KatieLoeb

OK - I see it now. I'm blind sometimes... A friend of mine that runs a bar/restaurant in Cape May, NJ loves the Stoli Persik with cranberry juice. That seemed to be her favorite "at home after work" cocktail on my last visit to her. It's also used in a Blue Crush, one of their specialty cocktails that has Stoli Persik, Blueberry schnapps, pineapple juice and a smidge of Blue Curacao. Looks like Windex in a cocktail glass. But it is pretty tasty!

Has no one mentioned Stolichnaya Persik????

Not really. Morimoto specializes in Japanese cuisine, not Chinese. Besides, he probably doesn't want to "compete" with another Iron Chef, just be Extra Special Guest Chef for the night.

Try Via Travel Design. They also specialize in arranging "foodie" oriented tours and know an awful lot of restaurants to recommend.

What he said. And what Carolyn said too. Someone once described Pinot Noir as "liquid chicken" because it goes with everything. It pretty much really does. The only thing original I could add to this discussion is that you should pair Chinese food with wine the same way you'd pair any other food with wine. Consider the sauce, consider the "weightiness" of the dish and find a comparable "weightiness" in the wine, and consider the underlying secondary flavors in the wine. An earthy Pinot Noir compliments dishes with mushrooms because there's a similar aromatic component. A crisp and citrusy Sauvignon Blanc compliments seafood because LEMON compliments seafood, etc. And don't be drinking one of those high alcohol content Turley Zinfandels with a Szechuan dish because the alcohol will just make the spices seem even more fiery and ruin the balance of the dish. Your mouth will be on fire and absolutely nothing will taste good anymore. If you were cooking two identical pieces of Dover Sole, but had one in a delicate cream sauce and one blackened Cajun style you wouldn't expect the same wine to match both dishes, would you? Carry this logic to the next level and you should be fine.

Dude! That's pretty cool. My hat's off to you!

Ludja: Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. Without belaboring the point and getting into all sorts of nonsense you don't need to be discussing with your server the easiest way to get a "short" martini would probably be to: 1) Ask if the "regular" martinis are supersized 2) Then ask for a "shot" of your favorite spirit served chilled and "up". Explain about not wanting a HUGE martini and just say you'd like to be served your vodka/gin chilled and up with or without vermouth, garnishes, etc. Server should be able to ring that into almost any system with appropriate instructions to the bartender. And you shouldn't be getting charged for a humungous drink, just the same thing you would be for say a vodka/tonic. You just don't want the tonic and you want your vodka in a different sort of glass. Another approach is to say "shake the hell out of it" because it will melt more ice and dilute your drink somewhat. Works well if you're stretching that cocktail before moving on to the wine with dinner.

Duly edited. Thanks for catching that. No Freud - just a lousy typist working on a lousy night's sleep last night and completely lacking focus today. Certainly Morimoto is better than Mr. Starr's other sushi restaurant, Pod, they of the conveyor belt and color changing booths ("Oooooooohhhh! The booths change color!" BFD in my book. And eating sushi that's been spinning around on a conveyor belt? Gah!) and again, way more style than substance. The selection of fish at Morimoto was better than *most* other places, but I wasn't as blown away by the quality of the fish as I felt I should have been at those prices. The preparations were creative, but suffered with the quality of fish IMHO. Sushi and sashimi are all about the freshness and pristineness of the fish itself. No matter how skillfully sliced or artfully placed on the plate, if the fish isn't sublime then I'm just not so impressed. Fuji excels at both the preparation and selection of high quality fish at half the price of Morimoto. No waiters hawking silly Saketinis because it's BYO or acting like it's my privilege to be in their restaurant for the night, in spite of the fact that they can't answer a relatively simple question because it isn't part of the little skit they perform at each table dozens of times per night. Was this a limited statisical sampling? Sure it was, and I'll be the first one to admit that. I was there once to eat and one other time for drinks. Haven't been back since because the place didn't live up to the hype or sadly, it's potential. As far as the entire stable of Starr restaurants goes, I find the food a Tangerine to be the most interesting and the most legitimate value. Morimoto is certainly good, but since other alternatives exist I won't bother going back. If there were no Fuji or Sagami as close by as they are then I suppose Morimoto would be the best Japanese that Philly has to offer. But the service issues and the price would still bother me.

