TAPrice

I always heard that it started in Austin as more of a hippy, health-food store. As they expanded, they wisely shifted to serving gourmet and upper-class taste but kept the attitude. The pharmacy section still clings to this hippy mentaility. It's a winning formula. Just wait, though, some day Austin's other glorious chain, Central Market, will reach the East Coast. That place is all about gourmet without the attitude. Of course, this main not be the true story, but it's what someone from Austin told me.

The New York Times covers the return of the Pie Man: And Hubig said, let them eat pie! Who knew that Hubig Pies originated in Fort Worth, TX? (Ok, Brooks probably knew.)

Dude. Besh was a real Marine. In a war. That kind of Marine. Flay will end up cowering in a corner and if they use seafood, he might as well just help John cook. It will be another "no mas, no mas" kind of event. ← I should say that I "heard" this from Besh's PR agent, so it's not a rumor. And yeah, I expect that Bobby will be begging for mercy when all is said and done.

Who are the chefs? I heard John Besh of Restaurant August (New Orleans) will go up against Bobby Flay. Is this one of the battles that you'll be judging?

If you go back and look at the conversation, Ruth was not talking about the star rating but rather the Post's decision to run features instead of reviews. She disagreed with the idea that the restaurant reviewer no longer serves a purpose. I interviewed her when the last book came out, and she said that people accused her of playing "fast and loose" with the star system at the times and that it was absolutely true. She also said it was no secret that she wasn't a fan of stars. Edited because the original post had appalling grammar and made no f*cking sense.

Remember, after a pan's been in the over you shouldn't touch the handle. Is there anyone who didn't learn this lesson the hard way?

I wouldn't exactly call that an obit. More like digging the knife in a little deeper. Yikes!

Looks like the hot sauce will be arriving soon: The Times-Picayune has the full story.

For those of you with butter bells, how often do you change the water? I've got one, but I've been too lazy to stuff it full of butter.

I'll buy all that I can. Maybe I can use bottles of Crystals to bribe the Zulu's for a coconut.

Are other paper's covering food in New Orleans? The Dallas Morning News runs extensive coverage on the city (today there was an A1 article with an enormous photo about trash pick-up), but not so much on food. Then again, other than the NYT there are very few paper's that devote much space to food as news.

That was a great story.

This is more bad news for the city's economy and it just kills me that the great sign is leaving, but is there really an issue with supply of the hot sauce? The T-P suggests the very opposite. Four other companies are bottling the hot sauce and supplies are just now arriving at grocery stores. Brooks, do you know something that the T-P isn't reporting? Should I buy up all the bottles in Dallas?

And now I agree with Mikeycook. I almost added a similar clarification to my original response (i.e. the less a start-up brings to the table in money and human capital, the more the VCs get to control the company). My view may be skewed by the fact that many VCs I've spoken with fund ideas spun off of university research. I still wonder who invests in restaurants. The higher profile places (and I'm thinking of shiny restaurants in major metropolitan areas) strike me as small businesses with extremely high start-up costs. Is there a formal way to raise money? Do established restaurant groups have a pool of investors that they approach for funds?

Ok, this is off topic, I know, but I have to disagree with Mikeycook about venture capitalists. Most early stage VCs aren't looking for management or experience. They just want a good idea that can sell. The early stage VC brings the experience and installs their own experienced people in management. I can't imagine, however, who invests in restaurants. It's got to be a financially risky proposition and growth prospects are extremely limited, unless it's a chain concept.

Steven, you may be out of step with the "gastro-elite," but your preference for dining early is hardly unusual. Everyone at my grandmother's retirement home prefers to eat at five. See, the only odd thing is that you've acquired the habits a man more than twice your age. Seriously, I'm not sure that I agree with you about service. I've gotten very inattentive service when I dine early at a nearly empty restaurant. With only a couple of tables occupied, the staff often gives off the air that they haven't really punched in yet. Of course, it's hard to draw any general conclusions from anecdotal evidence like this.

I agree with Nathan, there was nothing wrong with this review. You know what to expect from the food and the atmosphere. You get some background on the philosophy. He compares it to other restaurants in a meaningful way ("deviled egg restaurants"). Yeah, the Ten Commandments reference was a little out of left field, but I didn't find too many other instances where the prose really fell flat. I also didn't find it convoluted.

Brooks can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that are already taco carts on Canal. If not actually on Canal, then pretty close (those carts can move). Could have sworn I saw them the last weekend of October. Louisiana has always had a pretty small hispanic population (3%, I think, but don't quote me), because there weren't many economic opportunities. Most of those in New Orleans were Central American. Will the impact be long term? I would guess yes, since the work will be there for years. A New Orleans immigration attorney told me that we know the Latinos will be permanent when the men start relocating their wives. For better or worse, the influx of Mexicans might be one of those factors that will make New Orleans more like the rest of the country. At the very least, hopefully the city will finally get some decent Tex-Mex.

Are food sections still cash cows? In several markets where I've lived recently (New Orleans and now Dallas), the restaurant review and the many ads for restaurants appear in end of the week entertainment supplements. I don't know how widespread this is, but I assume these sections were created to counteract the alt-weeklies. My guess is that moving the food critic to the arts section really cuts into the food editor's budget.

Is Bruni getting better? I know nothing about his judgment, because I've never tried a single place he mentions. His prose, however, seems to have improved lately. At first, it was so overwritten that it hurt. A good editor could have cut 2/3 of his florid language and made a solid piece. Now, even though there are a few strained metaphors, he seems to be relaxing as a writer. Perhaps the vacation did him good? Perhaps, like the always incomprehensible Elvis Mitchell, the Times hired a freelance editor to work over his prose.

Tom Fitzmorris keeps a list of open places: Restaurant Open in New Orleans

More on oysters from the TP today: Brett Anderson reports on oyster availability Brett's tribute to Joseph Casamento There is supposed to be an article on the difficulties of finding oyster shuckers. I can't find it on the Picayune's Web site.

That's sad to hear, but a year is much better than never.

← I used to believe, just like Virbila, that the noise was a byproduct of a design fetish for hard surfaces. And then I ate at a hip steakhouse in Buenos Aires' Palermo Hollywood neighborhood. It had hard surfaces and wooden chairs, but the noise level was low. The secret? They had glued acoustic foam to the bottom of the tables and chairs. It's such a simple solution that I have to believe that U.S. restaurants want the noise.

Before it dissapears into the Times' archives, here is a permalink to R.W. Apple's story about New Orleans and the SFA conference: Pralines, Seasoned with Tears (NYT 11/2/05)