adegiulio

Wow!! It took them nearly an hour to seat you? You are much more patient than I. I like TF, but I would have left after the first 1/2 hour passed....I hate waiting for a reservation...

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I'll come if you are pouring that Limoncello you make Thanks everyone for the thoughtful responses...keep them coming!

So, we are considering opening a wine bar in the near future, and are doing our research now. Aside from the NY state liquor laws, does anybody have any suggestions or advice for us? What sort of things would you like to see at a wine bar? How important is food? What would make you say "WOW, I have to go there!"? Anybody out there actually own a wine bar that could offer some business advice? Thanks for any help. Don't restrict comments to just the above questions. We are new to the wine bar world (though we have plenty of restaurant exp.) and could use the help Ant

Yeah, this place has potential. Hey guys, how about some music!! And liven things up a bit...And if you are going to make things ahead of time, make sure that they come out right... It sounds like things haven't changed since I was there last fall. Thanks for saving me the time of going again...

I think this is a terrific idea! Anyone know where they bought the tchnology from?? I googled all over the place, but no mention of the company that actually makes the machine. Since there are two places that use it, my guess is that its not proprietary to Vinovenue.... Ant

Lucky, I've read your stuff here on eG enough to know that I usually agree whole-heartedly with what you say. I know I am going to get flamed for this, but I don't think what they (your friends) did is "beside the point". If they did in fact stick gum on the table, they deserve the non-present insults sent their way. How rude, disgusting, and inconsiderate is it to stick gum to a table? I'm sure she wouldnt think of doing it at home, so why in public? Actions like that make my blood boil. When people have so little courtesy as to not even put the gum in a wrapper, piece of paper, or even a little piece of tortilla, I have no patience for that. I agree that as professionals, they shouldn't be discussing their feelings in front of other guests, however any ill feelings toward your friend (if they were in fact the guilty party) I feel are justified. If they (your friends) didn't do it, then the guy is just a jerk. Either way, it does sound like they have an attitude problem there, but so do half the people in the restaurant biz.

Strickly speaking this is not a "Meritage." Meritage (rhymes with “Heritage”, so feel free to flick anyone who says “Merit-aahhjj”) is actually a very specific term and a registered trademark, to boot. American vintners who wanted to fashion themselves after Bordeaux producers founded the American Meritage Association to come up with an accepted definition for the term, and members pay $1/case fee for the right to put the word on their bottle. Red Meritage is made up of two or more of the red Bordeaux varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, St. Macaire, Gros Verdot, and Carmenere. A white Meritage is made from a blend of two or more of the following varieties: Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Sauvignon Vert. No single variety may make up more than 90% of the blend in either case. But here are a couple of "California Meritage blends" that are pretty good... Robert Foley Claret Joseph Phelps Insignia BOND Caldwell Cardinale Dalle Valle Maya Dominus Gemstone Lail J. Daniel Cuvee Niebaum-Coppola Rubicon Opus One Pahlmeyer Peter Michael Les Pavots Knights Valley Pine Ridge Andrus Quintessa Viader ← What exactly disqualifies that wine as a MeritaHHHge? And I second Craig's Opus induced

Umm, well once you remove that giant bone and accompanying fat/gristle, your 32 ouncer shrinks to a pound...still a nice sized steak, but nothing out of the ordinary. It's not like its 32 ounces of tenderloin...

I would hardly call celery god's gift to hunger. While it's crispy and refreshing, it does nothing to satiate hunger. It's like drinking a glass of water...

Well, since you said bad things about Fascino, (a restaurant I enjoy), I will nitpick your post on Epernay. Her name is CourtnAy I love Epernay also, though the frisee salad is chronically overdressed. I won't drum up old posts about this, but rest assured when I go there next, I'll be begging for them to take it easy on the sauce.... Non chocolate lovers (aka Communists) will enjoy the creme brulee or tarte tatin...

I've been known to drink wine once in a while. For bouillabiase, I would look for something like a white rhone. Something with some body and a little bit of lush sweetness. A sweet bouillabaise might make a dry white taste flat and overly acidic. The rest of the menu is pretty hearty, so if I were eating there I would probably bring a big wine, a syrah perhaps. Of course, if I were dining with a group, I might be inclined to dig up a bottle of prosecco to start things off, if I could find one. This is all hypothetical, of course.

