KatieLoeb

Honestly, over the last several years I saw less and less of Matt behind the bar because he was in the kitchen producing the amazing cooked foods. There was always an able apprentice or two behind the bar slicing the fish that Matt so carefully procures. I was never worried that Matt wasn't slicing my fish. I sincerely hope your experience was an aberration. As I said, my meal there was fine, although I didn't order an omakase this time out - just straightforward sushi and sashimi. And it was delicious. And the service was as bad in the dining room as it ever was. Maybe worse. But the fish was delicious. I'm going to have to go in and sit at the bar one night (with an advance reservation, of course) and be a bit more observant.

Cool. I like the idea of being able to separate red from white and spirits from wine. It's a definite improvement. Hopefully fancier software and search capabilities won't be the only improvements. edited to add: I stand corrected. The search mechanism isn't working. You can only see the list sorted by name, as it was previously. Any other attempts to sort or filter gives you a "Currently Unavailable. Please try again later" message.

This and no mention of the farmer's markets we DO have, the Fair Food stand within the RTM and some of the other artisinal cheese vendors was what I was talking about. Even if Ms. Cowin was led around by the nose by the Philly mag folks or some other cadre of local PR folks, surely they knew about the other options. What's up with that?

Is there not a reference somewhere about drinking the blood of one's enemies out of cups fashioned from their skulls? Shakespeare? Mayan legend? Something? Sounds like righteous solid vengeance to me....

Yeah maybe. But I also think she didn't really look that hard if she only found one cocktail bar, thought DiBruno's was all there was in terms of gourmet markets and sadly, did leave out the city's sandwich culture, which is what we have in spades over everyone else. And no mention of great beer bars and gastropubs makes me think she's still stuck back in the 90's in terms of what Philly has to offer. BYOB's are a thriving dining option here, but so are the gastropubs, smaller restaurants with liquor licenses and interesting wine lists (with or without a full time "sommelier" on the floor) and other options that simply don't exist in other places. Did she forget to Google eGullet and read the PA forum before she got here? Looks that way to me. <shrug> But since there's no such thing as bad publicity (except for your mug shot and the word "alleged" in fornt of your name) I suppose we should be happy. I hope she comes back and digs a little deeper. She could dig with a teaspoon and unearth some treasures that aren't really that hidden.

Make sure you have some sort of home for your squeeze bottles of fresh juices, simple syrup(s), flavored simple (if you're feeling adventurous) as well as somewhere for your fruit garnishes to live where they aren't wilting in the hot sun. Maybe a trough of ice that could be replenished as needed could house all of the above?

Do I need to know the current price of copper if I'm not planning to melt the pan down? I dunno. Can you put a price on the karma that comes with a pan that's been used by a brilliant chef and cooked dishes that made happy memories for hundreds if not thousands of people? I'd say that's worth the price of admission right there. The pan comes with good vibes in it already. Works for me.

I was bringing mine home, so I only ordered the pepper hash and added a smear of good Dijon mustard at home. If comsuming on premise, I'd ask for mustard and pepper hash on a surf n" turf. Let us know if you liked it.

Time to bump this thread up. Lunch today from Johnny Hots: I had to be up and about early today to do some shopping for work. Had time to swing by and have a Philly Surf n' Turf with pepper hash on top. Definitely as good as I remember, and very filling. I won't need to eat for the rest of the day.

An oldie but goodie and one of my favorite summer beverages: Diablo 2 oz. Tequila .75 oz. Creme de Cassis .75 oz. lime juice Ginger ale Build in a Collins glass, give it one shake and top with ginger ale and a lime wedge. Muy refrescoso!

David's Mai Lai Wah at the corner of 10th & Race is a block away and has a pretty extensive menu as well as a bar. If you want to call it that. Philadining and I once ordered a few of the $5 cocktails and were stunned to find they bore no resemblance to the recipes for said drinks. But at least it was cheap! But even they can't screw up a few beers. And there's great dumplings (make sure you get the ginger sauce with them), beef and broccoli chow fun with satay sauce and salt and pepper squid or salt and pepper shrimp that has the same tasty ginger dipping sauce as the dumplings.

