slkinsey

Thanks for the tip! It is very hard to evaluate differences between lines of enameled cast iron. So much of it is tied up in the integrity of the enamel coating -- how many layers, how applied, chip, crack and stain resistance, etc. In re to your quest for an browning/braising/deep frying vessel... both an enameled cast iron casserole and a disk-bottom rondeau would work very well. The enameled cast iron is definitely best for low/slow braising, but is not great for browning meats and vegetables and probably not as versatile as the rondeau. Either one would be a good choice. It all depends on what you're looking for.

Adam - Just saw the class, as I was overtaken with holiday preparations when it posted. Wolderfully written and most informative! I have some half-formed questions for you, but need to give your article another read first.

I have made this suggestion before on similar threads, but here goes: a cheap/superior alternative to a pizza stone is to measure the base of your (gas) stove, then go to your local supplier of building stone and get them to cut you a piece of soapstone that is ~1" smaller in width and depth. Huge heat sink. Can't be beat for pizza.

Cool. Although I still feel compelled to note that Sheboygan is the Mecca of bratwurst. Every time I've been there, I am too stuffed from trying to do a comprehensive 'wurst survey to even think about eating anything else.

According to CNN, there were 45,000 attendees at the GOP Convention in Philadelphia, 15,000 media types and 20,000 protesters. Okay, this tells us something interesting about the potential economic impact of the boat. According to my earlier summary: At the present time, there are 280 Republicans in Congress (229 in the House and 51 in the Senate). That's a very small number of people compared to 45,000. The boat itself has a maximum capacity of 2,240 -- enough room for each Republican member of Congress to bring 7 guests there. At maxium capacity, we're talking about 5% of the convention attendees. In light of this, the boat doesn't seem like so much of a big deal in terms of real economic impact, but it still sends a message.

Try Bridge Kitcheware, Zabar's or Broadway Panhandler. What is your idea of "cheap?" BTW, depending on what you want to cook on it, I don't like AB's idea. You don't want to be sliding a wet pizza crust onto a bunch of quarry tiles and have them slide apart or have some of the crust stick in the cracks between tiles.

Administrative note: As mentioned upthread, it is not the mission of eGullet to talk politics. We are here to talk about subjects relating to food and the food business. As a result, we are keeping a close eye on this thread and deleting any posts that move in a direction substantially away from those core subjects, or which contain unreasonably political or partesan language. It is, of course, impossible to divorce this discussion entirely from politics due to the nature of the entities and individuals involved. We thought this was an interesting, relevant and important topic for discussion. As a result we have allowed a series of initial posts to stand at the top of this thread, despite containing some overly political references and language, in order to frame the discussion. At this time, discussion here has reached a point of development where those remarks are no longer needed in that capacity, and they have been removed from the top of the thread. We hope we can continue to discuss this topic within the context of eGullet's mission to serve as a forum for food, food-business and related discussion. There would seem to be plenty do talk about here within that framework. We will continue to monitor this thread closely and will remove any posts that contain overtly political language and/or trolls, and those which do not address food and the food business. If keeping this thread in line proves too burdensome from an administrative standpoint, we'll send in the ferrets and lock it to further discussion.

I would guess that a "sharper" blend and a darker roast work best when the goal is a milk-based drink. This is especially true when you want the coffee flavor to come out in a drink that is mostly milk (i.e., a "latte"). In Italy, latte macchiato is only barely coffee flavored, and it seems less important for the coffee to "cut" through the milk. Personally, I always tailor my blend and roast at home for espresso, and I am happy with the results when I do milk drinks. I use Sweet Maria's Monkey Blend with around 8% each of their Indian Monsooned Malabar AA and Uganda Robusta "Nanga Farms" added.

Hey! Come on now... they're politicians on both sides. I'd say they're equally unhealthy and unhygenic.

I wonder if a potential solution might be to offer a limited number of (very expensive) smoking licenses to the affected establisments in a jurisdiction. That way, if a bar or restaurant was really so dependent on smoking for business, they would be willing to apply for a special license and fork over a significant chunk of change. The licenses would have to be expensive and scarse so that the businesses would have to determine whether it was really worth it to them from an economic standpoint rather than just paying the fee automatically as the default position. The BdC, for instance, might decide it was worth $10k a year to allow smoking (hypothetical number, of course).

