Juanito

There's a place in town we frequent about every other week, for lunch and a couple of rounds of margaritas. We've been regulars for a long time, and we tip well. We always get excellent service, choice tables, and strong drinks. About every third time we go, the mgr sends out a guacamole and chips on the house. About every fifth time, he buys us a round of drinks. We'd go even if he didn't do this, but it's nice to be appreciated.

Not entirely true. While it is true of bags of sugar, or canned diced tomatoes, it certainly doesn't apply to produce. We buy in produce five times weekly. Prices CAN change, five times weekly. I've seen head lettuce double overnight. We roll price changes, if they occur, once a week on dry goods, but three times weekly on fresh produce. As a vendor, I will not arbitrarily raise a margin on someone, if, as you say, I think they aren't looking. The biggest factor I take into account when I set up margins is drop size - if you are killing me with multiple small deliveries, I will have to have a higher margin. Larger deliveries equal more profitable deliveries for my firm - you give me a bigger slice of your purchasing pie, and I'll lock in lower overall margins. Playing vendors against each other works well enough in the short term, but soon they will figure out if your account is worth it or not. Some won't play the game. Others will screw you in a dropping market - tenderloins dropped $1 a pound last week - my competitor hasn't shown the drop yet - if you bust my chops every week about a nickel on a box of mayo, maybe I only pass along half a dollar of the increase. If you deal with me fairly and honestly, you're getting the whole buck. Since I have long term relationships with my clients, I don't have to play that game. Newer guys on the street do, and they are usually the ones who get stuck with bid type accounts. The restaurant - purveyor relationship need not be an adversarial one. I was interested in the one post about the guy who was miserable, with hair falling out in clumps. I've known operators like that. It's not worth it. FWIW, I work for a regional top 50 distributor. I've sold food for over 20 years. I've seen all sorts of people go into, and out of, business. Success in the restaurant business is doing a lot of little things right. It's smart to concentrate resources on the purchasing side, but I've seen even the most obsessive buyers go under - they were so focused on saving on the buy side, that they didn't notice what was happening in the front of the house. That's where the success or failure really comes. Oh, and when I worked in a restaurant, a really smart chef taught me: If you buy it by the pound, weigh it. If you buy it by the piece, count it. That's still good advice.

No, in my experience, if the chef cares about the operation, they will be lower, not higher. Someone who doesn't work with the food might be ignorant of things such as yields, and alternative uses. They buy things based solely on price, without considering that sometimes paying more can earn you more. Chefs know how to utilize items to generate maximum revenue. Revenue is the most important part of the food cost equation. Once people figure that out, they kiss their food cost problems goodbye.

I don't have a man. I can and do cook. My "woman" can cook, but not as well as I can. And whatever she does know how to cook, I taught her. So there. She's really good at laundry, though.

One of my favorite wineries to visit in Paso isn't a winery at all, but a tasting room in an industrial part of town - Garrettson Wine Co. Mat Garrettson is active on some of the wine boards, and is the driving force behind the annual Hospice du Rhone in Paso Robles - I think he is making some of the best wine coming out of Paso Robles. I would make it a point to make the drive to Tablas Creek - their wines are very good, and they have an excellent, informative tour. Bistro Laurent is good - I would have recommended Alloro, but he's closed the restaurant. I also had a terrific meal at Villa Creek - owned by Chris Cherry, also a local winemaker - try his Mas de Maha, made from Tempranillo, Grenache and Mourvedre. Re accomodations, I stayed at the Paso Robles Inn, and was disappointed. On the phone, they told me they had high speed access, but when I got there, and asked for it, the desk person said I needed to give a $250 deposit for the necessary equipment. "It doesn't really work very good", she added. Friends staying over at the Best Western Black Oak Inn enjoyed free high speed, and seemed quite satisfied.

Lucky you - wish I had a Chapeau! in my neighborhood. Great wine list, fairly priced, and friendly to BYO as well. It's everything a neighborhood restaurant should be.

I've enjoyed this thread, and am longing for the bagels of my youth, 3000 miles east, and forty years in the past. I googled up this article, which I found interesting. Do any of you NY e-gulleteers concur with the author as to favorites?

