herbacidal

Robert, tell us about the dinner. please!!!

Holly Moore posted some pictures on a Studiokitchen dinner that was organized by me through the site, i.e. selection of date, then recruitment of dining companions through the site. Not quite as many pictures as your Otto adventure, but we had less capable camera. :-) and less of a photographer's eye.

To the best of my knowledge (being Chinese and having worked in a takeout), most places do make their own egg rolls, or did as of the early 90s in Philadelphia.

i think it is fine that chefs try opening different restaurants at different price points culinarily, as long as they don't let their standards for quality drop when they have to expand. Frozen foods, on the other is ridiculous. an old maxim that i remember is something to the effect that if you are an A person, you have to hire A people to work with you, if you take a slight step down and hire a B person, the slide will naturally continue, because eventually the B person is tired of looking for enough B people and hires a C person. i don't like a chef having too many outside investors. it's like the same role that venture capitalists have in corporate financing, especially the technology portion. all in all, IMHO, the cash infusion is not worth what you have to give up: commitment to profitability over quality (with less investors, it is easier to find that acceptable balance of the two) More than anything else, it's about spreading yourself thin. If you are going to try all these new ventures, then be damm sure you have top level people that will support you and keep the quality high. More often than not, this isn't the case.

most of the time we happen to be at byobs. on the occasion that we are not, we work out alcoholic drink payments separately.

joy tsin lau is decent not particularly special. if it's just the 3 of you, assuming you don't eat as much as i do, let's say about $20-25 plus tip. it's best to go with group of at least 6, brings costs pp way down. also get to try more things.

really, i'm from philly and i was considering going for restaurant week there. didn't really hafta look at the menu to want to go, although it did look ok. the interior just looks gorgeous. maybe i'll only go for drinks. is it just the hype died down, or is it just bad now?

The French influence on the American cuisine and food marketplace cannot be understated. But, I feel it was a combination of chance and deft market awareness that has let it establish its current influence. The 1939 World's Fair in what would become Flushing Meadow New York (The Last Days of Haute Cuisine by Patric Kuh) allowed France to send a team of superb chefs to introduce French cuisine to Americans, as opposed to Britain sending the Magna Charta. To send people to produce an experience was, in my opinion, a deft move. That the American people at that particular time were of the right mindset to accept such food was both a lucky coincidence and a keen observation. My question is: If France did not send such a group of chefs at that time, would the French influence on the American culinary scene be as strong as it has been?

very much the same vein of dining. vetri is of course more italian though.

tried it a few weeks ago. quite good. right now, best italian byob, possibly best italian restaurant in city, as far as style and food, not service or ambience or whatnot. can't recall what i had though, but everything was good, so you should be fine.

Oh you can a la carte everywhere. It's just that the prix fixe aspect has gotten the most press as far as the menu, probably b/c at the high end, it's the highest priced prix fixe Philly has seen since Le Bec Fin unveiled its menu. Or at least I think it is. Don't quote me on that.