DanCole42

No, I'm not just trying to stir things up. And no, I don't particularly care for whites, either. Thanks for all the help everyone. The biggest challenge is keeping things affordable - it's the only way I can justify my addiction to the Mrs. That and smooth finish. Really, really smooth finish (assuming I know what I'm talking about when I say finish - for all I know the official definish of "finish" is what the last sip tastes like - either that or something about a Scandinavian wine).

Isn't a rose like a mixture of red and white? I'd rather stick with red.

I really enjoy red wine. I pair it with things it was not meant to be paired with. I drink it to relax. It's very hard to find a red, no matter the price range, that I DON'T enjoy. I don't know much of anything about wine. I don't know what body is. I have no taste-memory of the difference between chianti and merlot. I buy wine because I think the label is pretty, or based on what the grocery store tells me. When I get wine at a restaurant, I get the second most inexpensive bottle. In short, I know very little about wine. I want to be able to pour my fiancee a glass now and then. She says she doesn't like the wines I drink because they're too spicy - something like a gentle burning sensation as they go down. For some reason, she always likes the wine we get at restaurants. I think it's all in her head - she assumes that a restaurant wine would be good, but one that I picked up at Harris Teeter is not. I do not, however, want to pay markup every time I want to enjoy a glass with her. Outside a restaurant, I don't like paying more than $10 a bottle. I feel like my palette isn't discerning enough to appreciate a more expensive purchase. (nor do I want it to be! let me enjoy me cheap pleasures) There was a type of chianti - Monsanto, from Italy - that she really enjoyed at a restaurant. I hit up that wine place on Little River Turnpike and found myself a bottle for $19.99, which she enjoyed. What confuses me is that this Monsanto seems to have all the characteristics she says she DOESN'T like in a wine. My question, I suppose, would be: is anyone familiar with Monsanto, and could recommend something similar at a lower price? Or I guess ANY red that you'd think would please the future Mrs. Cole, who prefers a very smooth, silky finish. Thanks!

Great first post, Laura, and welcome to the boards! I still haven't made it over there. Happy hour in G-Town just never sounded very relaxing to me.

No one-liners!

Just moved to the Milbrook @ Mark Center. I carpool with a friend/coworker and my fiancee, so the Clyde's a few blocks from my front door is a good choice for when no one feels like cooking or we just want to do a good happy hour - and they DO have some good happy hour specials (I think something like 20% off whatever, $4 burgers, $6 crab cakes, half-off oysters, etc.). "Chain" is not a dirty word to me. As with all Clyde's, the decorations and atmosphere make the experience. The Mark Center location boasts a hunting lodge, a crew bar, a regatta room, a New England bar, and the host station is meant to be reminiscent of the lobby of a Vermont hotel. I really enjoy the crab dip - it's creamy, well prepared, and actually full of crab. I LOVE their raw oyster selection. Then again, I've never had raw oysters before - I just know that to me they taste really, really good. The burgers are also decent. One thing that's really hit or miss is the service. I had one of the best waiters I've ever had, but other times service has been slooooooooow. Also watch out for the clientele. You'll have a lot of out-of-towners who just want to bother you with their out-of-towniness. You'll see what I mean if you go. So when I don't feel like driving all the way to the bar at Palena or any of the many finer bistros/lounges in the city, Clyde's is a great alternative close to home. Unless, of course, anyone has any better suggestions in the area.

And please don't ever stop!

'cause my manual said I was supposed to. Should I not be?

So it's definetely the flare ups, then, that are causing the burning? And not the very high heat?Cross-hatched grill marks.... fancy. oesn't lifting the cover to turn the steaks those 90 degrees let all the heat out?

I agree. I'm just brainstorming.

Thanks for all the advice, all. I can finally get decent grill marks. I've been trying to emulate the famous "high heat, high char" style of Ray's the Steaks. I picked myself up some hardwood charcoal from BBQ Galore (I don't think I'll EVER go back to softwood). I ended up with steak that was PERFECTLY cooked on the inside, but on the outside I had BURN instead of CHAR. It was like eating a briquette that someone hid a NY strip inside (okay, so it wasn't THAT bad, but STILL). Where did I go wrong? Why did I get blackened, crusty burn instead of carmelized, flavorful char? Was it because I: a) Piled the charcoal in a high mound to get it as close to the steak as possible for EXTRA high heat? B ) Took the charcoal out of the chimney starter too soon so I still had a lot of flame and not enough smolder? c) Did not have a water spray bottle with me to control flare-ups? d) All of the above e) None of the above Anyone have any ideas? Would I be out of line to PM Michael Landrum for some advice? I always worry that it's rude to ask to peer behind the curtain like that.

Cold leftover homemade pizza. Margherita with buffalo mozz from Cheesetique, and a pie w/ sun-dried tomato pesto & basil goat cheese.

We should have an ACTUAL "Deleted Posting Arena" where deleted topics battle to the death over which is the least on-topic. For example, this one.

