
Post category:Reviews
Post comments:0 Comments

I had no idea how much of a dump Stamford, CT was until I visited. I had these visions of nature and colorful foliage, but that’s not what I found in that horrible mini-metropolis. In need of a really good post-wedding hangover meal in the area, we ventured from the Fairfield and Norwalk area over into the heart of Stamford and headed to a place called Colony Grill to see what Connecticut-style pizza was all about.

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La Texanita: Guy Fieri’s Go-To Hometown Mexican Spot

Post author:Winston
Post published:10.27.2014
Post category:Reviews
Post comments:2 Comments

I ventured into the land that birthed Guy Fieri.

Santa Rosa is the place the spiky Food Network demigod calls home. I wasn’t intending to eat at another place that had been featured on Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives so soon, but given the fact our day trip that ended up taking us to his hometown, it shouldn’t be too big of a surprise that we did. We were actually in Santa Rosa exploring the area’s wineries, but pre-noon wine tasting on an empty stomach pretty much always necessitates a good, filling meal. My growling stomach went straight to Foursquare to find a killer lunch spot nearby which led us to the Fieri-favorite La Texanita.

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If You Want Great Food, Go to the Airport

Post author:Winston
Post published:10.24.2014
Post category:Reviews Special Events
Post comments:0 Comments

As a recent transplant from NYC to San Francisco with plenty of reasons to be back in NYC often, JetBlue‘s brand new Mint service definitely had my attention right out the gate. It’s a premium service flight offered only between New York JFK and San Francisco SFO or JFK and Los Angeles LAX. Considering that most of my family is still in the New York area (and I frequently need to fly between SFO and JFK), it feels almost as if this service was designed specifically for me.

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A Perfect Day of Eating & Wine Tasting Across Paso Robles

Post author:Winston
Post published:10.22.2014
Post category:Guides Reviews
Post comments:5 Comments

To celebrate my lovely girlfriend Amy’s ~~redacted~~ birthday, we planned a glorious weekend getaway to the Paso Robles wine country. We had heard excellent things about the remote region’s beauty and density of high-quality wineries so it seemed like a great way to spend a couple of days and the perfect way to mark the occasion.

On the Friday of her birthday weekend, Amy drove down from San Francisco to pick me up from work in Sunnyvale before we headed off into the beautiful, winding, south-of-SF countryside only to stop quickly in Moss Landing for dinner before reaching Paso Robles at around 11 PM.

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Lockhart, Texas: Home of the Best Damn BBQ in the World

Post author:Winston
Post published:10.15.2014
Post category:Reviews
Post comments:7 Comments

October 11, 2012: my life would never be the same. That was the first time Amy brought me out of Austin to the outlying barbecue mecca Lockhart to experience truly authentic Texas barbecue. That day, we hit three BBQ pits in a row and on this day, two years later, I was back to relive the best of the best.

There are a number of places in Lockhart to get ‘cue, but for my money, Black’s Barbecue is the place to go for their truly iconic Moist Brisket. As we pulled up to the place, I could hardly hold back my excitement. I whispered as we walked towards the building “Amy, this is my Disneyland,” as a grin uncontrollably spilled across my face. For me, this is the Happiest Place on Earth. As far as I’m concerned, the stuff served at Black’s is nothing short of the best barbecue beef brisket in the entire world.

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