mhberk

The idea that restaurants take a loss during restaurant week is a fallacy for the most part, the difference between regular service and RW is the margin that the restaurant maintains, when offering a discount the margin becomes smaller and affects the net line of income, however...

Thanks for the break down! This makes a lot of sense and really shined some insight into your decision making process. I am a little disappointed, however, that you didn't provide your break even analysis.

I was in Columbia recently and took a drive by of Kings Contrivance village center, where the new Harris Teeter is supposed to be built. Here's a status report.

The old Safeway and Friendly's have been completely torn down and the rest of the center looks tiny and like in a war zone, but that is not keeping the folks away from places like Trattoria e Pizzeria, thank goodness. The area where the store is supposed to be erected is all torn up and it looks like pipes, conduits and electrical junctions are all being sorted out. If I were to estimate things, I would not expect this store to be open until right before Thanksgiving AT THE EARLIEST.

Thanks for the update Pool Boy! I live across the street from the Giant in Owen Brown, so I might need to go over and check it out. But truthfully, I don't care what happens to that village center as long as I can still access Trattoria e Pizzeria.

Padma hasn't returned any of my calls yet. I guess she must be busy with the divorce proceedings. I plan to cut my calls down to 5 times a day-- I'm sure she has a lot on her plate.

Clearly she's playing hard to get!

I've always wondered what happens to a great recipe when a restaurant stops operating.

I've been spending some time recently with Su-Mei Yu's Asian Grilling: 85 Satay, Kebabs, Skewers and Other Asian-Inspired Recipes for Your Barbecue. Her chicken satay and peanut sauce, though time consuming - which I've heard authintic satay is, has completely ruined any hope of me enjoying satay in a restaurant!

Padma to Divorce Rushdie!

Goes to show you how widely read this website is... obviously she saw what I wrote!

Padma Likeshmi!!!

You're a lucky man! Please keep us updated!

I remember watching the thing about Cereality on Unwrapped on the Food Network and thinking to myself "why didn't I think of that!". If someone was explaining this concept to me or if I was reading an article about it, I would probably be thinking the same thing that others have posted in this thread. But this thing is an unbelievable money maker and HUGELY successful! The concept is genius, their margins are through the rough, and it's one of the those places that will stay busy at whatever campus they put one on.

Uh...

The article does go on to say that when she told him how to make the salad, she told him he couldn't make it anywhere else, but it came from another restaurant to begin with!

That's the same thing that I was thinking. It's not like it came to her in a dream or she spent thousands on R&D to create it. It came from another restaurant.

I wonder if her mother worked for the other chef that it came from.

Now that you're leaving the area, I think it's time for you to spill the beans on the recipe for Cafe Deluxe's fire roasted tomato soup!

Take care Blake

Fresh made individual cup of coffee at Philz in the Mission District. I'm a murky coffee enthusiast, but this was really something else. They take your order from about 20 different types of coffee (tasting notes posted on a board to help you select), put several scoops of the beans into a milk shake can, grind them into the can, and then pour them into a little individual drip canister into which they pour the hot water to brew your individual cup. Ok I admit I'm partial to the name and this is basically how all coffee is made, but it was pretty neat seeing my individual cup prepared for me. They also mix in cream and / or sugar for you. I had the ambrosia and was blown away. http://www.philzcoffee.com/

We stumbled upon this place while we were staying with friends in The Mission. It could, quite possibly, be the best cup of coffee I've ever had! The individual canisters were a nice touch and really proved to be the difference. But from what I remember, it wasn't just coffee grinds in that cheesecloth (or whatever it was that they used to strain the coffee). I could've sworn I saw Phil's son put in cardamon pods and mint leaves. Whatever it was, It was the best I've ever had and I wish there was something like this closer to me.

Incidentally, his son told me that his father was looking to franchise the business. I would LOVE to see one of these pop up around here!

Curious. I am a bit out of it with news on Roberto Donna, Galileo and Laboratorio, but wasn't his place under reconstruction for a while? Is that all over now?

The classes are being held at Bebo Trattoria in VA

Price has gone up a bit since we took it a few years ago, but the risotto class is definitely worth it. We had struggled with risotto until taking the class, and now we can say with confidence that our home preparations are almost as good as those of the professionals. The downside is that we sometimes find ourselves muttering to each other in a restaurant, "We can make this better at home."

Alright, I broke down and registered for the August 25th risotto class. We're REALLY looking forward to it!

