Holly Moore

One of the issues in this thread has been whether long term tenants of of a Philadelphia Institution like Reading Terminal Market are any different than long term tenants of a shopping mall like the Gallery. I believe that Reading Terminal Market has an obligation to its tenants far above and beyond Mall Management 101 cut and dry leasing practices. It is the tenants who built the market tradition into what it is today. They have earned their place in the market and deserve the option to renew their lease as long as they are a credit to the market. In Rick's Steaks case, Rick Olivieri has gone further, by serving the market as head of the merchant's organization for a number of years. He has also run a very popular and successful business. Rick's Steaks, over the past twenty-five years, has indeed brought credit to the market's image and its shoppers' experience. There are going to be adversarial issues between the President of the Merchant's Association and RTM management. There are going to be adversarial issues between a long time tenant and RTM management. But capable management who respect the traditions of Reading Terminal Market should be able to deal with such issues without resorting to the ultimate act - taking away a merchant's livelihood. By threatening eviction, the Board got Rick Oliveri's attention. He will sign the standard lease for his sort of operation. That should have ended it. The Board won. Anything beyond that is vindictive. Vindictiveness is always small minded. It might be overlooked in a shopping mall environment. Those guys are supposed to be sharks, go for the jugular. But Reading Terminal Market and its Board of Directors must be above such petty vindictiveness. If a long term tenant, a significant contributor to the market's tradition, does not bring discredit to the market and does pay his rent, he should be given the benefit of the doubt. A Board of Directors that doesn't get this, that sees Reading Terminal Market as just another shopping mall, that is willing to squander hundreds of thousands of dollars of Market funds on a law suit that never had to happen, that doesn't respect the wishes of the majority of the merchants who support Rick's Steaks, that arrogantly evicts a long term tenant just because they don't like him - that Board must go. They do not serve the tradition or the future of Reading Terminal Market.

Maybe that is an incidental result of the dispute. I am sure you are making no insinuation of anything else, since that would be far beneath you. As to the legal fees, have you considered that Sprague and Sprague's representation may be covered by their retainer with City Hall? In which case it would cost the Market not a penny. ← Re legal fees, I'm sure if that was the case the Board would have confirmed it long ago. They stated that they hired Attorney Sprague et al because of the potential tactics of Olivieri's attorney. As to luck. Who knows? The Market's position, over time has evolved from the opportunity of getting a Tony Luke's to claiming that Rick's Steaks is being evicted because Rick Olivieri keeps changing his lease negotiating position. If the latter is indeed the reason, and considering the bad will the Market Board has generated in the eyes of many merchants and some of the public, prudent management of a public trust and a non-profit organization would have found a way to end this quickly once it got so out of hand. Rick's Steaks would have gotten a lease and it would all be over ten months ago. That the Board is willing to spend so much money and do such damage to merchant relations and public opinion in order to evict a long term tenant who has run a good operation makes one wonder about the Board's true motives. I consider that a fair question about the managers of an Institution I love - not an insinuation.

Still wondering. How much money the Board of Directors has blown on this landlord tenant dispute, this personality conflict? Don't need the exact number. They can round off to the nearest hundred thousand dollars. How much money? Also, what is the return on this expenditure? The rents are pretty much set based on location and type of business. Replace Rick's with someone else. No additional rental income. From a business point of view there is absolutely no logic to Rick's eviction and the resulting law suit. If it is not business, then why? Political favors? Egos? To scare the other merchants into blind obedience? Or reasons that must remain unspoken until proven? I do know that the Rick's Steaks' location is one of the most valuable spaces in the market. If Rick Olivieri loses, someone will get that location without paying Rick a penny. You have to wonder how someone gets that lucky - getting a million dollar business for free. Wish I had that sort of luck. Wonder what one has to do to have that sort of luck.

A little bit down on Shola's blog, "Breakfast Is Dinner." (February 21st) Exciting. As would be Shola getting up early and preparing "Breakfast is Breakfast."

How does Feng Shui deal with all the bad vibes emanating from the universal holding bins?

Yes on Nathan's. By far the potatoiest. They also seem to stand up better to fast food cooking skill levels and holding time abuses.

I think this is just the company-owned stores. Franchise owners can choose to close or stay open and I know one local one is staying open. They are open longer hours than many others because they have a drive-thru and cater to commuters who leave very early in the morning. ← it is company owned stores. As far as the automated espresso machinesm Holly. When were they introduced? Was it after Howard Shultz left the company? ← I think 1 1/2 to 2 years ago in Philadelphia.

Until Starbucks junks all their automatic espresso machines, a year of pep rallies won't help.

