gerald
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Posts posted by gerald
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Forget Sony or JVC Think Costco, Lifetime return policy if you are unsatisfied. I'm probably the only guy with a reciept taped to my bedroom television, 27inch lcd under 1000.
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Neil it could be worse, it could be a birthday facial followed by an eskimo pie
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Jamie
I agree sous vide cooking is a great way integrate flavours and control costs. Movenpick Canada was doing it in 90-91 to help control costs without sacrificing flavour (in both their mainstream and their high end restaurants, unfortunately more often than not most chefs consider it taboo (lean cusine circa 1988). One of the things they really excelled at was bulk buys (ie basil before the price goes crazy) and making enough "fresh" pesto to take us through the winter.
One prep chef 8 hours all the sauce you need for a month, sounds (dare I say it) efficient.
Thanks for the tip about the bunny ranch, but after a couple of days of debauchery in vegas (see very bad things) the only gas available is a type that won't run car (but of course it will make people run to their cars)
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Hi Guys;
the catch 22 of the restaurant business in vancouver has reared its ugly head
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And finally, do you think that our big box restaurants (especially those on city or federal leases) could be doing a better job in living up to their views?
Almost by definition, yes, but the WHY is more elusive. How do you solve the larger mystery: the disconnect between food quality with the quality of the setting? I've always thought that with a kickass view you'd aim for kickass everything else.
This post has been edited by editor@waiterblog: Today, 01:09 AM
A big problem in vancouver is the price points. When one goes to a restaurant and has a fantastic meal then blanches at the price of the bill, that is where the disconnect comes in. The flipside of that is the restauranteur that charges top level prices and underperforms (to take adavantage of the tourists or hit hard and early then move on to the next hot joint crowd) We in Vancouver do not undersand how underpriced the top restaurants are. Unfortunately, when a restaurant does open with price that is in line with the experience more often than not the majority of the locals will not go by virtue of price. Further if that restaurant does not utilize a crackerjack pr person (come on, back to this again) the potential is there to fall by the wayside.
That is not to say that we don't have some fantastic restaurants at great values, however what I have seen and experienced hes generally been a situation where the pricepoint to have both the service and food at a top level is rarely connected.
Jamie I'm going to Las Vegas on a stag next week where can I pick up some meat leathers.
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Wow; Just read the review.
Fair/unfair maybe on both counts,
I will say this alot of reviewers might have skewered the place after the first visit.
The fact that she gave it a second try would indicate to me that she felt she had to find redemption, unfotunately she did not.
I would agree with neil, the picture is in the paper, someone should have recognized her, further most of the best maitre d's and servers i have ever seen have the uncanny radar to notice when someone is not "just dining"
Hopefully, the review will sharpen their focus and the next reviews will be moew favourable.
better to start with a review like that, then to end with a review like this (although enough reviews like that and the end shoudl follow closely the start)
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Congrats Andrew
As someone who has 3 kids let me tell you what your in for.
nevermind, i wouldn't wnt to spoil the fun.
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Cafe Rio has always served ethical bean, good people, they work hard
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Just polished off a couple of fish tacos at banana cafe, the flavour is good the salsa is great but they can't seem to get that crispy finish on the fish, i think they use electric or they bake them. Also, they do not use shredded cabbage, which i love because of the crunch quotient.
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as i understand it the following are "laws", because by saying its a law people won't challenge it.
burgers must be cooked to well done, it is amazing the number of complaints I get when people see pink in a burger
eggs cannot be served runny
I'll still respect you in the morning, i swear
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Hi Guys
We are working with blue goose regarding leanness and fat content, we are happy but not thrilled with the amount of fat, we need a little bit more. As for the squeezing of the patty I will certainly speak to the staff about it.
Thanks for the support.
Gerald
Thanks, Gerald. Next time I'm there I'll ask them not to squeeze the patty and see how it turns out. I know sometimes the pressure of lineups makes staff squeezy.
I like that "squeezy", For all egulleters and anyone else for that matter If you ever see my staff getting squeezy, tell them to make it the right way NO SQUEEZING.
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Hi Guys
We are working with blue goose regarding leanness and fat content, we are happy but not thrilled with the amount of fat, we need a little bit more. As for the squeezing of the patty I will certainly speak to the staff about it.
Thanks for the support.
