tommy

but does anyone know he was only there twice? that's really the only point here. maybe he was there several times, and liked it so much he came in to take to-go orders twice for his family. i wish that website kept their reviews up for more than two weeks (why don't they? i have a couple a few billion gigabyte harddrives i can give them if they need them). does anyone have it? bruce, you should get ahold of it and post it on your website if you haven't. as you say, and as i recall, it was rather positive. all of this reminds me: why the eff haven't i been back to FSS in, like, 2 months or so? that's just silly. i had my first Heineken Light right there at the bar that first day, after all. and i've had a few since. dinner.

i've found that beekman's information on restaurants is quite, um, generous in nature. as in, they're a local business supporting other local businesses. luckily people like me aren't in that position. i've never been to Justin's, but i did pick up a menu last week as i drove by. it reads like every other italian-american "red sauce" joint in hawthorne and fair lawn. 10 kinds of boneless chicken breast (including "parmigiano"), "vitello" scaloppine and saltimbocca, various pastas including "alla vodka" and calm sauce (red or white), and some red meat (extra marks for offering rib eye, and not "fillet"). the only hope that i can see is that they do these italian-american dishes much much better than anyone else, or me for that matter. i'm just not sure it even that would be a draw for me, though. it's a nice little place. we went there in its last incarnation. never went back though. in the area for this type of thing, i return to La Cambusa in ridgewood (it's byob, as opposed to the fair lawn location, which isn't). so jwjojo, go and let us know how it is! everyone craves this type of stuff sometimes, and it would be nice to have an option other than La Cambusa.

it's quite an assumption, i think, to assume that a crew of people who are most likely getting paid by the hour and are on tight schedules are going to nosh on some food when Rachel signs off, rather than go about their jobs of doing whatever it is that goes into shooting a TV show. i wouldn't assume anyone is eating that food other than Rachel, who just about always has a bite. and the shocking news: she hasn't keeled over yet from that cross-contamination that is so prevalent on her show (but, apparently, non-existent in the kitchens of her detractors. LOL!!!) i bite my nails too. so you can only imagine what is being introduced into my system every day. the only thing i haven't built up a resistance against, as far as i can tell, is the almost compulsive desire to post on inane threads like this. i think i need more raw chicken.

it's getting to be that time of year again. like a salmon, i swim... lamb, sabq, cpalms, bueller? anything new in food or booze in or around PPB? the guy from Una Pizza Napoletana moved his show to the east village, which unfortunately and oddly is more of hassle for me to get to than PPB. Red's is still there i presume? and the Tiki bar had *better* be there.

i've never ever gotten the sense that her show is built around "perfect" timing. how could one even think that's the case? is it not common sense that an experienced cook is going to be able to, for example, slice and dice faster than a novice? is that not clear to even a novice cook? i wash my hands about as well as RR does. never got or made anyone sick. i've seen multiple studies on kitchens and cleanliness. i have no doubt in my mind that if you're reading this thread your kitchen is filled to the brim with microbes and germs and lots of other stuff that people like to think isn't in their homes...or in their dinners. it's really just another case of people thinking they know a lot more than they do. RR doesn't seem to suffer as much from this as others, oddly. and i'm pretty sure 30 Minute Meals is taped real-time. it's a lot cheaper producing a show when you don't have to edit it.

i don't think you can know that for sure, can you? i mean, how can you know that he didn't have the fries some other time as well? as i said above, i didn't find that they were exactly "crispy." i can see how limp might happen here or there. but then that goes back to the old question of "how many times should a reviewer try a place before reviewing." if he only tried it once, take-out or not, that's probably not fair. if he was only spotted once by the staff (who seems to somehow know under what circumstances at least one of his meals was ordered), then you really don't know how many times he was there or under what other circumstances.

In New York they are actually called 'beer distributors' although they are really retail outfits. ← NJ has those too. you'll see words like "wholesale", "warehouse", "distributor", but it's all the same. prices vary from store to store, regardless of the name they go by.

just about any liquor store, no? they'll have the tap and everything. ← I'm looking for a distributor who will have the kegs in stock and won't have to special order anything. ← well, if you don't have any luck, i'd think that any liquor store could help you with a couple of day's notice. most have kegs on hand, and can get them within a day or two if not. i don't think there's an appreciable price difference btwn what a liquor store would charge and what a distributor-type place would charge. although i'm not even sure what a distributor type place is in this context!

just about any liquor store, no? they'll have the tap and everything.

sounds like you're looking for a good intro. i always recommend Willie Gluckstern's book "The Wine Avenger". available here: http://www.wineavenger.com i think, as well as amazon and major book stores. it's about as brief and to-the-point as a book can get. and it's funny. not stuffy. it doesn't have up-to-date producers and prices. i'm not sure if many books on wine do, though. a yearly wine buying guide from Food & Wine mag, or some similar publication, might be a good companion to Willie's book, which will serve as a reference for many years. 10 bucks at amazon, so you really can't go wrong: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068482257...5Fencoding=UTF8

well, i know you want NYC recs, but Medieval Times might be a consideration, as it's right near their hotel: http://medievaltimes.com/

Thanks for bringing this up, EMcD! I thought the same thing. It isn't exactly the green glorious 'burbs, but it certainly isn't a factory town! Just try to touch a piece of real estate for under $300K anywhere in the town. ← corcoran (sp?) would have done well to say "ex-factory town." but then what would there be to talk about.

if you're considering CB's, you might consider the Grand Saloon in Clifton. it certainly wouldn't be my first choice, but given the constraints it might work. edited to say that the stairs might kill this idea. am i out of my mind to suggest Pal's Cabin?

can't agree with you there. i've been to Otto perhaps 20 times over the last 4 years or so since it's first opened, and i don't see a comparison. quite frankly i prefer kinchely's crust to Otto's, although i'm sure they put much less thought into than mario and co. have.

Is this Baumgart's the same as the restaurant in Englewood? Never been there but heard a lot about it and it sounds like a place that would do well in Livingston. \ ← not a terribly good place. family-oriented, though, which i think is why it's so successful.

that thin crispy sausage is quite good. stay away from the wines by the glass at kinchely's. choose instead the 1/2 bottle of chianti, if you're looking for a simple red to go with your pizza.

When you work in an area and eat out everyday you burn out on places. You end up trying almost every new place just because it's a new place. Fresh City didn't look promising but you never know. I've learned not to write off chains just because they're chains, LS for example. Fresh City look mediocre and forgetable from the outside and they didn't dissapoint. Oh well. ← i hear ya. we need a Chipotle. Chipotle rocks.

we can be relatively sure that the name of the place refers to "chinatown", however.

ah-HA! just as i suspected. i nailed you. dead to rights.

and, like, why did either of you bother going here to begin with? was there reason to have high hopes?

i would think that'd be a catering event not to be missed. ← Right or wrong I have not gone to any of the eGullet organized events but I would definitely go to this one ← i was kinda hoping for a private one.

not sure if they're in the mail order business, but: http://www.salumeriabiellese.com/

i would think that'd be a catering event not to be missed.

that's what i thought! bomby adj 1. Having the quality of being "da bomb."

is that a good thing?