nwyles

I was snorting coffee out of my nose

This is a joke , right ? Much like a "Freedom Fry" ? lame.

Hey, I married my industry date ! Tim, bring her here. We will be descrete. Pictures will be posted in the internet sooo fast so wear something nice. Get in your car and go to the Pear Tree!

Nope.

I think the beef we eat now (vs growing up in the late 70's) is MUCH more intensively reared. Have you ever been within 20 miles of a modern feedlot? It would put you off beef for a little while (in my case that means 2 hours). I think that places that grind their own meat would be more open to it. Feenies burgers are quite pink - and I think they are organic free range and ground at the restaurant. Vera's has a tasty organic burger - but I am sure the logistics of managing multiple locations makes having to cook burgers to different levels of doness very very difficult. ← I would be happy to grind a burger to order, and cook it as rare as you liked as long as you were willing to pay the price : a 12 oz New York is about $26.00. You could sub the garlic mashed for fries and sub the vegetables for a bun. All is well. Neil

Perhaps Len from "C" and "Nu" could chime in with what was discussed at the BCFRA meetings. He is on the Board of Directors. They should have a plan as to what might happen. There is a natural progression through the restaurant business that will take place - moving up the ladder as it were, but you do see lots of old waiters, you do not see many old cooks. They ( we ) either become chefs or move into the front of house or move out of the business. I have done all three at some point but, here I am now.

We have gone round and round on this before. Sean, Keller did do it, but he has a certain clout that I do not have. I would be interested to see someone put a 17 % service charge on a bill, for everyone. Using that money to bridge the pay gap would certainly ease the shortage we are going to experience. This is an imperfect system which we have but it will take a huge amount of work to change it. I was thinking about taxes this a.m. You have $100 in your pocket. You paid tax on it. ( Let's say 25 % ) tax, cpp, ui etc. ( $25.00 ) Your employers pay 13 % in taxes on top of that. ( $13.00 ) You walk into your local restaurant and order a bottle of wine - $40.00 ( the government saw multiple levels of tax on this purchase, effectively tax on tax many times over ) and two dinners $18.00 each. You tip 20 % of the net. ( $15.32 ) Taxes ( $9.32 ) By the time you have done dinner, the goverment has seen nearly $50.00 in taxes from your $100 and the hits just keep rolling with the waiter's taxes on the tip you just left them, and the restaurants taxes on the few cents that are left over. This sort of taxation on taxation is part of the problem that we have existing in labour shortages and the drifting away from back of house jobs. The cash gratuity are a little bit of "tax free" money, that makes the whole scenario work out.

As I am my own manager as well as the owner, the house tip goes to the boys ( and girls in the kitchen ) In a 1 million dollar establishment, 5 % tip is $50,000. You can see how an owner might use a part of that to pump up the managers wage. Let's remember, the manager is usually one of the waiters who got moved up. Anyhoo, pick one of the 5 million dollar chain restaurants................ that 5% is $250,000.00 all of a sudden, that is a lot of money ! In my place, a general rule of thumb is that the tip is about another $2.00 per hour to the kitchen. It is barely a step in the approx $20.00 per hour wage gap between the front and back of house. And I will add that I do realize that my actions perpetuate this system, not fix it, even though I realize the inequity.

Ok, I'll play. Just to keep it all in perspective. How many hours would you have to work to earn that. Sometimes four, sometimes six and occasionally eight. Let's pick six. You are left with $145.00 in grat ( primarily tax free I might add, but that is another story ) six hours @ $8.00 is $48.00 $193.00 for a six hour shift is................................ wait for it $32.16 per hour Overhead for that is, well, next to nothing. ( a couple of hijacked pens from the house, a wine crank "borrowed" from someone else, old menu paper torn up to become waiter pads, a few drops of olive oil from the kitchen to shine your shoes etc., man, you do not even have to pay for coffee and quite often food in this job, I could go on, but, well I think you get the point. ) Boo Hoo Now, what if you had to buck up an extra point to the house. That leaves you with just over $30.00 per hour. I would think that this would be the end of this discussion but I fear I have just opened a giant can of worms. Let the games begin. With these kinds of numbers being knocked around, there should be no labour shortage in the front of house, ever. ( in your higher end eateries at least )

I sometimes get mad at the undeclared income that the local dumpster divers have. All those bottles! If the government was able to harness the awesome power of both of these untapped revenue streams, we could buy a couple of postage stamps.

Was it not robert " deniro " who sued? steve ← Him or his people

Go around the corner from Russel's to Blackwood Appearal. You would have struck the motherlode, and get exactly what you want.

