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Scott

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  1. Just got back from a few days in NYC. In NYC, we've eaten at Per Se twice, Alain Ducasse, and most recenly Jean-Georges. In DC, we've eaten at Komi, Cityzen, Restaurant Eve Tasting Room, Minibar, Inn at Little Washington, Maestro, Citronelle- and everywhere else. In choosing a restaurant in NYC, we looked for 3-star Michelin rated restaurants. There were 4, of which Jean-Georges was one. We saw that it had also been rated as "one of the best restaurants in the country." We were stoked! Much to my dissappointment, I've had better meals at probably 10 other restaurants in DC alone! The meal was good, but I was expecting much better. And come to think of it, my meals I've had at Per Se were great, but not any better than some fantastic meals I've had at Komi, CityZen, Eve, Minibar, Maestro, and the Inn. At JG, I got the tasting menu. Much of it was very good, but not all that creative. For a pairing with a caviar egg course, I received sake. I hate sake. The menu said "wine pairings". I certainly wasn't expecting sake to be paired with anything being served. Another course (main) was squab. It was flattened- and impossible to eat. After unsuccessfully trying to get more than 3 bites off of the bird, I picked the damn thing up with my fingers and started gnawing on it. Yep, I did that! It was also flavored with cumin, coriander, and paprika- which was omitted on the listed tasting menu- flavors I don't like at all. Service was decent in that they kept our waters filled, but the bread dude interrupted us twice after we finished our bread asking us if we wanted more (once obviously, after declining). The waitress knocked over a full glass of my wine (doesn't bother me- honest mistake), put a napkin over the spill on the table, but didn't wipe the wall which I HAD to squeeze by to leave our table (we were in a booth/bench with our backs against the wall- a 3-walled nook). Had I not noticed the wine on the wall, it would have gotten on my suit. While the first few courses came out perfectly timed, the last 3 courses had huge gaps- about 30 minutes between each one. We had a 5:30 reservation and it was already past 9:00 when they finally brought us our desserts. We were getting so tired of waiting (and bored at this point), that I asked for the check with dessert and they hurriedly rushed out all of those complimentary candies, gelatins, etc.- of which had nuts in them- and I had told them verbally and via Open Table that I was allergic to nuts. My wife asked which chocolate truffles had nuts- the waiter gave it some thought, told us one answer, then changed his mind. I didn't eat any of those! Anyway- the point I'm really trying to make here is that this restaurant was very over-rated in my view... and I think it's because it's in NYC. I find it odd that people think merchandise (cars, clothes, food, wine, etc.) is better simply because it's from a certain general region- and I think there must be a psychological term to explain the phenomena (reminds me of when CA wines got notoriety for testing on par/better than French wines back when everyone thought French wines were better). Years ago when I ate at Alain Ducasse, I will say it was one of the top 3 best meals I've ever had to this day (white truffle tasting menu), but other than that, Per Se (one of the 4 Michelin 3-star restaurants in NYC) and Jean-Georges are no better than several restaurants in DC.
  2. I grew up down the road from Spicknall's- it was the place for fresh silverqueen corn 30 years ago.
  3. I have the same problem with salt on pretzels. We can put a man on the moon, but when is someone going to make pretzels with evenly distributed salt?!? I haven't tried Alden's swirled ice cream flavors yet, but I've tried the vanilla and mint chip and both are excellent. I would think that the "swirl problem" would be really annoying for peanut butter swirl, but no so annoying for fudge swirl.
  4. Celebrated my brother's 50th birthday in the wine room at Grapeseed this past Saturday. I don't have time to go into all of the details, but everything was great- both food (filet, scallops, lamb, chicken, etc.) and service. My mom, who is very picky in general, and especially with lamb, commented repeatedly how fantastic the lamb was and told me she wants to return. The only snafu in the service is a few times plates landed in front of the wrong person (there were 12 of us- so easy to confuse), but overall, and especially with our main waiter and the GM (Ernie), the service was excellent. And eating in the wine room is nice. It's chilly in there at 60 degrees, but I was really comfortable in a light sweater- I like being on the colder side when I'm drinking wine. What recession, btw? The place was jumpin'.
  5. The best "burgers" to get at BGR are the tuna burger and the turkey burger... both are better than the beef options, IMO... and the beef ones are good.
  6. Jeff- some feedback... I've been to your restaurant probably about 10 times over the years. It's been very good. I took a bunch of people there last week on Wednesday night (8 of us). Everyone was new to the place and are all used to dining out at nice restaurants. While the food was decent, I'm not sure many in our party would return. They were surprised to see so much stuff come out that was fried, while it didn't indicate it on the menu. I ordered salmon which came with *something* obscure (I'd never heard of it before) on the menu that I can't remember- I asked someone at the table if they knew what it was, and someone thought it was tomato based. So, I ordered it (yes- I should have asked the waiter!), and it turned out to be vegetables with heavy curry. I think it would be helpful to have the word "curry" on the description on the menu, since it's such a strong flavor with usually a love/hate following (I fall into the category of "hate"). A few people ordered the crabcakes. Everyone thought the cakes were good, but that the black beans, etc. didn't work so well. Your desserts have ALWAYS been incredible- everyone loved them. And the wine pairings are always great as well. Just want to let you know that my party walked out thinking it was a bit "odd". I'll be back, though- and make sure I ask the waiter a lot of questions.
