MarketStEl

Actually, I had thought about that a bit too, and deliberately chose a more anachronistic reference for the first item on the list in place of some peculiar new cultural institution that I understand is called the "play date." Somehow the notion that even spontaneity must be scheduled--that kids in modern suburbia don't "just go out and play"--saddens me, and I believe that in the long run the culture will be the worse for it. I'd have to second you when you count your blessings that you are able to be there for your kids as you choose and that they aren't simply going prematurely blind sitting in front of a computer screen all day, much as I am now. Having no children myself , I don't get to experience this sort of enjoyable chaos. I'd love it if we could as a society figure out ways to make that time again. Eating together is still one of the most potent social rituals around and a signal that we truly value those with whom we eat.

If you can bear to bring yourself to do this: Do one of the following with the kids: --Have them visit a neighbor's kids for about five hours on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when you're ready to prepare the week's meals --Take or send them to the local park or athletic field --Find a movie they would all enjoy (hah!) and send them off to the rec room with it --Give them each a chunk 'o change and tell them to head to the mall (last resort) While they're distracted: Prepare/cook everything. Find opaque storage containers for it all. Pack them and stuff them in the back of the fridge. If one of them stumbles across your secret project, tell them it's for a party.

Maybe you live in the wrong metropolitan area. There have been a number of Coke Zero ads airing on Philadelphia-area TV over the past six months. Perhaps that's because the ads were shot locally and feature a local folk-rock-meets-hip-hop singer who has had some national success, G. Love (Garrett Dalton, of G. Love and Special Sauce). In the ad, he's jammin' on a South Philly rooftop with a bunch of his homies, singing a revised and updated version of the most famous Coca-Cola jingle ever written--probably the only commercial jingle ever to become a No. 1 pop hit, back in 1971. Only this time, the lyrics are "I'd Like to Teach the World to Chill." The long version of the ad is on the Coca-Cola Zero Web site. (Edited to add: If you visit, click on the "Making Of" link to view the story of the remake, which evokes the spirit of the original as well as revises the song for a new generation.) I can tell you that the big Art Deco box with a cage on top of it that is in the background of some of the shots is the former Frank Palumbo Middle School in Bella Vista. Also, any of you who have ever been to Philadelphia should recognize the quick jump cut shot of City Hall Tower with the William Penn statue atop it about a third of the way through. It ends with a panoramic shot panning from the rooftop towards the Center City skyline. Now, as for the cola itself: I can't say I feel any younger, hipper or more chill after drinking it, but I usually can't stand diet cola. This is a diet cola I would buy for myself and drink regularly. Door stickers promoting the product around here read "Great Coca-Cola Taste + Nothing: Everybody Chill." I'd say that's a pretty accurate description of how Coke Zero tastes. It's more like The Real Thing than The Real Thing itself.

Like that moniker caught on. I hate to sound nit-picky, but part of the problem was that the alliteration violated an unwritten rule of geographical references: Even though "above" and "below" are sometimes used in reference to numbered streets regardless which direction they run, the terms are more often associated with the cardinal compass points north and south, with "above" meaning "north of" and "below" meaning "south of". Broad Street runs north-south, thus running afoul of the rule. Now for a post-mortem on Millennium's last day in business, which concluded with a farewell party from 6 to 9 p.m. I found out from one of the staff that contrary to my impressions, business had been falling off at Millennium of late. He told me that the place was really busy during only one of the three shifts. I also found out that the owner of the place had been devoting less of his time to running it over the past year or two and was psychologically ready to move on. Despite the suddenness of the announcement, the decision to close had been, um, brewing for some time. The closing was in keeping with the spirit and style of the place. As I said to an acquaintance in attendance, "When this place opened, I called it 'Woody's without the alcohol.' (He agreed that the moniker was an apt one.) Tonight, it's 'Woody's with the alcohol.'" (Wine and cheese were served.) As with many events that attract the local gay community, most of the people there knew a lot of the other people there. The straight bar/coffee/nightlife scene may have gotten a lot more polyglot and sophisticated over the past few years, but the gay scene remains a neighborhood affair, even if the denizens of that cultural neighborhood are scattered across several physical neighborhoods and some suburbs. Scoats: I hope you were able to make the numbers work for your friends. I can assure you that if they can somehow recapture or improve on the spirit of Millennium, or offer something different that's just as appealing, there are a lot of people in the vicinity who would love to patronize the place.

