tommy

I am thinking between $1000-1500 for the meal. Some people coming don't eat seafood or anything that is too wild. So, I just want a place that would appeal to everyone. We did this once before for another family member and it was at the Water Club and it went over fine. So, something with food similar to that would be fine. Nothing like WD-50 or too ethnic. Please let me know your idea!!!! ← $1000 for a party of 10 at EMP? I assume you mean before tax, tip and booze. ← EMP on their website lists their 3 course dinner as 82 dollars. if you drink 40 dollars average per person in booze, and leave 20% tip, you'll spend 156 per person, or, 1560 for a group of 10, which is 60 dollars over the OP's stated limit. i'd say it's well worth it! ← Don't forget 8.75% NYC tax ← i didn't. although i computed 8% because i couldn't be bothered with the extra keying.

I am thinking between $1000-1500 for the meal. Some people coming don't eat seafood or anything that is too wild. So, I just want a place that would appeal to everyone. We did this once before for another family member and it was at the Water Club and it went over fine. So, something with food similar to that would be fine. Nothing like WD-50 or too ethnic. Please let me know your idea!!!! ← $1000 for a party of 10 at EMP? I assume you mean before tax, tip and booze. ← EMP on their website lists their 3 course dinner as 82 dollars. if you drink 40 dollars average per person in booze, and leave 20% tip, you'll spend 156 per person, or, 1560 for a group of 10, which is 60 dollars over the OP's stated limit. i'd say it's well worth it!

actually, it read well to me. looks fine. it occurs to me that the name of the store need not be in the video for A&P to have an issue with it. sure, anyone who doesn't shop at A&P (there are millions) wouldn't recognize the interior of the store. but given that even more millions surely *do* shop at A&P, and all A&Ps, like most big chains (big companies who provide fresh food to millions, those bastards! ) pretty much look the same, it wouldn't be stretch to realize that some people might recognize what store it is, even if it's on a subliminal, or unconscience level. the fact that they didn't flash "A&P" on the screen doesn't mean that people don't know what store it is. prediction: after about 2 weeks no one will care, and very few will change their shopping habits, even though a post upthread suggests (after what i would consider a very small sampling of opinions...like, 3) that "seems that nobody is taking A&P's side". wrong. i am. perhaps there's a precedent being set here: i bet a lot more people over the next 20 years (this whole Youtube thing is newish, and God knows it gives too many idiots too much exposure--pun excused please) will think twice about using their employer's property to piss on their employer's produce (ah yes, it was bought elsewhere, but that's beside the point). and that, of course, is the point. pissing on food, or suggesting that people who are ultimately in control of the food we feed our families do, is wrong, and not funny. the licking of the food is not right and not funny. suggesting that cut fruit is "nasty shit" is not funny, but right. i don't care where it is, what store it's in, or if it's in your own kitchen. video tape yourself pissing in your fridge? guess what... it's not funny. it's disrespectful to everyone who eats food and everyone who doesn't have enough food to eat. and the video is simply not funny. i am the arbiter of funny when it comes to fruits in pants, and pissing on vegetables, afterall. i will confess that taking the whole "little guy against the big ugly corporation" is a very easy road to take, which is certainly one of the reasons i'm not interested in taking it. poking holes in weak arguments is also fun. advice to those young "boys": go to school guys, make funny videos, have a good time, drink beer, get high, make people laugh. but don't do it on your employer's property. trust me, you'll look back on this and realize you were wrong. but again, in a few weeks it really won't matter, other than you being SUPERSTARS on campus...even more than that iPhone cracking kid (who should have used a banana in his pants to crack the iPhone because wow, banana in the pants = comedic gold). without the licking of food that you and your family might buy, and without the pissing, i wouldn't have an issue with this video (and it would have been more funny). i'm guessing A&P probably feels the same way. and i bet they would feel better if those "boys" took it down from youtube and their website, as apparently was requested, while they all make nice-nice. i guess that didn't happen. i do like the beginning though where they say "drop the beet". c'mon, that's some funny stuff!

i knew i liked that guy.

