Got plans for election night?
October 29, 2008
No one should be alone on election night.
At least that’s what the owners of the Morton’s steakhouses in Baltimore and Annapolis say. Now, instead of obsessing over exit poll numbers and watching the broadcast media race to call states for the candidates in the dark confines of your TV room, Morton’s is hosting a Super Bowl-like evening dedicated to watching the general election results.
Guests can join other political junkies in the restaurants’ boardrooms while watching the results and ordering from a prix fixe election menu priced at $52.95. For election night only, Morton’s is also offering three cocktails — the Republicantini, the Democratini, and the Undecided-tini, all for $11 each.
Realistically speaking, dinner and just a couple of drinks will run about $100 including tip. And since the event is from 5:30 – 11 p.m., I’m betting many people there won’t have just a couple drinks. Depending on your perspective, the cost either isn’t worth it or just a drop in the hat for the chance to watch election results with other rowdy politicos.
Not to feed into a political stereotype (but I guess I am), based on the average cost and the upscale location, which party do you think will be more represented? Democrats or Republicans?
Either way, kudos to Morton’s for setting up the event — it’s a great way to capitalize on what’s sure to be a highly electric night.
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentStill a big tipper?
October 28, 2008
In reporting on today’s story on Marylanders’ changing dining habits, I spoke to Barb G. Buehl, the president of the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce, about why Western Maryland had the highest percentage of people reporting they were dining out less today than a year ago (62 percent of responders versus 53 percent statewide).
She said that the restaurateurs she spoke to were not reporting a significant decrease in sales and couldn’t offer up an explanation herself — other than per capita income in Western Maryland is lower compared to the D.C. suburbs (where 52 percent of responders said they are dining out less, according to a poll conducted by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies).
But Buehl did note several restaurant owners and staff at the sit-down establishments said they had seen a decrease in tipping.
On the one hand it’s reasonable — folks still want to treat themselves to an evening out, but they skimp on what’s seen as the “extras.” But tips to the waiters and waitresses aren’t really extra — many are paid minimum wage or less because the tips count toward their wages. If tipping is down, it’s like getting a salary cut without doing anything wrong.
Is this fair? Or is this just the gamble people take when they work in the restaurant industry?
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentEau d’BBQ
October 22, 2008
As I was writing my story on the Alabama BBQ restaurant yesterday (for today’s paper), I kept getting the faint whiff of smoky goodness that only comes from hours of roasting meat over a fire.
A quick assessment revealed that the source of the smell was me — and probably also Multimedia Reporter Richard Simon from across the newsroom and Photographer Max Franz, who accompanied me on the story.
The aroma stuck with me, or rather, my shirt, for the rest of the day and lead to a barbeque craving by dinnertime that needed to be addressed. Jay Belle, the owner of Alabama BBQ, said during his interview Tuesday that the smoked barbeque smell is great at first but living with it 24/7 can be a whole other story (as exhibited by the complaints he’s received from his neighbors).
Nevertheless, his customers have joked that the smell emanating from his restaurant is so good, “he should bottle it up and sell it.”
Having lived with the Eau d’BBQ smell on my clothes for most of yesterday, I can see Belle’s point of view a little more clearly now. But I still think a barbeque-smelling candle sitting on a porch on a cool fall night would be a nice touch every once and a while. After all you have candles that smell like pumpkin, cookies and vanilla…why not barbeque?
What does the smell of barbeque do for you?
LIZ FARMER, Business Write
Baltimore’s Top Chef
August 25, 2008
Baltimore already has some presence in the world of food TV, what with Chef Duff Goldman and his team of hipster bakers over at Food Network’s Ace of Cakes, which films at Charm City Cakes in the Remington neighborhood of north Baltimore.
But the city’s culinary profile just got a little bit higher with the rumor today that Jill Snyder, executive chef of Mt. Vernon’s Red Maple, a tapas lounge, is a contestant on the fifth season of Bravo’s popular series Top Chef, which is filming in New York. Top Chef is, in fact, much discussed and drooled-over here at The Daily Record’s office, each Thursday morning, post-episode.
The rumor comes via eater.com, a New York food blog, via another website, Amuse Biatch, which is devoted exclusively to Top Chef gossip. AB’s source is an anonymous tipster and the alleged fact that Snyder had, until recently, posted her Top Chef audition video on YouTube, but was pressured into removing it by Bravo in order to keep the identities of the contestants under wraps. Eater also compared paparazzi pictures of the highly-confidential Top Chef cast, which lives together in a house on Bayard Street in New York during the filming of the series, with a portrait of Snyder found online.
Calls to the main office and reservation lines at Red Maple were not answered. We will update you as we hear more.
ROBBIE WHELAN, Business Writer
Three Restaurant Weeks ahead
July 25, 2008
With my tummy rumbling and my pockets bare, Baltimore Restaurant Week — which kicks off Saturday — comes not a moment too soon. For just $20.08 a lunch and $30.08 a dinner (side note: what’s the significance of the $.08, besides, you know, the year?), diners can indulge in a three-course meal at almost 100 of the area’s top eateries.
