Holly Moore

Steve's is still my easy-choice favorite. But Johnny's Hot Sausage does nicely when I can't muster the mettle to transverse the mysterious Northeast.

I'd have to do them side by side to be sure, but I'm leaning towards Johnny. Then again, it's nice to be holding a beer in my drinking hand. The bread goes on the grill crust side down to give it some heat without toasting the insides.

Rich Pawlak and I happened upon this great cheesesteak while chasing down hot dogs at Johnny's Hot's on Delaware Avenue above Spring Garden. We wanted to talk hot dogs. John wanted to talk about the cheesesteak he added to his menu. We let him talk. The beef for the steak is top round. Prime top round from hanging beef. From Wells Meats, just down the block. John slices it fresh each morning. The roll is a torpedo roll. Nice crust. Points at the end. From a bakery in Jersey. John grills the beef like pieces of steak. Lays each one out on the grill a piece at a time. Real grilled beef, not steamed like a lot of places. It's been on the menu for almost a year. Now it's the second most popular sandwich. His hot sausage is number one. I had a whiz with cause that's the pic I wanted. I'll be ordering my next with the grilled peppers he puts on his sausage sandwich.

Does H.T. McNally's Schmitter qualify. It does in my gullet. How about off-the-beaten-path cheesesteaks such as Chink's or Silvio's in Hatboro?

Barclay Prime? ← Yeah, probably. But the Prime Rib is right up there for a posh steak house experience.

I'm guessing The Prime Rib in the Warwick. I like the Palm alot. And the "tude" and quirky service is part of it. Surprised about the soft shells. In my experience some of the best in the city. Same with their potatoes. I've never gone with a big group though. Usually two, four at most. So could be they didn't do a good job with a group. A group taxes a restaurant's capabilities, but the Palf should be able to handle it.

I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a relic. I come from a transition period - traditional hand-written to computer entered. In fact I helped test some of the first POS systems at McDonald's in Des Plaines IL. Back then the McDonald's road signs had Wagner Boards for changable messages. I remember the sign one day, "Happiness is a working computer." I also used a computer based system in a restaurant concession I ran back in the early 80's. Katie and everyone else is right about the reports - if you take the time to set up the system and religiously do physical inventories, the actual vs theoretical food cost information is an extremely valuable management control tool. My feeling is that a small restaurant is going to have a hard time finding the time to do all the input such a system requires. Too many fires to put out and not enough management to tote the water. The best intentions when the computer system was installed are quickly forgotten in the pressure of day to day business. And once you fall behind in these systems, you stay behind. I hate the idea of dining room input of orders to kitchen printer output. I know - keeps the servers on the floor and gives the kitchen readable dupes to work from. But communication between server and kitchen is reduced to impersonal keystrokes. I want servers and turnout to have back and forth discussion on orders, especially when there are variations or special needs. There are other downsides to computer systems too. Some people are computer-phobic. They may be great servers but want nothing to do with demon computers. Also those systems go down. Usually around 8 PM on a Saturday night. Nothing puts servers in the weeds faster than a non-functioning computer system. There is the marketing truism that first and last impressions are the most important. In terms of written matter, the menu is the first impression and the guest check is the last. Restaurants put great effort into creating menus that represent their style. The same restaurants put zero effort into their guest checks - computer shaped letters on slimy, shiny, heat sensitive register tape. Same last impression as a trip through the checkout line at the local supermarket. I miss the guest checks of the past - elegant, substantial, one final opportunity for a restaurant to strut its stuff. Yes I'd use a POS system for a limited menu fast food restaurant. Or for a 150 seat high turnover operation. Maybe even for a busy fine dining establishment. But 50 seats.... price fixed menu... Probably not. $5000.00 might be better spent elsewhere or added to the cash reserve to get me through the first few months. I can always put it in later if I really need it and find I have time to feed it all the daily and weekly data it greedily sucks in.

A couple of thoughts. First, the "Good through Friday" sale will most likely end this week, next Friday, the Friday after that and continue until you buy something or tell them, for the third time, to go away. Second, how much does a small, fixed price restaurant really need a Micros system? I'm thinking a cheap register from Staples for under $500 and hand writing your guest checks the old fashioned way which is also a lot classier. I'm always amazed when a fancy restaurant gives me a thermal printed check on cheap shiny paper that slides all over the presentation folder. In a small restaurant it is good for the servers to verbally present the order to the cooks/chef and you probably won't want to go through the futzing about to set up the system for payroll or food cost analysis for such a low volume/limited menu and small staff.

