Holly Moore

Mmmmm, chicken sandwich good. Very good. Probably the best in Philadelphia. Sarcone's bread picked up every morning at the bakery. Chicken pan sauteed to order in extra virgin olive oil and minced garlic, aged provolone, Dijon mustard, sliced onion, lettuce, and, if you assure Jovan's wife that you are not all that worried about the big tomato panic, sliced tomato from her secret cache.

Late Sunday evening in Nashville is rough for down home cookin' Your best bet might be Mrs. Winner's chicken - a chain, but good fried chicken and biscuits.

If you're just talking about tonight, it may be tough. Most of the meat and threes are either closed on Sunday or close before you land. If you're around tomorrow, I strongly recommend Barbara's Home Cooking - my favorite of Nashville area meat and threes (Arnold's is a close second). Great fried chicken and cobblers and they bake their own dinner rolls. They are closed on Sunday and are open for lunch and dinner tomorrow. Barbara's address is in Franklin, but they are in the country and it will be a healthy cab ride. Worth it. Buy your cabby lunch and he will be there to take you back. Only place I can find in my listings that meets your criteria is another favorite, The Beacon Lights Tea Room in Lyles. I show them open until 10 PM on Sunday, but better call to make sure. They are in Lyles which is like an hour from the airport - west of Nashville.

This recipe for Cornell Broiled Chicken from RecipeGullet is close.

Actually what moved me to write was a menu I received from a newly opened mid priced non-chain restaurant that should be capable of more. Unfortunately such short cuts are taken just as often in non-chain restaurants.

The shame, the embarrassment - a searing skewer straight through my ego. I am no longer dry-run worthy. Scootered past Parc. Saw there were some folks dining both inside and out. Aha, late lunch. Not to be. Even though the hostesses manning the door were quite taken by my orange goggles, they would not budge. A dry run; invited guests only. I will have to wait for Monday. I even trying dropping Shola's name. Alas, they had never heard of him - and there were so many people in the kitchen.... I did get a photo copy of their menu - more insult - my copy shop, the closest at two blocks away, didn't do the copies. But the menu does look great. Today I would have done apps, summer pea soup and the charcuterie platter. Or maybe a salad niscoise or the lyonaisse. Dinner - I'd head for the daily specials. I'll be especially interested to see if they assemble a proper Friday bouillabaisse. Assuming my ego recovers and if their cooking skills are up to the menu, this is the sort of place that could force me to move to one of the condo's above them. My current four blocks away may be too far.

I read the article twice. I searched it with FireFox Browser. As far as I can tell, not one mention of french fries. When talking about a Five Guys style burger place the quality behind the fries is just as important as the burger. Five Guy fries are fresh cut, but average, at best. All too often burger places focus just on the burgers - fresh special blend ground beef, hand formed, loosely packed, lovingly grilled to order. That's nice. But then they serve it up with a side of frozen shoestring fries that have been lingering under the heat lamp for ten minutes. So many places just don't get it.

A pedestrian trend has been developing over the past few years. Rather than restaurants creating great fish or meat based salads, like Cobb salad or salad nicoise, they are constructing all-purpose salads, like caesar salad - for chicken add x.xx, for shrimp add x.xx tortilla salad - for chicken add x.xx, for shrimp add x.xx, for steak add x.xx Nowadays it is not unusual for a restaurant's entire salad section to offer such options for each salad listed. DULL! LAZY! There are great meat, poultry and fish based salads that are great because the dressing and the other ingredients are selected to go with a specific protein. What flies with broiled chicken may well sink with shrimp.

Yeah, like Katie really had to twist my arm. I've had rolled schnitzel before in Germany and maybe Czechoslovakia - when it has been stuffed, and flat when it hasn't. This was as good as any I've had, though I think I may have liked Katie's stuffed cabbage even more. The attitude of this place is pure Europe. The mother and father cook - the father, Jovan also butchers - a craft he learned in Yugoslavia many years ago, working three years for free to learn the trade. Since then he has worked both sides of the ocean in slaughterhouses, meat processing plants and restaurants. With his wife they ran a small stand in Austria, I think. He would slaughter and butcher the meat every morning, she then sold it. At Jovan's Place, there is the same commitment to freshness. Every day they go to their butcher and produce market. They pick only the best. Everything is fresh daily and cooked to order. (Anyone want to write an investigative article - research how many of Philadelphia's top chefs are up early every morning selecting their perishables at local markets.) Their son, Joe, runs the dining room, a fantastic host. Non food highpoint of our meal had to have been when he balanced his young son - I'm guessing somewhere around two - on his hand, and the kid proceeded to strike an Olympian pose. This place out-Taconelli's, Taconelli's for making guests part of the family. I'm with Katy on Jovan - as good as everything was, I'm thinking the bean soup or the chicken noodle soup - or the Goulash - or their famous chicken sandwich might be even better. I'm heading back on a regular basis. Jovan's Place 2327 East York St. 215-634-3330

In Wisconsin at least, those perfectly prepared cocktails will start with brandy - as in brandy and ginger, brandy old fashioned, brandy manhattan. At one point, and now too since things don't really change there, Wisconsin consumed more brandy than any other state in the US. My favorite supper club, back when I was stranded in Wisconsin for two years, was in Manitowoc - great rib eye steaks and free steak tartar at the bar. Ambiance right out of Twin Peaks.

Actually, I have a feeling that some others, beside me, have not moved on. Stay tuned. Does anyone not believe that the heretofore vengeful Reading Terminal Market Board had to have had an awfully compelling reason, above and beyond the quality of their mercy dropping as the gentle rain from heaven upon Rick Olivieri, not to have nailed Rick's Steaks for court costs, legal fees, lease violation penalties and anything else their attorneys thought up.

