Jojomek

Thanks Bueno! Yes, it was a spectacular dish, one of our favorites of the day. Is that a cipollini or a pearl onion?

I think you are exactly right about the beef itself -- thanks for reminding me it was from Snake River Farm. I can't believe I forgot that. The accompaniments were a bit different, though. There's clearly a pearl onion or cipollini, and I had a comment on Flickr that there might be potato and sorrel. No guesses on the sauce. I probably should just try to get an email address of someone at the restaurant and send them the photo.

Hey there Jojomek - it's been a long time. I think I had a similar Colotte de Boef Grillee at TFL over a year ago. BTW - are you at the new incarnation of Trio nowadays? You're no longer with Alinea, right? ← You're right, I'm up in Evanston. The restaurant is called Quince, but actually it's not an incarnation of Trio; Henry closed Trio permanently in February 2006. Quince is an entirely new restaurant under the ownership of the hotel. Our thread is here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...95942&hl=ziomek

Anyone recognize this course? We ate it at TFL on October 7 but it doesn't seem to be on our menu. http://www.flickr.com/photos/16159311@N00/...57602798542148/ Thanks for any help!

Villa Creek is a really nice spot. Very good wine list, solid food, good service. It's one of the better restaurants (maybe the best) I've been to on the Central Coast. I'd recommend it, although I don't know if I'd really call it "formal."

Thanks for the clarification, Joe. Is this a requirement for all the cooks at Alinea? ← Yes it is.

What I loved best about this meal was how much fun it was. What I loved second best was to experience firsthand that food prepared this way did, in fact, taste "like food!" The three of us decided that we didn't like one course very much, and it was completely because none of us really like curry. Everything else was one "favorite" after another. It was such a different experience than some of the other great meals I've had: nothing compares to stepping out of the French Laundry into a starry Napa night. The service at Per Se was as flawless as the food. But at Alinea, the staff made the food fun -- even though we had to threaten to spank one of them . Maybe someone can tell me if my fuzzy recollection is true: that most, if not all, of the waitstaff are waiting for an open slot in the kitchen, so they can be cooks? How cool is that? ← Many of the food runners at Alinea are in fact waiting their turn to cook, but the servers on the floor (back waiters, front waiters, captains, sommeliers) are happily entrenched in the front of the house. Having chefs on the floor is advantageous for the restaurant because of the extensive culinary knowledge they bring to service, and it also helps these chefs develop an understanding of how the restaurant functions as a whole before they move into the kitchen. Joe Ziomek Assistant Sommelier, Alinea

When you come, let me put in an enthusiastic recommendation for Adobo Grill. There are two locations, one in Old Town at North and Wells and then another in Wicker Park. I have not been to the Wicker Park location, but I have had a number of delicious meals at the Old Town spot. I highly recommend the guacamole (made tableside, perfectly), the huitlacoche quesadillas (you might want two orders), the ceviche (order the "tasting" -- small dishes of all three or four different kinds), pork with mole, and the chocolate dessert. You're pretty solid with anything else on the menu, though. They have good margaritas. Rogers Park, at the northern end of Chicago, has some great taquerias. My favorite is El Famous Burrito, which is actually a chain, but Rogers Park is the only location I've been to. It's really consistent and inexpensive, and the service is friendly. The burritos and tacos are recommended, as are the quesadillas if you like the really cheesy kind. No alcohol but you can get yourself some jarritos or really good horchata. A little north of Wicker Park on Milwaukee Ave. is El Cid, which has pretty solid, traditional Mexican food, good prices, and good service. I seem to remember them having some mid-week drink specials, too. If you get a hankering for a burrito late-nite, there's El Presidente at Ashland & Wrightwood (24/7).

San, Thanks for your nice comments, we are glad you had such a great experience at Alinea! Chef Achatz felt it appropriate for one of the servers to answer your questions, so I'll share some thoughts on the service questions you brought up. You're absolutely right – orchestrating the experience on the service side is complex. Organization and foresight are key, as is the structure of the service team. The restaurant is divided up into three sections that range from 5 to 8 tables each, and there are several servers in each section with different roles, including a captain, front waiter, back waiter and sommelier. In addition to these servers, there is a group of 4-6 food runners who are responsible for transporting all food from the kitchen to the floor of the restaurant. The runners (some of whom are trained chefs) are well-versed in other aspects of service; they will often describe your dishes for you. Because the food runners are not assigned to specific sections of the restaurant, they make appearances at many if not all tables. So it's probably true that you saw a high percentage of the servers on the staff at your table during your meal. It's certainly a team effort – considering the porters serving your coffee, the half-dozen food runners, two hostesses, 10 floor servers, GM Joe Catterson supervising service and frequent appearances on the floor by Nick Kokonas, the front of the house numbers about 20 people. There are about 18 chefs in the kitchen, including Chef Achatz, Sous-chefs John Peters and Curtis Duffy, pastry chef Alex Stupak about 10 chefs de partie, and several externs. One final subject you brought up was the pacing of the meal. This is something that is very important to us – providing a seamless flow through the meal. Again, this is a very tough task, given that th kitchen is sending food out to up to 20 tables at a time, all at different points in their meal. To organize this, we have a front-of-house expeditor acting as an air traffic controller for the approximately 1000 dishes that leave the kitchen each night. There is no POS (our system is too complicated for most applications), so we communicate verbally with the expeditor to let him/her know when a table is cleared and to fire their next course. Chef Achatz supervises this flow on the kitchen side while plating up dishes, and the servers on the floor – primarily the front waiter, captain and sommelier – add a backup by checking on any table experiencing a wait of more than a few minutes. Essentially, it's a question of everyone being aware of every table at every moment. Difficult, but challenging and enjoyable as well. Joe Ziomek Asst. Sommelier, Alinea Restaurant

I have a couple of the Avanti coolers, using one for shorter term storage (<2 years) and another for bottles that need to sit for a few years. They work just fine. As for temperature, 58-60 degrees is sufficiently cool for the shorter-term fridge; a couple of degrees cooler for the longer-term stuff.

The standard Cabernet bottlings from Caymus and Shafer would be interesting comparisons and would land right around the top of your price range.

Congrats! March, eh? Are they opening earlier than usual next year, or is this the norm?

But I imagine that they are working much more than 20 days/month and more than 7 hours/day. The sooner they finish, the sooner they go on vacation. Also, there must be many thousands of requests which they can reject in just a few seconds (a specific day which is already filled, a time which is already booked, or a day they're not open, etc.).

I used to work at Mayacamas Vineyards, up near the top of Mt. Veeder. Mayacamas isn't exactly "gaining buzz," but that's exactly how Bob Travers (owner and winemaker) wants it. This is one of the most beautiful spots in Napa, and Bob makes truly balanced and complex mountain wines. Highly recommend a visit (call for appt, weekdays only). Plenty of others, too. Call to see if you can get into Peter Michael. There's also Storybook Mountain and Vincent Arroyo up in Calistoga, Duckhorn (not a small winery but they have a great tasting room and great wine) near Howell Mtn, and then closer to you in Yountville there is Cosentino (again, not too small, but the wine is good and moderately priced) and Paradigm, which is one of the most underrated wineries in all of California, IMO.