Holly Moore

Stopped by last week for a late lunch, right at their 4 PM opening. Had the charcuterie selection - mortadella, salami, duck and pork pate, fig jelly, dijon mustard and cornichons. Everything was great, though I would have preferred the pork part of the pate to be more highly seasoned. Also, had to ask for bread which I expect with charcuterie. Gotta get back soon for their calve's liver.

As far as I know, Bookbinder's justly famous Snapper Soup is made with genuine turtle.

About ten years ago, at Snockey's, I received the rudest and most antagonistic service I have ever experienced. I have never returned, nor will I ever return. For soft shell crabs - the ones served at the Palm are awfully good.

What sort of food prep courses did you take while earning your degree in Hospitality Management? Any back of the house experience summers while at school?

For more location info, from their website If the 11th and Locust area is Midtown, is downtown Washington Ave or Old City? Would that they were open for lunch.

A very "pretty" lobster roll. Meat looks great. But the celery and green stuff are mere tourist trappings. Glad the bun is genuine. Here's all I expect from a lobster rolls. Yeah, it is from Red's

The School of Hotel Administration at Cornell offers one the finest bachelor level general business educations in the country - and probably prepares one for entrepreneurship as well as any bachelor level program. When I graduated and I am sure it is the same now, a hotel school student could graduate with enough accounting courses to pursue a CPA. Also Cornell is a top all-around university. Courses are available in all the arts and sciences, industrial labor relations, architecture and, for the masochistic, engineering. Besides which, Cornell's football team would destroy the CIA's. The Cornell/CIA combined degree is a wonderful opportunity, especially if someone intends to focus on the back of the house. However, if the goal is overall management, my prejudices suggest four years at Cornell would probably be a better bet.

Utz's Natural Potato Chip bag carries the slogan, "Nothing artificial, everything delicious." The first time reading it, my brain translated to, "Nothing artificial ever tastes delicious." Got me wondering. Have food technologists, using only the finest artificial ingredients, ever created anything truly delicious?"

Actually enforced regular hours are mostly a modern mall thing. Retail businesses, outside of a mall environment, typically set their own hours and days of operation based on sales potential, profitability, return on investment and the amount of time the owner of a small retail business wants to spend with family and such.

Must be a good butter burger close to Milwaukee. I'll third or fourth Karl Ratzsch's. Also try to wrangle a tour of the Usinger's sausage factory, or at least bring me a carton of fresh brats when you head home.

From RTM Director Blade's letter in the PBJ I would term someone specifically appointed by the Mayor to represent him to be a political appointee. Another board member is a substantial contributor / fund raiser to Mayor Street's campaigns. Another is a member of city council. Another is the treasurer of the Philadelphia Convention Center Authority. Of the board's three goals - rent structure, consistent hours, sales reporting - only one seems true to the Market's Mission - structuring rent to support the producers. Can't really argue with that. Consistent hours - Nothing to do with the mission statement. A big deal for convention goers as in RTM functioning as a food court for the Convention Center - but other than that, if the demand was there, it would be filled. If the board believes the demand to be there AND achievable, let them persuade the merchants to extend their hours. Offer rent incentives, an advertising and marketing plan. Don't try to force it through lease changes. Sales Reporting - totally bogus. Despite all the denials, this looks like Step 1 in a long term plan to eventually get merchants on leases that are a combination of a fixed base and a percentage of sales over a certain level. You know, like they do in the shopping malls. Any manager or board member who can't "better understand whether a merchant's business is contracting or growing..." merely by walking the aisles of the market a few times a day or a few days of the week, should not be concerned with analyzing sales in the first place.

Golly gee, an entrepreneur that doesn't play well with management. What a surprise. The mean man make management feel bad??? Over the years, in my corporate life, I had the pleasure of working with franchisee's from McDonald's, Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts. One thing I learned - some of the toughest franchisees to persuade to accept change also ran the best operations and were a credit to their franchisor. Rick Olivieri may indeed be a pain in the ass as far as the Board and Management is concerned. So what. He runs a good operation. He works hard. Anyone who has worked a grill day in, day out, understands that Rick Olivieri's "sweat equity" speaks for itself. He cares about his business. Philadelphians will never agree on cheesesteaks, but if you hang out in his eating area you don't hear many complaints. The Olivieri family has been a part of Reading Terminal Market for 25 years. I doubt many if any board members, outside of perhaps Paul Madden - Rick's Steaks sole positive vote on the board - can say the same. Give Rick Olivieri a new lease. Let him get about his mission of selling cheesesteaks and let the Board of Directors get about its mission.

Never did thank you for starting this thread, Bob. I figure one month post eviction is worth commemorating, especially since the RTM Board could end this so easily.

