In This Issue:

• At the Top: December Happenings
• THE WORLD’S BEST Holiday Shopping
• Ins and Outs (NIGHT+DAY’s Latest Recommendations): Top 5 New Restaurants
• Alan’s View
• ASD Picks: 3 Best Places to Spend New Year’s Eve
• On the Road: Sicily
• Last Word: What’s So Great About New Year’s Eve

At the Top: December Happenings

December has arrived, and in all its glittering glory: Twinkling lights and tinsel festoon trees and buildings, and shiny treasures sing their siren’s call from shop windows. Of course, between ambitious attempts at Martha Stewart–inspired baking and decorating (3-D doily ornaments sounded easy enough), too-tipsy holiday parties, and QT with visiting relatives, the holiday calendar is frenzied. To top it off, there’s the looming, formidable task of finding the gift that’s been specifically requested… it’s enough to turn anyone into Grinch.

But before you drown your sorrows in hot buttered rum or Champagne cocktails, have a peek at our Best Holiday Shopping guides, with city-specific recommendations to melt away gift-giving stress faster than a snowman in sunny San Francisco. Avant-garde retail outposts deal in hipster-pleasers (high-end indie fashions, artsy posters, collectible graphic novels), while boutiques rife with runway styles, cutting-edge artwork, and contemporary jewelry are ideal for trendsetters. For the holiday traditionalist on your list, we’ll guide you to gracious classics, such as hand-blown glass ornaments, silk scarves, rare books, gourmet chocolates, and fine china. Read on below for a sampling of our picks; and find the full guides at NightandDayGuides.com.

After returning victorious from the shops (or while you’re procrastinating), check out one of our latest restaurant recommendations. In Mexico City, Diana Restaurant supplies foodies with Mediterranean-inspired fine dining, while in New Orleans, Green Goddess is turning out exotic meals—think smoky pulled pork seasoned with black lava salt, wrapped in banana leaves.

If you’re still looking to escape the ubiquitous soundtrack of caroling in all the shops, turn to our local writers’ Love Letters for tips on this month’s hotspots and happenings—from “party hotels” in New York; to Art Basel Miami Beach, Design Miami, and other arty events in Miami, to the indoor farmers markets of Chicago. To read more, go to the city pages on NightandDayGuides.com. And of course, on the off chance your calendar still has space for an extra-special event, our December calendar spotlights even more of the world’s best events.

From all of us here at Night+Day, happy holidays!

THE WORLD’S BEST Holiday Shopping

‘Tis the season to talk shopping! To help solve your gift-giving dilemmas, we’ve rounded up the best holiday shopping spots in ten of the coolest North American cities. Whether you have a dozen trendy gal pals, artsy hipster cousins, or tradition-loving in-laws, these city-specific shopping guides will not disappoint. Here’s a sampling of our picks, but click on the links
below for the full shopping guides.

INS and OUTS
(NIGHT+DAY’S Latest Recommendations)

Top 5 New Restaurants

CHICAGO • ELATE • American
elatechicago.com
Industrial meets flea-market chic at Hotel Felix’s grub hub, where concrete pillars rise up from rustic-looking tables made from reclaimed wood. The sophisticated, 30-something clientele appears equally content to sip organic cocktails at the zigzag-shaped bar as it is to settle in for the signature, three-course prix-fixe dinner (it promises fresh, seasonal ingredients plucked from the local Green City Market). full review
Daily 7am–2:30pm and 5–11pm.
$$ Hotel Felix, 111 W. Huron St. (Clark St.), 312-202-9900

MEXICO CITY • DIANA RESTAURANT • Mediterranean
stregis.com/mexicocity
As can be expected with the opening of the very exclusive St. Regis on Paseo de la Reforma, fine gastronomy follows suit. The hotel’s Diana restaurant is all things luxurious. Here you can expect the finest tableware and elegant leather seating, all completed with a lovely terrace overlooking one of the city’s most iconic monuments—the Diana. Then comes the menu. Executive chef Jean-François Pelaez serves up sophisticated Mediterranean-inspired creations, each with a local flair and, of course, the freshest ingredients. full review
Daily 6:30–11:30am, 1–5pm, and 7–11pm.
$$$$ 1 St. Regis Mexico City, Paseo de la Reforma 439 (Monte Altai), 55.5228.1702

NEW ORLEANS • GREEN GODDESS • International
greengoddessnola.com
Many restaurants claim to take a global approach, but their food never strays beyond well-worn paths. The Green Goddess, however, explores the world’s cuisine with the attitude of a backpacker out to find the most exotic locales. Led by Chris DeBarr, who made a name for himself at the Delachaise, the kitchen turns out unexpected pairings like crepes filled with Mexican corn fungus, shrimp wearing a “grass skirt” of phyllo dough, or suckling pig seasoned with black lava salt and wrapped in banana leaves. full review
Mon–Wed 11am–4pm, Thu–Sun 11am–4pm and 5pm–midnight.
$ 307 Exchange Pl., (Bienville St.), 504-301-3347

SAN FRANCISCO • STARBELLY • Californian
starbellysf.com
The owners of the instant success story Beretta are behind this new Castro hang, at the center of which is a communal table fashioned from an old bowling lane. The food is Calfornia comfort, and the drinks are loud with flavor (for instance, the Diablito, a twist on the Michelada, with beer, habanero, and lime). full review
Mon–Thu 11:30am–11pm, Fri 11:30am–midnight, Sat 10:30am–midnight,
Sun 10:30am–11pm. $$ 3583 16th St. (Pond St.), 415-252-7500

SYDNEY • BAROQUE BISTRO PATISSERIE • French Bistro
baroquebistro.com.au
Located in the heart of Sydney’s historical Rocks Precinct, the Baroque Bistro Patisserie is yet another offering from the Charkos family—the creators of the popular La Renaissance Café Patisserie (also in The Rocks). The bistro is open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and its menu features both modern and traditional French dishes (filet mignon, croque monsieur), as well as a range of sweet treats from its onsite patisserie. full review
Daily 8am–midnight. $$$ 2 88 George St. (Mill St.), 02.9241.4811

The Night+Day Promise
Night+Day writers and editors use the same high standards in selecting and researching venues to be included in our Ins and Outs updates as we do for our books. Our local correspondents determine which new hot spots are the real deal and which are simply hype—just as you’d expect from Night+Day—to provide the kind of reliable information you need to make the best possible choices.