Did my research. Headed to my nearest McDonald's and ordered up a Filet-O-Fish. Watched it come together. First came the bun. Hard to tell whether it was steamed to order or was pulled out of a holding area. I think it was being held, but not certain. The bun went into the box. One step to the left. Next one squirt from the caulking gun filled with tartar sauce. This went on the crown (top) section of the bun. One more step to the left. Then the cheese. Half a slice. That went on the heel (bottom) section of the bun. One final step to the left. The a fried fish filet out of the holding cabinet. Also goes on the heel. Then the box is closed and latched. Then it is tossed (two bounces) into the pick-up bin. Opening the box. The crown of the bun is mildly wrinkled - that come from steaming. Inside - the filet is lopsided on the heel of the bun. Otherwise looked as I remembered it. Taste test - bun nicely steamed. Tartar sauce had more of a mayonnaise taste than anything else, definitely lacking the fresh onion flavor of the 1968 Filet-O-Fish. The coating of the fish filet was soft, not crisp. Probably because it had been sitting in the holding cabinet for a while. Overall impression, edible but disappointing. And expensive. $2.89 including tax. I could have gotten two D&W hot dogs and a soft pretzel for that from the guy on the corner.

$275 doesn't seem like all that much until it is related to the $5000 or so of direct sales it must produce for a typical restaurant to break even on such an advertising expenditure. Beyond that, why would a visitor to New Orleans go to Today's Menu Online as opposed to CitySearch or one of the other similar sites that offer editorial comment and diner reviews? Today's Menu Online's point of difference seems to be a clickable menu. But, as CitySearch lists restaurant websites, that advantage will erode as more and more restaurants get websites. Maybe a different revenue structure - ads rather than listing fees. Give the restaurant the listing, including its menu whether or not it advertises with you, but open the site up to restaurant and non-restaurant advertising. Give preferential listing to restaurants that advertise with you. The site will only be viable if there is significant traffic. The significant traffic will only sustain if it has value for site visitors. It will only have value to site visitors if it has full information for all restaurants listed, not just the paid advertisers. Full information, for me incidentally, would include hours open. Sorry about the negative reaction. But I travel a lot and often find sites such as this when I research a city. There are a lot of them out there. And unfortunately, in most cases they provide little useful information and are tedious to navigate. I give them a minute or two to prove their usefulness and then usually head back to CitySearch.

Lamb fries at the Cattlemen's steakhouse in the Stockyards.

The best jobs to be paid for are the ones you would do for free. Especially when it has value to someone else and takes up most of your day. One element, in cities at least, is the necessity of a car and driver. Too much eating and learning time wasted otherwise. My ideal guide would know the food and be known by the food preparers. Get me behind the scenes. Let me experience the growers and processors as well as the restaurant/stands. Frame the experience within the culture and the cuisine. I still think this could become a great profession or even a business for those with the knowledge, the contacts and the language --- and who have the luck to live in an interesting culinary center. Would be easy to promote through concierges and visitor's bureaus. In many cities such a skilled guide would soon have a waiting list for his/her services.

Statler Hall and Hotel is always an adventurous choice - food prepared and served by hotel students.

I think it was Julia Shakespeare who declared, "First we kill all the foodies!"

Overheard at Freddy's Restaurant on Isla Mujeres in Mexico: Customer to the owner, "How long before I get my order?" "Senora, we haven't even killed the chicken yet."

Last year, before heading to Hong Kong, I emailed the concierge at the Peninsula Hotel explaining that I only had a few days and would like to hire a local food authority to take me on an eating tour of the back alleys and out-of-the-way places that seldom if ever make the guidebooks or tv shows. The concierge wrote back she was sorry. There were no guided tours available that focused on foods. Perhaps I would be interested in a bus tour of the city? This from the concierge for one of the best hotels in the world. It has happened elsewhere in my travels. Concierges just ain't what they used to be. I wrote the tourist association and did better. Got an invite to a New Years Banquet in the town hall of a small village outside of the city. One of the highlights of my stay in Hong Kong. Even better than seeing a gang of Philadelphia Mummers leading off the parade through Hong Kong the first day of New Years. Now eGullet is a wonderful resource. I could and maybe should have sought out a local to show me around. I've done the same for a few eGulleters visiting Philadelphia and enjoyed the experience. Perhaps it was my inbred waspishness. Perhaps my uncertainty about connecting with a good source. I didn't ask. Another option would have been to research like crazy and strike out on my own. I kind of did that, but really wanted to understand what I was eating. At places where the menu was only Chinese, and no one cooking, serving or eating spoke English, I was lost. Sure it tasted good, but what the hell was it and what else could I have ordered? Was it representative? It seems like there is a demand for such a service - especially in what I consider foreign cultures. Hong Kong, Bangkok, anywhere else in Asia. Even New York or Paris. Cities packed with culinary opportunity but hard to figure out in three or four days. What am I missing that I should eat? Given the hoards of foodies foraging foreign lands, it strikes me as a profitable opportunity for locals with a sound knowledge of both the city's cuisine and a foreign language or two. Are there folks out their offering such services, professionally?

