Alex

Metromix's outdoor dining guide.

Glad you can be there. Actually, most of us have never met in person, except perhaps at last year's Gathering. It's an easy group to feel comfortable with, though. We're on Eastern Time, so when you leave it'll be 4ish here. I'm sure I don't have to tell you about Chicago/Gary traffic. Then there are all the lane closures on I-94 in Michigan. But good times await...

The latest: tammylc & Eric Alex daniellewilley (& Michael?) Sam Iam & Joyce torakris ronnie_suburban cbarre02 & guest Elrushbo NancyH & Bob Palladion Shannon_Elise edsel Fat Guy slbunge (tentative) CaliPoutine (& friends?) VickiA2 destroit HeatherM Meez (maybe) jmsaul & L maggiethecat Flocko (maybe) Mr. & Mrs. Devilkitty (tentative) sweintraub annarborfoodie (part-time) aznsailorboi ulterior epicure's spirit

Yesterday was the last delivery day of the season to our local supermarket. We rubbed it with olive oil and baked it at 200F but w/o Vadouvan's cure, which we used last week (twice!) and loved. We finished it with fleur de sel and French walnut oil. The sides were buttered boiled redskins and roasted local asparagus with truffle oil. The wine was a young French red Burgundy. Good, good stuff.

Thanks Kristen, but if I'm going to not be staying at one of the regular 3 hotels, I will need to rent a car. I can't (and don't) expect someone to schlep me out to another hotel every night. Thx though! ← Do check out Enterprise. I don't know where in Clevelandland you're located, but for example, from noon Friday to noon Monday, the Warrensville Heights location charges ~$56 (including tax) for a subcompact, 62 for a compact, and 72 for an intermediate. There's unlimited mileage and no location restrictions, as far as I can tell.

From Tammy's first post: "Sunday morning, my husband Eric will be leading a trip to Zingerman's Coffee Company, where managing partner Andy will give a tour, demonstrate his coffee roasting equipment, and lead a "cupping" of some of Zingerman's coffee offerings." Breakfast/brunch/lunch tba, depending on who's around and their preferences and appetites.

*rubs hands together with glee* Thanks!! ← Where will you be driving from? Many Enterprise locations have a weekend special of $9.99 or $14.99 per day for three days; you just have to confine yourself to whatever they consider the local area. (I've done this for a Michigan-to-Illinois drive.) I've also nabbed excellent prices through Hotwire.com.

The Rite of Spring? Oh, wait -- that's a different restaurant. Thanks for a great report, doc. As I mentioned, I couldn't get a reservation at Schwa for next month, but at least I can enjoy it vicariously.

You're not too late at all; we just wanted to get things rolling early so as to give folks (like you!) a chance to plan ahead. There are other eG'ers coming from Chicagoland; I don't know if schedules and preferences allow, but carpooling may be a possibility.

Catew, thanks for the info, but the Mosquito Trap link is dead. Is there a live one somewhere? Itchy legs want to know....

So, can you make it to the Heartland Gathering and experience more Ann Arbor suckiness?

One more bump back to the top....

Of the four places you mentioned, I'd choose Frontera Grill by a wide margin. A reservation there is a must. You also might want to consider Heaven on Seven on Rush or Brasserie Jo.

Here's a very nice report at megnut.com.

I'd like to add that even a weekday reservation can be a tough catch. A couple of days ago I wanted to book a a party of six for a particular Thursday in July. They said there was absolutely nothing available on that day for six, or even four; they could squeeze in just two at either 5:30 or 9:30. Also, probably because they're so busy, it took two days to return my initial voice mail message. I'm glad to hear the quality of the food hasn't suffered under the onslaught, though.

So even showing him the Gandy Dancer thread wouldn't have helped, eh?

By Bob Garlough and Angus Campbell, two of our Chef-Instructors here at Grand Rapids Community College, an incredible book: Modern Garde Manger: A Global Perspective. One of the Amazon.com reviewers wrote, "...for a number of years I taught Garde Manger at a Le Cordon Bleu school. I probably own every text book (sic) on the subject...This is probably the BEST text on this subject I have seen...."

Whoohoo! tammylc & Eric Alex daniellewilley (& Michael?) Sam Iam & Joyce torakris ronnie_suburban cbarre02 & guest Elrushbo NancyH & Bob Palladion Shannon_Elise edsel Fat Guy slbunge (tentative) CaliPoutine (& friends?) VickiA2 destroit HeatherM Meez (maybe) jmsaul & L maggiethecat Flocko (maybe) Mr. & Mrs. Devilkitty (tentative) sweintraub rockandroller ulterior epicure's spirit

Chef Sato's Chocolate Raspberry cake meets your criteria and is festive and delicious. The recipe calls for soy milk but I strongly suspect you could substitute rice milk or almond milk. It's too long to list the entire recipe here, but if you like I can fax it to you. Just let me know via PM.