Okay, thanks. I'll stick with America's Choice canned, then. And it will be ground beef once again, at least this time. Esposito's on 9th Street had a special on 80/20 ground beef (10 lbs for $9.90) that I had to take advantage of. Recipe and photos to come when I cook it.

Go for it. (Edited to add: And while you're at it, maybe you can persuade them to drop by Millennium between 6 and 9 for their farewell party. At 9 on Sunday, they close for good.) I ran into an acquaintance of mine--a Millennium regular who I often run into in drag at the 12th Air Command, which is precisely how and where I ran into him tonight--who informed me that he was told by someone there that the sudden closing is due to a steep hike in the rent. ("That's why Asians, when they want to open a business, they own the building," my Thai acquaintance remarked after this.) I hope that the new rent isn't so steep that your associates couldn't make such a place work now. That coffeehouse is--make that was--a real community anchor. Speaking of "community", let your associates know (if they don't already) that Millennium had a sizable and loyal customer base in the gay community and that they would reap a lot of good will by continuing to appeal to them.

I was thinking more along the lines of my hometown... ← Winnipeg? The Red River is that brackish? The city can't afford a decent treatment plant?

Okay, true confessions: Beans: My local supermarket (a Super Fresh, one of the A&P-family [Tengelmann] chains) has a store brand of canned chili beans ("America's Choice") that is quite good. I've been known to use these undrained, as they come in a fairly well spiced liquid. I think they are kidney beans, but they look smaller than kidneys to my eye; maybe they are pinto beans? Will investigate further. Cooking method: Chili is one of those foods that are made for a Crock-Pot, and I give mine a steady diet of it. Since slow cooking is a form of braising, using cubed beef should work out just fine. I'm about to do the big grocery run after I finish this, so I now have something to look for on 9th Street. Say--if I use raw beans, would it be necessary to soak them first for chili? Mightn't they cook from their raw state in the sauce? Cumin: It just doesn't seem right without it. Thickness: I generally prefer a nearly-pasty consistency, IOW, very little liquid left. This requires a method other than a Crock-Pot, however. I've made a conscious trade-off in favor of the set-it-and-forget-it effortlessness of slow-cooker chili. Besides, it fills the apartment with that wonderful smell for much longer. I guess I could use less liquid in my recipe. I promise I will have product to share with all of you sometime in the coming week.

So I walk out the door of my apartment building this morning and see signs across the street informing me, "It's the End of a Millennium!" Millennium Coffee, the coffee shop that bought an entire block of 12th Street back to life, is closing its doors Sunday. The closing seems quite abrupt. The person at the counter when I went in to ask why, and why so suddenly, had no information. I don't think it was competition, really. Millennium had an established customer base in a niche none of the other nearby coffee shops went after--although the Village Coffee House, the former Mean Bean, has made a concerted effort to woo that same market and may now get Millennium refugees. I wonder if it has anything to do with a change in lease terms designed to get them out? There was a widespread uproar in the gayborhood when developer Tony Goldman purchased the building it's in a few years back and announced that he wanted to replace Millennium with another tenant. The outcry led him to back off his threat to evict them. I hope he is smart enough to try to find a similar tenant for that space. Millennium is a popular hangout spot and adds life to that stretch of 12th Street.

I believe what you refer to in your parenthetical phrase happened in next-door New Hampshire. It's still on NH license plates, though.

Rich, I think you're confusing A.A. Halteman with L. Halteman. Two different stores, two widely different levels of quality. L. Halteman sells Pennsylvania Dutch cold cuts as well as fresh meats and local produce; A.A. Halteman sells lesser qualtity fresh meats and low grade Dietz & Watson cold cuts. ← Thanks for setting me straight as well, and I guess I owe Paul Steinke an apology. Upon reading this post and the Daily News article, I didn't think that the other five businesses were that essential, although Braverman's was a longtime tenant. (As far as sandwich stands at the RTM go, the original article is Spataro's, which has been there since 1947. However, Spataro's original location is now occupied by a florist.) Agreed that what's coming in to replace them improves the overall mix.

