Holly Moore

$1500 - the restaurant's deductable probably eats away most of it - I'm guessing at least $1,000. Not worth the hassle or the possible impact on future insurance rates. Out of pocket expense for the restaurant - guest relations. Shouldn't have taken so long to pay off. Meanwhile, at the restaurant, I hope they figured out who's sporting a new laptop. I'd be worried about who evidently has access to the office. $1,500 - probably not the place to start a PC/Mac debate. But $1,500 for a laptop?

Outdoor lunch at the Garden. And an expense account for entertaining clients. Those were the days. Not sure what's up with the Art Alliance nowadays, but off and on there is good courtyard dining there. Ashamed to admit that I don't know if Longwood Gardens has decent outdoor dining. If not, they should.

My main complaint about Philadelphia. Because cheese steaks rule, Philadelphia, unlike most of the rest of the US, doesn't have drive-in hamburger, hot dog and similar non chain joints, especially once the sun goes down. The only exception within a reasonable drive of CC that comes to mind, is Tony Lukes who grills highly respectable dogs and burgers. But there are no options on Sunday. When it's 9 PM and I'm looking to pick up some good eating without worrying about parking or walking into a restaurant, I'm wishing I was in Chicago. Probably the best late night drive up potential in the country.

OK, four days in and I've pretty much gotten all I can out of Trisara's menu. Decent, some very good, a few misses. Had no idea of the impact of "manana" on my writing about my trip so far. But perhaps some details soon, I'm thinking the day after manana. In the meantime, anyone have any thoughts or experiences with Kra Jok See in Phuket, Lotus on the beach near Trisara, or Lim's on the way to Patong? And a cultural question - It took me a couple of days beyond B angkok to get over my self-awareness about returning greetings with praying like hands and a nod of the head. Am I being a klutzy American when I do the same clasping a newspaper or paperback between my hands? Trisara, itself is a wonderful oasis of self-indulgence. I have a villa with its own infinity pool overlooking the ocean - I'm not sure I'll make it out of Trisara until the car to the airport.

Thanks for the info. Alas, US AIR was a couple of hours late and I'm battling time zones. Despite all this great advice, I headed to Singapore Air's Silver Kris lounge and made a dinner of dumplings and smoked salmon.

As I will be in Singapore shortly, is there a recommended bar for authentic Singapore Slings?

And Hot Shop Jr. In the late 60's they opened a totally automated Hot Shop Jr. Machinery grilled burgers, fried fries, drew drinks and shook shakes, depositing everyting on a converyor belt leading to the counter. One of a kind though at the time hoped to be the fast food restaurant of the future.

Not a fair analogy. A restaurant is far more complex to open and get going than a doctor's office. In a restaurant, Murphy's Law has many more opportunities to prove its existance. Besides which, a doctor's opening gaffs just kill people. A restaurant's opening mishaps will likely spoil one's entire evening.

From McD's history of ill-fated restaurant chain attempts: Raymond's (pronounced raymone's) an upscale McDonald's named for founder Ray Kroc who was always kinda pissed that it is called McDonald's after the McDonald brothers and not Kroc's. The hamburgers at Romond's were a little bigger (8 to a pound rather than 10 to a pound), the decor far spiffier, and locations like Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills and Oak Street, Chicago. Jane Dobbin's Pie Shop, named for Ray Kroc's wife at the time. Once they divorced, the name was changed to Pie Tree.

Use a knife? Then I would have no use for my 12 gauge, stainless steel, Master Cook, ever-sharp cucumber peeler and seeder.

Just happened upon AirlineMeals.Net. Great pics and good info on various airline meals at all classes of service. Somewhat tough to navigate, but gives a good feel for an airline's food service efforts.

In PA and elsewhere in the Mid Atlantic area - Gino's Hamburgers home of the Gino's Giant. And their sister restuarant Rustler's Steakhouse. There was a time when Gino's restaurants had higher per store sales than McD's and McD's kept out of Philadelphia because they didn't want to get beat up by Gino's. Edited to note that I just saw that Phifly04 mentioned Gino's first.

