nwyles

Are you talking about something like Morton's , where they show you the tomato before they lead it off to be slaughtered. Steak, baked potato as big as your head and the tomato salad where you are bonded with the tomato ?

Wow ! This sounds like Mr. Maw's article has driven hoards of people to Henry's door and they were just not prepared to deal with that kind of volume. The poor guy is probably just trying to hold his head above water on a nightly basis. I can tell you it has become very hard to get staff. It is a traditional thing in August. Summer staff have made enough ( or at least they think so ) and decide that working is clashing with their tan time. Cooks have had enough of the heat and decide to move on after a two to three week hiatus. ( too busy at the last job to get a vacation so just pack it in - lot's o' jobs out there for cooks! Jamie, you had better check before you darken his doorway again ! There might be a Jamie Maw doll with bamboo skewers through it. Too much of a good thing ? Is there a shortage of restaurants in that neighbourhood ? I think I will wait until I go and try iy out. I was looking for it a few weeks ago but could not find it. I am glad now that I did not. Maybe in a couple of months.

My favourite way to eat beef tenderloin as a pan seared steak is with a slab of foie lightly melting on top of it. I suppose this is straying off-topic ... so ... does anyone in town keep such a dish on the menu? I've had it at Lumiere and at Quattro di Gusto. Because of the inedibility of the veal tenderloin (way past the rare I asked for) and the carbonacious nature of the nickel sized pieces of liver (I doubt it was actually Foie Gras) I will never return to this restaurant for a main. The worst main course I have ever had bar none, golden arches is better. The appetizer we had was amazing though. Mark. ← Which restaurant ? Lumiere or Quattro ?

Is that Jean Pierre from Le Croc ? Very French with a beard ? I will be out asap !!

I see that someone feels my pain. Welcome to my world. I had this happen with a regular guest who brought in a large party, created their own items from the ingredients of the menu items. When it took too long, she marched into the kitchen and asked why it was taking so long. I lost it ! I told her this was not a &%$#@ buffet, or a connect the &%$#@*? dots menu. I told here every item except one on their order was a complete special order and that takes time. I told her never to do that again as everyone in the restaurant was suffering at this point !. She slinked back to her table with her tail between her legs and sat quietly. She still comes everyday. Advantage : Chef !!!!

Ahem. Just kidding. !!! I don't know if we would be "Fine" enough but we can certainly handle 100 plus. Cheers Neil

It is my understanding that the cork can be rammed back in the bottle as long as it a different cork than it originally came with. Ie: a Mondavi cork in a J. Lohr bottle. I do not believe it involves a corking machine etc. If so, this would just be another case of me breaking the law. First corkage and now this. I foresee some time on the chain gang for me if this is true.

Sorry, I can't sell hanger steak to anyone with less that 50 posts ! You better get typing ! Mark Tigges has his reservation for hanger steak. I unfortunatly will be away on Friday night but my good friend Brian Fowke ( Chef Fowke ) will be at the stoves. You will be in great hands !

They cut seperate deals with the wine producers. If you look, none of the wines I mentioned at Earls have CSPC codes on them. They are purchased under a seperate arrangement. If I could get the codes, I understand that the Liquor Board would have to sell them to me at the same price. It is a sweet deal if you can get it.

It is still there. I live a few blocks away. Drive by it all the time but have never been in. Let me know how it is. Neil

Earl's uses their buying power to get the Penfold's St. Henri Shiraz which is $44 at the Liquor store and sells it for $49. Also the Beringer Knight's Valley Cab is $55 when it is $50 at the liquor store. We have started going on Sundays as the kids like Earls. Two Sundays ago : Joan orders a martini. I order a bottle of St. Henri. "Sir, that does not come by the glass, only the bottle ! " "That's OK - I'll be fine ! I think that Earl's buys all of the St. Henri as it sell out of the Liquor Store in about a week or so.

The hanger is back ! After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we have some more hanger in the building. I am surprised at the difficulty in getting this. I certainly have demonstrated the ability to sell this obscure piece of meat in huge volume, you would think it would be easy. Anyways, starting tonight, hanger steak will be back on the menu at the HSG. I do not have enough to do little side deals for you all this time but I will let you know when I have a larger shipment at my disposal. Neil

Then you are going to love the name of one of my Yaletown neighbours. Shiru-Bay Chopstick Café Izakaya-ism Japanese Fusion Gourmet Bistro Tapas Bar Flavour of Tokyo. I prefer the short version of just " Shiru Bay"

Please correct me if I am wrong but it was always my understanding that the price that a licensee pays for an item that is carried by the BCLDB is 17% lower than what I as a consumer would pay (– i.e. the licensee does not pay the liquor tax or GST on the purchase but flows it back to the consumer). For example if the bottle of wine was $35.00 a licensee would pay $29.05, although I normally see the $35.00 bottle for $70 on the menu, and then pay GST and liquor tax on top? Is this not correct? ← We get a discount of 8.54 % Not very much, and does not make a huge difference. Beer and wine stores get a bigger discount of about 17 % or higher but not restaurants.

And for a true bistro, we have a #5. #5 : We have two types of service. Surly or indifferent ! Which would you prefer you bloody Englishman ! ( This is from my experiences in Paris, not the Aurora BISTRO )

Goubouli is actually a really old restaurant in Tianjin, China. I don't speak Mandarin, but the translation is something along the lines of "even the dog wouldn't eat there", so named because the original chef was reputedly very very ugly. I'll grant you the name is crazy, but the dog is crazy too; the dumplings are excellent. Here's my question: why is there a chain of restaurants, with head offices in Vancouver, named "Cactus Club"? They don't even have a southwestern theme. ← What about Blue Water Café? It's not a café! And unless you're talking about after-dinner coffees, then there isn't coffee for sale! ← I think you might be stretching a bit here. The original name was the Blue Water Café and Raw Bar, which, although the Raw Bar still exists and is excellent, has been removed from the name. There needs to be a bit of artistic license in the name : Bistro, Café, Grill, etc.

