Jeanne O'Brien Coffey

Stepping into The Lincoln, a new hotel in an old mill building in Biddeford, Maine, feels like entering a portal to an imaginary alternative life. One where I am an urban dweller with impeccable taste and all the time in the world to sip cocktails in a chic lounge while leafing through books on design.

There’s a lot of dreck in the zero-proof space. While overall the offerings are improving every day, there are still many that taste more like a punishment than a treat. So it’s not surprising that when Sean Goldsmith decided to stop drinking four years ago, after a long weekend in Miami, he found his options sadly limited at first.
That void led Goldsmith and his friend Trevor Wolfe to launch The Zero Proof, a one-stop shop filled with only items they can vouch for.
“We taste everything and ...

Business
Spindrift founder Bill Creelman wants to upend the seltzer industry and do for carbonated water what Sam Adams did for beer. And he’s starting by asking what the competition is really made of. —By Jeanne O’Brien Coffey
On a brisk day just after the new year, Bill Creelman, founder and CEO of Spindrift, sets a shiny, unlabeled aluminum can on his desk at the seltzer company’s new headquarters in Newton. The unassuming gesture is ripe with anticipation: Inside is Spindrift’s newest fla...

This Central American oasis beckons with rainforest cacao farms and the largest barrier reef in the Northern Hemisphere.

Nature will find a way. From dandelions pushing through a crack in the pavement to an eastern red cedar clinging to a rocky ledge, plants are driven to survive despite the odds.
Crevice gardens—landscapes that depend less on water and more on rocks—rely on those survivors to beautify rugged spaces and thrive with little human intervention. As water conservation and the changing climate become critical concerns for horticulturists and home gardeners alike, these sustai...

Our Long Island Wine Travel Guide shares a brief history of the region, terroir, where to sip, where to stay and things to do beyond the vines.
The North Fork is where most of the wineries are found. The area remains bucolic, with small B&Bs and motels, mom-and-pop farm stands and very few chains.
Taking the train from New York City or the ferry from Connecticut enables you to skip the dreadful traffic on Long Island. Ride-share services are few and far between, as is public transportation on...

If you hear banging coming from the kitchen at Chicken & Pig, the new fast-casual restaurant at MarketStreet Lynnfield, don’t worry. It’s not a temperamental chef, nor construction behind the scenes. It’s just the cooks pounding fresh chicken breasts to the perfect thickness.
“You’ll hear the hammer going constantly,” says Guy Ciolfi, chef and founder of Chicken & Pig, so-named for the menu of specialty chicken sandwiches and gourmet hot dogs. The pounding is integral to the quality, as is th...

I blame The Sound of Music for my fascination with snowshoeing. I was making a valiant attempt at a different winter sport—cross-country skiing—at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont, when Sam von Trapp, who runs the lodge with his family, suggested I might be better suited to a different winter sport.
“Snowshoeing is much easier than skiing,” von Trapp assured me, as he attached a pair of metal rackets to my boots. He fastened a similar pair to his own, and off we w...

Travel
BY JEANNE O’BRIEN COFFEY
Wistful is the word that comes to mine right now when we think of travel. Sitting down to share food with strangers who quickly become friends, plunging into crowded bazaars to hunt for local artisan treasures, indulging in immersive spa treatments—all the things that, just a few short months ago, we took for granted are now tinged with concern.
Finding your way through these uncertain times is tricky. Most people are staying close to home these days, but that ...

From East Coast to West Coast, these neighborhoods offer some of the most vibrant, palate-pleasing cuisine in the country.

Early spring is a great time to take your family to Manhattan. Especially right now, with pandemic restrictions loosened, but tourism not bounced back yet, you can get great deals on hotels, and may be able to breeze into popular attractions (I’m looking at you, Harry Potter store) without a lot of difficulty.

I brought my family—my husband and two teens —to NYC during February break 2022. It was almost two years to the day since our last trip to the city, in February 2020, when when we promi...

Chef Jeremy Sewall wants you to cook more fish. For years, he’s made seafood more approachable at his casual, comfortable Row 34 mini-chain of restaurants, channeling an old-school New England vibe with letterboard signs and dishes that are an homage to summers growing up in Maine.

Chef Frank McClelland keeps moving the stone wall surrounding his home garden in Essex to make room for more plants. The most recent addition: vines growing a pinot-noir style grape.

The whole plot, now eight rows wide by 100 feet long, is also bursting with borage, husk cherries, onions, zucchini, potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes. The fragrance of Sweet Annie, a tall silvery-green annual herb, wafts over the entire patch—McClelland likes to use it in floral arrangements around his house or in...