tommy

That's so sad, tommy. no, not really. i've never worked in the industry. at all. except Burger King.

i recently returned to Otto. on a tuesday night at 8, there was no wait. the bar area was mostly empty, but the restaurant was reasonably full and had a festive atmosphere. a few big tables of ladies, a lot of 2 tops with quiet dates, etc. some highlights: the cauliflower was outstanding. the lardo pizza was pretty much as i remembered it. however, it had way too much olive oil on it for my taste. i suppose the point was to taste the olive oil, which was in fact very good, but the whole thing was too oily. the plate had oil all over it after a few minutes. the "special" pizza that night had meatballs, tomato sauce, and cheese. the meatballs weren't what i'd call tender. they were very firm, and pretty dry. although, this, i think, was by design. they were assertively spiced and flavored, although, aside from sage, i couldn't figure out what else was there. my friend proclaimed both "excellent". the pizza crust still suffers from the same problem of getting a bit hard when cold. but i think that's to be expected. it's also not very salty, if at all. perhaps this is an italian thing? on a recent trip to italy, i ordered a bottle of Fattoria Zerbina's Marzieno. this rec came from Craig Camp. the sommelier at the restaurant was extremely pleased with my selection, and we got to talking about this wine and producer. that particular bottle was a 2000. he said "if you find a 98, drink it." so when i saw a 98 on Otto's list, i ordered it immediately. the wine, while very fruity and highly extracted, was a little more tannic than i would have expected. given the quick pace of our meal (had somewhere to go), we didn't have time to really let the thing open up much or aerate. that's unfortunate. perhaps i'll return when i can enjoy it at a more leisurely pace. also, i asked the waitress if we could have the lardo as a starter, as i had in italy several times. the waitress said "ummm, probably not. that's never been done before." i resent having to say "well could you check with the kitchen just in case", but i did. the kitchen, apparently, said "no." fair enough. i just thought i'd try. i wonder if their lardo curing process is different than that of the lardo i had in italy? service overall was efficient and pleasant. the wine guy was nice enough to inform me that my shirt was on inside-out. all in all, a fun, good meal.

with dividepro, you can now cook pork chops and vegetables in the same pan, without getting all of that nasty pork chop flavor all over your string beans.

Ms. Ray's bio. seems she's done quite a bit more than me.

and this is worse than spreading your legs and having pictures taken how?

how is it unsanitary?

info here. this might be a good time to ask him why the directors and editors made his show so frustrating to watch.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, tommy. Coming? came already. thought it was tonite.

is it an availability issue?

that's another good reason to not rub. that oil ain't cheap.

on my one visit to django, it was one of the loudest places on earth. but they did have a steak on the menu, and i don't recall all of the selections being all that challenging. worse case, if you go to django and the menu is scary, tell him to eat a couple of pots of that bread of theirs. good stuff.

errr, isn't there a club meeting tonite? if so, where?

do we have any hard facts on that sausage?

the S&W burger is available at the Grill. it's also probably available at the restaurant if you ask. i think it's cool to have a great burger and no publicize it. Is this lunch only, or evenings too? i think it's available at the grill all day long. but obviously call before heading over there.

the S&W burger is available at the Grill. it's also probably available at the restaurant if you ask. i think it's cool to have a great burger and no publicize it.

about 1/2 hour.

but there are far more seasons than 4, when it comes to ingredients (you know that, i know). additionally, the morels might look really freakin good on tuesday and not so hot on thursday. i'd hope the black bass with morels would show up on the menu on tuesday, assuming the black bass was smokin' that morning. again, not all restaurants work like i suggest, or like yours. however, i think there's some validity to the points being brought up here regarding supplemental charges and peoples' reasons for ordering specials.

as far as why people order specials, i order specials because they're something different, and hopefully showcase seasonal ingredients and the chef's imagination more-so than the usual menu items, which i've probably had many times before if i'm a regular.

by god foodzealot, that's the best freakin idea i've heard! i've been wondering what i'll do if the bird sucks on t-day. i think, if i don't get around to doing the test on the 15-17 lb bird, i'll just get a smaller one in addition to the big bird. the 10-12 will still be enough, and i know i can do a 10-12 lb bird. thanks! on a related note, i didn't season the skin, for a few reasons. first of all, it was brined, so i wasn't worried about salt (and in fact, the skin/bird seemed nicely salted). additionally, i'm not convinced that 350 degrees of oil on pepper or any other seasoning is a good thing. i'd be curious to know if anyone has had good results with rubs when deep frying.

as with most things, it's the exceptions to the norm that cost the most to a company. i think specials fit into this, in a loose sort of way.

and there's the 4 dollars right there. seriously though, there is an assumption that restaurants are out to screw the customer. i don't see it often, as i just don't go to those places.

what about the scribes? they understand the dish in 2 minutes?

you don't think there's overhead involved in a chef presenting new dishes to the staff on a regular basis, and ensuring quality control and proper execution? at the end of the day, sub-par restaurants have specials that aren't all that special. most notable places seem to raise the bar a bit with their specials, whether that be via ingredients or execution. if a chef comes back from the market with some incredible looking whole artichokes, and the line cook as never seen one, and the prep guy has never prepped one, well there's some overhead right there. good waiters are more than scribes. they know the dishes, and they understand the dishes.

i wonder if the sausage was house made? aside from that, what batgrrl said. the first part at least.

for those that missed the PBS show, it should be on again at 1 (1:30?) am on the 12th. "back to the floor" is the name of the program, as billhill said.