Posts Tagged ‘Chef Geoff’s’
Sure Things: Bonobos’ Clothing for Fit, Fashionable Fellas
Posted by Natalie Kaar / Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Ging Crosby Shirt, $98 (bonobos.com)
Hello there, shoppers! While women want to find styles that accentuate their best features, it’s no different for fashion- and fitness-conscious guys. But speaking from experience in shopping for my endurance sports-loving hubs who is becoming more and more appreciative of fashion — or more understanding of my love for it at least — finding the perfect fit can be a bit difficult, especially when it comes to shirts.
While Hugo Boss and John Varvatos have some fantastic slim dress shirts, I’ve found that for more casual options, Bonobos.com, is a Sure Thing.
It was a social media shout-out from Chef Geoff’s famed chef/owner Geoff Tracy touting the benefits of Bonobos pants a few months back that introduced us, but it was well-fitting polos, casual button-downs and board shorts that stole a few hearts in my house. A bonus, even some of the shirts that aren’t advertised as wrinkle-free still come out of the dryer looking fantastic, like the one pictured to the right.
Want to try Bonobos out for yourself or for your main man? Save $50 on your first order.
Happy shopping!
–Natalie Kaar
Posted by Warren Rojas / Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
I read with great interest food blogger/videographer/author Josh Ozerky’s latest anti-restaurant rant in Time magazine.
And by “with great interest” I mean my internal bullshit detector was screaming in my ears.
Mind you, while I found myself nodding along with the few salient points–”casual” dining is by and large a misnomer, wonky reservation policies are distasteful–I was mostly stunned by how lowly Ozersky seems to regard both restaurants (his self-appointed beat) and restaurant goers (his de facto flock).
While he sprinkles sweeping generalizations (“Restaurants like cash because it allows them to cheat the IRS”) and bombast (“The most nakedly coercive form of control, of course, is the dreaded tasting menu, for which the chef sends out 11 tiny portions of food, each one carefully designed to not satisfy you, with the experience requiring less input from you than a nurse requires from an obliging spinal-trauma patient.”) throughout, he manages to shoehorn his most vitriolic views into the following paragraph:
You are not a guest. Guests are people who come to your home. Diners at restaurants are customers. They pay for food and service. They therefore have certain unalienable rights, including but not limited to: the right to take pictures of the food with their cell phones, particularly if they can do so without a flash; the right to text all the way through the meal, whether the staff or chef likes it or not; the right to drink the cheapest wine on the menu or to just have iced tea; the right to take home things that they don’t finish; and the right to pay for their dinner with a credit card. Is there anything worse than being told, at the end of a big meal, that the place doesn’t take plastic and that you have to slink to an ATM? Restaurants like cash because it allows them to cheat the IRS, but that’s not your problem. If a restaurant wants to pull that move, they need to tell everyone up front when they sit down. You’re right to hate them if they don’t. And if they send a food runner who can’t speak English well to bring you your food, and you can’t figure out what the hell he’s saying, you have a right to have your waiter come by and do it himself or herself, which should have happened to begin with. You do not, however, have the right to be a jerk, to be inconsiderate, or to harass them with dopey questions and requests. Just to be clear here.
Granted, I ‘m obliged to approach my more-frequent-than-I’d-care-to-admit outings with an eye on professional nitpicking. But something–okay, a lot of things–about Ozersky’s gripes struck me as, at best, downright petty, and at worst, delusional and wrong.
So I decided to check with a few local dining authorities.
Chef and restaurateur Geoff Tracy seemed the most inclined to give Ozersky the benefit of the doubt.
Tracy stood firmly behind every client’s “right” to text/photograph/Tweet each meal to their heart’s content (“Sure. Why not”) and quench their thirst with thrifty alternatives (“I drink lots of cheap wine. It doesn’t suck, it just doesn’t cost that much,” he asserted). He seemed genuinely baffled by those who misguidedly game the reservation system (“I am also confounded by restaurants who say they are booked between 6 and 10…and then when you walk in the place is WIDE open. Seems like bad for business.”). He even pseudo-endorsed Ozersky’s anti-jerk clause (“Nobody likes a jerk or inconsiderate, mean people”), but left the door open for bitingly honest evaluations and oddball queries.
“Helpful and thoughtful (not mean) constructive comments actually help us get better and are appreciated,” Tracy offered, adding, “I am OK with dopey questions.”
He drew the line, however, at preemptively declining bread service (“Isn’t ‘waving him off before he even speaks’ contradicting the ‘inconsiderate’ component of Josh’s Bill of Rights?”). And Tracy found nothing redeeming about Ozersky’s call to ostracize tongue-tied restaurant workers.
” There are a lot of hardworking people in this business who are trying to learn English. People are realizing the American dream in the restaurant business every day (and in construction sites, landscaping, cleaning businesses, etc),” Tracy counseled. “Unless you are Native American, we should all keep in mind that at some point a past relative was an immigrant to this great country.”
Great American Restaurants CEO Randy Norton attempted to diffuse the whole guest vs. customer stand-off, arguing, “Airlines and grocery stores have customers. People that visit our restaurants are guests.”
