May 9, 2008
The Mint Restaurant
219 Fayetteville Street Mall (1 Exchange Plaza) Raleigh, NC
(919)821.0011
Click Here to Listen to The Mint Podcast
Related Post: The Mint is Loaded (VarmintBites)
Related Post: Greg Cox Just Doesn’t Get It (VarmintBites)
Sous Chef/Pastry Chef Eric Foster (left) and Chef de Cuisine Jeremy Clayman
Click on the above photo for a hi-res slide show.
My meal this week at The Mint will go down as one of the most memorable I have ever had in the South, including my many wonderful meals in New Orleans. The Mint is as good as any of the fine restaurants we have in New York City which specialize in local sustainable cuisine — that I compare it to Gramercy Tavern or Blue Hill is not without serious consideration for the level of art and technique that is being practiced at this restaurant, which Raleigh should consider itself extremely lucky to have.
Co-incidentally, the restaurant was reviewed in today’s Raleigh News and Observer by Greg Cox. I am sure Mr. Cox is a seasoned reviewer of his local restaurant scene, but I beleive he lacks the perspective of a New Yorker or a fine dining veteran to be able to state:
“the lukewarm temperature and semiliquid white of the accompanying sous vide-cooked “hot spring egg” isn’t likely to win many fans. A first-course offering starring medallions of veal flank is marred by a chewy star ingredient. So, inexplicably, are crab cakes with braised fennel and a lavender-vanilla sauce.”
Mr. Cox, have you ever dined at any of our finer restaurants in New York? Have you ever been to Paris? Los Angeles? San Francisco? Chicago? Hello? Bueller? That’s about as asinine and uninformed a statement as if I, a New Yorker and a Yankee were to say something as uninformed as “I wasn’t crazy about the pinkish color of my ribs when I got them at the local barbecue restaurant”. For crying out loud, runny egg? Do you know what the !@#$ a properly made carbonara sauce is? You’re telling me you’ve never had a vanilla infused seafood dish before? It’s not like Jeremy invented it — he got it from every French chef in New York.
As much as it makes me cringe to say it, I really would have preferred that someone more like Frank Bruni had reviewed this place with the perspective of someone who has eaten this type of modern fine dining before.
I suspect many Raleigh residents, due to Mr. Cox’s disservice, will never experience the gem of a fine dining destination they now have.
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Food, General, Links, Media, North Carolina, Podcast | Tagged: eric foster, fine dining, jeremy clayman, Raleigh, restaurants, the mint | 
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Posted by offthebroiler
April 30, 2008
5 Comments | Food, General, Media, North Carolina, Podcast | Tagged: Barbecue, Ed Mitchell, North Carolina, pigs, Raleigh, RTP, The Pit | Permalink
Posted by offthebroiler
April 30, 2008
Jujube Restaurant
1201-L Raleigh Rd, Glen Lennox Shopping Center (next to BIN 54)
Hwy 54 at 15-501, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919) 960-0555
Web Site: http://jujuberestaurant.com/
Charlie Deal, Northern California transplant and Chef/Owner of Jujube Restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
A sampling of Jujube’s eclectic Asian Fusion cuisine.
3 Comments | Food, General, North Carolina, Podcast | Tagged: Asian, Chapel Hill, Charlie Deal, Fusion Cuisine, North Carolina, Raleigh-Durham, Research Triangle | Permalink
Posted by offthebroiler
November 25, 2007
Porter House New York
Time Warner Center, 4th Floor
10 Columbus Cir, New York, NY
(212) 823-9500
Web Site: http://www.porterhousenewyork.com
Michael Lomonaco is the kind of guy who is just eminently huggable and who is one to make you feel at home no matter which and what kind of restaurant he runs. A true proponent and practitioner of restaurant hospitality, he’s cheffed at some of the city’s most iconic restaurants, including The 21 Club and the late Windows On The World, which was destroyed on September 11, 2001. Following his career as the last chef at Windows on The World, he briefly acted as consulting chef at both Guastavino’s and Noche.
Not to be beaten down by personal tragedy, in 2006 Michael opened what may become yet another iconic restaurant, in the country’s most haute food court in the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, putting it in the company with such notable restaurants as Pe Se, Bouchon, Cafe Gray, Masa and Landmarc. Focusing on prime aged steaks, seafood and updated versions of classic steakhouse side dishes, Lomonaco has re-invented the New York steakhouse and revived the classic Porter House atmosphere that the city was known for in the late nineteenth centry.
We visited Porter House twice in 2007 — once during the late summer and most recently in October to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. On our second visit, we decided to focus on the restaurant’s fish dishes, which many diners might choose to overlook because of the restaurant’s steakhouse premise. I urge you to reconsider that notion right off the bat — Porter House is as much a fish and seafood restaurant as it is a steak restaurant. While other restaurateurs tend to segregate their restaurants by theme — such as Laurent Tourondel with his “BLT” group of restaurants (such as he is doing with BLT Fish and BLT Steak) Lomonaco is doing everything under one (albeit a very large) roof, and he’s doing it quite successfully.
Click on the photo collage above for a Hi-Resolution tour of Porter House New York (Second Visit, Seafood Dishes)
Click to listen to my chat with Chef Michael Lomonaco (52 mins)
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more information about Porter House New York’s dishes.
