Jason Perlow

Wow, that's quite a reach. Somebody must have spiked your syrup!! ← He has ADPA, ADNY, and the two MIX restaurants, not to mention the three or four independently named ones like Plaza Athenee and Louis XV. It's a chain -- part of Groupe Alain Ducasse, any way you want to look at it, even though it is not a "franchise" chain. Anthony Bourdain's restaurant Les Halles NYC is part of a national chain. So are a number of other pretty good restaurants. My point is, "chain" is not mutually inclusive with "crap".

The restaurant seats up to 140, I don't remember what the old Paramus location sat. There's a good size parking lot outside the restaurant, which is a huge plus. In addition to the huge waits the Ridgewood place has street parking only.

Madiera or Sherry. Or a full bodied red wine, like a Cab or a Bordeaux or a Pinot, or even something like a Sangiovese. In Ontario, Canada, all liquor sales are controlled by the state at LCBO stores. There's no such thing as an independent liquor store.

Crabby Jacks -- best po boys we had while we were there. Totally a lunch place though. Liuzza's by the track for an amazing BBQ Shrimp Po Boy. Drago's for their charcoal grilled oysters. Don't miss it under any circumstances. Willie Mae's Scotch House for Fried Chicken. And you MUST go to Hansens for Sno Balls. See the Eating New Orleans thread for more stuff.

Philip Rentzis (young kid of about 28-30) is the GM of the Fort Lee branch, BTW.

Its a chain, Menton, however I would not classify it in the same breath as Denny's, IHOP, Bob's Big Boy, or any place like that. Its not a large chain and there are only 3 of them in New Jersey, total. The quality of the stuff coming out of this place is very good. I mean technically speaking, Alain Ducasse is a chain. So is the place in the Tenafly train station. I do recall the Country Pancake House in Ridgewood now, and I remember having to abort mission on several occassions on weekends because the waits were rediculously long. I do remember the one or two times we did manage to get in that we liked it.

I've never been to Country Pancake House. I do know that Original Pancake House (click) is a chain thats been in existence like 50 years, and the family that runs the Ft Lee Location has been involved in the franchise like 13 years -- they own franchises in Whippany and West Caldwell as well. I didn't really think the items were that expensive, but hey, I'm happy there's a place like this near where I live now.

Did you get to go into any of the Coptic Christian neighborhoods? As I understand it, the Coptics eat a vegetarian diet like 2/3 of the year.

Fort Lee isn't that far from Paramus... although the traffic on 4 can be killer.

Hey, we all can't have foie gras terrines all the time, dude.

Wow, that looks really good from a lowbrow perspective.

I like this sort of modern American, pan-everything food though. I mean, if every major town in the US gets a CIA graduate opening a restaurant, at least you can say there will be one really consistently good restaurant in every major town in the US. CIA "cuisine" (if you want to call it that) at least has some pretty high standards. It might not be the most exciting restaurant in any particular town, but if the grads are applying the skills they've learned you can at least expect a very good meal.

IrishCream: I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to do an adequate writeup of the restaurant -- my business schedule has been very busy, and I didn't go to Gary Danko with the intentions of doing a writeup on eG -- I went to be with friends, for the most part, and not to look at the restaurant from a critical perspective. I certainly would have been a bit more prepared if I was going to approach it from that angle -- I didn't take my good camera with me on this trip either, and had to resort to subpar documentation quality photos with my Treo. I ordered 5 courses (with wine pairings) and Esther ordered 3 -- with the 5 courses they adjust the portion sizes accordingly so you don't get overwhelmed. Here are the appetizers and mains we ordered: Lobster Salad with Avocado Mousse, Papaya, Mango and Madras Curry Vinaigrette I thought the lobster meat was cooked perfectly, and the avocado and papaya paired well, but I really didn't get that much of a curry riff from it. Risotto with Lobster, Rock Shrimp, Maitake Mushrooms, Patty Pan Squash, Marjoram Oil Esther did really well ordering this one -- probably one of the best lobster risottos I've ever tasted. Nice sized portion as well. Pan Seared Sea Scallops with Sweet Pea Purée, Roasted Leeks and King Trumpet Mushrooms Nothing not to like here -- perfectly executed pan seared scallops, and the sweet pea puree was a good pairing -- the leeks and trumpet mushrooms took sort of a back seat, however. Pan Seared Beef Filet with Wild Nettle Risotto, Asparagus, and Morel Mushrooms The beef filet was perfectly medium rare, although I don't seem to recall the wild nettles -- the spears of the asparagus were placed under the filet (and they were alternating spears of white and green asparagus) and the morels were in a light cream sauce on the top of the filet. The asparagus was also surrounded by a reduction of some sort, which I thought was a nice touch. Pan Seared Duck Breast with Cherries The dish isn't mentioned on the menu on the website, so I don't remember the exact presentation -- Esther ordered this one and she seemed to really like it. Cheese Course I decided to opt for the cheese course, and I am glad I did -- Danko has a nice selection of stuff and the waitstaff is very knowledgeable about what they have. One of the cheeses I had was a very nice Bleudavergne, but after 5 glasses of wine everything else that evening was bit hazy, so I forgot what else I picked. Desserts As I said earlier, I thought the Tart was the stronger dessert than the Luna Pies. Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of service and I really liked the food overall. The space is gorgeous, and extremely inviting to eat in.

