Best NY Strip steak I've had in Syracuse. That's really all that needs to be written.
But I won't stop because the appetizers were fabulous too. I don't see any of them on their menu now, maybe they were the specials that night - a Kobe beef tartare was mouthwatering, various softshell crab dishes were gorgeous, and the rest I didn't try, but they looked excellent.
Back to the Ny Strip - dry aged, prepared without any of their sauces, and didn't need a thing - medium rare it tasted like a steak! The sauces were apparently terrific per all the rest of the folks at the table. The fries were perfect, skinny, tasted like pommes frites.
The coup de grâce was the dessert menu. The table ordered one of each (and there were ten!) Their dessert menu isn't on line, but it's also shared with Lemon Grass. From the Chocolate Can-Can, to the Banana Crème Brûlée, the warm chocolate cake, and the various fresh fruit desserts and sorbet, every one was fresh, flavorful, and the presentation of sorbet balloon frozen and expanded with liquid nitrogen was something. The whole place was fabulous, and service impeccable. Highly recommended.
bistroelephant.com
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A friend passed on this great post - http://palatepress.com/2010/03/there%E2%80%99s-a-reason-no-one-reads-wine-blogs/
Johnson essentially says "no one reads wine blogs" but everyone wants wine reviews and conversations. It's essentially what I said about wine being a great way to interact with others a few posts below - it's the story, the conversation, the opportunity to meet new people that wine is about. And we don't capture it on our blogs!
I post my reviews here and at CellarTracker. CellarTracker links the main page for any wine to Twitter when I post, so that sometimes starts a conversation, either on Twitter or on CellarTracker (or in it's new incarnation, Wine Stories - clearly they get it). And my writing becomes part of the aggregate record on a wine. But in a year I've only blogged about 120 wines, while I've talked about a lot more.
Good post, good link, and I'd love to hear from others about what they find interesting. But I probably won't hear it here - it will probably be on Twitter. Or CellarTracker. And that's OK.
I have to plug my sister-in-law's art. She has such an incredible color palate for her art pieces, they make me smile every time I see some of them. She's just getting online now, watch for regular updates on her site, including both archival pieces and her new digital media self-portraiture. Take a look, comment if you like it, and by all means buy it if you really like it. I have about 20 pieces hanging in our home, from large pieces to small, and they are exquisite. http://www.mariaineshernandez.com/ is her site.
One of the things my wife and I love to do is travel, though we haven't done as much lately as we'd like. We took advantage of a three day weekend to go to Boston, and enjoyed several great restaurants, as well as a few sights. The New England Aquarium was great, as was the Boston Museum of Fine Art. I'll review the restaurants separately, but they included Ole, Oceannaire, Miel, and Sushi-Teq. I had a glass of wine in one, but otherwise no wine to review this trip, sorry!
I booked online through Hotwire because my normal chain was booked fully and I hate to bump people for no reason. After booking I read all the reviews everywhere as we were taking a weekend in Boston to celebrate my wife's birthday and our upcoming anniversary and I wanted to know what to expect in the hotel and surrounding area. Some reviews made mention of bookings not being honored so I was worried and called ahead, no problem, they had the reservation. Asked for a king bed, and was told "arrive early" so I was again concerned. But, on arrival they had the request noted in the system, asked if the standard king was fine, and gave us a city-view on the 11th floor.
The room was beautiful, well appointed with modern luxury touches. The bedside lighting is sophisticated and adjustable - three types of bedside lights. The first are standard table lamps, the second are led spotlights on flexible arms, and the third is a dim lighting in the headboard side panels to either side of the sliding windows between the soaking tub and the room. Additionally there are switches on both sides of the bed to turn on the hall light and not trip over something in the middle of the night. The bed was exceptionally comfortable, with four pillows plus a longer body pillow with nice cover.
The bathroom is well done, marble, granite, tile, wood, ceramic and chrome fixtures, and lots of shelves. There are good photos on this and some of the travel sites. But, beautiful, well done bathrooms.
