FabulousFoodBabe

And if the soft drinks aren't free ... or if someone would like a cocktail sans alcohol or a near-beer ... and if the place isn't too busy ... drinking water in 110 degree heat is a necessity. Drinking beer on the line is dangerous and stupid, and the beer would get warm. I'm not convinced. But, if I say, UNCLE, can we stop? Pretty please?

Pollydaniel! Hey: I go with the above-stated notion that if it was 'kosher,' why hide it? These days, people can rationalize just about anything. In school, students used to get copies of the tests and pass them around before test day. I say, "cheating." They say, "study aids." I did make the point that if it was, in fact, a study aid, why was it being passed below the desks? To me, there's a short leap from that type of thing to taking bribes. Someone I worked for used one vendor because they sent her and her husband, also a chef, to the Red Sea every year to dive. As "friends," of course.

Seriously, I'm not sure what you mean by the first sentence. Actually was a dishwasher in high school. Saw many chefs and other help have a drink or two while they were working. Why would that be a problem (unless they got drunk - but I never witnessed that)? ← First: You'd said that during-shift drinks would be appreciated by those who don't consume alcohol. I say, they can appreciate it just as much after service. Second: I wonder why any bartender/FOH staff would stop what they're doing and run around getting drinks for themselves and the BOH staff, during service. I wonder what any good chef or owner would do, if his line cooks stopped working and enjoyed a beer.

So then, accrding to the above, I did bribe the person at Per Se. My friend did bribe the cook at Opa. I did bribe my wife by giving her a ring before we were married. And all those people who buy things on ebay are bribing the seller. ← I'm sure your wife would have married you without the ring, Rich.

But as I said above, that's just another way of seating you according to your appearance. ← Ooookay. But I still wasnt interested in bribing the hostess to change things. And I wasn't above giving a lousy tip and being sure the server/ess and the manager knew just why.

Because it's what I chose to give them, from myself, for doing their jobs exceptionally well. Not to ensure that they treated me better than anyone else or gave me preferential treatment. No, I would not expect to be treated like royalty if I never went back to a place. I suppose I should have been more specific: "and then if/when I go back I am treated like royalty." blah blah. I'm sure you knew what i meant. Pssst: sometimes I do it at places where I don't go back. People who don't drink alcohol can not drink after service just as well. And I"m guessing you've never worked BOH, Rich, else you wouldn't think it was even a possibility to send a round to the kitchen in the middle of service!

Yep, and the joke is really on "them"! I agree with the profiling, and it's attached to age as well. But honest to God, when I was way younger and cute as hell, I got worse service and worse seats.

Clubs, perhaps. "Trendy" spots that for some reason think attracting PYTs in black dresses is the way to built a clientele, perhaps. But the best places are run by people who don't judge by appearances alone. And maybe people who don't dress to the nines and sashay about, have more important things on their mind. Ugly is as ugly does, Forrest.

Ick, ick, ick. Talk about slimy! I don't care how you spin it, bribes are wrong. If a server can't do their best work without being handed cash ... if a restaurant has sucky tables just so they can favor someone who comes in ready to bribe ... that says a lot to me. I don't do it and I've seen it very few times over the years. I don't go back and am sure to tell the owner -- not the manager -- why. I prefer my "strategy" -- treat the FOH with respect and stand up for yourself. Tables can be switched before or after you're seated. I've never had anyone fuss at me or try to make me sit somewhere I didn't like. And if the bartender is giving the boss' booze away, he doesn't get tipped. If he is told to give free cocktails while we're waiting for the better table to be ready ... he does. I've been known to do something even more crazy than pre-dinner bribes: A round of drinks for the kitchen AND FOH staff, after closing, when an experience was really great. Talk about being treated like royalty!

You really had me going until I got to the word "Mayonnaise". ← Geez. It didn't even occur to me that eggs were used for anything other than culinary.

It's not really sanitary for them to keep them or do anything with them in that context. ← Interesting. Since they have to separate the whites and handle the eggs for consumption, I wonder why it would not be possible to just put the yolks into containers for holding?

Gloves are a law in New York State, for handling food that is not going to be cooked before serving. I hate them. Clean hands, short nails, and no jewelry is better. I'd rather it just be a law that guys with hairy hands, or people with those horrible long nails, have to wear them.

My Pegu question (and maybe this is OT): Do they still toss the yolks from their egg white drinks? If so, why? If not, what is happening to them? The first time I went there (with therese ), we sat at the bar hunched over our cocktails, telling the bartender what we'd do with all those egg yolks. Mayonnaise. Creme anglaise. Etc.

If you like martinis, try the Fitty-Fitty at Pegu. One part gin, one part dry vermouth, and a dash of bitters. Yum! ← mmmm ... Fitty Fitty. (I agree, Ms. Megan.) I've also been looking for a place to learn to drink Scotch. It could happen here. These are the ultimate northern Californians, gang. Any wine bar suggestions? I have no idea if Pegu Club even has a good wines-by-the-glass.

this is a very sweet story, and made me email my friend immediately and say, "at least have a little champagne at the RR." Thank you for sharing this, Busboy!

Liz, thank you for that suggestion! It may well be where we start. And duBois, thank you for your good wishes ... I can't wait to see these folks. I'll be sure to report where we went and what we did -- my friend emailed me today asking if the Rainbow Room was good for pre-theater! Ack! I told her to go to Tintol, db, or preferably Le Bernardin, depending on how much time they have. (They're here to see her husband's sis perform at Carnegie Hall, and lots of family are in town, but this dinner will just be her and her husband.) They live in Carmel, btw. The views are a little different from her back deck than from here! And beautiful, in a different way.