Do we think this is because: a) The Reading Terminal Market Board is a bunch of really swell guys and gals who care more for Rick's well-being than their fiduciary responsibility as the board of a not for profit organization, or b) Some other reason the RTM Board has chosen not to disclose? Have I mentioned we are talking about $700,000 of the market's funds that did not have to be irresponsibly squandered? More generosity; more potential funds lost. Same question as above. Not to mention losing a million dollar plus a year business that has been in the family for 20 years. Some say he could have prevented this somehow. Yet he was never offered a lease to sign. So how, other than long ago knuckling under to the the board's and management's egos, could Rick have prevented this.

Not much. Mostly just the cowardly act of kicking a man when he's down. Rick's Steaks aren't the best in the city, but they are no way near the inferior sandwich Laban claims them to be. Rick's cheesesteak is as representative of a basic cheesesteak as Pat's. Amusingly Laban orders a cheesesteak like a tourist and then, again inaccurately, suggests that Rick's Steaks customer base is mostly tourists. One hopes Laban's restaurant reviews are more accurate.

Why? The timing of any explanation is solely the province of Amazing Hot Dog. I suspect attention is focused elsewhere at this time. I also suspect there may be issues that best remain within the business. For now, enjoy Amazing Hot Dogs in Bound Brook.

On recent afternoons I have been studying the Slurpee-like lemonade served by my local coffee house La Colombe. My research concentrates on its melting. As the frozen lemonade melts it produces an intensely rich lemonade. That I understand, or, at least, absorb. What I find mystifying is what is melting. As it melts, the lemonade color disappears from the ice at the top of the slush. Over time the bulk of the remaining slush turns white. Alas, I lack the patience to compete a day's research, usually discarding the remainder a half hour or so into my experiment. What I do not understand is why the lemonade seems to be melting out of the slush leaving what appears to be frozen water. Is it the citric acid, the sugar, and/or God's will that influences relative thawiness? Further, does this process increase the concentration of the lemonade I slurp? I believe La Colombe starts with a two to one water to fresh squeezed lemon ratio. Does this account for the increase in intensity? Is the slurpable solution more one to one, or is it even approaching pure juice and sugar? Truth be told, I tire of this research. Perhaps someone who actually paid attention in food chemistry class can enlighten me so I can get back to doing the crossword puzzle during my afternoon respites.

Dilly's is to Five Guys as White House Subs (a Jersey shore reference) is to Subway. I hope Ocean City offers eating benefits that at least partially compensate for your self-imposed burger compromise.

Gotta give Starr credit for how a project comes together. There are swarms of workers all over the place. This morning, alone, all the awnings went up and the signage - plus a colony or carpenters sawing and hammering away. It's impressive, for sure.

As you mentioned earlier, Salumeria does it for me. There are a lot of good hoagies in town -- I love the Old Fashioned Italian at Sarcone's and the Old Sicilian (at least I think that's what it's called) at Primo -- but Salumeria is my fav, especially when you go for the house dressing (an herbed vinaigrette) and marinated artichokes among the garnishes. ← I really like Salumeria's hoagie. In fact I remember my first - passed to me in the rear seat of a Mercedes while motoring I-95 en route to a fancy suit and tie Oyster dinner at a private club in Baltimore. Their hoagie was wonderful. As I recall, I preferred the hoagie to the oysters. I think of a Salumeria hoagie as I do a Schmitter approach to a cheesesteak - an outstanding variation on a theme, but more a hybrid than a classic.

Though likely varying with where a class is in the term, and the focus of the current instructor, the Restaurant School's pastry program has always been a reliable source for special occasion cakes.

Top of mind, Sweet Lucy's Smokehouse on State Road

Out of curiosity, do you feel any place serves a "great" hoagie? Understand that a similar Italian style sandwich in France or Italy is not a hoagie.

Isgro's is great for cannoli and cookies - and nougat around holiday time. Not my choice for cake. If one wants an "icon" of a Philadelphia cake - it has to be the Carrot Cake from Frog Commissary caterers (or butterscotch krumpets).

Sarcone's would not have been my choice for catered sandwiches. Once their bread is sliced the edges will dry - unless the sandwiches are covered with plastic wrap in which case the bread will lose some or all of its crust and substance. One the other hand, a Sarcone's hoagie, is as good as it gets and every bit a Philadelphia icon. Chickie's is just as good, as is Salumeria, though too upscale to be an icon hoagie.

I will remember Mr. Gagnon for the hard work he put into Red's Eats, building it into a world famous destination. He redefined the lobster roll, serving what many consider to consistently be Maine's finest. Very few men have the drive and passion to become the best at what they do. Red Gagnon did. I'll always remember my first Red's Lobster Roll.

Though not German cuisine, the Warsaw Cafe on 16th, just south of Spruce, serves up both wienerschnitzel and sauerbraten. I'm a fan of their wienerschnitzel, especially when I can convince the chef to serve it Holstein, with fried eggs, anchovies and capers. The Warsaw Cafe dates back to the Restaurant Renaissance some thirty years ago - one of the few survivors of that era. It is too bad German cuisine has gone the way of the oompah band, at least in Philadelphia. Come January in Center City there is better than a bowl of liver dumpling soup, an order of potato pancakes with sour cream and apple sauce followed by a plate laden with sauerbraten, spatzle and red cabbage to warm one's soul. Gotta mention Luchow's. How could New York City have ever let Luchow's fade away?