KatieLoeb

Wow - I'm just barely recovered. I had such sweet dreams last night after such a truly lovely afternoon. My sated belly and I slept like heros after a battle. My personal thanks to Jeff for being such a great dining companion and playing chauffeur for me. The ride home seemed to go by really quickly! Rachel and Jason are wonderful hosts, as are Cecil and his staff. It was a great time. I can't even decide what my favorite dish was as everything was so tasty. I'd have to give an edge to the lamb dumplings, spicy shredded chicken and the Capiscum fish. And the Dong Poo pork (gotta work on that name!!) was as yummy as Jeff said, and fun too because the little buns made for amusing edible Mick Jagger lips to play with after a few glasses of wine. There was a LOT of wine and giggling going on at our table and it was a pleasure meeting Chefs Jerry and Harry, their lovely spouses and their friends that really kept the conversation lively. Hoping to see all of them again if they decide to come visit Philly! We did our fair share of damage to about 9 or 10 bottles of wine at our table, but it was fun to play around and pair up the different wines with the various dishes. As silly as we were, we still managed some fairly academic discussion about wine, so I felt I was in my element. I also have to say it was great to meet the Buxbaums, and to see Marlene and Dave. I think we need to have more get togethers of the Site Management and Forum Hosts! It's always lots of fun!!!

The La Colombe coffeehouses/roasters here in Philadelphia seem to have a pretty extensive training program for their baristas. You might want to contact them.

I received a bottle of this very wine as a gift from a dear friend that thought I'd find it highly amusing. And I did. It was grounded in a joke from a staff training I had done at her restaurant where the least knowledgeable waitperson had the most acutely observant commentary on the wines. Aside from noticing the "eau du litterbox" in the Sauvignon Blanc, the very same person pointed out that the corked bottle of wine I'd specifically saved to illustrate what "corked " wine meant, "smelled like a dirty hot tub".

Wet dog. Horse blanket. Weedy. (very much for low end Pinot Girgio, to my taste)

Dmitri's is a great idea on any night EXCEPT for a Friday or Saturday. Interminable wait if you aren't lined up by 5:30 PM. I still like the charm and BYO aspect of the original at 3rd & Catharine. Don't forget that it's Valentine's Day weekend, and since it falls on Monday, I'm betting a lot of folks are out tonight, tomorrow and Sunday evening instead. Even if a place doesn't accept reservations, I'd check and see how packed they are before braving it. Other BYO possibilities include Overtures, Rx, Marigold Kitchen, Azafran, Bistro 7 (new place), La Boheme or Plume (also new in South Philly).

That's exactly right. Dressed spinach leaves starring in the center of the plate.

Seconded. It's certainly going to be a more frequent stop for me. The food was all delicious and it's a very nice spot to go for a cheesesteak AND a beer. If you think about it, there's really no other place to do that. All the cheesesteak places don't have beer and the places with good beer don't serve cheesesteaks. Best of both worlds in one spot. That deconstructed spinach salad was the shocker of the evening. And the Mango Chutney Vinaigrette was a perfect compliment to those soft leaves of spinach, the crumbly bacon, the salty cheese and the sweet carmelized onions. Yummy!! I am generally not a cheesesteak lover (more of a Roast Pork Italiano girl myself), as I've made no secret of that in the past. However, the GL cheesesteak was delicious and beefy and I really enjoyed it. I'd certainly order it again. And it would be a far better example of that rarefied sandwich than the usual tourist spots we take our out of town friends to show off the national dish of the city. I really liked the wings once I realized all the sauce had pooled in the bottom of the bowl. If you toss up the wings and get them nice and wet, they're really good. Sauce is just right, with a little vinegary tang. Loved the mussels, but I like anything with Thai curry sauce. These were very good and the broth was addictive. I should've asked for some bread to mop up the sauce with, but I was already stuffed!! Get there soon folks. I suspect Rich is correct and the Grey Lodge Kitchen will be full for the foreseeable future.

Now this we really need advance notice for I still have 4 bottles left of the half case of '92 Burgess Cab I hunted down at the Norristown store last time it was in. I drank one election night, and gave one as a gift with a set of Riedel wine glasses as a wedding gift. If this is going to be an ongoing relationship with the PLCB I could eventually have enough of this stashed away for a vertical tasting some time in the future. That could be quite interesting! I used several bottles of the Hanna 2002 Chardonnay ($12.99) and several bottles of the Roth 2001 Cabernet ($24.99) for a wine seminar last weekend and both were spectacular. Serious quality for the price in both instances. Also used the Echelon Pinot Noir ($12.99) and it was another winner. Wines were excellent examples of their respective genre, and all were a big time bargain.

