Buckethead

What day of the week were you planning on doing this? A group of 8-14 people is a lot for a place like Monk's or Eulogy, you will have a very hard time getting seated in a timely manner at either place on a weekend. I haven't been to Beneluxx yet, but if they haven't expanded the space from when it was SoMa I think you'd have the same problem there. I'm not a big fan of the food at Zot, but they have a decent-sized space there and the beers are good, you may want to include them simply because you're more likely to be able to get in there.

I'd recommend Ansill as well, probably my favorite place in the city, it gets better every time I go. Osteria is fantastic too, but make the reservation ASAP if you're going on a Friday. Ansill has been around a bit longer and is a bit easier to get into, but I'd still call a week ahead. Tinto (Amada chef Jose Garces' new place) is also very good, but probably too similar to his previous dinner at Amada.

I visited Tiffin for dinner last week and the upstairs is open, and nice! My main problem with Tiffin in the past has been that I can't get it: they don't deliver to where I live and their downstairs dining area is so puny that getting a table was iffy. No longer! The food was better than any of my past visits. They have also added specials to the dining room menu. I had a lamb dish I've never seen before, delicious.

LaBan's review actually made me not want to go, it was nearly sycophantic in its praise. Besides which, even if I wanted to I couldn't for the next 10 months, at least.

They are serving the same desserts on both menus, I was at Ansill on Saturday night and the financier, fondant, and mousse were all on there. We did the cheese plate instead as desserts there usually don't measure up to the greatness of the savory dishes, but now that I see the pics I think maybe we made a mistake.

I was there about six weeks ago, the food was OK but the service was incredibly slow. Our meal took over two hours, all we had was two apps split between the four of us, and an entree each. Much of that time was spent without water or wine. We didn't have any problems with being served different dishes than what we'd ordered. I'd rather have Verge back, but any restaurant is an improvement on a vacant building, especially in East Falls where there aren't many options.

I thought they're doing it every Sunday now? ← From what I heard, they are, starting yesterday. Speaking of which, did anyone go? I had a reservation but had to cancel it, so I won't get there till this weekend..

Barclay Prime is a good choice too, if someone else is footing the bill.

It isn't, it was a mistake: http://foobooz.com/2007/09/try-foie-gras-f.../#comment-48884

Yeah, I'd be interested to know if that's a typo or what. I've never heard of a corkage fee that high. If a party of two wants to split a bottle, you're talking $40 corkage for one bottle of wine. Unless it's just meant to deter people from bringing their own in the first place. In that case, it worked.

I haven't been to most of the Starr places, but I had dinner at Striped Bass very recently and I was pretty underwhelmed with the food, especially for the prices they charge. Only one of our four dishes was something I'd go back for. The service was pretty bad too, a rare combination of snootyness, ingratiation, and incompetence. Tangerine and Barclay Prime are both good choices.

Will Ansill be BYO on those nights?

Of those three places, I'd say Ansill is the best, followed by Southwark, then Mercato. They're all very good, you will have a great meal at any of them, but Ansill is really fantastic. Ansill and Southwark are also both within walking distance of many places where dancing occurs, I'm told. Mercato, not so much. Plus, Mercato is BYO, the other two have bars.

I was recently back at Mercato after an unimpressive first meal there a year or so ago, I was impressed this time. I had the gnocchi w/ short rib ragu as well, it was fantastic. We did have dessert, but I wish we had gone to Capogiro instead..

<spatial data removed>FWIW, I was there a couple years ago and it fell into that wide range of places that, while they're not bad, aren't good enough to warrant a return visit with so many other great places around. If I remember correctly, the night I was there they were out of walnut flour to make the pasta for what I ordered, and whatever they used to substitute for it wasn't up to snuff. I remember dessert being pretty good, though. With Southwark, Ansill, and Gayle in such close proximity, I doubt I'll make it back there.

I'm not sure if that's a good idea, don't some varieties contain raw egg yolks?

I second that, we had an office xmas party there a couple years ago and the multiple small rooms they have there are perfect for this kind of thing. The food is decent, I like Tir Na Nog better though.

Actually I didn't read the entire thread before I went there, so I wasn't aware of the confusion over that dish, and the scallops were someone else's. All I got to sample from that plate was the scallop itself. I'm not a big fan of scallops, so I'm probably not the best judge of them. Someone else at the table said it was good, but not as good as James or Pif. I didn't get a taste of the sauce, I'm afraid.

