Dignan

In Lander? Hmm. Obviously, as you note, it's going to be a bit ... different from Chicago. Here's the dining list from the Lander CofC website: http://www.landerchamber.org/lodgingrestau...spx#Restaurants (note to self: figure out why I can't hyperlink properly anymore) I spent one night there a month or so ago, because that's where I found myself when I got tired while driving aimlessly one weekend. Cowfish looked promising but it was closed the day I was there. Manage your expectations. This is small town Wyoming, just outside the Wind River Indian Reservation. There were, I think, two simple grocery stores. I can't speak to farmer's markets, I was there in February. But your view to the south is the Wind River Mountains, and you're a half hour or so from the Wind River. If you hunt and/or fish, you'll be in a great spot to rustle up your own good eating. Jackson has some fancier, more ambitious dining, and it's a gorgeous drive, though it'll be about 4 hrs or so. If you've got a redirect about what I saw or the area, I'm happy to oblige.

You figured it out on your own. That fiendish bunny was tasting you. Once they've had a taste . . . .

Here's a link http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=86586 (can't format that right at the moment for some reason) to a similar question from spring of last year. It's all still relevant, including the caveats about openings and closings. That time of year is the offseason, so plan ahead to get the most. If you've got any specific questions, I'll try and answer them for you.

Gotta weigh in on the side of "Rude," for most of the reasons stated by other posters with a similar opinion. The apologentsia minority misses the point that, in the setting described, it did not have to be about "me" and "I". We aren't talking about throwing ourselves on a grenade here, or other grand issues of self determination. It was a meal with family.

There was an SCTV medly type movie in the '80s where Martin Short played a James Bond imitation secret agent who would repeatedly order a pousse cafe rather than a martini-shaken-not-stirred. Each scene featured a puzzled bartender, a drink reference book, shots of the bartender painstakingly assembling the drink as the plot scene played out in the foreground. Then as the bartender placed the completed pousse cafe on the bar, the story development would call for Short to rush off somewhere else and leave the drink untouched. It was a good little gag.

Equal parts ketchup and yella mustard, mixed well. Malt vinegar is pretty good, too, once you get past the odor of stinky feet when you splash it on....

Since I often bought a bag of chips or something, I'll call it a takeout story, though it was essentially a Quik Gip and not a restaurant. But I would stop in this store by my home every morning on my way to work and buy a diet coke and a bottle of water, and got on friendly chatting terms with the fella that worked there (and seemed to never have a day off). Well, for various reasons, I didn't stop in for a week or so. When I did return, I recieved such a boisterous welcome that I felt absurdly guilty and I lied to the man and made up a story about being out of town. I even had to fabricate a destination because he wanted to hear all about it. When another interval of no visits occured, I just decided not to go in there anymore when he was working, which seemed to be about 80 hrs of the week.

Dignan votes Houston over Dallas. I move we convene a panel over in the Texas forum so we can come up with some reasons why....

I believe the season opened May 1, 2006.

Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope offers a more practical and less interesting reason for the popularity of spam in the south pacific here: "The popularity of Spam among Pacific islanders can be readily explained by the scarcity and expense of other types of meat and the lack or unreliability of refrigeration. Fresh meat is stored primarily in a self-propelled biounit known as a pig, which is only slaughtered for major occasions."

In many areas, you needs be 21 to be in/at the bar, so that might make it even more awkward.

When I solo dine, I prefer to sit at the bar and eat. So when I ask that, that's really what I mean. Some restaurant bars are too full of barhoppers to make dining there comfortable. And some restaurants have a limited bar area that is meant as a waiting area for tables, so that's no good. Other than that, I don't have a problem eating alone anywhere -- except I'd prefer to be at a two top in the dining room than a four.

somebody get that stromboli some robitussin! edited for alternate joke: that's nothing, one time i saw a chef make a quiche with appendicitis! ← I purposely passed on puns with prehensile proboscises....