No, no, no, no, NO. Lymons are used to make Sprite. (Though ISTR that the guy who explained what a Lymon was in the Sprite ads sounded an awful lot like the guy who told you about "Uncola nuts" in much older 7up ads. Both had pronounced Caribbean accents.) Edited to add: As Sprite is a Coca-Cola Company product, Mickey D's should have had a section on their web site about the high standards Coke follows for selecting Lymons for Sprite. Then again, the McDonald's web site was singularly unhelpful in explaining the cola harvest. Trade secret since 1886, dont'cha know.

Or, for that matter, a beer connoisseur who finds it astonishing that the vast majority of American beer drinkers quaff brew that, in the words of the joke, is "like making love in a canoe." (Both "are f**king close to water.") To be honest with you, though, I can empathize with the puzzlement of the beer lovers. There is plenty of good beer out there that costs no more than Budmilloors. (Yuengling Lager, to name one.) Nothing wrong with democratic elitism. In other words, let's recognize that enjoying wine ought not be an academic discipline and not put down those whose reason for drinking it goes no further than "I like it," but at the same time, let's encourage these same people to gain knowledge and sophistication about wine. That would require educated salespeople. That shouldn't be all that difficult to do. Reading this conversation, I think I share Zinfidel's attitude (which may account for his choice of nickname; he certainly sounds like an apostate in the Church of the Vinifera). The <Philly> addytood </Philly> of the Virgin Vines site is IMO not so much a "we're ignorant and proud of it" one as a "we're not stuffy about enjoying wine" one. (Although, as I stated before, I don't think that pairing wine with food is stuffy.) Yes, this too is an anti-elitist stance--and in that sense characteristically American (and British working class)--but it's not a know-nothing one. Actually, if you take a look at the capsule descriptions of the various taste profiles on Virgin Wines, you will find similarly casual prose: "Classic Reds: Restrained, elegant, classy stuff for those who like a bit of tradition in their glass." "Huge Reds: Powerful reds with a turbo-charged taste engine." "Full and Fruity Reds: Full-bodied, fruity wines for instant gratification." "Lunchtime Reds: Light-bodied, fruity wines that won't put you to sleep." And so on. Frankly, I find this sort of attitude and approach to learning about wine appealing. I may even go ahead and enroll in Virgin Wines' free 7-day wine course. (Assuming it's open to those living outside the UK, of course.)

You're thinking ahead--that's good. You're also thinking a bit ahead of yourself in the short run. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but at the start, you should focus on the basics. Applied to your Web site, that means you should start out with not much more than basic information about your restaurant: Location, hours, menu, philosophy, contact information. Be sure to include some lovely pornographic shots of your burgers if you can afford to hire a professional food photographer. If you can't, maybe you have a friend with a good eye for photography and a digital camera? I know there are discussions about food photography elsewhere on eG; you might want to post to one of those as well. As for soliciting comments online, I would be wary of setting up an online guestbook or bulletin board. Without some way for you to remove malicious posts, you leave yourself open to people "hacking" your site and posting material that would damage your image and reputation. Better to simply provide an e-mail link on your site and post your fan mail and critiques on a page you alone can edit. The same caution applies to an online scorecard. If you were thinking about putting up an online form for your customers to rate you, I'd suggest you lie down until that urge passes. You would have the same vulnerability that you'd have with a guestbook, only this time in the form of people buzzing by your pages and filling out the form with bogus ratings. I would prepare a customer comment card for your patrons to fill out on the spot or take with them to fill out later; you could put on the card a Web page address that is not linked from any of the other pages on your site. The tasting is a good idea. I would probably do it in the form of a "grand opening celebration" not long after your business is up and running. You could give everybody who came in that day a free burger and fries, or just a burger--or you could have your patrons present a coupon to get one as a sort of marketing test. I'd probably go for the straight giveaway, especially if your ad budget is limited; to do the coupon version right, you'd need to take out ads in your local papers, print a bunch of flyers with coupons on them, and pay people to hand out the flyers. As for the name, I half-second Chris Amirault. But I see nothing wrong with referring to your place as a burger joint at the outset; that certainly didn't keep McDonald's from expanding its menu over the years! You can--as Mickey D's did--simply drop the word "hamburgers" from your name as you grow.

