I’m in the midst of a four-week tour of Australia, so this gorgeous new ad from Tourism Australia seemed appropriate. The cinematography is stunning. And check out the Asian couple in the ad. I think it’s the same couple that appeared in the Spain tourism ads last year—hilarious, those two really get around. It’s really hard to tell; their cameo is so brief.
Poncelet Cheese Bar, Madrid (Brad A. Johnson)
I’m excited to announce that I’ve started a new food and travel column at Food Republic. First up: Where to Eat Right Now in Madrid. After the high-profile shuttering of El Bulli, and with some of Barcelona’s top chefs recently decamping for Madrid, the capital city has suddenly become Spain’s new culinary epicenter. Here are the 10 restaurants you should eat at right now. (Plus, here’s a bonus photo gallery.)
Fish bowl dessert at El Club Allard (Brad A. Johnson)
There’s an enormous security guard stationed outside the entrance of Madrid’s El Club Allard. The dude looks incredibly menacing at first. But then he smiles, and his face appears more jolly than scary. He waves me past the gate and up a flight of well-worn marble stairs—lit with bare lightbulbs—into a 1908 mansion that now serves as one of the most glamorous restaurants in all of Spain—chandeliers, high ceilings, silk drapes and a series of intimate dining rooms, some with the doors closed so as not to reveal who’s inside. Sexy black-and-white photographs lend the otherwise classic interior a modernist edge, a sense of contemporary relevance. Continue reading
Madrid, Spain. Wow, what an incredibly beautiful city. My previous visit to Madrid had been so brief (two overnight stopovers on the way to and from two weeks in the Basque country) that I hadn’t really paid attention to how stunningly handsome the city is–not just the people, but the architecture, the food, the culture… I’ve posted a slideshow on my public Facebook page, if you would like to see more: https://www.facebook.com/Johnson.Brad.A
photo by Brad A. Johnson