The room had a chaise at the foot of the bed, a nice chair and ottoman, dedicated office space in the room I was in (it said King Deluxe on the check in slip, but the room map on the door made some rooms look smaller, and the Deluxe was supposed to be the smallest I thought). I can't find a great room layout on any of the sites. Other furnishings were dark wood night tables and dresser/TV console, and desk. There were adequate plug-ins where needed. A nice touch was the iPhone/iPod compatible clock radio - we plugged one in and had our own music in the room.
I was ecstatic because of the rate I paid on Hotwire, and the hotel service backed it up. We tried two of the hotel restaurants, to be reviewed separately, Miel and Sushi-Teq, and had great service in each. The restaurant manager for Miel stopped and had a nice conversation when we engaged with him. Talked about the food, chefs, and local area with us.
This was also an interesting experiment because I've been doing a lot with social media and public interaction recently. So, I posted comments about the trip on Twitter, before, during, and after. I also found the InterContinental's Twitter feed, followed them, and interestingly not one, not two, but three of their Twitter accounts are now following me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/jschmeling) too. I posted one concern about the service, and then that concern was addressed fully at the hotel (as per above, re: room type). But I also posted about my reservation at Miel, and the manager took time to interact, knew my name, and remembered it the next day when my wife had breakfast there again. I don't know definitively that they reacted to my tweets, but I think it's likely.
I booked online through Hotwire because my normal chain was booked fully and I hate to bump people for no reason. After booking I read all the reviews everywhere as we were taking a weekend in Boston to celebrate my wife's birthday and our upcoming anniversary and I wanted to know what to expect in the hotel and surrounding area. Some reviews made mention of bookings not being honored so I was worried and called ahead, no problem, they had the reservation. Asked for a king bed, and was told "arrive early" so I was again concerned. But, on arrival they had the request noted in the system, asked if the standard king was fine, and gave us a city-view on the 11th floor.
The room was beautiful, well appointed with modern luxury touches. The bedside lighting is sophisticated and adjustable - three types of bedside lights. The first are standard table lamps, the second are led spotlights on flexible arms, and the third is a dim lighting in the headboard side panels to either side of the sliding windows between the soaking tub and the room. Additionally there are switches on both sides of the bed to turn on the hall light and not trip over something in the middle of the night. The bed was exceptionally comfortable, with four pillows plus a longer body pillow with nice cover.
The bathroom is well done, marble, granite, tile, wood, ceramic and chrome fixtures, and lots of shelves. There are good photos on this and some of the travel sites. But, beautiful, well done bathrooms.
The room had a chaise at the foot of the bed, a nice chair and ottoman, dedicated office space in the room I was in (it said King Deluxe on the check in slip, but the room map on the door made some rooms look smaller, and the Deluxe was supposed to be the smallest I thought). I can't find a great room layout on any of the sites. Other furnishings were dark wood night tables and dresser/TV console, and desk. There were adequate plug-ins where needed. A nice touch was the iPhone/iPod compatible clock radio - we plugged one in and had our own music in the room.
I was ecstatic because of the rate I paid on Hotwire, and the hotel service backed it up. We tried two of the hotel restaurants, to be reviewed separately, Miel and Sushi-Teq, and had great service in each. The restaurant manager for Miel stopped and had a nice conversation when we engaged with him. Talked about the food, chefs, and local area with us.
This was also an interesting experiment because I've been doing a lot with social media and public interaction recently. So, I posted comments about the trip on Twitter, before, during, and after. I also found the InterContinental's Twitter feed, followed them, and interestingly not one, not two, but three of their Twitter accounts are now following me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/jschmeling) too. I posted one concern about the service, and then that concern was addressed fully at the hotel (as per above, re: room type). But I also posted about my reservation at Miel, and the manager took time to interact, knew my name, and remembered it the next day when my wife had breakfast there again. I don't know definitively that they reacted to my tweets, but I think it's likely.
I went to the Syracuse/Louisville basketball game today (thank you Brian and Larry!) and enjoyed it a lot. I'm not a huge sports fan, so don't go often, but when I do I like the games. I'm not enough of a fan to know who the players are, but I know a good game. The score of 67-57 didn't really reflect how good the game was, and the level of excitement in most of the second half. Of course going with a good friend makes it better, especially when he's such a diehard fan that he can give me every stat/strategy/coaching history fact in the history of SU basketball! It was a fun Saturday afternoon.