Gotta lotta mice, Philly! And here's a good one: "Philadelphia University School House Ln 19144 14-Jul-05 9-01.1.1 Food handler with infectious/communicable disease is present.Employee making strmboli with running nose"

I do believe you stayed at the Wagon Wheel, and that the restaurant is the Route 89 Smokehouse Diner that I wrote about above.

One more follow up.... The caveat about the entrance to Yellowstone applies to other areas as well. Grand Teton NP is currently very limited as far as travel by motor vehicles, as are parts of other areas such as the Elk Refuge. I don't know if you had outdoorsy stuff planned, but it would be too bad if you weren't able to enjoy much of the park. Everything opens up sometime in May, so it might bear checking with GTNP too.

Hope I've been some help. If you've got any other q's, let me know and Ill do my best. Just wanted to clarify this one . . . . I've only eaten lunch there, I haven't had dinner. They way I wrote it could be read to be me saying lunch was recommended but dinner was not. Not what I meant....

Well, I haven't been to many of the places you've asked about, so let me say what I can in an attempt to be helpful. I'm new to the region, so my knowledge is incomplete. First, the Mangy Moose is in the ski resort area, and probably won't get going again until the place gets hopping in the summer season. Lots of places are closed for a bit of an offseason break, but most reopen in the beginning of May. Nani's is undergoing an extensive renovation and appears to have a ways to go, so that's going to impact that one. OYG is indeed closed until June 1. Out of your list, Calico's, along with the Moose are on the west side of the snake river on the Teton road. All the other ones are in Jackson. It's not far, as these things go, but depending on where you are staying it could make a difference. The Blue Lion has a 20% off deal during the offseason, 'til June something. Haven't been. The Wild Sage is in a great location at the wild life art museum overlooking the elk refuge. Haven't been. Nope, scratch that one, you said "wild" and I was thinking "rising" sage. Never mind. The Snake River Brew Co has plenty of home brewed beers and an okay menu, salads, pastas, sandwiches, about 4 pizzas. It's popular, and often has entertainment on the weekends. Been quite a few times. Elanor's cuvee reopens may 10, it's in an unusual setup at the back of a liqour store but is very good. Recommend. Snake River Grille opens May 12th. Highly recommend. Rendevous bistro is very popular, but haven't been. Sidewinders I've been to quite a few times. It's a competent sort of sports bar, by which I mean lots of tv's but the menu goes beyond burgers and wings. Gun Barrel, I haven't been to. But I know a couple of folks that work there, and based on those good souls it's pretty good. I mean to go there soon. Not much of a review, I know. The menu focuses on game meat and fish. Instead of Bubba's, there's a place across from the elk refuge and the welcome center called the Route 89 Smokehouse Diner that I'd recommend. They do B-L-D. Trio is a new place and I've had several good lunches there, but not dinner. Still I recommend it. The Million Dollar Cowboy bar is lively and usually has bands on the weekends ( and a couple of doors down from the Cowboy is Billy's, where you can get a darn good hamburger). I don't go there because the bar stools are these faux saddles things and I can't stand them. Other bars for a drink are the Virginian, the Rancher, the Log Cabin, and Silver Dollar. What else? Jedediah's does a good breakfast with sourdough pancakes. Nora's and the 89 diner do trout and eggs. The Sweetwater is good for L-D. I'll think some more and add if I come up with something. There's a "dining guide" magazine that you should be able to get ahold of quickly when you get here, with menus and a map. As far as Old Faithful, that's a ways into the park, and you'll cross the Grand Teton NP getting there. It's a 100 miles from Jackson. The only thing there beyond snack bar stuff is the Old faithful Inn, which will be right under foot, so if you are hungry that's where you should eat. I must recommend an inspection of the lodge, but again, unfortunately, I can't comment on the quality of the food. There's not a whole lot of other options, so this is a trip that may do with some planning. Also, the south entrance is closed right now, so unless you want to go through Idaho, you can't get there from here. It'll reopen in May at some point, which looks to be May 12....

Not if the gratuity is included. ← If the service were sufficiently poor, and I put it that way because it would have to be pretty bad to stir me this way, have a problem insisting that a mandatory tip percentage be reduced?

