davebr

I come to Los Angeles fairly often and I want to know where the hard core late night Chefs go to eat, drink and be themselves?

True Todd, but not in this case. I have never gotten $1 from the Cotton Bowl and I dont expect to ever get anything besides the best fried chicken there is. It's all there for Mrs. E her family and the city. Im just trying to prolong the life of one of our institutions.

Soooooooo, where did you eat?

I just thought I would pull this thread back up. Its been a year since someone posted and I will be traveling to Fresno a few times between now and next summer. What about markets? Fish, Meat, Vegetables?

I did go and i have it now for my po boys!!

I love dessert wines. I hate those little glasses that most restaurants pour them into. I use a white wine glass. How many ounces is a proper pour?

John T from Gourmet magazine seems to agree. This is from the food editors blog: July 30, 2007 MEET EVELEAN AND OGLE HER NICE LEGS Algonquin just released a book of mine, Southern Belly: the Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South. Within are profiles of 200-odd people and places. Food people and places. It's kind of a guidebook, in that I include profiles of old-school restaurants. It's kind of a social history book, in that I use food as a way to think about race and class and other issues. I'm proud of the book. But I'll admit, freely, that -- taking into account the restrictions of the form -- it's flawed. By the time we went to print, one of my favorite spots in the book, Mayo's Mahalia Jackson Fried Chicken (and Fried Pies), in Nashville, closed. Maybe not for good. But as of this writing you can no longer buy the best sweet potato pocket pie in the world from E.W. Mayo, the nonagenarian king of the fry basket. Losses of that sort are buoyed by new discoveries like the Cotton Boll Grill in Shreveport. It's a hutch of a place, in business since the 1930s, with a counter at center and four rows of flanking booths. Sausage and gravy over homemade biscuits for breakfast. Chicken fried in vegetable oil and ham drippings for lunch. (Great stuff!) The Cotton Boll is owned by David Bridges, who also owns Bella Fresca, a local white tablecloth restaurant. But never mind that. The people to pay attention to at the Cotton Boll are the African American cooks and servers who really own the place. They are talented. They are sweet. They are sassy. On the day I was in, lead fry cook Evelean Demming was wearing a Cotton Boll T-shirt. On the rear was the retro-hip Cotton Boll logo. One the front was a stylized rendering of three chicken drumsticks and the slogan, "NICE LEGS."

The decorator doesnt tell me how to cook, Im not gonna tell him how to decorate.

Im remodeling my restaurant so I have some time to travel around the state. I want to visit some cool farms, dairys, sausage makers and so on. What are your favorite artisan products made here in Louisiana?

I enjoy the thinner gumbos as well. I just always assumed they were file gumbos not roux gumbos.

This is a bit boring. But, Im working on a business plan and I was wondering---when it comes to insurance, who covers the person doing the stagier when they get hurt? It seems if a restaurant is nice enough to take you in, then they shouldnt be held responsible to the intern who cut off their finger---or whatever. Who is held liable for the person working for free? In America its not considered working if your not getting paid so you cant put it on a "workers comp" insurance policy. Just a little baffled on how to cover it here in America.

There is a bill up for vote that offers tax credits to "culinary arts and food science infrastructure". 10% for 15,000-150,000 spent, 15% for 150,000-1mil, and 20% for 1 mil and up. Hopefully it passes and that will make them reconsider. I credit JW for providing the infrastructure in making Charleston a great food city. Just imagine what a bunch of skilled labor could do for a city that's already great.

I would be surprized if you couldnt find those things in Fayettville. There is a great market there called Ozark foods. Their version of a Whole Foods, but with a lot of local stuff. The farmers market is really cool. A ton of local raised "salad bar"--grass fed meats. Between you and Rogers is War Eagle Mill in War Eagle. They have what I believe to be the best stone ground grits as well as all flours ect.. Cool little place on a stream that turns the wheel that turns the milling stone.

Thanks! Im glad you enjoyed my restaurant. Did you ever go to Lucky Palace? The house turned soul food shop---There is a place called Fullers. Its not listed or do they have any of the proper licensing to be a cafe. But, it is very good. Take youree and turn east on olive heading into the shadey neighborhood. Take a right on freewater and go about a block and look on the left for the house with a big garbage can in front of it. great cornbread, pig feet, pork chops, greens, ect... Go for lunch. My favorite things at Herby K's are the gumbo(file) and the fried oysters and onion rings of course.

