Meet Me Here - Tbilisi

08/04/2025

Green is the color we associate with Spring but in Georgia nothing beats the color of Endro, known a Madder root in English, which is used for coloring Easter eggs. 🇬🇪

04/04/2025

Last June, Kartlos Chabashvili of Tusheti Travels and I hosted a mind blowing trip to Tusheti, Georgia's most isolated and jaw droppingly gorgeous region. The snow-tipped peaks, ancient settlements clinging preposterously to the sides of mountains, rolling meadows and rushing mountain rivers made for a stunning background for our indulgences.

This season we have included two additional tours with an extra day to take a ride by horseback to hang out with some shepherds, learn how they make guda cheese and lunch on mrgvali puri - Tushuri khinkali.

There are lots of great tours to Tusheti, but none are centered around its standout mountain food culture, a heritage infused with pagan traditions, natural ingredients and old world know-how. Either 4 or 5 day trip will blow your mind. Pass the word around.

For more info: https://www.meetmeheretbilisi.com/tusheti-tour

31/03/2025

A toast to our super powers.

27/03/2025

Rainer's season has begun! There is so much tastiness on the menu and a very kind, dedicated staff! I wrote about this place a few years ago. https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/tbilisi/2018/pizzeria-rainers-and-beergarden/

09/03/2025

There are burgers in Tbilisi and there beastie burgers like this mammerjammer at which is also where you will see the best blues band in Georgia, on Wednesday nights.

08/03/2025

Keto Ninidze on wine and our protests.

Georgian wine in search of identity Over the Soviet and post-Soviet period, roughly until about the 2000s, Georgia was associated with Stalin’s homeland and the semi-Soviet politician Eduard Shevardnadze, while Georgian wine would be identified with cheap Alazani Valley-brand products at worst, an

06/03/2025

Avto ambushes Ethan with “cognac” and shares his lunch of chicken, bread, adjika and guda cheese. Such is the spirit of the fabulous Dezerter’s Bazaar. It’s been a long and cold winter for Avto and his peeps working tirelessly day in and out. Warm hearted guests like Ethan and his posse break up the routine and in return get a deep taste of Georgian hospitality. 🇬🇪 🇬🇪

23/02/2025

Good to be back home. I dropped into my watering hole, .tb, and popped open this beauty- Tsitska by . So gentle and balanced- and with some skins - Think pears, quince, almonds.

16/02/2025

Thinking back to a great trip, here at Qvevrebi Zaza Remi Kbilashvili.

11/02/2025

So I walk into the local liquor store in Aptos, California and what do I see? ’s !!!

08/02/2025

Cool info, right here.

Despite Georgia having 39 official PDOs, with over half of them, 20, located in Kakheti, we are just scratching the surface in uncovering the rich diversity and depth of terroirs this region offers. When discussing the intricacies and specialties of vineyards, there is no better example than Burgund...

14/12/2024

Yesterday Georgia’s winemakers came out to shout, a magnificent display of solidarity for the country’s freedom. Lest we forget, western aid has supported many winemakers and the current “government” and its Russian sponsors offer nothing but a market for crappy wine. Sakartvelos Gaumarjos!

10/12/2024

Day 12, or is it 13? Or 213? Ducking out for a cold one on a cold one, (2 degrees Celsius) at one of my favorite Tbilisi hamburger joints, , watching Rustaveli fill up. The vibe is light, kind, no pounding, no fireworks, a deep sense of community, just a Tuesday night stroll down the main drag with friends and family. In half an hour there will be tens of thousands, again.

08/12/2024

Merry Christmas from Tbilisi! The guys that have taken over the government started to put the annual tree up in front of parliament despite the wanton violence unleashed against journalists and random pedestrians last night while police stood by and did nothing. Protesters have decorated the tree with pictures of the hospitalized victims of the demonstrations.

07/12/2024

About an hour before hired government thugs violently dispersed and arrested peaceful protesters last night, this guy was filling the brittle air with the sweet smell of Georgian barbecue. Gestures like his and scores of others who bring boxes of persimmons, mandarins, and cookies, who prepare and serve hot coffee and tea to help counter these freezing nights, convince me the government will ultimately lose this war it’s waging against its own people. This kind of righteous solidarity cannot be defeated.

05/12/2024

One constant in Georgia is the change of seasons. What I can’t capture at the bazaar is the anxiety. Most vendors are of the generation that came of age during communism and became adults in the violent 90’s. Since then, they’ve put their heads down and work on survival mode. The freedoms people are fighting for on the street, selling out to Russia, turning on the EU, are abstract. I know many people who support the GD here. When they go home after a long day at the market they turn on the tv and hear about “the global war party, how the US wants Georgia to open a new front against Russia, is backing the protests etc, because the government controls the major news sources. Yesterday two of my friends there worried about war. “Why don’t they just go home, everything will be quiet.” This is a Russian way of thinking. Safe, obedient fearful. Let us sell our cucumbers peacefully, leave the politics to whoever is in charge. The kids and everyone else on the street are also fighting to rid the country of this mentality, they are fighting for the future of Georgia. In the meantime, winter will blossom into spring, then summer and fall. But what kind of country will we be living in when it’s time to pick tkemali, or harvest our grapes? 🇬🇪

30/11/2024

came down to support protesters on a freezing Black night with free curry soup and rice balls. The Georgian police have never been more savage and I have seen my share of brutal crackdowns in this country. Tonight we’re out again. They can pepper spray us , hose us, beat us, but we come back in larger numbers and we can count on support from so many people who call Georgia home.