Sell your soul to the devil, like Col. Sanders did. KFC can not be duplicated, and can only come from KFC, which I love soooo much.

You know what. I was out of line. It was a weak attempt at humour at your expense. This forum has been accused of lots of things over the past little while and I have just added to the problem. The fly is an actual problem. There is no debating it or chalking it up to perception. There it was, staring back at you. We have been a little "clubby" or "chummy" and there is a perception that people are holding back some real and useful comments in order to not hurt someone's feelings or get their back up. I got a call from someone today that smashed a perception that I had about one of the people who worked for me. We all have an off day, but my staff's was a comedy of errors too numerous to mention. A little more honesty and perhaps being more open to these types of comments will get us back on track. Hats off to you for saying exactly how you perceived your experience to be.

Neil I have had not one but two reps from Vincor calling on me. For a serving of ginger bread pudding I will share a rep with you, no need for me to be greedy. Extra carmel sauce please. ← I have managed nine years without serving Jackson Triggs wine, I can manage nine more. Anyways, if I spend time with Vincor reps, it just means less time with the MArk Anthony rep !!!!!!!

Lemontart, I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I assure you that every one of our glasses get polished and our restuarant gets dusted a couple of times a week, or as needed. We strive for perfection, like anyone else who cares in this business, but sometimes we miss things. We are only human. I will look into our cleaning process and see if there is anywhere we can improve. Was the fly a fruit fly, or a house fly? I would assume a fruit fly. The odd fruit fly does get into the sweeter liquor bottles on occassion, and in any dark busy restaurant they can end up in a drink. While not acceptable, these little pieces of pickled protien are harmless, and do not indicate that we are dirty. I hope you gave us a chance to bring you a fresh martini. Finally, you mention that our servers can be irritating to old people. In what way are they irritating? We have many regular customers, and quite a few of them are "old"(although I'm sure they don't like being called that!). I'm sure if they were irritated they wouldn't come back. Our servers enjoy serving people of all ages, and some of our favourite customers are "old". I think if they knew that old people found them irritating, they would want to know how they could change that situation. We thank you for your input, and would love for you to experience again, the restaurant that we are proud of and passionate about. Feel free to contact me at 604-873-9944 if you have any more concerns. Regards, Jeff Van Geest Chef/Owner Aurora Bistro ← Dear Jeff, I have not been in in a while. Here is what happened the last time. I found a lemon wedge in my beer. Although the glass appeared very clean, I suspect there might have been a hole in the bottom. On a positive note, your staff were able to keep a delicate balance of refilling so I did not really notice. I did see some old people. I guess 80 is really the new 40. I was able to get over it. The were a bit noisy, all that laughing and enjoying themselves, and so on. Perhaps you could replace them with some sour looking Goth kids, with black hair and white faces, never a smile to be seen, silent other than a grunt when their meals come, or the "cone of silence", could you get one of those. Let me know how it works out. Neil " I am turning 40 soon, so I want to sit in silence " Wyles I also will be using the phrase "Kids these days.............." all the time.

I have had one sales rep come in in nine years. I ordered a case of wine right on the spot, as it was something I wanted. I never saw the wine, and I have never seen the rep since. That was four years ago. Now, just to be clear, I am in a neighbourhood with nearly 40 full service establishment in 5 blocks, so I am not isolated either. If it were not for the media reports, I would have thought that company had folded.

I find that when they see my 1000 post eGullet regal robe with the ermine collar, and the flashes from my giant egullet ring ( secret decoder ), all sorts of good things happen, women smile at me etc. Honestly, someone slipped me a bill one day and I nearly pissed myself laughing. I gave them a great table and had some fun with them all night.

I hope it is a temporary close, otherwise, my friends and I be utterly devestated. ← I believe they had a visit from the Health Inspector that resulted in a lot of requirements. Vancouver Coastal Health ← Interesting. I have seen reports like this before and then they were removed, leaving only a "everything is nice" report in it's place. I find it kind of wishy washy of the Health Dept when they cull bad reports. You fucked up enough to get the bad one, you should have to live with it as a constant reminder of your evil ways. ← I just checked in on the Health Board web site, it would appear that not only did this restaurant have their bad report removed, it would appear that they never have existed either

The next time one calls, I will remember to take notes. About every six months or so I get asked if I am happy with my job etc. I play along for fun and then tell them I am also the owner. I am due for a call. You will get some help from this baord as there are lots of headhunting going on right now. Make sure you are watching your PM for messages as you might not get responses online.