"cute"? i would qualify it as "disgusting" before "cute." and i'm not conservative in the least. it's just so utterly disrespectful to their employer (and ones father's employer?). i'm hoping their lawyer fees don't pile up (they won't have to pay a dime to A&P), but i'm guessing it will be a nice lesson for them: don't sh*t where you eat. literally, in this case. i'm sure they didn't mean any harm, but these things take on a life of their own, and you have to realize that going in if you're going to put things up on the 'net. if i work in the PR department for A&P i don't think i'm going to send a personalized email to everyone. thinking that a large company would or even could do that is a bit naive methinks. would getting a personalized email show you that they "care"? what would be in it? something like "we are not at liberty to discuss this matter at this time." that would make everyone feel better? it's also not terribly funny or creative. mixing rap with two white dudes doing silly stuff is sooo 2006. they should be sued for being unfunny hacks as well.

korbel brut rose? NICE!

this serious food lover on egullet is always baffled at why people care about others' careers so much. no one has ever questioned my career choices. i'm guessing because it would be foolish and inappropriate to do so. are peoples' careers supposed to just stall? that's not been mine. maybe that's what happens to most people? their careers just stall and they never end up doing anything else other than what they're doing? sounds sad.

i didn't notice much PR on the part of the owners aside from the mentions on this site, and a few blogs (which they presumably don't really control), although it's entirely possible that i missed some. i'm guessing that most of the people who went there in the opening weeks never stepped foot on egullet or tommy:eats. Goffle is a highly-traveled road, and plenty of people saw an intriguing restaurant and were interested. it was also replacing a landmark restaurant. so people would have noticed, and likely did, even without PR. plenty of restaurants open to few customers. perhaps the owners thought the same would be the case here. when it because obvious that this wasn't the case, well, the toothpaste was already out of the tube (although i would have been tempted to rip the "Grand Opening" sign down after day 1!). with the benefit of hindsight, surely a soft opening would have been a better route. but clearly they didn't know they'd be slammed right out of the gate. then again perhaps they had a soft opening period and didn't post about it here. soft openings are, afterall, not publicized, generally speaking. although i hope not as i wasn't invited to one. the mac and cheese has been removed from the menu and is presumably being reworked. i'd like to see it return in another form. service issues still exist, even though it's not as crowded. it's hard to find good help i suppose.

if i'm not mistaken, the Food Network is owned by Scripps, which is a publicly traded company. Like most companies, one of their primary concerns is to make money for their shareholders. their "executives" are paid to make sure that happens (and i'm sure, as with most companies, they're let go when they fail). of course, they make money too, but so do most people work. rachel ray has never claimed to be a "chef". i don't know why people insist on insisting otherwise. maybe it just makes for an easy argument. can't see any point in that though.

everything i know about how rocco ran Rocco's I know from watching a clearly heavily-edited TV show. i just can't see making any sort of judgment call based on that. although i can appreciate that some people really and truly believe what they see. i'm looking forward to his next restaurant. i'm kinda upset i didn't get a chance to try Rocco's 22nd, or whatever it was called.

the Hackensack store has several knowlegeable people in my experience. I would have to think that the wine library is the "better" store, if forced to compare. Further from fort lee for sure.

Ice cream instead of more bacon? What the.

if i'm not mistaken Carlo Russo closed the fort lee branch some time ago. the ho-ho-kus place is the only one left, and isn't very big. as kape suggests, Total Wine in Hackensack is probably the best bet in the area. while in hackensack go to Wondee's for some of the best Thai in the area, including NYC.

I guess they must be to somebody...or they would not stay in business... ← i suppose that would go for McDonald's too? i don't think mcdonald's is overrated. it can't be overrated unless it's highly rated. it's hardly rated at all, along with most chains. Legal Sea Foods might be an exception. I think they do some things wonderfully. show me a non-chain restaurants with that consistency, beer selection, wine selection, and oyster selection, and i'll go. i'm guessing you won't come up with one though. overall i'm much more interested in hearing about overlooked restaurants. i'm not sure what happened here.

