KatieLoeb

Looks like a typical Starr marketing ploy. Overpriced and over-hyped will hopefully lead to a few "accidental" sales from some idiot with an expense account that's trying to impress someone else. And that's by his own admission. When's the last time you heard someone say "A round for the house!!!" and not even at $100 a pop? Only time I've ever seen that is in a movie. Even at current prices for Kobe beef, truffles, etc. his cost to produce that sandwich and the price he's charging for it are miles apart. And for pity's sake, don't serve it with Champagne! At least give the poor sap that falls for this ploy a split of some good honking red wine that might actually compliment it!

Apple juice or sparkling cider like Martinelli's are good mixers for more "autumnal" and wintery cocktails. Here are a couple from last winter I created with the then day bartender at Striped Bass. We had to come up with cocktails for a Seagram's vodka sponsored contest, so we chose the Apple flavor since there are so many other vanilla, orange and citrus vodkas, we thought we'd do something different. Apple Sparkler served on the rocks .75 oz. Seagram’s Apple Vodka Splash Apple Pucker Fill with sparkling Cider Spiced Apple Spritzer served in a white wine glass on the rocks .5 oz. Seagram’s Apple Vodka 2.5 oz. Chaddsford Spiced Apple Wine (you could easily substitute chilled mulled cider and white wine for this) Fill with Club Soda and garnish with dried apple slice. George - your Suave Agave sounds very yummy!

You could order a "faux-Mosa" - OJ and club soda in a champagne flute. Or as John suggested a "Bloody Shame", spicy tomato juice with no vodka.

Capital Grille is the best steakhouse, and probably one of the best restaurants in the city, hands down. Prime Rib would be second, possibly tied with the Palm and Smith & Wollensky. But CG is the bomb. No need to look any further. Service is excellent and so's the wine list. If you know what you're looking for, there are some gems on there like second labels and wines from lesser known regions that are well matched to the big honking slabs of deadthing. It's got that dark wood and snifters-after-dinner-in-the-bar masculine vibe that is essential for a steakhouse. Oh, and did I mention the steaks are delicious?? Have a nice dinner!

I'm having a Miel Almond Croissant as I type this. It's about as good an any I've ever had. Looking through last week's bills from Miel I see the Lemon Tarts are quite popular here, since we reorder them quite often! As mrbigjas recommended, the fruit tarts are awe inspiring. Beautiful to look at and they taste just as good as they look. I've also tried their ice cream. The chocolate is the best chocolate ice cream I've ever had, hands down.

I've served pepper jelly atop a cream cheese/sour cream/mascarpone molded "cheesecake" to serve with crackers and there was never any left. I just mixed the room temperature dairy products together with a mixer until they were "pliable" and then stuffed them back into a bowl or mold lined with saran wrap. Refrigerate until solid again, unmold, and top with store bought or homemade pepper jelly. The hotter the better for me but tamer for a tamer crowd. The slight sweetness of the mascarpone was a good contrast to the hotter pepper jellies. Yum!

Karen: The Penn's View Hotel wouldn't be a horrible place to stay either. And you could crawl upstairs from Il Bar at Panorama to your room. Check out the website and you can see the menu for Panorama and Il Bar and see some of the flights of wine that are offered. Not sure how up to date the website is kept, but sommelier Bill Eccleston is brilliant, and will always have a selection that could please even the fussiest wine lover. One of my very very favorite things to do is to sit at Il Bar, order an appetizer portion of one of their amazing pasta dishes (the tagliatelle with Lamb Ragout they had last autumn/winter was perfect) and a glass of big red Italian to go with. A real treat. Civilized and soothing for the soul. Sadly, not much of the Italian Market is open on Sundays, so I don't know if you'll be able to have your desired tripe sandwich. I'd check the hours at George's before you disappoint yourself by going over there for nothing. Certainly there's a multitude of other things you could eat on Sunday. If you're in Philadelphia and crave cold dessert, go to Capogiro for gelato. More Than Just Ice Cream is great (I love the cinderblock sized slices of their mile high deep dish apple pie a la mode with vanilla ice cream) but Capogiro is about as close to Italy as you'll get in the States. Perhaps you could do a comparison for us and report back since you'll be on your way. Have a blast and do let us know how we can help.

Oh. My. God. Envy, envy, envy.... The food is absolutely gorgeous and the wine pairings are sublime. Should I ever be anywhere in the vicinity of Enoteco Vin I will make a beeline to their front door in the hopes of having such a delightful meal. It makes me want to weep with joy when I see folks that take such pride in their work and work together so well. Bravo to the staff!!!

