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Friday, March 29, 2002
I'm pleased to announce our first marketing campaign: Our restaurant is sponsoring a runner (which is to say, "me") in the National Restaurant Association's Main Course 10k race.
What is the best way to display our URL? I'm thinking the front of my shirt, as surely the back will be obscured by the cloud of dust I kick up in my wake.
posted by Luke at 8:22 AM | Comment?
Thursday, March 28, 2002
A few weeks ago, one of our readers pointed out a boycott against Chilean sea bass, which is neither Chilean nor bass but is being overfished nonetheless.
This week dozens of Chicago-area chefs pledged to stop serving it, too.
Can imaginary restaurants like ours join the boycott? If yes, I think we should.
posted by Luke at 4:47 PM | 2 comments
Wednesday, March 27, 2002
We've always known that we're not the only ones with this particular pipe dream. JP, a Canadian culinary student, has written an amusing essay about his dream restaurant. He documents a grand vision but also minute details, such as where the office should be (in the attic).
Like us, he puts a premium on comfort and relaxation. "Although it’s important I don’t think (the food is) much more important than the atmosphere."
Unlike us, JP is in culinary school, so he may actually have a chance of one day realizing his dream.
posted by Luke at 6:53 AM | 1 comment
Monday, March 25, 2002
Greg sends us the link to this morning's NPR story on chain restaurants.
He writes: "They just put one of these chains near where I work and I was completely duped into thinking it was one-of-a-kind. No, the food doesn't taste any different and the service is the same, but the calculation is galling. I'm willing to accept the argument that if I'm that stupid, I deserve to be duped, but I resent the idea that they're out to trick me in the first place. Restaurateurs shouldn't want to be lumped in with real estate agents, car salesmen and lawyers."
I had the same misfortune with Buca di Beppo. I loved the place until I discovered it was a chain from Minnesota -- Italian food? Minnesota? -- with dozens of locations and a listing on Nasdaq. Now it's ruined.
We will never, ever want to be lumped in with real estate agents, car salesmen and lawyers.
posted by Luke at 10:36 AM | 6 comments
Thursday, March 21, 2002
How can a restaurant push a particular dish? Vinci has a brilliant idea. Every 10,000th person to order the Polenta con Fungi wins a trip to Italy. If a trip costs $1,500, this means Vinci needs to tuck away a mere 15 cents from each Polenta order, a small price to pay for the fun such a contest would yield. (So far they have given away five trips.)
Where could we give trips to? How about a 30-day CTA pass to every 1,000th person to order from our Chicago-themed menu?
posted by Luke at 10:14 PM | 1 comment
For every 100 dreamers, there is a doer. Jeff is a doer, and his blog about culinary school proves it. "We are supposed to be making a business plan for this class, which we'll be presenting at the end. We're in small 3- or 4-person teams, coming up with an original concept, working out the P&L, creating a menu (and two original recipes), planning the building construction, marketing, purchasing, menu, uniforms, etc. ... I'd rather be learning how to butcher."
posted by Luke at 5:21 PM | Comment?
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Eric sends us this Reuters story on the rise of "fast casual" and how the $8 meal at places like Panera and Baja Fresh is the hot market right now. Coincidentally, my hometown newspaper reports on Measure F, a ban on "formula restaurants."
This statistic on families "outsourcing" their cooking is amazing: "A $10 basket of groceries a decade ago would cost a consumer $19 on average if prepared in a restaurant. Now the same basket of supermarket food would only cost $12.50 at a restaurant." When one considers all the groceries that go to waste in a typical refrigerator, going to a restaurant is almost a wash financially and saves money once one factors in labor and time.
But I am torn on the issue of "fast casual." Clearly it would make sense for us to appeal to the diners who would like to be in and out in 30 minutes or less. But I can't deny that I see the restaurant business as a good outlet for improving society. We can serve our customers better food, but can we not make them better people, too? I know I'm sounding like the Snob Who Just Got Back From Europe, but I'm convinced that long, relaxed meals feed the soul. This is what I loved about La Cumbamba: the chance to lose an evening in a sea of good food, great conversation and cheap sangria.
So, do we want to cater to people who don't want to linger more than a half-hour? The pragmatist in me says yes. The Stalinist in me says no.
posted by Luke at 9:37 AM | 4 comments
Sunday, March 17, 2002
We will not serve green eggs and ham,
nor green bagels, topped with green jam.
We will not serve a beer tinted green.
How disgusting. How horrid. How downright mean.
Who would eat a green foot long?
And smothered in green ketchup? So wrong.
It seems such a silly thing to do --
giving our food a greenish hue.
So if we encounter, on St. Paddy's Day,
a customer who has the nerve to say,
"Gimme a burger, extra green food dye!",
we will smile, and politely reply:
"I'm sorry, Sam, we can't deliver.
