Mano

Congatulations! Excellent advise so far. After narrowing the wines down to 2-3 choices of each, red and white, make sure you, your fiance' and a few others taste them. Buy them at the State Store and have a wine tasting/dinner party. There's nothing worse than getting stuck with a wine that someone recommended but you hate. (I just read docsconz' reply, but the advise bears repeating ) You may also try and negotiate with the restaurant about the price of the wine. Get some feedback on this forum about how many bottles you'll need (the restaurant may over-estimate) but you will be purchasing quite a few bottles. Their markup appears to be 2.5x cost, so you may agree to a discount, perhaps 15%.

A friend's son started working there as a grill cook (no experience whatsoever except he's eaten lots of burgers and fries) so we'll go with them soon. If ther is a group from EG going I'll try to join you.

The ice cream has always been excellent, but the food has been consistently fair, at best. Skip Goodnoe is involved in local politics and other activities outside the restaurant and it's been difficult for him to give it the attention it needs. He owns the building so his overhead is relatively low, but he said that unless he obtained a liquor license he couldn't turn the profit necessary to stay open. Surprisingly, no member of his family wants to take it over. Goodnoes will retain the name and ice cream recipies in case someone in the family wants to revive it at a later time. We live nearby but only went occassionally for the ice cream or if a group was headed there for a late bite to eat after an activity. I took for granted it would always be there. I recall first going there in the late 1970's when Newtown was still pretty rural. I will miss it.

No I haven't been there. The place across from Belmont's garage? Looks like it may be good, I remember passing it a few times. I'll try it and let you know ← That's the place.

JeffL, Have you tried Colleen's in Langhorne on Bridgetown, past your favorite local Chinese place? My wife had their water ice and said it was better than Rita's. I hear they make it themselves. I had ice cream, also made on premises and it was very good.

If yours is the retro design that looks like a 1930's gas pump, well, I have it too! Whenever the grinding becomes slower, or inefficient, I empty it and give it a good cleaning, with a brush or Q tip, in all orifices. Depending on the beans, it is usually good for another two or three weeks. ← It's the KitchenAid A9. Mine has seen daily use of mostly oily beans for over two years. Cleaning it is important and using a vacuum cleaner with a hose does the trick cleaning at both the chute (exit) and hopper area. A Q tip and toothpick help loosen coffee that's caked on.

For a bottle that old decanting in front of a candle or some light is a good idea as it will probably have a fair amount of sediment. Better to leave it in the bottle and not the glass. Enjoy a wine from a great year! I'd pair it with lamb or duck.

Yeah, ditto if they tried to make it completely fair. They could just award cumulative points for performance in each challenge but who would watch something like that? The competitors are interesting, but not that interesting. ← Not intending to contradict you, or myself, I find the authentic cooking and baking challenge shows to be fascinating. You know the ones where teams from around the world compete and in the end have just seconds to carry their intricate dessert art-work to the judges tables? I feel awful when some of them come crashing down after hours of hard work. Those competitions are among equals and are riveting. However, the show is only an hour and there's no interpersonal drama. I guess the bottom line is the contrived reality shows are based on a formula and for the time being, I'm a sucker for some of them.

My wife had a similar observation. She also noted there wasn't anything that Tiffani hadn't done; played poker, cooked for high rollers, and so on. Nevertheless, we were both impressed with what the three of them whipped up in 30 minutes. All the "reality" shows are similar in terms of the people they select. There must be extensive screening to be sure they get the "loose cannon" the "cute one" "the obnoxious one" the "bitch" the "fat buffon" etc. Kind of like the dozens of kid's movies that have the same plot and interchangeable cast similar to The Bad News Bears. No doubt, the producers have a pretty good idea who the winner will be before taping begins. Not surprisingly, it's always someone who is quietly stable, competent and able to stay on track while chaos goes on around them. In other words, the right person wins, but if it were a true competition of equals, no one would watch because it would be so boring. Up-thread someone said Stephen would be working at Mickey-D's in a year. Give him about 20 years. He's talented, charismatic and good-looking, so there must be plenty of offers to put him in his own restaurant at no financial risk to him. But he'll fail again and again. Although he has great credentials, he's never stayed anywhere very long. There's no way he could get the full benefit of each experience so I wonder if after a while he fostered ill will so he moved on somewhere else. He's such a narcisist and a bad businessman that it's unlikely he'll do well long-term. He doesn't appear to have a grasp of how to run a business. In one episode he had $500 (I think) to buy wine glasses and other items and he's shown talking down to the salesman, explaining what he wants. When he's almost done, he announces his spending limit and the salesman tells him he's something like twice over budget already. Stephen is actually surprised and needs to take an extra hour or two to pick out everything again. He had no concept of money at all during the wedding episode. Tom asked him if his choice of lobster, for 100 people would be within the $5,000 budget and Stephen was cocky, "Absolutely!" Tom's expression was priceless.