“We want to treat everyone as well or better than we would guests in our homes,” Norton said. “In fact, our first core value is ‘we exist to provide happiness to our guests and staff.’ We don’t publicize this; it’s just who we are.”
Norton also rushed to the defense of his company’s long-standing, no-reservations policy.
“We don’t take reservations because it is so difficult to keep guests happy that arrive late,” he explained, suggesting that its equally difficult to gauge “how long guests will stay at a table.” GAR has, instead, utilized a call-ahead system that, while helpful–”We find most guests show up when they call so close to their arrival,” he noted–is still not flawless. “It still isn’t unusual for more than 10 percent of ‘call ahead’ guests to not show up at all,” he calculated.
Restaurateur and Back of the House columnist Meshelle Armstrong laughed off most of Ozersky’s observations, but minced no words about the proposed dining “rights.”
“He [Ozersky] needs to know, patrons do NOT have certain unalienable rights. It is not the government. A restaurant is a privately owned business–with the right to conduct business anyway it chooses,” Armstrong asserted. “IF you do choose to participate in a private business, you have to comply with their rules. SIMPLE.”
Armstrong understandably bemoaned the dissipation of civility (“Life skills and a thing called manners unfortunately HAVE gone by the wayside.”) that one might presume was the original inspiration for Ozersky’s column. But she maintains that common sense remains the best compass. “KNOW where you are going…and act appropriately,” she advised.
Armchair critic cum concierge Don Rockwell was easily the least hospitable towards Ozersky (“This guy needs to get laid”).
“The piece is a potpourri of misplaced ideas, egotism, smugness, and misanthropy with the occasional, seemingly random, grain of coherent thought. Honestly, it would have been a good April Fools’ piece because it’s right on the border of being silly enough to be dismissed as a joke; yet, it’s written for a mass audience which might actually believe some of it, so it’s a dangerous piece of writing on a very small scale,” Rockwell warned.
He went on to dissect Ozersky’s purported rights [plain text], pointing out the following [ALL CAPS]:
You Are Not a Guest
SURE YOU ARE. SECOND DEFINITION OF THE WORD RIGHT HERE.
Guests are people who come to your home.
THAT’S THE FIRST DEFINITION.
Diners at restaurants are customers.
CORRECT, AND THEY’RE ALSO GUESTS.
They pay for food and service.
CORRECT.
They therefore have certain unalienable rights,
A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF A NON SEQUITUR.
including but not limited to:
OH, SO *HE* IS THE ONE WRITING THE CONSTITUTION .
the right to take pictures of the food with their cell phones
THIS IS SO STUPID THAT I PROBABLY SHOULDN’T COMMENT ON IT.
particularly if they can do so without a flash;
OOPS! HE JUST ALIENATED ONE OF HIS UNALIENABLE RIGHTS!
the right to text all the way through the meal,
REFER TO THE RIGHT TO TAKE PICTURES OF THE FOOD WITH THEIR CELL PHONES.
whether the staff or chef likes it or not;
SERIOUSLY. THIS GUY NEEDS TO GET LAID.
the right to drink the cheapest wine on the menu or to just have iced tea;
CORRECT.
the right to take home things that they don’t finish;
I’LL GIVE HIM THIS (BUT THE RESTAURANT HAS NO OBLIGATION TO HAVE CARRYOUT CONTAINERS).
and the right to pay for their dinner with a credit card.
HOPE THIS GUY DOESN’T PLAN ON GOING TO A LOBSTER POUND.
Is there anything worse than being told,
UMMM …
at the end of a big meal,
WHY A “BIG” MEAL?
that the place doesn’t take plastic and that you have to slink to an ATM?
YEAH, CANCER IS WORSE.
Restaurants like cash because it allows them to cheat the IRS,
THIS IS PROBABLY OFTEN TRUE, BUT IT’S WRONG TO ISSUE A BLANKET STATEMENT ACCUSING ALL CASH-ONLY OPERATIONS OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR.
but that’s not your problem.
CORRECT. AND IT’S NOT HIS, EITHER (OR SHOULDN’T BE).
If a restaurant wants to pull that move, they need to tell everyone up front when they sit down.
I AGREE WITH THIS.
You’re right to hate them if they don’t.
HOW ABOUT, “YOU HAVE AN UNALIENABLE RIGHT TO HATE THEM IF THEY DON’T.” I’D GIVE HIM THAT.
And if they send a food runner who can’t speak English well to bring you your food
I ALSO THINK ENGLISH SHOULD BE THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE UNITED STATES OF ‘MERIKA.
and you can’t figure out what the hell he’s saying,
THEN YOU SHOULD EDUCATE YOURSELF, YOU MONOGLOT IGNORAMUS.
you have a right to have your waiter come by and do it himself or herself,
INCORRECT.
which should have happened to begin with.
WHY?
You do not, however, have the right to be a jerk,
NO, ONLY THIS GUY HAS THE RIGHT TO BE A JERK.
to be inconsiderate or to harass them with dopey questions and requests.
