*Deborah*

That's how they do it in France. Service in France (in my somewhat limited experience) is more often provided by people who are servers for a living, not server/actress/student/novelist etc. Unless I'm grossly mistaken, France has a social system that provides health care etc. for its citizens regardless of whether they make $2/hour or $200/hour. And I venture to guess that EU law also mandates minimum wages that are a little closer to a living wage than is the case in North America. I obviously cannot answer for the heathens who don't understand the point or concept of discretionary tipping. Edited for spelling.

Let it be an anomaly; it is a gratuity, at the discretion of the diner. If the industry on the whole would like to remove the gratuity, make a service charge, or include it in the cost of the food and pay their staff a reasonable wage, then Amen, Brother. Per Se is evidently in the X% of restaurants where you are just about guaranteed good service and more than likely to tip at least 20% anyway, but that is not the case everywhere, I'm sure anyone here can attest. Do you think that the service everywhere will improve if the staff know they can look forward to a specific percentage at the end of the shift? I tip hair service persons from washer up according to whim, btw. They don't add a special 15 or 20% to your hair bill for your cutter, or $5 for the girl who washes you...in my experience. You are expected to tip, and to tip each person separately, according to how happy you are with their service.

I balk at the automatic gratuity, no matter the percentage. It offends me. It's like another tax. I do understand it with large parties (especially large parties with split checks), but it's the kind of thing that makes me not ever add anything on top. Granted I am a cranky (if mostly generously tipping) girl. If they are going to charge a fixed rate for service, why not just make a no tipping policy and include the percentage in the cost of the food?

As a child, oh, roughly 30 years ago () my mother and I went to a diner called The Arch in (I think) Brooklyn, waiting for the car to be serviced. The tuna sandwich was so big I lost my appetite, 4 or 5 inches thick. They had chocolate chip cookies as big as a dinner plate. Forget value, I find it just obscene to serve so much food when so much of it must go to waste. Even if you don't care about the apocryphal (and actual) starving children in Africa, there are plenty of hungry people on this continent, and it's a bit of a slap in their faces to be wanton with food that way.

Or perhaps marché, or market.

I'm going Monday for my first Birthday Dinner. Last year I had two there (bless travelling parents) but this year I may have only the one, since both parents will be here at the same time.

I am an ex-smoker (pack a day for 20 years). I always smoked in my house, but seldom outside, as I'm up high and it's always breezy, and I always felt like I wasn't getting half the cigarette anyways. Aside from that, I always tried to be a considerate smoker, as family members didn't smoke, and even when I did smoke, I didn't particularly like others' smoke in my face while eating, etc. Fast-forward to present day, and I find I'm often closing my doors/windows to escape my neighbours' cigarette (and other) smoke, since they're the sort who won't smoke in the house, but only outside...where it happily flows into *my* house. Nothing like having your living room reek like a Greatful Dead concert when you've never been a dope smoker. I'm sure there's some kind of irony to this... On patios, it's all about the wind, and it's pretty impossible to keep smoke away from others in a lot of situations.

Maggie, to my understanding, "arsed" simply means "bothered" or "taken the trouble" (i.e., bothered to) ...it also works as a verb: "Arse yourself!" something between "Move your ass!" and "Get a move on!" and "Stop being so lazy, you stupid lout!" ...or I may have been reading a bit much into it

Wow. Aspersions! I am happy to eat balsamic vinaigrette or whatever fresh and delicious thing a chef makes for me, but when it comes to the sort of dressing available in a certain sort of restaurant, I prefer the bottled ranch to the bottled everything else. No question. Do I buy it for home use? sometimes, but I get the refrigerated "good" one in the produce section, not the mass of chemicals on the shelf. Chip-wise, I am partial to sour cream and onion or salt and vinegar, neither of which really need a dip, but I will sometimes get a dill dip for plain ruffled chips. Or once in a great while, a ranch dip.

Does Pino have a suitable space at Enoteca or Cioppino's? I've only been to Cioppino's for lunch, so I'm not sure. Supposedly the list at Enoteca is something.

I like the stainless for some stuff (they are probably the most versatile for me, since I don't have a double boiler), and I have them in 7 or 8 sizes and often use them for serving at parties (biggest chip bowl evar). My mother has a 4-c pyrex measuring cup that she uses for mixing/pouring batters. I don't have one of those yet. The ones I use most day-to-day are the plastic ones from IKEA with the spout and the rubber ring. The rubber holds well on my granite (marble?) counters, and they clean well in the dishwasher and by hand. I try not to use electric beaters in them though. IKEA sells them in sets of three now (used to be two). IKEA also sells a set of I think five nesting bowls with lids that fit inside the rim, and are wicked practical for bringing leftovers for lunch. I think they don't have the rubber ring, though.

"N Wyles, Nefarious Wine-Server, Kneels to Work on Chain Gang" ...nah, I can't see the headline, really. You're probably safe.

"The Wrath of Mummy is a fearsome thing." -- Me. However, I was the perfectly-behaved child in the French restaurants from age 5 onward for Report Card Dinner, charming the staff with my French skills, and getting extra desserts. That was not only due to fear of the Wrath of Mummy, but excitement at being out, all dressed up, and eating delicious food. The closest I was likely to come to misbehaving in *any* restaurant was probably yawning without covering my mouth. Just would never happen, because I knew the privilege was contingent upon my being good. I know it's possible for children of that age to be as well behaved now, but I see it much less often than I used to.