I will confess a fondness for Licor 43 (also known as "Quarenta y Tres"), a vanilla and herb liqueur form Mexico to give drinks a vanilla flavor. One of the cocktails we make here at Rouge is called a Piñata and it contains: 2.5 oz. Stoli Vanilla 1.5 oz. Licor 43 1.5 oz. Pineapple juice Shake together and strain into a sugar rimmed cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry. Muy delicioso!

So, the liquor cost of ~ 25% is something that works in your place, and an industry rule of thumb, but not necessarily the only formula that works? A place with low overhead (you have to see the inside of mrbigjas' bar -- their note was pobably paid off 20 years ago, about the last time they renovated) could cut margins a bit in exchange for more volume? Especially in a down-scale location? Yes. Obviously if a proprietor owns the building he's in it cuts down on overhead tremendously. Then the RENT comes out of the long laundry list of non-cost of goods expenses that have to be paid each month like payroll, utilities, taxes, insurances, regularly scheduled maintenances like hoods cleaned, exterminator, replacement china and glassware, etc, etc. etc. As for there being only one formula that works, that's never the case in any industry. There are, however, industry standards that make certain assumptions about the businesses using that model having certain fundamental similarities. There was an article in the NYT just TODAY talking about this very phenomenon with wine sales and costs. Of course Landmarc, the restaurant in question, does indeed own their building. They'd have to in order to afford the minimal markups they're charging for the wines and still maintain the "excess luxury" expenses like nice glassware, linens, decor, etc. that they do have. A place like Bob & Barbara's certainly doesn't have a several hundred dollar a week flower bill, doesn't rent linens, etc. The downer and dirtier you are the less of those "extras" your clientele expects or expects to pay for. And the easier it is for you to get away with the economies of scale like using 1.75L bottles of the least expensive well liquor you can find that calculate out to mere pennies per oz. and allows you even lower cost of goods percentages as I illustrated earlier. And Beans, my only comment would be that a cost of goods percentage that includes liquor, wine and beer is by definition, an average, not a minimum that you have to achieve.

Pinziminio in Beach Haven is gone and has been replaced by Sweet Vidalia which is BYO. Had a lovely dinner there last month with a large group of friends.

Sara: If you'll read carefully I didn't even mention Fuji (or Sagami). Obviously I didn't need to as my opinion is well documented . However, in my limited experience at Morimoto I found the portions precious, and certainly of no higher quality than could be had elsewhere. I find the drinks overpriced and the specialty cocktails pretty lame. Also, the servers I saw were clueless about the menu with the exception of the canned little speech they had very well memorized that pushed the overpriced specialty cocktails and upsold the more expensive specials to pump up the check. Any questions that deviated from the "script" were met with a blank stare. The food and a knowledgeable waitstaff are as much a part of the "ambiance" of a meal as the high priced designer that picked out the spectacular and expensive light fixtures. Perhaps even moreso. Style over substance. Performance art with food and a cast of waiters and sushi chefs. Not a special occasion place in my book.

I would assert that the high price is precisely what makes super-premium vodkas sell. People think, "it costs more so it has to be better." The same is true for many things. Isn't the old saw in the antiques business, "if it isn't selling, raise the price"? Ironically, it works. I'm pretty sure that your observation and mine complement, rather than contradict, each other. The power of marketing and the drive for status are a potent combination. Oh, absolutely. Although it works equally well on people who don't have a lot of disposable money. A fool and his money are soon parted, but seldom by another fool.