I don't think that taking the consumer to the next level of expertise is really Virgin Vines' responsibility any more than it is Sutter Home's or Ernest & Julio Gallo's. That's really up to the consumer him/herself, armed with appropriate tools (a reputable wine guide, a knowledgeable salesperson, a trusted friend who knows wine...). I have yet to run across a winery that follows the old General Motors brand-hierarchy system (a basic "starter" nameplate, then several other brands that are differentiated on a status ladder, a la Chevrolet/Oldsmobile/Pontiac/Buick/Cadillac)--though the various Mondavi permutations (Woodbridge/CK Mondavi/Robert Mondavi/Robert Mondavi Private Reserve...are all of these still under the same corporate umbrella?) come close--and I suspect that if a winery were to try this, it might confuse some of their customers. BTW: Someone upthread mentioned Virgin Wines as an "alternative product" to Virgin Vines. It is no such thing. Virgin Wines is a British online wine retailer that offers a wide selection and direct-to-your-door delivery. As far as the education part is concerned, though, I do like their system for "browsers," in which wines are grouped according to taste profiles. Had something like that existed over here, I might not have had the reaction I had to the jargon of wine taste when I first encountered it.

I thought the main objection everyone had to Daniel's plans is that hanger steak is one of those top-quality cuts that should simply be broiled or grilled and served as is. Usually for stew-like dishes, you want the cheaper cuts, as the cooking liquid will tenderize them. I've never tried chili made with cubed meat; I generally like the thicker consistency I can get using ground beef. I may experiment sometime in the future. Fifi: I have ancho powder, chipotle powder, dried chiles de arbol and a few dried habaneros on hand. I take some of your prior comments to mean if I have these, I can skip using chili powder?

What Vinfidel said. VV is also an attempt to crack the "party" market, where beer and spirits dominate. That much became clear to me after exploring the VV site fully. The registration form by which you join their "V3IP" e-mail list promises that you will be kept up to date on "club happenings" in your area. I suspect that most of us posting here aren't into the club scene; I can assure you that most of those who are, when they drink, aren't drinking wine. As further evidence that the wine industry is now setting its sights on the party crowd, have any of you seen Sutter Home's "Little Pink Box" yet? (Full product view in my ImageGullet gallery "The Little Pink Box.") This little bit of retro-'60s cool is currently on sale at Pennsylvania Wine & Spirits Shoppes (="State Stores") for $8.99, a real bargain considering the boxed bag holds the equivalent of four 750 ml bottles of Sutter Home White Zinfandel. ("About what it's worth," I'm sure some of you are now muttering.) Given that white zin is already a popular wine among non-serious wine drinkers, it only makes sense to me that they'd promote it to the same people who go into trendy bars and clubs and ask for flavored "martinis" made with vodka. The box even has a recipe for a "little pink cocktail" on it! The people who buy this (aside from me) probably have a few years to go before they're ready to do the serious-oenphile bit. But at least they will have had exposure to wine in a fun setting beforehand. Edited to add: Oh, I don't think it's "stuffy" to pair wines with complementary foods any more than it is to try to serve vegetables that complement a meat or poultry dish or season foods with certain spices to add a particular flavor or aroma. I think that what does come across as "stuffy" to some people is those elaborate descriptions of a wine's taste in which all kinds of different fruits, spices and other flavors are invoked. This may be based on a simple but understandable bit of logic that roughly runs as follows: "The stuff's made from grapes, for Chrissakes. What's all this talk about pears, peaches, black currants, pomegranates and so on?" I sort of felt that way myself before buying an inexpensive Spanish white wine a few years ago that had a distinct citrusy flavor. That wine--Las Brisas--is now a favorite of mine.