Only losers go to Epernay I'll be eating the hanger steak. Never had the boulliabaise, but I think it's a fish stock base... Full Disclosure- I don't think losers eat at Epernay. They eat at Latour...

We go all the time on the way back from our house-being-built to our current house in NJ. It's a mile off the exit, really easy to get to, and very tasty..

Rich, I totally agree with you on Luger's. Definately not the best steaks I have ever had in NYC. Add the "wine list" and crappy service, and there you have it. Craft- a chef/onwer friend of mine agrees that, while the food was of high quality, it was WAY too overpriced for what you were getting. It's not like they have the corner on the freshest/best fish-meat-produce in the city. Why hit me over the head with such prices?? As one moderator told me, "I just don't get it". You know who you are...

Blondie, I new I could count on you! Thanks

We are just about finished building our new house. Like every closet barfly, I would like to build a nice bar in our basement. Not the typical 3-4 stool bar, but a real bar with a very clubby, antique-y feeling to it. I googled "home bar plans" but got a lot of cheesy responses. Anyone have any good websites to look at for ideas, supplies, and such? Thanks!

Hey John, I am trying to send you email, but the mail is coming back to me undeliverable. Something about you being over quota...

I searched for any comments on Cru and came up empty. Anyone been? Admin: threads merged. Note: It's hard to find the thread for Cru because the internal search engine only allows strings of four characters or more.

I, for one, think you are over reacting. No food product arrives from source to store in a vacuum. In a busy market, all the fish gets cut and/or cleaned on the same boards using the same knives. I think using plastic gloves, wax paper, and stuff like that is all for show anyway. There really is no way to keep everything completely separate from everything else. Who is to say that if you pick a trout from the case that a piece of ice from the salmon next to it didnt just land on it. Should they throw everything away? If it's all fresh and going to be cooked anyway, then what's the big deal. If she was scooping out macaroni salad with her bare hand and plopping it onto the scale's tray, then that would freak me out a bit... But, that's just me...

Yeah, and there are a whole bunch of clueless restaurant goers that, upon realizing that their bottle of wine is empty, immediately order another. Sometimes my wife and I get force fed wine and order another and another and another. Lets give ourselves some credit and admit that the practice of quickly pouring wine doesn't work on us. I mean, a bottle of wine is no small investment , either in sobriety or expense. I find it hard to believe that we are all out there panicking that our bottle is empty and ordering another. I hate to be the anti-cynic here, but maybe, just maybe, the waiter is there just to see how things are going and, not wanting to interrupt or look stupid doing nothing, pours a little splash of wine into our glass. After all, just because he is putting it in your glass doesn't mean he is pouring it down your throat. But that's just one mans opinion. One man who doesn't mind having his wine topped up. (Since I haven't ever experienced the waiter-who-fills-the-glass-to-the-top thing, I can't complain about that, but I can see how that would be annoying)

That's never happened to me. The part where they continually top up glasses everytime they pass isn't that big of a deal. I think it is just a way of silently interacting with the table. I think the idea that servers try to make their tables drink faster so that they get another bottle is an urban myth...but that is just one mans opinion. One man who goes out and drink wine a lot...

Where the old 10 Square was...

Everytime I think to myself "Maybe I should order up some of that tasty Wagyu beef from Lobels", a quick study of their website reminds me that I am no Donald Trump.

Pavoni baskets are small, though they're slightly larger if still undersized on the newer (aka Millennium) models. As a result, a lot of owners never bother with the single basket. As you've deduced, a single pull will force the same volume of water through the grinds regardless of which basket you use, meaning that the double basket plus a single pull gives a short double (more like a double ristretto in terms of volume). For a genuine double, you can pull the lever half or three-quarters of the way down, then push it back up, then pull it all the way down. (Some users advise pulling it all the way down, then pushing it half to three-quarters of the way up, then pulling it back down.) For a more detailed explanation, see CoffeeGeek's detailed review of the Pavoni Professional. Note: I've linked to the Operation and Maintenance page of the review; the releveant info is about a third of the way down. Also, the machine reviewed is an older, i.e. pre-Millennium, model. ← Lifting the lever only halfway wont do anything, at least not on mine. As I understand it, the valve isnt open until the very top of the lever's travel. Also, lifting the lever doesn't "pull" a predetermined amount of water into the portafilter, water continues to flow as long as the lever is at the top and the valve is open. I bought my pavoni about 3-4 years ago, so I don't know how they worked before then.