jamiemaw

Thanks for the report, Megs.

What did you and your friend order, Megs?

There's a partial description of it on Page 2, Post # 51 of this thread.

Do you think thet UK petrol pricing will remain aloof/immune from world markets for much longer, Jonathan? Surely Mr. Blair's treasury--like sawdust on the garage floor--won't be able to absorb those increases forever. My own thoughts suggest, as I mentioned upthread in an edit, that high fuel prices are one important reason that FD restaurant prices run to the equivalent of two tanks of gas in London and most European capitals, versus one at home. The Economist's Big Mac Index shores this up: Qatar has the lowest Big Mac price at US 68 cents, European cities amongst the highest.

I'm very sorry to report that accliamed restaurant designer Werner Forster is very ill. Werner has designed Cin Cin, Bluewater, Araxi and West for Jack Evrensel (and was working on Jack's new home when he took ill), Hy's at the Mountain and Il Giardino and a host of other Umberto Menghi rooms amongst many others.

Bluewater has a credible list. As does Octopus's Garden, served with a sense of humour.

Not from embarrassment, surely. A hot summer's day in Naples can be a tad overwhelming . . .

I agree that restaurants are amazingly reactive economic barometers, rich. The ramifications of rapidly escalating fuel prices will likely be far-reaching and, coupled with rising interest rates and Mr. Greenspan's attitude toward the real estate 'bubble' (if he says it often enough, it will become self-fulfilling, unlike your gas tank) will also likely have a profound knock-on effect: BUY 1. The movement towards eating local ingredients will be further spurred. Get used to root vegetables this autumn. 2. Local wines. 3. Dining locally, i.e. at restaurants within one’s neighbourhood will become relatively more popular. 4. Local food manufacturers with excess capacity/infrastructure, especially bakeries. 5. Well-located, especially urban, mid-price point CFD concepts. 6. Restaurants in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, America's largest supplier of oil and gas. SELL 1. Restaurants heavily dependent on foreign ingredients, especially with a limited shelf life, will be penalized the most. Encore une foie? 2. Fast Food Sector—especially freeway and exurban heavy chains--except KFC, which typically does relatively better in economic downturns due to higher 'value satisfaction'. 3. Restaurants that cater to a lower income (<$30,000) clientele. (In the U.S. gasoline expenditures for households with incomes over $70,000 represent 1.7% of pre-tax income; for households under $30,000, that leaps to a whopping 5.3%, or about triple. It follows then, somewhat paradoxically, that restaurants with smaller average per-person check sizes will be most severely impacted.) 4. Las Vegas . . . 5. . . . and other remote population centres without a strong agricultural base. 6. Convention-dependent cities such as San Francisco. 7. Destination dining—i.e. isolated rooms with views. 8. Resort dining. 9. Chains with central distribution hubs and commissaries. 10. Chains and independents that took on too much debt or have near-term lease renewals (<24 months out). 11. High end sushi restaurants. 12. Fish-centric restaurants and oyster bars. 13. French bakeries (at least those insistent on French flour). 14. Steakhouses. 15. Low and mid-price point Antipodean and South American wineries. 16. Restaurants with poor financial controls and forecasting ability, i.e. those that don't react quickly to these ramifications or remarket effectively. 17. Restaurants located in shopping malls; ciites with high mall restaurant poulations such as Phoenix/Scottsdale. 18. Asian restaurants with more than 35% delivery business. 19. James Beard House. Again. All this being said, the Brits and assorted Euros have been paying these kinds of fuel prices for a generation. Oh, whoops, that's why the price of dinner in London or Copenhagen is two tanks of gas, not one. And also, perhaps, why Qatar places first on The Economist's Big Mac index, at a mere US 68 cents.

I've heard two different myths for the name of this one: The dish is spicy, like a scarlet woman, shall we say. OR The dish is basically just a little of this and that thrown together, and can be easily assembled by a woman who has other engagements pressing on her time I personally like the first one best! ← My understanding is somewhat different, that the addition of hefty amounts of anchovy perfumed the dish in a manner reminiscent of a Neopolitan strumpet's professional parts.

The Flavr Savr tomato, an early precursor of GM foods, engineered at U Cal Davis and complete with an Arctic char gene to resist freezing. Clearly it was named by an engineer too.

Incoming.

The Sedins (Heidi and Danielle) and who else?

Four 'N' Twenty references the children's nursery rhyme Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye, Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king? The king was in his counting house counting out his money, The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes, When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose! In Australia, a four 'n' twenty is a beer-sop meat pie, often factory produced and in vast quantities.