I checked this place out last night, they are open for business but it's BYO until they get their liquor license, which is apparently imminent. We were a party of three and we were hungry, so I got to taste quite a few things. I don't know whether the menu is authentic French bistro or even whether the grammar and spelling were accurate, but I also don't really care too much if the food is good, and our food was very good. We didn't bother with the raw bar, we ordered off the regular menu, and here's what we had: Apps: Duck rillette, mussels, and beet soup. All were good, the duck rillette was the best. One of the mussels was a little tough, but there was a giant plate of them, no big deal. Actually the mussels app plate was plenty for a main dish. The rillette was served with cornichons and a fruit spread (aigre-doux?) with figs and currants. Delicious, however it's spelled. Mains: Roasted chicken, scallops (the 'Coquilles St. Jacques'), and rainbow trout. The trout was fantastic, skin perfectly crisp over the entire surface of both pieces, tender and light flesh. The menu's promise of an almond-anchovy sauce was a little unfulfilled, the pungent anchovy taste was a little too subtle. That's really picking nits, though, it was probably the best piece of fish we've had since Shola's suzuki at the Restaurant M dinner. Roasted chicken was above-average, I especially liked the pommes aligot. I got the raspberry chocolate napoleon for dessert, my friends split the cheese plate, and we sampled the lavender ice cream as well. The napoleon was a little hard to manage, and not quite up to the level of what we'd eaten to that point, but still good. I think I'd try something else next time. The lavender ice cream was, as we were warned by our server, very intense. It was delicious, but a few spoonfuls was plenty for me. I didn't get to sample much of the cheese plate, but there was a great aged cheese and a nice blue. The coffee was very good too. I think the server said that the chef was formerly of Loie. For a place that had been open for a day and a half, they're off to an impressive start. Everything we had was good, some of it was great. I'll go back.

The Headhouse Farmer's Market site says this: I guess the Saturday market from last year is still going on, and has been since May. I wasn't aware of it till just now! I assumed that the Saturday market was being expanded and moved to Sundays. That explains why some of my favorite vendors from last year are nowhere to be found. Argh!! Did I miss the Asian pears?

Sir Bucket, strangely the original manager took over as the chef, either he learned fast or he used to be a chef, word is he came from Devon Seafood grille, not exactly reassuring eh.... ← Is that Ed Doherty you're referring to, or someone else? I thought they had a new guy since then. It's hard to remember who's been in and out of there in the restaurant's short life, but as I remember it, they started with a guy from Trinidad, then he left and Ed Doherty (who had been the manager) stepped into the kitchen for a while, around Christmas. Then they found someone else whose name I don't know, and then a few months ago THAT guy left and now they're on their fourth chef. Of course, I can't prove any of this! I thought I read about the change from the third chef to the fourth in Table Talk, but the Inky doesn't make it easy to search old columns so I'm not so sure now.

Wowee, I had dinner at Ansill last night for the first time in a while, and it's better than it's ever been. If there's a silver lining to Pif's closing, I think it must be meals like this one. Ansill has always been one of my favorite places in the city, but last night's dinner was above and beyond any of my previous experiences there, easily the best of many great meals I've had there. The menu was mostly new since last time we'd been there, so we decided not to order anything we've had before. We started with the charcuterie sampler. It was a little noisy and I couldn't make out all of what our server was telling us as far as what was what, but there was a nice chorizo, what I think was a soppressata, the wild boar prosciutto, and a fourth cured meat I didn't recognize. They were all very good, but the boar prosciutto stood out. They were accompanied by a couple mustards, caper berries, cornichons, and what I believe were marcona almonds. That was followed by maybe my favorite of the evening, bruschetta topped by broccoli rabe pesto and (I think) thinly sliced feta. The pesto was made with a bit of horseradish, which not only went very well with the rabe and the cheese, it also carried all the flavors way up into the various recesses of my skull. Yummy. We split two larger plates, the branzino and the rabbit tart. Both were great, our only (minor) complaint was that the fish's skin wasn't crisp. It probably wouldn't have bothered us at all if we hadn't had Shola's perfectly cooked (and crispy-skinned) suzuki at M a few weeks ago. Anyway, the fish flesh underneath was light and delicious. The rabbit was a delight, and I'm not usually crazy about rabbit. I think it was the texture of this dish that did it, the rabbit was (I imagine) pulled apart almost like pulled pork, and reassembled with zucchini and carrot strands atop a round of pastry, kind of an upside-down pot pie. One of our old menu favorites, the fingerling potatoes with bacon, seems to have been replaced with a new fingerling potato dish, with pancetta bits and dressed with a vinaigrette. It was similar to the old dish, but much less heavy and rich (in a good way) thanks to the vinaigrette. Dessert was the only disappointment. I had the mascarpone mousse. It was good, but the flavor was a little one-dimensional. It was accompanied by a ladyfinger for dipping, but there was way too much mousse on the plate. A couple more cookies, or (preferably) about half as much mousse, would have made it more balanced.

Has anyone been there for dinner since the new chef took over?

It was pretty impressive. I miss the lady from last year who sold grass-fed beef, though. Also I think they should put all the vendors under the canopy with the tables facing outward towards the street. It was needlessly crowded under there, especially with people pushing bikes and baby strollers down the middle.

Somebody please tell me this isn't happening: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/416215 At least Ansill's still around. I think I'll head out there this weekend and help keep it that way.