Holly Moore

Nope, but I can say "Open only for Dinner" From Citysearch:

Before they deleted the posts at that other message board, she said she went twice, all her budget would allow. Someone had questioned whether she could have eaten everything she wrote about, and she replied that she had indeed tried all those things in two visits. ← Too bad Ms. McCutcheon elected to respond on a website where her posts would be deleted rather than here on the eGullet forums. Madame, you're welcome to join the fray here anytime.

There are very few restaurants I know of where people have such polarized opinions. No bell shaped curve with the Old Original Bookbinders. Just the opposite. Love or hate and not much in between. And, despite conventional wisdom, it is not simply tourists on one end of the spectrum and Philadelphian’s on the other. Bookbinder’s has a good representation of Philadelphians who are regulars. I am one of those who likes the Old Original Bookbinder’s. I first went there as a kid. It was a regular stop whenever our family passed through or near Philadelphia. Then, in the late 60's while working New Products for McDonald's, I was in Philadelphia every week on the development of frozen hamburger patties. And every week Herb Lottman of Lottman and Sons took me to Bookbinders for my 3 pound Lobster. Later I moved to Philadelphia where I worked for an ad agency and regularly entertained clients at Bookbinder’s. Alas all good things must come to an end. I became self employed, meaning no corporate expense account. Bookbinders is now a special occasion restaurant - I manage an excuse to eat there once or twice a year. Throughout my relationship with the Old Original Bookbinders, as long as I stuck to snapper soup, fresh oysters, boiled/broiled lobster and strawberry shortcake I consistently ate extraordinarily well. Those times when I ordered other items, except their finnan haddie, I sometimes regretted my decision. This is all before the Old Original Bookbinder's closed and reopened. Now they are stretching beyond “traditional seafood house.” They brought in a talented kitchen staff. They modernized their menu, though still keeping the stalwarts that I will always order. Logically, considering the quality of their chef and their ingredients, they should be coming through as promised. I guess it is fair to point out if they are not. I say I guess because I really want a reviewer to spend his or her precious column inches pointing me towards good experiences. The problem I have with McCutcheon’s review is that it is so negative. Bookbinders did nothing right. From all my experiences in restaurants I know that just isn’t possible. Now, reading further in this thread, I see posters who have had good to very good experiences at the new Bookbinders. Supports my instincts - my belief that McCutcheon walked into Bookbinders with a major chip on her shoulder and lugging along all sorts of preconceived notions. Yes a restaurant can vary from excellent to good to average and even mediocre. But from very good to very bad - and consistently very bad over what I assume had to be two separate reviewing meals. It does not compute. Especially when Rich Pawlak, whom I know and whose opinion I respect says he had two terrific dinners there. A restaurant is just not capable of such a wide a spectrum of experiences. McCutcheon, “Really bad.” Twice. Pawlak, “Terrific.” Twice. As to McCutcheon chosing not to write about some horrible experiences and then writing about Bookbinders - that is hypocritical. If she views a portion of her role to be saving people from bad restaurants, then it should not matter if the bad restaurant is a small BYO or a Philadelphia institution. Heaven forbid that I should suffer a lousy meal at a restaurant when McCutcheon knew ahead of time and could have warned me off.

From Dietz and Watson's Scapple Label: Interesting that pork is the first item on the listing. This indicates the highest content. Also indicates that it is the actual meat from a hog - not the offal. It's a bit of an urban legend that scrapple is basically what's scrapped up off of the slaughter house floor at the end of the day.

South Philadelphia Translation: "Make a pot of gravy."

Naive perhaps, but I've got to assume that, if a chef accepts money for recommending a product, it is a good product and one to which he is willing to attach his name and reputation. I can't see a chef harming his reputation by promoting a mediocre product. In such a case I'm not concerned if a chef does not asterisk any product mention with a statement that he is a paid endorser. However, when that endorsement is part of the news, even on a network as fair and balanced as Fox, I do have a problem. It's the same as the Bush administration paying a jounalist to take a particular slant to a news issue. But if David Burke's appearance was a cooking segment on something like Fox's chatty morning equivalent of the Today Show, no big deal.