I bought the device on sale at Radio Shack quite a while ago and just stick it wherever it'll fit. I'm sure they still carry something like it. If you follow this link you'll see several but the $19.99 one should suffice and gets a 5 star rating! http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp...kwCatId=2032060 To increase moisture try some wet paper towels on a small dish.

I wouldn't sweat the whole temperature thing. I have a digital thermometer/humidity device that I swap between the VT60 and my cigar humidors. Anything around 58 +/- 4 degrees should be fine. I focus more on humidity. I think the cooler draws humidity from the air and I try to keep that around 70% but I'm not too obsessive about it. During the dry winter or if humidity drops lower, I'll put in something moist. Before I got the VT60 the humidity was sometimes too low (40-50%) for too long and some corks of the bottles I was aging began to dry out. I now use the VT60 for my better bottles and for aging. The rest are on racks next to it.

I just slipped them over or under it. No problem removing and then replacing the metal piece as it helps keep the bottles from moving about too much.

Is this the cooler you have? wine cooler If so, I have the same one. Becaue it is in my basement, it sits on a cement floor. It is vented in the front, so I don't see why it cannot be placed on carpeting unless there is a need to have air circulate underneath. Just to be sure, I'd follow the manual's advise and elevate it off the carpet on a flat even surface. I place a few larger bottles in the bottom space you describe with no untoward effects. No doubt the directions to keep it upright during transport are no different than the "Fragile" and "This end up" directives on many boxes. It's simply better to ship it that way considering the internal mechanics and overall design. While moving mine to the basement I kept it in the carton and carefully slid it down the stairs, again, with no problem. Compared to much higher priced small wine cellars, the VT is fairly utilitarian. Mine has served me well for about two years but because it was a scratch 'n dent, the handle was loose and cannot be tightened. No big deal because it's in the basement. You cannot control how it has been shipped but just be careful how you move it about and use it. Mine is not fragile, but it doesn't seem as solidly built as a friend's Sub Zero. But then, they've had someone in to repair theirs several times, while mine as performed without a hitch.

No lace? Wow, I last visited in June, 2005. My friend mentioned something to me a few weeks ago about them putting out cards with Reservations- call: on them the last time that he was there, too. Did they renovate away the patios, too? Still, glad to hear the food is still decent. I'll be there in late July, and I'll just have to see for myself, but, all this newfangled modernism, Hmmmppf! ← The courtyard patio is still there. If it wasn't so windy and a bit chilly we would've eaten out there. Of all the restaurants in that area we've been to over the years La Veranda is the best in terms of atmosphere and quality and price of food and wine. We usually like to eat Cuban at least once, but it never happened.

Mosdef both. Has a very acute palate, a good sense of what would sell in this particular market and is merciless on driving a hard bargain with the producers. That's how all this great wine keeps landing in our laps. ← Hmm, I guess you must know him pretty well if you know his palate is cute. ← Hey now! ← I hear you have a reputation for having a cute palate also. Takes one to know one, I spose. Mano is leaving the building...

Mosdef both. Has a very acute palate, a good sense of what would sell in this particular market and is merciless on driving a hard bargain with the producers. That's how all this great wine keeps landing in our laps. ← Hmm, I guess you must know him pretty well if you know his palate is cute.

And a well-deserved mention of you, Katie! For those of you who know Jonathan Newman, is he really that knowledgeable about wine, or is he mostly a really good businessman. Or both?

I like the Zo "Neuro fuzzy" very much, there are now other brands on the market that are less expensive and that are said to work just as well. (Same thing happened with bread machines). ← What might they be?

If you know anyone in the wine biz have them make some calls and arrange for trade tours at different wineries. This includes the owner of your local wine store and the people who wholesale the wine they buy. In October 2004 I was fortunate to go to Napa and Sonoma with some folks who had great connections. While at Amizetta winery for barrel tastings with the winemaker Bob Egelhoff, we met a couple of guys who arrived in a limo. It soon became clear that the limo driver had relationships with smaller botique wineries and would arrange private tastings for people who were likely to buy their wine. You may want to ask the limo company what they might be able to arrange for you. Eglehoff is, IMO a genius and a great guy. As we drank, he brought out different bottles, including his last bottle of 2001 cab under his own name. As we all got drunk Eglehoff gave some fascinating insights and information about wine making. He has an uncanny ability to make 100% cabs that taste as if they've been aged for years, even though they're only a year or so in the bottle. When I asked how he did that, he replied, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Thanks again for your suggestions. We made it to La Veranda but not Bonefish (is this part of the Bonefish chain?). La Veranda is similar to a number of the better moderately priced Italian restaurants in the Italian sections of Philadelphia and Trenton. The tables were nicely spaced and the wine list was very reasonable, with a number of reds from the mid/late 1990's. The menu entree's were generally below $20 with pastas in $13-16 range. The specials were fairly expensive and my wife got a seafood dish that was around $35 but came with a huge lobster tail. The five of us gave the food a thumbs up and the service was very good, although the waiter had little wine knowledge. It seems to have changed a bit since Rebecca was there, as it wasn't particularly romantic, no lace table cloths and they now take reservations. My hunch is that the area wasn't willing to support a high-end Italian restaurant, so they now appeal to a wider range of people. I'm glad they do! I'm an osso buco fanatic but it wasn't offered that night. Maybe next time.

