All posts by jetrotz

the author of this blog.
Food

food in the city

Leave a comment

So I was in NYC in mid-June for (what else) more meetings. I did manage to attend some interesting business dinners, first at Jeffrey Chodorow’s Wild Salmon (NYMag review, official website) and the following night at Mario Batali’s hoity-toity venue Del Posto (NYMag review, official website). The food experience at Wild Salmon was disappointing – the set menu for our group of Interactive Advertising Bureau members didn’t offer the restaurant’s namesake fish – salmon, wild or otherwise. The Yellow Eye Rockfish with heirloom beans and lacinato kale was yummy enough, as was the Pacific Northwest nuts & berries salad. I probably ate too many of the oven roasted rosemary garlic fingerling potatoes served family style on the side, but that combo is a major weakness of mine.

The following night was a client advisory board dinner for clients of DoubleClick at Del Posto. During cocktails before dinner, folks were talking about the fact that Paul McCartney was playing a ‘secret’ gig around the corner – giving me momentary pause to consider abandoning dinner to see one of my idols. But the wine, cocktail morsels like buttery chopped liver, chunks of aged parmesan and other tidbits all helped to keep me there. The most delicious part of the dinner in the private downstairs dining room was the agnolotti dal plin with truffle butter. Really just enough for a tasting, these were divine. After fish the prior night, the sirloin with smoked polenta and vegetable sottaceto was my choice – fine, but nothing to write home about. By the time the crostata di cioccolato arrived with coffee, I was ready to pack it in and caught a cab back to midtown and my hotel. Hence I missed the group that headed out soon after and caught the last four songs of McCartney’s set. Bad choice on my part.

Television

So Long, Sopranos

Leave a comment

Oy. The water cooler is abuzz today with the unusual ending of the eight-year-run of the Sopranos last night. So much so, that for a time last night, the influx of users took down the HBO.com web site immediately after the episode aired. The NYTimes has a good review as well if you’ve already seen it. And the message boards at HBO.com are flooded with both positive and negative commentary. Anyway, if you have Tivo’d the show and haven’t had a chance to watch yet and don’t want to see any spoilers, stop reading now.

Spoiler Alert – Stop Reading now if you haven’t seen the finale!

People are up in arms. By I rather think it was poetic. Nearly every episode of the Sopranos to date closed with a song playing at the end of the last scene, continuing into the credits, typically tied to the mood of the episode, often with a sly ironic nod to the viewer. This episode took the opposite tact – the music was everywhere, from the classic rock rousting the M-16-toting Tony from his hideout early in the show, to at last, the insider’s joke of Tony twirling the table-top jukebox looking for ‘just the right song’ to accompany his exit-stage-left swan song from one of televisions most memorable shows and the music, and show, ending abruptly in silence on the word ‘don’t stop,’ with a black screen giving way to the silent credits.

It’s obvious that there was no ‘right song’ for Tony to choose, just as there was no ‘right ending.’ Part of the audience would have screamed bloody murder if Tony had gone down in a hail of bullets, others would revolt if he had gone to jail for life. There was no legitimate ending that would satisfy the ouevre that is The Sopranos. So regardless of what happened in that diner when it seemed like everyone’s cable (or in my case, my finicky DVR from Comcast) went out. Did one of the suspicious characters open fire on the entire family? Or did A.J. get over his depression, Meadow go on to ‘fight the state’ as a lawyer, and Tony – what of Tony? Fighting a federal indictment? Dead? It doesn’t really matter. And that’s what David Chase showed us – that there was no answer to this most realistic of family dramas. Happily ever after or massacred together, neither resolution would feel authentic. Ambiguity let’s us all decide, and The Sopranos live on in American television history.

ps – I loved the spooky cat, as Paulie, the last of Tony’s original crew, sunned himself on the sidewalk. The cat seemed to represent all those members of the extended family that had gone on to another place. Gone, but not forgotten.

asides

CNN.com has a blog!

Leave a comment

You’d think I’d hear about this around the office, but instead saw this blogged by someone at Optaros, a vendor we use. My co-workers David Payne, Dermot Waters and Lori Adams are blogging the CNN.com Relaunch project. Check it out here. The comments are a great read.

Food

another birthday, another great day

Leave a comment

duck

Yesterday was a fabulous day. Yes, I am a year older, but it was really nice to hear from so many friends from near and far. The day began on a high note with Sam singing ‘Happy Birthday to Daddy’ from atop our bed. Soooo cute, I tell ya! To cap the day, Amy begrudgingly went along with my idea for dinner at local gourmet spot Quinones , which turned out to be a three-hour extravaganza that had to be one of the best dinner’s I’ve had in the A-T-L (the Dining Room at the Ritz or the now-defunct Seeger’s runs a close second). And Amy LOVED it! The room is far more intimate and romantic than parent restaurant Bacchanalia upstairs – with softer settings, real linen tablecloths, lovely pink water glasses, and a generally much less uptight wait staff than Amy and I had experienced in the two dinners we’ve had upstairs. So if we can find an excuse, we’ll head back again! There’s the cute touch of the stools for the ladies’ purses, the very comfortable banquette where we sat, and then, of course, the seemingly unending stream of beautiful tastes of heaven that the kitchen sent to our table.

The service was also stellar – including the lovely touch of the maitre’d calling me on my cell a few minutes after we left and thanking us for being such nice guests, hoping we return, wishing us luck with baby no. 2, etc. You just don’t see that sort of personal attention too often. It may have been that business was slow – over the course of the evening we were only one of four tables occupied in the venue – leaving at least another ten or so four-tops open. One complaint, though – the odd couple who sat down next to us with the gentleman wearing shorts and a really ugly Hawaiian shirt seemed out of place – then again, the last time we were at Bacchanalia someone sat near us wearing running shorts. I guess folks just don’t dress up, even for the most expensive restaurants in Atlanta.

Anyway, for those interested in the gory details, here is the breakdown of the ten-course tasting menu (with eight accompanying wine pairings).

troutducklambconstant blissmelon & sorbet

Continue reading another birthday, another great day →