mrbigjas
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Posts posted by mrbigjas
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I don't see the problem: at the 20% norm, what would be the extra tip you're going to leave if you calculate based on the tax? It would be $5 if the tax was $25, and that's a kind of extreme example. For most places you're talking about more like $1-2, if that. If you're already spending the money on dinner, what difference does that $1-2 make?
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I thought it was a lot of fun, even with all the issues mentioned so far. And despite my long-time dislike of Bobby Flay, his dishes looked really freakin tasty. I'm gonna give Flay-bashing a pass for a little while.
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Edit:
Goddammit, I'm an idiot. I'm gonna be in Toronto that day, and before that and the rest of that week, except when I'm visiting fancy Canayjun wineries and seeing Niagara Falls for a couple days. Either way, I'm not going to be in town*. The 26th and the 3rd were great for me; why doesn't this entire site revolve around my schedule? Sigh.
(*as a friend of mine just said, "you are the most travelling motherfucker I know." Well, what are you gonna do...)
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I'm totally there, and available both dates. Yes to the sweetbreads, also.
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as we sat, Men At Work was on the stereo. another bad sign. but i quickly realized that there's just not enough aussie music to make the soundtrack 100% aussie. what are we talkin here, Men At Work, Midnight Oil, Oliva-Newton John, AC/DC. did i miss 1 or 2?
AIR SUPPLY
(although the phil collins that followed made me want to gouge my eardrums out with me steak knife).OH GOD
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The easiest way to get there is to come down the turnpike, then across the Ben Franklin Bridge, and continue down 95, getting off at Columbus Blvd (the natives still call it Delaware Ave), left at the end of the ramp onto Delaware, and then up Washington Ave to 10th, left on 10th, left on Federal, left on Passyunk--you can't miss it once you're near there. Parking is rarely a problem if you know how to parallel park. Have fun.
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Probably about 45 or 50, I'm guessing.
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All right, I'm bumping this thread up again. We just had a ridiculously pleasant dinner at Tartine tonight (inspired to revisit from this topic, I admit, although we'd been trying to schedule a night out for a while)--and there was ONE OTHER COUPLE in the restaurant the whole night. We were there from about 8 to 10. THIS MUST CHANGE. I don't want this restaurant to go away, because seriously I don't know of anywhere else in town you can get classic dishes like this on a regular basis.
Pardon any French spelling butcherings below; I took Spanish and Mandarin in school.
apps we enjoyed:
salade verte
onion soup
lentil salad
The onion soup is everything this soup is supposed to be--a deeply flavored dark stock, well-caramelized onions to the point of nearly being undetectable, a top of broiled cheese. The only problem I have is that the crouton was apparently made of a black bread, which kind of overwhelmed the other flavors when you got a piece. The green salad's vinaigrette had something more than mine do, which I'm currently attributing to a hotter dijon mustard than my usual Maille (I discovered recently that Maille makes an extra hot version, which I bought a jar of, but haven't used yet, and which I'm hoping is closer to the nose-clearing dijon we got in Paris). The lentil salad makes me wonder how I could have hated lentils with the vehemence I did as a child.
(there were also coquilles st. jacques, tomate provencal and something else on the app menu)
Entrees tonight that we enjoyed were the Pojarsky, the beef curry, and the St. Pierre Meuniere. (other options were a risotto they were out of, steak frites, salmon pau pau, whatever that is, poulet saute, and something else I don't remember).
The beef curry was a little sweet--tender, long-stewed beef with nicely balanced spices, although not as hot as it could have been. The chef mentioned that he believes that curry should bring perspiration to the forehead with the first bite, but that he doesn't make it that way for his customers.
The Pojarsky was just great... here's the thing about this dish: everything about it is familiar, and I think that it's that all the chicken nuggets and preprepared breaded chicken cutlets and shake and bake and all the shit we were all brought up with were imitating dishes like this. So it's familiar, and yet so much more--you just think to yourself, so THAT's what all that prepared stuff I was eating as a kid is supposed to be like.
The St. Pierre meuniere was good too. I'm tempted to call this whole menu comfort food, because it is, but I kinda hate that term. The key thing (and I think the thing where it loses praise when you read through on-line reviews) is that there's nothing inventive, or that strikes you as surprising for what you'd expect for a bistro (except possibly the pojarsky). It's exactly what it's supposed to be: familiar bistro dishes, done the way they're supposed to be. Well goddammit, I like that stuff. I like that there is this place in Philadelphia, where an old, practiced hand can make these dishes the way they are meant to be made, and we can enjoy them.
So everyone go. Go now, go often, especially on weeknights, dammit. Keep it in business.
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Are people put off by the science stuff? I'd like to include some chemical formulas in the next unit.
