Tia Alice

Restaurant/Bar/Club: The Corinthian Club , Glasgow :

Kaa

Rolling Stone LA To Have Debut Event This Month

The new Rolling Stone Restaurant and Lounge in Los Angeles will make its debut on November 21 by hosting the VIP afterparty for the American Music Awards (AMAs). The event is a preview for the official launch event planned for early 2011. Rolling Stone/Los Angeles (RS/LA) marks the first-ever licensing of the Rolling Stone name for an American restaurant. The space was designed by Gavin Brodin (Crown Bar / Los Angeles, The Abbey / West Hollywood) and the 10,500-sq. ft. space has a "vintage chic" design. The restaurant is at the Hollywood & Highland complex and has a gleaming, two-story, half-cylinder of paned glass that rises from Highland Avenue, allowing natural light to flood through during daytime hours. Patrons enter from the mezzanine rotunda off Highland, into a lobby highlighted by pendant lights and cobblestone-like floors in chevroned limestone, and an antique floor cart salvaged from a defunct citrus factory that serves as a reception desk.

The upstairs dining room welcomes up to 140 guests, an additional 40 on its patio. It has walnut-hued hardwood floors, 1950s-style leather chairs and tufted red-leather banquettes. One area with five British-style lampposts is illuminated by a leaded-glass ceiling and another section lit by octagonal ceiling fixtures cradling amber LEDs. The main bar has shelves of leaded glass and reclaimed plumbing pipes and the wall design combines elegant sconces with candid rock photos.

Bottega Louie Los Angeles

Bottega Louis is an Italian restaurant and patisserie in downtown Los Angeles. It’s stylish interior combining sleek modern design with traditional elegance and an excellent menu make this a beloved eatery. Visit BottegaLouie.com for more. 700 S. Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA (213) 802-1470.

Grissini Restaurant Unveils 600 gram White Truffler

White truffles are among the most elusive and expensive of the all the truffle varieties and as this year's white truffle season begins (it runs October to December) the Grissini Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong is sitting pretty. This past Friday they unveiled a much larger than average 600 gram specimen.

About as big as two baseballs, the beige beauty might not be a record-setter but it is many times larger than the 20 - 30g truffles the restaurant usually gets. Grissoni isn't disclosing how much it paid for the truffle but it will say it plans to charge customers just over $19 a gram for the delicacy, or about $11,600 total.

Bigger isn't better in terms of taste but larger truffles do have a longer shelf life and, because they're so rare, are always good for garnering a little extra publicity.

The Five Best Restaurants in the U.S.

Charlie Trotter's (Chicago)
While most top chefs boast degrees from the traditional powerhouses of the culinary world, Charlie Trotter is an exception. The chef of the Chicago restaurant that bears his name never had a former education in the world of food---but that hasn't stopped him from turning his eatery into a Luxist nominee in the best domestic fine dining category.

Charlie Trotter became a foodie in college after learning a few cooking tips from his roommate. Fascinated by the culinary arts, he took a year off from earning his degree in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin's Madison campus to read every book he could, including a ton of tomes on cooking. After graduation, he went into the catering business, eventually deciding that he wanted to run his own restaurant.

L20: Chicago's Answer for Seafood from Around the World

Located in an historic building in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, L20 is a modern seafood restaurant. Launched in 2008 by star chef Laurent Gras and Richard Melman of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, the restaurant is a worthy nominee for a Luxist Award for Best Seafood restaurant.

Gras, who hails from France, previously worked with such celebrity chefs as Alain Ducasse and Guy Savoy before coming to the U.S. in 1997 to take the helm of Peacock Alley at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. At L20, Gras draws from a repertoire of modern and traditional cooking with artful compositions. His ingredients come from all over the world, such as Spanish octopus from the Galicia region of Spain, hirame from the Kinki prefecture of Japan and codfish from Maine. Tai snapper is shipped twice a week all the way from New Zealand. L20 is one of the only restaurants in the U.S. that features Kindai blue fin tuna, which is sustainable and produced by Kinki University Fisheries Culture and Nursery Center in Japan.

Blue Hill New York: Seasonal American in the West Village

Sometimes the most romantic part of a meal is knowing that the food on the table is sourced from local farmers, made from the freshest ingredients available. New York's Blue Hill offers this and a delightful ambience, making it an obvious selection for a Luxist nomination in the most romantic restaurant category.

Established in 2000, Blue Hill is located in Greenwich Village, just below street level alongside Washington Square Park. The restaurant gets all its ingredients from nearby farms like Blue Hill Farm in Great Barrington, Mass., and Stone Barns Center just north of Manhattan. Expect to pay about $70 for a full à la carte meal, or $78 for a five-course tasting menu culled from the week's harvest and curated by executive chef Dan Barber.

George V