Capaneus

Lots of nonsense deleted.

YM definitely MV, I suppose. The food is good. The trouble I've had have been weekday issues - prime time, but not weekend. And really, it is not, in the end, the difficulties themselves that have soured me: it is the maddening arrogance with which the hosts have handled them that have put me off the whole place. I also never go to Dmitri's, for much the same reasons. As to the reservation/no reservation thing... Yeah, I imagine it would be an advantage now that I know about it. But that sort of hybrid... idiocy, to be kind, is going to create a lot of problems, if you don't a) announce it prominently, and b) show some flexibility when someone somehow presumes you may actually be consistent. And "flexibility" seems to be an issue for their front-of-house staff. Anyway, that's as much spleen as I want to waste on them. The food is good, yes.

Not sure what can be meant by "under the radar", given the crowds they get. Personally, I've given up on them: tables are impossible to get anywhere near prime time - on one occasion I was told at 6:30 that the wait was three hours; and when I tried once to go early, they sprung that "We don't take reservations, except when we do, and no, I don't care if there's no hint of that policy anywhere" thing on me. On top of their no-decent-stemware-outside policy, and a general poor hosting attitood (though their servers are always gracious, in my experience), the whole place has just become way, way, way too much trouble for the (undeniably good) food.

Think Chateauneuf du Pape, which is often grenache/garnacha-heavy, though also usually blended. The Spanish style tends to be (overall) a bit lighter than the French, but a steak should still be right in the general bullseye area.

A couple of different issues: the dollar is in the process of losing a ridiculous amount of value. A lot of producers and importers have held the line on pricing, wary of losing market share. But they have an eye on the next guy, who may be about to blink, so they are holding on to a lot of their (better) stock, in the expectation that, as soon as the industry makes the more-or-less inevitable price adjustment, all that juice will be worth a great deal more. In this environment, the CS program, that specializes in bottom feeding, is going to have a rough time find too many people who are willing to discount stock producers already feel is undervalued. Second issue, regarding the '05 Bordeaux: the PLCB is never going to see too much of those generally, since the demand is as high as it is. They're a large bureaucracy that does not have the nimbleness to deal with lots of small producers and importers. Of those wines that are brought over by people they regularly do business with, they will probably secure some stock. But it won't be much. And it usually trickles out more slowly than out-of-Commonwealth retailers get them, anyway. Aside from all that, the Chairman's Selections will probably see none of the '05s, certainly none of any note: the absurd buzz on the vintage is spurring yet another feeding frenzy. Surplus wine on this one is going to be hard to come by, even in the lower crus. On the other hand, expect to see some '04s drifting in, as that vintage virtually sat while people pooled their pennies for the '05s That's in general, and about '05 Bordeaux in particular. About the current stocking levels, I was told new releases, and additional stock, are being held for an Easter promotion. Not sure why they wouldn't list them in the Forthcoming section of the website, but that's what they tell me. Which I probably should have led with, but I'm a difficult cuss, so there.

Man-o-man, I'm hungry all over again. The only thing I didn't like about this meal was not being able to eat a full portion of everything. I love sharing. I hate sharing. That quail was outstanding: butter stuffing - Pure Genius! I still haven't tried the cow 'n' fries. I sort of fear I might never.

Fair enough. I just don't see this as that mysterious, I guess: everything I've heard (none of it from the principals, I should add) has convinced me that management just views Rick as a royal pain in their fundamental nether regions, and want him to no longer be part of their lives. It seems that simple, from what I can tell. And if you grant that "run a good operation" ought to include having a constructive relationship with your landlord, they may have a point.

Ah, that's where I'm not willing to cut them any slack: I have heard nothing whatever even remotely persuassive (sorry, Katie) from the many people in the Pa restaurant industry who have tried to convince me that 300% markups can be justified. Even if the prices they pay are higher than they should be, which they are. And it absolutely amazes me that these people are unwilling to see how these lists' pricing affects the world's perception of their restaurants. Even though the national press has pointed it out often enough. Maybe they don't care, as long as the check averages stay up. But if I want to drink wine when I eat Marc Vetri's food, those are the ground rules.

