Andrew Morrison

agreed. andrew

i think we start an active campaign to have peppyre's mom join eGullet. andrew

Perhaps a red and a white? great idea for a thread. I can warmly recommend two very food-friendly wines that are not often seen as solo varietals. They're both inexpensive, readily accessible, of great quality, and easy to pair with food. Bit of a novelty, too. 2000-2003 Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache. 2000-2003 Yalumba Y Series Viognier. We sell both by the glass at my restaurant and they're incredibly popular at the moment (have been for over a year now) . Easy hand-sell and quaffable as hell. Andrew

waaaaayyy off topic, but i smell an eGullet tourney coming this spring. Count me in.

hilarious, deborah. agreed. how often have you seen caesar mis-spelled?

exactly. that's why i love the concept of restaurant blogs. cheap. good-looking. easy to MAINTAIN. it takes 15 minutes to change a menu, for free. andrew

going the blog route, i cut web costs for two restaurants by over 400%. blogs are so sophisticated these days as to allow for a great number things, including flash. as a frequent diner, web user, and service industry guy, i gotta say that simple is better. you do not gain entry into the pantheon of great restaurants by having some downtempo verdi remix playing to macromedia glitches when all i want is your phone number to make a reso. keep it simple, bubba. andrew

my wife and i dropped our boy off with his grandparents for a few hours and went wandering downtown tonight. what is it with sunday here? topanga's, closed. brix, closed. chambar, closed. le regalade, closed. first picks all nixed. nice driving around the icy side streets of kits, though.... went downstairs at lucy mae brown and had an interesting sausage and apple flambe and some tasty skewers of beef tenderloin and chicken with assorted sauces (great pesto). funky set up downstairs complete with dj and really nice staff. we took our service at the bar. after that, we tried to get some steaks at the hamilton street grill, but unfortunately they were closed. Neil, i shall return. went to cardero's for more small plates (ribs, potato leek soup, creme brulee). met an old friend working there who i used to work with at prego.. ambience and sense of ease not usually encountered at cardero's ensued. we then tried to walk from cardero's to have a whiskey at lift but the ice and snow on the seawall here was a bit much for us (pregnancy, neither of us in sensible footwear). another time perhaps. anyone review this place yet? andrew

always had a soft spot for the cannery. shame.

I went to the new park royal cafe artigiano for the first time today with my little troop. not impressed. gangster bandanas on half the pre-pubescent service staff, the majority of which operated with a grace reminiscent of the pleistocene. seriously pronounced brow ridge on the cro-magnon fellow who brought our food, constantly muttering curses at the people in his way, bandana bouncing, gold chain swinging in time with the lurking gait of newfound bipedalism and his own personal hiphop soundtrack. almost entertaining to watch, but not nice to experience (for a $20 coffee and snack). "hey, this stuff yours?" he asked me gruffly, pointing to the muffin and 2 sandwiches he carried...true quote, i kid you not. coffee? really pretty. big deal. my reuben sandwich. nothing special. potential third space hangout? never. perhaps, i assume, the new park royal location is finding its feet, because otherwise this is an overblown hype-balloon bound to burst. andrew

i take it all back. murphy's law, i suppose...we got slammed. only 3 waiters on, no food runner, 1 busser, 1 bartender. we were all happily suprised and running around like crazy. totally pooped. and now for my buddy glenmorangie...night all. andrew

hah! i've asked my self the same question over and over! i build restaurant blogs. see here and there for examples. cheap...does the trick....no flash....no music. andrew

wow, i haven't been to cape town in ages. blues is phenomenal. for something more interesting, try the obs cafe in observatory. andrew

Daddy, it's a reflection of my daily struggle with identity. Really, i'm just wiggling my way into that spot beside the fireplace trying to get comfortable here because i do believe i'm gonna be here for awhile. beyond that, i'm a class-a fidget. Good idea about food topics, though. i posted a different version as you suggested. I agree with winegeek in that you get more diners in winter, which is a big plus. i suppose i'm just a tad frustrated with the numbers. i know it gets better, and soon...but this week has just been bloody MURDER. Neil, i like how you give your staff a heads-up on last years numbers. That's commendable. 2roost, to clarify: monday night = 8 in summer versus 2 in winter No hockey? Whhhaaaatttt? Andrew

When you normally run with 5 to 8 servers a night, dropping down to two can seem a far cry from equitable, no matter how you slice and dice the schedule. November is pretty bad, but the stint between now and the daffodils is awful. Smarter servers than me save some dosh during the hazy days of august when the cash flows like the nile in flood, and then extricate themselves from the whole problem by taking the month of january off, therefore leaving room on the schedule for others. As i said, smarter servers than me... Andrew

Even at some of the best restaurants in the city, winter brings with it fear-inducing, wallet-thinning times for those in the business. How do you suggest restaurants make themselves more attractive during these times? - extend their dine-out menus until spring? (btw, anyone doing this?) - advertise more? - beg and plead with passers by? - shut down and hibernate? - become big buddies with insolvency? I know how servers make ends meet (grow ops in the change-rooms, chess for money, waiter calendars, etc.), but how do you think actual businesses get by? Andrew

You first Jamie Andrew

under-performing but dream locations, eh? hmm..... Andrew nice to see you jamie.

they're kids, so all of the above...

that's what i call results...

pygmy blowgun darts are not out of fashion. gasp. i refuse to believe it. tasers are just cruel and unusual. full body casts are kinda cool, but remain somewhat of a hindrance with feeding, even though they do make for an interesting canvas come crayon time. Andrew editor@waiterblog waiterblog.com

It's amusing how Chambar's meteoric rise has granted them a license of sorts to shut down until the 7th, communicate with customers via a clogged voice mail system, and glide by in the service department lately. How long can the love affair last? Even i'm feeling the love. right now, the chambar blog is the busiest page on my site due to hundreds of google referrals. It's freakish. If you type in "chambar restaurant" on google right now, our master page comes up. Presumably this is because everyone is trying to contact them while they are shut down. I don't know. I hope they start answering their phones soon, just long enough for me to bill them for bandwidth! Andrew editor@waiterblog.com waiterblog.com

My little nearly 3 year old so Jack is a raving lunatic at restaurants and must be, at times, restrained with a cattle prod. Well, not really...but he's a squirmer of wormish note. He too has grown up in restaurants. It's where daddy works. Honestly, i've seen literally thousands of kids over the years and can say your children are exceptions to the rule. Most steer away from anything other than linguine alfredo or pomodoro. Seriously. If your kids love foie gras and sushi, be happy. As for "not understanding" the concerns about taking kids to restaurants, i'm positive you're pulling our collective leg. Andrew editor@waiterblog waiterblog.com

if you want to have a memorable dinner, call ahead and arrange a six course to ten course tasting menu for you and your gal. it shouldn't be any trouble. we like to please. do wines by the glass or do short-pour pairings suggested by the sommelier. depending on when your birthday is, avoid friday and saturday nights. the best are tues, wed, thurs. call ahead and talk to the manager about what you want. give them your budget. my suggestions 1. lumiere 2. west 3. bis moreno 4. the beach house 5. brix 6. c restaurant best of luck, mzungu. (isn't that a xhosa name, van suid afrika? or is it swahili for white man, can't remember...) Andrew editor@waiterblog waiterblog.com

out out out Andrew editor@waiterblog waiterblog.com