nwyles

I am heading up to Mix The Bakery on Monday, I will check it out ad report back. So far, everything that I have had from there has been very good. Cheers Neil

I know that they say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but I would be happy if they paid some sort of duty or tax to the HSG.

I heard somewhere that Canoe has a new high profile chef. Who is it ?

It means the show will go on, in some capicity or another. On the same note, the doors ( I trust ) will open if I am not there either. In order for the business to run, make money and pay wages, the doors have to be open to serve the guest. It is a place of business, which in some form or another supports the staff and the owners. I am assuming that there are more than four staff that run the entire store and is it fair to put them and their livelihoods at risk ? Each individual had the abiltiy to leave the job at any time, whether with proper notice or not. I find the actions childish and unprofessional but I also think that me thinking about this and having a chuckle was childish and unprofessional as well.

Funny, I always tell staff that the doors will always open the next day, either with them or without them. In this case, they did not open. Mark is correct, this was a childish way for this to be dealt with. Whether the inmates were running the asylum, or Scott was a tyrant does not really matter. This is not pre-school, it is a place of business and should be treated as such. Yes, Scott will continue to be in business and the four staff will have jobs fairly soon, without this event hanging over them because of the rare instance of a new employer doing a reference check.

It took big balls to lock the doors. It would have been more interesting if they had stayed outside of the store to explain to the customers what it was all about. That would have put even greater pressure on the owner / manager. Not only are your staff staging a mutiny, but your customers as well.

A sandwich short of a picnic !

How about the Hamilton Street Grill on a Sunday night. No parking problems on a Sunday. Big screen TV's to watch the Olympics or the Food Network. Too bad there was not a Pay Per View game on. I was strong armed by someone to buy the remainder of the season as I was "caught" with a PPV game on. We were labeled "pirates" and threatened with legal action. Two guys ( Me and Vancouver Lee ) sitting in an empty restaurant watching a PPV game on one TV equals pirating ! What a fiasco ! Anyhoo, a party on a Sunday night would help me recover some of the money I just had to flush down the drain. I might as well have lit my money on fire for all the good having the PPV is going to do me - three sunday games - big draw there ! Me, bitter ? Yup

A bar stool in the kitchen, a big bunch of tasting spoons, and a free beer pairing menu to look over !

I know of one participant that it costs $11.00 just to set the table. Linen, bread, butter, etc. No one has even had the meal yet.

Interesting read. I had the pleasure of working with Chef Andreini for nearly two years on a restaurant project. ( It failed, but not becasue of anything the two of us did or did not do ). It was like having two years of private lessons with a master chef. I will remember them fondly. As far as food went, there was not much he did not know, or know how to do, at least ten different ways. I am glad he is doing well there.

I am also a victim of my own heavy hands. The gingerbread portion is too big, thus many people split it, reducing my dessert mix. Few people have a G Bread to themselves !

I think that it was started with that intention, but has morphed into what we have now. And now, there is no breaking away from that impression. It will be up to the individual restaurants to handle it how they see fit. I do not think TVan has ever promoted Dine Out as a strictly "cheap eats" event but more as a "experience the diversity of your amazing city, and try something you might not normally try" event. If anything, the restaurants are the ones responsible for setting the tone of the event. TVan is merely the messenger. The restaurants have set the "turn and burn" attitude in motion. TVan does not tell us to take more than we can handle and give the guest less than we should, we have done that to ourselves. ( I am not speaking in any specifics, to any establishment or operator, so no one has to get their knickers in a knot ! ) What perhaps started out as excitement about having so many people wanting to come and try your restaurant eventually turns into " how many people can I jam into my restaurant" Question : How many of your regular guests came and visited during Dine Out ? For me, not many at all. I know that they like to see us busy and enjoy the buzz of a really busy Friday night, but there is something about Dine Out that keeps them away. I know that they want to have what they want and do not want to be limited by a smaller menu, or they just want appies or dinner only etc. They do not want to experience "Dine Out" in their regular restaurant - it is not the same for them.

I recall giving a pointer about that - order more food. It was not a shot but a solution to the dilemma for the people who could not drink alcohol. There seemed a genuine concern about being labeled " cheap" - they could not drink alcohol, did not like bottled water, did not care for sparkling water etc. As the audience for these comments is a bunch of "foodies", it certainly did not seem over the top or out of line to suggest they order more food. This board is read by people interested in food.

