How To Clean a Pizza Stone in 5 Easy Steps

In my dissolute youth, I worked as a line cook in a hotel kitchen on Martha's Vineyard. Oh, how I loathed the brunch shift. Churning out a never-ending procession of yogurt parfaits and chocolate-chip pancakes, I wanted to dunk my head in the deep fryer by noon every Sunday. I even pitied the customers, who paid a premium for uninspired fare prepared by hungover, pissed-off cooks. Brunch? Fie upon it! The repast of brain-dead yoga moms.

But how age changes us. Now approaching forty, I'm something of a brunch maximalist. I once fancied myself an urban Viking, subsisting on pre-workout and nicotine by day and steak and whiskey by night. These days, I prefer nothing more than a lazy Sunday morning with my girlfriend in a sunlit dining room. Twin cappuccinos. Smoked salmon eggs Benedict. Tabasco-spiked Bloody Marys. A post-prandial stroll through the West Village. Why the hell did I shun such joys for so many years?

If you've been to the butcher or the meat counter at the grocery store lately, you might have noticed it just seems to feel overwhelming. Today, there are endless meat choices and labels such as organic, grass-fed, prime, and choice, leaving shoppers confused and stressed. Are these just marketing terms, or are they labels that actually hold value (and should they affect how you shop?)

To help cut through the confusion, we chatted with William Eck III, the In-House Meat Expert at Verde Farms. A Le Cordon Bleu graduate and HACCP-trained food safety expert with more than 20 years of experience, including serving in a James Beard Award-winning kitchen, fine-dining chop houses and boutique butcheries, he brings whole-chain expertise to Verde Farms' commitment to organic, 100% grass-fed beef from pasture to plate. In this butcher's guide to buying better beef, Eck shares how shoppers can actually read a beef label, which cuts are worth the splurge, and his best butcher-approved prep tips.

Yellowstone National Park is one of America’s most popular parks. At more than 2 million acres, it’s home to Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs, and countless elk, bears, and massive bison. Recently, Yellowstone Bourbon announced the release of a unique new expression: Yellowstone Limited Edition 2026.

Yellowstone Limited Edition 2026