2017 Editors' Picks: Richard Bradley

The Cloister Ocean Residences at Sea Island

Golfers and Southerners have long known that Sea Island is a special place. Nestled on the Georgia coast about halfway between Savannah and Jacksonville, Fla., Sea Island is a resort that combines top-notch facilities, high standards of service and a stunning natural environment.

I visited Sea Island recently with my wife and two children. We stayed at the Cloister Ocean Residences, which are one-, two-and three-bedroom condos just a short walk from the Sea Island Beach Club, which is probably the core of the resort. You can buy quarter-shares in these residences—13 weeks a year—for prices ranging from $375,000 to $1.1 million; not a small amount, but on the other hand, you might pay more for a month in the Hamptons, and to my mind Sea Island is a far better escape.

The Cloister may be the ideal way to experience Sea Island. The residences are very well done; thoughtfully designed, tasteful (conservatively so, but that’s probably what many of their buyers want) and spacious. The kitchens are beautifully equipped; if you wanted to, you could easily stay in and cook and never feel short a pot or whisk. Best of all, they open onto a massive strip of private beach—but we’ll get to that in a moment.

During the day, Sea Island offers a ridiculous number of things to do: The golf courses are world famous, which is a cliché, but it’s true; the tennis courts are better than just about anyone’s game; there’s biking and horseback riding or just hanging out at the multiple pools at the Beach Club. My favorite activity: taking a boat tour through the salt marsh, a natural tidal basin that serves as a natural fish hatchery and bird sanctuary. On the tour we took, my family and I saw dolphins (just off the dock!), river otters and countless sea birds.

For kids, this place is heaven. The Beach Club offers specially designed pools for young children that would calm the most nervous of parents, or the kids can fish and crab from the Cloister Dock, spend a day at the nature camp or catch a movie at a special, kids-oriented theater. It’s hard to imagine a nicer place for a child to spent part of a season than this.

 In any great travel, the most special moments are the unexpected ones, the kind you can’t plan for, and at Sea Island this happened for us on the aforementioned beach. My wife and sons and I walked out the door of our Cloister residence, down a dune trail for about 50 yards, and found ourselves completely alone on a mile-long beach.  My kids, 3 and 5, couldn’t believe it; they couldn’t wait to run in the low tidal surf and dig holes in the sand, watching as the holes filled up with sea water when the waves rolled in.  After a few minutes, we were joined by two slightly older children, a boy and a girl carrying nets and buckets. As my sons watched transfixed, these newcomers started peering under the rocks of the nearby jetty and fishing out the blue crabs hiding underneath. The crabs would dangle angrily from the string of the net, waving their claws threateningly before the kids would pick them off and return them to their sites. The crab-hunters invited my boys to join in, which, after some initial disbelief, they did. The four children played together, yelling in excitement when they found a crab, every time just as passionate as the one before it, and I felt that rare sense of parental good luck that you feel when you’ve somehow managed to provide your children with a perfect moment.

For more information about the Cloister Ocean Residences Sea Island, visit cloisteroceanresidences.com.

Aston Martin DB11

I spent a weekend earlier this year with Aston’s DB11, and even by Aston Martin standards, this is a 600-horsepower, 0-60 in 3.9 seconds dream car. From the outside, the DB11 is a stunner, with a subtle elegance that invites you to linger while you ogle. Its interior is beautifully executed and entirely comfortable for two adults. The driving experience is, simply, awesome; this car feels attached to the road, handling turns with ease and compensating for any mistakes you might make. It’s hard to see how cars get better than this.

Aston Martin DB11s start at $211,995; the one I drove would set you back $254k and some change. For more information, visit astonmartin.com

Ferrari GTC4Lusso

Car and Driver magazine described the Lusso as “the world’s best answer to the Porsche Panamera,” which is not really the kind of thing you’d expect to hear said of a Ferrari—the Panamera is, after all, the Porsche for everyday driving, maybe even with kids. I’m not sure I’d go that far to describe the Lusso, but you take the point: It’s a car that you actually could use every day. In the past, when I’ve driven Ferraris, it’s always felt like a special occasion—for better and worse. I loved driving the car, but there were enough impracticalities that I wouldn’t drive it all that much. The Lusso feels like a paradigm shift for Ferrari. It’s got four seats, all of which you can fit in. (Okay, the rear ones are a little tight.) It’s sleek and streamlined on the outside, elegant and highly functional on the inside—user-friendly, you might even say. The Lusso moves Ferrari into an everyday future without sacrificing any of the excitement or passion that inspires the brand.

The GTC4Lusso costs around $300,000, and you can learn more about it at ferrari.com.

Service Brewing Co.