Gerald
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go fish
tapastree
bishops
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i'm down for 14, but i've eaten at 1 10-12 times and another 3-4 times Does that count as 27-30
also, if i owned a previous incarnation of a joint does that count as having eaten there (I know i was certainly fed my lunch)
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Okay we are not a "restaurant" but we do a pretty good burger catering business (i didn't want to be the first for self promotion).
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Ok, ok, I'll try the chocolate without whip.I had read someplace that they just add chocolate syrup to the vanilla shake to make the chocolate, so I thought I'd try the pure thing.
Cheers!
Actually from what my spies have told me, all of their milkshakes are vanilla ice cream with flavoured syrups
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Yuo have just shown the number one misconceived notion, busy restaurant=profit for owners.
I never said anything about that restaurant being busy. It certainly was at times, and was less as the kitchen went downhill.
The restaurant that we opened (my partner and I) was very busy to start but we had 3 problems, partners that did not see eye to eye, rent that was too high and a menu that was not engineered very well.your 4th problem (which I considered your biggest) was that your amazingly strong kitchen team was being totally eroded through overworking and underpaying. and don't tell me this was circumstancial - it was policy. the demise of the team is the demise of the restaurant. of course, there were many other reasons.
Alistair, do you think its a reasonable assumption that owners WANT to overwork the cooks, do you think that owners do it to see if they can ruin the kitchen, do you think that owners get together and say, lets break them.I've seen it so often Gerald that I believe this sometimes. It was about the only conclusion we could all come up with then. There seemed no other reasonable explanation to loosing strong staff members over another dollar or two an hour.
I believe it was neil from hsg that spoke on another thread about 80-90 hour work weeks, do you think he wants to do that for fun.I think many chefs and owners do it because they cannot find good people. Maybe this is because they are unwilling to pay for it.
Alistair
Its clear you would rather talk in terms of opinions rather than realities, good luck with your endeavor I wish you well and hope you never find yourself in the position of having to make the decisions we had to at our mutual workplace.
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In my very subjective opinion;
Come On people, Vera's Burger Shack is a natural
, Who wouldn't want a big burger full of flavour shots (esp roasted garlic) before they enjoy bard .But seriously, smoking dog, if its a nice night go early, sit on the patio and enjoy. Adesso and tangerine are good options but a little farther away.
If you want sushi octopus garden is good as well.
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lets have waiters paid a higher minimum wage and split tips 50/50...
That could actually have many, many positive results... for everybody.
If restaurants could survive and top servers in the city would go for it I agree it is a great Idea, however the reality is that the only place I've heard of that was at Trotters in Chicago where from what I understand he was going to or did put everyone on Salary collected all tips into the restaurant and used those tips to help pay the salary structure. Its actually a great Idea but the the amount of business has to make it work. The reality is that 5-10 restaurants in the city could afford to do that. Further with the transcient nature of the business I think that there would be severe growing pains to do it.
PS I don't know if trotter is still doing that or if he ever actually went through with it, I read about it 6-7 years ago, when he was at the height of his popularity.
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Gerald,
As i understand it Hopkin mentioned that he worked for you......wasn't his experience the real deal?? Or had you set him aside for extraordinary punishment. It seems as though many industry types understand the problems behind recruiting good staff, but do little about it, as the difficulty in recruiting would suggest! So what do you do? Perhaps harmonize the tip thing...i have failed to hear an effective rationalisation for the disparity, if you want team ethos then treat your team the same or is my logic screwed! Try to develop skill/understanding in the workplace, keep it interesting always a good motivator(in restaurants where menus go unchanged it must be difficult to sustain interest!). Oh but be careful owners because if they acquire too many skills then there is the possibility of increased wage demands
There are good employers out there, who pay OK, & ensure that some form of health coverage is included(Govt. could help small bizz more in this respect???) It's nuts that some package is not available....it is such a dangerous environment especially for poorly trained, demotivated kids.........accidents waiting to happen, how fair is that for a chef with any modicum of responsibility(stress junkies!)....thats enough from me.
hi sean
his experience was sort of the real deal, the chef was overworked, however the wages for linecooks were pegged to industry average at the time, and the waiters made more money than the cooks (more money than the owners too for that matter). My point to alistair was that alot of times we view things in a myopic fashion. Its very easy to see busy and think wow these guys rolling in it, but the reality is generally much different.
