Eric Ziebold

Cook position available at CityZen. 5 night dinner only restaurant, looking to fill a PM line position. email resumes to me at eziebold@mohg.com

looks like it's coming our back our way... http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/u-s-to-resume-beef-imports-from-japan-after-two-year-ban?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2012-08-06_AM

Agreed. ....and now going off on a tangent. As someone needing to manage a restaurants position a lot of people I knew were all for the ban because strictly operationally speaking it took the decision of being smoke free or not out of our hands. As it was going you were in sort of a damned if you do damned if you don't spot. As the bigger part of getting off topic goes, I was in California as I believe they were one of the firsts to start passing laws against smoking. The original argument for the ban was not based on you the restaurant patron but was actually positioned as "protecting the employees." Pending how old you are, you may remember that back in the day restaurants, airplanes, and a lot of other places had smoking sections. Now while those had already become a thing of the past, by staking their position in this way you could avoid the argument that you the customer could theoretically choose to sit somewhere else or go somewhere else if you didn't want to be around cigarette smoke. The employees didn't have the choice, and it was the employees health that needed to be protected.

One can only speculate as to how many people's lives have been negatively impacted by McDonald's super sized extra value meal. NYC has a push to limit the size container that soda can be sold in. Yes, other peoples decisions affect our lives every day because well, most of us don't live in a bubble. Personally, I was all for the smoking ban, and did share my opinion in a public forum on the subject. Not sure that disagreeing with someone's position necessitates disparaging remarks about them. Many months ago we had the issue of parking downtown, which resulted in the parking rates/times being adjusted. There were industry people that criticized her and RAMW for letting the meter rates/times change. I remember a conversation I had with Lynne about the issue and how hard they tried and failed to stop the city. We talked for quite a while, and I remember thinking to myself, sadly, that's our industry. Didn't get the result we wanted = Didn't try. Of course we all know that sometimes no matter how hard you try you still don't get the result you want. I want everything I cook to be perfect but it's not. My point is that it's a tough industry to represent. It's a tough industry to be a part of. Everyone has an opinion, everyone wants to be a critic, you can never do enough. I didn't agree with the push to allow smoking either, as I'm not a smoker and don't enjoy being around it. I didn't agree with the city raising the parking rates and pushing back the time limits, as I don't typically walking around with several dollars of quarters in my pocket. I enjoyed being around Lynne, I enjoyed talking to her, I valued her opinions and insights. I'm sorry to see her go.

Lynne was a great person to be around and was tireless in her support of Washington restaurants. The announcement yesterday couldn't have surprised me more. She will be missed.

Got to Ray's the Steaks around 8:30 PM a couple of weeks ago, parked in the ticketmaster lot, or whatever it was, across the street. Got towed, and they'd been closed for hours.

I look forward to reading the responses.....

I ate at Terra last time I was in Napa and had a great meal. I went in expecting there Terra I'd come to know while living in Napa, and was surprised to find out that they'd changed the menu format completely. Similar to Gary Danko and some of the Ritz Dining Rooms you pick however many courses you want from the menu and it's priced/course. They only items we weren't dying to order were the 2 obligatory salads. The food was exquisite, and I thought the wine list was fantastic. Not the tomb you get at some Napa restaurants but filled with some gems that you don't often see outside the Valley.

In the case of meat glue itself, I'm with Don in that we've probably already ingested much more of it than we'd really like in the form of deli meats etc.... To Rich's point I have to agree as well, if I'm ordering a steak I'd like to get the steak that I think I'm ordering. I know there was a restaurant that became famous with its playfullness and whimsy of how it wrote the menu descriptions, but I think they actually tried to make you aware of that by using quotes to tip you off that a "surprise" may be in store.

Your point about the flat-iron is basically what the article was stating was NOT safe to use. Not because of the meat glue itself, but because of the bacteria. If you're vacuum sealing it after, and then cooking it sous vide (inevitably at a low temperature) thats basically the cause for alarm that the article was raising.

