Holly Moore

"They were putting garlic in my gravy, Holly!" Jack McDavid is back in Reading Terminal Market working the Down Home Diner for a while.

Serving two bottles of wine takes considerably more time and skill than schlepping a pitcher of beer - opening the wine bottles and refilling glasses as they empty. Also, though the perceived benefit is kind of twisted, the tip becomes a sales incentive, encouraging the server push wine, making more money for the restaurant.

Colicchio does not write advertising copy. He is a chef.

Buca di Beppo for one, as I stated in the thread on ordering in. Having a steam table hot pan of microwaveable spaghetti and meat sauce takes away the "what's for dinner pressure" when I'm out of everything else. I can get 4 to 5 meals out of a single order and it is no worse than what was sold on spaghetti night at the University Halls student cafeteria. Tinto is the total opposite of Buca di Beppo when it comes to portion size. And price. But my order was delicious, the presentation was beautiful. Best for me, the short rib sandwich.

For someone who is "all about the ingredients," the diet coke ad is something of a sellout, dontcha think? All about the chemicals, baby. ← It's not like Top Chef isn't one big, multi-episode product placement. ← Every time a chef lands an endorsement someone is going to say that chef sold out. I can see that if it is someone like Rocco selling a line of frozen Italian entrees - the implication being they are just as good as Rocco makes. I assume Craft doesn't whip up its own cola flavored beverage and, given Colicchio is a tad on the bulky side, he might very well be a Diet Coke consumer. I also think Colicchio does a decent job holding himself above and away from the extensive product placements on Top Chef.

Shot at Alinea? Nope. Just a chance to get face time in a Coke commercial and earn some residuals. Tom Colicchio didn't write the commercial. I'm sure the Madison Ave suits who put the ad together were not making a socio-culinary statement either and would happily expense a meal at Alinea.

To keep this thread going, the Taco House on Pine. Microwaved Mexican never tasted so good and great guacamole. Cheap too. Tippy's special, a little bit of most everything, for something like eight bucks.

A bit more insight, Katie. Maybe 10 years ago I had lunch at the Italian restaurant at 17th and Lombard, Bistro La Baia. It was my first time. I end up with a waiter who seemed to resent my presence. I don't know if it was because I was a table for one, I ordered only a plate of pasta (no beverage, dessert, or app), or that he considered me too Plebeian for restaurant and his efforts. He gave me attitude the whole time. The check came to around $10.50 including sales tax. I left $1.75 and headed home. I was halfway down 17th to South when I heard steps running towards me and, "Sir, Sir." I turned to see my server and wondered what I had forgotten. "Here Sir, you need this more than I do." He handed me back my $1.75. Stunned, I took the money saying something like, "You sure?" One of those occasions where five minutes later I came up with a dozen better retorts. What I did do was call the restaurant when I got home and ask to speak to the owner. He wasn't in. Later that day I stopped by, again asking for the owner. The waiter was still there and ignored me. I left my card with the maitre d' and asked that the owner give me a call. He never did. Over the past 10 years I have cost that restaurant a lot of business - both from me and friends heading out elsewhere and by bad-mouthing the place whenever given the opportunity. They opened up a second restaurant a half block from my old business - the closest restaurant to it and I never ate there and steered my customers away from it. When I drive by La Baia in the evening I take glee if I see they are less than half full. It is the only restaurant that I have wanted to see fail. My holding a grudge for ten years speaks volumes about my psyche and maturity. I should have gotten over it long ago and should never wish such bad things on a restaurant. But I still do and am always happy to tell this tale. Writing this I got curious and checked out their reviews on City Search. There seems to be a common thread concerning service and ownership.

The only time the City Paper censored my column (other than a three word Nashian-like review, "No duck, __ck") was when I wrote about the parking challenge at Bomb Bomb, suggesting that "double parking was the rule and not to worry as the last meter maid to patrol Wolf was now swimming with the fishes on the bottom of the Delaware." My editor never did make clear whether I was perpetuating a stereotype or inciting violence.

Katie, It all boils down to hospitality and the server's responsibility to provide guests with as pleasant an experience as the server can. Questioning, no matter how subtly, why a tip is low or missing, is just plain rude and unprofessional. Neither the server nor the floor manager should need to ask, even sincerely, "Was everything satisfactory this evening Sir?" They should know all along if the customer's experience was anything but excellent and they should have already zeroed in on improving the experience or atoning for it. Cheap customers, mean customers, percentage-calculating-impaired customers, ignorant customers, poor customers, militant anti-tipping customers all happen. Sometimes they were born and raised that way; sometimes they are just having a bad day. No matter how skillful the no/low tip confrontation the customer's experience will be diminished. The vast majority of confronted customers will leave angry, embarrassed or feeling guilty. They might make a scene in the restaurant. They might make bad-mouthing your restaurant their raison de etre. In New Jersey they might shoot the server. There are few happy endings to confronting a customer about a low or missing tip. Any savvy server knows that in the course of a day, week or month that there are going to be guests who leave little or no tip. It goes with the territory. Accept it, complain to fellow servers, and move on. Such customers are the exception, and the rounded up tips that end up at 25 or 30 percent that are left by many customers easily balance things out.

