Holly Moore

Having amassed a bunch of AMEX points and having grown increasingly frustrated with my inability to obtain food shots the caliber of philadining and other SLR users (of course I blame my point and shoot camera and not any relative lack of skill), I have ordered a Nikon D90 SLR camera. If I wasn't intimidated by the complexities of SLR's before, DPreview's detailed review of the Nikon D'90 has me wondering what the hell I have gotten myself into. Though AUTO is still an option, it strikes me as buying a Ferrari and then using the automatic transmission to take it on a spin around the test track. The D90 has so many settings. There are so many variables for most of these settings. My primary use will be in-restaurant photography. My primary end-use is the HollyEats site though I have sold some pics to magazines and for one cookbook. Two questions to get me started. 1. On which of the myriad of settings and controls should I focus? 2. I have always shot jpg format even though raw has been available. I save the unedited original and then edit a copy for my site. Nikon offers both NEF and Compressed NEF raw formats - also NEF with and embedded JPG. From what I read the NEF format with Nikons Raw format editing software (properly wielded) will produce superior pics. Is it worth burning storage space to use the Comepressed NEF format? How much more storage space will a Compressed NEF file take compared to a fine raw JPG file? That's it for now. I suspect I will be seeking more advice once the camera actually arrives. Thanks

Wrong re "summing up nicely." In Philadelphia one often sees a couple with their dog(s) sitting at an outdoor cafe. (Not really an outdoor cafe, but a row of tables along the sidewalk.) Some restaurants put out a water bowl to encourage canines. Because the sidewalks are mostly narrow, there are often turf disputes between outdoor cafe dogs and sidewalk dogs. While I enjoy the street theater, I am sure other diners find it annoying.

Ya gotta try the banana pudding at Bebe's Barbecue n the Italian Market.

Egad, it's back. Today at 8 PM eastern on NBC

"Dragged its name through the mud." Hardly. My take on the Mémé, and I haven't been there yet, is that they handled one situation badly. And they did. Very badly. I hope the owners have read the thread and sense that they should have done more for the couple. What that more is - is not all that relevant - just something, at the very least stopping by the table and commiserating. I had planned on giving Mémé a try. Nothing in this thread has dissuaded me, though if I end up adopting a dog I will likely leave it at home. Something I like about Philadelphia's restaurants being able to set tables outside are the patrons, with their dogs, sitting at them. It helps complete the picture. Very European, the way I like to think of Center City Philadelphia. So many dogs - so many evening thunderstorms. I wonder if other restaurants have encountered similar situations and what they did about them. One thing that has bothered me with this thread is the attitude that the restaurant was under no obligation to help - especially from those in the industry. I don't get it. Brings meaning to that joke about the waiter who was asked why he didn't Heimlick a diner choking on his food. "It wasn't my table." I've had a restaurant owner drive me home, across town, because I drank too much and he didn't want me to have to take a cab. At a three star restaurant in France a chef ended my tasting menu with an incredible porridge because it became obvious to the waiter that as the meal progressed I wasn't feeling very well. A desk clerk in Savannah walked me to Walls BBQ because it was out of the way and he didn't want me to miss it. No one was obligated to help me - just their nature to go above and beyond. That is a good thing and a pretty essential trait for those running a restaurant.

Want to write, start writing. That is sometimes the toughest step for an aspiring writer - actually taking fingers to keyboard and writing. eGullet is a terrific incubator for novice food writers. Plenty of opportunity to write and, wonderfully, there is visual proof in the thread continuations that people are actually reading and reacting to what you have written. Keep posting. The more one writes the smoother it should become. Edited to add: Keep editing. The more rewrites the better.

Thanks all for the good info. Please keep it coming. Any famous hot dog stands off the Thruway?

My sense is that WD usually puts great development time into his dishes including false starts, testing, and refinements until a dish is perfect. The short time frames of the challenges may be too confining for a chef with WD's thought processes.

My guess is that if the additional customers had fought their way through the downpour we had Monday night, they would have opted to stick around, til the rain eased off. When the rain eased off the dog was going back on the sidewalk, so the customers likely would have stayed. Happy endings all around. My expectations in this one-time situation are simple - that the restaurant owner would go out of his way to help the couple and that the restaurant's few other guests would not be so stiff-assed as to object to a couple and their dog finding shelter inside until a thunderstorm eases off. What got me started on this thread in the first place is that I can not imagine a restaurant owner (ie someone in the service and hospitality industry) watching a table of his guests outside getting drenched while eating his food and not being driven to find a way to help them.