Just a quick note on this. Most restaurants do about a 20 to 30 % mix on desserts, meaning, 2 to three people in ten order dessert. DOV is 100 % dessert mix ! We needed to get the order right out of the gate so desserts would be ready ! Restaurant do not normally do that many desserts - it is dessert madness !

Did I miss something ? I am going to go back and re read some of these posts, including my own, but I do not think anyone is knocking the event, or doing lots of shit talking. Thus far, I have seen this as an interesting conversation, with lots of interesting point coming up. I am going to have a re read to see what all th hub bub is about.

DOV seems to bring out lots of conflicting emotions and problems. As a restauranteur, the demand out weighs the supply and you tend to overbook, add more tables, shorten guest experience times etc. This year we did only the Dine Out menu, and lost some tables because of it ( I lost a few becasue I would not let them use their entertainment cards but that is another story altogether ) . Will I do it that way next year ? Hard to say. All in all, it was smooth, food delivered very quickly, enabling people to live up to the 90 minute committment. Had we not been able to deliver so quickly, we would have had egg on our face. I did my best not to book any large groups other than the ones that booked multiple tables on Opentable.com. This gave us some wiggle room, not really needing to move people out in a hurry. The occasions that we needed them to move were the tables of 6 and 8, not the 2's and 4's which you could just sort of juggle around. There were only so many large tables and in heavy demand. That being said, doing the same few meals , night after night, became very boring, very quickly. We overstaffed and were ready to go each day so there was no excitement, no rush, no scramble to get the job done. And I think it might have showed towards the end. I think the staff became like automatons, not really engaging people etc. I know that if I was feeling it, the staff must have as well. It is hard to guage how well it works as far as getting repeat guests. It is hard not to stereotype people when they live up to the stereotypes so well. "See you next year ! " was heard quite a few times. I also had a chap tell me that he and his family had been back a number of times this year because they were introduced to us during Dine Out. You hope that this is the case most of the time, but those damn steroetypes keep hollering "see you next year ! ". Anyways, See you next year !

The sole done tableside is great. Robert is the wine guy as well as works the room. He enjoys a good challange and if you tell him your wine budget, he can come up with some stellar bottles. No budget is too big or small.

Until recently, it used to be against the law to drink standing up. The patron always had to be sitting to enjoy a drink. I also remember not being allowed to sell alcohol until the polls closed on election day. That too has changed.

This is the "chef's table" for real cooks! ...and beverages served in plastic water jugs or 1 lt portion cups ← So true.

All of my online reservations : a: showed up b: had to put their credit card in to make the reservation

Jeff, your words remind me that sometimes I eat a sandwich over the kitchen sink so I do not have to wash any dishes. I still love the teriyaki sirloin at the Keg. The CFD crowd serves a purpose and I will trust in Jamie that we are better off here on the West Coast than many other parts of the world. P.F. Changs is the only CFD that I have been to that beats any of the CFD we have here. IIRC the is a Houston's in Scottsdale Ariz. that weas excellent, but I might have been a little too drunk to remember all of the details.

Now that I have given ten of you the recipe, I do not want to see this used for anything than personal consumption. If I see something like "Transfattyacid's House of Gingerbread Pudding " or "snacky cat"s pudding hut", opening up anywhere within a 1000 miles of Yaletown, there will be trouble. Other than that, enjoy to your hearts content. Once you have made it, you will soon realize that it is easier and cheaper to come down here and have one and you do not have to do the dishes ( unless you really want to )

Any chance we could get the ice cream recipe? Edited to add: Hmm, the version of the recipe posted upthread says nothing about sifting... ← Send an email for the real recipe. The one posted upthread is one that someone editted for home use. Neil

We do use Blackstrap molasses. If you send me an email @ hamiltonstreetgrill@telus.net , I will send the recipe version that we use in the kitchen here. It is industrial size, but if you have lots of friends, it will work. We bake the cakes off a couple days in advance, and then turn them into puddings later. The cake will last quite some time wrapped up. I would avoid the sweet ice creams if you are going to do this. They are too sweet. The savoury aspect of the ginger and the pumpkin really balance the sweetness of the caramel sauce. It becomes too sweet even with straight vanilla ice cream. P.S. Everybody who has ever made this recipe has screwed it up once. Follow the directions carefully. They look easy and people get too comfortable and make mistakes like "baking powder vs. baking soda" . When it says sift, sift !