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Capaneus

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Everything posted by Capaneus

  1. Wow. Thank the Chairman, hey? Talk about your price pressure...
  2. Lacroix sounds like it would work pretty well, but your priorities just scream "Le Bec-Fin" - to me, anyway. That's where I'd go if I had time and money I wanted to burn. And of course there's always Striped Bass and Morimoto. About Lacroix: I haven't been there since the change in regime, but prior to that, the luch prix fixe wasn't quite the deal it sounded like. I invariably ended up ordering something else off the menu. I like the idea of Rouge, but you can drop some serious coin there without having anywhere near the experience of some of the others. On the other hand, sunshine is nice. I like Matyson (a lot), but it hasn't the atmosphere some of the others do - just excellent food and good value. If you're taking a break from parenting, you kids want to have a seriously grownup meal. And I would guess Rae is actually not going to be that crowded for a Monday lunch during Easter, Laban or no Laban. You prolly don't want to drop it from consideration on that account.
  3. Can you narrow it down beyond "No Mexican"? Off the top of my head, sticking to what I think of as "upscale", and staying in Center City and immediate environs, you have Le Bec-Fin, Striped Bass, Susanna Foo's, Brasserie Perrier, Lacroix, Barclay Prime/the Palm/Prime rib/other steakhouses (the Saloon being the only one with a twist, Italian in this case), Rae, Vetri, Morimoto. Monte Carlo was good once, not sure these days. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch. All of the above have strengths to recommend them, with the caveat that I haven't tried Rae yet or Monte Carlo in a long time. If the prices here are beyond your budget, there are a multitude of other candidates where it is possible to eat very well and have a fun time, even if the standards of service or decor may be a tad lower. To be able to pick among those, we'd really need further guidance.
  4. How long has it been since you've been to Matyson? It's one of the best deals in town, to my palate. There's Apamate, for a more casual - and closer to home - vibe. Or you can go the other way: Lacroix is a place I think is worth exploring, or LBF, if you feel like splurging a lil' bit - lunch is still a decent deal - or Brasserie P. Or the BP outlet at Boyds, for the Ladies Who Lunch atomsphere. I checked, and James doesn't seem to do lunch, at least not on Monday, according to Open Table, and neither does M.
  5. But the 12 bottles shown in inventory at the Bryn Mawr store apparently don't exist. I looked, ... a clerk looked, ...the manager looked, ... half an hour later: No wine. The 5 that were in West Chester are now in my cellar, though! ← The staff at 12th and Chestnut had to look for about that long: apparently, the wine had never made it onto the floor. Fortunately, we were luckier, but I would not necessarily assume the bottles don't exist.
  6. Word is that you will definitely be there for the next one. Definitely. Monday or not.
  7. "Price" applies to an individual item, and it's usually given exactly. "Price point" means the set of items at a roughly similar price. It's more general than "price", since I would understand $9.99, $9.95, $9.75 to all belong to a single "price point". It's possible to use "price" in a similar manner, but I think this is a case where jargon does give us added precision in expression. Your mileage may vay, of course.
  8. That would be it, yes. I was told by friends that it's in an area of town which requires... some caution. Any advice? ← Well, last time I went there I got run over by a station wagon while riding my bike down Passyunk Ave. to go get some bahn mi to top off my croissants. So you'll want to be more cautious than I was, certainly. If your friends' worries are about street crime and such, I'd say their worries are misplaced. Particularly since Artisanal runs out of stuff before the criminal element gets out of bed. Elsewhere in the city, that is.
  9. Artisanal, you mean?
  10. Capaneus