Am I missing something here? $135 for 5 courses doesn't make it sound like you're getting an amazing deal. Is that inclusive of Tax & Gratuity? Or Beverage?

apparently its time we adopt some sort of rule about photography.

Beautiful piece of meat in the photo. I'd be curious to know the price/# Desnoyer at this point has somewhat of a cult following. I believe I read an article recently that he was charging something like 90 euro/kg. for some of his beef. "After all, it’s not how we produce animal products that ultimately matters. It’s whether we produce them at all." reminds me of a quote I heard via Ted Lemon, that I can't unfortunately remember who the original quote was from. "Everyone wants to talk about the problems IN agriculture without talking about the problem OF agriculture."

Japanese beef is currently banned from being sold in the US. I think Todd Kliman actually tried to make people aware of that in his chat about a year ago, in reference to something "kobe" that a person said they had at Blue Duck. Unfortunate that its banned because I'd propose another tasting dinner (at Vidalia) as a great forum to dissect the issue that the author has. While I do see a major flaw in the article, (which is apparently going to be addressed in part 2) I believe I do agree with the spirit of what he's trying to write. Assuming that what he's really driving at is people (mostly restaurants) misleading people about something so they can charge more for it. Since the above would be a rather lengthy post/tirade, I would like to make a comment about America as a society. I think we as a group like to throw around words that are easy for us to identify with. As it pertains to the food industry I think it is because we have a pretty young food culture. In the rapidly changing world of technology its because we tend to lead innovation in those areas. The monetary issue aside, is there that much difference between the way people have thrown around terms like caviar, champagne, google or xerox?

In Europe, back in the day(pre-online reservations) you almost couldn't get a reservation at a michelin 3* restaurant in Paris as a single diner. (l'Arpege was my one exception but 1/2 the dishes served 2 or 4 ppl. so I was screwed anyway) When my dining companions had to cancel for dinner at Ducasse they tried very hard to convince me that I should come for lunch, I stuck with it and they did honor my dinner reservation though.

My very confused 2 cents from a restaurant person that is participating with savored.....I'm not sure why they don't offer reservations as a single diner. In fact I had to confirm with my manager that it was true. From our perspective there is no reason why it shouldn't be offered. I would defer to Don's defense that they're a young company and looks like they still need to work some things out. (I could tell you a couple of other things they need to address but that would be off topic) As for open table, I'm assuming that one could create a single diner slot if somebody really wanted to. The problem on our end is that in some ways you're now "holding" a table for a single diner, because most people I know have it set up that in order to override the seating capacity of a table you need a managers password. Do we take reservations for single diners, absolutely, unfortunately the way the system is set up you would have to call the restaurant in order to do so. Arguably, if you have a moderate check average at your restaurant you may want single diners to call the restaurant in order to avoid paying the OT fee because of the assumed loss of revenue.

Well, until I just heard the news about the salary cap hit they're going to take I didn't think they were going to have a hard time finding someone to throw the ball to. Cooley will be back(could also be a trade piece) Fred Davis is progressing well. (as long as we can get all the drug dealers together and agree NOT to sell him anymore weed), Hankerson is coming along, Gaffney is a good 3rd option, possible second. Really, they need 1 star receiver and another offense linemen. Pending on how long they can defer this cap penalty that they're now being dealt (which is completely bogus but besides the point) all points indicate that we're goin' to the Super Bowl!!!

But if it works out then these are exciting times!!!! I'll take care of the food for the tailgate party if you can organize the tickets we're going to need to watch the 'Skins in the NFC championship game.

Biggest thing that strikes me "Eure plans to call Manning immediately to apologize"...I think it could be a little more challenging than they may think to just call up Peyton Manning.