  7. I don't doubt that the milk you had was spoiled. The milk comes in with 15 days until expiration. We have a policy in our stores that it gets pulled 5 days before expiration because we have found that it goes bad before the stamped date. Knowing this, we would rather run out of it than over-stock it, so the dates on our shelves usually have 10-15 days until expiration. The milk is pasteurized at minimum temps, which is what we think leads to its early expiration.
  8. Riddle me this... What are the 2 most common used excuses today for going out of business? "The economy is bad" and/or "the LL raised the rents". Most people go out of business for 2 other different reasons altogether- bad model and/or bad management.
  9. It's not a thing of the past. Drive out to the beach and throughout the Eastern Shore you'll see roadside stands- some designated with signs "we grow our own produce". They do that because many of the other stands DON'T grow their own product- i.e. they buy it from wholesalers in Jessup. Just look and you'll see plenty of cantaloupes and tomatoes in May- and if I recall correctly, corn as early as June.
  10. btw- to the topic at hand of high produce prices... I was told by the largest produce distributor in the country of organic produce that prices are actually down this year about 10% compared to last year. People started buying less of it when the economy tanked- largely because it can get expensive when it cooks down to size so much. A LOT of food manufacturers this past year price gouged, using higher fuel costs as an excuse for rising prices. Check the profits of public food manufacturers and you'll see, like the oil companies, 2008 was one of the most profitable years for them in history. And of course, they haven't gone down now that fuel is cheaper...
  11. Another factor that sometimes puts the small guy at a disadvantage is a management/labor issue. For example, one local farm we've used will occasionally send us below-par product. Why?... it's because either their young kids are picking the product or they haven't trained the ones who are picking properly- or given the hectic schedule of a small farmer, they haven't had the chance to pick the product at it's peak. Getting the product refrigerated immediately after picking is critical, as noted in my original post. Lady Moon farms, which is a huge local operation, does a good job at this- which is why their product is so outstanding and lasts so long.I like farmers markets and they serve a great purpose, but America has romanticized the experience of shopping at them. The product is not always better. I've prepped, washed, and set produce for 18+ years and the best product I've seen FROM LOCAL FARMS is usually in the grocery store. It's even worse for roadside stands! You don't know how many times I've driven by a roadside stand (often located on a farm) and seen product that I KNOW they couldn't possibly be growing themselves- they're getting it from the warehouses in Jessup.
  12. Sometimes how long something lasts doesn't have much to do with "freshness", but more to do with the weather conditions in which it was grown. For example, lettuce grown in CA and shipped to the East Coast for 5 days will last longer than local lettuce grown in rainy, hot, humid temps on local farms picked the prior day. Where the nights are cool and dry, it seems veggies last longer. Also, buying at farmers markets make everyone feel good, but in my experience, larger farm operations that sell mainly to grocery stores (like Lady Moon, Chesapeake, One Straw Farms) are better growers and have higher standards. Not only that, they have the facilities to handle the product properly- if you're buying your greens from a local farmer at a farmers market at 11:00am any time after mid-May, the odds are that that particular product has been out of refrigeration for AT LEAST 6-7 hours at about 80 degrees or so. Imagine taking a head of lettuce and leaving it on your countertop for 6 hours- it takes A LOT of life out of it. Some farmers will even pick their stuff the day before and not be able to refrigerate it. And a lot of local product is sold at supermarkets- what you need to know is when it comes in- and you should ask. If a local farmer is dropping at a grocery store at 6:00am, it's going straight into refrigeration/hydration. Again, if you buy something at a farmers market at 11:00am, that product is going to lose some life. Finally, I've found that grocery stores get really high quality product (larger and prettier items), since they have a lot of buying power and it's at the retail level (not being sold at restaurants for cooking).
  13. When I used to work the produce department, we would occasionally find some rather large black widow spiders in the grapes. Once when we broke down a pallet that had been stacked with stuff on the floor of the produce area for months, there were more than a few black widows that had made webs underneath- they must have come in on the bananas because the ones in the grapes were too cold to move. Thing is, black widows aren't all that "tropical". I have found multiple "northern black widows" as nearby as the Northern Neck, VA- about 100 miles south of DC.
  14. Trickling Springs produces and packages our MOM's brand milk. They deliver 3 times per week. I hear what you're saying about the milk going "bad" fast, and that could be due to the low pasteurization temps/times. However, it seems to happen inconsistently and we have brought it up to Trickling Springs. They have told us that the milk is not actually "bad", but rather some of the farmers who supply their milk to TS have just a few roaming cows and they sometimes get into certain types of grasses that change the flavor of the milk- gives it a bit of an off-taste. I use the milk all the time and have noticed that about 1 in 10 batches, the milk tastes a bit weird- but I don't think it's spoilage because sometimes the milk is very fresh (produced 4-5 days ago) and it doesn't curdle when I use it each morning in my lattes.
