USA

Best Cocktails in San Juan Puerto Rico!

wareontheglobe Leave a comment

Dan and I have been to Puerto Rico numerous times, and recently have found ourselves visiting San Juan once a year. We also enjoy good cocktails, and have carefully cataloged our favorite ones in San Juan. This post tells you where you can find our favorite cocktails in San Juan!

Casa di Montecristo – a perfect cigar bar/cocktail lounge combo.

Casa di Montecristo is a wonderful cigar bar in Old San Juan. In addition to cigars, Casa di Montecristo serves well-prepared, and strong, cocktails. We always stop in for a cigar for Dan and a cocktail for me (and sometimes for Dan, too). Casa di Montecristo also has great AC and the prices, which are higher than other places in Old San Juan, keep out the crowds. Go for great cocktails in a quiet setting.

The Old Cuban at La Casa di Montecristo.

A gin and egg white beverage.

Continue reading →

August 2024 Update – Airport Lounge Review: Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club, JFK Terminal 4

wareontheglobe Leave a comment

**AUGUST 2024 UPDATE**  I recently returned to the Chase Sapphire Lounge at JFK Terminal 4 on August 28, 2024, before an evening flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. This post reviews my recent experience and updates my previous post from March 2024.

I arrived outside the Chase Sapphire Lounge around 5:00 PM on a Thursday in August (yes, just before Labor Day weekend). A small kiosk stood outside of the lounge entrance with an employee adding names to a waitlist. We waited behind two people. When it was our turn, the lounge employee asked for my Chase Sapphire card (not my Priority Pass – unclear if PP without Chase Sapphire was allowed) and took down my phone number, advising I would receive a text in about 40 minutes to enter the lounge with my guest. 55 minutes later, I received the text from Chase. Dan and I bypassed the waitlist line, which was even longer at this point (!), and checked into the lounge as normal.

The wait for the Chase lounge in August 2024… It was not pretty. The Centurion Lounge (next door) had no wait.

Totally different than my last experience, however, and which I totally appreciated, is that this time a staff member escorted Dan and me to available seats, and those were our seats for the duration of our visit. It honestly felt a bit like COVID times, ha. While this took away our ability to select an area in which to sit, it ensured that every guest had ample space and could actually enjoy the lounge without feeling totally crowded (a la the waitless Centurion lounge next door that I visited while waiting on Chase…). Food and drinks, again ordered via QR code on our phone, came out VERY quickly this visit, and all in it was a relaxing time (minus the wait). One other note for those waiting to access the lounge, Chase gave out complimentary soft serve ice cream to those waiting only (not once in the lounge), but didn’t tell anyone about this perk, LOL. I guest IYKYK. We will definitely ask for it next time – it looked good!

In any case, for those reading this for the first time, the Chase Sapphire Lounge in JFK’s Terminal 4 opened its doors in January 2024. We first visited in March 2024 en route to Nairobi Kenya for a safari! You can read the original post here. As I previously mentioned, the Chase lounge at JFK is very, very nice for a credit card lounge – tied with the Virgin Clubhouse for best lounge credit card access lounge in Terminal 4 IMO. Good food, fantastic drinks, and nice service. My only complaints are that its small (and I hear often has a wait to enter, as was the case on my recent visit in August 2024) and far from some of the “B” gates in Terminal 4.

Continue reading →

Roscioli New York City – Does it compare to Rome?

wareontheglobe Leave a comment

I consider myself a Rome expert. I spent a summer there in law school, and my husband and I have since visited countless times in every season. One of our favorite restaurants in Rome, Roscioli Salumeria con Cucina (or just “Roscioli”), opened a location in New York last year – its first outside of Rome. I anxiously awaited a meal here and finally secured a lunch reservation on the same day I was recognized as an Italian citizen. Perfetto! This post reviews my lunch at Roscioli New York City.

Here is a pic of me and Dan in front of the Italian Consulate in New York before my swearing in ceremony on June 14, 2024 (literally six years in the making)!

Setting aside my own personal victories, let’s discuss Roscioli New York City! Roscioli New York City opened in July 2023 in New York’s West Village (at 43 MacDougal Street to be exact). While this is New York’s first Roscioli operation, the Roscioli brand has been in Italy since at least the 1970s and has run its well-known and, quite frankly, beloved, restaurant, Salumeria Roscioli, in Rome for 20 years. Prior to New York, the Roscioli brand had already expanded to a second, wine focused space in Rome, Roscioli Rimessa (where I spent this New Year’s Eve), runs an wine club shipping around the globe (of which I was a member for years) and opened a Roman cafe that I have (sadly) never visited.  The New York location is yet another expansion of the business, this time outside of Rome and all the way across the Atlantic. In any case, I was very excited for lunch and had high expectations.

Roscioli New York City! This entrance was reminiscent of the Salumeria Roscioli entrance in Rome.

Roscioli New York City is split into two spaces. The street level is a “casual” restaurant and alimentari (or “food store” (kind of like a bodega in NYC) in Italian). It is a cute space, albeit small, where guests sit amongst the food for sale (all imported from Italy) and view the open air kitchen. The Alimentari, as I will call it, is where lunch is served and, while its listed as “a la carte” online, only a 3 course tasting menu for $55 was offered on our visit.

Continue reading →

Airport Lounge Review: Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club, JFK Terminal 4

wareontheglobe Leave a comment

Read my updated August 2024 post here!

The Chase Sapphire Lounge in JFK’s Terminal 4 opened its doors in January 2024. I was very excited about this, as JFK Terminal 4 is a frequent terminal of ours, plus I had really been wanting to visit a Chase lounge! This timed up nicely with our recent flight from JFK to Nairobi, Kenya for a safari! In brief, the lounge was very, very nice. Tied with the American Express Centurion and Virgin Clubhouse for best lounge in Terminal 4. Good food, fantastic drinks, and nice service. My only complaints are that its small (and I hear often has a wait to enter) and far from many gates in Terminal 4.

Continue reading →

Hotel Review: The Virginian, Hilton Curio Collection, Lynchburg, Virginia

wareontheglobe Leave a comment

Dan and I have spent a couple nights at the newish Virginian Hotel in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia while visiting my mother and her adorable beagle, Dublin! This is my review of our stays in Fall 2023. In sum highly recommend for a hotel in Lynchburg, VA.

Early Fall in downtown Lynchburg, VA from The Virginian’s rooftop restaurant, The Skyline.

For those not from Lynchburg, Virginia, The Virginian Hotel is a longtime fixture of Lynchburg, having first opened in 1913. The Virginian Hotel was known for years as an upscale, elegant hotel hosting the most esteemed guests in Lynchburg, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Ronald Regan (who knew these types of people visited Lynchburg!). One of The Virginia’s most famous attributes is its famous “Virginian” light up sign that remains iconic downtown.

The classic Virginian sign on the hotel.

Continue reading →