Actually, as a copy center owner (and I was) I would be upset if my paper salesman did not at least try to come up with a way to help me out in an emergency. As a result I would probably take the time to have a friendly chat with the next paper salesman that walked through my door. Edited to add the quote

It is not that the customer feels entitled to more than he is paying for. It is that a savvy business person in any business knows that going out of the way to help a customer - be it a salesman running to the warehouse after hours and getting a copy center a couple of boxes of paper or a boutique owner finding a special pair of shoes for a customer or Ritz Carlton's legendary emphasis on service - develops repeat business and customer loyalty. That grocery store might send a clerk with an umbrella to help the customer.

First my assumptions on the situation: 1. It was pouring. Not raining, but pouring. Really pouring. "Not a fit night out for man or beast." 2. A neighborhood restaurant's Monday night clientele is more casual and laid-back than the same restaurant would attract on weekends. 3. Only a few tables were occupied. In the midst of the downpour, especially on a Monday night, the tables would not be filling up. 4. The dog and its owners were well behaved and house broken. 5. The restaurant owner did not talk directly with the couple in question about their problem. 6. The host had sufficient savvy to sense the sincerity of a guest's reply to a question. ------------ Voting: I wasn't suggesting a dining room announcement requesting a show of hands. Rather I envisioned the host, having mustered his tact and charm, explaining the situation and his thoughts to the guests at each table. (Personally I would not object to being asked. I would welcome this sort of interruption far more than the robotic and inevitable question, "How is everything?") If the table's guests smile and say something to the effect, "Of course, that makes sense," consider that a positive response. If a table's guests catch each other's eye and stammer, "I guess that would be ok," consider that a negative response. It is pretty easy for someone used to dealing with customers to know when someone is just being polite. A single negative response keeps the dog out of the dining room and the host has to come up with a different solution. I suggested one earlier - leash the dog in the storeroom with a pie tin of water for the 20 or 30 minutes that the rain was really coming down. No one would know. In any event it is the restaurant's responsibility to try to alleviate the situation. --------- "Rules are rules and must be obeyed. The Health Department will publicly shame the restaurant and maybe even shut it down." The odds hugely favor a one time act-of-kindness/health-code-violation never making it to the Health Department. If it did, and if the health department considered the incident sufficiently serious to investigate, the likely response would be an inspector dropping by, asking about the incident, and telling the restaurant owner not to let it happen again. (Add an exaggerated wink at the end of the admonition if the inspector happens to be a dog owner.) --------- For me it all comes back to hospitality - a restaurant customer is a "guest." The restaurant owner needs to go out of his way help a "guest" around a problem being experienced in his restaurant. In a situation such as the one being discussed, the problem is obvious. The customer should not have to ask. The owner knew. He was alerted by the server. He was obligated to help his guests.

But anyone in the service industry knows that there are people who will find fault no matter what you do. ← So don't do anything because the person(s) might find fault in your extra effort? Or is says something about a restaurant that makes no effort to correct an unpleasant situation. Again - a neighborhood restaurant on a Monday night in the summer. Business is so slow they sent home a server. A couple from the neighborhood picked that restaurant out of all the options in Center City West for a Monday night dinner. It is not rocket science that a restaurant would want to nourish their loyalty rather than tarnish it.

I never have been able to figure out who decrees conventional wisdom. Just know it rarely seems to be me. My unconventional wisdom says that in the middle of a downpour like the one last night it is wiser to be dry inside a restaurant than to walk a few blocks in a heavy rain to my home, dry off the dog, take a warm shower, put on a pair of dry clothes and return to a restaurant. Absurd would be to ask diners their feelings about a dog joining them inside on a beautiful, clear summer evening. Asking the same question when a table of two plus dog, mid-meal, is getting soaked during a thunderstorm, is reasonable, especially if presented with the tact a restaurant owner should have. My sense, as both a diner and, a while back in a place a few blocks away, a host and restaurant owner, is that the few diners there on a slow Monday night would have understood and not found such one-time hospitality objectionable. Just the opposite, perhaps. Lacking conventional wisdom I do not understand how an apartment building's no pets policy on a one year lease compares to an unfortunate, one time situation. I would also suggest that a cigarette could be snuffed out without causing the same commotion that would surely occur if the couple had done the same with their dog.

Did I mention that at the time the drinking age in New York was 18? Yup, that was our recipe at the fraternity. Then we added the grain alcohol.

Guaranteed that Moonlight in Owensboro KY has that capability though I can't speak to availability.