No can do here. That's Burns' Night. We'll be wearing kilts, swilling scotch and eating haggis at our house. You are a peculiar #$^&@ing dude, Sam. Scottish ancestry, dude. Comes with the territory. Any culture that invented golf and curling, not to mention that "let's see who can throw this telephone pole further" thing has to be a little peculiar. Luckily, in the case of the Scots, it's in a good way.

"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns." It's all so clear now!

Good point, Doc. And the other point to be made is: even supposing it is somewhat commonplace for such things to happen in the production of foie gras (which I think is highly unlikely), would this necessarily be worse or even remotely comparable to what goes on in "chicken factories?" In my mind, the answer is an unequivocal "no," which makes the whole debate silly class-warfare. If these people are seriously concerned about making life more pleasant for food animals, they should be chaining themselves to the fence at Tyson, not outlawing foie gras. The earlier point that most serious foie protesters are actually pursuing an anti-meat-eating agenda is, I think, well made. As for Gary's point about "inducing a pathological condition (such as a grossly distended liver) in a lesser creature" -- I am not sure this is a pathological condition. As has been pointed out a number of times, it is simply taking advantage of the natural tendency of certain ducks and geese. It doesn't strike me as any more "pathological" than breeding and raising turkeys to have grossly enlarged breasts or feeding grain to cows to increase fat content and marbling. There are plenty of things we do to domestic animals that might be labeled "pathological" by people when viewed through the lens of what is adaptive in the wild. But the fact is that these aren't wild animals. They are domesticated animals bred and raised in captivity for the express purpose of being slaughtered and eaten by human beings.

This is a far cry from AB's original post, which suggests that the entire convention contingent will be on board ship. Having been to a prior convention, I can guarantee that the conventioneers will be spread throughout the city. Yea, obviously they can't fit all the conventioneers on this ship. I didn't infer that from AB's post, but I can see how someone might. That said, it does seem that the use of such a ship could potentially take a lot of money out of NYC restaurants and bars (although one wonders whether the Republican members of Congress will really be boozing it up like "rank and file" conventioneers might). To me the important thing is this: There is little doubt that the proposed use of the cruise ship will take some dollars out of the NYC economy, but the real economic impact I think we have to say is unknown and unknowable at this point. More powerful is the symbolic message conveyed by such an arrangement. Given the political motivation behind holding the convention in the city of "ground zero," one would reasonably expect any such organization to do everything possible to bring convention dollars into the NYC economy. That, to my mind, is what makes this such a bad move. Had the GOP held a convention in NYC in the early 90s and decided to use a cruise ship... still not optimal for NYC businesses, but probably not such a big deal. The same would hold true, I think, were the upcoming convention were being held in, say, Houston. It might be interesting to think about the real potential economic impact on City businesses.

Er... uh... doesn't just about everyone carry germs in their GI tract?

Yea... maybe you're right. Perhaps it's more Jewish than WASPish culturally. More to the point, perhaps, is that the UWS is liberal middle and upper-middle class while the UES is conservative upper-middle and upper class. This is one reason why there are so many more housing projects, drug clinics, homeless shelters, etc. on the UWS. It's all the college professors and that ilk (commies, every last one of 'em!) living there who are exactly the people who don't want to spend big money on high cooking and "suit and tie" dining environments

No, not really. I don't think that accurately describes many of the UWS successes like Ouest, SQC, etc. Restaurants that serve even decent food are succeeding hugely on the UWS, because there just weren't any until recently. I just think they don't want to pay too much for it. Since the UWS is a center for a certain WASPy intelligentsia that frowns upon the monied classes, there may also be some institutional aversion to things that seem too "upper class" (i.e., Upper East Sidey) which makes UWSers prefer things a little more downscale and straightforward.