Standing in New York’s Times Square as the ball drops is truly a peak experience, but the reward-to-effort ratio (unless you have a press pass!) takes it out of my top three picks:

1. Hogmanay — For those who think that freezing weather and New Year’s Eve are inseparable, this is the go-to celebration. Edinburgh, Scotland is not exactly the first place that comes to mind as the host of the largest celebration in Europe, but the jam-packed schedule covering five days (this year, December 29–January 2) allows the claim to stand. Besides, Auld Lang Syne is Scottish. (edinburghshogmanay.com)

2. Rio — For a more civilized (meaning warmer) celebration, head south of the equator. For sheer spectacle, Sydney is a contender, but a million people, most of whom are dressed in white, partying together on a beautiful beach, makes Rio de Janeiro my second choice. It all happens, including a massive fireworks display, at Copacabana Beach, but beware: Hotel rooms are scarce. (riodejaneiro-turismo.com)

3. Home — This doesn’t have to be a cop-out. Some of my greatest New Year’s celebrations included 10 or 12 friends joining us for a black-tie potluck dinner. Some of the additional touches that can make it special: Start and end late; hire a cook/assistant; have people bring dishes that have some particular meaning to them, which they explain at dinner; play great music videos that get people to sing along; organize a wine tasting (possibly blind) to accompany the meal; discuss the year’s most important, fun or moving events, or have each person give a two-minute spiel about their favorite charitable gift or act; and have a brief (emphasis on brief) TV interlude to watch The Ball drop.

On The Road: Sicily

There are two compelling reasons to put Sicily on your calendar for this spring or early summer. The first is that it remains off the beaten path of tourists, particularly Americans. In fact, Americans haven’t invaded Sicily since 1943. However, my Conde Nast Traveler arrived this morning with a feature story on Palermo, ­which means we can expect traffic to pick up. The second reason to go soon is that sometime in the not-too-distant future the local government is going to get serious about closing off monuments to tourists. I mean, when was the last time you were able to step inside a 6 BC temple?

Most people visit Sicily either by cruise ship, making quick stops at key ports, or on one- to two-week intensive trips. For many of us, it is hard to justify that much time to the exclusion of, say, Venice. So let me offer a solution: Sicily in five days! Your tour will include all the essential highlights, except for the ruins around Segesta and the western tip of the island.

Three things to keep in mind: First, leave your Mafia thoughts at home; second, if you arrive too close to summer, you’ll develop a fanatical appreciation of lemon granita (you might whenever you go); and third, there is no nightlife to speak of, which allows for early morning activities, which doing the trip in five days requires.

Day 1: Arrive in Palermo, a gritty but intriguing city, in time for dinner at Osteria dei Vespri (osteriadeivespri.it), the only destination restaurant in Sicily’s capital. With the exception of the luxe Grand Hotel Wagner (grandhotelwagner.it), hotels are just passable.

Day 2: What makes Palermo fascinating is the mix of Arab, Norman, and Italian influences. Do the tour by foot or with a guide, or best of all, a motobeep, which provides an unbelievably thrilling covered-motorbike experience, with semi-knowledgable drivers. Ideally you’ll fit in the Palace of the Normans (maps.google.com), a 20-minute drive to Monreale (requires a real taxi), lunch at Antica Focacceria San Francesco (afsf.it) and the often overlooked Palazzo Mirto before catching a late afternoon train to Agrigento (90 minutes). Rent a car upon arrival in Agrigento, check into the Baglio della Luna (bagliodellaluna.com) hotel, and then make a night visit (opens at 7:30) to the Valley of Temples (valleyofthetemples.com), truly one of the wonders of the world, and more spectacular than the Parthenon in Athens. You’ll be back at your hotel in time for dinner.

Day 3: Get an early start to see the Valley of Temples in daylight. This is your opportunity to step inside the Temple of Hercules as well as take in the other monuments that stretch out along a one-mile path. Read more

Last Word: What’s So Great About New Year’s Eve

Travel writing is hard work for low pay, but what makes it worthwhile is the occasional perk the “press pass” provides. Thirteen years ago I went to research New Year’s Eve in New York for my book on the world’s greatest events, The Fun Also Rises. I had determined that the way to celebrate was not to fight the crowds in Times Square itself but to enjoy the comfort, view, and party at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel. The hotel was kind enough to give me a press pass for the evening, and I diligently did my work checking out the logistics and the crowd. However, by 11:40 pm, I felt I had what information I needed, but I was not capturing the excitement of the moment. So, my wife and I decided to take a chance on braving the crowds and the below-zero weather to watch the ball drop from the street.

As we exited the hotel we were blocked by hundreds of people stranded on 45th Street who were not being allowed into Times Square (because it was “full”). With nothing to lose we flashed our press passes, catching the eye of one of the policeman, who, to our utter amazement, shouted, “Let them through!” The crowd was not happy about this, but without incident allowed us to pass through. And there we were, smack dab in the middle of Times Square, five minutes before midnight! Read more