Just keep in mind I'm equally serious about bringing service problems to the attention of the manager. Sometimes on the spot, sometimes later. Also, the server may not have been the best but I don't like the idea of witholding money from the other workers depending on the tip who may have done a fine but less visible job. It's a funny world, all right. ← There's only one time I can remember purposely stiffing a waiter. We saw him twice: gave us menus and took a drink order, brought us our drinks and took our dinner order. We never saw him again. Somebody else brought our food, and I even had to ask someone else for our check. I'm a pretty easy going guy but I was pretty peeved. I wrote $0.00 on the charge slip, sought out the busser and tipped him, and then tipped the bartender. And then never went back. They were open for about six months. So you can tip and stiff at the same time.

And if we did, they no longer would palm a twenty to seat a new arrival in front of other diners who have been waiting patiently?

It may be hard to find as a word because the concept was viewed so differently in the past. Patronage was the rule in ancient Rome from what I understand. You pay me this, you give me that, I'll protect you. The ruling class, for example, earned no salaries because it was assumed they got their cut out all transactions in their domain. Anyway, I don't think it's a system to aspire to, nor are we as laissez-faire about bribery in general. Today, it has a perjorative cast, as is demonstrated here by the desire to twist this thread into a discussion about tipping. Which it's not. ← Exactly. And salary derives from paying roman soldiers with salt, etc. Maybe true, but not very helpful in discussion about an appropriate amount for minimum wage.

Isn't the term "pre-dated" redundant? How can you date something before you date something? It's similar to the term "pre-recorded" you hear on television. Something can't be recorded before it's recorded. Now you can say "tip" dated the acronym by hundreds of years - that would be fine. Still no one has come up with the derivation of bribe - I am very disappointed. ← I've looked it up enough. I'm tired of looking it up. I've looked up the latin word for bribe, and it doesn't have bearing. I suspect you will, despite the OED which I consider to be authorative, come up with some apocryhpal story about the word and Christ, given your hints, which really won't have any bearing on the incident in the review in the OP. Whatever you think the word meant once, if you can establish its derivation in Latin in the year 5, doesn't really have any meaning now. So tell us if you want and prepare for us to be underwhelmed. Then weave it into some sort of inapposite analogy.

We've already had this one. Here's another: bribe. Main Entry: 1bribe Pronunciation: 'brIb Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, something stolen, from Middle French, bread given to a beggar 1 : money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust 2 : something that serves to induce or influence Here's another one. NOUN: 1. Something, such as money or a favor, offered or given to a person in a position of trust to influence that person's views or conduct. 2. Something serving to influence or persuade. VERB: Inflected forms: bribed, brib·ing, bribes TRANSITIVE VERB: To give, offer, or promise a bribe to. INTRANSITIVE VERB: To give, offer, or promise bribes. ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old French, piece of bread given as alms. OTHER FORMS: briba·ble —ADJECTIVE briber —NOUN And the OED:Bribe. • verb dishonestly persuade (someone) to act in one’s favour by paying them or giving other inducement. • noun an inducement offered in an attempt to bribe. — DERIVATIVES bribery noun. — ORIGIN originally in the sense rob, extort, later money extorted or demanded: from Old French briber, brimber ‘beg’. They all trace it to Old French, with much the same meaning.

As I've said, I overtip bartenders. The only thing I can point out that is obvious is that if the few $100k went to the admissions officer rather than the institution, you'd have a problem with that analogy. Hyperbole in analogy usually doesn't stand close scrutiny. Every tip ever given should be intended to have an affect on future behaviour, unless you have no intention of ever returning. No tip at all would have an affect on future behavior, in a service setting. Does that now extend to M D's? But "tips" are after the fact payments. If you approach an M D', after s/he sat you and gave you a great table, and you said, here, dude, here's a $20, you know, to thank you for the effort and for having gone out of your way to make sure this was a good time, and the next time he saw you you got treated well, I have no problem with that. We've all been in those situations, and we probably overtipped on our checks as a result. Isn't that the way it should go?