As threatened: the address is 2585 West Broadway; telephone 733-0046. This block now affords a variety of dining options: Moderne Burger, Lumiere, KFC, Le Point Blanc etc. But clearly, Mistral will go toe-to-toe with Feenie's.

Mark Steenge, ex-Four Seasons Philadelphia and other top drwaer service jobs, has left his post as GM of Lumiere. Steenge was increasingly the public face of the restaurant as its erstwhile proprietor/chef, Rob Feenie, spent increasing amounts of time pursuing his various television, publishing and off-site cooking projects. Steenge called the parting "amicable".

The constant dilemma: Finding that elusive combination of a clear screen, decent sightlines, great food and drink and warm and informed (Harold Snepts drinking anecdotes, Tiger Williams facial stitch count etc.) service. Many new rooms have opened across the province during the hockey lockout. And some, such as Wilson's Steakhouse, have survived, if barely, to face-off another day. List your favourites--old and new--here please. Obscure technical references (screen size and plasmoid quality, lack of dependence on deep fryer, hockey knowledge of servers/bartenders etc.) welcomed. Also, what's your preferred hockey beverage? And snack?

I'd have to nominate Kung Pow Phat Soy for sure: food writers have stayed away in droves, especially now that the hockey lockout has been resolved. Say what you want about the Sedin twins, but they sure could bus a section.

I agree with you VCG. Trevor Herbert was honoured with a Premier Crew Service Award at the 15th Annual Restaurant Awards last year. We've written about the restaurant three times since it opened at 11th and Arbutus, and featured it in its earlier incarnation as Sienna Grill (when Gerald Tritt of Vera's was a partner) at 1st and Chestnut (currently Vintropolis).

In a food section cover article in today's Vancouver Sun, the Hamilton Street Grill bested many city stalwarts for its yam fries. Sun reporter Shelley Fralic asked for input from readers, and then did the due diligence herself, at: Belgian Frites Cafe de Paris Hell's Kitchen Fritz European Fry House Feenie's Fish Cafe Four 'N' Twenty Hermitage Guido's Garlic Fries Tha Hammy came out tops, because in Ms. Fralic's opinion, "The hearty stack of yam fries at this Yaletown yuppie roost may not qualify as true fries, but I make up the rules here, and they were far and away the best chips to pass my lips." She failed to mention the house signature dessert of lemon meringue pie (another category killer), however. She crapped (excuse the turn of phrase) all over the Watermark's 'lamentable" version, likening them to the "frozen, flaccid and tasteless" standard around the town. Congratulations to eG upstanding member N. Wyles. PS: When was the last time you heard a reporter use the term 'yuppie'? Quaint. I had to pause a moment to remember its 80s reference, 'Young Urban Punk', I believe.

Thank you for the kind words. As a subsriber to the NYT I must admit that I get terribly frustrated with their grey and lacrimose travel section. And in the case of the single page city profiles, more so, because (and sorry, Kurtis) they are called in. Bonnie Tsui has compiled dozens of these but has continuosly failed to convince me that she's set foot in a particular city, let alone the restaurants and other attractions of which she speaks. As a result, they're often foolishly contrived overviews. Particularly odd given the expense accounts of their standard issue, cross-dressing restaurant reviewers and travel feature writers, where one can still find occasional lapses of brilliance.

Minna and Jean-Yves Benoit's (ex-L'Emotion) bistro, Mistral, is scheduled to open Thursday, September 8th on the West Side. More details to follow.

Thanks for that GG. But colour me still confused: Is the chef de mission(ary) over or under the chef de garde manger? On the other hand, research tells me that the chef de plongeur, whose station is generally steamiest, is under everyone. Perhaps needless to say, with any luck at all that would properly include the hostess, and, on busy nights and bringing new meaning to the term 'slammed', the proprietor's wife.

Where did all the salmon go? Warmer ocean temperatures are being blamed for the extraordinarily low sockeye returns. And that's having a profound effect on restaurant supply as this article from The Sun proclaims.

Perhaps even more important than a soft opening (Nu) versus a hard landing (Watermark), is the depth of diligence involved in conceiving, developing and ultimately birthing the menus. While one restaurant cobbled together a proforma, low food cost menu, the other spent more than half a year in development. I note that the post I placed well upthread (#51 - that described the menu development) was from May 14th. At that time, Nu chefs Clark and Belcham had already been at work for months, and had the good sense to throw away a good number of their earlier experiments. It's that investment of time and effort, I suspect, that will determine where people (especially locals) want to be on that rainy Tuesday in November, when the view disappears at 5:30 and we focus on what's really on our plate.

Le biftek au bearnaise a Nu.