Savannah, Ga.

This 4-year-old brewery was founded by husband and wife team Kevin Ryan and Meredith Sutton. Ryan is a West Point graduate and a former Army commander, and much of the seed money came from friends from the military. The appropriately named Service Brewing makes five beers year-round: Ground Pounder Pale Ale, Compass Rose India Pale Ale, Rally Point Pilsner, Battlewagon Double India Pale Ale and Scouts Out Honey Saison. They’re all excellent, but my favorite is the Compass Rose, a medium-bodied ale with subtle hints of caramel and honey.  Service also makes some original and enjoyable seasonal beers, like the Savannah Banana Beer, with a tinge of banana flavor, that’s named after the local baseball team.

For more information, visit servicebrewing.com.

Ghost Coast Distillery Broughton & Whitaker Honey-Flavored Whiskey

I’m a big fan of Ghost Coast, which opened in Savannah, Ga., in early 2017 after three years of planning, the first distillery there since just before Prohibition. While they’ve been aging their whisky, I’ve enjoyed their orange-flavored Vodka 261, which has just a hint of natural-tasting orange and avoids the sickly-sweet taste of some flavored vodkas. But the recent arrival of their Broughton & Whitaker Honey-Flavored Whiskey is cause for celebration. Made with honey from the Savannah Bee Company, this whisky has a potent, rich taste, with enough sweetness to take the edge off. During this frigid Northeastern winter, it’s been a perfect nightcap.

For more information, visit ghostcoastdistillery.com.

Whistle Pig Boss Hog “The Black Prince”

This is a superlative rye whisky. It’s been aged for 14 years and finished in Armagnac casks—Whistle Pig says this is a first—and the result is a cascade of flavor: caramel, fruit, black pepper, clove. (The “Black Prince” name apparently descends from England’s Prince Edward of Woodstock, a 14th century warrior who, clad in black armor, invaded France and was reputed to have a taste for Armagnac.) Some reviews I’ve seen have mentioned dill and mint; promotional materials from Whistle Pig speak of plum, fig, allspice and “warm apple crisp.” The point is, there’s a lot going on, and I found the experience of trying to sort it all out deeply enjoyable. Some critics have lamented the price of the Black Prince, but buying a 14-year-old whisky isn’t like buying a gallon of milk—drink it if you got it.

Whistle Pig’s Boss Hog “The Black Prince” costs $500 for a 750-ml bottle. For more information, visit whistlepigwhiskey.com.

Panerai Radiomir 1940

Taste in watches is, of course, a personal thing, and mine runs to understated, classic design that can be worn every day. The Radiomir 1940 fits that description perfectly. I’ve been wearing this watch for about six months now and it’s become like a second skin for me—just the right combination of elegance, style and functionality. Its 45mm case is not too thick—it looks masculine, but not macho—and the watch has a date marker at 3 o’clock, the power reserve indicator (three days) at 5, and small seconds at 9 o’clock. I’ve worn this watch out to a client dinner or while giving my toddlers a bath. It just works.

The Radiomir 1940 costs $11,900. You can find more information about it at panerai.com.

Mark Russell Clothing

I love this 2-year-old startup, which makes custom clothing for men, for a bunch of reasons. First, they are meticulous about taking your measurements, which they’ll do in your home and office. Second, their prices are reasonable: Suits run from $1,399 to $7,999, which is more than competitive in this space. Third, their customer service is outstanding:  Your salesperson will be regularly in touch with you not just before your clothing arrives but also after, to make sure that you’re happy and that the fit is right. (If you’re not, or it isn’t, they’ll fix it.) And most important, because the grey pinstripe suit that I got from Mark Russell is beautifully made (in upstate New York, by the way) and looks fantastic. My favorite details: three interior pockets on each side of the jacket, as well as a playful purple lining that I chose from a voluminous selection.

For more information, visit markrussell.co.

Bowers & Wilkins PX Headphones/Urbanears Headphones

These are the first wireless headphones from the storied English audio company, and they are an excellent start. The Bowers and Wilkins PX headphones offer some impressive technology, like a feature that automatically pauses your music if you take the headphones off (to, say, tell a flight attendant what you’d like to drink), then restarts your music when you put them back on. The battery life lasts for 22 hours, and the noise cancelling is effective. The sound is classic Bowers and Wilkins: crystal-clear and natural sounding—you won’t find any pumped-up bass here.) I have a few caveats: They’re heavy—to be fair, this is partly because the build quality is so high—and after about 45 minutes of wearing these headphones, I definitely noticed the weight. Also, I brought the headphones on a flight to Orlando where they simply crashed and became unresponsive. I had neglected to bring the cable that comes with them, so I was forced to use the crappy headphones that Delta gives out. (It turns out that you reboot the headphones by inserting one end of a paper clip into a small hole in one ear cup; I didn’t find this hugely confidence-inspiring, but it did work.) They crashed again on me later, and since I didn’t have a paper clip, I improvised with a pen point. The one time I tried them on a step machine, they kept cutting out, until I realized that the angle on which I was wearing them seemed to be telling the headphones that I was taking them off. Outside, these headphones feel rock solid. Inside, they appear to be a delicate flower.