Sorry, Ray's was just an example. My point was that those categories should exist for ALL restaurants (or at least those with more than a few pages of posts!). No one's forcing you to read the posts on Ray's. You've been around long enough to know what people think of Ray's, I'm sure you've eaten there enough times to form your own opinions, so what should it matter if other people want to discuss it within that thread? And as I've mentioned before, Ray's isn't the only restaurant that has such a high volume of posts. Like I said, a LOT of the appeal of DR.com for me (and I'm sure many others) is the opportunity to talk with some of the top chefs in the area. Landrum happens to be a very active and eccentric one, so his comments are likely to garner a lot of attention. Maybe another forum could be "Industry Insiders" where the GMs, sommeliers, chefs, waitstaff, hosts, etc. could post about their establishments and interact, answering questions, etc., if they'd so oblige. Of course, they'd certainly be posting in other threads, but perhaps this might deflect some of the chattiness* elsewhere. *That word has been used enough in this thread that I feel comfortable leaving off the quotes and the hyphens and just accepting it as a word. I'm defining it as "the effect of too much food, wine, and an Internet connection on human social interaction."

lol... create new categories?

I think the bottom line is that, to keep an open forum where people are comfortable with sharing their opinions and interacting socially, you CAN'T place restrictions on what people post. #1 it would be impossible to enforce without the mods going crazy and losing their jobs, and #2 if people were afraid of walking on eggshells all the time we'd see a lot of regulars going bye-bye and a lot of potential new users with their fascinating new insights not signing up.I think the best thing to do is, not place restrictions, but change the way things are organized. Maybe split the Restaurants and Dining category into "Regular Hangouts" and "New Digs." Once a restaurant gets more than 10 or 15 pages, its sent to the hangouts category. That way all our favorite restaurants could be filled with people chatting about them, and any new restaurants that people want to rave about would have some time in the sun. Then maybe split the threads ever FURTHER. Ray's the Steaks - Positive, Ray's the Steaks - Negative, Ray's the Steak - Social, etc. This way, people looking for reviews would know where to go, people looking for some chatting know where to go, and no one will feel overwhelmed by all the "DR-annointed-places" when trying to post about a new favorite. Am I crazy? I know I happen to love breaking things down into categories. You should see my desk at work. I order filing tabs in bulk. In the end, unless you put in restrictions, the onus of posting about new restaurants or being nice to people who knock on the sacred cows is on the posters themselves. So maybe have some reminders in the stickies on posting recommendations? Try new restaurants! Eat somewhere new! Don't put someone down for a negative review! Always floss!

The minds of the everlasting gods are not changed suddenly.-Homer

Yeah, I kept the lid on. The stone itself was 700F over most of the surface. Way hotter than what I get in the oven. I guess it's just losing too much heat when I take the lid off to put the pizza on.

Just bought some truffle salt from Cheesetique. I could put that stuff on everything. Or smell it all day. Either one is good.

I did. Problem was, the stone was too hot. Or rather, the stone was the perfect temperature and the AIR was too cool.I ended up with a slightly burned bottom and slightly undercooked toppings. I wonder if using hardwood charcoal just made everything too hot. In any case, the flavor was not appreciably improved over the more convenient oven. Next time I might try the direct-on-grate method.

Heh... I suppose this isn't what people mean when they say "grilled pizza," is it? Really I'm just using the grill to try and achieve the same effect/flavor one would get with a real wood-fired brick oven. Any tips?I tried hauling mud and clay up from the creek to my fourth-flour apartment, but the management gave me some earful about zoning.

Last-minute pizza grilling question! I'm about to grill pizza for the first time. I'm using a pizza stone, so don't try to talk me out of it. My question is, I have a Weber 22." I'm using jumbo lump hardwood charcoal. How much will I need? One chimney starter worth, or two? Should it be arranged directly under my 18" pizza stone, or around the sides? Thanks! I hope someone gets back to me before 6

You left out the most important part! What kind of ice cream?

Pappy - I would hope that no one would oppose any review, positive or negative, of any restaurant here. I like to think we're an honest, responsible bunch and wouldn't be afraid to denounce an establishment for fear of excommunication from the Church of Rocks. If you had a bad experience somewhere, post about it! You're doing a disservice to others like you who might otherwise be wary of a restaurant if you DON'T post about it.Look at me. One of my first posts was a scathing review of Citronelle. I took a few licks, but it's still up there if anyone wants to read it. And I'm still here! People don't disregard my posts just because they happen to have disagreed with one of them. On the contrary - letting people know how you feel is the first step to getting helped! The management can't improve your experience if they don't know something's wrong. Do other people, lurkers, regulars, all; feel the same way that Pappy does? That you'll be somehow excluded or attacked ad hominem if you happen to dislike one of DR.com's "most-favored-restaurants"? Don - maybe the solution here is to create, for each restaurant, separate threads. Maybe you could have something like: Ray's the Steaks - Reviews Ray's the Steaks - Chat Or maybe split the Reviews thread into Positive and Negative so people who may feel a bit apprehensive don't have to worry about being drowned out by the other type.

Pizza tonight. I'm trying the cold ferment method on my dough and I'll be cooking on a pizza stone on my grill. I know I shouldn't be trying two new things at once, but that's just the kind of crazed rebel cook I am. The various pies are: 1) A pizza version of my flank steak with blistered serranos and tequila-lime sauce tacos (plus homemade guac!) 2) Pizza margherita w/ buffalo mozz from Cheesetique 3) The requisite plain cheese 4) Italian sausage & ricotta with sundried tomato pesto in place of tomato sauce 5) A veggie lovers with red and yellow peppers, carmelized onions, spinach, some kind of mushroom, and (if my annoyingly picky guests will allow me) goat cheese* 6) Spicy vodka-tomato cream sauce with shrimp and sausage *Seriously, one guest always told me they hated goat cheese because it tastes like plastic. So to teach them a lesson, I made them eat my remote laser surface thermometer. Now they just say EVERYTHING tastes like plastic. True story.