pete ganz

Just wanted to say thanks again to Nick Gatti for the wine and to Lou for bringing 2 bottles from his cellar. The dinner was terrific.

Yes. That is when the transformation from mild mannered accountant to "The Rock" began.

The Rock don't take no mess. According to some, he is also known to "hemorrhage cash". And he likes golf balls.

I'll leave it to some of the others to give more descriptive reports, but I think the night can be summed up by: good food, great people. It was a lot of fun.

Your first drink is on me if that's true.

I should also be there around 6. Red shirt, khakis, glasses.

I think you can see Shakers from Sonoma Grill (that's the way it looks on the map, anyway).

That's mighty nice of ya Lou. I was just checking out this trek on Mapquest...I didn't realize all these places were so close to each other. We could even walk to each place if we wanted to. Or have to.

Yeah, the nuoc cham took some getting used to. I would never have imagined that going well with bbq pork....but it did!

Finally made it to Little Saigon in Nutley last week. Even though it was a Wednesday, it was a good thing I made reservations, since every other table was taken. There are only about 8 tables in the whole place, and the crowd was roughly 80% Vietnamese/Asian. Based on recommendations from an old CH thread (mainly from Rachel Perlow I think), we had the summer rolls, standard pho, bbq pork and Vietnamese chicken in coconut milk. The summer rolls were packed with fresh herbs and served with a peanut dipping sauce. This was my first experience with Vietnamese food, so the flavors were a bit unexpected, comparing them to spring rolls, but they were very good. The pho was nice, very hearty and filling. The pork and the chicken were both excellent. Incredibly flavorful and tender. The pork was served with little cup of fish sauce with carrots, which seemed odd, but somehow it worked. It is BYO, so I took along a 4 pack of beer. I think the check came to $26 before tax and tip . Definitley going back.

I was particularly impressed by how much pride he took in the job at Howard Johnson's. He really seemed excited about bringing high quality, low cost food to the masses. He also sounds like a genuinely nice guy. Great book.

6:30 works for me.

Kim...that would be awesome.

Exactly... there's gotta be a reason why all fried chicken recipes use flour. Right?!?!

Right Here

There's also some more suggestions on this thread I started back in the day.. wings I still say Cluck-U is way up on the list, even though they're breaded

I'm in for 6/5.

Tomorrow's cool...but I'm also good for any date next week. Sounds like fun.

I'm down if this ever materializes. I've been wanting to go to Sonoma Grill after all the talk here. Also never been to Park and Orchard.

sounds good to me!

I bet she wasn't pissed off for long!

A nice wholesome place called Shakers....

Ahh....that place. Beers are pretty expensive, but what a great view!

I think Tommy's talking about this place, but I could be wrong: Caruso's Tuscan Steak House, 65 Rt 4 W, Paramus (201-556-9111) There's a thread on it here somewhere...

They did not pronounce the "e" at Les Halles in NYC, if that helps any. Wish I had a local similar to Hopleaf...it sounds great.