When I was a boy growing up in New York on Long Island, I always looked forward to the approach of Fall, and it is one of the pleasures I have missed living in Florida. I am not sure what it is about fall that invigorates my body and excites my senses. Is it the cool crispness of a clear autumn day or the brilliant colors of the leaves as they change color? As a kid I didn’t give it that much thought. Now, college football seems to be the highlight of the season, but I still make the fall pilgrimage back home to visit my parents and take the kids out to pick fresh apples and reminisce of what fall is to a kid. This issue of Casual Flavors celebrates the best of autumn, proving why it’s often everybody’s favorite time of year.

In our story, “From Blossom to Basket,” our regular contributing writer Steve Wilson takes us on a tour of New York’s Hudson River Valley, perhaps America’s quintessential autumnal landscape, with its seemingly endless acres of apple orchards, spooky mansions open to the public, vast hillsides of changing leaves, and historic towns. Every fall, I take my family to the region, often joined by my parents, to go apple picking—it’s become a kind of family tradition.

Although my summers growing up were filled with barbecues and picnics and parties at the beach, it seemed that it was in the fall months that my family really indulged in entertaining. Now, my wife and I like to celebrate the season by hosting friends and family for grilling gettogethers in our backyard. And because I’m a big college football fan, we like to orchestrate tailgate parties, too. Anne Marie Cloutier, our feature writer about food and decorating, spent time in the Stonewood kitchen with Mike Drury, aka Chef Mike, to watch him create his grilled pork with a fresh apple chutney that we now serve at all our restaurants (“Absolute Sensation”) and that I think is the perfect fall food. As Mike told Anne Marie, the pork meal he created is “like having all the best tastes of autumn beautifully combined in a single dish.”

Because fall is the ideal season for entertaining at home, Anne Marie also spoke to Lynn Butler Beling, who is fast becoming one of the country’s authorities on entertaining and hosting parties. Lynn shares her tips for ways to create a tabletop that functions as a defining feature of a party.

In every issue of Casual Flavors, we like to visit with a favorite Stonewood customer—and it seems that so many of those who frequent our restaurants lead fascinating, accomplished lives. This month, we introduce you to Doug McGinnis, the second-generation owner of Blossom Honey Co., Inc., in Edgewater, Florida. It’s a sweet business in which Doug and his sister, Patricia, make honey from a virtual hive of local suppliers.

In what has become an annual pilgrimage, 20 of our managers and employees are taking a trip to California’s Napa and Sonoma valleys for the annual wine “crush”, or harvest, one of fall’s most exhilarating events—and we’ll report on their adventures in a future issue. In the meantime, though, we decided to visit the Rosemont Winery in Australia and learn about their growing techniques. As the title of our story states, “The Folks Down Under Are on Top their Game When It Comes to Making Wine.”

And we think we’re on top of our game, too! Enjoy this issue and the glories of autumn. As always, we look forward to hearing your comments.

Doug Sullivan, CEO of Stonewood Grill & Tavern