Uh-oh, Lee had a camera....who knows what he got photos of!

My hangover is keeping some details a little fuzzy, but I was joined by 8 intrepid eGulleters (Mooshmouse, snacky_cat & Mr. Cat, barolo, appreciator, Lynn Dinwoodie and her Executive Chef, and the always-amusing canucklehead) for the Flavours of Summer menu at Central Bistro last night. The menu included fresh pea and chive cream soup or a fennel, pear and orange salad; Linguine with roasted garlic Carbonara with chicken (and peas) or Salmon Wellington; and a strawberry white chocolate bavarian or pineapple carpaccio with a ginger semifreddo. I had the salad, the pasta, and the pineapple, and Moosh and I also shared some edamame, and a bottle of Cline Cellars 2002 Syrah, quite nice. Since it was quite hot in the window where we were originally set up (NOT that I’m complaining about the lovely weather!), we asked if we could sit in the back instead, along the wall. So they very kindly and expeditiously re-arranged things so there was room for us in the back. Unfortunately between the container strike and the hot weather, the white wine list, in particular, was a bit depleted, so it took a little while to get orders in. Holly, our server, was very patient about repeating what was and was not available. Chef sent us an amuse of tuna tartare in a sesame oil-wasabi glaze on a bed of shredded ...cabbage, but not regular cabbage, Napa? I thought it was very nice, it had just enough wasabi to tingle on the tongue, without making me sneeze or ruining my tastebuds. I also enjoyed the salad very much, a nice mix of flavours and very refreshing in the heat. The pasta came, oh, yum! the roasted garlic added a subtle bite to the creamy carbonara sauce, the bacon (pancetta?) was great, the linguine was neither mushy nor so al dente that it wouldn’t behave on my fork (I hate that), a very very good dish, satisfying. Comfort food! Everyone seemed to enjoy their Salmon Wellington, as well. The desserts came, and the pineapple carpaccio was very delicate and nice in the mouth; the ginger semifreddo was as good as I hoped it would be, creamy and light...I had a mouthful of the strawberry bavarian, as well, a sort of a mousse I suppose, also refreshing and not too heavy for a hot summer night. Along with dessert, we were presented with two bottles of a spicy red whose name and varietal I shamefully cannot remember. I enjoyed it, and also got a lesson from Martha (Moosh) Stewart on how to remove said red from a snacky_cat’s white outfit with white wine when my depth perception is adversely affected by alcohol consumption. I was pleased only that, for once, Ms. Cat did not have my monthly salary in Marc Jacobs on her back, the glass was far from full, and the white wine trick works! Harry kindly also comped us some more of that wonderful milk chocolate semifreddo with rhubarb compote, and we finished the wine (among 8 of us drinking, we got through 7 bottles, plus several glasses!!) and chatted some more. No summer night on Denman is complete without gelato, and to my great joy, Mondo had Black Sesame in. We weaved the half-block to Mondo, dragging our gracious host along for one last sweet before bed. It was a lovely evening, and Harry really treated us well. Many thanks to everyone at Central who made it their mission to keep us happy in spite of a solid dinner crowd in the restaurant (and on the patio!). And thanks to my dining companions, it was a pleasure to see you all!

How was the food, Mark? my parents are birdwatchers and they'll be in the neighbourhood in the next few days, they'd probably get a kick out of that.

Those stir-fry in a bag things always look expensive, so I never get them, even the ones without meat. I can't imagine buying meat I couldn't see, all frozen in a bag! I do buy salad in a bag, though, and those baby carrots.

Unfortunately, over the course of our three visits, the restaurant did not have many of the featured wines. They also did not have ketchup, and made no attempt to fetch same from their downstairs concession. So I did. ← I wonder if they are victims of the container strike, wine-wise? No excuse for the ketchup situation though!! Shocking!

I have some nice big reds waiting for a dinner party when it's cool enough to have the oven on and eat a big meal. (And I'm definitely not complaining about our late-arriving but lovely summer.) I've been unable to figure out what to cook, but from this thread, I guess lamb shanks will be the order of the day

Pretty sure I've seen it for less than that at T&T on Keefer. I don't remember quantities, though, and I'm afraid I know nothing about preparation. Another place that might be cheap would be Fujiya over near the 128 flavours of gelato store...Venables Street, is it?

BTW I feel like my $2 less latte got turned into an apocryphal $2 latte...to clarify, the shop that I frequented charged nearly $4 including tax for a latte that cost nearly $6 including tax at the Starbucks that eventually opened across the street. And, actually, they were throwing in a shot for free as I went there 5 days a week for a latte and a muffin, and also went there for lunch several times a week. So I don't feel like they were skimping on anything or charging unreasonably low rates. The only change they made when the green machine opened was to increase their signage with a sandwich board and some neon in the window. They're still going strong, btw, several years later.

Oh those sweeeet Mexican limes...I can almost eat them like that. I can certainly go through a couple while sipping on large quantities of reposado. I can see that that might not have the bite you were looking for though. How about adding a little bottled lemon juice to your mix? it might be sour enough to compensate.

Lee, what if she can't play mah-jongg?

There's nothing specifically "Whistler in the Summer" but the good restaurants are still the good restaurants. This thread has a pretty comprehensive list and lots of links to restaurant websites. This thread has some more up-to-date recommendations. Araxi has the best patio/food combination, IMO, for a sunny day. Enjoy your stay!

Sorry, occasionally humour-impaired.