I won't argue with you here. That's why I drink a more frugally priced mid range vodka at home. But when you're running one of the busiest cocktail bars in a city this size, you have to have what people will ask for by name in their martinis. For us that's Grey Goose, Belvedere, Ketel One and Stoli for vodka and Tanqueray, Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray #10 for gins. The pricing is set by the PLCB (hint: the "C" stands for CONTROL) from whom I must buy all product, so I have little say in the pricing structure. And as much as I'd love to get the savings by buying 1.75 L bottles, they don't fit in the speed racks and they look kinda cheesey behind a bar. And the 1L bottles have the same problem. In NJ they package 1L bottles specifically for restaurant use. In PA the 1L bottles are only occasionally available so your usage calculations would change from week to week. Too confusing and too innaccurate. In PA a 750 ml bottle of Jim Beam costs $18.49 + 7% tax. That's a unit cost of $19.80. That comes to .78/oz. A "shot" is generally 1.5 oz. so that's 1.17. Plus the can of beer that probably costs them around .70 (~$17 case of 24) so the "Bob & Barbara's Happy Meal" costs them close to $2 to serve to you. They're charging $3? Clearly this is not where they're making their money. In marketing terms the Happy Meal could be called the "Loss Leader".

You might want to investigate local parking lots for a space you can reserve for the Brinks truck you'll need to have with you to pay the bill. If you really want to drop that much coin for your birthday you can surely do better than Morimoto. Style over substance and service.

Do any of you guys think the teeth are a little off-putting? (heh, heh, heh) Really? A few of the guys I showed it to said they thought they'd have "trouble peeing" with their moral compasses pointing north when faced with big juicy open red lips smiling at them while they tried valiantly to urinate and think of England.

Mark is right. Add to that what's mentioned in the second article linked about the huge surplus of Australian wines hitting the market due to overproduction, the easy to read and understand labels that require no knowledge of geography, wine region history, what's planted where, etc. and the newer, wiser British wine consumer is snapping up the bargains left and right without having to study up before heading to the wine shop. Wines that are touted as the "biggest sellers", by definition, have to have the volume of product to back that up. The little boutique winery that only produces 500 cases/year is NEVER going to compete for that title. They can't. The big Refinery-not-Winery sized producers also have the revenue and structure to have a Marketing department that's making sure they stay in that position with well placed advertising in the wine press (think big beautiful full page four color ads in The Wine Spectator) and on TV and radio (Ecco Domani, Turning Leaf, Arbor Mist anyone?) donations of product to charities or wine education groups like Wine Brats, etc. that will make their products more accessable to the thirsty masses yearning to drink freely, and will become much like Kleenex, Band-Aids or Q-Tips - a BRAND of wine the average consumer will recognize and reach for again and again because it's readily available, not a high quality fermented beverage that's reflective of terroir, excellent horticulture and the able hand of a skilled artisan winemaker. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy to a great extent. Sell oceans of crappy wine that was cheap to produce because it's made from high yield overcropped fruit in less desirable areas (read: NOT the high rent terroir of Bordeaux or Napa Valley), make lots of money, spend money on advertising/marketing/product placement to stay in the public eye, make MORE money, etc., etc. The cycle will repeat ad infinitum because as has been pointed out here and in other threads, "fine wine" is but a tiny fraction at the top of the market. Most folks buy wine for immediate consumption, at a price point that is more important to them than what's actually in the bottle.

Ahem Katie. Donkey's Place Ahem... I stand corrected, Oh Great One. Who's pandering?

