Sri Lanka Curry House - Rotis consisting of chillies, braised in chillies, topped with chillies.

Tandoor - Original Location and ambience

The Buttery - After work drinks and free hors d'oeuvres when business attire was business attire.

An unnamed diner just over the WI border on 94 nr. Hudson that used to do a really good breakfast (on S Side frontage). I can't remember its name.

Chez Colette @ the Sofitel when it really resembled an authentic brasserie (early 80's).

Napoleon's Bakery for excellent croissants and good baguettes decades before the scourges of Panera et al.

Poodle Club - where I always wished I liked bloody Marys

Sherlock's Home - cask ale and object lesson in how to run a hospitality enterprise

Manny's - Old location.

Jennings Red Coach Inn

Lunch @ W A Frost Friday.
They were doing a pretty steady trade. The odd time I lunch there there seems to be a regular (daily?) table of aging Jewish gentlemen, whose conversation is always interesting.
(How many bars to you venture into where German woodcarving is the "topic du jour"?)
I ordered cassoulet and a green salad. The green salad was quite nice although sadly the bread basket was a few slices of "is it meant to be chewy?" french bread. I suppose the "secret weapon" of French (in Europe) restaurants is their ability to put a basket of wonderful, crispy, light, completely marvelous bread out there from the bakery next door. With such bread, one has already partly secured success like being born into a wealthy family. It's hard to screw things up from that point forward.
The cassoulet was perfectly nice "composition" of duck leg, beans, lentils, (some ill-advised tumeric/ other curry-like spices) and sausage. But it was not cassoulet. It clearly was a composition. Not a dish cooked long and slow together such that all flavors melded into the others.
A perfectly nice French blanc de blancs "fizz" went down well.
W A Frost is a sentimental favorite for me as I used to live 2 blocks from it 31 years ago when it really was an outpost of "civilization" in an iffy-ish neighborhood. The bartender there (with glasses) Dave (I think) is an excellent sort. I jsut wish they'd called their concoction "duck and lentil, sausage surprise: or something other than cassoulet. As I told the bartender, the go-to cassoulet is Toulouse Bus Station.
I am still working my way through the list.

While I tend to think takeout can never give one the full picture, I was truly disappointed with takeout
(actually delivery via bitesquad) from Hell’s Kitchen the other night.
My menu choices were:
Fromage-a-Trois (v) (g)
Baby Brie, Gruyere, and Vermont White Cheddar with toasted baguette slices and fresh berries.

BBQ Baby Back Ribs (g)
Mouth-watering, award-winning pork ribs coated with our custom rib rub, slowly cooked til tender, then grilled over hot coals and slopped with our homemade BBQ sauce...Damn! Served with coleslaw, plus your choice of French fries, sweet potato fries ($1 extra) or fresh seasonal fruit.
$14.95 (half) [$26.50 (full)]

SALTED CARAMEL POT de CREME $6.50

The three cheeses were very disappointing. Partly from having been in proximity to hotter food. The hard cheeses were uber floppy and the soft cheese was quite hard. Also it was impossible for me to locate a cheese that I thought was genuine Swiss Gruyere. (If not, then like Champagne, or Parmesan, do not advertise as such.)
The berries were not picked over for “rejects” several were unripe and horrible.
The ribs were awful, and also did not come with fries as requested. Instead two coleslaw (good ‘slaw).
The ribs seemed like what I suspect they were: old ½ slab of dried out ribs, latterly slathered with sauce and reheated. The meat was very dry, and it did appear like a reheat job to me. Highly unappetizing, and while the sauce was not horrible, it was too o.t.t. on sweetness for my taste.
The dessert was fine, if presented (for takeout) in a pretty unappetizing manner. Tasted good (has caramel ever not???).
The only thing that had fresh vibrant taste was the ‘slaw.
I thought otherwise all was pretty disappointing.

Thanks for reading.

bb

Ah diving bells scaring the b'jesus out of kids. Nice :-) The very best memories of childhood are the scary ones! I don't know what the poor little cossetted devils of today are going to look back on that was scary & "fun" when our age. :-) Glad I was born when I was.

I just stumbled across Ivar's but as soon as I saw their "since 1937" (I think it was) I had to patronize it!