The menu I saw this weekend looked like it had a few smaller items on it, but was for all intents a regular menu. I had the charred asparagus and beet salad and the mussels on Saturday evening and they were both delicious. The mussels were a bowl full with a tomatoey broth and a bit of feta cheese crumbled over the top. I wished I'd had more bread to dunk in the sauce. Sunday night we started with the Asian Crab soup that had a lot of lump crab meat in it and a big tangle of cellophane noodles. I had the pork chop and a taste of my friend's lamb chops. Both also very tasty. The menu will be growing larger when the real season starts. Certainly worth you checking it out one night. Martini Beach has been remodelled inside to be less "clubby" and more oriented to fine dining. The menu is a reflection of that, I think.

Just got back from Cape May tonight. Copperfish looked closed when I passed it today. My friend that is proprietor of Martini Beach said she heard it's supposed to open but has seen no signs of that as of yet, nor heard anything about a definitive opening date. Methinks it's bitten the dust. I had a nice lunch at Lobster House. Cape May Salts and Littlenecks on the half shell, Snapper soup and lobster salad. Basic stuff that was exactly as I wished it to be.

This drink was featured in the Sunday New York Times several years ago and is a favorite of ours. Bella Donna 1 oz Gosling’s Black Seal rum 1 oz Amaretto 2 tablespoons fresh sour mix (1 tablespoon each of lemon, lime juices, water, sugar) Rim martini glass w/Cinnamon Sugar My math is bad so I'm not sure if the amount of sour mix is the same as your recipe. The cinnamon sugar is addictive. This usually gets a lot of play in the cooler months for us. ← The cocktail book it's from is Shaken and Stirred by William L. Hamilton, a collection of his cocktail columns from the NY Times. It's a great little book and has some interesting signature cocktail recipes in it from restaurants in New York and beyond. The amount of sour mix is an approximation. I just gave it a short spill of it from the container at my bar. This is a very tasty drink and I will definitely be recommending to customers looking for a dessert drink, after dinner beverage or a sweet nightcap. I suspect it might be just as good with Frangelico or Nocello rather than Amaretto if folks like those flavors better. I'll try this again with the dash of bitters and I think it will be just about perfect.

Tonight I made a Bella Donna from a recipe in one of my newer cocktail books. 1.5 oz. Gosling's Rum 1.5 oz. Amaretto di Saronno .5 oz. sour mix Shaken and strained into a cinnamon sugar rimmed glass. A nice dessert drink. Not too sweet. I think a dash of my Whiskey Barrel Aged bitters would have made this absolutely perfect, but they were at home and I was at work.

Got out of work early enough last night to finally make it over to 707 before the kitchen was closed. Tried the Pig in a Blanket (one dog, wrapped in dough, cut into thirds) and the Reuben Spring Rolls. Spring rolls were truly delicious. Little side of Russian dressing to dip them in. Cute and very tasty. These rank up there with the Cheesesteak spring rolls at Davio's that are served with the spicy ketchup (Sriracha and Heinz in equal proportions). Had a couple of glasses of a very nice Syrah to accompany. I had to strain my brain a little to decide what wine paired with hot dogs.

Now that Minar Palace is gone, I'm all about Tiffin. My recent take out from there was some of the best Indian I've had anywhere. And they deliver if I want. What more could a masala-jonesing girl ask for?

We're currently serving Wolfe Neck strip steaks on the menu at M. Comes with Royal Trumpet mushrooms, asparagus, creamy white polenta and madeira jus. Not a home cooked steak, but pretty damned tasty. They sell very well.

