Tim Dolan

That looks light years ahead of anything you can get at Harry Och's or Whole Foods. Have they stepped their game up recently or did you just get lucky?

Rulman, Ripert, Bourdain, who was the 4th dude?

Bump. It's summer man. Anyone have anything to add? Any riffs that you particularly enjoy?

He hasn't bought a house yet but he will definitely be working in Mesa. When I talked to him he wouldn't shut up about Gold Canyon. He was saying how it's quiet and somewhat up in the mountains, and he loved it. He also explained that basically Scottsdale, Phoenix and Mesa are all a 25 minute drive away from each other, is that correct? If those places are within that short of a driving distance, then I'm sure we'll be fine. Before yesterday I knew less than nothing about the geography of that area but after looking at a few maps it seems like travel won't be a big deal.

Just had a so-so lunch by myself at the Black Lab. Got an order of duck confit potstickers that were much more along the lines of oven-baked dumplings. The wrapper had the consistency of a dried out cracker and there was hardly any duck in the filling, but the mango-jicama salsa and hoisin sauce made them tasty enough to be average. Also ordered steak frites, with the flatiron steak being cooked a bit past medium when I ordered medium rare. Made it pretty bland. I really enjoy this place so I'll definitely be back, but it looks like the freshman squad was in the kitchen today.

I have a friend who will be moving to this area from Philly, and although he doesn't care if he eats microwave dinners for the rest of his life, I would like to know of some good places for the numerous times I will visit. Regional cuisine would be cool, but basically anything is fair game since he won't even know where to get good pizza upon his arrival. (I'm aware of the Pizzeria Bianco place in Phoenix, but that most likely won't be an everyday trip"). Thanks!

Also, one night a cook had it out with a particularly annoying FOH manager. FOH manager left his car doors open one night, so the cook took some fish flats out and dumped the nasty fish liquid underneath his floor mats. FOH manager bitched about the smell for a few days, and then went ballistic once the maggots showed up a week later. FOH manager even said he would give a reward if someone dropped the dime, but of course no one ever did. I love remembering that prank.

Back in the day, we had a new hotshot on the line who was pissing everyone off with his bragging. Fortunately we served our soups in deep, narrow soup bowls. We took one, covered the top with one razor thin sheet of plastic wrap, swapped it to be next in line once it got busy and BANG, molten hot black-bean soup all over his hand. He was such a tool. Dumping half a salt shaker into someone's drink is so basic, but always funny.

Just my quick two cents on a variety of places... I think Jim's makes a perfectly respectable steak. Better than average, but maybe not at the tip top for most people. I like them because they are similar in style to Dalessandro's, which 3 months ago was my favorite in town. Since they were sold, not so much. My friend drug me to the cheesesteak contest that WIP had a few weeks ago on South St., and I thought the Grey Lodge had easily the 2nd best cheesesteak there after John's. I kept going back for samples of GL's because I was surprised at how good it was, even though Rich has been boosting them for a while. As for the White House, I was just as disappointed with their steak as I was the first time I had a steak from Geno's. Just that whole feeling of "this is was everybody raves about?" I just didn't get it.

How about the new Table 31 in the Comcast Tower? I haven't been, but it's by the Perrier folk and close enough to the Ritz.

I'll agree with what others have said and recommend the Reading Terminal. Strikes the best balance between "quality" and "uniquely Philadelphia" that I can think of.

I know it's off topic, but does anyone have any advice for smoking sausage?

Anyone have any recommendations for best sauasages in the RTM? I've entered the world of smoking and was thinking about doing some sausage over the weekend. I purchased my first pork butt the other weekend from Giunta's and it was pretty solid. I would imagine that all of the butchers are solid as well, but I figured I would check here. I know that I walked by one vendor the other week and they had a buffalo chicken sausage, can't remember who it was though...

How far is Mike's Deli or Arthur Ave from the stadium? I'm heading up from Philly with a bunch of guys for the game next Thursday, but we're taking a bus so I won't be able to drive around anywhere. Is it within reasonable walking distance?

I haven't read this entire thread so I apologize if this has been brought up, but does anyone remember when they pushed a line of gelato? Wow that chocolate gelato was good. It was like a gateway drug. I had no clue what gelato was, then I had some of it and was like "wait, there's stuff out there that's BETTER than ice cream?!?"

I don't have any South Philly recs, but if you're feeling intrepid the Broad St. line can have you in Center City in about 10 minutes, if you're more familiar with CC.

So by purchasing a little bag of Weber hickory wood chips for like 8 bucks, I could accurately be described as... I believe the term is "sucker", correct?

8 hours in, at 190 so we took it off and wrapped it in foil. Gonna start pulling in about 45 minutes...

Thank you very much, sir. The ribs turned out surprisingly well and I'm shocked that nothing went terribly wrong. I didn't get pictures because 1) we were starving by the time they were finished and 2) we were so shocked that not only were they finally finished, but they were good, so they got devoured. The butt went on this morning before I left for work and my brother will be tending to it throughout the day.

Here's my smoker, courtesy of "Good Eats". I have babyback ribs on now that should be done around 11pm, and a big old butt that is brining now. I found a hot plate however it doesn't have an actually temperature setting, just a dial that goes from one to ten. I have it on 6 right now, and the charcoal and wood chips are cruising at about 225. This is very much going to be a lot of trial and error, but so far so good.

Awesome. I'm gonna have to try this at some point this summer...

Let me preface this post by saying that I know NOTHING about smoking and bbq'ing, and I realize that what I'm about to write mighy be considered heresy... Last night I saw an episode of Good Eats where Alton basically made a Big Green Egg out of two huge ceramic pots. He used chunks of wood as his source of smoke, and in order to heat the wood he used an (here's the heresy part) electric hot plate. Now this seemed to make perfect sense to me because it eliminates any problems in regards to maintaining temperature over a long period of time, but again, I know nothing. I'm sure any true barbecuer worth their salt would never attempt this method, but I'm still curious to how the results would be in comparison to the real stuff. Any thoughts?

Speaking of Phoebe's, from the looks of things they're trying to open a new location on Umbria St. in Manayunk. The awning has been up for a few weeks and there's a sign in the window that says "coming soon!", but as of late last week they're still not open for business. Does anyone who frequents the South St. location have any idea what's going on? I would love a new bbq place in the area since the only other place, Tommy Gunn's, is maddeningly inconsistent.

How'd those burgers turn out?

Manayunk Brewpub. Should fit the bill. Food won't be terrible (not great either), they should be able to accommodate your party and budget.