Congrats to Gayle. A lot of hard work leading to a great write-up. But... The pic of their take on the lobster roll - I'm sorry. There are some things one shouldn't mess with. And the elegant purity of a Maine lobster roll is one. Lavender. Geesh! Ayyup. Geesh!

I was born and reared a black coffee drinker. I remember an early visit to New England. The waitress asked if I wanted my coffee "Regular." I answered yes, meaning not decaf. Got a cup of coffee loaded with milk. Not sure whether she added sugar too. Me too.

Cornell Recipe Barbecued Chicken Serves 10 as Main Dish. Dr. Robert Baker of Cornell University's Ag School developed this legendary recipe for broiled / barbecued chicken. It is broiled outdoors over a hot, non-flaming bed of coals. Bastng Sauce 1 Egg 1 c Cooking Oil 3 pt Cider Vinegar 1 T Poultry Seasoning 1/2 tsp Black Pepper 1 T Salt 5 Fresh Broiling Chickens Cut In Half 1. Beat the egg. Add Oil. Beat again. 2. Add other ingredients. Stir. 3. Using a brush baste both sides of the chicken halves and place on a grill over the coals. 4. After 5 minutes, turn the chicken halves and baste again. 5. Keep basting and turning until the chicken halves are cooked. Keywords: Chicken, Main Dish ( RG1668 )

When I rehabbed a shell back in 1982, I pretty much built my kitchen around a six burner Garland with a salamander (broiler) overhead. I put in a restaurant hood, have a quarry tile floor and the back wall is ceramic tile. Insurance company inspected the property - three times as I have changed insurance companies - and none of the inspectors even asked about it. But they can't claim they weren't aware of it. It's in the pics they took. As much as I love my Garland and especially its salamander, my pride and joy piece of restaurant equipment is a goose neck rinse hose hovering over my sink. These are usually part of a commercial dish washing area and are a hundred times better than the typical home sink rinse hose.

I expect and hope that Chef Lacroix will/does respond. The place has his name on it. And, different perhaps from the cooks, the Chef should be concerned and influence all aspects off the dinner - the food and the circumstances under which the food is savored. Lacroix, the restaurant, should not have questionable, undersirable tables that spoil a diner's experience. Hospitality and a commitment to excellence, not greed, should dictate the dining room layout, especially at Lacroix's prices.

No info on that. But this independent did beat out kfc.

I've always wondered about those "Restaurants Next Exit" signs along the interstates. Especially how hard it is for an independent restaurant to be listed. Finally found out from a guy who runs a barbecue stand of I-75 in southern GA. His signs went up recently. There are usually six spaces. He was number 6. Just beat out a KFC stand that was under construction. Answers first question. It's first come, first served. The costs: For creating and hanging 4 signs - one each direction on the road; at the end of each ramp: approximately $975.00 One time cost. That's what it costs in S. Georgia at least. May be different elsewhere. The annual rental: $1,500 hundred a year. Just went up from around $900 a year. Again, that cost may be regional. For comparison, a billboard on I-75 in S. GA goes for $300 a month. That's about a tenth of the monthly cost in the Philadelphia area. Some of the requirements to qualify: - Inside seating - Handicap access - Pay Phone - Rest Rooms - Serve at least two meal periods - Rest Rooms

Way back when Dunkin Donuts wasn't part of a conglomerate, I was New Products Manager for three years. Drank a few cups of Dunkin Donuts blend a day at work. Developed their retail Coffee By The Pound product. I speak of Dunkin Donuts coffee of the late 70s, not now. Could be the corporate conglomerate guys in the green eyeshades have been solving food cost problems. It's a great cup of coffee. Not the best, but it can wake me up any morning. I do remember that we had to print different directions on the pack for Midwesterners calling for half a measure of coffee per cup as opposed to a full measure. But I think Chicago brewed it full strength. As I recall, the coffee is a blend of primarily Columbian with the rest coming from, I think, somewhere in Africa. Or maybe elsewhere in South America. It's been almost 30 years. Brew Dunkin Donut's 1 coffee measure per 6 oz cup and it will be plenty hearty, though it won't carry the edge of French roast blended coffee which I actually prefer nowadays. I drink coffee black.

