Holly Moore

Back when a jelly bean was just a jelly bean.

Yo syoung68! If you don't think South Philly 'tude is proprietary, you ain't been in South Philadelphia.

Attitude. Along with distance from 9th and Passyunk, another red flag is the modifier "Philly" in front of "cheesesteak." Also, if like the NY Times recently did, the sandwich name is sub divided into "cheese steak."

The Arby's 69 cent roast beef sandwich, before the comminuted beef roll, was a great roast beef sandwich and possibly the best chain fast food product of all time. As a kid, there was a pizza place in Denville NJ that built a sub using rare roast beef - the beef was roasted in the pizza oven. Nowadays I have had no luck finding a hoagie shop, sub place or deli that roasts its own beef to a bloody rare/medium rare. When I was in college I spent way too much time at a bar called the Box Car which served rare roast beef sandwiches on a kaiser roll with the option of horseradish. It was based on Buffalo's Beef on Weck with a less salty roll. Rare roast beef on a good roll, topped with horseradish and washed down with a cold Budweiser - as good as it gets in the roast beef sandwich category. More ancient history - the Stockyard Inn in the Chicago Stockyards used to serve a prime rib sandwich at lunch times. Those in the know ordered an end cut, which was still cooked rare. Perfect. Almost as good - Nick's at 20th and Jackson in Philadelphia hand carves roast beef to order, alas medium done, dips the kaiser roll bun in au jus and serves the sandwich topped with aged provolone. Cool that I have a corollary.

Howard Johnson's - their fried clams and hot dogs. In Philadelphia, the Restaurant Renaissance, when Philadelphians first found restaurants exciting. Within the Renaissance, breakfast at Steve Poses's Commissary - a gourmet cafeteria which baked its own brioche and croissants every morning, prepare-to-order omelet bar (for me, creme fraiche, smoked salmon and fresh dill) and introduced Philadelphia to Colombian/French Roast blend coffee. The carrot cake reference above may have been the Commissary's carrot cake. Jersey diners sans ferns and cocktail lounges.

All better now... The post has returned. Another construction issue or two added. Restaurants take forever because...

Another twist from the elusive Speck. For now, at least, the last three posts to the Studio Kitchen Blog, two on Speck, are no more. The post pointed to above, which hopefully returns soon, was a humorous jaunt through the unique frustrations that arise upon pursuing the perfect restaurant kitchen.

Thank you Shola. Restaurant Take Forever to Open Because...

Nice write-up in "Speckulation." The kitchen looks impressive. Any idea what has been holding things up? It seems like the space has been ready for a while. Way back when, getting ready to open my restaurant, I put a sign on the door with the opening date and then kept crossing the last date out, adding things like "definitely next week," "positively by the weekend," "next Monday, guaranteed," with maybe a total of seven or eight new dates courtesy of my contractor and the city bureaucracy. It was a fun opening gimmick, and got us a pre-opening write-up in the Inquirer. Though such an approach is far too crass for Shola, a bit of public communication on anticipated opening date(s) would be the savvy move. So much of Studio Kitchen has been his interaction with his guests. For a while, through his blog, we were right there with him step by step as Speck progressed. The Q&A Shola ran a few months back was great. But for the past few months, just silence, made more frustrating because, other than the occasional morsel from Phil, there is a sense of being totally shut out from a project we felt part of.

I'm guessing this is self correcting. Screw up memorized orders a few times and management will likely insist on written checks. Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta takes a different approach providing customers with a segmented guest check and a sharp pencil.

As a kid, cocoa - the way of my parents. Nowadays sometimes hot chocolate, sometimes cocoa, depending on what the menu says. I probably have greater expectations for cocoa. I've never used "hot cocoa."

I think every poppy seed hot dog bun I have ever tried outside of metropolitan Chicago has been at least a bit stale or too long in the bun warmer. I'm curious if anyone makes them locally or if they are all frozen and shipped in from Chicago along with the Vienna franks

Two things Katie (I sense a trend here): First I hate it when Philadelphians label Gino's and especially Pat's as tourist traps. They aren't, any more than Reading Terminal is - which it isn't. Both cheesesteak places have generations of local customers that far outweigh the tourists. I'd never go to either on a weekend when lines wrap around the building - but especially Pat's, when not overwhelmed, puts out a good and sometimes great cheese steak. Second - There are no "sammies" served in Philadelphia, except perhaps at Subway and maybe in the suburbs. I dare you to go to Tony Luke's and order a pork sammie. Though more Philadelphia's probably eat cheese steak than pork sandwiches, I agree the roast pork sandwich is not as identified with Philadelphia as it deserves. I'd also add relative newcomer Jake's and old timer George's Sandwiches to your list of worthy Philadelphia sandwich destinations. George's, especially, never seems to get its due.

Two things, New York Times. First, "Beyond Cheese Steaks ...?" Not the most original slant to an article on Philadelphia restaurants. Perhaps the first of a series: "Beyond Lobster Rolls ...," "Beyond Italian Beef ...," and "Beyond Gumbo ...". Second, it is "Cheesesteaks," not "Cheese Steaks."

One attitude that turned rather quickly - scallops. In the 70's/80's bay scallops were the delicacy and larger sea scallops were much less expensive.

The participants seem to have backed off challenging the judges - none of the confrontations of the first two judges' tables. Wonder if they mellowed, decided such scenes were futile or were told by the producers to be more respectful.

More thoughts on restaurant web sites Click

Embarrassingly chaotic in the Chinese kitchen. Amazing and disappointing that so few of the chefs had a feel for volume turnout. Too many chefs and no one in charge. Production company decision to force some of the chefs to the front of the house was unfair and way too Hell's Kitcheny. Gave them a major disadvantage - relying on chefs already in the weeds to cook the servers' dim sum too. Quickfire and Colicchio cooking (especially running back and forth) rocked.

Not sure whether J&W offers both BS's and Associate degrees, but either way I'd expect that students going through two year or four year programs would more often than not seek out the corporate route complete with fringe benefits, shorter work weeks, better pay and better opportunities for advancement. Personally I stumbled into a Hotel/Restaurant school education. I was interviewing at Cornell's engineering school when my father suggested checking out Statler Hall, home of the hotel school. Wandering the halls, we ran into Dean Beck who sat me down, talked for about an hour, and sent me on my way with an admissions packet and a new career path that I had never considered. I'm guessing most/many 16 or 17 year olds who choose a hospitality program, especially a chef's training program, have little idea what they are getting into and at some point start looking for less severe hospitality career options than the restaurant kitchen.

Strikes me as a totally inane statement by a pretentious critic. Edited to add: Present company excepted, of course.

More regulations and paperwork, because restaurant owners don't have enough to do in a day.

Unannounced dining makes sense. As I've said elsewhere, follow the dinner(s) with the reviewer hanging out in the kitchen for a busy service or two. One gains a lot more insight watching the sausage being made than by merely eating it.

Makes me familiar with the name. Six months from now if I see "Red Medicine", I probably will recognize it but no idea why and be likely to consider the place because I heard something about it. Present day - outing the critic makes me more interested, refusing to seat her, no longer interested.

Outing a critic, fair play and a step towards debunking the need for anonymity. Refusing to serve her, the antithesis of hospitality and totally bush league. The national press for a restaurant, priceless.

Dramatically, Jen going home so early was quite the plot twist. Caused a mighty a stir. As another reality show puts it, "Expect the unexpected." Nothing is certain in the Top Chef kitchen. Must watch every episode lest I miss the next shocking turn of events.