Actually the cost of goods runs even lower in a corner "shot & a beer" joint. And they're serving the really low end well stuff usually. Even at a "cheap" bar you're paying about $4 for a well vodka (say Popov or Banker's club) and mixer (say a vodka/tonic). A 1L bottle of well vodka costs about $7. There's 33.8 oz. in it. That means it costs approx. .21/oz. for that vodka. Two oz. is a standard "shot" pour for a highball drink. At $4 the cost of goods comes to 5.25%. Who's ripping you off now? Draft beer cost runs in the single digits in many places. If you figure that I work in a place where the "well" liquors are Absolut, Bacardi, Maker's Mark and Cuervo Gold, AND we have some costs that the corner shot & beer don't have but that add to your pleasure like nice glassware (that breaks - OFTEN), linen cocktail napkins, flower arrangements on the bar, etc. I think your high end experience at my bar is a bargain by comparison. Oh yeah - and this ain't retail. The equations for "retail" and the equations for food and liquor/wine sales have as much to do with each other as fish and bicycles. I'll say it again. This is why so many restaurants and bars fail. No one thinks about the myriad costs involved that have picked your pocket before you even had an opportunity to consider them.

Working late tonight to catch up on a few things. Ordered one of the dinner specials this evening to tide me over: Jersey Tomato Salad with crumbled Cabrales cheese and Baby Basil. Dressed simply with Fleur de Sel, first press EVOO and two large slices of grilled Rosemary focaccia. YUMMY!!

Our martinis here at Rouge have a four oz. pour of Gin/Vodka. That's 1/6 of a bottle! Belvedere costs 27.99 in PA + 7% tax per bottle. That comes to a unit price of 28.89 per bottle. Call it $29 even and divide by 25.4 ounces in a 750 ml bottle. That's $1.15 per oz. Multiply times 4 and the drink costs us $4.60 to serve. If liquor cost of goods were even at 25% then we'd have to price that cocktail at $18.40 to keep our costs in line. We currently charge $12. That's a freakin bargain. It's generally more cost effective to order vodka or gin "up" because there's only a price modifier of $1-$2 for that over the base price of a "shot". I think I need to examine our pricing structure tomorrow...

The only connection that's consistent is that the cultures that put the cork in the pot with the cephalopods are all wine producing regions.

Chef Portale has left the kitchen at the re-opened Striped Bass in the capable hands of Chef de Cuisine Christopher Lee. I've heard mixed reviews on the new regime, but mostly the complaints had to do with service (and many were coming from the service staff themselves, my former coworkers and friends, that aren't "allowed" to greet and take care of the guests the way they used to). I'll still back my original suggestion of Deux Cheminees. And they'll definitely have proper stemware to go with their well chosen wine list. No BYOB in Philly is going to compare with Blue Hill or something similar in NY because the BYOBs here tend to be small, cramped and deafeningly noisy. It's part of their charm, to be sure, but it won't be a peak experience from the ambiance point of view no matter how you slice it. If you're comfortable with that, then you'll have a wonderful time, and I'll be the first to defend the fantastic "BYO culture" that Philly has developed. But for a really quality experience in the vein that you seem to be describing (pretty room, tabletop trappings, wonderful food) you're going to have to stick with one of the nicer and more formal restaurants here in town or perhaps Savona in Gulph Mills a short ride away. Do a Google search on the suggestions you've gotten and see which one suits your ideals the best.

This may all be true, but the farm markets where I've purchased the mutant mis-shapen ones I pictured earlier have always called those "Jersey" tomatoes. And sometimes they've been right next to the heirlooms that were identified by variety. Go figure. It's all rather confusing I think it might be a matter of semantics at this point. Some folks call the Jersey GROWN tomatoes Jerseys and others seem to think it's a varietal. I hope all the local farmers can recover from yesterday's flooding conditions. My understanding is that the Medford and Medford Lakes area is under several feet of water. Some areas got three months worth of rain in one day yesterday

Speaking as one whose Cheesesteak Jones strikes very infrequently (much like yourself, apparently), I have to put in another vote for Pat's vs. Geno's. The meat's just better. Somehow if I'm on the Geno's side of the street at that hour seeking post-bar-hopping eats I end up at La Lupe instead of Geno's.