tommy

sitting on a 2001 right now. also have a dry golden and a ruby red from my last trip. i'm thinking 2 of those won't make it past the holiday weekend. like an idiot i sat on a 98 aria until, well, until last month, mostly because i forgot i had the damned thing. had to dump it. they're moving the operation north a bit (calistoga, iirc), and rumor has it they've been bought by someone bigger. not to fear, though, the tasting room will stay put, and jim prager's sons will remain, from what i understand (methinks Jim retired, or at least scaled back his involvement...just a guess).

i'm often the recipient of "tastes" from the kitchen at places i'm known. partly, i'm sure, because i don't ask.

i know people who choose beaujolais nouveau to serve with their meal because they want to get into the spirit and all of that, yet, they're of the opinion that it's not a particularly good food wine and they don't even like the stuff. i agree with them, except for the part about serving it with the meal. i try to stick to american wines an this uniquely american holiday. fruit forward wines and rieslings are what i generally pour for the table. it's one of the few meals where i go out of the way to pour a white and a red, and happily slurp on each depending on what was just in my mouth, or what is about to be put in my mouth. no doubt some port from Prager Port will come out with some cheese before the meal, or dessert afterwards.

great article in the NY Times on Callahan's today. subscription required: http://select.nytimes.com/gst/tsc.html?URI...FQ25VQ24GELQ5BY

do they charge for the valet? the parking lot, as you say, is very small, and seems to fill up quickly. in this situation i'm more than happy to let someone else worry about parking my car. i would think that it should be complimentary.

what's that "emerson hotel sliced steak" place all about. i've been tempted to stop in, but it looks like it might be one of those places where the people at the bar grew roots in 1954 or so. not that regulars are a bad thing, but, you know.

No, I guess not. I just thought that if you really hoped they'd thrive you'd go and eat there. I wouldn't, not after the actions of the manager on this thread. The level of arrogance just pisses me off too much. Now if the chef were to come on and say that he'd spoken to the manager and offer an apology for the things said then I'd have a change of heart. well, i certainly won't be going there, basically for the same reasons as you. however, as i suggested, i don't wish failure on anyone. that doesn't mean they deserve my patronage, though.

unfortunately, this restaurant, unlike china 46, seems to have americanized dishes interspersed among more authentic dishes. since my knowledge of hong kong style cuisine is limited, perhaps i'll wait for more reports so i know exactly what dishes to order. most of these dishes, i'm thinking, wouldn't travel well, so i'll be forced to go out to the restaurant instead of relying on delivery... at which point i'll probably just go to china 46 for non-hong kong style. hunan villa in ridgewood also serves some hong kong style food. the chef spent some time in one of the hotel restaurants in hong kong. they don't offer sit-down service. just delivery, which boggles the mind. and as with dim sum dynasty, their authentic dishes are buried on the menu, and some aren't listed at all. one does well when going to the restaurant to talk to the owner about what's good that day.

i mean to say that i would stick to the type of food described above (some of which is not on the regular menu, and most of which falls under 'dim sum' in my mind, right or wrong). in other words, stay away from the "chicken with garlic" "pork tenderloin", which is the type of stuff that populates most of the menu. i should note that my experience has been limited to delivery. but if i were to actually go out, i'd just go to china 46.

just a quick note: if you're looking for their website you probably don't want www.petitecafe.com.

i was going to. but now i'm glad i didn't. where *is* the parking for this place? next door? down the block? on the street?

i wouldn't order anything but dim sum. and perhaps some chinese vegetables.

This I find hard to believe. ← then you obviously don't know me very well. i want nothing more than a great chef to not be held back by questionable management, service, or anything else out of his/her control. it kills me when this happens. do you have anything else to add? regarding my thoughts and values? i'm listening. thanks.

What did you think of the food? ← very good to excellent. the wine list is icing on the cake.

forutnato has a really super mostly-italian well-chosen well-priced wine list. as curlz suggests. and stemware second to none. so much so that i've reevaluated my own and need to make a move to replace my old crappy stuff, which up until recently i thought was pretty good stuff. live and learn. being shown-up every now and again doesn't hurt, either.

when this is confirmed you should know that Fat Kat was on my list (i literally keep a list), and i will now take it off. ← i really thought you might want to make an opinion on your own and not be so hostile. ← you're missing the point. i *have* made an opinion on my own: on the management. i don't see how you think i'm being hostile. if anything i'm trying to help you. although rebecca has taken much more time and effort in doing just that, and has (hopefully) done it better than i ever could. i certainly hope the Fat Kat sticks around and thrives.

when this is confirmed you should know that Fat Kat was on my list (i literally keep a list), and i will now take it off.

so i'm in my car this morning, i suddenly i think "did i write *THE* American Grill?? i hope lou doesn't see that before i can fix it." drats.

ooooo. one of my favorite CA chards. i 'member dat one from the wine dinner at The American Grill. excellent stuff!

this particular chef has about 20 dishes on his menu for you to choose from. on a first visit i certainly wouldn't be concerned with not being surprised or that the chef didn't go out of his way for you. that's just nonsense. just as i wouldn't pair a buttery white with most dishes. if you want tips on food/wine pairings, there are lots of discussions out there, including wineloverspage.com, and probably even the wine forum on egullet.

i haven't seen that written. and it hasn't been my experience at March or the French Laundry, for example, or countless other restaurants, and more importantly it wasn't an expectation of mine or my guests, nor was it a requirement. perhaps there was one dish at the French Laundry that didn't appear on any of the night's menus. so yeah, i guess i'm wrong. bring a white and a red and some bubbles. you can always take home what you don't finish. enjoy your meal. i know i did.

can one eat at the bar at Fortunato in lyndhurst he asked?

i hear it's almost open, and it's a thai or fusion place. word?

it's tuesday. where should i go for dinner? seems like a red wine and reddish meat sort of day.

oh dear. kimz, if you're really associated with the restaurant, as in the owner, manager, or chef, i'd say that you just lost another potential customer. and you'd better check your own spelling of "clientel" and "palatte" if you're going to be so hypercritical of spelling.