Original Pancake House Fort Lee Town Center 201-585-0905 also: 817 Bloomfield Ave. West Caldwell, New Jersey 07006 973-575-9161 831 Route 10 East Whippany, New Jersey 07981 973-515-8552 Some of you may remember that about four years ago, there was briefly an Original Pancake House in Paramus, which closed due to bad management. This was considered to be a tragedy by those of us who love the food at this chain, hoping that some day, we'd all be able to get our Eggs Micheal and Apple Pancakes again. Well, as it happens, that wish has come true -- the Rentzis family, who owns two other Original Pancake House locations (Whippany and West Caldwell) , and have been involved in the franchise for over 13 years, have now secured the rights to all the franchises in New Jersey and have opened a Fort Lee location in the Fort Lee Town Center, off Palisade Ave in the same strip mall as Borders. (EDIT: Thanks Hank.) The new location has been open about a month, and I'm happy to say the food is just as good as I remember -- here's a (bad) cell phone pic of their signature Apple Pancake: In addition to the Apple Pancake, Rachel had a grilled chicken crepe special (think chicken fajitas stuffed inside a crepe with cheese, topped with salsa) and I had the Eggs Michael, which is like an Eggs Benedict except that its a mushroom cream sauce, over sausage patties served with thin and crispy potato pancakes. I'm glad as hell they are back.

Rachel and I had an excellent dinner last night at Roberto's new digs on Crescent Avenue. We started off with a bucatini with a creamy zucchini sauce that featured slices of fried zucchini in it -- phenomenal. Then a special of small shrimps and scallops sauteed with garlic and a puree of broccoli rabe with cannelini beans over raddichio leaves -- this would almost be a Spanish or Portuguese dish had it not be for the cannelini and broccoli rabe, the garlic was very aggressive but it was wonderful. Rachel had an osso bucco in a tomato-based sauce (huge portion) which she enjoyed and I had a really good veal scallopine dish. Afterwards we went to Pompeii, next to Dominicks on Arthur Ave, for dessert and coffee, and a shot of Sambuca. The place has gone way downhill (and its changed owners and names more times than I can count). I wanted to go to to Arthur Avenue Cafe but it was closed.

You have to wonder if they were using Dinosaur sauce just because they liked the logo, though. I mean, with their Godzilla fixation and all.

For what its worth, I very much enjoyed my recent meal at Gary Danko, be it "San Francisco" food or not. While I think that its typical of the type of cuisine that you might call "CIA food" I thought it was very well executed and the service at the restaurant was excellent. I also liked Cortez restaurant ( http://www.cortezrestaurant.com/ ) a lot in The Adagio hotel. Very innovative, small-plates concept with eclectic flavors. Lots of nice cocktails too with a very relaxed vibe for a high-end place, and great for dining alone.

I really liked the apricot tart, which is the signature dessert of the restaurant. The Luna Pies didn't really do anything for me, actually. I mean, they were great executions of Mallowmars, but as a dessert concept in and of itself it just didn't turn me on I guess. I'm not really into marshmallows.

On that low a budget you want to try your hand at Po Boy places.

The dessert was meant to resemble a "Moon Pie". A moon pie is basically a big Mallomar cookie. The Gary Danko ones of course were made with good chocolate and the marshmallow portion was home-made.

Here's a photo (from my cellphone) of Marlena Spieler at her book signing at Melt:

Here's some Treo-sized pics of friends enjoying the Sangweech: Andy gettin' down with the Sangweech JHLurie communing with the Sangweech Sangweech plated portion

I don't think you could make a panini-like thing that gigantic. I think if you wanted to make something big that was toasty on the outside, I'd make a stromboli. But of course, there's no limitations as to what you can put inside a stromboli, you could certainly stuff it with Cubano ingredients. Actually, that sounds really good.

That's a full sized Ciabatta loaf. Basically, I was going for the muffaletta vibe. I wanted to put it on a big round loaf but they didn't have exactly what we wanted at Fairway. I also wanted to use some of that Central Grocery Olive Salad but we were out of it as well -- hence our substitution of marinated artichoke hearts and preserved peppers.

Apparently, Roy's is on the rebound: Retail Roys Francisee Triggers Roy Roger's Restaurants (Company Website)