Historically it has never had any food (in recent times at least, apart from free popcorn) but changes are reportedly afoot to put in a grill(!) Currently, they offer a new option of pizza (Heggies or whatever it is) but that's not in any way comment worthy. Unless Guinness counts as food . . .

Intrigued took a random survey at the Dubliner yesterday. About 50-50 on the understanding of nookie. My friend of 30 years (Minnesotan, and certainly no dullard) did not know it. The bartender (early shift: young) did not either. While the bartender (late shift: older) like yourself thought it was something everyone knew. Not that it matters, but after a few Guinnesses one is prone to conducting controlled scientific surveys of this nature. :-)

I had not heard of either place.

Recently in Seattle stumbled upon what sounds like a very similar (unpretentious) type of place and really enjoyed it.

Good to know, thanks.

I don't know why Sea Salt never crossed my radar before. (IS it relatively new?) I love seafood, esp by a lake [failing the actual sea], especially the type their menu lists. Shame 'tis NOT the season. Maybe I'll still be here when it is.

Well it was 30 years ago. Perhaps Benny Hill (which was then an acquired taste) is now in the genes.

The Nook
When I showed up I realized this is a place I have tried to go to a couple of time (was recommended in an earlier TC thread of mine) but was always so popular I could never get a spot at the bar and eventually gave up.
Today (owing the Football) the place was largely deserted.
I had the Cheeseburger. Raw onions. Fries. Also (a nice surprise) a 20 oz. draught Guinness.
When it came it looked good (plenty of raw onions when I peeked inside, and more than plenty fries) and I was informed “there’s pickles under there too.”
Very nice. I took a bite and instantly knew this was a place which knows its burgers. I often wonder if there are French Chowhound sites where French people visiting the US rave about “why the hell can’t we do burgers like this en France?” in exactly the same way as I rave on at French places here “why the hell can’t they do [this or that] like they do in Cagnes-sur-Mer?”
Which is to say, it’s a shame the US National Dish is so easily confused with junk food. Done like this it’s a (admittedly miniature) work of art.
I think my only negative is that I would have liked the ground beef to have a little more salt in it. Just a little absent the savory impact of salting. The cheese (I pondered a bit about whether to have the “original” minus cheese or this) was just right in quantity, texture and taste. The opposite of Victory 44 yesterday, this demanded more of a Kraft-ey cheese, and they delivered.
Just a lovely burger, not too huge that it all bollixes up and falls apart, just right size bun to burger. Clearly, they’ve had a bit of practice.
The fries (I think were raved about herein) but for me, nothing special. A really off-the-charts fry is still a rare bird in the wild.
One thing was that I had almost finished the burger when I discovered pickles UNDER the fries: I thought she had meant under the burger on the bun. So that was a shame as I would have enjoyed it EVEN more with pickles on it. I did not dress with any mustard or ketchup as it simply did not require it.
With the Guinness it was a very nice early lunch.
I then planned to check out the Gopher Bar for a Coney (held off finishing the fries for that reason) but having headed down there the doors were locked. Perhaps they open @ 1 on Sundays (this was @ 12:20.
Shame, but there it is.
The only really bad thing about the Nook is that it is so mobbed all the time. And the bar is very small.
The waitress had a T-shirt “Have you had any Nookie today? I have!” which prompted me to ask if the owner was British as I didn’t think the meaning of the word “Nookie” was widely known (to be a British slang term for sex), in the US. Perhaps it has come into wide usage thanks to more British TV shows since my time for I think when I first came to the US I used the term and was met with blank stares for the most part. That’s what made me wonder if the owner was British or of British extraction but I wasn’t sure if the waitress understood my drift and with possible embarrassment looming I killed the line of questioning.
Shame about the Gopher. No doubt, since Dogs last (reputedly) 1000 years without refrigeration they’ll live to be dished up to me another day.

I'd definitely go for a recipe from a UK or Irish source. This dish isn't as easy to make as it seems by any means if you want to achieve the ideal ratio of meat to gravy to mashed potato (I don't, myself, like recipes which add cheese [or, saints Preserve Us Tomato!] to the equation).

Essentially you need a really good recipe for lamb (for purists) or beef (quite common in the UK) mince stew, then make fresh mashed potatoes (with lots of butter) and in shallow baking tray combine the latter on top of the former. There has to be enough solid in the mince stew to not let the potatoes "drown" but also enough sauce to also keep everything moist (although it can be served with extra gravy).

