A recent meeting with colleagues over at the West End Tap & Kitchen gave us an excuse to sample the house cheese board along with some indigenous IPA. We made quick work of this, and a few other libations. In the wildly popular Ingalls St. complex, next to a long line...

Mystery and Wonder fills the UCSC Recital Hall this coming Saturday as the Concert Choir performs a cappella motets from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Included in this program of mystically-inflected music are avant garde 20th century chants and antiphonies...

Or not. But by any name the delicate, luscious Muscat Canelli from Birichino is an enlightened way to end a meal, holiday or any day.Think honeysuckle, clementines, and perhaps a hint of apricot. Mostly a captivating dessert wine that far exceeds that description....

Third generation winemaker Andre Beauregard has hit his stride with a new 2012 bottling called Monarch. A blend of grenache, syrah, and cabernet sauvignon, the appealing medium-body red wine weighs in at an easy access 13.9% alcohol, and a very appealing $14.99...

How might it look and feel to have lost all personal freedom? To be completely at the mercy, and whim, of another human being? This question forms the cinematic subject of 12 Years a Slave. The answer is not pretty. It's not even bearable. British art film director...