[LISBON, PORTUGAL] — Way back in 2012, NY Times writer Frank Bruni got me with his game-changing article on Lisbon. “Lisbon??” I thought when I read the headline way back then. “Who goes to Lisbon?” At the time, everyone called Lisbon ‘the old grandmother of Europe.’ But his writing and insight was so fantastic, by the time I reached the end of his article I was like “I need to go to Lisbon!” and added it to my list. I finally booked a flight the next July. He was right. I fell in love. I was like, “Holy cow, I could live here.” How’s that for a turnaround? I came back to Portugal again a couple years later for a longer two weeks in 2015,
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[PUEBLO GARZÓN, URUGUAY] — About 14 miles or so miles inland from the surf of Jose Ignacio Uruguay — the world’s best beach town IMO — is a sleepy little town called Garzón. There, in the middle of rolling green hills of gaucho country, Francis Mallmann (my favorite restaurateur in the world) has created a true destination place, El Garzón. In fact, he bought up a whole town around it. I’ve been to Garzón to eat or stay over four different trips to Uruguay. Maybe even another one, too. This is a consolidated post from past visits so everything is one place. Here we go. Where My Love of Francis Began — Los Negros in Jose Ignacio I first discovered Francis’s magic way back in