Chili

I dreamed up a chili recipe on Friday the 13th. It started with a base of rendered bacon fat, red onion and ground beef, and included a variety of spices, black beans, brown sugar, ketchup and tomato paste. It was a little too sweet for my taste, but otherwise I impressed myself. I had the last bit for lunch today, and these 4 or 5 days later it's even better than before. The flavors really came together well, and I'm happy with the final product. I've decided to include chili on the LWT menu...you know...assuming we ever open.

to whet your appetite...

...and maybe remind myself that this slow, painful & expensive process may actually come to fruition. Here's a smattering of dishes that will likely make it to the menu at LWT.

Beef & Muenster Press
Succulent, shredded beef short ribs, stacked with muenster cheese & melted into sliced sourdough

Roasted Pork Panini
Tender loin of pork with apple chutney, imported swiss, and caramelized onions on focaccia

Exotic Chicken Salad

The best chicken salad, with hints of curry, apples & veggies, served with spring mix on country bread

Provencal Veggie

Roasted red peppers, garlic-seasoned tomatoes and goat cheese on country bread

Asian Chicken Salad
Grilled, citrus-marinated chicken breast on a bed of mixed greens, candied walnuts, and crispy wontons with house-made sesame-ginger vinaigrette

snagged

Bad news on the 'hurry up and open a restaurant' front. We're held up in getting the building permit. The issue lies with Public Works, and us needing to get an appraisal of the building to prove that our renovations total less than 50% of the building's worth. (DUH!!!) Unfortunately, this is a costly and time intensive process. It'll be at least 3 weeks before any of the appraisers I've spoken with can even start on the appraisal, and then it will take then another week or so to complete ours. So tack that extra month onto however long it'll take the city to review & bless this appraisal...and subsequently (and hopefully) finalize the building permit. If any beautiful, talented & witty public works employees or their friends/family are reading this blog & want to help a brother out...please leave a comment. Otherwise, keep your fingers crossed for me. I was antsy, now I'm a few notches above antsy - does anyone have a name for it? Ugh...

trade shows are weird

Anyone who's attended (or heaven forbid, had to staff) trade shows with any regularity knows they're just a weird little world. Crowded, over-stimulating and exhausting conditions make for tweaked attendees and booth staffers. The world of food trade show-ery is no exception. This week I attended my 3rd consecutive Fancy Food Show - a showcase of new food products and packaging from the mainstream to obscure. Overall, the show is a great opportunity to learn about new products & distributors, though after 4+ hours it's easy to burn out.

Highlights:

*Food celeb sightings: Ina Garten (Contessa, as Laura & I call her), Suzanne Goin (a sort of famous LA chef), Joanne Weir (local host of cooking shows on PBS), Paul Prudhomme (chatting with Narsi David), Tom Douglas (famous Seattle area chef)

*I've been on the hunt for blood orange juice or nectar (to use as a base for salad dressing). I found a couple vendors this time out, including a maker of jarred blood orange concentrate, another maker of straight juice. More often than not, you only find it as fizzy italian bottled soda.

*I connected with the companies that will provide my coffee & my cash register, both of whom I hadn't spoken with in a while

*I ran into a friend from culinary school staffing a booth. Nice to catch up.

*Some really tasty samples of interesting new products.

*My favorite quote of the show: One attendee to another as they sped away from a booth "It's gross!!! It's like 7-11 coffee." Please note, this was NOT in reference to my coffee purveyor.

Lowlights:

*Trudging past super slow attendees taking it all in, and many many people who think it's perfectly fine to stop and have a conference right in everyone's path.

*Someone passed gas and I walked right into the middle of the cloud. Annoying anyway, but especially when you're fried after a long day.

*Lots of people shoulder to shoulder walking and talking and eating, which means strangers' food breath right in your face.

*A mix of pushy & up in your grill booth staff, along with others who for whatever reason won't give you the time of day. It reminds me of that line in pretty woman "Hey, I got money to spend here!!!"

*This is a weird one - I think I got it twice from really small companies. I say "Oooh, I like that! How do you distribute your products?" Meaning, do you ship to me directly? (bad!) or Do you use a big distribution company I can order a bunch of different products from? (good!) They reply "Well, we're always open!" What does that mean? Am I to find you a distributor and do your job? How do you ship your stuff?!? It's a simple question. I walk away.