Just read that Attorney Sprague is going to have his hands full defending Vince Fumo on 139 charges of federal fraud and obstruction of justice. Doesn't seem fair to Vince that Sprague should have to partially divert his attention to the Rick's Steaks lease dispute which could be so easily resolved by the RTM Board simply offering Rick's Steaks the same lease they would like to offer Tony Luke's. Either Rick Olivieri signs or he does not sign. If he does it is all over. If he does not then it no longer remains a public issue. For me, at least, the issue is and always has been that a long term merchant who has not violated the terms of his lease has been evicted without being offered the opportunity to sign a lease. No one knows how much longer this fiasco is going to fester. One month so far. As long as this lease dispute continues, the RTM Board looks bad and there has to be major tension within the market merchants. It also has to be costing the RTM a lot of money that could be spent much better serving its mission statement rather than waging war on a long term merchant.

Reckon the only way to send Dean into retirement is Pig Pickin' #3

Yo Rick, I said it first.

First Jersey, now Cleveland. I'm starting to like that Bourdain guy.

So what if the bank promotion raised $1500 to support the RTM mission. The wheel of fortune and the rest of the set-up stuck out like a sore thumb. The guys working the stand reminded me of the USAIR pests in terminals B, C and F who promise free miles to get someone to stop on the way to their plane and sign up for a US Air credit card. Totally out of place and, to my reading, diametrically opposed to the RTM mission statement unless management believes that ends of $1500 justifies the means of a carny-like (or regional mall like) promotion. I took this pic on Saturday. Checked back on Thursday and they were still there pulling people in. I'm guessing the market board spent a lot more than $1500 on attorney fees that week for the Rick's Steaks fiasco.

Oozing Bondish savoir-faire, I instruct my bartenderix, one martini, flogged, not stirred.

Anonymity is just one approach to reviewing a restaurant. Anonymity is not essential to writing an accurate, impartial review. As I have argued elsewhere it may not be the best approach. I have also wondered in this thread if a reviewer who maintains that his anonymity is essential to doing his job well should resign in the event he is no longer anonymous.

Do you see it as impossible, then, for Philadelphia to have a world class restaurant? How about a top US restaurant?

Yet this whole fiasco is so simple to end. Just a phone call and the time it takes to print out the lease. That is what just doesn't ring true. If the issue is the lease terms, and Rick Olivieri is willing to sign a lease, all the RTM Board has to do is call his bluff - give Rick Olivieri a lease to sign. The standard lease, based on the accepted formula for the Rick's Steak's square footage. Rick Olivieri has indicated that all he wants is a lease to sign. The Board refuses to even offer him a lease. Even now, after merchant protest, a canceled festival, front page newspaper articles in the Daily's, a law suit; even now the board refuses to offer Rick's Steaks a lease. Something appears wrong. Something unsaid. Some hidden agenda. Something the Board seems unwilling to expose to daylight. Otherwise why not just end it now and get on with the Market's business?

How is money the issue? Rent income for the market? My understanding is that tenant rents are set by formula. That either Rick's Steaks or Tony Luke's would pay the same rent. Money in that Rick's Steaks will have to pay a higher rent than before. I believe Rick Olivieri has come to accept that - though a moot point since the RTM Board has not offered him a lease to sign. More money for Tony Luke - Sure. A multi hundred thousand dollar windfall. If the deal goes down, Tony Luke Jr. will take over one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the market for essentially the cost of any leasehold improvements he chooses to make. Less money for Rick's Steaks - Beyond the loss of his livelihood, Rick loses tenant control of extremely valuable retail space. Usually a successful business, such as Rick's Steaks, would only turn over its lease to a prime business location upon a very substantial payment by the company interested in taking over that location. Saying "it is about money" as in "it is all about the money" cynically taints the principle involved. It is a throw-away statement implying that if money, the root of all evil, is a factor, then it is just business and no need to worry about principles. The Reading Terminal Market board is capriciously and arbitrarily refusing to renew the lease of a very successful tenant - a long term tenant who has run a good business, paid his rent, has been a major participant in merchant activities. The Reading Terminal Market board chairman states: My interpretation - No one is safe. Not DiNic's. Not Iovines. Not Basset's. Not Harry Och's. Not even the Amish. No merchant, no matter how long he has been there or what contribution he has made to the market's tradition, is safe from a whimsical flick of the Board's wrist as it utters, "Be gone mere tenant. Your lease is over, you no longer amuse us." That is the issue - the Reading Terminal Market Board's irresponsible wielding of its power - the Board's slap to the face of Market tradition - the Board taking all sense of security away from every single market merchant, leaving each merchant to wonder as its lease comes up for renewal, especially if they are being dangled month-to-month like the market Board did to Rick's Steaks, "Am I next? Will my family be the next to lose its livelihood?" That, and not money is the true issue.

Ahem... Obviously fellow traveler Governor Ed Rendell was not consulted on committee membership. Otherwise I most certainly would have been appointed to defend our point of view.

Two separate quotes from the PR Firm representing the Reading Terminal Market Management: and one from the Board Member appointed to represent the merchants: This along with Serpentine's summation of Dunston's latest position shows the board's various positions, along with a candid insight from one board member.