As I say, it's not that easy. Easier (perhaps) when made in larger quantities than smaller also.

Not always a fan of Mr Brown but in this case he probably has weighed the equations above.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/al...

I forgot to mention the yak Mo-Mo. I am always attracted by unusual ingredients but these were somewhat disappointing (dumplings) which were structurally a bit suspect (fell apart too easily) and with no desirable "yak-i-ness" I could discern. Rather bland.

Gorkha Palace.
I had some take-out tonight. Vegetable samosa, daal, Lamb Sekuwa, Golbheda Achaar.
When I picked up the order I thought the restaurant felt warm and inviting as was the welcome for customers. It did remind me of the old Tandoor a little bit, just the draperies and probably the physical geographical location.
When I got the food back to the hotel it turned out to be really quite nice. The samosas were very well done. Just right in terms of filling and crispy exterior. The flavor was good too. The lamb was very juicy (tandoor cooked) and the spicing was pleasing and subtle. As so often is the case the daal and naan easily stole the show. There was a lot of lamb in the portion which was nice to see (a lot of Indian places these days seem to be "rationing" meat:not so, here).
The food (as I type this) is sitting well and leaving a pleasant afterglow (which is what the thread originally requested) so I think this is a hit although I think eat-in might be a tad nicer. They seem to use some sort of "enviro" containers for take out which, while not awful, seem to infuse just a touch of cardboard into the taste.

Victory 44 today.
I like the space, and the not-too-frenetic vibe. If you come in the back way, you instantly do a pratfall “mind your step” into the place. The bar (small) segues into the open kitchen (really small, although perhaps there’s more elsewhere I didn’t spot) where the three people preparing food.
Right off I was disappointed as from 8am to 3pm they really only do breakfast (although they swear some of it is lunch, to me the only thing is the burger) which I did not realize. I am one of those people who eat breakfast before 7 or else I won’t be bothering with it at all, so it’s always a disappointed to find eggs and stuff focused. That said, if nothing else in almost three years here, I have learned that Minneapolis is not an early rising city on weekends. So that is really just me.
I elected the ham and cheese (it was explained an “eat it with a knife and fork” grilled sandwich served with “bacon fries”).
Business was (about 1230 on a Sat.) not particularly brisk, but brisk enough. I had a funny feeling I had run into the young man behind the bar somewhere else, but perhaps it’s just the similarity of type versus actual. I had a split of a Californian brut white, which was good, but too much was poured from the bottle, which otherwise would have kept it nicely chilled longer.
I observed the kitchen machinations. Very “intense” and lots of “little bit o’ this” “little bit o’ that” in the prep.
Rather like the Scotch egg story (told elsewhere in this thread) I had essentially the same conversation I have had many a time, and the same, predictable, result. “So the ham, anything special?” “Yes, it’s Country Ham.” “Really? REAL Country Ham.” “Yes, of course.” “My, I am very fond of real Country Ham, sign me up.” “My pleasure.”
The dozens of times I have had this conversation what eventually comes is a slice of Oscar Mayer “Country Ham” i.e. not country ham AT ALL. I always win the bet with myself, and so it was this time. Just as well, as the cheese (I expected something a little better) was just bog-standard American. Not that there’s anything wrong with American cheese, but they make something of a ritual of the coffee and so on that I thought it probably would be some sort of up market cheese.
I noticed they buttered (and it was butter) the bread and the preparation which arrived was OK. Once again though a “house ketchup” was provided which to me always (I think I said the same of Tilia) is a warning signal that there is some wildcard in the kitchen, for any chef who could concoct anything near as good as Heinz ketchup . . . anyway, the point is, why put energies into providing a condiment that’s different and (for almost all) not what they really want to dip their fries into.
On those, the fries had a “frosting” on them. (A seasonal touch?) Funny stuff, and trying to taste it did not seem to HAVE any taste. Eventually I broke down and asked: “bacon drippings and tapioca, dried and powdered.” Hmmm, I could not see the point.
The fried egg that came on top of the sandwich was very nicely done and only needed some salt applied to be PERFECT! (Yet ANOTHER sub thread about fried eggs here).
It was indeed to be eaten with knife and fork. The fries were quite OK, but the bacon “frosting” again seemed like an attempt to be smarty that didn’t work for me, mainly because I could not detect even the most subtle flavor of bacon.
Had a discussion about the “real” food served 5pm onwards. I don’t think I could write this place off until coming back and trying it but to be frank I am not sure that I will.
Let me say that the price ($21) for a glass of bubbly and a pretty filling plate was not at all unreasonable, and the staff (especially the High Priest of Coffee [you will understand if you have been]) interesting and seemed to care to make it a good experience.
I did tell the guy that in no way, shape, or form was it Country Ham and he said “maybe they changed it.” Sort of like Champagne (versus “bubbly”) that term should not be used lightly, but generally is except in Kentucky or Arkansas, which one might (er) expect!
Overall, I’d have to get stuck into a dinner there to really say for sure. I do think they could offer just a little of the dinner menu at lunch for early risers who have long ago wearied of the idea of eggs and such. Not horrible by any means. If they ever DID make that ham & cheese with real country ham and some decent (American is fine but not exactly gourmet) cheese, the presentation and way they did the bread was excellent.
Thanks for reading. More reports to come no doubt.

