KatieLoeb

I'll second this. I'll happily peel potatoes again, play Bartendress for the Masses, or whatever is required to partake in the fun again. And those hushpuppies...

City traffic can be a nightmare at almost any hour of the day, so staying underground is my recommendation. Definitely take the el back to 30th Street Station - it'll be quicker.

I have to say, I personally found it a bit like a gritty, slightly fishy tasting piece of chicken. The texture was nasty and the "subtlety" was lost on me. Then again - I like caviar, but only in small doses. Can't go hog wild and eat big honking spoonfuls of it.

I'm at work tonight. You're more than welcome to come visit me if you like oysters and seafood....

Aw shucks, y'all! You're going to swell a poor country girl's head if you go on like that. I love it when I get to enjoy the "fruits" of my labor so to speak. That was a load of fun. Great company, fine wine and fabulous food with gracious service. My hats off to the Marigold staff for a lovely evening. I tried to be frugal (as I always do) and had a lot to choose from in the Chairman's Selections this time around. Wine selections are in italics: BISOL PROSECCO CREDE NV ($16.99) A lovely aperitif to get our appetites going. Apple-ly and refreshing. Billy bi soup with roasted chicken oysters and chicken fried oysters FLORA SPRINGS SOLILOQUY 02 ($12.99) A very lucious Sauvignon Blanc that complimented the soup very well. Olive oil-poached halibut with asparagus, honshimeji mushrooms and carrot-miso emulsion BRUNDLMAYER GRUNER VELTLINER KAMPTALER TERRASSEN 03 ($15.99) My favorite Austrian wine varietal comes through again. The only wine I could think of that could stand up to asparagus, the earthy mushrooms AND the miso. Smoked potato gnocchi with beef cheek ragu and rhubarb gastrique FOLEY ESTATE PINOT NOIR 02 ($19.99) Big lush and fruity Pinot Noir that had enough gumption to not get overwhelmed by the beef cheeks, which tend to be quite rich and flavorful. Rabbit leg braised with chorizo, with scallion polenta, fava beans and morel mushrooms CLINE CELLARS BRIDGEHEAD ZINFANDEL 01 ($12.99) A quite extracted very berry zin with pepper and spice to compliment the chorizo and a great balance of acid and soft tannin. All in all the pairings worked very well considering I'd not tried the dishes before. Sometimes my best guess works though, so I'm happy for that! Someone needs to descibe dessert better than I can, and Capaneus needs to tell us about that very cool Late Harvest Zin he brought along to go with dessert. Both were really yummy! And Andrew! Where are the pictures????

Zilla: Congrats on a truly great blog during an utterly insane week. You're a brave woman and I respect that immensely. The photos were excellent and the slice of your life was priceless. I'm a huge fan of the Fabuloso cleansers. I make a special trip on my day off to go purchase a case of it for "bathrooms only" cleaning at my restaurant. It smells so good!

Welcome to Hendricks Farms and nymerical2!!! Hope to hear more from both of you! The information about the Fair Food Farmstand is pinned to the top of this forum and updated weekly. The contact information for Anne Karlen is at the bottom of each post. If Hendricks Farms could hook up with Fair Food we'll have our first PA Forum cyber introduction and a lot of happy PhilleGulleteers!!

Not as bad as anticipated, but nonetheless a drag. It was pretty slow at some points but there were predictably lots of large groups and of course one group of 10 people that came late and held the last waitress, busboy and myself hostage for far longer than was necessary. I did manage to get a bit of other work done though during the slow spots, so that was an upside. I had a glass of wine at work while awaiting the last of the cleanup. I'm too tired/lazy to go all the way down to the kitchen to fetch another so I'm off to bed. Sorry to hear about your nasty take out customers. Sheesh! Who the heck calls for take out for/on Mother's Day??

It's Mother's Day. Oh Joy. The Absolute Worst Day of the Restaurant Year. And I'm off to go deal with the families that hate each other, rarely eat out so they have no manners to begin with, and air their dysfunctional laundry in public for all the world to see (I picked up the check at Mom's Birthday! It's your turn!). I like it better at Thanksgiving when they're being just as obnoxious, but at least they keep it in the privacy of their own homes.

Gee - thanks for the props y'all!

Holy. Mother. of God. That has to be the most decadent and outrageous food experience I have ever seen documented. Must. Go. To. Chicago. Soon.

Tektite: Glad you managed in my absence. I recently attended a sake taasting sponsored by the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia that had several excellent sakes represented at the tasting. Perhaps if you could contact them and see if they still had the promotional materials or the list of local purveyors that could give you a good start. Locally, Assouline & Ting also carries some fine sake, as well as the selection at Moore Brothers Wine Company, my former employers. Assouline may only be able to sell to "licensees", such as restaurants, but I'm not sure how that works, since I don't really deal with them for that. If you head to the Pennsauken Moore Brothers store, my good buddy and resident sake expert Jonathan Read should be able to hook you up.

Soba: An excellent training seminar for wine newbies is available at Merryvale Vineyards. The seminar is given in the lovely Cask Room and teaches you to "map your palate" by tasting the various components of wine, such as acid, tannin, sugar and alcohol. Classes are held every Saturday and Sunday and more info is available HERE. I think it could prove a valuable experience for you and show you a bit more about tasting that could be applied immediately on the rest of your trip. Somewhere I have a Napa Valley travel itinerary of the places I visited. PM me if you'd like me to send it to you.

