By Claire Walter on January 19, 2012
Foodies cheer retailer poised to open several stores in metro area
No one is talking for the record so far, but if Trader Joe’s were not planning on opening Colorado stores, why would they have filed paperwork with the Colorado Attorney General’s office for a license to do business beginning April 1?
The Denver Business Journal reported that reported that the chain selling high-quality, low-priced food is planning three unspecified locations in Denver, and the Daily Camera reported that Boulder’s 29th Street shopping development is slated for one.
Theat means Coloradans can expect high-quality, low-cost groceries, but since Colorado’s laws about alcohol sale in supermarkets, we might not be able to buy bargain wines known as “Three Buck Chuck.”
Posted in Colorado, Store | Tagged Trader Joe's |
By Claire Walter on January 14, 2012
Grand County guest ranch adds cooking classes to the activities mix
Devil’s Thumb Ranch owners Suzanne and Bob Fanch have a gift for evolving their sprawling propertyand its award-winning lodging, dining and activities gently from dated ranch and cross-country ski area to luxury resort with an exquisite lodge, beautiful cabins, fine dining, spa and summer and winter recreational paradise.
The latest addition is the Yager House, a special events facility named Rod Yager who operated a working ranch there until 1972, and using it for the new Devil’s Thumb Ranch Cooking Schools and other food-oriented events. Its cabin-in-the-wilderness ambiance with modern-day finishes lends itself to culinary happenings. In addition to a well-appointed cooking/demonstration kitchen, there is a dining and living room areas that are suitable for an upscale culinary program.
Chef Evan Treadwell (Photo by Laurie Smith, courtesy of Devil's Thumb Ranch)
Guests may enjoy a glass of wine while being entertained by Executive Chef Evan Treadwell, who joined DTR not long ago, shares his inside secrets, prepping and cooking tips, recipes and anecdotes. Guests don’t even get their hands dirty, because it is a demonstration cooking class, followed by a three-course dinner that Chef prepared a recipe book, Devil’s Thumb Ranch signature chef’s apron and wine pairings. The cost is $85 per person (down from the $125 that was originally anticipated), and the ranch recommends making reservations well in advance.
2012 Devil’s Thumb Ranch Cooking School Details
- February 29 – Leap Year Celebration, 5:30-9:30 p.m.
- March 29 – Spring Small Plate, 5:30-9:30 p.m.
- April 26 – Perfect Pastries, 5:30-9:30 p.m.
- May 24 – Grill Sargeant, 5:30-9:30 p.m.
- June 28 – From the Garden & Farmer’s Market (time for this and subsequent classes TBA)
- September 27 – Fall Feast
- October 25 – Pairing Beer
- November 15 – Holiday Favorites
Continue reading “Devil’s Thumb Ranch Adds Cooking Classes”
Posted in Beer and Breweries, Chef, Colorado, Cooking School | Tagged Colorado cooking classes, Devil's Thumb Ranch |
By Claire Walter on January 13, 2012
How should a restaurant server handle food orders?
I received an E-mail from a reader who gave me permission to post it and answer here:
- Drawing from www.wikipic.com.
“Hi Claire, was wondering if you have an opinion on this. When you go to a nice restaurant do you expect the waiter to write down your order? Should he repeat it back to you? I was just at a ‘high end’ restaurant where the waiter did not write down the order and I ended up getting the wrong entree. I even asked if he wanted to write it down and he said ‘No, I’ve got it.’ Then he brought me the wrong plate and had the gall to argue with me. Seems like he would have to write it down at some point to give it to the chef anyway…maybe they just punch things in a computer now?”
People who know me also know that I come up with opinions pretty quickly, and here are mine. Being old school when it comes to service (though very receptive to new foods and cooking techniques), I am still surprised when a waiter or waitress does not write down an order. In a nice restaurant, it seems as if it should remain part of the ritual, like holding a napkin in front of the water glass as it is being filled or bringing cocktails or wineglasses out on a tray rather than one in each mitt — I mean, hand. However, for a party of two, I can understand an experienced server remembering everything. It would not occur to me to actually ask a server to do that.
What a cannot understand is a waiter who did not acknowledge a mistake, apologize and rectify it. Arguing with a guest should never happen, particularly in a high end restaurant. Not ever. In the end, did he bring you the correct order — graciously? Did he make any kind of adjustment to the bill? If not, did you bring this matter to the attention of a headwaiter, manager or even host(ess)? My last extremely poor service experience was in a French restaurant in New York’s Theater District, which I blogged about here.
I can’t really opine about whether this particular restaurant has a computer system that the waitstaff uses a computer system of some sort to put orders in to the kitchen, but no matter how that is done, the order should have been correct — and if it wasn’t correct, your first complaint should have fixed the situation.
Posted in Restaurant | Tagged restaurant service |
By Claire Walter on January 12, 2012
The pizza of southern Italy filtered through the Northeast
I grew up in Connecticut, went to college in Boston, moved to New York and then across the river to Hoboken, N.J., which at the time was about 45% Italian-American. In every place that I lived before moving to Colorado, pizza meant a toothsome thin crust, pliable enough to fold but robust enough to hold a layer of flavorful sauce, stretchy mozzarella cheese and maybe some toppings. Each slice was a two-napkin affair because moisture from the cheese running down to your wrists was part of the appeal.
