David Carlson's Profile
January 2009 - Grocery Outlet
We got a whopping 15 cases of the Lindt Pear & Almond bars. Only three stores got them - Santa Rosa, Ukiah and Lakeport.
January 2009 - Grocery Outlet
We've had the dough in the past and more is coming in this month - sugar cookie variety.
The Northwest stores really have to be on the ball to have variety as good as California. They order out of the same Sacramento warehouse but it takes longer and is more expensive to ship up there so we also have a secondary warehouse in Portland with only the faster selling and bulky items - but not as much variety. If a store orders too heavily from Portland their variety will be lower, if they order too heavily from Sacramento their margin will be lower...
January 2009 - Grocery Outlet
Was that Apple Gouda rather than Apple Chipotle? I got real excited when I saw that and started looking to see which stores still had it but I couldn't find it in our system.
Oakland got a lot of the Chipotle Cheddar ssg - I'll have to stop on my way home for it. In the Bay Area, only San Pablo and Newark got the Thai Spice and only San Pablo got Apple Gouda.
Interesting Scotch Recommendations
A drop of water improved the Select Reserve immensely...
December 2008 - Grocery Outlet
Oreos are spotty - we get them frequently, but in very small quantities.
December 2008 - Grocery Outlet
Those Mother's cookies are supposed to ALL be $1.49 - and come January they're going down to $.99...
Grocery Outlet's expiration dates
Only the company owned stores (Berkeley, Oakland and Redwood City) are union. The independantly operated stores are non-union.
The picketers are only at a couple locations and not getting much press - anything we did to counter would only end up giving them more press.
Best response is to keep selling good food cheap...
Scotch substitute?
"Scotch" actually does mean more than the country of origin. To be "Scotch" it must not only be from Scotland but also be made only from barley and aged a minimum of three years. While there's enormous variation in flavor between Scotches, they're distinctly different from Irish - though some Lowland Scotches are pretty close to Irish. You don't have to be at it very long to be able to distinguish Scotch from Irish from Bourbon...
November 2008 - Grocery Outlet
Melanie - which store did you find the Roquefort in? I've been pestering the Deli buyer to get more of it for weeks. Absolutely incredible cheese! Unpasteurized and everything - made me think of the British sitcom Chef...
Orson - recent experience?
Last time I was there was for the Whisky & Pig Dinner in October and it was great. That was only my second time, but I haven't been disappointed yet...
November 2008 - Grocery Outlet
All the G.O.s should be doing it, but only temporarily - 3 weeks, I think. We do it to figure out where are customers are coming from so we know where to send our ads.
Can be annoying, but less so than loyalty cards IMO.
November 2008 - Grocery Outlet
Santa Rosa doesn't get either. Vital Vittles only delivers to our Berkeley, Oakland and Redwood City stores. Alvarado Street Bakery goes as far as Petaluma.
November 2008 - Grocery Outlet
The Wildwood Probiotic Hummus isn't very good. I'd go for the Sabra Hummus instead.
Mother's Cookies abruptly shut down
Yes, you will find TONS of Mother's cookies at G.O. Expriation dates are mostly March and April of 09, but check the packages. Retails are $1.49 for all varieties and sizes.
Brennan's new digs -- Not quite perfect
Brennan's is my mother-in-law's neighborhood bar. She's friends with one of the owners, who are the children of the original owner. I've never heard anything about the hofbrau and bar being separate owners...
Whiskey & Pig at Orson
Went to Orson's special Whiskey & Pig dinner last night.
First was Whipped Lard with Concord Grape on House Made Sourdough and Curried Lardo Wrapped Quince on a Stick. The lard and concord grape paired surprisingly well and the house sourdough is excellent. I couldn't taste the curry in the lardo wrapped quince, though the overall flavor was great. Texture was a bit weird - I think I prefer my lardo on bread.
Cocktail for this was Jack & Ginger - JD, ginger, mint & cherry, served as a shot. Nice but as a rule I don't like mint floating in my drink.
Next was Smoked Trotter & Pork Terrine w/ French Pear, Walnuts & greens. Fabulous!
Paired with a drink they called Sazerac - Mitchener's Rye, peychaud bitters and anise. Not sure why thy called it Sazerac and then used Mitchener's instead of Sazerac, but it was pretty good. Not a huge fan of anise but it wasn't overpowering - of course it would take a lot of anything to overpower Rye...
