H2O’s new wine flight menu features groupings of several wines poured in two- or three-ounce servings and sold as a set, giving diners a chance to try several wines in one sitting.
The new cheese flight menus are a similar concept, offering a variety of domestic and imported cheeses that pair well with the wines.
Chef Dan Dunn says he’s been very excited to try all the new cheeses and wines. Surely, the same will be true for his customers.
CC’s Fine Wines and Gourmet Gifts has moved to a new location, just up the road from its previous home. The new shop is in the Breeze Plaza, 3090 Gulf Breeze Parkway.
The shop still carries the same quality merchandise its customers have come to expect, including limited editions and bottles from small wineries. In other words, the kind of products you wouldn’t find in the corner grocery.
CC’s will also continue to offer wine tastings from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays. Details: 932-3617.
Unfortunately, the news isn’t as good for two Gulf Breeze eateries. Morning Star Coffee, at 47 Gulf Breeze Parkway, and Verde, an Italian restaurant in the Seagreen Center, have both closed.
While I never got the chance to visit either restaurant, I did sample Morning Star’s fare many, many times. PNJ Assistant Life Editor Kimberly Blair would often stop at Morning Star on her way to work and pick up some of their fantastic baked goods to share. From muffins to brownies to banana-nut bread, everything was delicious. These goodies will be missed.
Our best wishes to the owners and employees of both establishments.
If you’re looking for locally grown produce, head downtown on Saturday. The Palafox Market, an open-air farmer’s market for local growers, will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Plaza on Palafox Street.

pnj.com

May 9 (Bloomberg) — What recession?
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Hasbro Inc. and Ford Motor Co., which rely on Americans' disposable income, surged more than 15 percent in New York Stock Exchange trading since mid-January even as billionaire Warren Buffett said the U.S. economy is contracting and Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein said it's “sliding into'' a recession. The Standard & Poor's 500 Consumer Discretionary Index gained 6.6 percent, beating the 5.9 percent rise in the S&P 500.
While financial firms reel from $321 billion of mortgage- related losses, consumer companies in the S&P 500 are exceeding analysts' first-quarter profit estimates by wider margins than any other industry. April retail sales topped projections, and investors at RiverSource Investments LLC, Wells Capital Management and Traxis Partners LLC say $117 billion of tax-rebate checks may fuel consumer spending for the rest of the year.
“Why, if it's a recession, are all the economically sensitive stocks leading the market?'' said James Paulsen, the Minneapolis-based chief investment strategist at Wells, which oversees about $220 billion. “They were priced for consumer death, and now we're finding out not only are they not going to die, but it may not be all that bad.''
Financials Do Worst
Companies in the S&P 500 consumer index that reported earnings so far topped analysts' estimates by 11.1 percent, the most of 10 industry groups, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Financial firms posted the worst results, trailing estimates by 55 percent, as banks including New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc. wrote down holdings of mortgages and leveraged buyout loans.
The S&P 500 Financials Index trailed the broader index by 6.6 percentage points since Jan. 22, when the Federal Reserve unexpectedly slashed interest rates by the most in more than two decades to prevent the subprime-mortgage market's collapse from dragging down the global economy.

bloomberg.com

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I hate the Masters.
There, I said it. I’m sure I’m not alone. But from where I’m writing this, about 220 kilometres from Augusta National Golf Club, home of the annual spring tournament, those words are sacrilege, the blaspheming of Bobby Jones’s Holy Spirit. Dumping on the Masters to a white male of a certain vintage (over 30, suburban, lives in a house 75% larger than he needs to adequately needs to shelter his family with some comfort) around here is like farting in church without the attendant brief, rebellious giggle.
People build their entire year around a trip to Augusta, looking forward to sniffing the azaleas, getting hammered on cheap, watery beer, exchanging awkward high-fives after every aggressive five-iron, and taking blurry camera phone photos of Tiger Woods. Not me. I loathe the event, its rituals and the sport itself. This time of year also brings huge geysers of green pollen falling from the Georgia skies, coating the landscape and making everyone dash for the Claritin. Personally, I’ll take the runny eyes, itchy throat and sinus headache over another mention of Amen Corner.
Let me preface this diatribe by pointing out that I’m not a fan of golf in general. “Not a fan” doesn’t mean I don’t bother to watch coverage on TV or consume links-related media (though I don’t). It means I don’t approve of golf on a basic, marrow-deep level. A game that mainly exists so the idle rich can have a reason to get up in the morning, or so corporate robber barons can draw up plans to stick it to the little guy while getting out of the office at the same time? No thanks. A game that uses colossal amounts of natural resources to prop up its very existence? Particularly here in the American South, where courses were exempt from conservation rules enacted during a punishing drought last year? Or in traditionally impacted zones like South Asia or the Middle East? Please. That doesn’t even get into the history of exclusion at clubs like Augusta National, or as comedian George Carlin pointed out, the idiocy at the game’s core - “you hit a ball with a stick, then try and find it. Once you do, you hit it again?!?! You’re lucky you found it! Go home!!”

commentisfree.guardian.co.uk

By Steve Keating
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - Britain’s Justin Rose grabbed a share of Thursday’s first round lead for the third time at the U.S. Masters and hopes it will finally end with a green jacket.
Rose, who has been a one-round wonder at the Augusta National Golf Club, got the year’s first major off to another dazzling start, offsetting two early bogeys with six birdies to sign for a four-under 68.
“I seem to (hit) the home run early,” said Rose, sitting alongside South Africa’s Trevor Immelman at the top of the leaderboard. “I’ve gone out there today with a really relaxed frame of mind and that’s obviously what I’ve got to recreate the rest of the week.
“I’ve gone out there without putting pressure on myself and I’ve gone out there relaxed, positive and it paid off for me.
“The trick is you sit there now, top of the leaderboard up there and hopefully that’s what I’ve learned the last few years is that there’s 54 holes left and you’ve got to stay in the moment right until the back nine (on) Sunday.”
Rose, still chasing his first top 10 result this season, has now ended the first day at the Masters on top of the leaderboard three times in four appearances at Augusta.
Despite those promising starts, he has never been able to seal victory, with his best result a tie for fifth last year.
“I don’t know exactly,” shrugged Rose, when asked why he has flourished in the opening round at the Masters. “I obviously work hard before it, get myself up for it. Continued…

uk.reuters.com