Scoats

I found it surreal and unsettling. It is indeed a giant stage set. I've never been to Paris but I have a feeling Parc was copied verbatim from somewhere there. It all felt too perfectly dressed. There seemed to be a lot of stuff that was not there for function but was there for stage feel. The question/issue for me is: If I'm on Rittenhouse Sq in Philadelphia, which is really a world class location and indeed somewhere worth being, do I want to/need to pretend I am in Paris? Eating French food in a good restaurant on Rittenhouse Square should be enough without the theatrics. The food was very good and the prices seemed reasonable for the most part. It was a very nice dining experience but it felt forced and phony. I'm an adult. I live in a world class city. I don't feel the need to pretend I am elsewhere.

They are officially called "ribbies". I refused to put it on the menu as ribbies and went with shanks instead. Pat was trying to get me to change it to ribbies last month claiming they weren't moving as shanks. He hasn't mentioned it lately. If he does, I'll try to have them called pork wings. Whatever you call them, they are tasty.

I finally managed to make it to Dock Street. After the yuppieness of the original location, the total funkiness of this one is a nice change. It fits the neighborhood like a glove. Sort of like how the original fit it's very different location back in the 80s. - Scott and Mike's beers are first rate. - The flaming koochie is a tasty pie. - Very diverse clientel. - Active street life outside the window. - From the outside, the firehouse looks like it was built to be a brewery. It looks like something in Europe. Everything combined, Dock Street is a place that definitely has a "there" to it. IMO as brewpubs go, it's definitely world class.

Is that 1 to 2% week in and week out, or even daily? Seems to me you can make some serious money if you sell the same things to the same people every week. Even a meager percentage can be good if you are making it non-stop.

Quoting the Inky Article: That e-mail - which Dunston did not provide a copy of - triggered a conversation among board members about whether to keep Rick's Steaks. Dunston said Olivieri was aware of his position, but made no overtures to the board and instead raised the same concerns to a board member in May. Shortly after that, the board contacted Tony Luke's, Dunston said. In June the board told Olivieri that he had to be out July 31. "The board made the decision," Dunston said. "It was a six-to-one decision to remove him. And we're carrying out the wishes of the board." From my experience with non-profit boards, the unpaid board pretty much allows the paid manager to set the course. They do take votes to make things legal and official, but they bow to the manager because he/she is running the operation on a day to day basis. The directors attend bi-monthly meetings if the organization is lucky. From my experience managers in these situations just use the board as the fall guys for their own decisions. That might not be the case here, but read between the lines of his quote what you will. Also in the article was: Dunston doesn't see it that way. He said he had not dealt with vendors like this at other shopping locations. Pretty telling. Everyone knows the RTM isn't like other shopping locations, that's the point of RTM.

I thought the food was way more than "good enough". I have had lesser food at several Center City restaurants and paid a lot more for it. I concur that the choice of chicken or chicken was indeed odd. However for someone to make assumptions about the food based on pictures seems unjustified IMO. Being a lifelong Northeast resident I have not noticed one side of the Blvd being noticeably more affluent than the other.

The salmon mousse on cucumber was phenomenal. The chicken confeit was wonderful as well. Unlike Sandy, I really dug the dark chocolate grenoche with raspberry sauce. I have determined that I love desserts that mix chocolate (or ice cream) with crispy wheaty carbs, so it definitely was something I was going to like, and the fruit sauce was understated which really appealed to me. Joan runs a great place. Regular menu stand outs include the not be missed Quesadilla and the Fried Chicken. Both are so good, it's hard for me to try other items on the menu. Sandy, no pix of the mosaic out front?

It is what you would mentally picture. Various rolls with I guess American ingredients. Ingredients in the numerous types of rolls included beef, salmon, and eel (not necessarily all in the same roll). The various rolls had a great combining of ingredients. Mmmm eel.

Yeah, the good thing is (if they are wise) they now know they need a back-up plan that doesn't rely on the whims of RTM management.

I was at Rae for an event on Wednesday. I don't know how this relates to their regular menu, but the American Sushi bar was fantastic! Very creative AND tasty.

