I have a 5 year plan. If some of the stuff I'm working on doesn't pan out in the next 5 years, I'm going to open a small, franchise-able restaurant. A QSR (quick service restaurant) and I like to the idea of it having like 10-12 versions of grilled cheese sandwich. -You can have meats, but the vegetarians would love the place too. Food cost would be low and by adding premium cheeses, high quality side items etc, you could command a premium price. Its one of many ideas I'm throwing in my notebook. Even if in 5 years, I'm rolling in cash, I'd like to open something like this, just in a more hands off way. I always had the notion that I would open a fine dining restaurant/bar but that seems like so much work for such a small return. If i could open a place that could have 20 locations in the first 4 years, that'd be sweet. who knows... someday maybe.
That's cool tng. I recently came across an excellent grilled cheese recipe that is apparently a restaurant 'trade secret'. It has revolutionized my grilled cheese making skills. Now I'm make some killer stuff and I'll never go back. The secret? Instead of spreading butter on the outside of the bread, use real mayonnaise. Sounds weird I know, but it's really tasty.
Bleh. That spoiler is ruining my will to eat. I won't spoil your spoiler -- it'll spoil all by itself as soon as you open the jar. Nevertheless my wife and I use that as a safe word because we hate it so much.
Alton Brown fan? Have you ever noticed how many "unitaskers" he uses on a daily basis? Or how his most cherished dishes can't be made without one? Yes. You are looking at a picture of a camping iron. It has one purpose: put stuff between bread and throw on a fire. However, that one purpose is fucking awesome. Much like popover pans only make popovers, much like tagines only make tagines, much like paiellas only make paiellas, it is a device of limited utility. Yet each example listed has been the subject to its very own edition of good eats. As a gentle reminder, you were espousing the virtues of a fucking waffle iron not 12 hours ago... and if ever there were a useless does-only-one-thing device for the kitchen, it'd be the salad shooter. But beyond the salad shooter, the waffle iron.
Netflix has about 25 of them online. Unfortunately Food Network realizes that their programming is low-rent no-tail stuff that you flip through and if it weren't for cable they'd have no audience so there isn't any. Amazon Prime, on the other hand, has Julia Child's "The French Chef" as well as Julia and Jacques, where Julia Child and Jacques Pepin get loaded on wine and cook something.
Never done that. Do you mean more like a panini press? Isn't a waffle maker more of a manifold surface, used for pouring batter?
No, I mean a waffle maker. And that is exactly what it is. You need to do some squishing to get it to close with the bread in there, but it melts and toasts better than frying, I've found. It's quicker, too. You need to cut the crusts off though.
Here in Columbus we have and have had several "gourmet grilled cheese" restaurants. A couple have failed and closed. One was literally charging, for example, $11 for a grilled cheese sandwich the size and thickness of my (small) hand with a couple thin slices of ham. It wasn't even filling. No wonder they failed. The markup on that must be nauseating. I confess I've enjoyed some of the cheaper options, though. There's certainly a market for it!
The thing with a lot of restaurant owners is that they're forced to follow a lot of dumb sub-laws, mostly for food safety, but many more arbitrary ones like minimum square footage in the kitchen; which ends up costing tens of thousands. My grandfather opened up like 3 restaurants during his lifetime, all of them failed within the first 2 years, because he didn't try thinking outside of the box. I hope one day the laws for small restaurant owners will change so your type of small, franchise-able restaurant will become easier to manage.
Aw, c'mon! That's why you're annoyed with this city? Sheesh. That's like saying the $8 poutines at that 24-hour place on Rachel are the reason to leave Montreal. Man, that's the reason to build additional tunnels from mid-city to the Valley!
I'm sorry to hear that. In contrast, the odd food pop-ups are one of the reasons I'm really liking it here and no longer miss New England that much. And hey, there was foliage this week! Okay, it was leaves from the inch and change of rain on Saturday. It was still kinda nice.
They had one of these AND a grilled cheese shop in NYC. I don't care how good your grilled cheese is... It's not worth 16$ nor is it worth dedicating a single shop to.
I bet those PB and Js are at least 15 bucks each.
http://www.spreadpb.com About $6 on average. For PB&J.
I can't even describe my level of disappointment in this. I figured they would be MUCH more bullshit expensive.
Oh, my friend. That's because your analytical mind recoils from parsing the true level of bullshittery. Consider: they make fancy-schmancy peanut butter. That means they're buying peanuts. They might even be roasting them themselves if they're serious about it, except they don't mention it, so they're probably not. Anyway. Roasted peanuts are $2/lb retail. Then they mix in their janky-ass flavorings. "curry." "Chocolate." How much does curry powder cost? Cocoa powder? Their toppings are straight out of a sundae bar. None of that shit costs anything, really. So they give you a hotdog bun with peanut butter, Costco jam and Costco coconut on it, put a banana in it, and charge you $6.45. And then they'll expect a tip. Think about it: you're going to walk in there and get a PB&J and a smoothie and you're going to be out $15. For roughly the same food you can get from the continental breakfast bar at a Holiday Inn Express. And they're in Studio City, not Beverly Hills - I know that neighborhood well, it ain't expensive. Hell, it's only about three blocks up from the sushi nazi.
Did you eat at Sushi Nozawa often? Was it as good as people suggest it was?
Once. Once. Something to keep in mind about LA is it hates fish. I'm not sure why; there's an ocean right there! that has all sorts of delicious critters in it. I've hooked 'em myself. Perhaps it has something to do with the tiny, tiny kitchens that are common in LA, and the fact that we like our food to come from trucks. Whatever the reason, the sushi here is notably inferior. More than that, you pay $50 for $20 sushi. Nozawa was in a strip mall on Ventura Blvd. in the valley. You'd walk in there and sit down at a counter. Then you'd notice that you could order by your choice, but it was strongly discouraged. And then you'd get a bunch of nigiri, which was okay, but no ginger or wasabi, and if you asked for soy they'd kick you out (I never saw it happen but when I asked for ginger I was castigated). And then you'd decide you'd probably eaten enough sushi and then they'd hit you with a $300 bill. Thing of it is - all the fish used in sushi comes from one depot in J-town. So really - you're paying for Nozawa to cut it up and put it on rice. He's got a bunch of Sugarfish restaurants now. You can pay $25 for 4 pieces of nigiri, they pick.
It sounds like what you're really paying for is the assurance that he hand selected the best fish from that depot. Detroit is the same way, all fish and produce (for the most part) comes in through the Eastern Market, but to suggest that every restaurant has the same stuff as a result of that would be incorrect. To take the time to hand select your raw materials is a rare thing. It has a real impact.
Meh. I worked above a fish market for 5 years. It is not worth $250 to have someone pick fish for you. Especially when Seattle has gone balls-deep into kaiten, thereby allowing the customer to pick the good fish. in Seattle I was biking distance to three different kaiten restaurants. In Los Angeles, there are three.