jpschust

Apologies, I'm just coming back to the area after being away too long! Staying in the DuPont area and need to grab a bottle as a gift for a friend- who's got a decent scotch selection? I'm going to be all Metro and cab this trip, so close to metro is helpful. Thanks and I miss DC! J

Louisville Probably too late for your trip, but we were there a few weeks ago. It was OK, but not the outstanding, overwhelming experience people have raved about. There's not much within walking distance for dining unless you want to go to Morton's. Brunch at Proof was better than dinner.

One of the companies that I do marketing work for is looking for an "of the month" club to work with to turn your billing from an invoicing or manual credit card run to an internet based automated system. Please e-mail me if you're interested- jonathon@sproutbox.com. Hope all is well- I miss you all in DC!

I've spent a tremendous amount of time studying Eve and their group from the outside. I actually used them as a model for a client I had, so this is where I'm coming from when I give this reasoning. I think the term Bistro is confusing in the case of Eve- it's maybe my one minor critique of the group. I think they used the term Bistro to define a certain set of dishes and set it in a different place than the tasting room from a marketing segmentation perspective. The problem, however, is in acquiring the majestic and in opening Eamonn's they find themselves stratifying basically every price point in the food realm, and thus Bistro takes on a new meaning, one defined by price rather than by food. So I don't think it's misleading per se, but I think it's maybe not all that clear.

I know of more than a few iPhone developers, if this becomes something of interest let me know.

I dunno, it feels like dolcetto season to me

Within a short distance of crust is Piece which is awesome.

It happens everywhere. Seriously- it happens to me at restaurants where I'm a regular and ones where I'm not. It's more of an issue that unfortunately hosts get distracted and either forget or enter seated parties names wrong.

My guess is that they are making multiple accounts under multiple email addresses but similar names. If you have more than a certain number of no-shows, OT suspends your account.

Crust = great idea, terrible execution. Food is generally crappy with a chance of yechy.

will i be able to get an iced espresso?

This year was a pretty ho-hum year for restaurants, but a fantastic year for books.

First day of cooking my way through every single alton brown episode. Pan-seared ribeye. Fan freaking tastic

No, there are many underlying things that can keep a small going for a couple of years even when they have no control over their cash.

As a side question- how many operators know what cash flow is and how to manage it in a sustainable way?

As a marketing guy with a specialty in pricing and innovation in pricing and strategy (who I might add is looking for an unpaid internship), the general rule is that you charge what the market will bear. That is far easier said than done- what hte market will bear is a combination of market demographic, market trends in pricing, and how an individual restaurant is run. So for example, you can use wine as a profit or a cost center. I'd imagine for a place like Dino wine is a profit center, though not quite as much as the food is (I have no internal knowledge of Dino's books) but their apparent margin on wine wouldn't seem to support too much beyond the variable costing of the business, though I could be way off. If you ask me from a non business based view, I prefer not to pay more than a 30-40% markup, though I'm far happier to pay larger markups on better, rarer bottles of wine served with appropriate wine service.

I haven't been in for ages, partially because I moved, partially because my food trips to DC are quite limited in space. Just one suggestion, and perhaps I misread your post, the worst place for a manager in the restaurant is the front door. In my mind, and from my experience, the best place for the manager is to be at every single table at least once during service to ask how service is going and to act as a filter for comments, good and bad directly to their source. In the case of positive comments they should be shared, in the case of negative comments they must be communicated immediately and rectified as soon as possible. The front door is important, but the activity of the restaurant occurs far beyond the front door.

I was thinking about this post last night and I kind of felt compelled to respond as someone who previously posted on Bebo. I doubt anyone on this board wanted Bebo to fail, nor did they wish it to be Galileo, but they did want consistent high quality food for a fair price with decent service. These are the hallmarks of any great restaurant. It's clear that Bebo can succeed if it executes correctly, I think we'd all like to see it happen.

Yah and her technique sucks, and making food with love isn't an excuse for crappy food. I'll take the food made without love that comes up right.

Yah, I think the argument isn't that Minibar isn't outstanding, but rather that Andres has absolutely nothing to do with minibar. Look at my restraint on talking about minibar. You should be impressed

Didn't something similar happen in DC?

David Tallent for Midwest was awesome to see. He's putting out amazing food.

Just as a note, I wouldn't expect any restaurant to get its pricing exactly right on its open. I spend a lot of my day looking at pricing of various things from CPG's to securities, and it's extremely rare that in goods and services that touch consumers that new businesses or new offerings get it right on the first shot, so I wouldn't hold too much stock in anyone's pricing when they open.

Portillos is a staple. and it's freaking awesome.

The exception to that rule is that there's a Gibson's in Rosemont. One of the better steaks in a steak town!