I did know about the first thread, but didn't know how much it discussed price vs. accessiblity to certain wines. And, I *did* miss the discussion with him last week!. Please add this to one of the existing threads if more appropriate. ← Ludja: The discussion is still pinned at the top of the forum. Good questions and good answers from 'da Man. Excellent constructive suggestions on how to improve customer service as well. It went great. I ran into the Chairman at the Philly Wine Festival. He always has nice things to say about eGullet.

Sheesh! Where's everybody been?? We've been singing the Chairman's praises in this thread for months now, and I hope y'all didn't miss our Chat with PLCB Chairman Jonathan Newman just last week. But thanks for the link. It's a great article and even better, every word of it is true.

Our own Lisa1349 has been a busy girl indeed, what with the store opening and all. Her thoughtful replies and helpful presence has been sorely missed around these parts. Hopefully she can get back to posting soon. And I'm making a beeline to the new store sometime tomorrow so I can check out the new digs. Sounds fabulous and I can hardly wait to see it.

If we're Saturday 5/14 - I'm in!

Great Rick Nichols article HERE in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Two Hands Wines. I had the pleasure of having dinner/trading wines with Michael Twelftree of Two Hands Wines as well as Wayne Keoghan of Annvers Wines and Mohammed Ansaar of Fonthill Winery last June and it was a rare treat. A real tour of well produced Shiraz, Grenache and combinations thereof. And great company too. This article is very interesting. I really think the analogy about the "train theory" hits it on the head, not merely with Shiraz, but with any wine. That's a pretty good description. I think I'll remember that one.

Katie, I'll give you a hint... There's a little bit of red wax on the edge of the sole of my shoe. As for coming to Kentucky, well... there are seven bourbon distilleries within 75 miles of each other in central Kentucky. So there ya go. ← Okey dokey. I didn't realize that Maker's was considered small batch though. Seems like an awfully big batch to me. Heck - just what I consume in a calendar year oughta make a dent in the supply!

Sweetie, after three months of sleep interrupted and sleepless nights, I suspect you're both long overdue for a fine cocktail!

Hey Zilla! So which small batch distillery will you be visiting? I just had lunch with Fred Noe of Jim Beam on Thursday last while he was touring Philly. I have a personal invite to come down to Kentucky and party with him and I hope to take him up on it before I'm too old to appreciate it.

Hello!!! You're up late tonight too! Many thanks again for taking the time from your busy schedule to join us for the Chat. I think everyone came away with some valuable information. And I hope that the suggestions from this very savvy group of consumers was helpful for you. And I'm still hoping that sometime in the future when the PLCB creates a position for "Potables Laureate of the Commonwealth", you'll consider me for the post. Please continue to join us here and let us know about your favorites. There really is an embarrassment of riches in the stores right now, and I intend to do a bit more wine shopping later this week. What can you tell us about the D'Arenberg and the Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay? Both looked intriguing to me, but I was on a surgical strike Saturday just to pick something up for that evening to bring along to dinner at a friend's home. Do tell why these are some of your favorites.

Picked up a half-case at 1218 Chestnut Friday, on Corey's recommendation. *Tried* to drink it tonight, but I live in Philadelphia. 9pm is apparently past closing time for *four* different local restaurants with posted 9:30 or 10pm closing times. I'm a hungry, bitter man. But at least I own six bottles of a nice wine. ← I had a bottle of this last night myself. I'd seen it at 12th & Chestnut Saturday afterrnoon and also picked it up on Corey's recommendation. I'm in agreement with shacke and Capaneus. This is very tasty wine with a lot going on. Very BIG fruit and flavor.

Thank you handmc. Nice to hear we have some loyalists in our corner. And you're so right about the tipping thing! I realize Philadelphia is the best tipping city in the country but damn. So many tourists in this week for Penn Relays and whatever else. Had a couple of tables of Europeans in tonight (mostly French for whatever reason) that stiffed the waiters badly, and even an American table of five (clearly from out of town) that left the waitress $6 on a $150 check! That really ticked me off. I mean, that's just insulting. The dad was an ass too. Came out to the bar for a smoke and walked back through our non-smoking dining room with his lit cigarette to go fetch his beer. I had to go chase him down and remind him the dining rooms were non-smoking. There were still several other guests in that same room too. What a jerk.

I'd like to thank Mr. Newman for taking the time out of his busy schedule to accomodate us here at eGullet. It's a rare honor to have the ear of a public official that's so enthusiastic for the feedback. This has been a truly fascinating discussion, with intelligent commentary and excellent constructive criticism. I couldn't be prouder of how well this chat went. I think both the eGullet consumers and the PLCB gained a lot of valuable insights about the "other side" from our exchange. I'm so pleased to have been able to arrange this. Bravo to everyone for their insightful questions and to Chairman Newman for his thoughtful answers. I look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership with the PLCB and will keep you all abreast of the news and events I am informed about. My sincere thanks and gratitude to everyone that participated.