"My friends think just because we live in Hawaii, we live in paradise. We're all just out here sipping mai tais, shaking our hips and catching waves. Are they insane?" While an Oscar-nominated picture requires the kind of conflict that George ...

"My friends think just because we live in Hawaii, we live in paradise. We're all just out here sipping mai tais, shaking our hips and catching waves. Are they insane?" While an Oscar-nominated picture requires the kind of conflict that George Clooney's character implies with this line from "The Descendants," your vacation getaway doesn't.

“I’m a bug collector,” Terry Hawbaker says, referring to the wild yeasts and bacteria swarming in the two oak barrels in his Alexandria storefront. At 39, with a divot in his forehead from a recent bike accident and a love of punk-inflected rock-and-roll, he has been maturing his sour beer since September, tasting it as it slowly grows tarter, funkier and more complex. Read full article >>

I cannot tell a lie: I did not barbecue yesterday. Should have, I know. Because yesterday was Presidents’ Day, which means it might as well be called Barbecuers’ Day. George Washington was himself quite the barbecue hound. “Went into Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night,” he wrote in his diary for May 27, 1769. Read full article >>

Chicago's hot hotel news includes the first Virgin Hotel, The Langham and more.