I've been making a list, and checking it twice, of places I like the sound of in this <can't thank you all enough> thread. Since I am not going home to TX this weekend, I intend to devote myself to trying out some of these suggestions and will naturally, report here on what I find. Thanks again for providing so many wonderful suggestions [and please don't stop :-) ]. bb

You are correct. Mind you, I still am wearing shorts.

Opening up to non TC places :-) I feel a temptation coming on, but will resist as the Moderators may freak out. I agree though, NM food . . . I love it. LOVE it. "Red or green?" One of the best questions in the World.

I also have to get to Gorkha Palace as it crops up again and again and is just across from what I think was the only Indian place in town circa 1982: Tandoor, as was.

I loved the Poodle Club too!

I had just always assumed it would make sense for restaurants to cook Scotch Eggs in batches (they "keep") and reheat, versus cook each to order. I think that -is- the way that makes sense, but I guess as usual, I am out of kilter with the rest of the universe. But "cold" is how it's done (along with other cold pork pies) in the UK so you'd think the enlightened restaurant supremo would elect this method so that he could please both factions. (Clearly, again, I am over-thinking how much anyone cares any more about customer satisfaction.)

I have to say ground pork, ginger, chillies, tofu, a little soy, good stock, finally thickener, sprinkle completed dish with finely chopped raw garlic & cilantro! This is "food." . In fact I nominated that dish as one of my Chowhound all-time favorites in my profile.

p.s. FWIW Merlyn's Rest does do 'em cold.

Am in Texas but heading back to MN tomorrow. Sounds like there could be flight delays. I am going to start working my way through some places in this thread. It has inspired me to put aside my pessimistic streak in a way that has surprised me.

Are the Scotch Eggs served hot or cold?? (I am driven to ask, even though I fear I am 99.999% sure what the answer will be.)

I can't warm to warm Scotch eggs as I find ground pork only appetizing when cold, preferably slathered with Colman's Mustard. (Exception, ground pork with tofu and hot chillies mmmmmm).

True story, I once at a ~~ @' ' ' ""~~British Pub~~"" ' ' ' @ ~~ in Katy Texas asked this very question. A: "Normally it's served hot." Q:" Could you just give me one cold please? [Thinking I'd save them a little moolah on the microwave electricity bill] A: "That should be OK."

Result (I am not making this up) I was served a Scotch egg with RAW ground pork. It was certainly cold. So I could hardly complain.

This is the world we live in: people in the cookery trade will do such things.

Eating out similarly is so often, these days, "stranger than fiction."

Thread gets ever better. While not exclusively true, I have won a small bet with myself that the places mentioned are not dominated by those typically recited in the "Holy Litany" of the Twin cities (e.g. Meritage et. al). This is great from my perspective as that was entirely my point in starting the thread!

All of the places I tend to want to add onto my TC list are from the past. Well, Chez Colette at the Sofitel still purveys a pretty good shrimp cocktail (at least by Monte Carlo standards(!!!)) but isn't anywhere near as good as I remember in 82-83 when it was really quite authentic.

I loved the Sri Lanka Curry House RIP. Also the original Tandoor on Hennepin although that was more a factor of its being, at the time, the only Indian in town (at least that we could locate, pre Google). Tandoor still persists with the original owners in Bloomington. Trouble is, I've found the help pretty wanting there, although a friend (a different one) swears by it.