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8 Comments | Food, General, Media, New York City, Podcast, indepth | Permalink
Posted by offthebroiler
September 3, 2007
Wayne Jacob’s Smokehouse
769 W 5th St # A, La Place, LA 70068.
Main Phone: (985) 652-9990
Fax: (985) 652-0999
Wayne Jacob’s Smokehouse is one of my favorite places to visit when I’m in the New Orleans area. Located about an hour northwest of the city in the town of LaPlace, in the cultural center of Cajun Country, the restaurant and smokehouse produces artisan quality charcuterie, including traditional Cajun Andouille Sausage and Tasso Ham, Smoked Sausage, Beef Jerky and Ham Hocks. Their pork cracklin’s are also the best I’ve ever had, and many of their smokehouse products are featured in their restaurant items, including their very good gumbos, Po Boys and traditional dishes.
Click on the collage above for a complete slideshow in hi-res.
3 Comments | Food, General, New Orleans, Podcast | Tagged: Louisiana | Permalink
Posted by offthebroiler
August 13, 2007
Click Here for Complete Video Telecast of the Hot Dog Eating Championship
Related OTB Post: Goin’ Down to the Shore
This last weekend, I was invited to attend and cover the National Windmill Hot Dog Eating Championship, sponsored by Windmill Hot Dogs and the AICE, the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters. Having never attended such an unusual sporting event before, I was intrigued. For starters, I happen to really love Windmill’s hot dogs, just because of how mammoth they are in size, and I also feel they make a the best chili dog in the entire state of New Jersey. So Rachel and I headed down to the Jersey Shore in Lake Como (Formerly South Belmar) at Bar Anticipation to watch the real pros eat mass quantities.
Exhibit A, a Windmill Hot Dog. Over a quarter pound in size fully cooked, they dwarf just about any other hot dog currently on the market and are ideal for heavy condiment loading. These are a special beef/pork hybrid manufactured by Marathon Meats (Sabrett) for the Windmill hot dog restaurants in New Jersey. They are griddle fried for 45 minutes on low heat until the skin gets nice and crispy. Rachel and I were able to share two of these over a course of a few hours, but you’re about to see these things literally inhaled by much more serious eaters than us.
Ready to see about 50 pounds of quarter pound hot dogs disappear in about 10 minutes? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
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14 Comments | Food, General, Humor, Links, Media, New Jersey, Podcast | Permalink
Posted by offthebroiler
August 9, 2007
Related OTB Post: No Bacon? “P”, L and T
Ah, the BLT. In many ways, it is the ultimate and perfect expression of the sandwich, simple and yet one of the best possible sandwiches that you can eat. Still, the perfect BLT can be elusive, as most restaurants and people do not take the exacting level of care in order to construct the best BLT possible. Skimp on any of the ingredients, or use a component that is substandard in any way, and the entire sandwich fails. In order to build the Ultimate BLT, one must be committed in Zen-like fashion to go to great lengths to source pristine ingredients. Indeed, an entire afternoon could be spent in trying to get all the right components, at considerable expense. It is neither a cheap nor an efficient affair, but it is well worth the effort.
To build the Ultimate BLT, I collaborated with CIA-trained chef Christine Nunn of Picnic Caterers in Emerson, New Jersey, who came up with some great ideas, sourced some fantastic bread and tomatoes for us and assembled the incredible sandwiches you’re about to see.
Do you want to see how the Ultimate BLT is constructed? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
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20 Comments | Food, General, New Jersey, Podcast, Recipe | Tagged: "real food", christinenunn, picniccaterers, Recipe | Permalink
Posted by offthebroiler
August 1, 2007
Gramercy Tavern
42 E 20th St, New York, NY
(212) 477-0777
Web Site: http://www.gramercytavern.com
Gramercy Tavern is one of my favorite New York City restaurants — its warm, inviting atmosphere combines the very best of casual dining with a cuisine that often exceeds its 3-star cousins. Many well-known chefs from all over the city — and all over the country — have sharpened and perfected their cooking and hospitality skills here before heading out on their own and opening their own restaurants. It exists as something of an enigma in the New York restaurant scene, both a place for locals just to “go out and eat” with a very approachable and comforting Tavern menu and convivial bar atmosphere, and also as a destination restaurant with its gorgeous wood-accented dining rooms and fine dining menu. Back in February of 2006, the restaurant began a makeover in the form of a new Executive Chef, Michael Anthony, previously of the highly acclaimed Blue Hill and Blue Hill Stone Barns restaurants that he started with his former partner, Dan Barber. Known for his use of local and sustainable cuisine and his patronage of the New York Greenmarkets, his laser focus on quality and bringing out the best in top quality ingredients has renewed a place for Gramercy Tavern in the very top of the New York restaurant food chain.
Click on the photo collage above to see a Hi-Resolution slide show of the tasting menu Rachel and I were served at Gramercy Tavern.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below to read more about Gramercy Tavern’s dishes.
Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Food, General, New York City, Podcast, indepth | Permalink
Posted by offthebroiler
July 29, 2007
Click Here To Listen to the BurgerCAST
Click the Photo Collage Above For a Hi-Res Slideshow
Saturday, July 28 2007 was the Second Annual Gothamist/A Hamburger Today/SeriousEats QBQ, an event highly anticipated by New York City metro area burger enthusiasts held at Harry’s At Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, New York. This year, three burger varieties were prepared chosen from the results of a popular vote taken on the Gothamist web site — The Pimento Cheese Burger, The Butter Burger, and the Onion Burger. I spoke to event organizers Adam Kuban, Harry Hawk and Ed Levine, as well as with bloggers/net foodies from Grub Street (Josh Ozersky), Foodite (Gerald San Jose), Midtown Lunch (Zach Brooks), Foodist Colony (David Zeigler) and Beef Aficionado (Nick Solari).
Click Here to see the QBQ 2 Video
6 Comments | Food, General, New York City, Podcast | Permalink
Posted by offthebroiler