    Fuji

    We're not even sure it'll be open, period.
  11. Capaneus

    Fuji

    Me too!! Buckethead, you suck. ← From Klein's TableTalk, 2/22/07: "Matt Ito is saying "late March/early April" for the opening of Fuji at 116 E. Kings Highway in Haddonfield. Ito won waves at Fuji's previous incarnation in Cinnaminson, which closed in August because its blighted strip mall was razed." So we're just hitting the sweetspot now. Be cool, fools.
  12. The tables can fit six, I'm sure. The thing you may want to consider is that with the low-table/plush-seating thing going on, it may not be perfect for elderly relatives. Also, although the food is delicious, the menu may scare those who are not frequent diners. A lil' bit of reassurance should put that right. It's a late spot. I live in the neighborhood, and it hasn't really been crowded until well into the dinner hour, sevenish at the earliest. If you're able to get there early you should have no problems. On the other hand, it stays very busy well past the usual restaurant closing time: it's often packed when I walk the dogs a little after midnight. As to the menu, browsing upthread should do more than I can to fill you in. It has been mentioned that they've moved away a little bit from the small-plates format and started serving some larger portions. I haven't had a chance to check that out. Anyone?
  13. All of those are very good, but they kind of cover the entire cost spectrum. Do your friends have a budget limit? If not, I'd go with Striped Bass. You could also have a look at Lacroix, if they're a bit more adventurous. The new chef has gotten great reviews. Morimoto would be another very good but pricey option. The inspiration is Japanese, but there's plenty on the menu for all palates, including thinly disguised steak... Vetri is great Italian food, not particularly seafood-oriented, but a great meal. Fork is a great place, but much less expensive - also less ambitious, and with a completely different atmosphere. In the more casual range, the choices multiply, particularly if you like to BYO. A couple of recent names that come to mind are Amada, and Garces new place, Tinto; and Vetri's recently-opened Osteria - again, great Italian (at a lower price point), but again not especially fishy - though it has the great advantage for the out-of-towner of having plenty of easy street parking. I think you need to think of what kind of atmosphere you friends would prefer: most of the restaurants on the first list will be much more expensive, but will provide better service than the more moderately-priced places. Some of those can get very, very noisy.
  14. Yeah, I think the rest of us were thinking "House-made pasta", as opposed to "outside-supplier-purchased pasta". The "fresh" part just seems to me to follow naturaly from the fact that the restaurant makes its own.
  15. A small discovery as a byproduct of the Chapoutier Les Varennieres conversation: the six bottles I bought this morning at 1218 Chestnut disappeared from inventory between now and then. It appears that the system is getting closer to real-time information-gathering: last I had reliable information, inventory was updated overnight. There are still small amounts scattered about, mainly in SE Pennsylvania: PLCB Code 020070.
  16. From WA, 12/04: "From the north (Rhone), the Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonnieres (fashioned from yields of 5hl per hectare) represents the essence of this appelation. Undeniably the finest Crozes I have ever tasted, it possesses loads of crushed stone, tapenade, blackberry and currant characteristics. This amazing effort tastes more like a Hermitage than a Crozes-Hermitage. Abbundant tannin suggests 4-5 years of bottle age will be beneficial; it should last for 25 years [92-94]". So, overall, positive feelings from Bobby, whom I tend to trust on Rhone - though not on Bordeaux, go figure. More importantly, from Pedro Dias' Pretty Drunk Ramblings, sometime July-ish '06: "Holy (expletive)! It's like a steak and berry smoothie, with extra tannin! Definitely one of the Hermitages." This from a Chapoutier tasting last Summer. Wasn't my favorite (that was the Ermitage Le Pavillion), but (thanks doviakw!) it was definitely good enough for me to pick up a six-pack a few minutes ago, after I stumbled on this thread this morning. It's a Hell of a wine at the price. Seems like some sort of relationship has formed between the PLCB and Chapoutier, occasionally kicking up these odd random bargains. Chapoutier do make a lot of wine - but some of it is among the best in the world, and much of it is in fact small-production, taken in isolation.
  17. "Highly rated" wines have shown up in the program often enough. I'd be more inclined to question the "small-production" part of the statement.
  18. This is quite interesting as I know many of us were left wondering what the status of the Chairmans program was going to be post Newman. I think this is really terrific news in that it seems to broaden the selections of the higher and lower end wines. It should make Alcibiades happy Can't wait to see what's going to be available. ← Not sure if it's anything more than a rebranding: CS used to cover the entire range, now they've split the program into three. My guess is that one of the major motives is the fact that the Power Purchases are going to stores that up to now weren't involved. My sense is that CS has been growing considerably, as it becomes successful - both from a retail standpoint and as a business option for vintners. They wanted to sharpen the market targeting at the various price points, and expand the drawing power to the non-Premium stores. Just guesses, of course. And you're right in that for the split to make sense the selection at both ends would have to increase.
  19. Well, in this case, it being a new restaurant, maybe they both decided to wait the same amount of time to give it a chance to shake down. The standard grace period is six weeks, right? How long ago did Xochitl open?
  20. That's the way it works: '02 was a great year, so the market for the late-released '01s collapsed. Enter Newman. There were a number of white Louis Latour '01s in the program: a Chassagne-Montrachet, a Montagny, a Mersault. All at prices that are hard to beat. And I'm still drinking my way through the red '99 Beaune: it wasn't going to live much longer, but it's beautiful just now - especially at $14.99/btl. Not every one is a winner. In fact, some of the wines everyone likes best have left me cold. But there have been some great buys: Arrowood single-vinyard Syrahs for $17.99 come to mind as personal favorites. And again, not a chance that I could have afforded to drink wines of this quality without the Chairman Selection program.
  21. Capaneus