Thanks. This is some serious burger research. :-) Is this first hand information that you have? From what I can tell, it is the Ecoli bacteria that the inspectors are attempting to protect the restaurants and consumers from, and apparently this bacteria will die at 155F. (this is just some online numbers I have found). So it makes sense the inspectors would request the restaurants to comply to a 160F temperature, but it is definetly not a "real rule". Something to protect the restaurants liability, because they do not want to incur the additional cost of obtaining a good quality product, or perhaps their clientele does not want to pay. In addition to this 160F is not always considered well done. I have seen some sites that state 160F is medium, so I suspect some pink is allowable. But it is usually the "pink" that the restaurants refuse to serve. I need to call a "food inspector", does anybody know how to contact one? ← The Irishgirl is a serious chef in a serious restaurant. I have stated elsewhere in this forum that there are no enforcable rules as to the cooking of a burger. The health inspector have bigger fish to fry. If you are looking for a final response, try gerald @ vera's As burgers are pretty much his world, he could help

You are the first person to agree with me all month ! Seriously, I was sourcing product for locals before I even know them. It was easy for me to take a leap of faith as I had an avenue to sell it if it all went south. It is like the gingerbread recipe. I give it out freely becasue once you have made it, it is always easier to come in and have us make it for you.

I think most people are aware of that. She has been lambasted because most of her reviews are as ill considered as this one. To clarify, most people are not so much angry that she attacked eG as that Rare suffered as a result If you read this thread you will find that most of us are aware of the negative sentiment on our thread of A. Gill. You are missing the point- or at least my point. ← Has RARE SUFFERED as a result? Please Andrew, don't be melodramatic. I think that some people in the Vancouver forum ARE angry that she attacked fellow eGulleters including Brian Fowke and want to know why she did it and what it has to do with her review. Is that plain enough? I just thought I'd add a little enlightenment. To answer the post after yours: Yes, this thread was started because of the said review. Should it be about the review? No. Was it intended to be? No. But yes, that has snuck in here. As for my opinion of whether the Vancouver forum is a "BIG LOVE IN".... There ARE some critical voices out there, but they do not post often. Are people afraid to say too much? Yes. Especially after the Irish Heather Thread. (I arrived on eG just as this thread happened, so i don't have a frame of reference as to the tone before this....but i do remember some of the comments at the time stating that they would be more careful after that...) I have been told by some of the more critical voices around town that they can't read the Vancouver forum anymore because they do think that "No one is brave enough to say something negative!" As a Chef in Vancouver, I prefer to stay anonymous on this board. My restaurant has been LAMBASTED more than once by numerous people inside and outside the Vancouver Forum. It has also received accolades. Restaurants do have bad nights and good nights, but I want to know about them in MY place of employment even on my days off and on my holidays. I remain anonymous to MOST of the members so that barometer is reflected fairly. I do not want to scare people into thinking that they can not say something bad about my place of employment because they know that I post here. I would rather use the criticism as a reason to review menu ideas and improving training of the staff. As for my own perspective on other restaurants: Because I am a Chef....I AM VERY CRITICAL about every aspect of the places that I dine at. My husband sometimes hates dining with me. I have dined at places that were highly touted on eG's Vancouver forum, and thought: "What were they THINKING?!!" In these cases, I have wrote to management of said restaurants and let them know that they slipped up majorly. I have not returned to some and will return to others to give a second chance. But I will not post comments until I give a place a fair shake....Meaning that I have dined there more than a few times. Therefore, I don't review much. I don't get out much. I'm too busy. If people ask me personally what I think about a place, I will tell them, but as a chef I feel that it is irresponsible of me to criticize other restaurants publicly because I AM hyper critical. People will say: "Ohhh...She's just being catty!" Sounds like ALEX GILL..... Anyway this has taken a long time, and I must get on with my day. Cheers! ← Wow, As you have been to my place a couple of times without negative comment, I am in the clear. I could not handle two complaints in the same thread.

You are reading too much into developng a relationship. A handshake and a look in the eye at your local neighbourhood ( this is how it is spelled in Canada ) eatery might be all that you need. Chefs are like anyone else : Ask them for their expertise and treat them with kindness and respect and you never know what you might get. if all else fails, try this line : Oh , great Wizard of all things Food, please bestow upon me, your lowly subject, some of your vast knowledge. It never fails to stroke their ego

Become a regular, recognized patron and you will find that it is very easy to get those hard to find items. I do it all the time for some of local forum members ( not because they are forum members, but they are regulars ) I also do it for it for heathens ( non eG members ). good luck