I haven't slogged through all 15 pages of posts on this subject, so please forgive me if I am repeating something someone else has already said. However, the posts I have read suggest to me that people have danced around this aspect of the argument, but none of them have attacked it head-on. The aspect I have in mind is a form of class resentment. As has already been pointed out, the biggest difference between foie gras and factory-farmed chicken is that not only is the chicken raised less humanely, it's cheaper. I've seen enough comments about the practices of the big poultry processors to know that some activists take the latter as seriously as the former, but it seems that the highest volume of outrage is reserved for the more expensive item. Now let's substitute "SUVs" for "foie gras" and "older cars" for "factory-farmed chicken" and make the appropriate adjustments in the arguments. Then do the same thing again, only this time with "fur" and "leather". See a pattern here? Part of what fuels this argument's intensity is really outrage over conspicuous displays of wealth--a subject that has sparked moral outrage for at least as long as people have been stuffing ducks to death. The problem is, as long as people are status-conscious, the passage of one sumptuary law or another will simply lead those with sufficient disposable income to dispose of it on something else that will communicate the same distinction. Free-range, grass-fed beef, let's say. If plain old chicken cost as much as foie gras, I would predict that the voices in favor of outlawing its production would be as loud--or the attention paid to the issue be as disproportionately great--as the voices now raised against the duck farmers. Maybe this disproportionate emphasis is morally just, for after all, outlawing inhumane chicken farms would hurt far more people than outlawing foie gras. But if all we are really doing by pushing such bans is stroking our own sense of moral superiority, then maybe, as so many of us posting here have suggested, we all should just pipe down and work to raise the consciousness of the producers rather than punish them.

15th and Latimer, and...? I haven't yet eaten at Buca di Beppo, but it looks to me like the kitschy decor is this chain's distinctive feature, based on reviews I've read and a visit to the corporate Web site... ...where I learned, among other things, that "Buca di Beppo" is slangy Italian for "Joe's basement."

Okay, I'm going to have to buy more ground beef on my next shopping trip and make another batch for this cook-off. Chili is one of my favorite dishes. I usually make it in a Crock-Pot, which produces chili that is a little more liquid than the kind I made on the stovetop. It usually goes pretty quickly when I serve it at parties. The basic ingredients are the same from batch to batch, but no two batches are alike. My contribution to the Great Ingredient Debate is the following: Chili is one of those dishes where it's best to use fattier ground beef. Even though you still drain off as much of the fat as you can, the fattier beef carries the spices better and gives better consistency. Chili is also a dish that gets better each time you reheat it.

Can't say anything regards Breakstone's -- the cream cheese has never been sold in Philadelphia, only the cottage cheese, yogurt and butter. But as for Philadelphia Brand: It has long come in both block and whipped versions. It's also available in a number of soft spreadable varieties, plain and flavored. I know this is sort of heresy, but I am quite fond of soft Philly salmon flavor. To add another link to the chain, I will begin with this snippet from that Kraft web site: One of those products was Breyers ice cream, first made in 1866 in Philadelphia by William Breyer. To this day, the regular variety is made without any additives or stabilizers--the ingredients are just milk, cream, sugar and flavorings. In 1926, Breyers Ice Cream was acquired by the expanding National Dairy Products Company, incorporated three years earlier. NDPC acquired J.L. Kraft's cheese company in 1930. So for a while, there was a connection between the maker of Philadelphia Brand cream cheese and Philadelphia, where sister brand Breyers was manufactured from 1866 until 2001. (By that time, Kraft Holdings--NDPC's direct corporate successor--had sold Breyers to Anglo-Dutch food and household products giant Unilever. Breyers is now made at plants in Wisconsin and Framingham, Mass.) As far as I know, no well-known brand of cream cheese has ever been made in Philadelphia.

Ken is...Chuck's brother?

Then why not just "fried chicken"? Yes, I know that pan-fried chicken usually is not coated in a bound coating--usually, it's just dredged in seasoned flour, then fried--but you can also do bound-coated chicken fried in a pan; all it takes is a little more oil. I do this all the time. "Chicken fried steak" makes sense because steak is usually not breaded or fried in a little fat in a pan. "Chicken fried chicken" sounds redundant.

Indeed. The most expensive restaurants in the Midwestern cities on this list -- Chicago the notable exception -- would probably be fine-dining bargains on the coasts. Though I believe it is possible to get out of Susanna Foo here in Philly for less than $70/person with wine and tip if you order right.

Even the gay bars in Philly are fairly middle-of-the-road; most of them feel like neighborhood watering holes. That was prior to the opening of Bump, though. If the dance floor makeover is a premonition of things to come, Tavern on Camac is headed in Bump's direction. Still, neither of these are anywhere near that place in New York that started this thread.