    Tinto

    My understanding, from that and from Klein, was that the bar is being treated as just an alternative dining space. I'm of two minds about that: on the one hand, it seems awfully... well, controlling, hidebound, whatever. On the other, it may reduce the chaos that often plagues some of the Hot New Places.
  22. Just as importantly, Morrell's will have the wine for you, in stock and at the quoted price. I would bet heavily that most of the listings at the lower end are bait-and-switch, "I'm out of that but I have this!", "Gee, the price just went up!" con-jobs. The '99 is good wine-list thinking, a smart item for them to offer: a good wine, lesser vintage, drinking well early on. The price point doesn't look quite as attractive, though.
  23. Capaneus

    Tinto

    I thought that was rule number 7-B, paragraph four. No?
  24. They have Pichon Lalande on the list now? Do you remember the vintage and price? I'm a big fan of the booze list as well. Jonathan Makar mentioned it was put together by Brett Meier-Tomkins of Marigold Kitchen, at least initially. I've spoken to him a few times when I've been to Marigold, and he always struck me as knowing his stuff, but I was still surprised at what a really fine job he did with this. A very small list, but so good I still have trouble deciding what to drink. Although I haven't been in a few weeks, and from a couple of remarks upthread it sounds like it might have changed a good bit. Any details?
  25. Don't know nuthin' from no "most knowledgeable collectors". I know I have done quite well with them. As you say, Evan, it is what it is: I'm not about to claim that many of these wines are a steal at their release prices. But at the price at which they are offered by the PLCB, they are often amazing bargains. I would be extremely appreciative if a "knowledgeable collector" could direct me to good Bordeaux at $20/btl, but with the least cru Bourgeois hitting the mid-twenties for the '04s, I doubt they'll be able to do it in the near future. For that price, though, we've been offered a number of extremely good CaliCabs, and heck, that'll have to do me. Not to mention that some Cru Bourgeois are currently on offer as Chaiman Selections, at a decent discount from e-prices. I bought a bunch of the Chateau du Tracy Pouilly-Fume a couple of months back. Is it a great Loire? Course not. But for $14 it had a degree of finesse that most whites at that price don't even attempt. And so on and so forth. Like I've stated above, the PLCB is flawed. But when I couple it with other resources I have nearby (no further than many would have to travel to their neighborhood store), the whole makes for a set of resources that I am very happy with. Wine is what I believe is called a scarce commodity - at least great wine is. These particular scarce commodities are never going to be priced by the free market at amounts consumers with limited means will afford: '03 Petrus was something like $1300. I believe one of the DRC releases of the recent past hit the $2000 release price mark. I've looked at the '05 Bordeaux prices en primeur: they're a study in... well, in my world, these are fantasies. Bottom line: in the world we live in, you can get what you want, per aspera, maybe, but nonetheless. And the rest of us get cut a bit of an occasional break. Enjoy the Cos. The '88 was a personal favorite, and as long as Parker insisted on trashing their wines, it remained something I could treat myself to. Now, it's all yours.
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