STAY > The Clift Royal Sonesta, San Francisco (17/20)

The Clift Royal Sonesta San Francisco is a century-old grande dame that has reinvented itself as a polished, design‑forward base camp a block from Union Square – equal parts historic theater district icon and contemporary city crash pad. For ALMANAK’s readers, it hits that sweet spot between character and comfort: a lobby that still nods…

ByCrispinJune 14, 20260Comments

STAY > NYC STAY > USA WHERE TO STAY >

STAY > HOTEL PUBLIC, New York (17/20)

New York is a city of infinite choice but when one of the choices is a place that a lower east side base to work and party, then Ian Schrager has made the perfect hotel for you. Hotel PUBLIC is more than a hotel it is a party base on the Lower East Side AMBIENCE…

ByCrispinJune 7, 20260Comments

DRINK > WINE DRINK > WINE > Pinot Noir

WINE > Wilimee Pinot Noir, 2024 (17/20)

There are Pinot Noirs that announce themselves loudly, and then there are wines that arrive with the quiet authority of deep soil and older vines. The Wilimee Pinot Noir 2024 is unequivocally the latter — a wine that carries the ancient weight of rare Cambrian and granite geology, shaped by cool altitude and a pair…

ByCrispinApril 26, 20260Comments

DRINK > WINE DRINK > WINE > Pinot Noir

WINE > Corofin, Pinot Noir, Marlborough (17/20)

Marlborough is a region much better known for Sauvignon Blanc than for Pinot Noir but Corofin make a wine in Marlborough that surprises as it rises above the quaffable and into the respected tiers of premium wines; competing with wines with great accolades from Central Otago in New Zealand's South Island. APPEARANCE > Corofin’s 2023…

ByCrispinMarch 8, 20260Comments

STAY > ITALY STAY > Sicily WHERE TO STAY >

STAY > Grand Hotel Des Ètranges, Siracusa (17/20)

Grand Hotel Des Étrangers in Ortigia is Syracuse at its most cinematic: a freshly restored, 5‑star grande dame with Ionian light pouring in through neoclassical balconies and just enough contemporary polish to feel quietly current rather than stuffy. AMBIENCE > The hotel’s neoclassical façade dominates the Ortigia waterfront, looking straight over the Levant Sea with…

ByCrispinMarch 3, 20260Comments

EAT > AUSTRALIA EAT > MORNINGTON PENINSULA EAT > VICTORIA WHERE TO EAT >

EAT > Cape, Cape Schank (17/20)

Cape Restaurant at RACV Cape Schanck remains one of the Mornington Peninsula’s most compelling reasons to drive that extra stretch of highway after dark: dinner here still feels like an occasion, but an unusually relaxed and generous one. AMBIENCE > Cape’s room is still that familiar dusk-toned amphitheatre of glass, timber and bottle-light, only now…

ByCrispinMarch 1, 20260Comments

DRINK > WINE DRINK > WINE > Pinot Noir

WINE > Clarence House Estate Pinot Noir, 2024 (17/20)

Clarence House Estate Reserve Pinot Noir 2024 is a poised, cool-climate Tasmanian Pinot that trades in perfume, fine-boned structure and quiet confidence rather than sheer volume, rewarding both contemplation now and patient cellaring later. APPEARANCE > Pale to medium garnet in the glass, with a translucent core that hints at delicacy rather than density. A…

ByCrispinFebruary 22, 20260Comments

EAT > SPAIN SAN SEBASTIAN WHERE TO EAT >

EAT > Geralds Bar, San Sebastian Spain (17/20)

Walk a few blocks back from La Zurriola beach and you’ll find Geralds Bar, a warmly lit corner of Gros that feels part Basque neighbourhood dining room, part Melbourne wine bar reunion. It’s the kind of room where vinyl spins on the turntable, glasses of txakoli and nebbiolo clink across the bar and plates of…

ByEd ItorFebruary 22, 20260Comments

CAFE > CAFE > TOKYO

CAFE > Comfort Stand, Chiyoda Tokyo (17/20)

Comfort Stand in Chiyoda is a quietly precise little coffee room, the kind of calm, design-forward hideout where commuters, office workers and drip‑coffee obsessives share the same slow, measured pause between trains and meetings. Across espresso, filter and a short, thoughtful line of baked things, it feels less like a grab‑and‑go kiosk and more like…

ByCrispinJanuary 24, 20260Comments

EAT > APPI KOGEN EAT > JAPAN WHERE TO EAT >

EAT > Sushi Nagata, Appi Kogen (17/20)

Sushi Nagata at Appi Kogen is the quiet, omakase-style heart of this snow resort: a compact counter where Sanriku’s deep-sea richness, meticulous craft, and a faintly hushed hotel calm come together on the second floor of the ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen. Seasonal seafood, handled with a measured, almost ceremonial precision, makes this one…

ByCrispinJanuary 20, 20260Comments