Oh there is one more: MaMa's Pizza on Rice. Good pie, nice antipasto salad, cheap, quasi-drinkable red wine by the carafe, and (in days of olde, probably no call for in iPad era) coin-op b&w TV's.

Although I think they changed subtly (ownership??) I like the "vibe" of MaMa's when it is busy. People are always enjoying themselves there (often tables with families). So that is one I can definitely add. .

Thanks for the warning on MC. i had a drink at the bar and some VERY underwhelming (quality_ overwhelmingly (-priced) shrimp so I was not too tempted but it's good to receive reinforcement. I think my friend somehow has associations with the place, which I can understand color the recommendation.

The Modern Cafe keeps popping up. I have tried to go there several times but can't seem to get the hang of their opening hours (I am usually too early on weekends). It features so often that I must try it. .

Very pleased as so far this has "shaken loose" some excellent recommendations of the sort of places I am craving: those unlikely to completely disappoint.

I am so sick of leaving places $100 lighter and completely, utterly, terminally, disappointed.

Another place I used to love was The Buttery. There are a few places around which remind me of it, but two-for-one (super STRONG) drinks with free hor oeuvres and friendly waitresses, along with Abba, seem to have vanished with the 80's. Not to mention Peeping Tom one-way mirror urinals,

I should have added W A Frost to my list for memories of when first in the TC's (1982-1984) when it was a civilized outpost in what was then quite a wild and wooly neighborhood. The Fathers from the Cathedral would come in for a quiet drink. They sold French beer in large bottles from a cooler which I developed something of a taste for. Also, it didn't hurt that I was 24 years old!!! For a while it seemed to go downhill with a pervasive odor in the bar of what (to me) overwhelmingly reminded one of, unfortunately, vomit! but was probably mostly Italian cheese. For some reason, I could not get beyond the former olfactory impression for some years. (Perhaps it was a brand of cleaner also?) That has now turned around and the downstairs restrooms and "comfy chairs" let alone the legendary patio are quite unique. So yes I will add this to my list also.

I have been pretty depressed lately. With food, that is. The other night I tried the (new?) delivery service bitesquad.com from The Butcher Block. I had lamb and chicken on skwers and penne Bolognese. A little salad. As I was poking around the utterly disappointing penne I was overcome with a feeling of "just HOW can a place contrive to make such a simple "can't fail" type of dishes, FAIL? Well, it's simple: don't season, under-portion (the skewers), use ersatz cheese and some un-thought-out type of cream agent in the ghastly sauce. Salad that is all about how it looks versus how it tastes. OK OK maybe ordering pasta for delivery is a mistake anyhow. But if eating out were a State of the Union Speech, then "the stateof the Union is NOT strong."

This got me thinking again about where in Chowhound we state our favorite all-time restaurants. These choices cut across all borders of political correct underseasoning etc. and cut to the chase of salty fries cooked in goose grease etc. etc. at places which "make us happy - reliably, almost every doggone time we go." Places that feature in the sentence "We could try out the new Southern Italian place . . .or we could just go to [X].

So on mine is Brown's in Oxford UK. McSorley's in NYC (for leg of lamb sandwich), Black's Oyster Bar in Abbeville LA used to be on there (but was struck), as was Sherlock's Home.

I was wondering, instead of focusing on the best "this" or superior "that" whether TC Hounds might share places the find themselves frequenting, not necessarily because they do things the best (or might even be embarrassing to admit!) but because they purvey an afterglow of "feel good."

My TC choices would be:

Mancini's (for chewy sirloin and veteran "help")
The Dubliner (Guinness)
Mickey's Dining Car (breakfast)
Jimmy's (nordeast) Bar (Las Vegas shrimp cocktail)
Glockenspiel (two of the 3-ways herring and German black lager)
Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter (quiet patio herring)

. . . and that's about it in terms of places that leap to mind. Again, these are not necessarily the best at anything they do, but they are the best in terms of making Yours Truly stagger out feeling a little more pleased with the state of the Union/universe.

Would anyone care to contribute their top five or six GoTo places for overall "mood improvement" versus "belly fillment" or "check-out-the-hot-new" venues.? A friend swears by the Monte Carlo is another that I have heard great things about but not sampled in a full meal context. Basically, the places most frequently frequented not simply for the purposes of hunger assuagement.