My business-dinner stories are all pretty old ones, but still vivid in my mind (wine sent back just for grins was always big with ad agency types and back then, having huge, four-course lunches was big, as well.). I recall once having to sit through a meeting where I got my a** kicked, the client didn't want anyone to think they liked our firm better so they didn't back me up, and some dweeby person kept calling me "Junior" and "Sweetheart." After stopping the meeting several times to say, "it's Fabby," I had to take them to lunch and let them pretend like it was all in a good day's work. It was kind of gratifying to have the agency head drop me a note later and say, "you handled that very well." I wanted to tell them I spit in the guy's food but I figured that being a jackass in a bad suit was its own punishment. What stands out most for me, though are experiences as the entertain-ee. Husband took a job halfway across the country. Kids and I finally relocate; we have dinner one night with his new boss and boss' wife. Predinner cocktails were, for boss, six beers (wifey had three champagne cocktails and a martini). Two bottles of wine at dinner, with some brandy afterward. Wife was sitting at the table in a big Gael Greene-like hat, getting more and more dramatic and gesturing around as she told tales of her life; we could see the waitstaff at the restaurant being instructed to work around her flailing. Husband just smiled and got more and more quiet and florid in the face. As they actually got into their car and drove off ... I looked at Mr. FB and said, "you have got to be kidding." This behavior was repeated every time we were near them. apparently, it was a company-culture thing. Another new boss, who seemed normal, took us out on our first night in a new town. Once again, husband drank a lot but he was a big guy, he just started leering at my boobs and craning his head to get a better look at them and then his wife, who was very drunk by then, starting snarling at him. No one else found it odd; they just kept eating and chatting. I'm worried that, sitting to the guy's right, I'm going to be in the line of fire when the food started to get pitched. Yet another company-culture thing. I like NYC Mike's company culture better, I think. And no, spouse is no longer with either company!

I don't know where in Manhattan, but Albano Appliance in Pound Ridge/Scotts Corner is where I found mine. point 'n click Advance Tabco just did a quote for my architects, for an integrated sink/steel countertop (in a "u" shape). Commercial quality, really big, deep double-bowl sink, and the entire piece costs slightly more than just the sink would, if I went with Kohler (which was the only place I could find what I wanted, size-wise).

I'm really hoping that this whole thread was started out of the desire to discuss/debate something, not because anyone really thinks it's a good idea -- recipe registration, forcing credit to be given, and punishing in any way when it's not. I am SO with Bubbleheadchef: it's a personal moral thing. Legislating that behavior in any way is bound to backfire ...and bound to not change people who don't have it in them to begin with. However. May I please, please please, be in the room when you tell chefs who is considered "copy-protection-worthy" and who isn't?

If it weren't for those pesky kids, I'd be in the city right now!* I've been to Pegu Club, loved it, and those bartenders are amazing. Okay. My friends are staying at the Benjamin and said there's a place up there where we can start, with a great view ... they're on vacation, I'm freelancing now, and we can start early and stay late. We can wind our way down to Nobu, and keep going. The vodka in the cab is a terrific idea. I will wear sunglasses, too! But no headscarf unless we do ride the ferry. (*) pesky kids think I should spend lots more time in the city. They've offered to drive me. When teenagers are enthusiastic about what I'm up to, my Mom alarm sounds!

Azlee, as we work on finding smallish stuff for one of the areas of our kitchen, I've found some great stuff that we put in the "when we get a NYC apartment" file. Miele does a speed oven with a microwave function: critical for popcorn! (I have teenaged sons whose friends run in and out in packs ...) Liebherr does a really nice 24" refrigerator, bottom freezer. It's less expensive, gives better use of space, and is more energy efficient than almost anything else I've found. I agree with the induction cooktop; I've used them at work and school, and they will be in the empty-nester's nest when the time comes. I don't know about a small gas cooktop, though; ventilation is always an issue in my mind. I saw a "non-kitchen" designed for a city apartment in a magazine not long ago. It was basically set into a bank of wall cabinetry, and was for people who simply did not cook. It was pretty cool, too.

I'm thinking about this. Though it would mean we have to get a new Weber, and I'm liking the wheezy, rusty, old one we got a few years ago.

I'm really liking Pegu. Miss B., our 15 year old, could probably pass as 21 (can't they all, these days?). Bar food before Nobu may not be such a good idea ... though I could do it. (This will be my first time at Nobu, after several attempts, which are all stories for another day.) Our reservation is 6:30, on a Monday, so if we're meeting at 5:00, it probably won't be a mob scene anywhere. Or so I hope. Man, I really have got to get out of the 'burbs more often!

The revenge of the Old People! You KILL me, Sizzle! And to everyone who was kind enough to set me straight on my sculpture/music CD versus food thingie: Ehhhhhhh (I'm making an Italian hand gesture here; not an obscene one. I'm a nice girl!). You all know just what I mean! All those smarty-pants references to Opera notwithstanding. And really, if The Thinker had to be created hundreds of times a day, with only a sketch, a block of whatever, a chisel, and memory ...

Yeah, it's pretty great! The view, I mean. This outing is a little selfish for me, I have to admit. I love the city and would live there if I could (and I shall, one day). So being able to spend some time with my friend in the city is for me, too. We'd considered having them come up to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, but since they only have Monday and Tuesday free (and those are their closed days), that will have to wait.