Cute or scary, depending on one's point of view. Also sad that they have to do this to encourage attendance. The story.

Also for us tourists, it's very near the Western Springs station on the Metra BNSF Line, only 30-35 min. from Union Station, about $7 round-trip ($5 Sat/Sun).

Thanks, Heather; I'll look forward to your posts (I hope). And Stalder -- no need to be nervous about your posts. I'm sure you've noticed the different perspectives eG'ers may have about the same restaurant. What really matters is reason and thought, both of which you obviously did for your post about Globe.

Updating: tammylc & Eric Alex daniellewilley (& Michael?) Sam Iam & Joyce torakris (& family?) ronnie_suburban (& family?) cbarre02 & guest Elrushbo NancyH & Bob Palladion Shannon_Elise edsel Fat Guy (tentative) slbunge (tentative) CaliPoutine (& friends?) VickiA2 destroit HeatherM Meez (maybe) jmsaul & L maggiethecat Flocko (maybe) Mr. & Mrs. Devilkitty (tentative) ulterior epicure's spirit

Ms. Alex and I just returned from four fun days in Stratford. (To any future play-goers this season: *do not* miss South Pacific.) Of course, we ate ourselves silly, so here's my report, entitled >> The Good, The Very Good, The Very Very Good, and the Ugly. << (All prices are in Canadian dollars.) The Good: Stratford has a new Indian restaurant, Raja, on George St. between St. Patrick and Downie, across the parking lot from the LCBO. For Sunday's dinner we ordered the set meal for two ($42), which included Chicken Tikka and Vegetable Pakora as appetizers; Chicken Madras and Lamb (or Beef) Korma as mains; and mixed vegetables, Pulao Rice, and Naan as accompaniments. I'm nowhere near an expert on Indian cuisine, but the food seemed authentic and the quality was as good or better than most other Indian restaurants I've dined at. The decor was very pleasant, the service was good, and the time we spent there provided a welcome respite from the day's heat and humidity. For dinner, animal-based entrees are $14-19. The lunch specials, for $6-12, look like a good deal. Take-out orders incur a 10% surcharge. There's no web site yet. The Very Good: We had eaten dinner at Bijou a few years ago and, as I mentioned upthread, greatly enjoyed the food but left smelling like kitchen. Last year they added a back room, so we decided to try them again for Sunday lunch. Like Midwesterner, we sat at the window banquette. The smell was still noticeable at times but was not as intrusive as in the main room and dissipated more rapidly. We found the portion sizes quite adequate and the food nicely done. I had strip loin (five good-sized slices) with fiddleheads and fennel in san cocho (a Puerto Rican meat-based) broth. I requested it rare in order to have it arrive the desired medium-rare. Ms. Alex had sauteed lake trout with golden beets and almonds braised in a saffron, preserved lemon, and Riesling broth. Each entree was $15. I passed on wine, primarily because the reds by the glass had been sitting out on the bar since at least the night before, re-corked or re-screwtopped but without any kind of preservation system like vacuum or nitrogen. It looks like Bijou's dinner menu is now exclusively prix fixe; if you're headed there you might want to check with them about this. The Very Very Good: I'll save this one for last. The Ugly: Even without a web site to peruse, 38 sounded promising -- a Stratford Chef School grad as owner/chef, a small but carefully chosen menu, and local and organic ingredients -- so we decided to give it a try for Friday dinner. Seldom have we been so disappointed by a restaurant. The menu was indeed small -- five apps, four mains, three desserts. So was the wine list -- five reds and four whites, none terribly distinguished. We did luck into a lovely Liberty School Syrah ($30/half-liter) that had just arrived and wasn't on the list. If I hadn't spotted it at the back of the bar, though, it never would have been offered. Our shared appetizer, "Seared foie gras with a ragu of wild leeks and celery root, rhubarb gastrique, and Haiwan (sic) black lava salt" ($14), was adequate; it's hard to go wrong with foie gras so long as it's not over- or under-done. Our entrées were reasonably tasty but meager on the protein, especially for the price: Ms. Alex's shrimp dish ($23) had just four average-sized (12-14 count?) shrimp, while my pork dish ($22) had three finger-sized pieces of overcooked loin and one tiny rectangle of soy-glazed belly. The one chef and one assistant seem to have lost (or never had) the knack of turning out dishes in a timely fashion. Our app arrived about 15 minutes after we were seated, which was passable, but the mains took another 45 minutes after that. Bear in mind that there were only two other tables at the time, a three-top and a five-top; both arrived after we did. What sealed the deal, though, was the service -- not rude or disdainful, just grossly inattentive. Even with only three occupied tables in a small dining room, the two servers/bartenders were way more interested in chatting with their friends at the bar than in seeing how we were doing. One server (not ours) did occasionally deign to check on his table's water glasses, but did not even glance our way. Our server