tommy

I find it somewhat surprising that you were caught off-guard by over-priced ANYTHING at a strip club. While trying not to appear like a connoisseur of establishments such as these, strip clubs are nortorious for the $8 domestic beer, $10 imports, etc. They have a captive audience and they know it, and they know that the clientel generally show up intending to drop a fat wad of cash. ← as far as food goes, on the other hand, i recall a few quite decent buffets at Stringfellows and other "clubs' around town that were all inclusive for the 20 dollar or so admission. then again, i recall looking in my wallet the next day and noticing that i had spent more than 20 dollars. yes a bit more indeed. perhaps the roast beef and shrimp cocktail wasn't such a good deal after all.

just use the google search box instead of the egullet search box.

should we be looking forward to seeing more northern thai-style dishes at this place, a la Las Vegas's Lotus of Siam? that right there would make this place a destination. edit: scratch that. Issan larb is the style that we see at most places. by the looks of it i thought it was more northern style, which, now that i think about it, looks quite different.

i believe campari makes it. it'd try www.campariusa.com. or, any local liquor store that carries campari should be able to get it through their distributor.

i passed that taco truck twice a day for 10 years and never saw any sign of life. while i have a hard time believing that hoboken lets a broken down food truck with flat tires sit on the street for 15 years, i have an even harder time believing that anyone is eating anything that crawls out of that thing. but that doesn't mean they're not serving tasty tacos.

you must reeally like this place. Frank's Waterside in Edgewater is another good bet. can't say for sure if they have them on special, though.

] I thought part of the point was to allow customers who cannot shop during Picnic's normal business hours to buy products at other times. Is this not correct Tommy?

Is it worth 10 bucks for a jar of marinara? I picked up a jar last time I was in S. Florida. I couldnt find a price anywhere so I asked the cashier to tell me how much it was. I don't care how good it is, its not worth 10 bucks. ← it's about 6 or 8 bucks up here in jersey. 8 bucks plus 1 buck for pasta plus 2 bucks for lettuce and red onion. 11 bucks to feed 4 people in 10 minutes? it's sure worth it to me. nothin' but good stuff in their sauce, too.

because the products are already sold in emerson?

he didn't seem that surprised. he was just stating fact. craftsteak isn't necessarily serving thick rib steaks any more than any other steakhouse in NYC, and probably less-so. they treat all of their steaks (many cuts, many thicknesses) the same way. is it a shock that a NYC steakhouse isn't broiling or grilling? yeah, i think it sort of is. is this a new concept to Bruni? hard to say from the article, but i'd have to guess probably not. does it help their steaks? eh. maybe. maybe not.

they've got Grey Goose Citron on ice down at Copeland in mo-town.

South Jersey and LI actually share the same geologic formation, i.e., the sandy soil. Not quite the same climate, but very similar, especially in Atlantic, Cumberland and Cape May counties. None of this, however, explains NJ wines. ← indeed there is sandy soil in much of jersey, which explains why i was surrounded by pine trees the first 18 years of my life. i do think temperature and air have a lot to do with growing grapes, and, perhaps, tomatoes as well. i don't know of anyone who has ever said that NJ is like bordeaux. i'm not sure if anyone grows anything near the water, though. are there tomato farms near the ocean in south jersey?

got mine from the same source. mine are in pots, though. i'm curious to see how they do as the season progresses. don't discount LI's climate as a big factor in their grape growing and wine making (which may or may not be related to tomato growing). LI, unlike NJ, is surrounded by water, is cooler overall because of that water effect, has sandy that drains well, and is often compared to bordeaux from a climate and soil-perspective. come to think of it, do LI tomatoes make it over to NJ? i know it's hard to get LI wines here as many don't make it past NYC. i'd like to do a taste test.

if that's the case why is jersey wine so bad and LI wine so good?

i think that's a very good point. and Lemons even said that he/she wasn't limited to the "area." i constantly get asked for suggestions in Ridgewood, and almost always end up sending people to neighboring towns, with great success i should add. if you can snag some reasonable parking, Wild Ginger is a great choice. i recall some kitchen items that were quite good in addition to the sushi. they've been chugging along for quite some time now.