  15. Nick-more power to you! You are either a marketing genius, a good manager, are willing to take a stand, or all! What many people don't realize about retail is that there is this wierd thing that happens with some customers when they walk into a retail establishment- they think they somehow are anointed king/queen and suddenly can treat employees like they're indentured servants- Leona Helmsley style! It's sort of like internet exchanges or behind the wheel of a car- people treat other people differently than they would anywhere else, obviously while on a power trip of some sort. It's such a strange dynamic and is probably worthy of a sociological thesis/study. We get about 20,000 customer per week. 19,987 of them are wonderful. Then there are those 13. Nick and all business owners have a duty to protect and defend their staff in the face of rude, disrespectful, or dishonest customers. It does the world good when these customers are confronted. Customers can be wrong, like bad wrong- and when they are at one of my stores, I ban them. And boy, does that change everything! They always come back and behave much better thereafter or start crying/pleading right there on the spot. Typical behavior of bullies, once confronted! And everyone is better off because of it- the employee's morale goes up (or, at least is stopped from going down), other employees feel like they work for someone who cares about them (which seems quite rare in the workplace!), and other respectful and decent customers don't have to be around such rude customers while they shop. Again, nice job Nick. Off topic- do you know what is it inherently about milk that makes it either froth nicely or not so nicely, even though the same machine and techniques are used?
  16. I took my mom out last night for a belated Mother's Day dinner at Komi. She said that the tasting menu at Komi was better than Maestro's. It was the first time either of us had eaten there. It was memorable. Everything was prepared well and ingredients were outstanding, but what I thought really put it over the top was the courage and innovation the chef has when creating this tasting menu. The flavor combinations were very unique- and each one worked great. Ingredients were unique as well- unique kinds of fish, wines that I couldn't pronounce, goat served with pita as an entree, a "white port" for dessert wine, feta cheese gelato, raw scallop, curry crackers, French breakfast radishes dipped in taragon yogurt, etc. I got the full tasting menu with 5 wine pairings. I just got around to eating again about an hour ago...
  17. "Overpay"? I didn't say the food was mediocre. I specifically said it was good. Anyone who is going to drive out of their way 10 minutes (it's really 15 minutes to Urban Burger from Bethesda, btw- not to mention that gas and wear and tear on your car) to save $3 when the food may/may not be better is penny wise and dollar dumb. We're not talking about a tasting menu here that's $120 vs. ordering off the menu for $70- we're talking about $5 vs. $8- and, as I stated, the product is better. My time (and gas and wear and tear on my car) is worth more than $18 per hour, even if all things are equal (which they aren't in this case). I think the best BARGAINS at Houston's and Black's are the burgers. And I'm pretty sure their burgers are $8+...
  18. I went there last night. Fantastic burgers, fries, buns, etc. I believe their buns are fresh baked. Their sweet potato fries were excellent. One of my picky kids even ate them up. $8 might be on the higher end for a burger, but I assume their target market (Mont. County) is willing to pay $2 or $3 more for a good meal vs. a mediocre meal?!?! Matter of fact, sounds like a bargain to me...
  19. Eating Mia's pizza has actually made me notice the subtle differences in pizzas. I usually toss the crust rinds aside on most pizzas. At Mia's, I order an extra side of red sauce for dipping crusts into- they're really great in flavor and texture. I think my only complaint about Mia's is that they use raw vegetables on their pizzas. I prefer my pizza toppings sweated first (mushrooms, peppers, spinach, etc.), so as to not make the pizza watery. Minor complaint, though- I just choose my own ingredients to avoid this problem.
  20. I just got from having dinner at Grapeseed tonight. I hadn't been since they expanded. It was really good. I had a "ribs" app that was actually a fish dish. It was fantastic- although, while the wine that went with it was very good, it didn't seem to go so great with the fish- I was yearning for a white. Let it be known that I am not a wine afficianado, so take that for what it's worth. Lamb was fantastic as well and wine cab went great with it. Brownie marshmallow dessert, which has been on the menu for a long time, was its usual good self. Vintage port really hit the spot.
  21. Funny. I was just talking about Berger cookies yesterday. My mom got some maple cookies and I, being the ungrateful son that I am, told her I prefer Berger's. I love them. She said that when she gets them, she picks them up at Snider's in Silver Spring.
  22. Frozen baby foods in general just don't sell well at MOM's. We've tried all kinds, including Mom Made- but no luck selling the product. We don't mind supporting local companies and stocking their products even if they don't sell so great, but not in the freezer. Freezer space is just too valuable for slow sellers. We're probably going to phase out frozen baby foods altogether. If we can't sell such a product, I can't imagine who could...
  23. btw- I think one of the reasons why I like the Kashi pizza so much is because I swear the crust is par-baked. The Kashi crust was perfectly cooked- didn't taste like it was pre-cooked at all. I know that some of Amy's crusts are basically focaccia crusts, considering all of the olive oil they put in. Costco used to sell a real good organic thin crust pizza from Colorado. I can't remember the name of it, though.
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