In Baltimore, the event runs from July 26 to August 3. If you’re closer to the other beltway, the abbreviated Bethesda Chevy Chase Restaurant Week goes from July 28 to August 3. And if you miss both of those, D.C.’s mega-event, which trumps Baltimore’s by almost 100 restaurants, runs from August 11 to 17. If you like eating out in style — without overdrawing your bank account — as much as I do, the best news of all is that there’s nothing stopping you from going to all three. Multiple times.
And the good news doesn’t stop there. David Derewicz, manager of The Prime Rib, likes Restaurant Week so much that he’s extended it into Restaurant Month, an August-long (minus Saturdays) low-price promotion. This way, customers don’t have to compete for spots at the 120-seat landmark during one week, and can enjoy “a more relaxed atmosphere,” alongside a more relaxed dress code, Derewicz said.
“We found it to be a great way to welcome new guests and more importantly, it’s a way to thank established relationships that we’ve had with people over many years,” he said.
Restaurant Week/Month sounds to me like a great way for customers on a tight budget to have their steak and eat it too. Anyone not planning to partake?
ANNE RILEY, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentFree samples!
July 11, 2008
Being a big fan of free samples — really, anything with the word “free” in it — I was pleased to read today about Starbucks offering up more drink freebies this summer in an effort to drive more traffic and encourage repeat business. The move comes less than two weeks after the coffee shop chain announced it was closing 600 stores nationwide.
Personally, I have a freebie policy I follow where I typically don’t take samples unless I’m buying something at the store I’m at. It’s not on any moral grounds — I just care that perfect strangers don’t think I’m cheap. And usually if I have a coupon for a free menu item, I’ll end up getting something else along with it (again, for the same reason as above).
Now, having worked in retail during my college years, I can tell you that not every customer is as paranoid about what people think of them as me. And even though the “customer is always right,” that doesn’t make them all particularly saintly.
I’ve definitely seen moms grabbing second and third handfuls of the free samples on the counter for her kids like she was using them for a bribe, or the guy that just came in to use the coffee shop bathroom snag half a free cupcake on his way out. Meanwhile the regular customers generally ignore the free offerings because they’ve already got their minds and stomachs fixed on their usual orders.
So does the free sample theory really work for drumming up more business? And if you’ve seen it work or it’s worked on you, what was the catch? Does just learning about the possibility of free samples make it more likely you’ll pop into a Starbucks the next time you’re out for coffee?
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentThink the glass looks half-full?
June 16, 2008
You may be right.
With the cost of hops and barley steadily rising and discretionary spending on the downfall, bars and restaurants across the country have started to skimp on beer, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Instead of serving full 16-ounce pints, a growing number of bars are trying to pass off 14-ounce “falsies” as the real thing by cleverly using thick-based glasses instead of traditional pints.
This Houdini-caliber trick allows a keg to spout out some 20 extra beers and, to the detriment of the duped customer, usually goes unnoticed. “We are trained to say it’s a pint,” a Florida bartender told the WSJ reporter. Lies, all lies.
Some beer aficionados are taking the matter into their own hands:
Jeff Alworth, a Portland, Ore., beer blogger, university researcher and a founder of the Honest Pint Project, has been testing suspected short-pouring bars, in some cases measuring his beer-glass capacity by the men’s room sink. His group collected more than 400 names in two weeks for an online petition urging state regulators to enforce a 16-ounce rule. And at one point, he was posting the names of bars that didn’t measure up on his Web site.
So what do you think? How much does two ounces really matter?
ANNE RILEY, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentVideo: Local restaurateurs react to tomato scare
June 11, 2008
A recent spate of salmonella cases has caused some retailers and restaurants throughout the country to stop selling – and serving - tomatoes. The federal government has narrowed the affected tomatoes down to three varieties: fresh Roma, plum, and red round.
Authorities said yesterday that Maryland-grown tomatoes are not associated with the outbreak. However, some Maryland supermarkets and restaurants buy their tomatoes from outside the state, and have been forced to take them off the table.
Multimedia Reporter Richard Simon went up and down the streets of Baltimore talking to managers of local restaurants about how the outbreak is affecting businesses.
This is what some of them had to say…
At Oceanaire, try the king crab
April 15, 2008
Oceanaire has bought a boatload - literally - of Alaska king crab from the fishing fleet featured in the Discovery Channel’s series Deadliest Catch.
Now the seafood restaurant group owns a whopping 40,000 pounds of king crab, straight from the deck of the vessel Time Bandit. (I’ve only seen the show a few times, but I’m told the boat is owned by the Hillstrand brothers, Andy, Johnathan and Neal.)
I give Oceanaire’s VP of ‘culinary development’ points for bravery: he went to Dutch Harbor to join the crew in the Bering Sea during the last catch of the season. (Three executive chefs went too, but none from the Baltimore location. Guess we have our own crab issues).
But back to the food.
The entree will be served in two and three-pound clusters cracked tableside by Oceanaire servers. It’ll be $36.95/pound (better save up) and should last through 2008.
Deadliest Catch’s fourth season returns to Discovery tonight at 9.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
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