I'm going to be in Phuket at Trisara for a week in early March. Any updated news on eating and dining? Thanks.

Though not a theme chain, Wetsons, which was sufficiently savvy to give me my first fast food job - pushing 15 cent burgers.

Horn and Hardart?

The cat was probably cleaner than some of the customers. I wish more restaurants and such had pets hanging out.

Could not a restaurant reviewer define his mission as steering readers to good and great meals - especially in a major city? A typical reviewer writes upwards of 50 reviews in the course of a year. In New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, LA, San Francisco and the like, a reviewer has a wealth of good meal opportunities to relate - far more than 50. So I ask again - why waste column inches and his reader's time on bad reviews? Reviewers mostly have a following that reads them every week. Readers would quickly come to understand that a reviewer not writing about a restaurant is as powerful a statement as a reviewer writing a bad review.

There are many reasons beyond truthiness for a bad review. The only bad review my restaurant ever received was when the critic for the Philadelphia Daily News supposedly reviewed my place but in reality reviewed Elaine Tait's very positive review of my restaurant, in the Philadelphia Inquirer. One could put the reviews side by side and check off point by point the Daily News critic's reaction to Elaine's review. Elaine started with "Holly Moore's is a surprising restaurant for many reasons..." A week later, the Daily News guy started with something like, "There is nothing surprising about Holly Moore's..." There is also the temptation for a reviewer just getting started to attempt to make a name for him/herself by panning a famous restaurant or simply panning a large percentage of restaurants. It is a proven way to build readership and to presume credibility. Another theory is that many people who read reviews are akin to those who slow down at traffic accidents hoping to see dead bodies, or at least a lot of blood and gore. Want to attract readers, feed the "gawkers." I have always maintained that column inches are far too valuable a commodity to squander by telling people where not to dine.

The Burger Joint in the International Terminal looks promising as long as they are willing to cook their burgers rare/med rare. Any info on their burgers and especially their fresh cut fries?

A good start would be to add a signature line to your eGullet account that includes the name and address of your restaurant. Free advertising targeted at only the most influential diners.

I would go for an Italian Hot Dog and an Italian Sausage from Tommy's in Elizabeth. In my experience the Italian hot dog is rarely if ever found outside of Jersey, and never done right. I can not think of any other meal that I can get only in New Jersey. But I am torn as I'd also want one more trip to Charlie's Pool Room, the most idiosyncratic restaurant in New Jersey, for a couple of "Mealies."

Would be interested taking a look at it. No problem scaling it down if I have to, but we're talking tiramisu, so that might not be necessary.

First off, we are working on making the grease stains at HollyEats.Com transfat free. Tony Bourdain, as part of a short USA Today piece on new restaurants, coined the phrase "The Food Taliban," to describe those out to impose their dietary and culinary beliefs on the rest of us. Bravo! What ever happened to personal responsibility? Which is a greater, vaster problem from a health point-of-view - sugar or transfats? So why all the focus on transfats?

I have a problem with tiramisu. I don't know how it should taste. Every restaurant seems to interpret it differently. So how do I recognize the best tiramisu? For me, tiramisu is like art; I know what I like. But I have no idea what Italy's tiramisu savant considers to be an ideal tiramisu. So it is that I wonder about an olive oil tasting. Is there an ideal olive oil? What are its traits? I remember a eureka moment with wine - my first wine tasting where two different wines were paired with the same dish. Could it be the same with olive oils? Perhaps comparing the taste and contribution of various olive oils as part of the same dish. Different olive oils may be best with different dishes. Not sure if that is what V. is suggesting, but it makes sense to me.

Out of curiosity, does the NYC health department take a stand on medium rare burgers? Nothing to do with the burger you had, just wondering what the rule is.