To those just entering the fray, here is a synopsis of the story thus far: The House majority leader, Tom DeLay, plans to use the luxury cruise liner Norwegian Dawn as a floating entertainment center for Republican members of Congress and their guests at the upcoming GOP convention in New York city. DeLay's move has, not surprisingly, infuriated many New Yorkers because the use of this ship could draw conventioneer dollars away from NYC restaurants, hotels and other businesses. Furthermore, as the NY Times article says, “the proposal to remove visitors from the hubbub of city life has been broadly received as a slight — a suggestion that the city's hotels and restaurants, not to mention its people, are not quite good enough for Republicans from out of state.” There have also been suggestions that the GOP would use the ship as a way to duck the strict NYC and NYS antismoking laws. The feeling among many is that this move on DeLay’s part may be another round in the increasingly acrimonious relationship between the Majority Leader and New York City Major Michael Bloomberg. The mayor has in the past suggested that New Yorkers should not give political donations to any member of Congress who does not support New York, and has singled out Mr. DeLay in making his points. Mayor Bloomberg remarked to reporters, “We have plenty of hotel rooms, it's a safe city, it's the safest place you can be almost with a lot of people around you, is right here in the streets of New York City, and why you'd want to be away from that, I don't know.” The general feeling seems to be that DeLay's proposal has the effect of taking revenues out of a struggling NYC restaurant/bar market at the same time the GOP seeks to build political capital on the memory of 9/11.

Yea. He didn't mix it, for sure. The one big problem with @SQC is that they can't seem to keep an FOH guy for more than a few months. They have had some really good ones, but personality conflicts with the owners seems to be a recurring issue.

Let's see what we can do to keep this discussion on-mission for eGullet, which is to say: about food and the food business. Insofar as we would like to talk about how the GOP's use of this boat affects the NYC restaurant economy, we're doing okay. Needless to say, this discussion brushes up against a whole host of topics that don't fall under our umbrella. That's the nature of the beast. As a result, this thread will be on a fairly tight leash with respect to staying on topic lest it devolve into political sniping for/against the Rebublican Party and other things of which the Committee on Un-Gullet Activities would not approve. So, let's keep it about food, or we might have to feed this topic to the ferrets.

Hee! Which bartender was it? Did he have a beard and ponytail? The other guy's not so hot. I agree about the UWS syndrome, BTW. Scott and I have discussed a number of times the fact that he has to tailor his offerings to what UWSers are willing to spend and the fact that they tend to perfer their food more straightforward than complicated.

John: FWIW, I do think any smoking ban should have exemptions for places like cigar bars that do a substantial amount of business in tobacco products and are "themed" around the consumption of tobacco products. It's really too bad that the NYC and NYS bans do not have such a provision. I also agree it's not a good thing that no one seems to know about it in DC and that there isn't more debate happening there.

Interesting, I think they're better at dinner than brunch, and I've rarely been disappointed there. But there are certain things I don't order (the burger being one of those things). I also often eat at the bar because my friends and I are friendly with the bartender, and so we probably get some special attention. The one thing that frustrates me about that place is how Scott will have a great item on the menu that sells well, then he'll rotate it off -- which is fine -- but it will never comes back, which is very frustrating. He used to have a pan seared fillet of salmon on a bed of wild mushrooms that was served with a little cup of truffled stone ground grits. It was brilliant! Haven't seen it in over a year. Ditto for a starter that was a bowl of button mushrooms, morels and escargots in a garlic broth topped with breaded/fried (lamb?) sweetbreads and a parmesan tuille. Loved it -- haven't seen it in over a year. Sigh...

Is that some sort of Opera pun? HEE HEE HEE! Now there's the old subconscious at work in a typo, for sure!

Well... how are smoking permissions currently implemented in your business? What percentage of your business would you estimate goes to people who smoke while in your establishment? What percentage of those people do you think you would lose as customers if DC implemented a smoking ban? Do you think you would gain any customers as a result of a DC-wide smoking ban? These are the questions I would think you, as a potentially affected businessman, would want to answer. I get the impression that Firefly is a fairly upscale place, and I also get the impression that upscale places as a group have been the least affected by the bans here. I, for one, would love to see some actual hard data on how and to what extent smoking bans have affected bars and restaurants, plus how and to what extent those effects are distributed across the different types of such businesses. All one generally sees are comments like "I hear that the ban in XYZ is causing a 20% drop in revenues and places are closing right and left" while other people say "everything seems mostly the same in XYZ after N months." I wish we could see some numbers. All I can go on are my observations that A) NYC establishments do not seem to be closing at a greater than normal rate; and B) N years after the California ban was enacted, both restaurant and bar business seem to be thriving.