If the Bowers & Wilkins PX headphones are for audiophiles who fly a lot, I’d supplement them with a wireless pair of headphones that I bought spontaneously for another flight, after I discovered that I’d forgotten to bring any headphones at all: the Urbanears Plattan 2. These wireless headphones cost about a hundred bucks, have totally respectable sound, are really light and look great. Plus, they have one of the coolest features I’ve seen in a while: To fast-forward, rewind, change the volume, start/pause your music or take/end a phone call, you just swipe or tap one ear cup in a specific direction. One you get used to this, it’s a godsend—no more fumbling for a phone in some obscure pocket in order to hit the fast-forward button.

A caveat for both these companies, which are based in England and Scandinavia respectively: If you’re in the U.S., good luck getting any customer service. (I dare you to try to find a customer service contact number on Bowers & Wilkins website.) Bowers and Wilkins lists one location in California, but my multiple phone calls to the number listed were unanswered—I own a different pair of Bowers & Wilkins headphones that had shorted out—and messages left were never returned. Similarly, I lost the connector cable to my Urbanears Plattan 2. Repeated emails through the company website—apparently the only way to contact them—were never answered.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX headphones cost $399; you can find more information about them at bowers-wilkins.com. The Urbanears Plattan 2 bluetooth headphones cost $99; check them out at urbanears.com.

The Cross X Liberty United Collector’s Edition Gray Rollerball Pen

Cross, the Providence, R.I., company that is the oldest pen-maker in the United States, is a marketing partner of Worth’s, so take this pick with a grain of salt if you wish—but I am obsessed with this pen. It’s the result of a partnership between Cross and Liberty United, the organization founded by activist entrepreneur Peter Thum that takes metal from confiscated guns and uses it to make jewelry and pens. (The pen, after all, being mightier than the sword.) Twenty percent of the profits from these pens go to programs for at-risk kids.

For the Liberty United Pen, Cross head designer Ramon Kingsley integrated visual and tactile references to guns—the “gunmetal gray” color, the slide-and-click mechanism that exposes the writing point—to remind buyers of its origin. Another reminder: the pen clip bears the serial number of the gun whose metal the pen contains.

So this is a pen that has an inspirational backstory, looks great and helps make the world a little bit better. And, because this is important too, it writes beautifully and has, to my mind, just the right weight. For those who agree that pens are powerful ways of expressing both personal opinions and personal style, the Cross X Liberty United is a great choice.

$95; for more information, visit cross.com.

The Ultimate Hang at Kaaboo Del Mar

I found myself at the Del Mar Fairgrounds last September almost by accident; while traveling to San Diego for work, I bumped into a neighbor from New York who was headed to this eclectic music festival (think Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink, Jane’s Addiction, Muse, but also Michael McDonald, Ice Cube, Logic, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, X Ambassadors, plus, comedy, cooking, public art and more). So, inspired by my neighbor, I scored a ticket and went solo, and it was awesome: beautiful San Diego weather, super stylish attendees and incredible music. (Jane’s Addiction hasn’t written a new song that I know of in over a decade, but man, do they play the old ones with passion.) That combination of amazing weather, great people watching and incredible music was pretty special.

I later found out that, as good as the typical Kaaboo experience is, there’s a way to enjoy the festival that would kick it up a few notches. In an homage to San Diego surfing, it’s called the Ultimate Hang—general admission tickets are referred to as Hang Loose passes—and if you really wanted to blow it out for three days at Kaaboo, this would be the way to do it. The Ultimate Hang pass comes with a chauffeured Mercedes, which, since this festival lasts into the wee hours of the morning, would be much appreciated; a 24/7 concierge; free food and beverage; a “rock star tour bus” in a backstage area where you can take a shower or grab a catnap or hang out with a friend. Ultimate Hang-ers also get to see the shows from a VIP area literally right in front of each stage. Perhaps even cooler: The Kaaboo organizers set up some amazing ways to meet and get to know the musicians a bit. In 2017, you could wine-taste with Pink or go surfing with the Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis. You have first priority meet-and-greet with every single artist at the show.

Ultimate Hang passes aren’t cheap—they cost $15,000—but if money’s not an object, I can’t imagine a better way to immerse yourself within a music festival for three intense and memorable days.