I remember some being topped with what resembled rock salt. I really liked those. This was in the early 60's, Lydig Ave and White Plains Road, in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx, what was then a Jewish enclave.

most days, I have a bowl of mixed cereal, like a third cup of wheaties, a third cup of cheerios, and a third cup of raisin bran, with a half banana and a tablespoon of ground flaxseed with a cup of skim milk....afterwards, I'll have another fruit, like some cantaloupe, or a peach. Also, I have two cups of coffee about an hour before I eat. Maybe one day a week, I'll splurge and have bacon and eggs and toast, or a eggs topped with chili verde along with some tortillas, or maybe some waffles or pancakes.

I didn't mean to confuse the issue. The imputing 8% rule was the way it used to be, as best I can recall. So many service personnel routinely declared such a small amount, that the IRS simply said, fine, you want to play that way, then we're going to ASSUME that you made AT LEAST 8% tips on your total sales, and we expect 8% of your total sales to be declared as income. If you don't declare it, we'll tax you on it anyway, because we know you're lying.....or something like that. It was never meant that servers were only responsible for 8%, simply that it was the minimum they could get away with reporting. I was aware that the law changed somewhat in the last few years, moving the responsibility to operators to be sure that their servers are reporting honestly. Perhaps that's when the 8% rule fell by the wayside. There still is not, to my knowledge, any way to police, with 100% accuracy, cash tips. Staff get screwed all the time out of their tipouts by unscrupulous servers, who, fortunately, are a small minority.

In practice, isn't this more than overcome by the underreporting of cash tips? Be honest. The IRS imputing 8% tips on sales wasn't always so; it developed as a remedy to the widespread practice of not reporting, or underreporting, tips. Not that I blame servers for cheating the IRS, in fact, I encourage it. If I had to bet money, I would say more servers are undertaxed on their true income, than overtaxed.

The thing is, he was right!

In California, there is no exemption for servers - they earn the full minimum wage. I guess every state differs.

In the US, bottled water is being promoted to restaurants as a "ticket builder", pure and simple. It's an easy way to add $15 to a four top. Think bottled water isn't profitable? One bottled water company even has a "secret shopper" promotion. If a server recommends the company's water to the SS, he gets a check for $50, and is entered in a drawing for an all expense paid trip to Italy. One of the things I got a kick out of when dining in Italy was when the server asked if we wanted our water "con gas, or sensa gas". And Craig is right, it was cheap there.

More importantly, will Keller be in CA, or at his new place in NY I imagine it would make a difference

Truthfully, none of the above, save for Super Rica, are child friendly. Via Vai has a patio - that might work.

After reading the New York Times piece this morning, I've concluded that Wolfgang should keep his son away from the press. One shouldn't bad mouth the competition. ("Luger's is a factory") Wolfgang seems like a nice gentleman, who has learned a thing or two after forty years in the business. His son would do well to talk less, and listen more.

I was interested in flapjack willie's post, because I have been selling AGAINST Certified Angus Beef at the wholesale level for twenty years! CAB is good, even very good. Consistent, too. But I will take Prime graded beef over it every time. The "Certified" part of the name fools a lot of people - even professionals really believe that it means some sort of official certification; they don't understand that in this case, "Certified" is to beef, as "Heinz" is to ketchup. One more thing. In a recent "blind" cutting and tasting of five purveyor's beef lines, that I participated in, including CAB, the winner (as determined by a panel of a large buyer's chef and F & B manager, among others), was not CAB, but Kansas Black Angus. The cuts considered were strip loins, PSMO's and ribeyes. On a another day, the result probably would be different. That's the way it seems to go in the meat biz. If I had a restaurant, I would spec PRIME for my middle cuts, and wouldn't worry too much about if it were Angus or not.

Oh - and as to sushi....in the Santa Ynez Valley, Buellton specifically, is a great place called A-ru - the owner goes to Los Angeles five days a week to hand select her fish - and it shows in the final product. In Santa Barbara, Pirhana is pretty popular, and Arigato, I think, is another popular spot, but I haven't eaten at either one - and I've also heard good things about Sushi Teri House

You've picked some winners with Wine Cask and Brothers, either one would be hard to beat. Since you are going to be in the Santa Ynez Valley, Brothers would be the logical pick. Some others to consider: the Ballard Inn, includes a small restaurant formerly known as Cafe Chardonnay - recently purchased by a very talented chef, formerly sous chef to Ming Tsai at Blue Ginger in Boston - he's doing some nice things there, and you might find it of interest if that sort of food appeals to you Chef Rick's Santa Ynez, Trattoria Grappolo, the Willows (in the Chumash Casino) are some other spots worthy of your consideration. Me? I'd go to Brothers

Are you compiling this list so that he may look at successful operations, and try to duplicate them? Or is it as a list of potential suppliers? Because it wouldn't seem to make sense to use a deli, such as some mentioned in this thread, as a supplier to a deli. In Santa Barbara, there's a great place called Via Maestro 42, on upper State Street, that is owned by a guy who also happens to be a wholesaler of imported prouducts. So he has two outlets for the products he imports, his own place, and other restaurant clients around town.

