Last summer, my friend and neighbor John Tebeau, sent an email with the subject heading “I Make the Best Popcorn In the World”. 

Now, granted, I have not sampled that much popcorn outside of the United States (although I did eat some at a majestic old movie theater in Paris when I was in my teens to see “Absolute Beginners” and thought it was odd that it tasted sweet, although that could have been what popcorn tastes like in Bowie Vision), but I gotta say, John’s popcorn is stupendous. It’s downright artistic. 

It’s not surprising that he could make something as seemingly mundane as popcorn into a thing of beauty for the taste buds. His 2018 book Bars, Taverns, and Dives New Yorkers Love: Where To Go, What To Drink features jaw droppingly detailed renderings of the facades of some of the city’s most formidable watering holes accompanied by personal essays about why he loves to drink in them. It’s written the way he talks—thoughtful, friendly, conversational, casual, and open to sharing opinions from all angles.