Tom Power

If you have read the comments at the link above this post - please go there again to read my response. Thanks

Corduroy is doing Restaurant Week. On line reservations will not be available for about 10 more days due to a dispute/mess up between OpenTable and the DSL provider Verizon. You will have to call the restaurant to book a table.

Driving home tonight, after Don Rocks had called the restaurant to investigate for this thread, I was expecting to have to do a lot of explaining on eGullet. Most of the previous posts have stolen my thunder. Pat made plans for dinner at Corduroy on new years eve in early December, which was about a week before I did. Earlier this week I became aware of this post on Chowhound: Butterfield 9 or Corduroy for NYE, in which the poster stated that they had a reservation in both restaurants and wanted input about where to actualy dine. A few posts down that Chowhound told everyone that she was going to Ceiba for New Year's Eve. I then scrutinzed all of our NYE reservations for missing credit card numbers and called the people that had not given them. As I read that thread on Chowhound it brought back bad memories of too many no shows. I've seen the no show rate get as high as 22% which is out of control for a resataurant that doesn't want to over book tables and act like an airline. I wish we could require a credit card number for all reservations. Corduroy charges $20 to your credit card if you don't show up. We ask that you call to cancel 2 days in advance but are very understanding if you have a good excuse later than that. Pat, I apologize for not having my reservation system for NYE in order when you called in early December. I can understand your reluctance in giving your credit card number to someone claiming to be be calling from Corduroy. I'll consider your reservation confirmed unless I hear from you. Tom Power

Thank you all for eating at Corduroy Tuesday evening. You were a fun group to cook for. The 2 dishes I was most nervous about serving, scallop tartare and the pork belly, seem to have been the biggest hits of the dinner. A lot of people must have read your posts today because tonight was a pork belly record setting night. It was a pleasure to cook for a group that enjoys food so much.

Wow!! You are already making my responses look bad. Keep up the good work.

Sorry for the delay - it's all my fault. I just sent the menu to mdt a few minutes ago. I am sure mdt will post the menu very soon. There will be fun passed small bites and then 5 courses paired with wines. I am looking foward to the dinner.

Drinking too many glasses of wine with Don Rocks should be a therapy . I just wish I could remember what I told him, or how he coaxed it out of me. I hope he didn't take advantage of me. I am relieved that he hasn't revealed my dark secrets. Naming your restaurant is a daunting task that can catch you by surprise. I don't have any children but I think it's harder to name a restaurant than a son or daughter. If you are expecting to have a baby I am sure you need to attend child birthing classes, spend time with the OB-Gyn and buy a crib... but mostly your just waiting for the big day. If your not overly creative you can borrow a relative's name; if you are creative you can borrow a fruit's name. Offspring can assume a nickname they like- restaurants only get bad nicknames. Opening a restaurant means negecioating a lease, writting a menu, designing a kitchen and service areas, selecting furnishings, plates, silverware, glasses, pots and pans... , putting together a wine list, dealing with construction delays, and opening an account with everyone from the phone company to the fish guy. The most frustrating part is dealing with the DC government. As any DC resident knows, the required document is the one you don' t have with you. My most pressing concern was to find a bunch of good people who could work with and for me. I knew (and I know it now more than ever) that I needed good people. The restaurant was still under construction and I had no office so I met with and got stood up by applicants at my local Starbucks - In retrospect I don't think it was such a good idea to conduct interviews in the coffee house where three employees got shot on the job. I had come up with a cute name (NV) for a cute little bistro in Georgetown that I had a lot of interest in buying from a big name chef. After that deal fell through I was not concerned with names until my new landlord demanded one, about a month before I was due to open the restaurant. I wanted my restuarant to have a name that wasn't common or cheesey; A name that didn't pigeon hole my cooking and most importantly a name that was distinctive and easy to remember. I procrastinated for as long I could. The landlord was getting ever more insistent that I needed to come up with a name for the restaurant . The pressure was on. At my next meeting with the lanlord after spendning the previous night reading the back jackets of CD's I convinced them that Corduroy was a good name for a restaurant. In the last 4 years I have received a few copies of the children's book (No more please !) The fabric is retro-trendy right now, I thank customers who wear corduroy for thier subliminal advertizing help. I' ve had a great time here and hope to see a lot of you at the dinner in October. Thanks, Tom