In the end, even if it gets annoying it's always worth attending. It takes me at least 4 hours to walk the show floor. And that's moving at a pretty fast clip & not lingering too long at any one booth. It's a monster of a show! If you're one of those no shame costco sample types, you can clean up here. Samples and takeaways large and small. Booths with dips & sauces accompanied by cut up bread or pretzel sticks. Maybe 25 companies? Chips, juices, coffees, sodas, flatbread sandwiches, desserts, candy, smoked salmon, granola, breads, tea, gelato, coffee, caviar, bbq sauce, soup. You  name it, it's there...for an estimated 24,000 attendees.

the reveal...the logo

I'm very excited to share THE Lunch with Tony logo, as designed by the incomparable Linda D. Upcoming posts will include all sorts of other branding elements. Thanks a million Linda. I love it!

mobile office

When you're starting a business and don't yet have an office -- and especially when you were notorious in your first career for not being very good at working from home -- you often find yourself set up at Starbucks in the mid afternoon with a laptop, a hot beverage, and a pile of paperwork. As I've quickly come to learn, Starbucks in the mid afternoon is a WEIRD place. I'd like to recount 4 recent encounters at 3 different locations.

#1 (LAKA!) I'm at a long bar, 2 seats away from a nice enough girl that looks to have downs syndrome. She's wearing headphones, and flipping through some kind of binder...oh yeah, and she's in a relationship with some imaginary dude named Laka. They flirt, they fight, they're a couple. She's vocal, and loud. "Yes Laka I will marry you!" She's hopeful. "Oooooh Laka, you a bad boy Laka!!!" They're playing imaginary slap & tickle. "Laka, you hurt my feelings Laka!" Laka's in the dog house. You get the idea.  It's a very passionate relationship. You feel bad for her, but come on!

#2 (Crazy Crystal Lady) Some sort of spiritual healing was taking place right in my line of vision. Lots of deep conversation, lots of holding both hands across the table, raising hands in the air, holding up a pendant on a chain to check for vibrations or something, the occasional huge outburst of tears.

#3 (Troop Dysfunction) Anyone who frequents Subway or Starbucks at Taylor/Coleman, surely know about the rag tag band of developmentally disabled kids that storm these stores most afternoons, and awkwardly splay themselves about. Totally in their own worlds. I think they're excited to be in public, but don't know what to do with themselves. I was set up in an armchair one day, and they sort of circled me with their weird antics. One was to my left, both of us seated around a coffee table. He started rocking, sort of cradling himself, and eventually was craned so far forward holding a pose, that his forehead was grazing the top edge of my laptop. I seriously started looking around the room for a Candid Camera producer.

#4 (Privacy Corner...this was today). Directly in my line of sight, and about 2 feet away, were 2 comfy armchairs. First it was a duo that I'm pretty sure was having an affair. Both wearing wedding rings, but whispering and clearly stealing a private and sort of uncomfy moment. You could tell there was sexual tension for days, but they were people who weren't really used to touching each other. They eventually left, and were replaced by 2 women - one quite socially awkward, the other very well put together & seemed to be taking a break from her busy day for this meeting. I thought they were just friends getting together, but soon after they sat down, Fancy pulled out a white envelope with chicken scratch on it & announced she was giving Awkward this sum of money. Not a gift, but payment for cooking classes she needed. Rice, vegetables, whatever! Awkward protested briefly, then burst into tears. Times are tough, after all. They shared some heavy moments, then Fancy reviewed some letter Awkward had written, and had heavy edits. She wasn't feeling it, dog. Now, we all know TonyP needs cash & for someone to review his work, so maybe I should hit Fancy up.

build dept...the pay off

Well not a pay off in terms of having an approved building stamp, and that's the end of the story thank you very much. And CERTAINLY not a pay off in terms of greased palms - though that sounds very funny. It's the least exciting of the three - a pay off to the story I left dangling in the last entry. And the pay off basically is that we headed down to city hall like a good little trio of owner/architect/contractor, submitted all the drawings, answered all their questions, and then TonyP had to pay A LOT of $ in fees. Apparently SJ is the most expensive city in the area in terms of building permit fees (more expensive than SF according to my architect). I had a ballpark figure in mind, but it was a whole hell of a lot more than I anticipated....and most importantly, way more than I'd budgeted. That sticker shock was followed about 30 minutes later by a meeting with my contractor where we talked real numbers about construction. Um, let's just say I need to play the lotto and leave it at that. It's a scary and stressful time.