Kurt: Good ham, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard inside the sandwich, really chewy bread that gets crispy when pressed. Tierra Colombiana makes a really fine Cubano Sangwich if you need a starting point from which to judge. Might be hard to beat their's though...

18/10: Welcome to the PA forum! Glad you could come out to play and looking forward to more astute observations from your corner... The blurb about Bistro 7 appeared in Michael Klein's Table Talk column last week. Chef Michael O'Halloran is a very talented chef. I had the pleasure of working with him at the White Dog "back in the day", as it's said, when we were both younger and hungrier and hardly the jaded old pros we both are now. An interesting side note is that Chef O'Halloran gave up a promising fast-track position as a Sous Chef at Fork a few years ago to help run the Back Home Cafe, which is overseen by Project H.O.M.E., an organization that helps the homeless and mentally ill with housing, health care and counseling. The cafe employs the Project H.O.M.E. residents and gives them direction and provides valuable vocational training during their recoveries. It's an awesome organization that doesn't get as much press as some of the larger organizations in town like MANNA, but makes an indelible impact on a few peoples lives at a time. It takes a really special sort of person to do that sort of work, so my hat is off to Chef O'Halloran and I wish him every success in this new endeavor. Now I just have to figure out which night I'm going over to Bistro 7 to check it out!

jpdchef: You stopped in at Sansom Street Oyster House and didn't say hello??? I'd have loved to say hi and buy you a "welcome to Philly drink"! What day were you in? What did you have? Glad you liked the OTC's. You can only imagine how many of those we go through in a week. And they are very good with a dollop of horseradish on them. Addictive, in fact. Pho Xe Lua (aka The Soup Train) really rocks. I love that place and I don't think I've ever really had anything there that I didn't enjoy. Best Vietnamese food and best soups in town, I think. Introduce yourself next time you bop through ferchrsissakes! I love having eGullet visitors!

I had the pleasure of meeting Chairman Newman this morning at a press conference announcing the Philadelphia Wine Festival. He was very gracious and enthusiastic about this thread and thanked us all for our comments. It seems our feedback is making an impression at the highest levels! Having just returned from a buying trip to California where 12,000 cases were purchased for our pleasure, I got the low down from the Chairman himself on some of the products we have to look forward to. There will be more St Francis wines, more St Supery and Flora Springs wines as well. He was very excited about some of the bargains he managed to wrangle and hopefully I will have the opportunity to work more directly with his office in the future to give all of you the heads up before the good stuff hits the stores. Woo-hoo!

That'd be Chez Colette and I had a lovely lunch there not too long ago. There's also L'Hexagon, but that's more of a Eurotrash bar scene than a bistro. I thought they did serve food though. ← Do tell! I noticed a reasonable-sounding prix fixe on the posted menu some time back, but I've heard such mixed reports about Chez Colette that I haven't made it there yet... ← I don't remember specifically what I had, but I was taken to lunch there by a former co-worker and had some tasty calamari we'd shared and a lovely fish dish of some sort for my entree. All was well prepared and the service was very profesisonal. Great wine by the glass selection as well. This was some time in the autumn so it wasn't so long ago that things could be that radically different now. I haven't heard anything about changes of chef there or anything else. I thought it was solid, and surprising that more folks didn't know about it. We went around 1:30 PM or so, and the lunch "rush" was definitely over. We were comfortable and never rushed. I wouldn't say the menu at Chez Colette is as "classic bistro" as the others mentioned here, but definitely was reasonably casual in atmosphere and the food had a French flair to it.

That'd be Chez Colette and I had a lovely lunch there not too long ago. There's also L'Hexagon, but that's more of a Eurotrash bar scene than a bistro. I thought they did serve food though.

Alphaiii: The Eagle Rare Single Barrel is $19.99 in PA and is an excellent value at that price. It's in the regular stores and the code number is 6017. You can use the PLCB website's groovy new search mechanism HERE to locate a bottle near you. Either the Evan Williams or the Van Winkle are good products, but I find the Van Winkle bourbons to be a bit more artisinal. The Evan Williams is a great buy.