There is no controversy. Lobster rolls are served cold, without diced celery and not on a bed of shredded lettuce.

My restaurant was on the medium and not the high end of the scale. Credit cards ran about 75 percent of our sales. Cash? We loved cash. I still do.

Yeah, that's a really good point. Until you've stood at the front door, and turned away hungry people with cash in their hands because you're holding a table for someone who has never spent a dime in your restaurant, and possibly never will, you don't know how incredibly taxing it is on a restaurant to take reservations. Some restaurants lose hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in potential business every single night because of reservations that no-show. That's a pretty expensive bit of "hospitality," Holly. How much money are you willing to lose to be hospitable? ← OK, no show reservation maker. Owned a restaurant on the second floor, one flight up. In its heyday we were so popular that, at times, we had a line down the stairs. We averaged over three turns on a Saturday - our record was over five turns - though in that case two turns were after theatre desserts and coffee. And we took reservations. So I've walked a mile in those reservation book juggling shoes. We had no shows but only held a table for 10 minutes unless the reservation maker called. And we had enough pop-ins that we were still able to keep our tables nicely filled. It wasn't totally efficient from a greedy, green eye shade point of view. Sometimes tables sat empty for five or ten minutes on a busy night because we were holding them for the reservation. That's the amount of money I was willing to lose to be hospitable. I can not imagine running a restaurant our level of cuisine (casual neighborhood) or higher without accepting reservations. Just plain rude. And since the majority of places do accept reservations, it must not be that bad of a business decision. I feel the same about credit cards. You build the cost into the menu price. First I don't want to lose tables because we don't accept credit cards. Second many businesses require their employees to use credit cards. And third it is my job to make life easy for my customers and that doesn't include forcing them to leave their associates or family hostage while they run out to the ATM machine. Hospitality.

I'm not sure what no-show customers have to do with hospitality. But taking reservations has a lot to do with hospitality. It makes it easier for the customer. Less hassles. No worry about a long wait. And no wait about driving to a place only to find that there will be no tables able at all that evening. That's all about hospitality. "We appreciate your chosing our restaurant, from all the reservations in the universe, and we want to have a table ready for you when you arrive. Walk-ins, those who don't bother to make a reservation, understand the risk that a table won't be ready for them when they arrive. From a short-term profit point of view, I can see where an "in" ultra-popular restaurant decides not to take reservations. It maximizes turnover and if people don't want to wait, screw em, cause there are plenty more where they came from. Funny how many of those places end up gladly taking reservations a few months down the road.

Greetings Chairman Newman Welcome to eGullet and thanks for taking the time to do a chat with our members. The PLCB is making wonderful strides. This is a tremendous opportunity to hear from the man himself about what has been happening and what is on the drawing boards. I date back to a time in Philadelphia when it was just counter service and the clerks weren't all that knowledgable on the finer aspects of wine. There was a black and white chart on the wall with two columns, one labeled "red" and one "white," with various food categories under each. Whenever one asked for a recommendation the clerk just pointed to the chart. Ah, the good old days when life was simple.

Restaurants mostly don't take credit cards because of the fees of maybe three to five percent of the sale. Amex is the highest. Fees not only on the cost of the meal, but the sales tax and the server's gratuity. That adds up. Sales tax and tip add maybe another 25 percent on to the bill, effective raising the establishment's credit card persentage to approimately four to six and a half percent of the actual menu check total. I think some restaurants even back the fees out of the gratuity which has always struck me as cheap though as an a former owner in a business where pennies matter, I understand the sentiment. At the same time, the restaurant business is all about service. And nowadays accepting credit cards is a service basic. Restaurants that don't take credit cards, like restaurants that don't accept reservations, aren't about hospitality.

What confused me is that when the Fishmarket first opened it, and that was before I moved to Philadelphia, it was just that, a fish market with a few tables for cooked seafood. He had opened it at the corner of 18th and Sansom and then expanded it into a couple of more buildings and turned it into a full service and very expensive fish restaurant.

