Looking back often helps to clarify where you’re heading as well as where you’ve been. To that end, I’ve put together this brief overview of my working life for the year 2008.
Evan Rail’s 2008 Annual Report contains forward-looking statements that are based on management’s expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and may involve risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Countries Visited
Germany, making multiple trips to Bamberg, Regensburg and Munich.
Switzerland, just passing through, though it was fun to speak Swiss German again. (Grüezi, mitenand!)
Liechtenstein, where Nina and I stopped for the world’s most glorious fast-food view at the McDonald’s in Vaduz.
Italy, where we spent a week driving around Milan, Turin and small villages in the region, searching for and sampling the best Italian craft beers and some truly amazing food.
Austria, where we explored Innsbruck just for kicks.
Sweden, where I hung out in clubs and went to multiple concerts for three straight nights in Stockholm.
Belgium, where I visited great craft brewers in and around Brussels.
Czech Republic, including behind-the-scenes visits to the Budweiser Budvar and Pilsner Urquell breweries, a lot of time in beautiful Southern Bohemia and a long weekend gathering porcini in the Czech highlands.
Publications
The New York Times
Savoring Italy, One Beer at a Time. November 2, 2008. This travel section cover story charter the nascent beer trail and outstanding beer food in the northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Piedmont.
Stockholm: The Columbus Hotel. July 13, 2008. A quick-hit hotel review on cheap lodgings in the hipster heart of Stockholm.
Stockholm Is More Than Abba’s Town. May 11, 2008. A feature for the travel section’s music issue. Years ago, Sweden was best-known for its saccharine pop, but now it’s home to an array of edgy performers earning international acclaim.
Under Wintry Skies, a City Revealed. February 3, 2008. A feature on winter trips to the Czech capital, which give curious travelers a chance to take in the city’s attractions at a leisurely pace and with far fewer crowds.
Dining That’s Not Set to Strauss Waltzes. January 27, 2008. AKA “Choice Tables: Vienna.” A new generation of restaurateurs is updating the Austrian capital’s traditionally formal dining scene with casual restaurants in unexpected settings: inside museums, cheese shops, private homes and bookstores.
Condé Nast Traveler
Hot List Hotels: The Icon, Prague. May, 2008. A review of the newest and most high-tech design hotel in the city.
Hot List Tables: Angel, Prague. May, 2008. Restaurant review of this chic pan-Asian restaurant in Old Town.
Hot List Tables: Maze, Prague. May, 2008. A short review of Gordon Ramsay’s first restaurant on the Continent.
Concierge.com
Reviews of hotels, restaurants, museums, boutiques, shops and sights to see for Condé Nast’s online Prague travel guide.
Imbibe
A first-person feature and photos on Starkbierzeit, Munich’s slightly secret, undertouristed, end-of-winter beer festival.
NWA WorldTraveler
“A Beer Tour of Europe,” October, 2008, a feature on beer travels in Brussels, Munich and Prague for the in-flight magazine of Northwest Airlines.
Scanorama
Wrote, assigned and edited the travel section for all 10 issues of the award-winning in-flight magazine of Scandinavian Airlines.
Beer Culture
111 posts on the Beer Culture weblog at Prague Monitor, including beer and travel stories from most of the countries listed above and interviews with some of Europe’s most famous brewers. By the end of Beer Culture’s first year, the site was receiving just under 10,000 pageviews per month.
Radio Appearances
Radio Prague, March 11, 2008, talking about how a Prague restaurant earned the first Michelin star in the former Eastern Bloc.
Deutsche Welle, May 19, 2008, again on Prague’s new Michelin star.
Radio Prague, June 26, 2008, speaking about the world-renowned quality of Czech pale lagers.
Television
Discovery Channel, December 18, 2008, in “How Stuff Works: Beer.”
Thoughts on 2009
Positive, but thinking that we’re going to have to back up our optimism and good will with effort and good work.
