Jeanne O'Brien Coffey

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...

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

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...

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...

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 ...

After more than a year of being cooped up, a change of scenery—even a stroll in a park a few towns away—can do wonders for your health, both mental and physical. “Day trips are a great idea, especially if you’re spending time outside. Sunshine and fresh air are so good for the mood,” says Kumar Dharmarajan, MD, MBA, cardiologist, geriatrician, and Chief Scientific Officer at Clover Health.

Professional musician Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz has lived in Astoria since the early 1990s, captivated by the friendly community and easy access to Manhattan.
“Queens has a home feel, like a cocoon,” Paruz says, noting that many houses in her neighborhood have yards full of tomatoes and flowers.

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.

It will surprise exactly no one to learn that at Thanksgiving, Joanne Chang always brings dessert. A lot of dessert.

“I typically order one of everything to bring wherever we are going,” says Chang, the James Beard Outstanding Baker. That adds up to about seven pies, as well as armloads of breakfast treats and other goodies to last for days. And she likes to try it all.

FEELING LOST IN THE PRODUCE AISLE? COOKBOOK AUTHOR ANYA KASSOFF OFFERS A MAP TO ADDING MORE FRESH VEGETABLES YEAR-ROUND.

Growing grapes in Vermont is hard work. Winter temperatures can plunge well below zero – and that’s in Fahrenheit! Frost can threaten at both ends, during bud-break and at harvest, and pressure from pests and humidity is ever-present. Meaning that winemakers are a dedicated bunch and you will find few growing fragile classic varietals like ...

To reach Aragosta at Goose Cove, an oceanfront restaurant on Maine’s craggy coast, guests follow State Route 15 over a dramatically narrow suspension bridge, then cross the Deer Isle Causeway. Turning onto Goose Cove Road from State Route 15A, the road narrows even further, with pine trees closing in on both sides, until it turns into a bumpy graveled way. Just when you suspect you might be lost, however, the vista opens up to reveal a cove with a rocky beach and views of pine-tree packed isl...

Over a single week in March 2020, nearly every plan at Topsfield Bakeshop was wiped from the calendar. The 15-year-old store, which operates the wildly popular Whoo(pie) Wagon—a fixture at area festivals, corporate events, and colleges—saw its schedule vanish, including the bakery’s thriving wedding cake business, in an unexpected instant. This, at a time when owners Mary and Chris Bandereck were in the home stretch of building an expanded facility with extensive kitchen space on Route 1 in T...

Back in March, when restaurants were abruptly shut down in the midst of the public health crisis, Jay Murray, executive chef at Ellis Square Social in Beverly, knew he needed to make a change. With a menu that consisted primarily of small plates of delicate, pretty food, offering it as takeout was just not in the cards. “Our old concept was very precise and labor-intensive, and we wouldn’t have been able to execute it properly,” Murray says. “It simply wouldn’t have translated to in-home dini...