tommy

i'm digging the soft shell crabs at Oceanos in Fair Lawn. the owners are very serious about seafood here. soft shell crabs, some of their great twice-cooked french fries, and a couple of glasses of sparkling wine, and you've got yourself one fine meal. http://www.oceanosrestaurant.com

i recall one comment on egullet from about 100 years ago where a poster (maybe me?) noted that the price of a ribeye at this particular restaurant was 39.50, whereas the strip steak was 39.25. he wondered why the 25 cent differential. (prices and cuts may not be accurate. only for illustrative purposes)

They're not trying to "trick" people. They're just doing what traditionally works. a poster above suggested that the practice of pricing in round dollars is something of a trick. you agreed. the thrust of my argument is that this is not a very reasonable conclusion. regardless, it sounds like we agree on most points here anyway.

having never been to your place i will say with some degree of certainy that i'd be more likely to go if i could sit down to eat. being open at a time when i'm not at work would probalby help, too. namely, saturday.

i was wondering why i was watching some guy with watermelons and not hot dogs. although, they weren't that much bigger than the AHD.

i can say for sure by looking at my blog's stats that people are googling and yahooing all variations of "amazing hot dog verona" every day multiple times a day. that can't be a bad thing at all. i've tivoing the today show this morning, as i'm sure you or someone you know is as well. on a different note, a good friend of mine finally got over there the other day and left me a message proclaiming it "amazing" and noted the fries as "effing good." "big", i believe, was a descriptor that was also thrown out.

Most don't even give it a first thought, and that's why it works. Retailers aren't stupid. Small town grocers and restaurant owners, and other businesses, figured this out long before psychologists studied it. You don't think gas stations would like have that extra tenth of a cent/gallon on all the fuel they ever sold? SB ← i really don't think retailers are very smart in general. if this clever 1-penny-less than the dollar is the only proof you offer that retails are a smart lot, well i just don't know if that's going to be enough to convince anyone. regarding the gasoline prices, i'm not sure how/why this started, but since gas stations have the same prices in the same neighborhoods, people generally aren't shopping around because gas station x has gas for 1.59 9/10 a gallon, and the other has it for 1.59 a gallon. and, they're filling up (probably with the same grade as always), regardless of price. i'm also not sure thy it's not changed, but i can bet it has nothing to do with tricking people into thinking their prices are lower than their competition's across the street, considering, as i say, they're all priced the same. and if there is a difference, it's not in 10ths of cents. it's in whole cents. you're right, people don't give it a first thought. as far as menus goes, it looks neater and cleaner to drop the pennies. perhaps restaurant retailers aren't necessarily smart or shrewd, but rather artistic and aware of what looks good, as opposed to what looks stupid. in order for these restaurant retailers to be considered "smart" for employing this idea, you'd first have to prove that the penny-less-than-the-dollar marketing tactic actually works to get people to spend another 99 cents. i stand by my position that no one i knows choses a 24.95 tuna dish because they don't realize that it's actually 25 dollars. not one. we're not talking about wine lists, where people oftentimes make a choice from the "right hand column" (prices). there are many other tactics that restaurant owners use to get extra dollars out of customers (getting customers to come back to their place not being the least of them). they're much more complex, and i would think much more effective. so, if it doesn't work, they're not smart, but rather they're just wasting ink and don't have an eye for menu design. this is a design made with menu design and look-and-feel in mind, rather than one made with profits in mind. edited to fix spelling that is even worse first thing in the morning than it usually is. artocious.

another example of how retailers really aren't all that bright.

Ask any retailer. Believe it or not, it works! SB (you can fool enough of the people enough of the time .... ← something tells me that most diners don't give it a second thought. i don't know anyone who orders a dish based on a single dollar differential. besides, this is hardly a food-related phenomenon, and therefore this probably isn't really a discussion relating to food.

2.5 acres is huge to anyone.

personally i get confused when i see something like "28" on a menu. especially if it doesn't have something like ".95" after it. i mean, how am i supposed to know what that means? if the menu states "lamb chops: 28", is the "28" a bin number? am i supposed to order by bin number? what country am i in? or maybe i should order by number, like i do with a "turkey club sandwich" (#1 at most New Jersey diners). it's an affection that i could do without. it's just another sign of people trying to be "fancy pants" and showing that they are smart and stuff. i don't get it. and i hate hate hate it. just this month i tried putting together a list of everything everything that i hate hate hate, and i'm still not done, although it's the 26th! (May 26, 2006, for those who are easily put-off or confused). how can i find the time! with so much confusion and hate in my heart, how can i find the time to get it all out?!?!? GOD, i HATE the internet. so much to say, say easy to say it, so little time. thank god for blogs and sites like egullet where i can just put it all out there. (i'm a poor excuse for Dale, i know).

one would reasonably think that the point of the show is to illustrate what a chef might cook at home, rather than highlighting a chef's home.

they have a new owner as of a few months ago, as reported above in this thread. and the chef has now left. none of this necessarily translates into closing, however.

middletown is most certainly more than 20 minutes from PP. especially in the summer. i definitely want to try nicholas, regardless of how it's spelled, at some point. but i can just go from home any day really. generally when i'm in PPB i want something casual and pretty much within 10 minutes of the boardwalk. and something unique to the area. what's Foy's steak place all about? not that i'd go to a steakhouse when in PPB necessarily, but i'm curious. website?

all of the new generation "green bottle" lights taste like water, and i can drink about 20 of them without getting buzzed. beck's light was last summer's waterbeer for me, and heineken light is shaping up to be this summer's. however, i'm already starting to buy Stella for backyard cooking/hanging. i just can't take the waterbeer any more. it's almost pointless because they're so unsatisfying that you (me) just slam them down, skipping over any flavor enjoyment. with a normal beer, you can take your time with a couple and end up in a nice place. with these ridiculous things a couple of friends will plow through a case and wonder what we should do to get a buzz going.

Tell us about the calm sauces, Tommy. How do they make them, exactly? Tranquilizers? ← yeah, ok, 14,800 posts and one typo. fine. you got me.

look what you've done. i assume you're pleased with yourself.

generally speaking, i will not try a restaurant for the first time if i don't see some sort of online menu. not enough time or money to waste.

i'm in. i mean, not in the argument, but in the contest. even though i'm not in the argument. i just like their ribs. can we include a Heineken Light drinking contest as well? thanks.

I mean, look, it's a FUN place. ← yeah. i mean, i've been in them several times and never had fun. no fun to speak of. confusion maybe. definitely not much fun. i guess it's kinda like how some people like roller coasters and others don't.

beef jerky, nuts, soda, and soy milk. check.

we've walked in and out of several trader joe's several times and left with nothing. what am i missing? seems like a bunch of random stuff. i hear people wax poetic on their frozen food. i don't know of many frozen foods that i like.

it's nice to finally see a back-to-back posting by you two. i'm not afraid to admit that i get you confused with each other all of the time. for a long time. is Trader Joe's liquor dept really a selling point? i trucked down to Westfield to buy that 2 Buck Upchuck, and don't recall being blown away by the liquor dept. am i missing something?

scented soap pissed me off. i don't want to smell chemical lavender on my hands as i'm sitting down to eat and drink wine. i've experienced this at every level of restaurant up to and including per se. so yeah, i notice scented soap. salt and pepper shakers. that's a good one too: they should be functional, and not decorative. which means: sea salt/kosher salt and a peppermill, either upon request or on the table. anything else just gets in the way. i don't like "noise" like that.

waiddaminute. none of this amounts to a hill of beans unless someone can confirm that the reviewer based his review only on take-out. i just don't see that being likely, though.