First off I was not forced to resort to illegal activity. The interest on my loan was high but legal. The payments were weekly - odd, but legal. I paid off the loan in a couple of years and we went our own ways after that. Philadelphia dining is not defined by either Starr or BYO's. There is too much good food happening here beyond those. My point is that the story of Philadelphia Dining right now - the "what's happening" - has been, in my opinion at least, the BYO's. But that may just be 2004 and 2005 news. I'm not sure why BYO's elect to be BYO's. A restaurant is more profitable when it sells booze than when it does not. Logic dictates that any restaurant at that level of cuisine should prefer to serve liquor. It could be that they couldn't afford to open with a license. But when you look at the success of the BYO's that have made it, they can afford one after a year or two of operation. It could be that they can not justify the cost of liquor liability insurance. I'm assuming that since the BYO is pouring the customer's wine they have to carry some level of liquor liability insurance but perhaps not as much as a licensed restaurant. Liquor liability insurance is very expensive. It could be that local resident's organization will not permit any new liquor licenses to come into the area. South Street is a case in point. Even though legally a restaurant opening in the South Street area could pull a license from anywhere in Philadelphia county, the Society Hill Resident's Association, as far as I know, will not allow any new liquor licenses to be transferred into their community. Similarly it could be the Resident's association or a near by school or church will fight any new liquor licenses. Or it could be that the restaurant believes it will get more customers if they permit customers to carry their own wine. Or it could be that a small chef operated restaurant doesn't want to put up with all the hassles a liquor license and beverage service entails. Rather, he/she just wants to focus on the food.

It was not the system that forced me to the money lenders. It was my lack of funds. And I survived, kneecaps intact, owning a more profitable restaurant. The liquor license became an asset. Just like a taxicab medallion. Once I owned one I, and any other restaurantuers in Philadelphia, did not want to see our asset value dilluted by having the state issue more Philadelphia county liquor licenses.

For the first year or so Holly Moore's Upstairs Cafe ran as a BYOB. This was in the late 70s early 80s. We opened that way because we were on a limited budget and could not afford a liquor license. Things went ok. We were often packed and almost breaking even. The waiters made great money. I didn't. Then on a lonely, dreary, almost empty Monday night a party of six business types made it to the top of the stairs. They found out we didn't serve liquor. All were fine except for one a-hole who had to have his martini. He turned the entire party about face and down the stairs, out the door. I was out a $150 or so check (1980 prices). The next day I called around, found a lawyer selling liquor licenses, found a semi-loan shark financing company recommended by the lawyer and got me a liquor license. Within a few months our sales doubled and we started making a decent profit. I'm sure BYO's of today have similar problems with out of town conventioneers and the like. But the good news is that there are so many locals willing to tote along a bottle or two. I think that the restaurant story of the last five years is not Starr's new restaurants but the growth and acceptance of great BYO's. That defines Philadelphia Dining more than Steven Starr. In a way the BYO's are a mini Restaurant Renaissance. Less expensive to open up. Less emphasis on mega-dollar decor. More focus on substance. Owner operated. Chef owner. All good.

My experience at a Five Guys in Arlington VA was quite disappointing, espeically their burger. Way overcooked. Dry. Lousy. I'm hoping things will be better hereabouts.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Snook Haven Fish Camp is in my sights for tomorrow. Will hit the keys on Saturday for a week and then hopefully a couple of days in Key West before heading home.

Perhaps, but I can't imagine the sauce served with the dumplings being labeled "brown gravy that prickles with ginger."

Am renting a house in Islamorada for a week at the end of the month. Though it has a kitchen I'm more interested in eating about. So what's good? Also what are the grease stain worthy stops enroute through Florida. I'm driving down from and returning to Nashville - will be taking the direct route to the keys and plan on working my way up the gulf coast on the way back.

One wonders if Laban submitted to the fiery inferno of the Tasty House's kitchen as penitence for Django's double debelling. That might also explain his abstaining from their incredible spicy dumplings

Alas, I hae never had a Buffalo made beef on wick. As appetizing as that sandwich looks, and I could see myself downing a few, what are the odds of finding rare beef on wick up Buffalo way?