I don't disagree with any of your very valid points. But it still worked. The sweet vermouth was delicious with the brandy element as well as echoing the sweetness of the bourbon. I think a dry vermouth (or even the M&R Bianco which I consider a "perfect" vermouth) might have been too dry for the final end result. Tonight I tweaked this out a bit further at home, with what I had on hand which was considerably less than my small but reasonably well stocked bar at work. 1.5 oz bourbon (Heaven Hill - my at home mixing bourbon) .5 oz. Chalfonte Cognac (no apricot brandy at home) .75 oz. sweet vermouth 1.5 oz Nantucket Nectar Orange-Peach juice (reproduceable with peach nectar and OJ in equal proportions) juice of 1/4 lemon 2 dashes Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters Now this is what I'm talkin' about! The bitters and lemon juice dialed back the sweetness perfectly. I think this is the final recipe for this. I just shook it and served it on the rocks. Quite refreshing in a well balanced way. I'll be drinking these until I finish the OJ-Peach juice.

I made it to Fuji for my Sunday evening dinner as planned. I hadn't made a reservation since I was coming from a theater performance I wasn't sure of a specific end time for. Luckily there was a table for us, but I wasn't able to sit at the sushi bar which would have been my preference. In the move, the sushi bar gained all of two seats, so now there's eight seats instead of the six there were at the old Route 130 location. The dining room is very nicely appointed, although I must say that the waterfall decoration above our table was dangerously close to constantly splashing on my dining companion. Big wet spot on the banquette next to her by the time we left. Service in the dining room is as it always was. Glacially slow and very forgetful. Thankfully the food was as great as ever. We'd brought a half bottle of the Chairman's Selection Gloria Ferrer Brut to start out and a bottle of a lovely sparkling Vouvray to finish out the meal with. I ordered the sushi sampler dinner (including soup and a salad) and an order of Tropical rolls (lump crab and mango inside out with roe) and an order of Amberjack (two pieces) as well. It was an assload of great sushi and I enjoyed every last bit of it. Chef Matt, was crusing the dining room and saying hello to the guests. When I asked him what he recommended, in his usual droll manner he answered, "The Fish is great tonight!" Nonetheless, I loved everything, even though my soup didn't arrive until I inquired after it, and I'm not certain the cold noodle dish I got was the salad I was expecting. Fuji is as it ever was. But it's still the best sushi in the Philly area by a longshot, and I'll still pit Chef Matt up against Morimotosan in anything other than a Sumo cage match.

Welcome to you, mhdousa! Hope to hear more from you in the future. Looking forward to mixing the libation of your choosing on your foray to the other side of my bar.

Not having any cherry brandy at the bar didn't stop me from riffing on a Blood and Sand. I subbed bourbon for the scotch and apricot brandy for the cherry. End result was very tasty. 1 oz. Bourbon (Knob Creek in this case) 1 oz. Apricot Brandy 1 oz. Sweet Vermouth 1 oz. Orange juice Shaken and strained and garnished with a lemon twist. Next time, a flamed orange twist to see if that does what I hope it will. Can't think of a good name for this drink. Any suggestions?

Seems the coincidental inclusion of rum, lime and simple make it a "daiquiri". I'm all for the idea of savory cocktails. I once did a saffron-vanilla martini. But the avocado and pomegranate combo I'm skeptical about. I'd have to taste that to believe it's good.

No arm twisting required, huh? Why am I not surprised...

Hi Betsy: Sahara Grill at 13th & Walnut has really good Middle Eastern food at reasonable prices. Not terribly fancy, but there will be something for everyone on that menu. If lightning won't strike your friend dead walking through the door, Capital Grill has enough gigantic salads and vegetable sides to create a decent meal from, as well as allowing the rest of you to have a good steak, and everyone to have some nice wine or a cocktail. This is presuming that watching the rest of you eat big honking slabs of meat won't put them off. Another meat-fest would be Fogo de Chao, but there is that salad bar that probably has enough nutrition on it for a vegetarian. McCormick & Schmick might be a good bet too.