Perhaps you'd prefer a swim in the river?"
posted by Sandor Weisz at 4:09 PM | 3 comments
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
We ought to have an open kitchen.
The excellent Turkish place we visited last week had one, and so did Florence's Trattoria Angiolina. The kid in me loves how it lets one watch the magic and drama of food assembly. The adult in me loves how it keeps the chefs and waiters honest.
posted by Luke at 6:01 AM | 2 comments
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
I've stumbled across an old email from Tony. (Who, along with Ted, will get a dish named after him. Tony requests it to be of the sausage variety. We're more than happy to oblige.) Tony has suggested that we introduce appetizers in the style of Russian cuisine. Diners at Russian Tea Time, he tells us, are introduced to a 2" square of pumpernickel, a pickled cucumber and a shot of vodka before anything else. He writes:
"There's something that you're supposed to say before you drink the vodka; then you do the shot and follow it closely with the bread and the pickle. There's a Russian restaurant -- perhaps the Russian Tea Room? -- near the Art Institute that offers this first course, along with some instructions on how it's to be done. I had two such appetizers, which impaired my ability to remember what the traditional toast consists of....
"Most Russian food is very bad, but I found this to be a very civilized way to start a meal. It's especially nice during rough Chicago winters, since large dogs carrying casks of brandy are difficult to find in northern Illinois."
Luke and I experienced a similar traidition at a Bosnian cafe in Lincoln Square. The proprietor, upon serving us our plate of breakfast-y items, insisted that we both down a shot of what he called Firewater. It was, we later determined, shlivovitz, which my mother informs me my grandfather made a business of stilling himself back in 1930s Hungary.
I like the thought of liquouring up our guests just a touch before letting them loose onto their meals. A pre-dinner cleansing of not just the palate, but the mind and spirit as well. And if we're able to tie into my family history at the same time, all the better.
posted by Sandor Weisz at 6:01 PM | 6 comments
Monday, March 04, 2002
New York Times food critic Ruth Reichel was on a repeat episode of Whadyaknow? this weekend, promoting her recent memoirs. Her most insightful remark was this: if a restauranteur recognizes a food critic dining at his establishment, the worst thing he can do is lavish her with greater amounts of care and attention. She'll see right through it and lower her rating of the restaurant accordingly.
The best thing he can do? Lavish those guests sitting around her with greater amounts of care and attention. She may think the behavior merely typical, and then raise the rating accordingly.
posted by Sandor Weisz at 4:36 PM | 3 comments
For about a year, food columnist Amanda Hesser has used her romance with one "Mr. Latte" as the framework for her culinary travels. Earlier this year she finally revealed his name (Tad), and this week, to introduce recipes for Chilean sea bass and a parsnip and potato sauce, she wrote about his recent marriage proposal, which she accepted.
Hesser -- Mrs. Latte? -- is only the latest woman to discover that, of all the routes to a man's heart, the surest and most direct starts with his belly. Truly, it is the express to all others' local.
We must recognize, therefore, that just as many couples have "our song," so do many have "our food." As in, "Look, honey, they're serving our food!" (For my parents, I believe it is spaghetti alla carbonara. I owe my very existence to generous portions of egg, cheese and bacon, which goes far to explain certain breakfast hankerings.) So although our menu will surely change, we should keep our recipes on file, waiting for the day when a couple comes in and says: "Twenty-five years ago we fell in love over your honey, oyster and kelp dish. Could you play it again?"
What's your food?
posted by Luke at 5:57 AM | 5 comments
Sunday, March 03, 2002
I've decided that if we manage to put quail on our menu, we must serve it with a side of potatos -- er, I mean potatoes.
posted by Sandor Weisz at 6:25 PM | Comment?
Saturday, March 02, 2002
It appears that we have spawned our first blog progeny. Jamie, inspired by our ramblings here, is constructing Making of a Home, where she publishes her ideas for the ideal dream house. Like this site, she's logging her experience from the idea's very inception. In her words:
"I don't think that 1. all these things would fit in one house; 2. some of the ideas don't blend very well; 3. it's all very ideal... Remember that this house that I am constructing is imaginary. So, if the house seems to edge on gluttony in terms of construction, understand that it's only in my head, and it's time to have a little bit of fun."
Edging on gluttony? Hmm, sure wouldn't know anything about that.
Best of luck, Jamie! I wonder which of our dreams will come to fruition first...
posted by Sandor Weisz at 8:47 PM | 3 comments
Friday, March 01, 2002
Rick on Skip: "'He lived six blocks from my restaurant,' Bayless says of his brother, who left Chicago last summer, 'and he ate there one time in three years.'"
Surely our brothers will patronize us more than that. Right? Right?
posted by Luke at 5:22 PM | 1 comment
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