I am the chef/owner of a restaurant based in a corporate hotel. I have worked in hotels as a cook, sous chef and chef. Most hotels have too many layers of management. A hotel chef has to spend a lot time in meetings that don't pertain to his or her kitchen and spends very little time cooking. I am very glad to be on my own.

I love pinot noir. If my landlord allowed me to plant a vineyard at 12th and K Streets NW DC I would look for a root stock resistant to my asphault terroir. A chef in town recently let me try a bottle of wine that he vinified in DC from California grapes- it was almost as good as the food he cooked for my table. Making wine souds like a fun idea but I don't think I the time to learn how to do it well enough right now.

I returned from a week in Burgundy and Paris the day before I started this chat. I haven't been able to travel that much internationally. In the last ten years I have been to France 3 times and Germany once for about a week each time. Right before opening Corduroy I spent almost a month in Japan. Each time I return from an over seas trip I fell recharged about cooking and eating. I would tend to agree with your "average Europeans" view that the average American does not know " a plate of good food from a prophylactic" . Dining and leisure are more appreciated in Europe. In Europe you sit and have an espresso at a cafe and sip it on the sidewalk-they don't have paper cups!! In the US you order a Venti tripple latte to go at Starbucks and get frustrated by the line of people in front of you. The culture is so different between the continents. In Paris I have had to decide where to most wisely spend my 200 euros( $250-270) for lunch((per person)). I couldn't find a restaurant in Washington that would charge half that or could deliver as much value. This is a young country. The United States is the birth place of the automobile, the air plane and the computer but not of great food. I think this country is in the midst of a food revolution. The growth of appreciation for good food and wine in the last 15 years has been dramatic. In 1989 who could have dreamed that there would be a Food Network? Or that Wolfgang Puck would be selling mediocre food in strip malls across the country? At the highest levels American cusine can hold hold it 's own with European haute cusine. Our best restaurants rival the three star Michelins. Our evreyday restaurants don't match the quality of the small euopean bistro. The "average American" restaurant is still the souless chain. In Europe the chain restaurant is still something of of a novelty. We are making progress but willl probably not catch up to the Euros for a long time - they had a good 1000 year head start on US.

I cook more on the line now than I have in years. I work a station on the line most lunches and dinners. I have worked in very busy places where I haven't been able to that. Its fun to be a line cook again. Favorite thing about being a chef- shaping the menu. Least favorite- not being able to eat out as often as I would like. A few months ago I started closing Corduroy on Sunday nights. I am already down to slim pickings of new places to try on Sundays.

Did you have to remind everyone!

I am working on the menu... Does anyone (vegetarians excluded) planing to attend the dinner have any ingredient that will make them not attend?

I think it's great your son want's to be a chef. Chef's are cast in a very glamorous light these days. If he has a real pasion for cooking he should get through all the monotonous and dirty jobs that he will encounter along the way. Cooking is a very physical job, for the most part you either peak early or you don't peak at all. As much as possible encourage him to work for the best chefs - regardless of pay or position. He will learn more making salads for a great chef than he will sauteeing fish for more money at a mediocre restaurant. He should not ask for a Friday or Saturday off unless his sister is getting married and he better not have too many sisters. While he is still at home have him do all your vegetable peeling - the faster he can do the small stuff the sooner he can move on to the fun stuff. I wish your son the best.

Wow this is a great response for the first day! It seems like the dinner is building momentum. I 'm excited to host it. Hopefully we can pick a date soon.