...sorry...18 year old!! ← it sounds to me like you don't understand who actually does the cooking at restaurants. it's generally not the "chef". believing otherwise is a bit naive to my mind.

are chains actually highly rated?

sounds like the title of this thread should be changed to "poor south jersey." NJ Monthly is based in north jersey. North jersey has a more dense and probably larger population than south jersey. i'd guess there are way, way more restaurants in north jersey than in other parts of the state. way more notable restaurants at least. i wouldn't expect much more of north jersey based magazine. it is what it is. perhaps south jersey should start a mag?

i've been lucky enough to work in a kitchen and experience the heat and pace. yet i still don't feel blessed or more than happy to have to wait an excessive amount of time between courses. i'll be the judge of what time of mine is "free", how i should spend that time, and what time of mine is being wasted waiting for a restaurant to get out of the weeds. personally i wouldn't make a big stink out of 1 bad night out of several meals. shit happens.

i think it's obvious that people give AHD the benefit of the doubt because Eric (one of the owners) is a part of the egullet community and is a good guy who has a good locally owned restaurant making good food. there's nothing wrong with lending support in the way of positive reviews given the context, and i can't fault anyone for doing so. although , i do feel that there has been a bit of smoke blowing up the ol' arse over the course of this thread. i'm not in a position to speculate about, nor do i really care, what the motivations might be there. the dogs are big. no doubt about it. 1/4 lb dog on a potato roll is no joke. i've expressed that opinion here or on my blog or on chowhound or somewhere, so i agree with limabean on that point. i like to rock on 2 or 3 dogs rather than just one. but i appreciate AHD for what it is, and i'm totally down with it. i love the chili and appreciate that it's totally different than the average north jersey chili sauce. but putting it all in perspective, and not comparing it to other north jersey places point for point, it's a great place. any other comparison or expectations do AHD and the diner a disservice.

i'd be leary of a seafood restaurant that doesn't run out of something by 7.30 on a sunday night! in my experience restaurants, regardless of their level, want the entire table to order a multi-course meal pretty much without exception. it doesn't have as much to do with how busy the kitchen is, but rather serving people at different times with different numbers of dishes throws off the flow of the service, bussing, as well as the kitchen. i'm heading down to AC soon and was thinking of trying this place, so your report and pics are perfect timing. either that or Bobby Flay's place.

6 dumplings for 2 people? i prefer 1 dumpling per person. maybe 2. i found that they were serving too many and i'd just be wasting food, or eating way too much of one thing, neither a preferable option in my mind. i like the variety. you can always ask for more when you order. it's all included in the price after all. personally i load up on that thousand year old egg and tofu dish. that stuff kills.

while Chengdu 1 is definitely exciting and delicious, comparing a restaurant that specializes in Shanghainese cuisine with one that focuses on Sichuan cooking is like comparing Amazing Hot Dog to Rutt's Hut. i'm quite known to the folks at China 46 as a regular customer. even then, sometimes i'm served the fried wonton. i politely refuse them and say that i want the seaweed. i can't imagine giving that transaction a second of thought beyond that.

actually one of the reasons chains are so successful is that they excel at consistency. moreso than locally owned places. ambiance is obviously subjective, but my decorating sensibilities are rarely offended when i walk into Houstons or Legal Sea Food. as far as Houston's ribs falling off the bone, i would guess that's because they steam or boil them. this is certainly not something that a real pitmaster would do. but i can appreciate that most people seem to like ribs that way.

Shew. Thankfully we can all return to Chengdu 1 now for parts of animals that you can't get at your local supermarket. Tendons, tongue, stomach lining, sign me up.

i read a lot about parking being so important, yet Ridgewood's (a town that is often used as a benchmark) parking situation is deplorable, yet, 10's and 10's of mediocre restaurants flourish there. perhaps therein lies the answer: serve mediocre food and they'll flock.