Well, to that extent no wine list is "unique": unless you have a proprietary bottling, whatever is available to you is available to a given restaurant, provided they put in the effort to secure it. The wines available to Osteria have to be gotten through the PLCB, true, but a) the existing catalogue is quite extensive, and b) if the wine you want is not already on the SLO list, the odds are decent it can be special-ordered: it just needs to be carried by a merchant - importer or distributor - that the PLCB does business with, which covers a great deal of wine. The only two real limitations to availability built into the system are that there is no way a new restaurant can get aged, upper-end wine (the whole auction and resale world is closed to the Pennsylvania hospitality industry); and of course small producers who only sell wine directly are also beyond reach. Those are real and intractable limits to any serious sommelier's ambitions, of course, but they most definitely do not preclude an otherwise unique list. I'm not sure what standard you think the list would have to meet to qualify, but I feel Jeff Benjamin does quite a good job with theirs. As long as I don't think about markups, I can usually find something that makes me happy: something good, interesting, and in my price range. Which is more than I can say about a lot of lists, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Maybe that is an incidental result of the dispute. I am sure you are making no insinuation of anything else, since that would be far beneath you. As to the legal fees, have you considered that Sprague and Sprague's representation may be covered by their retainer with City Hall? In which case it would cost the Market not a penny.

You know how I feel about Philly wine lists and BYO policies, so I won't quibble with your objection in general. But we should be fair: Osteria, and the Vetri Empire, are hardly particular offenders in this. The vast majority of Philadelphia's licensed restaurants have, historically, not allowed corkage. To the extent that they do (and some surprising places now do), the crack in the fortress walls was the work of a decade of losing customers to BYOB restaurants - a pinch that Vetri and Benjamin clearly do not feel. As to the list, it is a matter of law that they are required to purchase each and every bottle through the PLCB. Though that's less restraining than you might think: if something isn't currently listed, you can request it. But if they are in fact able to get it, it automatically becomes listed, so there's never going to be an item on a restaurant list that is not catalogued. Generally speaking, the system can get you anything that is carried by an importer or distributor that will do business with the LCB. Funniest case of wine-list tug-of-war I ever experienced was at Rangoon: an escalating bidding frenzy culminated in our offering to buy the most expensive bottle off his list list (as I recall, a $20 dollar non-vintage Cabernet), and letting him keep it, in exchange to being able to drink our own wine. We were turned down, since he couldn't figure out what scam we were trying to pull.

It explains why the store might be reluctant to transfer out the wine, yes: transferring wine out does not count towards their sales totals. But there's no reason they'd be unable to. Many of my own transfers fall into precisely that category, since any number of Selections seem to mysteriously bipass Philadelphia County. Aside from the fact that they need to be the ones to do it, that's also why it's not hard to get your store manager on your side: transferring wine in generates sales, by definition. In fact, my store occasionally transfers a few additional cases of wines I request, to put out for sale. Also (and sorry if this sounds like I'm being a blowhard) keep in mind you can't make PLCB employees do anything - things may be much improved, but there's still enough of the old habits lingering around that it's a bad idea to think otherwise.

Our supermarket choices are relatively crappy, precisely because there are other options. Also the cost of real estate. Mostly that's a good thing - when you figure out just what those other choices are.

Most of the specific items were not on the menu, or not in this form. But if you're just asking whether the regular menu lives up to the promise of this dinner, well, then, yes it does. I'm still in a porky semi-coma. I'll just let Phil's judgments stand. I liked the sweetbreads and the belly best, I think, but it was a close-run thing. And the kitchen proved to me that they are capable of tasty dessert creation. I'm going to guess the reason the regular offerings have remained limited is either space or manpower. And add that I felt a bit overwhelmed by the end of the meal. Which didn't keep me from being the only one who finished that pork loin, mind you.

Not necessarily, Jeff: if the transfer is reasonably local, there will be no shipping charge. If it's some distance, well... as far as I can tell, it's at the discretion of the managers involved. I've had wine transferred from Pittsburgh that was not available locally, and there was no charge. And I've had stuff brought in from the suburbs pretty often without shipping being mentioned. To elaborate on Katie's main point: calling the store where the wine is available is essentially useless, except to verify things like vintage and such. Your local store - the one you want the wine shipped to - has to contact them and request the transfer. The key to the process - in fact, the key to making the PLCB work for you - is to establish a relationship with the manager(s) of your local store. It's a much more pleasant process than most seem to think, and once you have them advocating for you, astonishing opportunities materialize. Like $20 Vosne-Romanee, and $17 half-bottles of '99 Barolo. Really truly. The one situation where shipping is unavoidable is when buying the wine from the Online Store. And even then they run occasional no-shipping-charge promotions.