You must go to the Inn at Spanish Bay, at sunset. They have a bagpiper strolling the cliffs, and serve drinks around fire pits. It will send shivers up and down your spine. I second the recco for the aquarium. It is a very interesting way to spend a few hours.

Anyplace that describes menu items as "grilled (or broiled, or sauteed, or whatever) to perfection". Whose idea of perfection? Mine? The cook's? The dishwasher's? And how the hell else would they prepare it, anyway? Grilled not too badly?

The same way I feel about calling mozzarella "mutz-a-del" ,ricotta, "rigoth" and proscuitto, "brazooth". Now, excuse me, but I have to go eat my gavadeels and salad, with vinegar -ette.

This is my first post here, so just in the interest of disclosure, I am employed in the foodservice supply business, and many of the restaurants mentioned in this thread are clients of my firm. More importantly, I love food, and am a twenty year Santa Barbara resident. I am a bit disappointed by the low esteem in which our local dining options are held, but I do understand. The labor pool isn't quite as deep here as it is in larger cities, and turnover is high. As dfunghi says, this isn’t NYC, San Francisco, or Chicago. So you probably won’t find “cutting edge” food here, or have any life changing meals. It is quite possible, though, to dine very well, and there are probably only a handful or so of nicer places on earth to spend a few days. So let’s eat, shall we? First, I am not a big breakfast person. However, I do like the Cajun Kitchen, though I prefer the De La Vina street original location to any of the newer spots. It is very simple food, though. When I am in the mood for breakfast, I go for an old fashioned Mexican one, at the Rose Cafe. There is one on Haley Street, and another nicer one on what is known as “the Mesa”, which you will find located at the intersection of Cliff Drive and Meigs Road. (side note: this is just across the way from the Lazy Acres Market, which any lover of food and wine MUST visit while here). Order the huevos rancheros, and ask them to top it with chili verde, instead of salsa. For something more elaborate, I would recommend the El Encanto Hotel. It will be pricey, but it sports phenomenal city views, and out to the islands beyond. Brunch at the Biltmore is also a favorite. Esau’s on lower State Street would be the local’s favorite “greasy spoon” option. For lunch, I love Cafe del Sol, across from the Bird Refuge. This is one of those restaurants where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. One can find better food, and certainly better value (this is where the Montecito trust fund babies come to get soused, and it is priced accordingly), but the combination of location, food, and service is hard to beat on a sunny Santa Barbara day. We always sit on the patio. Oh, and I believe that they have the best margarita in SB. Certainly, if you have your heart set on La Super-Rica, then go there. But I find folks often come away disappointed, mostly because their expectations are too high. Remember, it’s street food, served on paper plates, so be forewarned. The Paradise Cafe has loads Santa Barbara spirit, and may be worthy of your consideration. Do you like Italian food? Try Via Maestro 42, on upper State. They serve excellent pannini, gelato, and tasty goodies to take back to the hotel room. Make it a point to go to Brophy’s, at least for a cocktail. The place has great energy. Or for a higher end lunch, go to Via Vai in Montecito, sit on the patio, and have one of their wood fired pizzas, and a bottle of vino rosso. You’ll swear you are in Italy. When the dinner bell rings, I have a few favorites. To repeat, Downey’s, Wine Cask and Citronelle will all deliver the high end experience, with service above average for this area, and wonderful food. In addition, I would include Sage and Onion, Restaurant Nu, Bouchon, and the San Ysidro Ranch on this short list. A bit less obvious, but a definite find, is Aja, located on upper State. They serve a kind of Pacific Rim cuisine, in a non- fussy atmosphere, at neighborhood prices. Of all my reccos, this is the one that you’d be least likely to discover on your own. They are also very corkage friendly here, so bring along your favorite Riesling, and don’t forget to offer Tim a taste! There are no shortage of Italian options; some of my favorites are Olio e Limone, Ca Dario and Trattoria Mollie. If you go over the hill to Santa Ynez, try Brother’s, Trattoria Grappolo, or Chef Rick’s. I do hope you come away from your visit with positive feelings about our area. I hope one or two of my recommendations enhance your stay. Juanito