Tag: wine

Ethel M Chocolate & Wine Experience

Ethel M Chocolate & Wine Experience

Ethel M Chocolate & Wine Experience
Holiday Cactus Garden

🍫🍫🍫 🍷🍷🍷 🌵🌵🌵

Las Vegas during the holidays has its own kind of magic, especially in places off the Strip that locals know well but tourists often miss—like the Ethel M Cactus Garden.

Ethel M Holiday Cactus Garden

We recently attended the Ethel M Chocolate & Wine Experience, and it truly exceeded our expectations. What we assumed would be a straightforward tasting turned into a relaxed, informative, and genuinely fun way to savor chocolate alongside perfectly paired wines.

Ethel M Chocolate & Wine Experience

The guided tasting lasts about 40–50 minutes and features five seasonal chocolates, each paired with a wine selected by Ethel M’s Chief Chocolatier, Mark Markey. Along the way, we learned how chocolate is sourced, refined, and made—without it feeling technical or heavy.

Ethel M Chocolate & Wine Experience

🍫 Ethel M 🍫

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Hatfield’s. Los Angeles.

Hatfield's Croque Madame

“Croque Madame”

What is it that makes one restaurant stand out from the rest?

Food:  Where every dish hits the mark. Imaginative, original. Expertly crafted. Executed with finesse. Harmony of color, texture, and taste.

Wine:  An interesting wine list that synergizes with the menu. The wine selection accentuates the food. The food selection accentuates the wine. Fairly priced. We adore a sommelier who listens to us describe what we are looking for in a wine, then nails it. “We’re in the mood for a pinot noir that is fruit forward, bright and juicy, complex. We would also love to try something new. In a white. No oak. No grapefruit flavors. Something rich.” (See below for the superb wine picks).

Service:  Professional service that is polished, warm and engaging without being overly chummy. Anticipatory with flawless timing. Ultimately knowledgeable.

Hospitality:  Gracious hosts. When learning of our crazed appreciation for food (maybe the camera gives it away?) we were invited for a peek behind the glass-walled kitchen at the end of the night.

Ambiance: An intersection of architecture, decor, tableware, lighting, and music. A room where we as guests feel comfortable, glamorous, appreciated.

We found a stand-out restaurant recently, in Hatfield’s.

What makes a restaurant stand out for you?

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