As for the waiters income compared to the linecooks, I could give you a million and 1 reasons why they earn more further but it wold be crap. Here is the reality, if you said to the cooks around the city, we are going to pay you minimum wage and tip you out on performance how many would stay. Or if we said we will pair you up to a server and you will share his tips how many of you would accept it. You can say yes in this website, but the reality is that anytime I ever put it to cooks in a joint I ran, they responded with a diatribe of how stupid the foh people are.
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Bottom line for potential chefs, prove your skills and the money will come. I guarantee that there is not a chef in this city that wants to lose a good person in the kitchen, butprove yourself first.
I have known many seriously passionate cooks who did NOT have ambitions to become chefs, or owners. Yet these are the gems that really keep a kitchen ticking. If there is one thing I have learned about being an owner it is that good staff are worth paying for. For one, they tend to stick around if you treat them right, even longer than the chef.
Oh, and about those chefs who's 'money has come', I haven't heard from many of them lately. They are probably back at the restaurant deep into a 60 hour week with the pain of having to cover for the lack of that extra line cook who hasn't yet applied for the job.
Now I ask you, how can a one off restaurant afford that, they can't, its unfortunate because the only places that can really afford that kind of money are hotels and large corporates. The sad fact is that these people end up in a hotel kitchen getting less of an opportunity to develop their creative skills.Restaurants could pay kitchen staff more, its just not normally a priority, often treating line cooks as disposable expenditures. Paying attention to the 'going rate' is a huge mistake, because a cook is such a huge asset for a restaurant. If paid more they would generally stay longer, work harder, and take more pride in what they do for you.
Gerald, as someone who has worked the line in a restaurant you previously owned, I can say that operation was a perfect example. This included the chef who was grossly overworked and underpaid! It was a kitchen that lost truly great people, and quality suffered because management would not pay to keep them, nor attract good talent. Yet the owners profited from it enough to move on to their own separate ventures. The priority there was not fair wages, it was about making money.
There are too many restaurants in this city working their kitchens hard and paying way too little for it. Servers, in comparison to line cooks, are filthy rich. That is something management could change without paying for - fairer distribution of gratuities - improving the lives and prides of cooks, your restaurants, and therefore our meals.
To quote Gerald once more, my message to restaurant owners who really need good cooks: "prove yourself first".
Hi Alistair
Yuo have just shown the number one misconceived notion, busy restaurant=profit for owners.
The restaurant that we opened (my partner and I) was very busy to start but we had 3 problems, partners that did not see eye to eye, rent that was too high and a menu that was not engineered very well. It was defintely not profitable, certainly not enough to warrant moves to other ventures, those came about with opm (loans).
Alistair, do you think its a reasonable assumption that owners WANT to overwork the cooks, do you think that owners do it to see if they can ruin the kitchen, do you think that owners get together and say, lets break them. I believe it was neil from hsg that spoke on another thread about 80-90 hour work weeks, do you think he wants to do that for fun.
Potential cooks should be aware that the business they are getting into is not particularily glamourous.
In terms of owners proving themselves, even the best owners have trouble attracting people. Which brings us back to the original way the thread started, at the end of the day there is a shortage of cooks, why, probably for alot of the reasons outlined in this thread.
Alistair, if you want to know the real deal of the restaurant in question get in touch with me.
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After they startled me with 14.00 per hour (6 years ago) I asked what made them feel that they were worth this. The response, to paraphrase went something like this, "I just finished my training at dubrulle and that is the going rate",
Okay, but can you actually live in this city for less than 14 per hour- and as other posters have said, the busser likely makes more with tips?
I know that I expected that my own education would add to my bottom line. Is it any wonder that they would feel the same?
I am not saying it is realistic, or that an independent restaurant can afford it, but that is not to say that these students are underestimating their worth. 14 dollars is barely a living wage in Vancouver.
I agree you cannot live in this city for less than that, however first prove your worth, dish a little, show a passion beyond the bucks. Ask any great chef where they started and I bet is was somewhere between kitchen dog and kibble.
Further I think most people that have a love for cooking professionally are not in it initially for the money. Ask Feenie how many people want to work for him for free. Jeremiah Trotter once took a whole class from CIA (not the one in langley, and if that s the one you thought I meant then you are on the wrong site) for 2weeks for a catering he was doing he gave them a kissoff and the students thanked him for it.
