Megan Blocker

You guys are making me miss working in Eleven Madison! When I worked there, the best lunch was at Bread Bar, especially in the spring, summer and early fall, when you can sit outside and look out over Madison Square Park. Sigh.

You might also think about something like this, from Lady M: click! It's smoothed all over with whipped cream (stabilized, I assume) and then topped with a thin, torched meringue. Simple and lovely.

Amen to that. Really, the only time I wish for a dishwasher is right after a dinner party. Other than that, I don't mind. I do mind lugging my laundry all over the neighborhood, though. I'm jealous, JAZ!

Ditto. I also go to the movies alone a lot, and have a tendency to run into some interesting characters...but that's a little OT, I suppose!

I agree, Maggie. My repulsion in this case comes from what I imagine it would taste like - the high fat content is a whole other issue. After all, you're talking to a girl who's eaten foie gras creme brulee - I'm hardly in a position to judge here.

So...just home from my trip to Lady M, which was delightful, as always. I went with my friend Lisa, and she had a slice of the mille crepes while I tried the gateau au chocolat. The slice they served me was significantly smaller than her slice of mille crepes - and thank god for that, because it was really rich. The sponge was great - very moist, but very chocolatey, too. The mousse had a really nice texture - very smooth, and it felt almost light in the mouth - very silky, but still very, very rich. The walnuts studded throughout were a great relief from the smoothness of the cake. The ganache was very dark and almost smoky, and was an incredibly thin layer - maybe as thick as two sheets of notebook paper. All in all, very good. Definitely one of the better mousse cakes I've had.

Oh. My. God. Omigod. Holy crap.

Yeah, that's the other part...I can't imagine the KK being able to stand up to the heft of the loaded-down burger. And it's sticky. Talk about a mess!

Well, I hate cheeseburgers, so that's part of it.

New York Magazine Digest - 3/6/06 Reviews The Graduate Adam Platt finds the food at Urena to be good, even very good (if not terribly original), but the atmosphere is distracting. Openings and Buzz Openings for the Week of March 6, 2006 Included this week is Arium, a cafe-cum-salon (the hair kind, not the literary kind). Features Best Bets The magazine highlights the opening of a Bouchon Bakery outpost in the Time Warner Center. Best of NY Food: 2006 The magazine releases it's "best of" lists for 2006, among them the food list, which includes mentions for everything from bar food to fish tacos to steak tartare. Also included are the magazine's critcs' top picks for new restaurants in 2006, including Jovia and Cookshop. Arrivederci, Sal Anthony's Sal Anthony's, the legendary family-style restaurant, has closed. Put a Cork In It A list of some new wine bars around town. Brooklyn South Precinct A look at the eateries dotting the South Slope. Self-Incrimination in the Supermarket Checkout Line Apparently, there are some privacy concerns over those supermarket and pharmazy loyalty cards.

Bump! I was watching the Today Show this morning and they had a segment on "Other People's Kids." In his interview with Ruth Peters, a clinical psychologist, Matt mentioned the Andersonville sign in passing...you know Today, always on top of the story. Anyhoo, thought it was worth linking the corresponding MSNBC piece. They didn't offer a lot of advice on how to deal with other people being annoying in restaurants, but did give some on how to control your kids in those kinds of situations...and how not to an enabler of bad behavior. Click!

My experience with Trader Joes is that the stores are not large at all, and in fact can be rather cramped. They are certainly no where near the size of many supermarkets. ← Compared to most supermarkets here in the city, the TJ's I visited (albeit only once, and very briefly) in CT felt quite big...

Yes, there's an obesity problem in the U.S. because we're all running around eating bacon cheeseburgers on Krispy Kreme buns. Problem identified! Seriously, though, that's just nasty.

Wicked awesome. Oh, fried clams...oh, clam cakes. I need to make a visit to New England...I feel the homesickness washing over me. Thanks, Chris!

Yes - a "Ling Goes Pro" thread! ← I don't think I'll ever be good enough to go "pro". I'm just happy they're letting me help out right now. ← P-SHAW!!!! Humility, thy name is Ling. or Lorna. Whatever. It's her, that girl, right up there.