Thanks for your suggestions. I plan on going to both places. Any more recommendations are welcome.

Nicely put Mano. And yes, it is typical of this writers style. Now, most egulleters do not posess the above attributes, nor the responsibility, that a professional food critic does. At least that is my opinion. PS: Its Sister Wendy ← One wouldn't expect egulleters to have the attributes of a professional because they're not professionals. With so many blogs and internet opportunities to give our opinions in public fora, we tend to make the mistake of judging what others write by a higher, professional standard. Only the people who make their living as critics should be held to that standard. The rest of us mooks are free to spout our opinions while remaining anonymous. For that reason alone I expect my opinions to be taken with a grain of salt. IMO Sister Wendy rules! ← I agree with you, which is why I am concerned that the members of that forum are being held to account for the accusations that A Gill levels. Love the Sister. ← By being concerned about Ms. Gill's accusations is a fatal error in judgement. By doing so, you're holding yourself to her screwed-up standards. In other words, it gives her cred where none is deserved or earned. Listen. Bona fide professional food/restaurant critics have chops; and I'm not talkin' about veal, pork or lamb. They know food as I described above. It sounds like Gill is a diletante (sp?) when it comes to being a food critic, but she's convinced herself she's the real deal. Love the Sister and the (Chambers, Allman and Righteous) Brothers, too.

Nicely put Mano. And yes, it is typical of this writers style. Now, most egulleters do not posess the above attributes, nor the responsibility, that a professional food critic does. At least that is my opinion. PS: Its Sister Wendy ← One wouldn't expect egulleters to have the attributes of a professional because they're not professionals. With so many blogs and internet opportunities to give our opinions in public fora, we tend to make the mistake of judging what others write by a higher, professional standard. Only the people who make their living as critics should be held to that standard. The rest of us mooks are free to spout our opinions while remaining anonymous. For that reason alone I expect my opinions to be taken with a grain of salt. IMO Sister Wendy rules!

As someone who has absolutely no dog in this fight (I don't know the restaurant or any of the parties involved, nor will I ever) I would like to offer a perspective of what I expect from a professional restaurant reviewer. I've lived in places where the reviews were consistently excellent and those in which restaurant reviews were pretty awful. Ms. Gill's review was in the latter group and here's why. Ms. Gill hints at her credentials as a professional restaurant critic. Professional reviewers of food, wine, music or art must be experts in their field. Either they received formal training at an established institution or they had extensive training "in the field." What exactly did she do at these restaurants that establish her credentials and expertise? By expert, I mean someone who has the practical and academic background and knowledge to understand and appreciate what constitutes excellence in a particular area. But this is not enough and in fact, many excellent reviewers offer this knowlege sparingly in their reviews. Professional food and wine writers should be "super-tasters" and geeks in their field. The best food critics have a depth and breadth of knowledge that extend far beyond having had many extraordinary meals. They are passionate about knowing the history of the food and region, and delight in their ability to know what ingredients work best together and why. I know super-tasters who can consistently identify wines in blind tastings and who can identify most ingredients in dishes. Now, IMO, one of the things that makes a critic great is their ability to also take on the perspective of the average customer and explain to that customer why the food is great or not so great. In other words, to take the customer by the hand and show them "This is why this tuna melt is so superior" and have the average customer say, "I get it." This ability is why I like Antique Road Show so much, and why Julia Child was so popular and why that nun (whose name I forget) who is an art critic is so fantastic. So, it's the style (writing voice) rather than the substance (her expertise as a food critic) that keeps her employed. (I've only read the one review in question, so I don't know if it is typical of her style.)

My family and I will be visiting my folks in Hillsboro, just north of Pompano, south of Deerfield/Boca. I did a search on this forum and the general consensus is the area is either a "wasteland" or mediocre when it comes to restaurants. What's reasonably casual and not too expensive for lunch or dinner? We're fairly adventuresome diners, so give me what ya got.