tighe

In today's Times, Nancy Leson's column says that the owner of Cassis is opening a lunch-focused French cafe in the lobby of the Smith Tower. Sign me up! He makes an interesting comment to the effect that he doesn't think Cassis will ever make money and that he continues it out of the goodness of his heart. Interesting....

It's been a few years since I've been to either, but my recollection is that TOTN is much more food focused and the wine is secondary. On the other hand wine producers are a big part of TOW. My opinion is that the food was better at TOTN. As far as the crowds go, both events are kind of a zoo.

One of the more common violations that I've noticed is termed 'pooling of eggs'? Can anyone share some insight on what that means?

Maybe others are already familiar with this feature of the King County web site, but scrat recently discovered that you can look up the inspection history of any food-service business in the county. It's pretty interesting (and addictive) to browse my favorite places. One thing that is clear is that even high end places are not immune from getting dinged for fairly serious transgressions (Canlis). Our friends at Jumbo had a VERY rocky inspection last July, but appear to have righted the ship. I don't know if anything I've seen will change where I eat. King County Restaurant Inspections Online

Good point. Have to say that one common complaint I have about the variety of things I've had 'saltimbocca'd' is the failure of the prosciutto to actually become one with the underlying meat. Perhaps thats not the point however. Definately going to give your recipe a shot soon....

I was just discussing this phenomenon with some people here at work. The proliferation of Vietnamese places is amazing. Seems like I can throw a rock out my office window and hit 2 or 3 (with a another opening soon). Kind of like the wave of Thai restaurants ten years ago (or so). Can't believe they're all going to make it, even in the relatively short-term. I'm not complaining, Vietnamese food is making serious run at becoming my favorite Asian cuisine at this point....

Could the deli in question be Roxy's? Thats the only kosher pastrami place I've hear of in town. Haven't been there myself, but it looks like they have two locations: 1329 1st Ave (where Virazon used to be) 2364 NW 80th St. Web page I'd definately be up for meeting at the downtown location for lunch some day if others are interested....

Mamster, I don't mean to diss on your happy accident of fusing pancetta to chicken, but isn't this comparable to a 'saltimbocca' preparation? I guess the difference is using pancetta instead of prosciutto. When it comes down to it, any excuse to fry something wrapped in a pork product is fine by me.....

Klink and I gave George's a try for lunch today and came away quite satisfied. I had what they called a sausage sandwich, which was piled with a very thinly sliced soft variety of sausage that I couldn't exactly identify, but it was tasty. Herr Colonel had a liverwurst sandwich that I will let him expound upon. We also sampled their bratwurst, which got the Klink seal of approval. The store has quite a variety of Polish products, most of which I wouldn't have any idea how to use. The only drawback as a lunch destination is that there's no seating to be had. We ended up dining al fresco in Freeway Park.

Actually, I'm concerned that if my secret fantasy of sharing donuts with you were ever revealed, Laurie would become seriously concerned..... Wait, is this a public board??

In my one experience at Lumiere, I was also put off by the exorbinated prices on the wine list. I chose to go with wines by the class, which I thought were of good quality and significantly less that most of the bottles that were available.

Actually, one of my co-workers was kind enough to bring in a dozen this morning. It IS possible that we were both eating a chocolate-glazed chocolate cake donut at precisely the same moment though...perhaps that accounts for the transcendental nature of the experience for me....

I had my first experience with Top Pot donuts today and was impressed. In my opinion, definately the best I've had in Seattle. I much prefer the 'cakey' style of their donuts to the more airy style of KK's or most supermarket donuts. Given their proximity to work, this could be bad....

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.... I heard an ad for Cascadia today on KJR Sports Radio. It was basically promoting the restaurant as a pre-Sonics game destination. More or less verbatim, one of the lines went: "Cascadia is nice enough to impress any lady, but you can still have a burger and garlic fries, and we guarantee that there will be ten items under $10 on the bar menu every night" Do you really think that this is the market niche that Kerry Sear was shooting for when he opened the place?...

Scrat and I have been to Rover's a couple of times. There's no doubt that the food is fabulous, but it is definately pricey. I would avoid any special events; we went for New Year's Eve one year, and as great as it was, it wasn't worth the price.

Despite hearing/reading numerous positive comments about Postcards, I had an atrocious experience there. The food was passable, but there was such palpable tension among the staff and rudeness on the part of our server, it completely ruined the evening....

Its in the same space that has been at least three different Vietnamese places, as far as I know. This incarnation is about a year old I think. There's yet another Vietnamese restaurant going into the new apartment building across 12th from Seattle U. Also interesting, for me at least, is that a brew pub/sports bar is also going into that building....

Hands down, my favorite meals on Kauai (and some of my favorite ever, for that matter) were at Jean-Marie Josselin' restaurant A Pacific Cafe in Wailua. Absolutely spectacular. You can read some details and some raves by others here: 'Innovative Kauai Food' thread. I didn't make it there, but have heard great things about The Beach House restaurant in Poipu as well. For more casual food, I really enjoyed Sushi Blues and Zelo's in Hanalei.

Actually the brick-oven jobs at Filiberto's that scrat mentioned are the best incarnation of pizza simplicity that I've ever had ('cept maybe in Italy). I think they actually have the exact combo that you mention BH, or at least something very similar. They're calzone are killer too.... Edit: gc, as a fellow south-sider, have you ever had the Filiberto's pizza?

A quick Google search finds his byline on a bunch of editorial reviews of different kitchenware items at Amazon.com....

Better yet, blue cheese gravy.....

The subtleties of the English language can be elusive...... I did however also see the menu for their next wine dinner featuring Rhone wines (a favorite of mine). This menu looks even better than the last one! Rhone Valley Wine Dinner Menu

Duoh!! I see that I paid double retail for a bottle of spirits of a particular national origin at particular restaraurant because I was certain it wasn't available in liquor stores here!! I'm being circumspect because I don't think said restaurant was actually supposed to sell me said bottle. Better savor it....

Sorry if I'm lagging behind the thread, but my two favorite stories about how well things "work" in France..... Taking 12 hours to drive from Barcelona to Perpignan along the two-lane coastal road that you can't get off, because French farmers at the border had overturned truck-loads of produce and then lit the trucks on fire on the freeway to protest the importation of Spanish produce.... Being stranded for a day half way between Avignon and Lyon because French farmers, again, were blockading the tracks in protest of the planned TGV route that was going to cross their land.... I've never had anything even close to these two little adventures happen to me in Italy, or anywhere else I've travelled. Steve, if you find the cuisine and how things are done in Italy annoying, don't ever, and I mean EVER, go to Turkey. You'll climb the friggn' walls!

All I can really say about this is: Daaamn!! That was some seriously good eating. If I go to Hawaii, can I drop your name at AW's? Thanks so much for sharing.....