There was a test product - ham sandwich. Sliced .Hormel Cure 81 ham topped with a grilled pineapple slice. Can't remember if it ever made it out of the lab, but was a good combination. I think we also looked at presliced ham. A positive point for ham, at the time, was that it could be finished off in a microwave. Not the case with roast beef.

For McDonald's, at least, ordering a burger with no ketchup doesn't get you a fresh burger. Just mean it comes out of the universal holding bin to be built just for you. For me, at least, McDonald's replacing the Wolf Grill and the round bun dressing table with clam shell grills and an assembly line is akin to Starbuck's getting rid of their manual espresso machines. Takes all the soul out of their products.

Last week I asked a merchant what was up. His answer, "They are still going to court as far as I know. The market is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on this. That could be the new bathrooms we need." I am still wondering how much of the market's funds is being spent/squandered by the Board on this personality conflict that easily could be resolved by offering a long term, solid tenant the same lease that is being offered to everyone else.

I first used a Gooseneck Spray Hose at 16 when running a Hobart dishwasher at the Five Star Diner in Parsippany NJ. When I rehabbed my house, I had to have one for my kitchen sink. One of my best design decisions.

A few questions for anyone now working in a McDonald's or who has worked in one within the fast few years. 1. Does McDonald's prefry and hold the fish filets in a universal holding cabinet like they do their burgers? Or, are they still batch fried as needed? 2. Is McDonald's still steaming the buns or are they toasted or caramelized? 3. Does the tartar sauce arrive at the McDonald's totally premixed or is the process similar to the old way - mayonnaise base, relish, fresh chopped onion combined and prepared daily?

I was thinking the same thing, especially since that ambiguity is being used against them right now by another fast food chain, who is actively advertising that their fish sandwich is not "mystery fish." The commercial confused me at first, because I thought, "hey, isn't McDonald's just cod? That's not 'mystery fish'..." ← My direct experience with McDonald's was late 60's and early 70's. Back then there was far less awareness of fish. As I recall, back then, many considered cod to be junk fish.

Saw a traditional Lenten season ad for McDonald's Filet-O-Fish. Haven't ordered one in ages, but during its earlier, pre Big Mac and Ray Kroc still involved years the Filet O' Fish was the best sandwich item on McDonald's menu. Filet-O-Fish was McDonald's first new product, dating back to when meatless Fridays were more prevalent. Culture shock. Fish at McDonalds. McDonald's systematizes everything. Filet-O-Fish sandwich required its own fryer (so the fish flavor would not impact the fries), its own method of bun warming (a steamer because nobody liked the pairing of a Filet-O-Fish filet and a caramelized, grill toasted bun), and its own tartar sauce dispenser - a caulking gun-like apparatus developed by Prince Castle. Prince Castle, partially owned by McDonald's executives, developed all specialized McDonald's equipment. The cheese - just a half slice not a whole slice - was added to make the idea of a fish sandwich more appealing to the mind's eye. Also, like the steamed bun, the Filet-O-Fish tasted better with cheese. And, it is probably in McDonald's genes. When in doubt, throw on some cheese. Ray Kroc did not like the flavor of any of the canned tartar sauces. He did like the tartar sauce prepared by the executive chef of one of the Hilton Hotels in Chicago. McDonald's worked with the chef to replicate the sauce in a canned variety. The only way they could was by coming up with a multi-step process. Mayonnaise base went in one can; pickle relish in another can. Every morning a crew member prepared the tartar sauce. The mayonnaise base and the relish where mixed together. Then, using an onion dicer also developed by Prince Castle, fresh onion was chopped up and stirred in. Finally the caulking tubes were loaded with a day's supply of tartar sauce. Because the onion flavor intensified with time, tartar sauce could not be carried over from one day to another. A new batch had to be made every day. Prince castle also made the special filet holder for cooking the "North Atlantic Whitefish" filets. That was the prescribed employee response whenever someone asked, "What kind of fish." It was cod, as in the source of cod liver oil. "North Atlantic Whitefish" sounded more appetizing. The finished sandwich was also more fragile than hamburgers. As I recall McDonald's specified a ten minute holding time for everything. At 15 minutes a McDonald's hamburger was still a hamburger. Even at 10 minutes the Filet-O-Fish was kinda gloppy - steamed bun and all the moisture from the fried filet. Anyone in the know only ordered a Filet-O-Fish during a rush period when they turned over fast. There was nothing worse at McDonald's than a 3:30 PM Filet-O-Fish sandwich. When working at a McDonald's on a new product test, I always waited until a fresh batch came out of the fryer. There was nothing better than a piping hot Filet-O-Fish on a just steamed bun.

History of Mole A friend who does PR for a Mexican restaurant and lived in Mexico for a number of years subscribes to the 16th Century nun version.

I'm guessing even a NYC deli waiter would not be a match for a table consisting of Ed Koch, Nora Ephron, Frank Bruni and Laura Shapiro. Today's Second Avenue Deli review was a fun read.