Note that this isn't about restaurants...I have no problem with people bringing (well-behaved) children into a restaurant. After all, like you, I was dragged to many a restaurant (from pizza place to fine dining and everything in between) throughout my childhood, and consider it to have been an important part of the development of my interest in food. And I certainly don't have a problem with people bringing kids into a pub-type place in the afternoon or early evening. But Pegu Club with a baby? Um, no. To paraphrase Miranda from SATC, "Mommy needs two hands to drink her $16 cocktail."

Sacrilege!

I guess I'm not as interested in the store and whether it's special...more in whether it will catch on. Not-so-special things are a hit here all the time, no matter how picky we like to consider ourselves! ETA: I also think that the fact that you have to compare different pieces of TJ's inventory to things available in a variety of stores sort of backs up the point I was trying to make above - while they may not be bringing anything new or special to the scene in terms of product, there may not be another store where those products are all available under one roof. This, from what I can tell from the other posts on this thread, is part of their appeal.

I think branding plays a huge part, as well. Dag's may have "improved their act," as you put it - but it's amazing how many people will still shop at a more expensive store (not that Dag's is cheap, I can find better for cheaper a lot of places) for the cachet or the feeling/atmosphere/ambience. I wonder if TJ's will be able to establish a brand here in the city? ETA: I agree, though I would argue that the market here is competitive in different ways. Even our "large" stores are, on the whole, far smaller than what you find in the suburbs. I would be interested to find out if TJ's plans on opening multiple locations if this first one is a hit, and where they would plan on doing that. For instance, I might wander into Whole Foods now and again to check things out, or buy one thing, but I never make a trip exclusively to visit it, since none of its locations are convenient to me. How will TJ's market itself? As a destination? Or as a local market with plans to open more stores? I have no stake in this, having shopped at a TJ's (the one in Darien) exactly once, and I don't plan on frequenting the one in the Village when it opens. I guess I'm less concerned with "it's good/it's not" and more interested in their business model and how it might work in NYC.

One interesting thing to note, JohnL, is that the stores you're comparing it are all in the 'burbs. I grew up going to Stew Leonard's (Stewie Baby's, we called it), and Hay Day (well before it was a Balducci's) was one of the two primary markets we shopped in (the other being Poricelli's in Old Greenwich, which was where all the neighborhood gossiping took place). However, here in the city, we don't have a place like TJ's, where a variety of cheap gourmet-ish goods are all rounded up and sold in one place. We have places where lots of not-so-cheap stuff is available (especially Zabar's, The Vinegar Factory, Whole Foods, etc.), and places where specialized cheaper stuff is available, but not all kinds of it in one place. Maybe TJ's is counting on this - all this stuff in one place - to make it a success in an already food-saturated market. Maybe they're banking on the idea that New Yorkers are fed up with shopping the European way (going to a bunch of different places to get the different things they need for a good price) and are ready to turn suburban. I'm not, though I'll still check it out to see if there's anything worth trekking down to 14th and 3rd for.

Thanks, Pille! I bake them a bit longer than I probably should, because I just love that slightly crispy, light crust. Ooooh, baby. Interesting about the banana creme brulee...sounds tasty. Can you imagine it with lime?

Hmmm, that's interesting. Do you know when this aired? I just did a quick Google search, and Bill Yosses' bio from the Chocolate Show website doesn't mention Lady M. Nor does a Google search of "Bill Yosses" and "Lady M" turn up any matches. The plot thickens...or maybe my search skills are just busted. ← I saw that show too. Here's the link to the episode, which was a repeat. Sugar Rush It showed Bill caramelizing the top of the cake with a very hot flat iron -- way cool from my perspective. I don't get to play with cool tools much... ← Thanks!!!

Hmmm, that's interesting. Do you know when this aired? I just did a quick Google search, and Bill Yosses' bio from the Chocolate Show website doesn't mention Lady M. Nor does a Google search of "Bill Yosses" and "Lady M" turn up any matches. The plot thickens...or maybe my search skills are just busted.

Yup, exactly right...that was my thought as well. Mmmmm, mille feuilles!

Interesting...you also have to wonder how much real estate is left in the immediate Union Square vicinity for a large store like TJ's...though if what's being said above is true, that TJ's is a sort of cheaper alternative to the gourmet market, then its location may make sense.