msminnich

Well,I decided. I only have one night in Nassau, and I picked Cafe Matisse. It's in an old colonial house right off of Parliament Square. It is Italian with Bahamian influences. It was recommended on another board. I'll write back and give a full trip report on my return!

I'm just glad that there will be a TV home for cooking instead of what FN has become. The first 50 times I saw pastry chefs battle to create the tallest Disney character cakes it was great...

No disrespect intended to the pastry chefs...

I've actually been wondering the same thing. We're sailing from Baltimore on the 21st of March and will be in Nassau on my 50th birthday. I'm looking for somewhere to take my family for the big day. The New York Times has a number of reviews for places in Nassau. If I find anything else interesting I'll post links here.

Scott

Penn Quarter location has been getting worse and worse for the past 6 months. My workmates will no longer go there and I've stopped trying to convince them...

Hi, Lydia- Native Annapolitan here- though not for a few years- Any advice I can give?

Scott

WaPo posted an Annapolis Irish Pub RoadTrip map in their Sunday Source. Sometimes I have trouble picturing where these places are located and have to rely on the kindness of fellow Rockweilers...

I took a class last night where we cooked Duck. I liked the taste, I liked the sauce, but the texture made me want to gag.

I second whoever said they don't like strong smelling, oily fish or Bivalves. I also enjoy well prepared scallops.

The night before my appendix went bad on me I made a huge batch of chewy buttery oatmeal cookies. For many years after that I could not eat that kind of oatmeal cookie at all. I could only eat the dry, cinammony ones. After about 15 years, my body gave up that association, though they're still not my favorites.

I've had an occasional bad experience at Pasta Plus, but they have been few and far between. I've noticed that when Max, the owner isn't there the possibility of a bad night goes up some. All in all still probably my favorite Italian place.

Agreed, John. I looked into the incubator kitchen idea a bit and did some rudimentary financial modeling and couldn't get it close enough to profitable to make it doable. I'm not sure I'd be all that crazy about the other business either (the personal chef without the chef). I'm sure it has some novelty value now but ultimately I think it will proove to be a fad.

That has been tried. About 25 years ago I was interested in a food business and there was a new kitchen just like you suggested which I toured. It was somewhere in one of those suburban commercial parks in Virginia I think. They had everything, even a little office for the USDA guy who would be coming around to inspect, which apparently was still another requirement (for "manufactured" foods to be sold at retail??). They wanted to market it for small manufacturers (your Mom's spaghetti sauce recipe), caterers, occasional off-premises needs of restaurants, etc. Anyway after a brief flurry of stories in the Post and elsewhere they faded into oblivion.

One approach might be to open, or buy, one of these suddenly-popular franchise places where Mom's go to "home cook" a week's worth of food for their families, and use the facilities at other hours for what you really want to do. Spread the risk around a little better that way. Don't get overly hung up on trying to improve the food habits of the world; it's fine to talk among ourselves about $20 olive oil and all the rest, but business is business, and if you don't want to get financially "creamed" I'd say your best bet is to go with the flow, i.e. where the market already is.

I've looked into food manufacturing a bit and found that working in the business is kind of difficult to do part time. The biggest barrier to entry that I can see is that you have to have a professional kitchen to work in. The kitchen may be in your home if you can get the zoning for it, but it may not be the same kitchen that you use to cook for your family. Many churches have professional kitchens, but at least in Maryland, they may not house a profit making business. The best reccomendation that I can come up with is to find a restaurant that will allow you to work in the off hours. The wife and I considered opening an "incubator kitchen" for just such situations. The idea is that we would build a large kitchen with two or three workstations for fledgling caterers and manufacturers like yourself to rent by the hour.

Another thing to look into is possibly being a personal chef. A friend in Philly does this and it works out well for him.