Did Feeley really say that? RTM is effectively Rick Steak's only location. The ballpark concessions from my understanding are officially Aramark operations. The companies involved are actively involved with their concessions, but they ultimately are Aramark operations with employees getting Aramark paychecks. Oliveri is supposed to lose his main source of income, get shafted by management of RTM and then suck it up for the good of the market? The upside is that all of the other merchants there now know where they stand. If the management is going to shaft a 25yr tenant, then the merchants know not to put down roots or invest too much in their RTM location. It is like when the giant insurance company I worked for suddenly switched from a great place to work to a truly horrible one. It took some adjustment but I learned to keep my desk ready to clear out quickly and to have a what's in it for me attitude at all times with management. I learned to always look out for myself and learned not to care what was good for the company because they could shaft me (or any employee) on a whim. It's not how I like to deal with people, but that was the situation.

I kept waiting for this story to become less lopsided but it hasn't. RTM Management seems incredibly hamfisted and arrogant. Tony Luke's is an amazing local institution, but they aren't known for their cheese steaks and their record of opening and close up shops should concern any rational organization that expects them to be an anchor tenant. It's amazing to this outsider that RTM Mgmt is so intent on making themselves the bad guys.

Zento is probably my favorite sushi place at the moment. Makiman in the NE is 2nd. Both offer very inventive rolls. Maybe we can get a Wednesday night get-together at Zento. I don't need much encouragement to go back there.

Me and Mrs. had a date night there. I think the comment about it being for people who equate price with quality hits it right on the head. Service was excellent but IMHO the taste of food wasn't up to what it cost us. That said I'd give it another go if it wasn't us paying the bill. I think people should be able to spend their money as they like, but it is a little depressing to sit there and know that due to the KOZ, the law partners are paying for it with the taxes they aren't paying, shuffling their tax load onto the rest of us.

The law is unfair for two reasons, it exempts chains and it exempts prepackaged foods in supermarkets. So basically it is a law that only applies to small businesses based in the city. Even worse it does very little to protect people from transfats. A better solution would have been to have the Dept of Health issue colorful door stickers to businesses that voluntarily complied. And voluntary compliance is pretty much all we will have with this anyway. It's not like the city is going to hire inspectors to check up on every little food place. I don't know anything about baking but I know that transfats haven't been around that long historically speaking. I'd have to think someone knew how to make great pound cake 100 years ago when transfats weren't available. Progressive businesses were getting rid of transfats before this law anyway, which is why having the Health Dept recognize voluntary compliance would have been better, plus we would have one less law on the books that gets ignored by a large percentage of citizens.

I second Sweet Lucys... great, great slaw. On a side note it's amazing how many places that serve otherwise very good food serve it with that dreadful out of the giant plastic tub slaw.

The fish entree and the dessert I had there could also be described by those exact four words and two hyphens. Beauiful room though.

From what I recall from reading about the trio fries at the long gone Dock Street Brewpub, different fries need different cooking tempatures. From that info, I suspect that sweet potato fries probably need their own dedicated, higher tempature fryer to come out crispy, that they would need to have the bejezes blanched out of them for a long time. I have no science or experience with sweet potato fries to back this up, it's just a hunch.

My friends, more my girlfriend's friends but mine too, are in "the community" though opposite gender of the current owners. If they decide to plunge in, it will definitely have extremely strong ties to the gay community. The rent while high, isn't a stumbling block. Though it would be an easier slog if it was lower. I told them to go for it. I don't know what they have decided. And it's not just Asians who know the value of owning the bricks.

Just the other night, I was talking to a couple who are interested in reopening a coffee shop there. On Sunday, I'll be giving them a hand looking at the financial feasibilty of doing that.

Double the alcohol definitely, maybe double everything.

It's from Southampton Publick House, a brewpub on Long Island. The Double White has justifiably getting a lot of positive buzz. While they have a long history of great beer, this seems to be the break-out beer for them.

We noticed Friday that the fries weren't as crispy as usual. One of those WTF moments that happen so often in restaurant kitchens. Patrick has increased the blanching time from the text book 3 minutes to 5 minutes. The fries are wonderfully crisp again. Holly, I hope you give us another shot.

> "We're not saints," responded Marathon partner Cary Borish Wow. So he's saying they did it on purpose? Wow.

Wow, those pix are making me hungry. I'm very disappointed that I had to miss it. On a postive note, I had a winning dart last night and we won the night 11-2.