I have to admit I was rather confused the last time I was at a grocery store and they told me I didn't have to sign anything. I'll bring it up to my lawyer next time I talk to him. Or are there any out there following this thread that would like to offer some complimentary advice. I don't mind waiting for it. :-)

Stephanie, in response to you're query about the cc# AND the contract. It's my understanding that without the contract just having somebody's cc info is worthless. To summarize another way if a restaurant is asking for cc info they're basically trying to filter if you're serious, but really have no intention of charging you if you don't show up. If they ask for a contract then they actually want to be in a position where they could charge you for not showing up if they wanted to. Please keep in mind I'm a chef not a lawyer, but thats the gist of the understanding I have.

I completely agree that the whole contract process, as it stands, is a pain in the ass and flawed. Securing reservations would only have the potential to work in restaurants like Next, because the demand is so high that people will go through the process. I think this is certainly one of the best arguments against restaurants in mass/or partial mass, moving to contracts. Its simply to laborious. We do have a tasting menu, as well as (a now 4 course) prix fixe menu (at least for the foreseable future). We've never charged extra for the table that only wants 1,2,or 3 courses. If someone wants a 4 course vegetarian menu instead of the 6 course of course we accomodate in as well we charge less than what the normal prix fixe option would be. In answer to Heather's question of what would you do if her child was sick and she didn't come, assuming your reservation was for 2 and thats the excuse you gave us, we wouldn't charge. If you're reservation was a table of 8 and everyone was cancelling because your child was sick, much harder pill to swallow..... I'm not really trying to be argumentative, or come across as self righteous that we do know wrong and we're the perfect restaurant, but this is a pretty intriguing topic for me, so let me try and articulate my question another way.... If signing a document meant you would get a better experience at our restaurant would you be as opposed to it, and if so why? The thing is I think we COULD give a better experience if we didn't have as many "no shows". I whole heartedly agree with EricandBlueBoy's point that the process is way to laborious and is definitely a legitimate reason not to want to go down that road. Taking it as a personal affront that someone is doubting your character?.?.?.?.... I would certainly expect a response from some people to the extent of but the restaurant wont do anything to make my experience better they're just going to fine me if I'm late. In some cases that's probably true, but wouldn't it give the restaurants in the "hospitality industry" a better opportunity to separate themselves from those that are in "industrial provision"? Part 2 of the answer to Heather's question goes like this. The reason why you're calling to cancel isn't going to affect our decision to not charge you, because we inherently want to believe that people are going to do the right thing. We did have a group cancel for our event last night (no contract, so I guess we brought this upon ourselves). We could have opened less expensive wine to manage the cost, but thats not fair to everyone else that did show up like they were supposed to. We bit the bullet and I'm fine doing that, but how many times can you expect someone to bite the bullet before they don't want to play anymore? Everyone I talked to last night had a really good time. Everyone I talked to last week had a really good time, with 1 constructive criticism that made last nights event even better. booklingbabe's comment was "stuff happens. its part of the business" absolutely, and I agree with that. But if there's a way to improve the process shouldn't we consider it? People complain about waiting for a table, they complain about confirmations, the process doesn't work. (or alternatively people just want to complain and if we fix this they'll merely switch to complaining about something els) Not everyone is part of the problem, but the people that no show for their reservation on Saturday night, are part of my problem, but they're part of your problem as well.....

Oh, damn, I was trying to get caught up on this thread and we're having a fire alarm. I shit you not!!!

Don, could we possibly change the title to the thread to something like "solving world hunger 1 reservation at a time"?

On the topic of valet, I would like to implore everyone, help us to help you. Most restaurants outsource their valet service because of the huge insurance risk, as well as the fact that we're in the industrial provision business as opposed to the valet business. I'm not trying to abscond from taking responsibility for the valet, in fact valet service is usually an expense for the restaurant as well as the restaurant patron. I field MANY more complaints than I'd like about valet service. Unfortunately, most restaurants have no idea that you waited forever for your car until we read about it in a complaint letter. Please, if you're waiting a long time for your car come in and let someone from the restaurant know. I'm not saying we'll be able to get your car in the next 30 seconds, but I know that I hate paying for things that piss off my customers.