Back in the Northeast, if a place served pasta, it had to be simple and usually from southern Italy. Favored were such robust dishes from southern Italy as spaghetti with meatballs (and clam sauce on Fridays), stuffed shells, lasagna and eggplant Parmesan. Extra points for using family recipes. And wine, if available, had to hold its own against rich, high-flavor red sauces.
Nothing fancy about Carmine's decor, with bare tables and framed Italian scenes on the walls.
I felt at home when I walked into Carmine’s Pizza & Pasta, and that’s exactly the way owner Danny Pisarra wanted it. He grew up in Queens Village, N.Y., in a family of “terrific cooks” and spent time helping his grandmother on Long Island with her tomatoes, peppers and basil. She taught him how to make fresh sauce from plum tomatoes. “The earth was outstanding,” he recalls. “It was a mix of rich soil and sand.” He’s been in the Denver area for some 20 years, running New York-style restaurants but is still a bit wistful for such soil.
Continue reading “Carmine’s Brings Taste of New York to Lone Tree”
Posted in Colorado, Pizza, Restaurant | Tagged New York-style pizza |
By Claire Walter on January 10, 2012
They make ‘em. You bake ‘em. And they’re hearty & good
Before there was a Papa Murphy’s in Boulder, there was a Nick-N-Willy’s selling fully assembled pizzas to be baked at home. In fact, Keith McQuillen and Terry Jones founded the pizzeria around the time I moved to Boulder — conveniently around the corner from my house. Also before there were (relatively) pricey pizzerias in Boulder like Basta, da Lupo and Locale, there was Nick-N-Willy’s. The pizzas were more expensive than others, but they were loaded with an interesting selection of toppings.
Over the years, I have filled numerous punch cards and gotten a free pizza for each. McQuillen and Jones have since sold Nick-N-Willy’s World Famous Pizza, which is now headquartered in Canada and is being franchised like crazy, and despite my general disinclination to patronize chains with non-local ownership, I still delude myself into thinking that my neighborhood one is a Boulder pizzeria and occasionally order one from them. It now takes longer to fill a punch card.
The counter at Nick-N-Willy's, behind which the pizzas are assembled and readied for customers to take home.
Continue reading “Nick-N-Willy’s Classic Boulder Pies”
Posted in Boulder, Colorado, Franchises, Pizza | Tagged Boulder, take and bake pizza |
By Claire Walter on January 4, 2012
Nazareth has become an Israeli culinary destination
When I read the headline in the New York Times travel section, “Nazareth as an Eating Destination,” I assumed it was about the town in northeastern Pennsylvania, an easy daytrip from New York. But no. The piece was about Nazareth, a Palestinian city in northern Israel that is best known and Jesus’ boyhood home and therefore, a major pilgrimage destination. Writer Rachel B. Doyle enthused about the increasingly interesting culinary scene and the ”creative Arabic fusion kitchens, where classic Palestinian dishes are given a worldly makeover.”
When I visited Palestine in mid-2010, I enjoyed a lot of typical Middle Eastern fare — fresh vegetables, lamb, hummus, rice pilaf, pita at many a meal. The restaurant that still stands out in my mind was La Fontana di Maria, not in what Israel calls the Occupied Territories but in Israel proper. This restaurant is the namesake of the site we know as Mary’s Well, where the Angel Gabriel is believed to have appeared to Mary to inform her that she was carrying the Son of God. The enormous restaurant named after this Biblical place rambles through several rooms in ancient stone building — someone told me, of Turkish design. Its size made me think it’s geared to handle several busloads of tourists at the same time.The Middle Eastern restaurant practice of serving appetizers for a table to share certainly lends itself to such tourist groups. (Click below to read more)
Continue reading “NYTimes Spotlights Nazarene Restaurants”
Posted in Middle East, Restaurant | Tagged dining in Israel, Nazareth |
By Claire Walter on January 3, 2012
Online sites like Leather District Gourmet show the way to becoming an “eco-gourmet”
Jacqueline Church
I consider Jacqueline Church to be a cyber-friend and food soulmate. She is a writer and speaker, whom I initially “met” when she launched Teach a Man to Fish, an initiative promoting seafood sustainability as part of living sensibly and responsibly in the global community. She writes Leather District Gourmet, a fine food blog named in honor of her Boston neighborhood, and I always look forward to her newsletter about responsible food buying, cooking and eating, and associated topics. In short, she may be in Beantown, but her sensibilities and ethics are very Boulder-like.
In her first communiqué of 2012 she called attention to ”organizations like Animal Welfare Approved who provide third party verification of clean, safe, fair and humanely raised food.” and she enthused that “attending their conference [in 2011] in DC and meeting rock stars like restaurateur Nora Pouillon [who established her organic Restaurant Nora back in 1979] and White Oak Pastures’ Will Harris was a highlight this year.” Indeed, there is a lot of attention and deserved praise for responsble restaurateurs, chefs and growers, and deserved criticism for the marketing-driven, processed food industry, palate-numbing chain restaurants and factory farms that are all geared toward corporate profits rather than providing good nutrition, good health and good taste.
Continue reading “Become an Eco-Gourmet in 2012 & Beyond”
Posted in Blogs, Farming, Locavore and farm-to-table, Restaurants, Seafood, Sustainable Agriculture | Tagged eco-gourmet, responsible eating, sustainable seafood |
