Jump to content

tommy

participating member
  • Posts

    15,243
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by tommy

  1. tommy

    Esca

    it killed me when they took out that beautiful and energetic bar and turned the space into a boring room with a few four-tops and what is essentially a service bar. it's one of the only (THE only?) batali-bastianich restaurants where bar dining is not encouraged. that's a shame as i had many great last-minute/casual meals at the bar.
  2. Elysian Cafe or its more upscale sister Amanda's. http://www.elysiancafe.com/ http://www.amandasrestaurant.com/
  3. The only cure for this is to look the waiter right in the eye next time and apologize on your sister-in-law's behalf. Something along the lines of "You'd think she'd be more understanding having stood in your well worn shoes before, but apparently the experience so scarred her, she feels the need to take it out on every waiter she comes across in life. Don't worry about the tip. I'll take care of it personally and make sure she doesn't stiff you after running you ragged. Consider it Hazard Pay." Say this all in your sweetest and most patient voice, at a volume that nearby tables can overhear and then stare daggers at your SIL. Getting called out on it in public usuallly solves the problem once and for all. ← i disagree. people don't generally react well to being taught lessons, especially in public. if there is something in you that thinks you need to change someones ways, it's almost always best to attempt to do so in private, rather than by some obnoxious embarrassement tactic. people who try to teach me a lesson in public get told to go eff themselves in public. clearly not a "win-win", which is presumably the goal.
  4. perhaps specifying an actual town or area would help the cause. i mean, i would consider west milford as north jersey, but i sure wouldn't drive from there to englewood for take-out.
  5. lemonaid is likely filled with high fructose corn syrup and no lemon. quite different than water with lemon juice and sweet and low. sounds like a good idea actually. ← not saying it tastes bad...it probably tastes kinda good. I guarantee you those doing it are basically doing it because they are too cheap to pay for lemonade and not because they are so partial to fresh squeezed vs. Snapple (the brand we sold). I still hate the practice, no matter what the reason is. You don't like the restaurant lemonade, go somewhere else or drink Sprite. ← choose a restaurant based on its soft drinks? what cheapos. that lowers the tip too!
  6. lemonaid is likely filled with high fructose corn syrup and no lemon. quite different than water with lemon juice and sweet and low. sounds like a good idea actually.
  7. in my experience a lot of tapas is served room temperature. most tapas menus i've seen even list "cold" and "hot". i guess i'd stick with the cold for takeout, although i would think that a lot of "hot" tapas would be easily re-heatable, or fine served warm (shrimp with garlic, chorizo, etc). tapas de espana in englewood and north bergen might be a starting point. i'm sure they'd be happy to package food to go, as are most restaurants.
  8. you should try the Porter House in Montvale for your steak and cigar fix. i should qualify my previous statement of the Palm's aging process: it's what i've heard (and what i've experienced in my few visits to their non-original locations). i've not see their process first-hand. Luger's has long standing relationships with meat purveyors and they presumably pay in cash. That will help them to continue to get the leg-up on competition. as far the rest of the steakhouses, they're often not serving USDA Prime even if they suggest they are. by "suggest" i mean putting the word "prime" on their menus. i don't get too crazy over the USDA Prime thing, as i know it's not an exact science and I know that some Choice-graded meats are just as good as some Prime graded meats. The aging process, however, is most important to me. If it's not dry-aged then I'll get my animal fat and caloric intake from another source, most likely a burger. I'm silly for dry-aging. Just silly for it. And a dry-aged burger? Crazy silly for it.
  9. most importantly, perhaps, is that the Palm's various locations are not serving dry-aged beef. River Palm Terrace is, in my experience. The orginal Palm on 2nd ave in NYC seems to be serving dry-aged beef, along with the Palm II across the street. As far as the rest of the "chain" goes, i wouldn't bother. As an aside, the Ocean Palm has been reamed a new one by a local publication twice, not once, but twice, since it opened. i'm guessing they cater more to people who spend gobs 'o money, rather than people who are interested in a great meal.
  10. I totally disagree. David says in his post (please re-read it) that he has reliable info from the pastry chef who is close to the restaurant that there were other problems afoot and out of respect to Shelton's good name and rep he will not elaborate. Come on sir. He is basically telling us that he has some dirty laundry that he does not want to talk about which is ofcourse his perogotive but then why hang it out in the first place? Why didn't you or anyone else elaborate on that? And that is the primary jist of my posts. Also, there is no way that you can say that a negative comment could not hurt Shelton's career. You well know how little it takes in the restaurant business for people to stop coming to you. You want names, I've got them but certainly not in public. ← you seem to be bent on some idea that there's something going on with Shelton that no one should know about but Dave does. I agree that there might have been some "nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah, i know something you don't" tone there, but i think it was harmless. bottom line: The Ryland Inn has been a non-entity for a while, and rumors have been circulating that the Ryland Inn has been struggling (for a variety of reasons i'm sure) , and that Craig is looking to move on. if you haven't been part of that i can see how you might think that David is suggesting something insidious, but he's not. "good name" and all of that is just a turn of phrase. no one has suggested that Craig had a nervous breakdown or ran off with a prostitute or anything like that. it's just the usual gossip of "Man, I heard Craig might want to move on, and rather than state that outright, I'm wondering if anyone else heard the same". I have, Hank, and so have a lot of other people. You are free to judge others for sharing what they've heard, and holding back details, but I think it's misguided in this situation. i really don't have a dog in this race, but time will tell. editing: keeping my percentage of typos/words up where it needs to be, apparently.
  11. this is the internet and it's where people go to discuss things they've heard. if david has "wrong info" how would he even know? he seemed to have come here to find out what the word on the street is. i don't think david's comments are really going to negatively impact the career or well-being of craig shelton. quite the contrary: no one has talked about this place in years, so it'll only help his career. i've heard that he wants a career in front of the camera. is anyone going to tell me that i shouldn't have said that? the lady doth protest too much.
  12. what is your connection with the restaurant that affords you this information and the insight into Chef Shelton's plans? i'm no bettin' man, but i'm guessing we don't see Craig at the place when it opens, at least not in the same capacity.
  13. my (very basic) understanding is that the (very complex) process of fermentation creates compounds in the juice that in fact exist in other foods. when you smell banana in falanghina, for example, you may very well be smelling a compound that exists in bananas. science isn't ridiculous. sensing and enjoying flavors and aromas in wine which are not normally associated with grapes isn't, either.
  14. it's a stroke of brilliance to "leak" this info even if they haven't quite cracked the code.
  15. my understanding is that the barnyard aroma is usually linked to brett, rather than the TCA of a corked wine. brett can actually "blow off" (shake the piss out of an affected wine and you'll see). however, most people who know about these things (not me) say that it just kills the wine. brett is much less common, but i'm curious when people claim they've had corked wines only a few times over many years. industry estimates vary, but they usually average about 5% of bottles having cork taint. from my own experience i usually hit about 5% (1 out of 20 bottles). thankfully there are more alternative closures these days, so it's much less in practice. i'm of the opinion that a lot more corked wine gets unknowingly consumed than people think.
  16. were you confused by them providing a knife/fork *and* cutting the pizza into slices?
  17. sour mix of some sort goes into the margaritas. i just can't get behind that. a fantastic looking place though, and i can see why people would probably like the concept. if they made the bar 10 times larger, they could probably make enough profit having people look at handsome eye candy like me while sipping those margs. oh yes, they could. food? Go to Cliff's first for a steak.
  18. yeah yeah. ok, you're right.
  19. well, the last time i was actually able to get through to the place (to a recording), it was "11 to 12". if i could call to make sure, i wouldn't have posted the question here. see my first post regarding their phone system. at this point i've written the place off anyway. thanks.
  20. i dig. any idea *when* they're open? i know one poster went to lunch only to find the place closed. i myself went weeks ago for dinner, only to find it not even close to being completed. probably my fault, but the website sure didn't suggest that they weren't close to opening.
  21. yeah, i don't doubt that. not sure what the eye-rolling is all about. hours? they must have a big bank account, because they're sure not interested in new business.
  22. reports on this place suggest that it has opened in some capacity. every attempt that i've made to contact the place regarding hours. has been met with the phone ringing off the hook, a recorded message telling me that no one is available to take the call, or fax signals. a pretty dodgey way to open a business i'd think. does anyone have any real and accurate info whatsoever on this place? edited to remove the comment that the hours are posted on the website. theyr'e not.
  23. tommy