I'd be most interested. Thanks a lot.

bb

Someone at work alerted me to Baker's Ribs. It appears worth a try. This link is shades of Sesame Street "One of these things is not like the other" http://www.bakersribs.com/Locations.html

Have heard nothing but positives. Your comment re:quality of the service is tempting as you completely nailed the usual problem with service in your comments. However, places which are constantly swamped are not always that pleased to see a solo diner. Do they have an 'eat at the bar" facility did you notice?

Bring up an interesting side-point about the wonders of a "just right" soft-boiled egg. The proverbial "Three Minute" or "Four and a Quarter Minute" or [your time choice here] . Unfortunately, as the final tag in my original opening post says, the soft-boiled egg DEMANDS crispy hot buttered toast for dunking. Two items that were extremely common (and probably still are) in the UK but never seen except by foodie / anglophiles here are (soft-boiled) egg timers [most classically, an hour-glass type of contraption, not a regular kitchen timer http://www.gdparker.co.uk/images/kc_e... ] , and a toast rack. A toast rack (lack of, along with "painting on" of awful non-butter goop destroying all crispness instantly) is essentially why US toast is perennially limp and unappetizing. Great additional point to bring the soft-boiled egg into this discussion / equation! I suppose we could further raise the bar in terms of what the eggs (however cooked) actually taste like these days versus thirty of forty (or longer) years ago. There was a reason people could "make a meal" of eggs in earlier days not just in terms of poverty or lack of meat but in terms of the fact that eggs used to taste much better than they do now whether Eggland's Best or any other "cage free" brand. Not only are they generally cooked ineptly, but the product doesn't taste that good any more compared to years ago. (When did you last encounter a double-yolk??) Nuff Said. Unless you own chickens of course.

Thanks for the new posts on this (I think) important topic. Since last posting I can count the nicely-cooked fried eggs encountered on one hand with fingers to spare.

The importance is not so much in the fact that we will die horribly if our eggs are not cooked nicely, but that somehow the slippage in standards here (and the fact that by and large no one appears to notice and/or care) reflects a more general slippage, which is why I find it important.

In restaurants (which, although I love food and written countless pages about here, I patronize less and less for the following reason) I find that more often than not it is blindingly obvious to me that no-one overseeing the joint ever looks around and says "you know, what we're doing here just isn't bloody good enough for our valued customers!" Disinterested inept service. Food that comes in random order, from random people (something I hate with a passion is "revolving waiters"), with random precision in cooking and/or requested accoutrements.

So while the fried-egg fetish may sound trivial there is a wider sphere of concern. i am pretty convinced that were it not for (in itself scary) the fact that many appear unable to cook at home for themselves restaurants simply could not get away with the "this is as good as it's going to get so get used to it Buster" m.o.

I was just looking at the menu of a restaurant I used to love back in the 70's and their menu suggests they are STILL TRYING. It still looks fresh, attractive and makes me want to book a flight to England. Such places are rare but longevity tells the story: check out Brown's in the UK and see if you agree. It's been years since I was there but suspect they haven't changed their spots. I'd just like to see more "Brown's" attitude in restaurants here. No resting on laurels.
http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/l...

Excellent points, but I think your final one is the most mystifying, how can a chef who's worked in France and understands all these concepts either not simply move to France to work, or take up dry-walling? As you said, something as simple as a good roast chicken (or bread) should not require an 8h plane ride. Then there's the entire "experience." It's not all about the food and wine and service, but somehow how all those things all marry and contrive to persuade you that you have moved to a slightly better place in the universe through your expenditure of time and money when you stagger our post prandially. Even in NY you can't find the Cagnes-Sur experience. In recent memory it was only in Las Vegas (of all places) where a waiter was savvy enough to instantly understand my world view of dining and give me precisely what I wanted. (Despite the Maitre'd's best efforts!) I suspect he gave a totally different "ride" to others whom he perceived wanted the glowing descriptions of what was done in the kitchen to wilt the arugula in mountainside heather-scented hazelnut oil from the NE slopes of the Matterhorn.
Sort of like I have concluded about cask-conditioned ale, the solution is blindingly simple: a reservation to Nice Cote d'Azur Airport (surely one of the nicest approaches to any landing there) or the UK (for the cc ale.