Luxist

The trend for cocktails in the past few years have moved in two directions, super futuristic featuring molecular mixology and decidedly retro with bitters and elderflower liqueur. Root is a liqueur from Philadephia-based collective Art in the Age that traces its heritage all the way back to the 1700s when colonists were first introduced to root tea brewed with sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen birch bark, and other roots and herbs. This later formed the origins of root beer. Root is not a strictly root-beer-flavored vodka. Instead it is a multifaceted mix of a variety of herbs and essences to create a unique spirit that harkens back to the past. Tomorrow night, 11/24, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the Pittsburgh Cocktail Competition will be held from 8-11pm at Bossa Nova with $5 Root Cocktails.

You can pick up your own bottle for $39. Visit the Art in the Age website for links to online locations. Some quick recipes for enjoying Root are here.

[via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

For the wine lover who has everything popular California winery Kendall-Jackson has a new service that is a step above their usual offerings. For $30,000 Kendall-Jackson winemaster Randy Ullom will spend three days with a wine lover, doing extensive wine tastings with them, learning their preferences and creating an ideal customized blend based on their tastes and personality. The purchaser will later receive a case of 12 bottles of the wine with a personalized label. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity. Those interested in the program should email for more information at customWine@kjmail.com.

This season you can spend your holiday family time putting Heidi Klum together. Editions Ricordi has created a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle in the image of a fashion photograph by Ruven Afanador. The image called Couture Banquet appeared in Vogue Spain and shows Heidi Klum displayed against an extravagant feast. The puzzle is a limited edition of 1000 and each is numbered and signed by Ruven Afanador. The puzzle comes in a silk bag packed in a hand-made wooden box with a red velvet interior. The completed puzzle measures 24x36 inches and pieces are printed on high-quality art paper with a velvet back side with golden glitter. It sells for 350 euros.

[via Art Daily]

Joe Montana recently put his northern California home on the market but his companion in San Francisco 49er glory, wide receiver Jerry Rice also has a home on the market in Atherton, California. The legendary athlete's estate is notable even in a town known for expensive homes. It was built in 2001 and extends over 16,000 square feet with six bedrooms. There are three levels with an elevator. The home has a family room with a wet bar and a lower level game room with a full bar. Other recreational areas include a wine room, crafts room and a full gym with its own bathroom.

The listing states that the home contains over $2 million in electronics that include a comprehensive security system, smart home features and a large home theater. The grounds extend over 1.2 acres with a a pool and spa and an underground seven-car garage. This home was marketed at $22 million in 2007 but is now for sale at $14.75 million.


This home is being offered by Pierre Buljan of Cashin Company and featured by Sean Spanek of SportStar Relocation. SportStar Relocation. More pictures are available at the SportStar Relocation MLS site and a virtual tour is available at Pierre Buljan.

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If you'd like to be an author with a nice house, write thrillers. The best author houses I've seen belong to the thriller writers. Today's home in Palm Beach Florida belongs to James B. Patterson. According to the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties column Patterson calls his beautiful home with frontage on the intracoastal waterway the house that Alex Cross built, referring to his popular psychologist main character. Patterson used a wood-paneled office with a water view (outfitted with plenty of Patterson books in the listing pictures) as his writing studio. The turquoise and white kitchen currently decorated with a collection of gleaming copper pots has the type of farmhouse style appeal one doesn't usually see in lavish Palm Beach homes. Outside there is a terrace surrounding a heated pool with spa ,built-in barbecue and a dock with boat lift. This home is listed at $14.95 million.

Patterson is moving his family to an even bigger home, a two-acre Palm Beach estate, with a 20,505-square-foot main house which he picked up for $17.45 million over the summer.

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From the LA Times Hot Properties:
--A 13,500-square-foot home in Tarzana with a tennis court and koi pond, an underground garage that fits 16 cars is being put up for auction. It was once listed at $9.775 million and cost more than $7.5 million to build. The minimum bid will start at $2.1 million on Dec. 5. The property website is here.
--Personal trainer Bob Harper of "The Biggest Loser" has purchased a home in the Hollywood Hills for $2.9 million.
--Robert Loggia has sold his longtime Bel-Air home for $2.95 million.