Bottom line for potential chefs, prove your skills and the money will come. I guarantee that there is not a chef in this city that wants to lose a good person in the kitchen, butprove yourself first.
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Hi Guys;
Its been a while since I hired serious kitchen staff, but I can tell you this, my most vivid memories of hiring line cooks for the back of house was when I asked a potential victim(linecook) what their expected rate was. After they startled me with 14.00 per hour (6 years ago) I asked what made them feel that they were worth this. The response, to paraphrase went something like this, "I just finished my training at dubrulle and that is the going rate", when I asked who said that was going rate they said dubrulle. Further when I asked about the previous kitchen experience omitted on the resume the response "none".
Now I ask you, how can a one off restaurant afford that, they can't, its unfortunate because the only places that can really afford that kind of money are hotels and large corporates. The sad fact is that these people end up in a hotel kitchen getting less of an opportunity to develop their creative skills.
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Hi Dylan;
Great points all, however my only comment to that would be that the savagery needs to be met with constructive comments. If the owner feels picked on then he/she needs to either educate on concept philosophy or tweak the concept and shift gears. The anonymity issue is more to do with objectivity rather than accountability. We all have people that have an axe to grind with us, being in a public domain such as the restaurant industry gives those people a big surface to grind it. As for reviewers, Any reviewer worth their salt will sway in very little movements, believe me if a restaurant misses the mark, the reviewer will let you know. Don't forget, they have credibility to protect, if they are swayed because of personal issues and let a dog off the hook then eventually they will get the hook.
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Hi Guys;
Some comments from the peanut gallery, Generally speaking I find that people in Vancouver are very knowledgeable and very passionate about food. Further I think that we have knowledgeable people writing abour food, as an owner I read what is said about other restaurants and take it seriously. I think this website is very good in terms of getting a pulse of the vancouver restaurant scene.
However, as a person who has been in and around food all my life what I find most interesting about the vancouver food scene is the savageness with which people will anonymously carve a restaurant. I also find it interesting that in this city you really are as good as your last meal. How many people on this site have made the comment I won't eat there anymore, this is very much a city that can serve you a hundred great meals and if the last one was bad the ever present I won't go back pops up. Now I'm not saying everyone does this, but it happens more here than any other place I've seen. As for our restaurants I think , we can hold our own against any city in the world. I also think that vancouver is an incubator for new ideas. We have great talent in the kitchens throughout this city, in all culinary styles.
As for the people that have moved here from abroad (myself being one) my thoughts are this. When we were kids, the summers were longer, the lemonade sweeter, and we could do anything. The reality is, that the further away from our past that we get, the better it seems. Go to your favourite place from your youth I guarantee your viewpoint of it will be different.
As for comments directed to the owners of the restaurant, I can guarantee this, if someone has a bad experience in their establishment, the owner wants to know, my requests are as follows, when you do make the comments try to be constructive and try to understand the difference between what is philosophy of the restaurant and what is basic foodservice, because sometimes they don't mesh (ie don't complain about the lack of entree options at a steakhouse). Also make sure that after you have made the comments give the place another try, see if they can pick up their boots, don't complain and pull a won't go back
Truth be told: Where've you eaten lately? (Part 2)
in Western Canada: Dining
Posted · Edited by gerald (log)
Hi guys;
friday lunch- Vera's (okay so I know that it doesn't really count but I had to try something new) the "triple header" a beef patty with cheddar, turkey with provolone, and lamb with feta, an 18 oz monster
I had to eat it as fast as I could so I could finish it.
Saturday Dinner-HSG, had the scallops and prawns appy, steakhouse salad, and flat bread, all exceptional, had the infamous hangar steak (great), wifee had the halibut and chips (okay so I had the hangar steak and half of the halibut) she thought it was great, the yam fries were just right. coifed a 1/2l of foch nice. Great meal, good to see neil, won't be so long till the next time.
Sunday Dinner- order in from szechuan chongqing, ginger beef (my fav), lemon chicken, prawns with black bean sauce. IMO the best chinese in town.
monday breakfast- ginger beef hash, made it myself, at home (okay again I know it does not count but damn it was good)