These wonderful holiday weeks are unique – the time of the year when, almost simultaneously, we reflect on past months and anticipate those coming. In the swirl of memories from 2009, a number of images and new discoveries stand out with clarity and sparkle.
Today, it’s SOUTH AMERICA!
There are two very special properties at opposite ends of Chile. Located in San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis in Chile’s desert landscape, Awasi has 8 cottages of adobe,stone and wood, fashioned with a stylish simplicity that honors light and shadow, textures, rounded forms and privacy. www.awasi.cl
Along six miles of spectacular beach at the foot of Chile’s Patagonia, The Cliffs Preserve offers a diversity of activity in a remarkably rich and intact ecosystem. www.cliffspreserve.cl
Passing through Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires, stay in one of the 36 rooms of Casa Sur Art Hotel located in the Recoleta neighborhood. The smallish rooms are perfectly outfitted with well-placed, uncomplicated, cutting edge technology, lighting, storage and fixtures. Loved it…great location,great service. www.casasurhotel.com
Argentina’s Northwest is a must for the landscape, the world-class drive, the light, and the freedom of lostness. Two musts: The 2-room, beautiful Finca Santana; Estancia Colome’s museum dedicated to the artist, James Turrell, and his nine light installations. Turrell’s installations are one of the most moving art experiences I have ever had.www.innsofargentina.com and www.innsofargentina.com
Moving over to pastoral Uruguay, Estancia Vik is the newcomer and remarkably beautiful. Dominating the rolling hills just ten minutes from Pueblo Garzon, home of Francis Mallmann’s divine restaurant and inn, and ten minutes from the beach in Laguna Jose Ignacio, it is a destination in itself offering the activities of a chic Uruguay heretofore unavailable. www.restaurantgarzon.com and www.estanciavikjoseignacio.com
Metta, Norberto Piattoni's Fort Green neighborhood restaurant[/caption]
Francis Mallmann, the revered Argentinian chef made famous by his many restaurants around the world, a couple of books on his cooking style and a hit television series, Chef's Table, has ensured his legacy with a diaspora of chef proteges, two of whom have rolled up in New York. Norberto, better known to his friends as Negro, recently opened Metta, a neighborhood restaurant located on a quiet corner two blocks from the Fort Greene farmers market in Brooklyn. It offers sustainably sourced, vegetable-forward dishes all cooked in a custom designed, open-fire kitchen, using South American asado techniques, utilizing all aspects of the fire (smoke, flame, ash and embers) to create layers of flavor in dishes. Packed with happy diners the night I went, it is relaxed, delicious, interesting and fun.
[caption id="attachment_8248" align="alignnone" width="500"]
Flora Bar, Ignacio Mattos' third opening in New York[/caption]
Ignacio Mattos was born in Uruguay and learned to cook in the kitchens of Mallman and Slow Food legend, Alice Waters. His two other restaurants in New York, Estela, with its bold, Mediterranean-inspired cooking, and Altro Paradiso, with its Italian cuisine, are favorites of mine. Now, Ignacio has come with his team to the Met Brauer on 76th and Madison, offering small bites as well as main dishes in a comfortable setting either indoors or on the open terrace. Service is superb, wines delicious and the food captivating. The space, in my opinion, could do with some tlc - easily accomplished. If you can serve food like that, a bit of flower planting and decorating should come easy.
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