The Ridge Lytton Springs is still the gold standard for me of this style of dark berries/chocolate/dessert spice flavored zin that is so luscious. Running about $30 (depending what state you're in) this wine is the textbook example of which they speak, IMO.

Yay Mary! Hooray! Looking forward to your adding some of your astute observations to the forum on a more frequent basis. Always love to read your posts and hale a hearty welcome to the inner sanctum of Forum Hosts. Don't forget to get your yogurt....

Especially a forty minute wait while you're staring at the empty table they eventually seated you at, and lied right to your face and stated they were "saving it for a larger party" when it's a two-top!! Anyone would be pissed off to be kept waiting and then have their intelligence insulted to boot. I know my friend well enough to say that although he might be strident, he can perfectly well separate a bad wait from bad food. And again, he's not the only person I've heard this from. Bistro food is "simple", but in the hands of one of the best chefs in America, could be (should be?) transcendant "simple" food. It wasn't. It was merely ordinary by several accounts. Hence the disappointment. Please note these criticisms only apply to Bouchon Las Vegas. I've heard excellent reports on the Yountville incarnation from other people.

I didn't mean "standard issue Thai" as an insult, just a statement that this menu doesn't seem too different from the ones I've seen in other Thai places around town and in other cities. In fact, this menu is probably more limited, if anything. Nothing wrong with standard issue Thai, just perhaps not what I was expecting. If there are menu items that are more Laotian than Thai, it's certainly not pointed out in any way on the menu, or by the waitstaff. And being that I was the only one there, the waiter could have lectured me about the Laotian dishes on the menu if they were emphasizing it in any way. Seems they aren't. My conclusion is that the place was named Cafe de Laos only to distinguish it from their other "Thai-is-in-the-name" restaurants. I'd be curious to see a menu from Thai Orchid side by side with the new Cafe de Laos menu for comparison's sake.

Took my brand new (to me) antique sandwich press for a test drive tonight. Multigrain bread, light garlic mustard, cave aged cheddar and sliced ripe Magnuss pears. Served with Progresso Tomato soup jazzed up with a spoon of pesto. Very yummy dinner!

I usually stuff them with ground meat (usually beef, sometimes with ground turkey or chicken) and seasoned rice and then cook them in a pressure cooker with the Eastern European style sweet and sour tomato sauce. They come out quickly, thoroughly cooked and the sauce thickens up nicely without having to heat up the whole house with the oven on.

In the interest of getting the answer to this burning question (and 'cuz I was hungry) I decided to stop over and check out Café de Laos for lunch today. It was a bit "fancier" than I had expected, white tablecloths and all, but since I'd already walked in the door I figured what the heck, and sat down and ordered a plate of Beef Laab and a side of sticky rice. The Laab was tasty, but the dried chiles that were laying on top of the dish didn't seem to have any spiciness to the dish at all. These were the same kind of dried chiles that I've accidentally ingested while eating certain Chinese dishes so I plucked them out, but they definitely didn't seem to have had any seasoning effect on the dish. There weren't any condiments on the table so I ate the dish as is. It was good, but pretty mild compared to Laab I've had in other restaurants. Service was quite attentive (an easy feat since I was the only customer) and very pleasant although I had a bit of a misunderstanding with my waiter regarding my beverage. I'd wanted Thai Iced tea with the condensed milk but without any extra half and half in addition. He brought it over "unlightened" in any way, so had to go and fix it. It was also very tasty. Turns out that the owners are the same folks that own the various outposts of Thai Orchid, Royal Thai Orchid, etc. At least I assume so since there's a framed review of the other restaurants in the vestibule. I think the Laotian implications of the name of this new restaurant are indeed in name only. Perhaps they want to distinguish it from the other restaurants but it seems the previously postulated theory about Thai and Loatian cuisines being pretty similar are echoed in the name of this new place and it's menu which seem to be pretty standard issue Thai.

I believe you're thinking of Yann's Pastries at 122 South 18th Street. I confess I know little about it, but the stuff that's visible from the window looks quite tasty. But hell, what doesn't look good when you've got your nose pressed up against the patisserie window? We buy many of our desserts at Rouge from Miel on 17th. Everything is delicious! Go in and ask for store Manager Kristina. She's incredibly helpful and knows everything in the cases. A box of mixed desserts from Miel should give you plenty to enjoy for the birthday festivities and you can cut them in half and share! More things to try that way, yes?