Then we moved on to "Roasted, Confit, Fried, Stuffed" Pork Plate w/ Apple Tart, Cippolini Onions and Carrots. Roasted Pork Loin was perfectly cooked but not as interesting as everything else - it was great for a couple of less adventurous eaters in the party. Not sure which item was the Confit, Pork Loin was in two spots on the plate, maybe one was roasted, one confit, but I didn't detect any difference between them. I don't know if you can do both preparations on one piece of meat... The fried & stuffed prep was absolutely incredible. I don't know what cut it was or what it was stuffed with, but it was the highlight of the menu. The savory apple tart was very good and went well with the onions.
Cocktail pairing was "New Fashion" - Bulleit Bourbon, Apple, Lemon, Mint & Soda. Best cocktail of the night. Very refreshing. Would take it over a mojito any day.
Dessert was Bacon & Beignet w/ Kabocha Squash & Whiskey Sauce. Good, but not enough bacon in it. Sauce was nice. Paired with Cold Whiskey Flip - bourbon, cream, egg, sugar & nutmeg. Basically a thin egg nog. Not bad, but if I'm going to do egg nog I'd rather go all out with it...
All in all a wonderful dinner.
Range, Spruce, Orson or?
Went to Orson last night for their special Whiskey & Pig dinner. I've been there twice now and loved it both times. Very cool atmosphere, innovative cocktails (good but I prefer a single malt, neat), and spectacular food. Worst dish I've had there was Skate, but I normally don't eat fish at all and I still finished it off...
Berkeley: Bye bye Brennan's
You're almost right on the food just being there to feed people while drinking. When they first opened in the 50's, Spenger's was in their heyday. People would wait well over an hour for a table - so they go'd to Brennan's for a drink while they were waiting.
Their strange setup with the buffet line on the opposite side of the room from the kitchen was done so that everyone would smell the food while it was being wheeled from the kitchen to the line - encouraging people to eat there rather than wait for their table at Spengers...
Help with Scotch/Whiskey for Groomsmen Gifts???
You do Scotch Tastings at the office?? I want to work there!!
Since you're in the Bay Area, do you plan on attending Whiskey Fest?
McCormick & Schmick's - opinions, please
I've had several business lunches at the Spenger's in Berkeley, which is owned by McCormick & Schmicks. Have no idea whether the menu is the same as the MS banner, but they have two dishes which I love - Shrimp & Dungeness Crab Cakes and Seafood Cobb Salad (bay scallops, shrimp & dungeness crab with bacon, blue cheese, hard boiled eggs - hard to screw that up if the seafood is fresh). Again, I would waste a dinner there and would rarely spend my own money there, but it's a pretty good lunch.
Recent Visit to Fifth Floor?
How was Orson? I went a couple weeks back and loved it...
English or Australian Meat Pies
There is a bus (I forget the number) that stops at the Alameda Ferry Terminal and goes down Webster. Transbay bus or BART to 12th Street in Oakland and the 51 to Alameda are both cheaper options and easier on the schedule - 51 runs every 15min during the day, every half hour later in the evening. The ferry ride is nice, though...
Anniversary Dinner at Orson last night
We were tempted by the pizza - if we could have had one person order a tasting menu and the other order off the regular menu we would have gotten it. Sounds like we're going to have to find an excuse to go back sooner rather than later...
Anniversary Dinner at Orson last night
OK - I'm ashamed to admit it, but I had to look up "unctuous". After doing so, I can understand why you'd think it about the Apricot Ice Cream. Personally, I like an ice cream so fatty it leaves a film on the roof of your mouth, though it could be a bit much for a bite leading in to other desserts. Though, in our case, the Chenin Blanc we had with dessert cut through the fat completely, so there was no affect on the following dishes.
Help with Scotch/Whiskey for Groomsmen Gifts???
I second the independant bottler route. If you're looking for unique, just about anything you're going to find from the distillery is either going to be everywhere or very expensive. Some Independant Bottlers can be pricey, but others are very reasonable. I've found 18yo Macallan from a no-name independant bottler for about 2/3 the price of the distiller's 18yo bottling...
Anniversary Dinner at Orson last night
My wife and I celebrated our anniversary at Orson last night and had a spectacular meal.
While deciding whether to order or do a tasting menu we had cocktails and the Parmaggiano Pudding. My wife loved the Raspberry Citrus Bomb, I enjoyed the Touch of Evil, but thought the bourbon overpowered the rest of the drink. They also brought out snack mix made of sushi rice, cooked, freeze-dried and sprayed with meyer lemon juice and spices - I hope they never bag & sell it, because it would be dangerous to have around the house.
