Actually, they now have a two tier wage scale, (voted in by the higher scale people). The new hires make a lot less. Still no excuse, just going for accuracy.

friends and co-workers. Knowledge of the latest, hot new restaurant was like currency. I now live in the Midwest—not in a small town, but in a mid-tier metro area— I don’t talk to my friends and neighbors about...

According to several of my relatives, Lei Garden is better than most of the Cantonese independents in Singapore too (some rank it at the top tier); perhaps that’s a fairer comparision? If every block had a Lei Garden it be...

Ate at Mistral off of the RW menu on Tuesday night. To put it politely, I was underwhelmed. I have given up trying out the top tier restaurants during RW, as it appears they just serve these items like fast food. Caesar Salad was...

, to the restaurant who may or may not pass along the increase to we consumers. Profit margins may be lower in SD than some other mid-tier cities, but probably not the SFs, CHIs or NYCs of the world. There may or may not be as...

) and the remnants of my cold were for the most part unmoved. An excellent meal, great company and a fine time. Somehow I doubt that Thai Avenue belongs in the first tier of Chicago Thai, but they did a great job for us. Leading...

with a laughable flourish in one of those ridiculous wooden boxes that someone else mentioned) at a top-tier San Francisco restaurant (which shall remain nameless because I’ve beaten this story to death and because it...

thing to give yourself over to the sommelier to match wines with the food. You get to try new and different things as the wine service becomes an extension of the experimentation with the food. But this has not made top tier wine...

, including a steak house called Jim Gould and a Japanese-fusion type place called Ko-fusion. The steak house is good, but quite expensive. A friend characterized it as about as good as second-tier steakhouses in Chicago. In true...

are the best vintages." I asked, "Nothing younger?" She said, "1985 and 1994 have potential, but it’s too early to tell." I asked, "Recommended shippers?" She replied, "Fonseca, Taylor and Grahams are the best. Dow and Warres...

. Is she operating under the impression that if she includes herself in the top tier no one will notice that she doesn’t qualify?

, and not be so quick to overlook pairings that just do not work, and wines that should be on the B-T-G list at Copland’s, or similar. As mentioned elsewhere, I’d urge RA to look into doing a two-tier...

's are your main choices, but both are clearly geared towards a different market (the rich? the organic/health-food police? those who are entertaining guests? People who would pay $9 for a bag of salted caramels?). The...

. They totally found a way to keep Richard, cutting him slack based on previous performance. I think that’s okay – one outrageous flub really shouldn’t kill you at this early stage, if everything else has been in...

up in Columbia. There was a man with a horse & wagon that came through the neighborhood weekly. The wagon had tiered bins on each side filled with fresh produce from his farm. It was a sad day when he gave it up. There was a huge...