From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Rod Aldridge, the founder of British outsourcing company Capita Group, has picked up a place in New York for $13.75 million at the Superior Ink building on West 12th Street.
--via the NY Observer, Doug Von Allmen, a venture capitalist and victim of alleged Ponzi-schemer Scott Rothstein, has put his duplex apartment at the Time Warner Center on the market for $18.45 million. The listing is here.
--Bank of America portfolio manager Raymond Cubero and his wife, Kathleen Comerford, have changed brokers and dropped the price of their Trump Tower duplex. The four-bedroom "smart house," is down from a high of $14.995 million to $12 million. The listing is here.
--via Curbed, architect Dean Maltz has paid $3.4179 million for a four-bedroom apartment at the Metal Shutter Houses at 524 West 19th Street.
--Gisele Bundchen has officially sold her triplex penthouse at 347 West 11th Street. The 1,700-square-foot apartment, which originally hit the market for $10.9 million sold for $4.4 million.
--Steven "Mac" Heller, the former head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs, has sold his three-bedroom apartment at 14 East 75th Street for $4.725 million.
--via Newsday's Real LI, Billionaire Ron Lauder has sold a 2.77-acre estate in Wainscott for $5.256 million to his daughter Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer.
--Former Ariba CEO Lawrence Mueller and his wife Mary Kay have gone into contract to sell their condo at 15 Central Park West. The three-bedroom apartment which the couple first listed for $16.5 million in May was reduced to $15.5 million in October.
--Alex Acquavella, the son of top NYC art dealer Bill Acquavella, has paid $3.9 million for an apartment at 50 Gramercy Park North.
--Melvyn Blum, a retired EVP at Vornado Realty Trust, has sold his apartment at the Trump International for $6.4375 million.
--via the NY Observer, the Rothschild Mansion has undergone a price cut for the third time this year. It was once listed as high as $35 million and is now listed for $25.5 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Post:
--A four-bedroom condo at The Dakota is in contract for $11.5 million after once being listed for as much as $24 million. The buyer is Mark Fisch, managing partner at Continental Properties, a New Jersey-based real estate firm.
--Nicolas Cage's Olympic Tower condo at 641 Fifth Ave. has just closed at $7.5 million.

--At 76 Crosby St., where Kelly Ripa has a duplex penthouse there was a bidding war for a 2,578-square-foot apartment with a $4.35 million listing price. The two-bedroom home with a deep soaking tub in the master bedroom suite is now in contract after about three months on the market.The new owner will share the second floor with Gawker Media boss Nick Denton. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
Fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger has finally sold Stone Hill, his Greenwich, Connecticut home for $20 million. He first listed the estate more than a year ago for $27.9 million.

--The heirs of a California builder have listed the 600-acre Middle Ranch, the getaway spot of film director Cecil B. DeMille, for $28 million. The listing is here.


From the Chicago Tribune's Elite Street:
--Chicago Bears player Dusty Dvoracek has sold his Lake Villa home to teammate Juaquin Iglesias for $344,500. Dvoracek purchased the home in 2006 for $365,000. In January he listed the home for $389,900.
--White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has rented out his four-bedroom, 2,719-square-foot house in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood for one year for $4,995 a month. Emanuel purchased the house in December 1998 for $695,000.
--Nancy Hughes, the widow of filmmaker John Hughes, has bought a 17-room, 6,700-square-foot English country-style house in east Lake Forest, about a block from Lake Michigan, for $5.2 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kim Zolciak is not moving to Los Angeles and is staying put in her Atlanta, GA area townhouse condo.
--Zsa-Zsa Gabor may have lost as much as $10,000,000 in the Madoff scandal and has had a $118,000 tax lien placed against her Bel Air Road residence. An unpaid tax lien can force the sale of a property if the debt is not paid.
--LaToya Jackson has seen condominium at the Regency Towers inside the Las Vegas Country Club in Las Vegas, NV taken away from her in foreclosure proceedings. Rumor has it that she now lives in a condo in one of the tall apartment towers that line Wilshire Boulevard near Westwood and Century City.
--Actor Gale Harold has listed a four-bedroom duplex in Los Angeles for $1.3 million.
--Ali Larter and Hayes MacArthur have picked up a four-bedroom home in Los Angeles for $2.925 million.
--Nicolas Cage has listed a three-bedroom home in Newport Beach, California for $995,000. He bought the home in 2006 for $1.7 million for his father who recently died. The listing is here.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Actor Rob Lowe and his makeup artist wife, Sheryl Berkoff, have sold a six-bedroom house in Montecito, Calif. for $7.6 million.
--A look at "Harry Potter" actor Rupert Grint's real-estate empire: two country mansions plus another house, all worth about 9.2 million pounds.

