Friday, May 21, 2010

Free Lunch

The Stanford Grill had their press preview this afternoon. More accurately it should have been called the blogger free food preview. I didn’t meet any main stream media types but I sure did meet a lot of food bloggers.

I shared a large booth with JessieX, Dara Bunjon, and Harriet Griffiths. Dara writes Dara Does It and Harriet writes Food and Wine Blog. Of course everyone knows who Jessie is.

In the booth next to me was Kevin Rhee. Kevin writes Kevin and Ann Eat Everything with his sister Ann who lives in NYC. He’s a local guy, a graduate of Centennial High. His food blog is pretty funny and I’ve been remiss at not listing it with my other local faves. I will remedy that immediately.

Since HowChow has a real job in DC he wasn’t able to attend this afternoon though I was told he got the invite. And speaking of HowChow, he confirmed today that he will be able to do our podcast next Friday. He will be our first blogger guest.

And getting back to bloggers, I think Jessie and I were the only non food bloggers there. I told my fellow tablemates that I would leave the true critique of the food thing to them. For me, the complete sampling of entre’s they placed on the table was a rare lunch time feast. It was all good and you couldn’t beat the price.

We got desert too. In this case I will make a comment and single out the pineapple upside down cake for special recognition, and this is coming from a guy who’s not a big fan of pineapple.

After the feast was cleared away Juancarlo Parkhurst, the General Manager, showed us around the joint. It’s very comfortable feeling with lots of natural woods and stone. There is a gas fired fireplace in the main dining room with a firebox raised to shoulder height so that the view of the fire can be enjoyed throughout the space.

Best of all, they have a grand piano in the bar area. I’ve always felt that you can’t go wrong with a piano in a bar. It opens up all kinds of possibilities.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for calling me. Oh, you didn't.

Next time.

jessiex said...

Oh, but 5-21/11:24, he did indeed. But since you're not real, the call went into the ethers of non-identity. Too bad for you: the key lime pie was to die for. ;-P

shout out to bonnie henderson / henerson / whatever and her team for including local bloggers as part of the news and coverage for such an opening.

lovely space and place, good looking people and yummy food, to boot.

Anonymous said...

As I was whipping up a batch of black bean brownies this morning, it occurred to me that Howard Countians are very, maybe to a fault, consumed with outside the home dining.

As I mashed the beans, reduced the sugar in the recipe by 1/3, added a dash of cinnamon, and used olive oil, the thought occurred that old food preserved in salt and sugar, over sweetened and overly fat just doesn't sit well with the human body.

When restaurants begin to serve healthy and tasty meals that are fresh and derive taste from nutritive value, I'll spend the extra money, do the time in the car, wait in line, and take my chances with the fastidiousness of the food prep individual.

Until then, it doesn't seem sensible.

Dara Bunjon said...

Nice breaking bread with you or should I say pineapple upside down cake. A small correction, my company is Dara Does It but my blog is Dining Dish.

Dara Bunjon (aka Dining Dish)