Easy-peasy drive, and great food, most of the time. Great value as well. If you can get a reservation, there's very little downside.

That's substantially different from early days. On the other hand, the times I was there were dinner, and Morimoto was actually there, which is probably rare these days. But there was interaction with the sushi chefs, even if it wasn't necessarily that great unless you were recognized by the Big Guy.

The items I've gotten there are not frozen, just refrigerated.

What are you looking for exactly? I actually really like the sandwiches at Capogiro. And, just to beat the madding 'Gullet crowds to the punch, Reading Terminal Market - and its million billion trillion zillion lunch options - are only three blocks away.

What they say about strokes and folks. I thought the rosemary in the chestnut cake made for an unpleasant vegetal note, though the honeycomb went a long way to mollify me. On the other hand, while I agree the veal cheek was underseasoned, I thought the sweetbreads were spectacular - the fried sage leaf was wonderful in that dish. And the spaghettini were, I thought, wonderful, as was the arancini, and the sorbet... All in all, I thought it was well worth the money. It's hard to compare "value" in these things, but surely the fairly focused attention of a celebrated chef, on an evening when he stepped well outside his comfort zone is of some value, if we value these things, and I think we all do. And I would like to add my appreciation of Jeff Benjamin's thoughtful, delicious wine pairings. The Friulano and the negroamaro were the best exponents of their kind I've tasted, and have sent me on yet another exploratory buying binge.

Danger! Danger, Will Robinson! I went to Karma soon after it opened, and loved it; when I returned a year or two ago, it had gone drastically downhill: the food was greasier and less fresh-tasting, and even the decor looked sad and aged. I think that this has everything to do with the original owner of Karma leaving to open Tiffin (which is quite good, but probably out of range for a casual visitor.) Still, South Asian is a good idea, and just down the street are two Afghan restaurants: Kabul and Ariana. They're both good, though I prefer Ariana, mainly because it's a little cozier. And I know you've mentioned Portland's abundance of SE Asian restaurants, but I'm willing to bet (and a little bit of Googling seems to confirm) that you don't have any Burmese restaurants. So I'll second Bob's mention of Rangoon. It's one of my favorite restaurants in the city; here's a thread on it. edited to add: when I saw the title of the thread, I thought that by "non-traditional restaurants" you meant something like snackbar. Which would also be a good place to go, though not, y'know, ethnic. ← You mean UltraHip isn't an ethnicity? There goes my sense of identity...

This seems to be a sort of obsession... I could FedEx you some... I'm not much of a sugar fiend, so they don't do anything for me. I am selling State College a little short on the lunch side of things: Herwigs Austrian Bistro is pretty tasty. A little pricey for an everyday lunch, no atmosphere to speak of, no liquor license, no credit cards, and they are one of those places with "attitude" (think Soup Nazi from Seinfeld), but in the end it's worth it if you like Austrian food. Everything is made from scratch in house, and it's great. ← Actually, good Austrian food could make State College a dining destination all by its lonesome: Philadelphia's got none, and precious little German left. And, given the usual booze markups, no license is usually a plus in my book.

Did they say what's changing? Are they finally getting their gas lines?

There's usually a lull after the Holidays. I wouldn't panic just yet.

Sounds right. I can handle a bit of residual sugar, but huge reds have a lot more trouble carrying it gracefully. The Halliwell is big, no mistake. But it is bone-dry, and has beautiful structure: the acids and tannins are just perfectly balanced When we first opened my first bottle, at Cochon, it just seemed like too much, it was a bit overwhelming. But within ten minutes or so it had settled down, and developed into quite an elegant wine, if that can be said of something this brawny. Honestly, this compares favorably to some very decent Northern Rhones I've had recently. And at $12.99 it's about a third the price. Listen: how much did I like this? I waited until I was able to pick up all I wanted before I told you people about it. There isn't a whole lot of it out there.