I wonder if it was also that compared to Marcel's pompousness and immaturity, Stephen simply comes off as someone who is basically a little snotty and annoyingly erudite, but overall has some class. It was an interesting counterpoint that the two "villains" were cooking against each other, and Marcel gave Tom a ton of attitude while Stephen was calm and pleasant. Stephen still managed to outclass everyone from Season 2, except for Sam.

I liked how Marcel and Dave were going on and on while arguing with eachother and Harold just had to say "ENOUGH!" (or something like that) and they both shut up. It was obvious who the executive chef was among the group.

At first, everyone else hated him for being pompous and arrogant but after while people realized that Stephen was just being Stephen and really came to like him.

I really couldn't stand him during Season 1 and we did a little cheer when he got sent packing. But he really won me over during the reunion when he stood up and apologized to Candice for the way he spoke to her. He told her that she was great and that she never deserved all those things he said to her. It showed a different side to him.

Good stuff Mr Cole!!

As it turns out, it doesn't look like I'll be able to make it this year , so it looks like my famous blackened chicken salad will have to wait for another occasion.

But Revereware stainless-steel with aluminum disk bottom works perfectly well for all these tasks. You don't say which line or which size your All Clad saucier is, but if you make soup in it it has to be fairly large. Which means that your one pan cost a lot more than a whole set of Revereware. Do you cook spaghetti in it?

I know this thread is supposed to be about setting up a kitchen with a certain budget in mind and I'm sure that this one pan (the 2-quart runs $115 at WS) can't compete with sets of inferior cookware in price, but I would put this one piece of equipment up against more than half of what those other sets include. I don't need to mention that an 8-piece set includes 3 or 4 lids. But as far as the utilities that this one pan performs, I don't think the others can compete. Because of the sloped and the outward frayed sides (which allows for better evaporation), this pan is far superior for making sauces, stocks and reductions. I can boil veggies, then strain them and return them to the pot to saute them in butter, wine, garlic, lemon juice, etc without using another pan. I can cook pasta (not spaghetti), then return it to the pan and toss it with chicken (that I've sauteed in the pan) and a sauce. Because it's all clad (meaning, the aluminum core runs from the bottom of the pan and up the sides; not just on the bottom as the "heavy bottom" pans do) the bottom and the sides of the pan heat almost evenly to provide a better cooking environment. It retains heat better and provides a more accurate heating environment.

I could probably go on for hours listing all the tasks that I perform with this pot. All I can say is that it is the epitome of multifunctional, it's very heavy and durable, and even though it might cost 3 times what an inferior pan costs, it will last a 10 times as long as an inferior pan will.

Cook's Illustrated did a test of pans a few years ago and came to this conclusion:

JF02RatingSaucepans.pdf

The next All-Clad Seconds Sale at the Washington County Fairgrounds is Friday & Saturday, June 8 & 9, 2007. Their hours are are Friday 9am - 7pm and Saturday 9am - 4pm. Arriving early is best. Their tagline is: "First Come. Seconds Served."

The postcard I received from All-Clad notes only CRATE as a participating retailer in this sale, perhaps worth checking out - www.cratecook.com

Where is the Washington County Fairgrounds? I just got off the phone with Crate and they said their sale is in Pittsburgh, PA

I think that for a lot of everyday tasks--boiling potatoes, boiling green beans, boiling eggs, making soup, reheating stew, poaching eggs, etc., expensive pots and pans like All-Clad are a huge waste of money.

I use my All-Clad saucier for just about everything you've listed. It is BY FAR the most used and most versatile piece of cooking equipment I own.

Hey Don, any chance you can work your magic and get Chef Ruta to conduct a small, private cooking class for us? Or a group dinner?

We have a glass cooktop (gas isn't available in our neighborhood) and we find it works great. All of our saute pans are All-Clad and we have no problems using them on the surface. We also use Le Creuset and a cast iron skillet.

Which issue of Cook's Illustrated is this in? I"d like to read the article. Sounds interesting yet very unorthodox.

If this is the article that Dan is talking about, I posted it here

I used to go to the one in Olney during the early '90s. I don't remember the night of the week, but every week they had a "Bladder Buster" in the upstairs bar. It would start at 7:00 (I think) and the whole bar would drink beer for free until the first person went to the bathroom. Sometimes it would last 10 minutes, sometimes it would last 45 minutes. During the longer lasting times, everyone would "boo" when someone approached the bathrooms. But right after they'd go in (and the event ended), half the bar would form lines outside the bathroom doors to go in.

It was good times for someone in their early 20s

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I'll be there with my famous blackened chicken salad.