    Smoking Ban

    yeah, public acts of lewdness (or whatever you'd call that) are pretty much against the law everywhere. so it's not as though the government is saying that an owner can't allow something that is allowed everywhere else. then again you can get naked at some bars, and charge people to see you get naked. it's all very confusing, but i think we all can see the simple point that the government protects workers and has been for years and this is no friggin different. all of the analogies are pretty much nothing more than red herrings. but i like the way you think. i often use the masturbation analogy which, i admit, is flawed. (shhh) regards, AP
  24. tommy

    Smoking Ban

    i think the word "politics" has connotations that you don't mean to, um, connote. it's more, i believe, about government protecting workers, just as they do in so many other instances. (i'm not sure why people think restaurants/bars should be exempted). "government" and "politics" are not necessarily synonymous.
  25. tommy

    Smoking Ban

    Can't see the logic of that. It's legal to buy a cellphone, but many restos ban loud conversations or ALL conversations on them, as it disturbs the other patrons. It's also legal to buy a broom, but you can't start sweeping up the floors of a restaurant while you are dining there. those aren't good analogies because those are policies put in place by the owner, not by legislation. actually the only issue and key here is the safety of workers. not respect for patrons. i still don't understand the alcohol analogy either. it's clearly different than smoking, which has been explained many times in this thread and others. regards, analogy police
×
×
  • Create New...