Kaaboo sells just 40 Ultimate Hang passes and has sold several for 2018 already. For more information, visit kaaboodelmar.com.

El Dorado Murphy Arts District

Perhaps the most unusual journey I took this year was to El Dorado—it’s pronounced El Do—ray—do—a small town in southern Arkansas that aspires to transform itself into a musical mecca. For most of the last century, the economy of El Dorado was fueled by timber and oil, which made El Dorado more vibrant economically than much of Arkansas and northern Louisiana. The relative cluster of wealth led to some demand for and patronage of the arts, which in turn led to El Dorado becoming known as something of a music hub in the rural South. But in recent years, both oil and timber have fallen prey to changing realities, and the town’s economic and employment bases began to shrink; young people were leaving, and El Dorado’s most prominent citizens—mostly members of the Murphy family—were forced to confront the possibility that their town might one day simply close up shop.

Instead, they doubled down. Murphy Oil launched a program called El Dorado Promise, which would pay the college tuition and fees of any local kid who simply graduated high school—a remarkable commitment. And the Murphys also donated millions to fund the Murphy Arts District, a collection of new art and music venues intended to reposition El Dorado as a musical mecca—Arkansas’s musical Marfa.

I visited last fall for the first annual Music Fest El Dorado, and I was impressed. El Dorado is tiny but has a kind of gritty beauty, and the people couldn’t have been nicer. And, I have to admit, there was something pleasant about going to a music festival populated with more truckers, farmers and oil workers than hipsters. The new facilities were great places to see and hear music. (Alas, the renovation of a beautiful old theater, the Rialto, was not yet finished.) And while the line-up was in some cases a little too mainstream for my taste—hello, Train—there were some unexpected surprises, too: Ludacris, Hunter Hayes, ZZ Top, X Ambassadors, even Migos, which is a pretty big assortment of talent for an Arkansas town of about 18,000 people. One really important point: The festival organizers made a concerted effort to make the lineup racially diverse and inclusive, which has not always been the norm for El Dorado. It felt authentic, and welcome.

El Dorado and MAD are hosting ongoing concerts and a second Music Fest this October. They are both well worth a visit.

For more information, visit eldomad.com.

Peter Nappi Shoes

If I lived in Nashville, I’d want to hang out at Phillip Nappi’s Adams Street shoe store, which was named after Phillip’s Italian grandfather, a shoemaker. Housed in an old brick warehouse building, it’s warm and relaxing and fascinating, like the magical workroom of a beloved uncle. (There’s another location now, on 12th Avenue South, that I haven’t been to yet.) I’d also be likely to spend a lot of money on the shoes that Phillip Nappi sells there. Handmade in Italy, they are sturdy but elegant and distinctive. Peter Nappi shoes are stylish, but they also feel casual and timeless and unpretentious. And they are beautifully made, with a craftsman’s attention to detail. I have the Julius Basso boot in cuoio, and whenever I wear them, I feel like I should be writing the great American novel, or striding the floor, flinging paint, in Jackson Pollock’s studio, or designing the app that’s going to bring Google to its knees. Odds are I won’t—but like any great pair of shoes, they make you feel like, while you’re wearing them, you can do amazing things.

The Julius Basso boot costs $495 at peternappi.com.

The Bachelor Farmer

Last summer I traveled to Minneapolis-St. Paul as part of our Worth Destinations research, and while there I dropped in solo for dinner at the Bachelor Farmer, a restaurant whose farm-to-table ethos has attracted national acclaim and helped fuel a burgeoning food scene in MSP. I’d never been, and I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Turns out that, in its mellow, modest Minnesota way, the Bachelor Farmer deserves all the praise it gets. I sat at the bar and, while reading a book, had a delicious meal of “old water chicken”—the name refers to the broth in which it’s cooked—so tender and flavorful it changed my notions forever of what you can do with chicken. I followed that with a dessert of vanilla bean panna cotta with rhubarb-raspberry jam and coconut-buckwheat crumble which has forever spoiled my ability to eat an ordinary dessert. All of these were washed down with a craft beer and a glass of white wine (sadly, I didn’t record their names) that a massively informed but not-obnoxious-at-all bartender helped me choose. It was my best meal of the year. A close second: Spoon and Stable, also in Minneapolis.  (The tamarind glazed pork chop—holy cow.) And, come to think of it, out at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Cedar + Stone in the JW Marriott is vastly better than your typical hotel restaurant. Even if you don’t want to go shopping, it’s worth a visit.

For more information, visit thebachelorfarmer.com, spoonandstable.com and marriott.com/hotel-restaurants.