Yes I live in Louisiana its very humid. The shelves are glass. I have opened the doors and we'll see what happens the next couple of days. I am really worried because my regular cabinets have been up a year and they still make the glasses smell like wood.

A bar was just recently built in my house. The cabinets are new and stained. Before I pour any wine, I have to rinse out the clean glasses because they smell way too much of wood. Handing someone a slightly wet glass is getting to be embarassing. What do I do?

What are the "Must eats" from casual to fine dining? What is the Reading Terminal Market?

Im visiting In the later part of Janurary and I am looking for a great/cool Hotel with a great/cool restaurant. I have never been to Philadelphia. The only thing I have ever heard of is the Rittenhouse. The only restaurants I have heard of are Stephen Starr's. Are any of his places in a hotel? I do have one reservation for Saturday night at Morimoto.

No, the fish is really a steak fish, firm.

I had that dish a few months ago and I thought it very well could have been the best fish dish I have ever had!!! Ever!!! Anywhere!! In my life!!!

Penned:"but what exactly is it that we're trying to cherish and preserve? I hope it's not the French Quarter, which has evolved into a illogical mix of characterless housing" Yes, 100+ year old French/Spanish architeture is definitly second rate to Time's Square. Penned:" I'm not certain the cuisine was ever as good as its reputation, in part because the people who have consumed, evaluated, and admired it likely weren't sober enough at the time of ingestion to know what they were eating." "New Orleans, to me, is a city of crooks and cooks". Hello Pot? This is the Kettle. Penned: "A local joke says it well: New Orleans has a thousand restaurants but only one menu." That joke was from the 80's. It died with the opening of Emeril's, Mike's on the Ave and Mr Richmans sense of decency in the early 90's. Penned: " Food should not taste as though it belongs in a museum." " brought down from Canada—good Lord, are we trying to save food from Canada?" Cajun/Creole food as we know it today is barely 50 years old. We'll put it in line right behind him. Penned: "New Orleans has always been about food and music, with parades added to the mix. (In the North, where I come from, we like to think we're about jobs and education, with sports thrown in.)" No one ever gets paid to cook and we are born knowing how to play the saxaphone--no education needed. The best artisans of their craft never let it look like work. Penned: "New Orleans fell in love with itself and acted accordingly, becoming a festival of narcissism, indolence, and corruption." Where is the mafia from? Penned: "While walking back through the rapidly filling room, I shook my wet hands over the heads of people sitting at tables nicer than mine." N.C. Fat Albert, No class! It sure sounds like its been a while since someone "relieved" himself. Somebody needs to do the world a favor and send him the issue of Maxim with O'Riely on the cover so that he can take care of that problem.

Thanks!!! Although I'm disappointed, Im thankfull I dont have to deal with yalls traffic looking for the place to only find out its not open.

The Los Angeles magazine said Mozza will be open this month. Does anyone know if it has opened yet?

To be honest, AS A WHOLE, I never thought service in New Orleans was that great to begin with. There were difinitly men and women that were true service artisans working in the city. But, it always seemed that there were sooooo many restaurants and only so few true professionals that you only got great service when you dined at a place where the average server age was over 30. I cant count how many times I stepped into a restaurant where the floor manager or GM was like 25 years old. Take Katrina out of the equation. Every new restaurant has an incredible hard time finding good help. Katrina just compounds the effect. But no one said the restaurant business was easy anyway. If you are good and you take pride in what you do there is no obstacle that you cant overcome. It just takes will, determination, more hard work than you ever imagined and never allowing yourself to have an excuse. My pet peve is excuses at restaurants. I have fired many a server for giving excuses to customers,,,ie: "The kitchen is short staffed tonight" or "I got double sat, I'll get to you in a moment". The customers are there to relax and forget the troubles of the day, not to get caught up in someone elses problems. With all of the problems that the people of New Olreans face every day, they do need an escape. A decent meal with great service can provide that. Maybe the chef does need to step out of the kitchen a bit more and crack the whip. Im a chef and even I'll admit that service is more important than food. Mediocre food and great service=restaurant lives on. Great food bad service=restaurant is dead. PS-If my spelling is horrible, everything I own is in a box because Im moving. Sorry.

JB is tha MAN!!! ← To be fair, the spread John Folse provided the next day was also damn good. The man himself didn't appear, but his catering company certainly took care of us. ← Im coming to help the weekend of the 10th. I will be more than happy to recieve food from anyone willing to cook it.