didn't even get that far. Apparently this has been going on for a while; both local residents we talked with about 38 mentioned the deficient service, and one expressed surprise that they were still in business. Perhaps the multiple spelling errors on the menu, which turned out to have been typed by our server, should have been our warning sign. From just the twelve menu items, we have: Haiwan; Ceaser; Parmigiano Reggano; anchovie; smokey; Isreali; cous cous; tat soi; pannacotta; bitter sweet chocolate; crème brule; organge; cardomom. The Very Very Good: Now I get to go on at great length about Globe Restaurant, our Thursday and Saturday dinner destination and new Stratford favorite. Stalder and KMPickard have already posted about Globe in some detail, so mine might overlap with or refer to theirs. As mentioned, Globe specializes in creative and sophisticated small plates artfully presented. As did Stalder, we left the food choices to Chef Max Holbrook and the wine choices, for the most part, to our superlative server, Todd. The wines, with apparently not a clunker in the bunch, are available by the bottle, half-liter, or glass. The glass ($6-8) is a six-ounce pour, and they'll gladly split it two, three, or even four ways. On Thursday, for pre-dinner and the first two plates, we split a glass of 2005 KWV Chenin Blanc, from South Africa. The food started with a venison carpaccio with soy-cured foie gras, peanuts, and crisp shallots, followed by a stack of arctic char and potato pancakes with maple brown butter and crème frâiche. Next up was lobster ceviche in a sweet pepper-chipotle foam, garnished with minced red pepper and teeny-tiny balls of carrot and cucumber. Then came thin slices of pork schnitzel with two Asian-spiced shrimp dumplings, in a port-sake reduction. With the previous two plates we split a glass of 2004 Stratum Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. I then requested the olive oil-poached fennel with lemon goats cheese and parmesan. Todd made a great wine suggestion, a 2003 Prado Rey Tinto Fino, from Spain. The chef then sent out their "Lady Bird," half a peeled tomato with dots of olive, on a spinach-ricotta mixture, with pesto and salad greens. Our dessert plate comprised a piece of light lemon cheesecake, a scoop of lemon sorbet, and a tiny glass of bumbleberry shake with two even tinier straws. Just right. Todd then offered us a sample of a Peninsula Ridge (Niagara Peninsula, Ontario) Ratafia, the only one being produced in Canada. Great stuff, so of course we had to split a glass. Some very good coffee completed the meal. The total tab -- a very reasonable $120, including tax and tip. On Saturday we again left the food and wine choices up to Max and Todd, and splurged on the wine. An interesting aspect of the chef's choices that night was that the order of plates/courses was more traditional, but with a twist. Todd had the brilliant suggestion of drinking several wines from Malivoire, a Niagara Peninsula winery that practices sustainable viticulture. The food started with a smoky and full-flavored dashi with oyster mushrooms, red pepper, carrot, and udon noodles, garnished with snipped chives with their buds, accompanied by a split glass of 2004 Pinot Gris. A half-bottle of a light 2004 Pinot Noir accompanied a double-cut lamb chop (split for our convenience) with minted peas and red pepper coulis. This was followed by a palate cleanser, a scoop of lemon sorbet mixed with a little Slivovitz. Then came my favorite of the evening -- pieces of monkfish with a carrot glaze, on a smashed potato, in a fennel-infused tomato sauce, garnished with chives, chive oil, and dill. With the monkfish we drank a half-bottle of a terrific 2004 Estate Gewürtztraminer. After this was the cheese course, so to speak -- four generous slices of a slightly underripe St. André on slices of a very good baguette (we finished off the Pinot Noir with this), then a mixed green salad with a sherry-hazelnut vinaigrette. With our two, count 'em, two desserts we split a glass of 2000 Studert-Prüm Riesling Kabinett, from Germany. The first was "The Egg," which was essentially Michael Laiskonis's "egg" -- a hollowed-out egg shell filled with a chocolate pot de crème and topped with caramel foam and Maldon sea salt. The second was a stellar coffee crème brûlée with hazelnut shortbread and almond (?) biscotti. Of course, we had to close the meal with coffee and a glass each of the Ratafia. The total, including tax and tip, was $180, still quite reasonable considering how much wine we drank. Thursday's meal lasted 2½ hours; Saturday's was four hours but felt like two. Both times we were pleasantly sated without feeling overly full. I applaud Chef Holbrook's decision to not serve bread except when partnered with the cheese. Stalder was absolutely accurate when he wrote that Globe "is all about the food," as was KCPickard when she wrote, "eating there is a lot of fun." She also hit the nail on the head when she cited the house staff's enthusiasm and patience in explaining small-plate dining. Todd also mentioned this mission to us, acknowledging that an educated public is crucial to their success. Here's hoping.

I thought I'd bump this thread back up to the top....