Typical neighborhood joint - bar with sports on TV in the front, small dining room in the back. I haven't been for a couple of years but the ribs were great. Great mussels too. Friendly folks taking a lot of pride in their food.

Anyone know if participants receive a check to make up for income lost while on Top Chef? In the two reality documentaries I worked with, we did pay participants a token stipend for their time.

I'm a comin' Brooks. I am slated for the Louisiana Roadfood Festival April 4th and 5th and just know there is no way I am going to limit myself to only two days in New Orleans.

From Judy Walker's Blog That's like Nathan's Hot Dogs headquartering in Omaha. Neat reminiscing Brooks. Made me feel like I had a virtual door code, key and seat on the stoop. Some of the greatest traditions are built around good eating.

at Katz's Deli

Just a friendly warning - shooting complaining servers is only legal in New Jersey.

I'm guessing an on-the-ball convention and tourism bureau and an overall interest on the part of the talent and producers in supporting the rebuilding of the New Orleans food scene.

What combination of events leads to food in a chafing dish picking up the taste of sterno, especially in a very large venue?

Now you have reason to return, Zora. Cazuela M&J will not be returning to its original location on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean. Their old location was at the Roca Mar hotel which changed hands. The new owners upped the rent and I hear wanted a different sort of restaurant. Cazuela's food is just as good at their current location, but I'm hoping they find a place less hidden.

People should tip. They should base their tip on service. Servers or management should never, no matter how tactfully, inquire about a low or missing tip. Bad math happens. Both ways. Breaths there a server with soul so true that he will chase down a diner who screwed up the math and left a fifty percent tip?

DiningIn.Com works in a pinch. There are a bunch of restaurants - delivery costs $5 to $7 plus a tip for the driver. I think they also charge the restaurants a percentage of the check so a lot of restaurants seem to add that on to the menu prices they show for DiningIn.Com. My last order was from Tinto. Amada and Distrito are also on DiningIn.Com as well as some of Starr's lower priced places. I use them a lot for South Street Souvlaki and Charles Plaza. Lots of ethnic cuisines. Best value (food-by-the-pound-wise) by far is Buca di Beppo - A steam table half pan of spaghetti with meat sauce for something like $17.

Pardon the late response. Missed it earlier. RTM's "end" changed over time. The initial "end" was a Tony Luke franchise - the rationale being it would bring more cheesesteak lovers to the market. I doubt the majority of eaters heading to the market because of Tony Lukes would have walked out with shopping bags full of fresh food. The market board rediscovered its mission when Rick's Steaks did not go quietly into the night. Only when RTM management received a ton of bad publicity and the board's true motives risked becoming a tad too transparent did they decide to move Fair Foods to the Rick's Steaks location.

I suspect he has. Edited to add: Or maybe all but one.

I understand wanting to "hurt the guy." I'd also have that restaurant manager in my sights - the one who convinced you to trust a signed invoice from a guy who gave you five "denied" credit card numbers. Incidentally, "denied" can mean all sorts of things beyond lack of funds. My guess - someone getting even for something ie a pissed off ex-employee. Hence the intermediary whose voice would not be recognized. One thing you might do is talk with you credit card processing company - tell them about the fraud and give them the numbers. They might pass the issue on to the cardholder's company and if the are from different cardholders they might initiate a fraud investigation - maybe get the computer's isp address from the email account, that sort of thing. A bit of advice - always get the billing address and telephone number for any phone or email order. As for the left-overs - when I had my restaurant we got stuck with the makings of a couple of hundred hoagies we had prepped for a restaurant festival the was subsequently rained out. I put hoagie soup on the menu - didn't sell all that much soup, but got some good PR out of it.

I would say the ability to do classics well is a major part of being a successful culinary student. The ability to improvise, create and interpret classics is a major part of being a successful chef. ← I disagree if you are saying that a restaurant chef whose kitchen consistently turns out perfectly prepared classic dishes is not a great and likely very successful chef. Improvision and creativity may make a chef exciting (or dangerous), and sometimes great and/or successful, but they are neither the sole criteria of nor essential criteria for greatness. That Jacques Pepin can so appreciate perfectly cooked green peas (real peas, not molecular pea globules) and the potential of classic tomato provincial (go for the flavor first not the presentation), demonstrates that perfection without creativity is still perfection.