Is that right? I went there in the late 1990's and it was still a fish store. It seemed quite cheap at the time, and my friends who took me there were grad studens... ← Then you are probably talking Seafood Unlimited, but that's on 20th Street, not 18th.

Maine rules when it comes to Lobster Roll. And Red's in Wiscasset rules when it comes to Maine Lobster Roll Red's takes the classic "tourist trap" hit, but there is good reason that the lines are long and packed with repeat customers willing to pay $14 bucks for a lobster roll. Each roll contains a full lobster and then some. Second place, the Cape Porpoise Lobster Company in Cape Porpoise just above Kennebunkport.

I'm guessing you're talking about Neil Stein's first, I think, restaurant, the Fishmarket at 18th and Sansom. Late 70's and the 80's Got very expensive. Much better value at a little cafe across the street and up a flight of stairs. Though Neil served a great shrimp and tomato pie.

There is restaurant lobster and there is restaurant lobster. The cliche pound and a quarter chicken lobster specialed out at $9.99 is a waste of money and lobster. But it's hard to find a three pounder here in Philadelphia other than at a Palm or a Bookbinders and when I'm hankering for lobster that's where I want to start. On a good day and when someone's buying, maybe a four pounder. That size lobster I'll happily leave to a restaurant professional to cook. In Maine it's partially an ambience thing. Outdoors at a lobster pound, sun setting, overlooking a lobster fleet or the Atlantic Ocean. Lobster seems to taste better.

I have not had the lobster at Bookbinder's but I cannot imagine it competes with The Palm's lobster. The lone lobster I had at the Palm (on someone else's tab) was perfectly cooked, absolutely delicious, and I had an unobtrusive personal lobster-cracking assistant every step of the way. ← I've done lobsters at both the Palm and at the old, Old Original. I'd say they are comparable in quality. For me, at least, there was no personal lobster-cracking assistant at either location. But the word is probably out that, come feeding time, it's not wise for a server to get between me and my food.

I just tried a Chick Fil A in the Norristown PA area. The Diet Coke was decaffeinated. What's up with that? Have never previously seen a chain impose decaffeinated on its customers.

Here's the pricing for my mantra meal: Snapper Soup: $6. Half Dozen Oysters: $12 3 pound lobster: $68.85 Lobster is the wallet breaker. For comparison I called the Philadelphia Palm. Their three pound lobster runs "just over $60.00." Pretty much the same. Yes you are paying for the Bookbinders name. And for the Bookbinders experience. Also - I'm pretty sure it is still the case - Bookbinders is one of the few non-hotel, unionized restaurants in the city. That goes into the pricing too. Never said it should be the case with Bookbinders. Order the above and and the odds are that you'll have a very good dinner, not one where your palate barely manages not to "disengage in utter revulsion." Nor am I saying caveat emptor applies to Bookbinders. Just order what they are really good at: Snapper Soup, Fresh Oysters, Boiled or Broiled Lobster. Consumer be intelligent, not consumer beware.

Repeat after me: Snapper Soup, Fresh Oysters, Boiled or Broiled Lobster. Don't even look at the menu. It's cute they want to be avant garde seafood. But we're talking Bookbinders. Snapper Soup, Fresh Oysters, Boiled or Broiled Lobster.

I once did side by side reviews of a restaurant taking two points of view. The same experience but seen positively in one review and negatively in the other. The restaurant was romatic or dark and dingy. The service was leisurely or slow. The food was aestectically simple and pure or boring. Etc. I'm guessing McCutcheon went to Bookbinders laden down with the whole "Bookbinders is a tourist trap", knee jerk foodie conventional wisdom and saw only what supported her point of view.

Here's the review on CitySearch.Com

Actually for locals and visitors it is an expense account choice. At the old, Old Original many a power lunch and dinner led to many a mega-buck local deal.

Fair point. But I've eaten in enough restaurants and written enough reviews to recognize preconceptions and a hachet job when they smack me in the face. No restaurant is that bad. Not even Bookbinders. But I'll be heading there soon and will report back on the actual experience. I'm hoping (and expecting) I won't eating my three pound half boiled, half broiled lobster with a side of crow.