ah. mind are round. more importantly, are you guys growing your "jersey tomatoes" from seed? or are you picking up little plants. speaking of which, i saw a show on heirloom tomatoes last night (and yes, that'll get you hungry even if you're in bed and it's 10.30 pm). they said to dry out the seeds and plant 'em the next year. not sure if jersey's climate is ideal enough to handle this kind of approach though. i know i'm certainly not versed enough to try it yet.

i never ate tomatoes for real until the past year or 2 (and certainly never grew them). when i say "grape" i might very well mean "cherry". not sure which is which. but regardless, the small guys are bearing fruit. yeah, i think they're categorized as "cherry" in fact. Stop and Shop in ridgewood has "ugly" heirlooms. haven't tried them yet. i hope people aren't afraid of them and buy them so they'll carry more. the names of heirlooms almost rival the taste.

my little heirloom grape tomatoes have been bearing some fruit. just had some tonight. wonderful wonderful wonderful. and since they're grown in jersey, they're "jersey tomoatoes" to me! little pic here. little basil, little chive, splash of vinegar, drizzle of EVOO, pinch or 3 of salt, twist or 2 of pepper, you get the idea. but yeah, a bit of kosher or sea salt and you're good to go.

about 1 million in refurb if my sources are accurate (and they're probably not). they really totally gutted the place and put a lot of it back together. the old charm somehow remains intact. i've not yet been to Pearl, but one of the bartenders at the Elysian who agrees that the Elysian lobster roll is very good says he likes Pearl a bit better. i can't imagine that it gets better than this though. but as far as the Elyisan's goes, it's lightly (and simply) dressed and balanced perfectly to my taste. comes with fries and arugula salad. some pictures of the Elysian's lobster roll can be found here, pointing out (i hope) how perfectly dressed it is. other brunch items looked good during my visits, although i've not had anything but the lobster roll.

the Elysian's lobster roll is second to none. i do find the rest of their food very average. but it's a great addition to town, even though the food isn't stellar. a bit more upscale and mature than most other places. but you can still get shots and beers if you really want.

i think all suggestions are valid and generally welcome. those who spend too much time critiquing others' recommendations should probably spend more time thinking about restaurants or their own recommendations. many a good recomendation has come from people thinking outside of the box, in my experience. when someone asks for a restaurant there's one thing you can be certain of: that person doesn't know where to go and probably wants suggestions, which i'd think are always welcome. or maybe i just don't understand the process. or maybe there's something else at play here. seems to be a pattern with poster menton1 and a few other posters.

let's get to the important stuff: will their be a bar?

interesting question. as long as blogs are submitted to the various serach engines, they're quite googleable. so if restaurant owners/managers care about what's being said about them on the internet, they can find out pretty easily. the "policy" i've adopted for my blog is to not make myself known to any restaurant. i don't like to be in the awkward position of having them feel as though they should treat me special or give me "freebies" just because i like their restaurant. that, generally, comes naturally over time as a good customer. i can appreciate that not all people feel the same way about such things, though.

just curious, why no basil? To me, basil and tomato together is God's way to put a smile on my face, especially when they are both fresh. ← the basil in canned tomatoes seems to me to be nothing more than a slimy little vegetal mess. i'll gladly add fresh basil from the garden or store to sauce, but i'll pass on that little green thing. i just don't understand the point of that stuff.

thanks for the info, everyone. the heartland always pulls through! laz, to quote myself, i found that the grass-fed beef was minerally, assertive, beefy, and had herbal notes. It also reminded me of the steak i've had in Florence, which to me blows away anything offered here in the US. i was so moved by my taste of grass-fed beef that i immediately started doing research and looking for online resoures. i ended up buying a couple of strips from Niman Ranch, who do in fact feed the cows grain for "finishing". i was very excited to get those steaks in the mail and was looking forward to duplicating my experience linked to above at craftsteak. when i peeled off the plastic shrink-wrap and put my nose to the meat, expecting, of course, to smell the prairie and the greeny grassiness and all of that good stuff, i got a nose full of corn flakes. the damned meat smelled and tasted like corn. a more pronounced corn flavor i've never had. perhaps my next internet order will be for 100% grass-fed, if there's such a thing. Harry Caray's sounds like fun.