The Parmaggiano Pudding was incredible! Almost too rich, but the pepper jam it's served with cut through the heaviness beautifully. The pop-rocks in the pepper jam were a surprise, fun and I think they helped cut the richness of the dish a bit. It also has cocoa nibs - I'm not sure they contributed much, but I'd happily eat one with and one without side by side to see for sure...
At our servers suggestion (Christopher - he was great) we did one regular 3 course tasting menu and one 3 course Pork tasting menu, with half-glass wine pairings. Each started with an amuse. First was 2 shot glasses of soup - one was watermelon and saffron, chilled. Very different, enjoyable but overshadowed by the other soup - Roasted Corn w/ Ginger. We each could have eaten whole bowl of that one. On the pork side it was chicharrones w/ bbq sauce - nice, but not spectacular, I'd have been better off saving that space for what was to come.
First course - there was an arugula salad with a stone fruit, can't remember if was peach or nectarine, shaved parmesan and topped with more chicharrones - nice and bright. Then there was the Smoked Tempura Egg Nori w/ Scallion Boullion. WOW! Soft boiled egg fried in tempura batter... egg yolk mixing with the broth... we both wanted more.
In addition to they also brought out their house made charcuterie - rye salami and sprice tri tip were both good, even better on top of the curry lardo. The terrine was the best of the bunch, though.
First course was paired with a nice Sauvignon Blanc, can't remember the name and don't see it on their wine list online, but it worked well with each dish.
Second course - seared skate w/ turnips, potato confit and watercress. I don't like fish, so this wasn't my favorite, but it was good enough I ate all of my half. On the pork side there were 4 different pork items served over soft polenta - deep fried trotters, roast pork, pork belly and a ravioli filled with a pork broth. Our server cut open the ravioli to let the both mix with the polenta - yummy! This was my first time with trotters - better than I expected, but not my favorite on the plate. Pork belly was great and I expected to like it best, but the roast pork surprised me - it was so perfectly cooked and seasoned, tender, juicy - it ended up being my favorite, more because it exceeded my expectation than actually being better than the belly, which just only met my expectation...
Along with the second course were two sides - Peas & Carrots w/ Cipollini Onion and Sherry Butter froth. Very good, something in there had a texture like jelly, which surprised me, but it tasted great. The other side was Farro w/ Grilled Peach, Scallion & Crescenza. This could have been a dessert - the texture was like porridge, flavor reminded me of bread pudding.
Second course was paired with a Gamay - again I don't recall the name and can't find it on their site. Held up well against the hearty pork dishes yet didn't overpower the skate, a little tannic. Good pairing.
Dessert started with a tiny scoop of Apricot Ice Cream. Nice butterfat content, delicate flavor, nice transition to the sweets.
First dessert was Browned Butter Ice Cream with Stout Beer Foam, a chocolate log (looked like a tootsie roll only softer and oh-so-much better) over a sprinkling of chocolate cookie crumbs and two caramel sauces. Excellent! And, with the pork menu was the Maple Bacon Ice Cream w/ Waffle Cookie and Sauteed Apples. I've seen Bacon Ice Cream on Iron Chef, I've seen it reviewed and I loove bacon. I was prepared for bacon flavored ice cream. What I wasn't ready for (but loved) was how smoky it was. Makes me think of making ice cream with Laphroig or Lagavullin.
Dessert was paired with a Chenin Blanc - my wife had most of mine, as I was getting full and was going to have to drive soon.
We hadn't mentioned it was our anniversary, until late in the dinner when the hostess came by to see how we were doing. So, after dessert they brought another dessert. Pop Culture Olive Oil Cake (tasted like lemon poppy seed w/ olive oil) with Rhubarb Sorbet. I can't believe we ate the whole thing...
Service was great, attentive without being rushed. Tasting menu was well paced. All of our servers suggestions were spot on for us. Price wasn't bad either, two tasting menus, drinks and an extra appetizer and it was just about $100 per person before tip. Not the kind of money I can drop every week, but for a special occasion meal of this quality, I thought it was a bargain.
Others have said it might be best to think of Oson as a bar with great food rather than a restaurant with great drinks - I couldn't disagree more. Orson is a first-class restaurant in my book.
Thai recommendations for Albany/Berkeley area
We've got a Thai employee in our office and she always goes to Your Place. That was the first place I ever had larb salad and it was good enough that it's now just about my favorite Thai dish. I think only chicken is on the menu for larb, but they'll do pork if you ask.
