Painting

awesome, thank you for the info...

Melissa, please stay on the topic of food please

Oh no, I hope you hadn't said tag-team, tammy loves to show off her wrestling poses.... weirdo. But thanks for the compliment, I was starting to wonder if anybody liked them, nobody would comment on them

No idea if it was the best, but i've had fond memories of my mom telling me about the "pink elephant" on the east side in SJ. No idea why i'm mentioning it becuase they are closed down i beleive, heh.

*eagerly awaits*

I was going to do that when I went over to Fat Matt's but after consuming a slab and a couple sandwitchs of the pork, I had to save any diginity i had left and not go up and order another slab for the plane trip home Next time I come to ATL, i'll leave my diginity here in california

I found out the hard way about the walk-in policy change, i had my buddy adam drive down to TFL when it first opened... he wasn't to happy to be turned away... But other then that, anything else changed? What did they do for all the time? I want to know everything! *stomps foot*

So, Has anybody been to TFL since it opened this spring? And how has the reservations changed other then opentable.com and no walk-ins?

welcome to eG

I have to give Ponzi another nod, great wine and nice people at the counter....

Ah well, since I’ve been back to California, I’ve been absolutely swamped with work. But here are my experiences @ Soto: Having been introduced to Japanese and Japanese fusion at the famed Nobu in tribeca, I have a hard time with the whole "sushi" thing. First of all, you can have your vingered rice; just stuff my face with the damn fish I say. Having my best friend being a total nut about Asian and specifically a fish fetish quirk about her, it gives me a greater appreciation of the art of preparation of fish. Not to mention the countless hours of Iron Chef, allez cuisine! My fellow travel partner and foodie went with me to Soto after hearing so many great recommendations from people on eG and AC. I think I should debunk some of the things I've heard. 1. It's really pricey Umm, what the hell did they order? Maybe I didn't see that "Kobe tuna, feed with beer and massaged by 20 virgins" on the menu. Maybe the sake was clouding my mind but our meal was roughly $100 USD. That’s a bottle of sake, two appetizers and sashimi omakasa for two. Damn fine price I say. 2. It's better then Nobu Eh? Please, take away the drugs from that person! He's dangerous to socity. Nobu isn't a "sushi" restaurant, what they are known for and what they do best is fusion, combining Japanese cuisine with other worldly sensibilities. Honestly, you can get great sushi anywhere. Just don't be comparing two completely unrelated things. Or we can meet out back and settle this like men (or women, just gotta wait till my nails are done) 3. I'm gay No, really, I’m not. Ok, enough of that, the real review begins now: On Saturday, met up with Tammy (yay!) and went to Soto. Craziness, I would -never- think going to a Kroger’s strip mall would house such a great meal. The wait staff was lacking and the astmosphere was quite cold but watching Soto-san preparing the fish over-rode any of the negativity. They were short-staffed that night so they recommended that we order food from the back rather then have Soto prepare (because the wait would be long). We decided to get two appetizers and order the sashimi omakasa and to wash it all down, cold sake (but I really wanted warm sake but alas, they only had crappy warm sake) Tammy had a langistine (a large pawn type of shelled fish) with an Asian mayo dressing on top. It reminded me of a lot like "ranch" salad dressing but it was quite good. The sweet taste of the fish offset the onion flavors. I had an awesome three layer lobster dish. Lobster, lotus root, some sort of fish row and hell if I can remember but it was perfect. Not as good as the review GG quoted but it was very remarkable. By this time we where happy from all the sake. We asked for water but the waiter never came, only after we were about to leave had he remembered. Anyways, happy Tammy and happy Isaac waited for our sashimi. We supposed to of had two separate plates (we are pigs) but the waiter messed up on that and gave us one large plate. It was still more then enough food, but eh, Tammy and I don't like to share our sashimi very well few minutes later, all 10 types of fish, vanished. I think gnomes stole our fish damnit. I'm so gonna kill the lil' buggers. I think that the Soto is the master of his domain but come with the mindset of enjoying the food and ignore if any conceptions that you may have. Food snobs have no place hanging around foodies Tammy found another place that you may like if you dig Soto. Read about it here.

I'm planning on writing a long'ish review of Soto, stay tuned!

take it easy? I really hate to break it to you but starting up a store has no place for resting on one's henie. Like Mel is doing, you have to push and push and breathe! *hee hee hee* push! umm, sorry, that was a really bad joke. anyways, I rather see her going insane from working hard and striving to get her dream come to life then having her drinking a mojito because it failed. I never seen a lazy, undriven pastry chef, I bet she lives for this sort of stuff

So, what now? I havn't been notified of our reservation has been canceled yet. I feel kinda left out in the cold from a foodie perspective. Whatever the case, hope Richard moves on to another project quickly, so i can experience his craft. To Blais: If you want to hang out with some foodies this coming monday evening/night (17th) and drown our sorrows away, lets get together, drinks are on me. isaac@isaacbentley.org

Since Mr. Blais said we could ask him anything: boxers or briefs? sorry, I had to say that But I do have a couple serious questions: I'm not a professional chef (I actually remodel/build restaurants instead) so this may be a stupid question for you. How do you keep your obviously unique ideas away from copycats? Here you are, opened a fabulous environment to allow people to experience something they never have before and have somebody copy it 2,000 miles away? Second question; what is you're personal take on executive and/or owner chefs slaving over the stoves? I've seen many that tend be in name only (and just oversee the quality) and some that work there day in and day out. Do you see being a chef at your level of expertise more suited to manage and make sure the restaurant stays open, or be a chef that's all about the food and let things fall where they may as to profit? As tharrison said earlier in this thread, we'll be going to your place on the 17th, I'm excited to not only come see enjoy your food but to support somebody that obviously saw that the business needed a swift kick in the pants

Wow. I feel so offically welcomed now, I have to stay and umm, read threads! yes, I must do this. I'm compelled even. I have to give credit to tharrison for showing me this thread and forcing myself to get an account just so I could use the new post tracker thingie I should put a disclaimer though on myself, I've dealt with mainly fast food and the whole "lunch crowd" demographic. So you may have reasons to hate me just for that reason alone So, I may not be a pastry chef, but i have a good friend that is... Does that redeem me? Not to mention tharrison is totally kick ass soon-to-be chef in the making. umm, yeah, enough about me, lets start a riot until Mel comes back to tell us all the sexy details she hinted too in her last post

Been reading your posts and having a great time relating experiences in opening a place. I've successfully remodeled and opened about 9 places (general contractor) and all I have to say is, you're on the right track. Demo'ing to an empty shell is the fun part, like you, I’m still amazed how shit gets passed the health inspector. I can give you some horror stories but I’m sure you have enough of them of your own to keep you up at night. When I did the two places in Portland, Boxer was pretty good to us as an equipment supplier, ask for the guy that's across the street in his little office, he's the head of the used equip. leasing, he treated us right. The other places have been kinda iffy. That's all I can think of in my sleep deprived slumber to help you , oh, one more thing. For the love all things Jacques Torres (my personal pastry god ), do NOT, I repeat for added quadraphonic effect, NOT open your store before -everything- is complete. I've seen so many failures of great places just because people got a less then stunning first impression of the place, and that killed any word of mouth . We all know opening a place is a long term investment but killing off any chance of money right off the bat would be stupid, and we don’t want to be known to be stupid correct? So it's cheaper to spend a month's lease on a place to make sure it's perfect then to screw up potential revenue that could easy be made in one day in sales you would have lost otherwise. The temptation is more then that trying not to drink that last shot of tequila but you have to fight it. And with those wise words of wisdom, I’m going to bed, night!