Just as many ordinary folks that have eaten a lot of apples would have no trouble discerning a Granny Smith apple from a Yellow Delicious from a Macintosh blindfolded, so it becomes with wines after enough exposure and dedication. I can usually pick the Pinot Noir from the Merlot from the Cabernet. I have a lot more practice than most people, but the apple analogy holds. And that ability makes neither myself nor Robert Parker a genius. There are many olfactory components in wines that become familiar over time. The bright cherry scent in Pinot Noir, the aroma of freshly mowed grass in certain Sauvignon Blanc. But you have to be exposed to it enough times for it to seem familiar. Practice, practice, practice!!! The lab work is hell, but someone has to do it... edited for clarity

It was a good game. We beat the spread and actaully could have won the game had it not been for those pesky interceptions. <sigh> There's always next season... My hosts put out a sumptuous spread of Roast turkey, Noodle kugel with Apples, Corn pudding, assorted cheeses and pates, salmon mousse (I can't stop thinking of Monty Python whenever I see salmon mousse ) and hummus and pita. Their buffet is always crowned by a big crockpot of chili. This year's recipe included cubed meat and kidney beans and had quite a smoky flavor. Very tasty.

Much like the friend whose tact glands were removed, I have a really hard time finding the filter between my brain and my mouth when asked stupefyingly ignorant questions. And unfortunately, the stupider the question, the shorter the nanosecond between the thought and the utterance. Usually the filter just can't go up fast enough. The correct answer would have been a blank stare I think, or some variation of, "NO but do you have _______" (fill in incredibly difficult to procure or out of season garnish of your choice). "No, but some thin shavings of fermented Madagasque Bat Guano would be just perfect! Do you have any?"

Dinner tonight was this evening's special: Cashew Crusted Opakapaka. Very tasty!

The Mighty Roast Pork with Broccoli Rabe and Aged Provolone should replace the cheesesteak as the best the City of Brotherly Sandwiches has to offer. And it pretty much kicks other sandwiches off the playing field. Now that there's a Tony Luke's in NYC I think even some of the jaded New Yorkers might back me up. No one has mentioned soft pretzels yet either... BTW - since Romney dissed the cheesesteaks, he and "Fast Eddie" Rendell have bet that they will have to fly the winning teams banners and sing the National anthem at a public sporting event if their team loses.

David: The Ardmore store is a very fine one indeed. I've often found hard to find (not necessarily expensive, just hard to find) wines there that weren't anywhere else. One example I can think of is the Lazy Creek Gewurztraminer. I think they were the only store (in this general area at least) that had it because the wine manager there liked it and ordered it, not because it was such a wildly popular product. If you don't specify any county for your search and just click on SUBMIT you can see where every bottle of the desired wine is in the entire state. If you're feeling really ambitious you can ask to have the wine transferred from the East of End of the Earth store to your local store. The process takes a few weeks, but it's worth it if it's something you truly covet.

Or perhaps this Super Places to Watch Sunday's Game will be of some assistance.

Chickie's & Pete's in South Philly (or the other locations as well) ought to be a temple of Eagles worship on Sunday. Fox & Hound at 15th & Spruce has a wall of TV's. I think there's still a really big sports bar in the University City hotel at 36th & Chestnut. Can't remember either exactly which hotel chain it is or what the name of the bar is at the moment. Check the Philly Weekly or City Paper. I'm certain they'll be bulging with ads for Super Bowl parties. Mercifully, my restaurant will be closed in honor of the Super Bowl. Since we don't have TV in the bar it seemed silly to open when no one would be coming in at all anyway.

David: Surprisingly some of those huge bargain Chairman's selections or "sale" items are still sold to restaurants at the SLO or "pre-sale" prices. I had it happen to me twice at Rouge, where I paid $40-ish for a bottle of wine that went onto the wine list for $105 and then the very same wine was made available as "Specialty" to consumers for $27 and made me look like a thief!! This should definitely make you more prepared for the BYOB's though! And make it easier to order a case of SLO wine if you so desire.

Katbert: The items listed as "Regular" mean they are are standard stock in virtually every PLCB store. The product lookup is good to find out the code so you can call ahead and have those bottles pulled for you if you want. This upgrade makes the harder to find "Specialty" products easier to locate, as they are only available in the limited number of "Specialty" stores. These are usually the big bargain "Chairman's Selections", etc. I forsee battles ahead with lancastermike and mike volker and I racing around trying to beat each other to the last half case of something spectacular. I hear the Flora Springs Trilogy 2001 is coming soon. Gentlemen - start your engines!