Karen: Do PM if you need a tour guide. Which Sunday are you coming in? We have a Pizza Club outing planned for Sunday 10/16 out in the hinterlands of the suburbs. I'm certain we could arrange a ride for you if you wanted to join us. I think if you only have a limited number of meals in the City of Brotherly love, you shouldn't waste one on cheesesteak, but that's just me. If I had to have a sandwich I'd go for Roast Pork or a Hoagie. Chinatown is always a good bet for almost any regional Chinese cuisine or some good Vietnamese or Burmese. Or as Holly mentioned, any of the down-n-dirty authentic Taquerias that now populate South Philadelphia if you fancy Mexican food. Carman's for breakfast is a capital suggestion. If you fancy a great wine bar to have some flights of wine, there's Panorama at the Penn's View Inn. 120 wines available by the glass. My favorite grown up bar in the city. BYOB dining is a specialty in Philadelphia, so there's plenty of choices for a nice dinner and bringing one's own wine. There are a couple of the State stores open on Sunday too - you just have to know which ones. I love Dmitri's for BYOB and Sunday nights usually aren't as long a wait (they don't take reservations), or possibly Django (if you're blessed enough to get a reservation) or Lolita for BYOT (great upscale Mexican food and they sell delicious pitchers of Margarita fixin's so you bring your own tequila). BYOB Italian can be had all over South Philly. My faves include L'Angolo and Buon Appetito. I'm cetain folk will chime in for other suggestions. Philadelphia Magazine has a searchable Restaurant Database that might be helpful, or you can check out last years winners of 2003 Best of Philly awards, as many of those places are perennial favorites. Unfortunately they haven't updated the website to include the 2004 winners yet. There was a recent article in the Inquirer with suggestions for places to take out of town guests. I posted about it HERE. That article may prove quite helpful. Have fun while you're here and enjoy the good eats! Thee's lots of them.

Yeah - but isn't the presumption if you caught them eating there, you were there too?

OK - the geography and multi-ethnic confusion makes sense. But isn't this a golden opportunity for the Cafe de Laos folks to show us the differences, however subtle, and teach us a thing or two about their nation's cuisine, geography and politics? I, for one, would find it fascinating, and I find that having the native dishes along as the teaching tools makes it all stick a little better in my head.

My friend that had the bad experience at Bouchon has posted his experience HERE One of the waitresses I work with was there with her mom a couple of months ago and said the service was great but the food was solidly ordinary. I don't believe either of these folks expected French Laundry, but expected a bistro menu as envisioned/carried out by Thomas Keller. They were both disappointed that there seemed to be a lack of creativity and flavor in the food. In the other hand, I had one of the singular best meals of my entire life at FL, so I'm not knocking Chef Keller for no reason. I think he's brilliant and a maniacal perfectionist and has raised the bar on cuisine in the USA by a considerable amount. Unfortunately, Bouchon Las Vegas doesn't seem to be the best of it's genre though, and I don't think that was an unrealistic expectation.

Sandy: You saw that HERE, in Michael Klein's column this past Thursday. I've been keeping a low profile in terms of commenting on the present situation with Mr. Stein, both because I don't think it's appropriate for me to say anything and also because none of that stuff happened on my watch! I'm usually here from about 9-6:30 or so Monday-Friday, occasionally later, and weekends only if absolutely necessary. I have to remember to put Herb, my Social Secretary, on the payroll.

Fress: Striped Bass was sold in December 2003. I did work there, but under the "old regime". New owner is Stephen Starr, who owns just about every other restaurant in Philly. The "new regime" hired back a lot of the service staff but had no interest in any management level folk or anyone that might have their own opinion. Several of my former co-workers have already left, dissatisfied with the corporate mentality of the new ownership. Others have stayed because at those prices, they're making great coin. I've been several times for drinks and the new decor is a bit stark and menu is different than it used to be. Some folks are loving it, other old regular customers that I still see here at Rouge beg to differ.

Deux Cheminees is indeed French. It's definitely a "special occasion" sort of place, but I actually liked it better than Le Bec Fin, myself. A bit less stuffy and uptight, but still with the appropriate level of sucking up and pomp and circumstance. The food is delicious and the atmosphere is glorious. It's like being a guest at someone's lovely manse, surrounded by antiques and artwork, with servants to tend to your every need. Very professional operation and the staff doesn't make you feel as if they're doing you a favor by being there. I found the waitstaff at LBF very snarky.

And the Olive Garden is packed for a different reason than Lupa is.

I have to agree with markk about Lupa, and it's not just the food. The wine list and wine service (comprehensive selection, fair pricing and different portion sizes available) are exceptional and a terrific compliment to the food. The waitstaff is also quite knowlegeable about the dishes and the wine list and can answer any question I've ever asked. And I do try to stump the staff from time to time just to see how they'll handle it and use the anecdote as a training tool for my staff. There's a reason that Lupa is always packed.