tommy

dude, you know you eat a lot earlier than me. i was still at work at 6.30 for cryin out loud. we were there from about 9-10. about 6 tables were filled when we got there, none of which had your smiling face propped atop...although i thought i might bump into you.

i had an excellent meal at Rocca last night.

i've been to restaurants where the rustic charm of splinters was part of the experience. some people, i think, are making some assumptions as there has been no description of the type of restaurant. my wife gets her sweaters pulled on her rings sometimes. never ruined a meal. never sued de beers. although that might be fun.

they really shine with the nightly specials as well.

bouley.

chef levy can be assured that i'll continue to return to Rocca, and i'll continue to share my experiences, both good and bad. those around here who respect my opinion (and those numbers seem to be dropping ), will likely do the same.

could have been a "dork knob" as well. those fall under "maybe a ponytail".

and sometimes you sue the company that served you the coffee. so yeah, people will sue. most people wouldn't though, i'd think. thankfully.

i think once you start trying to define "poorly maintained", you get yourself into a pickle. life goes on. hurry up or you'll miss it.

i feel taken advantage of. had a good steak at lou's place last night. it didn't have the char that i generally prefer, but it was a damned good piece of meat. cowboy ribeye. giddy-up.

...in a perfect world.

good or bad? sad? i vote bad and sad. loss of jobs. possible loss of a part of our culture. like it or not, Wonder Bread and Twinkies are a part of our culture. pop culture perhaps, but culture nonetheless.

honestly i was thinking this morning that i'm not even so much a big fan of gnocchi and could have done without them! but again i'm not a big fan, although these were a better version than i've had in the past for sure. so i'd swap out the gnocchi for the mushrooms. but what kind of mushrooms? most mushrooms on their own don't have too much an assertive flavor, so i would think it would come down to texture in this particular dish. unless the flavor of the broth is going to be enhanced a bit with some truffle oil or some other mushroom element, in which case the mushroom element would obviously become more prominent.

brief thoughts on a totally excellent and enjoyable meal at AAG here. i didn't mention the serrano wrapped shrimp. my bad. super, and something i'll soon make for guests.

when the elysian cafe was just the elysian, as it was for countless years, i'd often wind up at both. however i wouldn't consider maxwell's a place to eat. perhaps i'll give the "new" elysian some consideration. but at silly as it sounds, i'm somewhat upset that the old elysian is gone, and i will probably have a hard time getting over that vis-a-vis a visit to the new elysian. as for tonight, i took rosie's advice and went to see Lou at An American Grill, and had an excellent cheese/meat plate, some gnocchi/lobster/fava bean (yes, it worked), and a great steak. the quality of the steak surprised me, as i had been previously let down by a steak here (at the wine dinner when apparently i got a chewy steak, and everyone else by all reports got an excellent steak...that happens, and i can appreciate that). regardless, this sucker was like buttah.

nuthin. i'm gettin nuthin here.

well looky here. at this point i have little doubt that they're not serving prime meats. and if i'm wrong, they're wrong for not making it very clear that they are.

David Bonom, of the Bergen Record, apparently suggests that at the very least the strip is prime. here. note: that is not david's post, but rather ngatti's, who is apparently none-too-pleased.

"The PARK Steakhouse is proud to serve only USDA Dry Aged Certified Black Angus Beef. All steaks are dry aged 21 days to enhance their flavor and tenderness. " well, if they're not prime, and i'm thinking they might not be, the rest of the menu reads pretty well. in fact, it might be a good steakhouse to not get steak. and there aren't very many of them. i'm in.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...1&st=&p=entry

i'm guessing she means "cat piss". new zealand SBs often have a nose of cat piss. in fact one producer ran with that idea and called themselves "Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush." yummy.

does san vito's have beer/wine? is it a place that one might feel comfortable dining solo? i'm giving bayonne some very serious consideration for tonight. and, of course, it's tuesday, so any suggestions would be lovely. looking for solo-dining-friendly-wine-list place. good food too, of course.

i've mine for probably 2 years now and it has never cracked. it's either luck of the draw, or you're touching it. i've barely touched mine in that time.

...

personally i wouldn't let one person's clearly horrible experience taint my decision given the amount of positive reviews. i might be alone on that, though.