Popped in today for a bite. Nice beers. Duck confit was really weak. Duck was not cooked enough, tough and the sausage was over-cooked. mussels were good, I had the fries with them. They were Ok, nothing to write home about. I did not care for the preserved lemon aioli but that is just me. We had a roasted beet salad that was very nice. Perfect amount of dressing. Service still needs some work. No sense of urgency by anyone. Perhaps just the lazy Tuesday after a long weekend speed. I am familiar with that. We closed for lunch today just to avoid it happening here. I will go again in a couple of months.

Unfortunately, over the course of our three visits, the restaurant did not have many of the featured wines. They also did not have ketchup, and made no attempt to fetch same from their downstairs concession. So I did. ← That is so funny. They certainly have made themselves an easy target. I hope it starts to get better. We have had a good chuckle about these guys but I do not think anyone wants to see these missteps as a permanent thing. What a shame it would be to have a piss poor nacho stand on possibly the best piece of beachfront real estate in the country. I guess a place like this does not really have a chance to have "soft openings", people have been anticipating this place for ages. As for being victims of the container strike : nothing a quick wine list reprint would not cure. That certainly is in the ability of these guys to fix on the spot.

My pricing is basically a one time mark-up, rounded up to a pricing structure that I have set up for the glass price ( $6.00, $7.00, $8.00 etc up to $11.00 ). There are couple of wine that are not available to the general public that you can make a couple of dollars more but that is about it. Restaurant Secrets 101 revealed. Others will go two or sometimes three times, depending on what their customers will pay. I have heard of someone in my neighbourhood appraoching a ten times mark-up on wines that are not available in town. You can always find a fairly priced gem on any list in town if you know what you are doing and what you are looking for.

Not at all. I am just curious how they are able to do what they do without any hassle from the local Liquor Inspector. Hats off to them if they are blazing a trail for others to follow. I might also wonder if they are too small to get noticed or that no one has complained about it so their corkage policy has not drawn any attention. I do not want to out them so let's not draw any more attention to their policy.

Honestly, I did not know this was against the regs until last year when I called Victoria about it. I have worked in restaurants that people have been allowed to bring in cases of wine for their Xmas parties etc. I recall seeing "corkage" on a few menues around so it can assumed that it was a legal practice. I can certainly see where people might think this is an accpeted practice, because as an Industry type, I did. It has been said upthread that the Control Board has bigger fish to fry and this would seem like small potatoes. I had heard of a restaurant on Commercial Drive that was selling his homemade wine as "House" wine. As he was an older Italian restauranteur, one would assume it was as good if not better than some of the other house wines about but that was not the reason for the fine, which he eventually got. It was primarily about the "safety" factor, but more than likely, about the loss in taxation as there was no tax being paid on this product, from production, to wholesale to the retail level. I am curious how "that small French restaurant" gets away with it. Are they just flying under the radar ? HAs this fact ever been mentioned in a "flying under the radar" article in town ? Jamie ? Jane ? Anyone ? edited to remove the name of a French restaurant that has a corkage policy.

Baak! I just had a crapload of beer come out of my nose, courtesy of Neil. Thanks, buddy. Can I use that line? ← I have not seen any Royalty cheque for "goat rodeo" yet, but sure, go ahead !

The best cheese selection I had was a few years back at Bacchus. We knew some of the waiters in the room etc. and they showed us some love, and wheeled around the cheese plate. The two of us were treated to over 20 ozs of cheese ( 2 ozs each by ten different types ) which was way over the top but what can you do ?? The selection was fantastic but the whole event was forever etched in my mind as the waiter showed up with this cheese dubbed the " King of Cheese " some sort of wine soaked soft cheese, firm outside, liquid center that they were all raving about. I have to say that the only thing that describe this, and I do not mean to be rude but, it tasted like someone farted in my mouth ! I like strong cheese but this was something else. I have not been in a while and actually want to try Lee Parsons food so perhaps someone can refresh us if the Bacchus still has a great cheese selection. Cheers Neil

And I think that is the end of this broadcast. As I said, I really do not want to call Victoria for clarification of what I already know. Cheers Neil

So far, so many of you are repeating the same refrain that it is illegal, but few, if at all, are providing any support for it. I would be thrilled if Neil could call up the same person in Victoria that he talked to and ask him or her to supply the citation in the Act or the Regulations where it says point-blank that it is illegal to bring in a bottle of wine. Absent such a citation, the Provincial Government lacks the authority to say it is so. ← I was on the horn today with someone form Liquor Control about my license. I was tempted to ask again but as I already knew the response I decided against it. If it would put an end to the word play, I will call my contact for clarification and / or a fax about the exact rules. I always hesitate when dealing with bureaucrats because that keeps you top of mind as to why you are asking. No one looks forward to visits from the liquor inspector no matter how squeaky clean your operation is. Think about how you tense up when a cop is following you in traffic even though you are not doing anything wrong. Multiply that feeling when the liquor inspector walks into you joint.................. but I will take one for the team so if we can put an end to this bickering. I will come back with the final word from Victoria. This is not the place to debate about the rules as we can not do anything about them from here. If you are truly concerned, contact your local MLA and chew his ear off as to why you want the ability to bring your own wine into restaurants. ( Have fun storming the castle !! )