Recently in Los Angeles Category

If dining by candlelight is more romantic than eating in a fully lit room, imagine how romantic dining in the dark must be! Uh, right. Actually, there are several restaurants scattered around the world that give diners a taste of what it's like to eat blind. Rather than a romantic thing, it's meant to show how much your other senses come into play when your eyes are out of the picture.

The trend started in Zurich, Switzerland, at Blindekuh, where much of the staff is blind and you enter the pitch-black dining room in a conga line behind your server, so as not to bump into anything. Dinner is accompanied by an unseen a cappella group. make your way there from the Sheraton Zurich Neues Schloss.

Blindkuh inspired Montreal's O.NOIR, a couple blocks from Le Meridien Versailles, remains a popular date night destination and boasts the biggest menu of those I've come across.

After watching the sunset in Santa Monica, head over to the stylish Opaque, a few minutes from the Sheraton Delfina Santa Monica. Not everyone loves the experience - or the prices -- but many love the sensory deprivation experience. And this may be the only restaurant in LA where you won't see a single cell phone.

This is it: we're on the verge of the dog days of summer. The only cure is ice cream. Not just any ice cream, though. Plain vanilla has its place, but I think small-batch flavors made with seasonal ingredients hit the spot with more knock-out force, don't you? Here are a couple favorites for gourmet ice cream around the country.

LA's Scoops has a devoted fanbase and a staggering range of flavors, of which 18 are available each day. You might encounter blackberry-yuzu, raspberry-balsamic or coffee-Jim Beam. And of course, this being Tinseltown, someone's trying to make a movie about the place. It's a short drive from the W Hollywood.

Five minutes from Le Meridien Cambridge-MIT is Christina's Homemade Ice Cream, with a laundry list of flavors of its own. Fresh mint, cantaloupe and honeydew would make a lovely three-scoop sundae. Or maybe ginger and lemon mousse to help cool you down.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus just made up a batch of stone fruit and sour beer sorbet, with fresh peaches and Lambic. Or maybe backyard mint, with its whole organic mint leaves from a nearby farm, hits the spot better. Either way, the North Market location is within easy reach of the Westin Columbus, and the macaroon ice cream sandwiches are the perfect walking treat.

The hamburger is the quintessential American food, I think — even more so than apple pie. Although there are plenty of regional styles out there, the burger has become a blank slate upon which culinary artists may express their creativity. Or, they can just get crazy with it, like these three spots.

In Chicago, the top burger place in town comes with a side of metal. Heavy metal rules at Kuma's Corner, where it plays on the stereo and every burger on the menu is named after a metal band. The half-pound burgers range from the conventional (the Mastodon, topped with bacon, cheddar, barbecue sauce and frizzled onions) to the haute (the Lair of the Minotaur, with pancetta, caramelized onions, brie and bourbon-soaked poached pears) to the downright nuts (the Slayer, a platter of chili cheese fries with a burger and andouille sausage under the chili). Make the trek from the W Chicago - Lakeshore and be prepared to wait for a table.

The Lunchbox Laboratory in Seattle embraces the insanity. Its daily experiments, aka, specials, are the draw here — ridiculous mounds of toppings smother the premium ground beef or "dork" (ground duck and pork) patties, all but daring you to try to use the bun to lift it to your mouth. Grab a cab from the W Seattle, and stop at an ATM on the way — these burgers are pricey, but definitely worth it.

It's hard to tell you where to go from the W Los Angeles - Westwood to find Yatta-! Truck, a food truck featuring the All-American, a cheeseburger-like sushi roll filled with beefsteak, pickle and melted cheese, tempura fried. Follow the truck on Twitter to find out where to get this weird wonder.

There's something about a margarita that just screams summer relaxation to me. Whether it's blended or on the rocks, the mix of tequila, triple sec, lime juice and, quite often, some other fruit flavor just helps your shoulders relax and helps you forget whatever you left back at work. Here are a couple spots to get great margaritas around the country.

In Santa Monica, not far from the Sheraton Delfina, Border Grill is the place to be, particularly at happy hour, when the freshly made margaritas are just $5. Stick around for dinner and you'll be rewarded with creative takes on traditional Mexican and Latin American dishes.

Chicago has a large Latino population, so your margarita options are legion. But two favorites near the Westin River North are Frontera Grill and Zocalo. Frontera Grill is celebrity chef Rick Bayless' joint, so getting a table might be tough, but there's often room at the bar, and the margaritas are outstanding. Zocalo boasts 120 tequilas behind the bar, and fresh blood orange, prickly pear, guava and other nectars to further flavor your drink. For variety, try the margarita flight.

In Boston, Masa offers the Tres Chile Margarita, made with tequila muddled with three hot peppers for a little refreshing heat. Closer to the Sheraton Commander in Cambridge, Border Cafe gets high marks for its margaritas as well as for its affordable Tex-Mex and cajun food.