From Brickwork: The London Property Blog:
--via Telegraph, Suzie Quatro, best known to U.S. fans as Leather Tuscadero from Happy Days is selling her mansion 'Hyde Hall' for £2.3 million. The listing is here.

A classic whisky distillery is being shut down in a cost-cutting measure. The Edrington Group plans to close the Tamdhu distillery and malting operations in Aberlour next year resulting in a loss of more than 30 jobs. The group has decided to concentrate its efforts on its three main brands, The Macallan, Glenrothes and Highland Park. Another distillery Glenturret will also remain open. The closure is a response to the economy.

Whisky is still selling well but costs have risen and The Scotsman quotes Graham Hutcheon, group operations director for Edrington, who said that the move was done to make sure that the "business is the right size and shape to support current and future activity levels." Edrington employs about 2,200 people across the globe and also owns the Famous Grouse and other brands such as Cutty Sark and Brugal rum. The Tamdhu distillery opened in the late 1890s and went through several closures over the years including a long period between 1928 and 1947.

How's this for a dreamy bed? The Mermaid's Sleigh bed is a gorgeous bed custom made by artisans in Vermont. The bed has a wave-shaped footboard and carved maple natuilus shells adding a fanciful sea-themed touch. Each bed is custom crafted of natural solid hardwoods and hardwood veneers. The piece above is in queen size with cherry and curly cherry veneers, curly maple and nogal. Because it is made for the new owner you can customize it to your choice of wood and add names, dates or other personal touches. Prices start at $17,100.

We've been to Spring Island, South Carolina before to check out Bank of America chief exec Ken Lewis's getaway home (still on the market and the price keeps dropping). Today's estate is in the same area and belongs to former Proctor and Gamble executive Tom Laco. The property consists of two separate lots, the 3.48 acre lot the house is on and a 3.13 acre lot directly across the pond from the house which provides privacy and serves as an ample nesting area for local birds.

The five-bedroom home sits high above Rice Gate Pond and offers a panoramic view of the pond and a thousand acres of Spring Island marshes. The home's master bedroom is on the main floor of the residence and two guest rooms are located in a separate wing with two additional bedrooms on the upper level of this bi-level home. The living room, study, dining room, sunroom, office and three bedrooms all have views of the pond and salt water marsh. The three car garage is currently configured to accommodate two automobiles, a golf cart and a work shop. The home has over 1,600 square feet of porches and terraces and there is a freestanding greenhouse and a rose garden. This home is listed at $2.75 million.

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The Miss California USA pageant is eager to put the Carrie Prejean story behind it and has unveiled the crown that will sit atop the new Miss California USA's head. INTA Gems & Diamonds, the official jeweler of Miss California USA, has designed the new crown which they say promotes unity, love and the beauty of California. The crown will be unveiled to the public at the Beauty of California dinner at the Rivera Resort in Palm Springs on November 21 at 8 pm. The stars that line the border of the crown represent the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The curves of the crown are mean to recall the waves that flow back and forth along the California coastline. The crown is made of silver, gold and a total of 768 stones including diamonds, diamond simulants, natural sapphire, and pearl.

Peter Young, creative director of INTA Gems & Diamonds designed the crown with the idea that after the controversy over Carrie Prejean's opinion on gay marriage at the Miss USA pageant he wanted his design to present a positive view for the next 2010 Miss California USA titleholder. The wave design also represents the different perspectives in California. He says: "I felt a strong need for people to know that although we may have different opinions from opposite sides, the one universal idea that speaks true for all of us is that love unites. Therefore, at the center of the beautifully formed sparkling wave design is a heart. I hope that speaks true to the next Miss California USA."

The 2010 Miss California USA pageant that will be televised on Sunday, Nov 22 on the CW and on My Television television networks.