Hells no! Go for it.
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Yeah, SaladAlley in the warehouse space at 41st & Locust with Bocce pizza and Urban Outfitters and Video Library. Bocce was probably the first place I had wood-oven pizza. They were certainly a destination for us--but then again we lived across the street.
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Bistro Bix, 12/Sansom: Site of the old London. Peter Dunmire's first exec Chef job, I think.
What was the place that was there right before that? Lawyer hangout after work, good food, where I first learned to drink martinis lo these many years ago. Damn, I can't think of it now. They had a bartender named Pat or Patrick, who was also a painter, who made a great martini, in fact the way I still drink them--Bombay with a decent amount of vermouth. Hm, damn, I.... ODEON. That's it.
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I miss Levis too.
Also Magnolia Cafe. Not because it was that great--although if I remember right it was pretty damn good--but because I went to eat there a lot at a time in my life when a lot of things were going on and I didn't have much money, so they were all memorable to me.
Also Phillippe. I know it was only there for a very short while, but we went there once and I had an absolutely stunningly good meal. I wish it had survived; it was so nice in an old-school kinda way.
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rlibkind is right about that lamb--it's about the best I've had since I was a kid and my grandparents used to get lamb from their neighbors upstate.
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mmmmmmmmmmortadella. they should make mortadella flavored gelato at capog..... no, maybe not.
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I've had that Rosemary Goat Milk Honey flavor and it's un-freakin-believably delicious. I have to agree that it's one of the best things ever. You should try some of the other seemingly plain sounding fruit flavors too. Peach, strawberry, etc. are just the pure essence of the flavor of fruit. I'll bet the Meyer Lemon/Grey Goose was pretty good too!
They are great indeed. I've said before--and I'll say again--that the pistachio there tastes more like pistachios than pistachios do. I got that lemon/vodka flavor because that's one of my favorite summer drinks--vodka straight up with a lemon twist (another favorite summer drink is gin and bitter lemon, but not a lot of bars have bitter lemon around all the time).
Anyway, it was good; you could taste the vodka in it.
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I didn't think about Capogiro much over the winter, because... well, it's cold in winter.
Anyway, stopped by today. Had a meyer lemon/grey goose vodka flavor, and also noticed black walnut, which I didn't have, but would have if I'd seen it first. But my wife got the best flavor ever:
Rosemary goat milk honey. SO FREAKIN GOOD. I can't emphasize enough how good this is. Go get some now. Go!
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Excellent idea, Rich. I agree that Tartine needs to be kept open. You don't get old-school cooking like that very often.
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I've also done it with broken spaghetti/angel hair. In fact, I've combined same with rice. Voilà - home-made Rice-a-Roni! with only thrice the effort, and it only tastes about ten times better. But the principle is the same. (Also goes to confirm that even the timing matches that of risotto.)
In my experience (using orzo) it goes more quickly than risotto--under 15 minutes as compared to the 20 or so for risotto.
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Thanks, sounds like a real treat.
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So wait, I have a question: how did the $117 come about? I mean, is it a set price, or do they charge you a price for the buffet plus supplements for additional more expensive items, or is it a la carte, or what? Just curious.
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WARNING: Don't overstay the two hours. If you exceed the two hours, you won't get that initial discount price of $4.50 vs. $16.50; instead, you'll be charged the $16.50 less 50 cents per token.
Just wanted to repeat that part, and add: give yourself extra time, too. I was there one day when the machines were down, and there was a line to pay upstairs, and people were waiting 15-20 minutes in the line all told, and for several people the delay caused them to overstay the two hours by the time they got up there to pay.
There was a lotta yelling, is alls I'm sayin.
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The PR Department at Starr Restaurant Group is about to kick into overdrive. With Striped Bass mere weeks from re-opening and Continental West coming up over the horizon, there's a lot of "work" to be done.
does anyone know where continental west is going to be?
In that ugly building on the northwest corner of 18th & Chestnut, from what I've heard.
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Wow, looks like an excellent time there, Rich. Nice job. Maybe next year I'll be able to attend.
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Edit to say this is in response to Jinmyo's "Seriously, folks. Severe?" question:
Definitely. Things like that are what makes me glad that there's an option to turn them off. Yours makes you look horribly severe. Jason Perlow's (the last time I saw it) was downright creeparific. Holly's is just kinda nasty. There are others, I'm sure, but I can't remember what they are because I've had them turned off for a while now (it also makes it easier to browse at work if there's not a bunch of blinking pictures on your screen SHHHHHHH don't tell anyone).
Rediscovering Capogiro
in Pennsylvania: Dining
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Bassett's peach ice cream is a wonderful gift from our great lord. I love me some gelato, but life without Bassett's peach wouldn't be worth living.