JUST LIKE HE’S HARASSING ME WITH THIS DOPEY COLUMN.
Just to be clear here.
SERIOUSLY. THIS GUY NEEDS TO GET LAID.
Restaurateur Michael Landrum–never one to hold his tongue or shy away from a potential media shit storm–proved to be the most stoic about Ozersky’s screed.
“I can only hope that this article will be read as the Swiftian parody that it is, with some points having a basis in reality. That being said, if one does not enjoy dining out, at all or at a specific restaurant, one should simply not do so,” Landrum said. “Every diner has the unalienable right of choice, and he should exercise it freely and without rancor.”
Meanwhile, Tracy recalled a particularly jarring occasion where he found himself on the totally wrong side of the table.
“I once was dining with Coach Bruce Boudreau at a tony restaurant in Potomac. He is a Canadian hockey player and meat-and-potato guy. He was obviously uncomfortable with the menu. The restaurant had a really nice steak on the menu which he politely asked for, but without the sauces and all the fancy stuff. The restaurant wouldn’t do it,” he noted. “Maybe we are just customers after all.”
Is Ozersky right? (222-and-counting Facebook fans can’t all have guzzled the Kool-Aid, can they?) Or is his column more about vainglorious rabble-rousing than actually elevating the dining bar?
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
(Image: Daily Yonder)
When FriendsEAT co-founder Antonio Evans released his “Top 100 Restaurants Using Twitter,” I was pleasantly surprised to find that D.C.-Metro restaurants made up over one-fifth (21 total) of the honorees and that several NoVA properties were prominently featured (#87 – Lebanese Taverna, #83 – Liberty Tavern, #45 – Vinifera, #9 – Busboys & Poets).
But as I perused the salute to social media skills, it became clear that I had no clue what criteria Evans had used to build his restaurant roll call.
Some had beaucoup followers but seemed stingy with their tweets. Others were clearly just regurgitating content originally disseminated elsewhere.
Although Evans declined to provide the specific methodology employed–he did maintain that the list had not been seeded with undisclosed clients from his Binary Bits PR operation–here’s a pseudo-explanation:
“We looked at a combination of off-site (meaning how they are represented outside of twitter), total follower, amount of tweets, and user engagement. Together with the Twitter API [and] along with a lot of data mining we got our answer,” he suggested.
Clear as concrete.
We’ve been tracking NoVA’s tweeting elite for some time now. And since I’ve not yet had a chance to do any significant data mining, here is my totally unscientific take on the most consistently engaging, feedback-hungry and, quite often, thoroughly entertaining hospitality agents working it 140 characters at a time:
* BGR: regularly mixes things up with followers, openly solicits new burger/shake suggestions
* Chef Geoff’s: constant updates, crazy specials/dining discounts
* Clyde’s: tosses out specials/tweetup invites at almost a fever pitch
* Dairy Godmother: a whole lot of dairy love sprinkled with community activism
* Georgetown Cupcake: the daily “secret flavor” alert alone is worth a follow
What local restaurants are on your must-follow list?
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
Despite the spate of recession-related restaurant closings, a few brave chefs have been flirting with the idea of expanding their brands. What plans for new openings are actually in the works?
Photo Credit: Seth Freeman/Northern Virginia Magazine
Eponymous Chef Geoff Eying Tysons
Fans of Chef Geoff Tracy of Chef Geoff’s and Chef Geoff’s Downtown will be pleased to know that he’s opening a new location in Tysons Corner called (what else?) Chef Geoff’s Tysons. Located in ritzy Fairfax Circle (home of Tiffany & Co., Hermes and Kinkead’s Colvin Run Tavern), Cheff Geoff’s Tysons will serve his signature Modern American cuisine.
New District Digs for Donna
Chef Roberto Donna of Arlington’s Bebo Trattoria plans to open a new restaurant in D.C. this May. The new upscale Italian restaurant will resemble the former Galileo, including an attached Laboratoria, but with one kitchen to serve both “so there will be more control,” says Donna.
While Donna mans the new place in D.C., Claudio Sandria will be in change of Bebo Trattoria. Sandria, who attended a cooking school with 14-year-old Donna in Italy, used to work with him at the former Galileo and Laboratoria.
As for Bebo, Donna says it will stay pretty much the same, remaining the more casual counterpart to the more upscale dining rooms in downtown.
Morou: More Mulling, More Shopping
Plans for a new D.C. restaurant by Chef Morou of Farrah Olivia in Alexandria have been put on hold for now. Having worked in the District for much of his career, Morou seriously considered the former Butterfield 9 on 14th Street, but that plan “didn’t work out.” He’s still shopping around for locations, but he doesn’t “want to think too far ahead.”
If a new place does pan out, Morou knows exactly what kind of restaurant he wants to open: a casual, “recession-friendly” bistro-like place offering “different small dishes from all over the world.”
In the meantime, the West African chef is working on “reintroduce[ing] Farrah Olivia to the public as not as expensive as people think we are.” According to Morou, Farrah Olivia has “the cheapest menus in D.C” and is “not as stuffy.”
– Christina Lee