Why put even one customer in the potentially uncomfortable position of having to vote? ← As I said, a judgment call. Like yours, my reaction would have been, "Of course. Bring them in from the rain." Would have made me feel like I was doing a good thing. But I agree that it puts pressure on a diner not to appear mean, so perhaps it should not have been asked. My place, I'd get a feel for the customers that night, consider the behavior of the dog, see if there was an out-of-the-way table, and then decide whether or not to question the other tables. By the way, is anyone else envisioning a New Yorker style cartoon? A couple hunched over a table outside the restaurant, miserable in the thunderstorm - their little dog underneath the table, nice and dry, and diners inside having a grand time. Maybe a cab driving by, splashing a puddle at them. Perhaps two servers standing over the diners holding umbrellas...

Either comping or packing up a doggy bag would have been fine. Depends on what point they were in the meal and what would have worked for both parties. Just do something more than having the server tell them no. To not even come to the table himself - inexcusable. Perhaps he didn't want to get wet. That's a judgment call depending on the circumstances and the other customers present. Le Bec-Fin, never. Meme on a slow Monday evening, I'd consider it.

Doc wrote: Yes it was bad luck and yes the diners should not expect the owner to make amends for it. That is exactly why the owner should have been more creative and come up with a solution - especially on a slow night and with a mostly empty dining room. The do-nothing approach the owner took cost the restaurant a couple of customers and likely some word-of-mouth bad will. Going above and beyond would have created two loyal customers and a bunch of goodwill. Monday night customers from the neighborhood - I am going to do everything I can to insure a great experience. Every day students at the Cornell Hotel School walk past a plaque as they enter Statler Hall. It quotes Ellsworth Milton Statler, "Life is service. The one who progresses is the one who gives his fellow human beings a little more, a little better service." Anyone in the restaurant business should have that phrase etched in his/her brain.

This is the difference between one star service and three star service. The owner and staff were not obliged to come to the diners' rescue and they did not - one star service. Three star would have been the owner and staff being horrified at what was happening to a pair of guests and coming up with a way to alleviate or modify their situation. My first instinct would have been to explain the situation to the other diners and see if they objected to the dog coming inside during the rain. Or maybe find a comfy corner for the dog in the storeroom. Yes either is against health regulations but it is extremely unlikely the restaurant would have been caught. At the very least, the owner should have sympathetically offered, "What bad luck. Don't worry about the check. Head home, order in a pizza for tonight, and we'll see you again on a sunny day." So many restaurants think that service ends with instructing servers to ask, mid-entree, "How is everything?"

Another late lunch - this time just after four. The Oyster House is now serving lunch and some items continue to be available in the late afternoon. I went for a Philadelphia classic - fried oysters and chicken salad. Five large and perfectly fried oysters. I asked about the origin of this dish - David Mink said it was on the original Kelly's menu in the 1920's and dates back to well before that time. Greg Ling recommended asking Fred, the lunch bartender. It has something to do with slavery during the revolutionary era - perhaps that slaves were limited in what the could sell and two of the items were fried oysters and chicken salad. Also had a quasi-mason jar of Katie's Oyster House Punch. You know how a certain odor or flavor can stir something long lost in one's memory. I say this with love, Katie, but the punch brought back memories of my freshman year in college, a bar down the hill called Jims Place, a drink they served that was a combination between a whiskey sour and a Zombie (or maybe I was chasing the sours with the Zombies), and waking up the following morning in a dorm that was not the dorm where I usually woke up. My recommendation is that the designated driver take a pass on the Oyster House Punch and everyone else enjoy and think of the punch at every fraternity party you ever attended, but mixed by a professional bartendrix and not by a social chairman whose sole goal was to get everyone drunk and let the couples fall where they may. Fortunately, with my chicken and oysters gone and some punch still unimbibed, the clock struck five and "buck a shuck" oysters wondrously appeared. They were from Long Island. I ordered a dozen. Since I can't seem to write a post about the Oyster House without offering at least one suggestion, this one goes to Sam. Start the $1 oysters at 4PM. Lure in the office crowd that sneaks out of work early.

A far more limiting question would be where not to eat. More often than not I end up at Tommy DiNics for a pork or brisket sandwich followed up by a ice cream cone from Bassett's. For the car, a bag of cookies from 4th Street Famous Cookies.

Sam, will the posts on discussing the discussing count in this year's total posts to this thread?

I'm real short on details, but I remember my mom placing very thin slices of lemon on top (I think on top) of her blueberry pie. I'm assuming she removed the rind. I don't know if she marinated or did anything else with the lemon slices.

Now I know a bunch of stuff about lobster I didn't know this morning. Thanks. Are any restaurants in Philadelphia or the rest of the US serving Fourchu lobsters (There's a shout out to Greg Ling at the Oyster House in this question)? Are Fourchu available retail?