On the menu with the fries and burger: A health charge!?

No joke.. the Chicago TRIBUNE reporting that a new bill is popping up, and is sure to spread throughout the nation. The TRIBUNE reports,

The rationale for this one is to cover the employers' mandatory contribution to the City's "Healthy San Francisco" health-coverage system. The charge actually is levied on employers, but at least some restaurants are adding a few dollars or percentage points to each customer's bill to cover this charge.

The restaurants' excuse for assessing this charge separately is to let customers know how much they're paying for employees' health coverage. That's the same excuse hotels use when they add "resort" or "housekeeping" fees to unsuspecting guests' room bills. It's the same excuse airlines would use to exclude fuel surcharges from their advertised fares if the Department of Transportation would allow them. And it's sheer nonsense. Employees' health insurance is no less of a cost of doing business than rent, property taxes, food costs, security services and all the other inputs businesses require to operate. To single out health care for a separate surcharge is unwarranted.

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...the only hitch this weekend..

...was a frozen water line and a coffee machine not working. A trip to the dollar store, and a cheap coffee pot later (and 25 minutes to brew a single pot) and we were in business...

Oh the joys of what the customer does not see.

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Romantic dinners...

Some people think the lights being so low is downright funny.. other tables right next to them are happy and find the romance.. and finally the older couples have a conversation about how many bladder surgeries they made it through in life, making the youngest couple squirm like the shrimp they're eating..

But, ok.. I have to admit it, even with my mocking and scorning attempts to deride mass produced holidays like Mother's Day or Valentine's Day: There is something romantic and special about seeing couples of all ages and creeds come out to dine .. spend a night together and eat lobster and steak.. and look at each other and get a little fire back in their eyes again.

Sure, plenty of men are doing it because they have no other ideas.. they are in a cold panic that they forget flowers, chocolate, and diamonds. Why not, then, take someone for a $100 dinner.

And the server's role is magical in this instance.. the server has to know when too much friendly banter is too much, has to be knowledgeable about the dinner selection.. and then get out of the way of the couple who just seemingly want to share a little time either away from the kids, or just away from life.

Alright, that's the only bit of sentimental thought you're going to get about Valentine's Day. Back to the nonsense: Prime rib and seafood buffet today .. this should be outright painful..

Good luck restaurant world..

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Hold that table! The (first) dreaded holiday of the year...

AND ..this time it's on a weekend. A full flavor of events for Valentine's Day 2010 ..

Perhaps it's worth telling your table, as you serve them, that the original Valentine's Day involved young men would stripping naked and using whips to spank the buttocks of young women in order to improve their fertility.. Maybe it worked.. we're here today. Perhaps the pagans were on to something. Or maybe past popes were on to something by saying Saint Valentine did great things.. or maybe Hallmark and others for marketing the holiday with skill.

Either way, lobsters are about to be boiled, steaks are about to be seared, and men are about to look at bills with eyes wide.

It's Valentine's Day weekend..

If you're so inclined, or just want to plug yourself or you own website, send me a few thoughts, stories, or tales of battle scars from the weekend service.. In the mean time good luck. Look for some thoughts this weekend on the events..

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In case the sky bar is too far...a tootsie is closer than you think

A friend of a friend tells me that I can find one near home. At least within the United States..

If you're a regular reader of the Soup on my Fly blog, and I hope you are, you'll know I wrote a few weeks back about my interest and ogling of the Bangkok skybar in Thailand..

But now, if I want to find a bar similar (minus the sky) closer to home, at a VIP room of a adult club in Miama Florida at a place called Tootsie's (Not safe for work link)

While the Tootsies that features this interest room of character doesn't star Estelle Getty, God rest her soul, it does have the appearance of the Bangkok skybar of my dining desires..

I doubt an Estelle Getty character at Tootsie's.. Other types of characters, sordid and sultry, would only appear.

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How much Should it Cost

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A little angry at lunch choices.. Shut downs keep happening at my favorite places

Recently the city of Harrisburg PA, you know, it's been in the news for a new mayor and it's just about bankrupt, had some trouble with eateries.. my lunch choices have been severely halted due to the Capitol cafeteria being shut down for a few weeks due to rat droppings and mouse houses within the establishment. It's open now, that's fine.. haven't gone back yet.

Another favorite of mine just got shut down by officials on Thursday (the same day I ate a glorious piece of chicken and a baked potato from the Amish stand).. The Harrisburg Broad Street market was closed after evidence showed possible rodent contamination and bad temperatures on food.. Oy vey..

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it shouldn't be closed, cleaned, and reopened (hopefully) ... I'm just saying that I already miss the Curry in a Hurry soup for $2.25.. I miss the vegetable Chinese dishes for $4.50 .. I am suddenly craving the desserts from Sinfully Delicious.. I am missing the heaping pieces of chicken from the Amish.. the fresh fruit from the stands where few people speak English but they know the exact change amount to give you.. And for Harrisburg residents (*I'm a commuter) they will no doubt miss the fresh steaks, chicken, and fish that still had eyes on them..

But these things occur.. But it's ever so interesting when they don't occur, but should. Take for instance Gordon Ramsay's upcoming KITCHEN NIGHTMARES show. I saw the preview after last night's show *the cook was nuts last night by the way* .. the preview for the next is a Mexican restaurant that appears overwhelmed by roaches--on dinner plates--sour and spoiled foods.. and yet somehow the health department in that particular state never shut down the place? It had to take a Fox TV show and Chef Ramsay to find it? Maybe Chef Ramsay could find a contract with states ... each state can employ him for a few weeks to find places and close them down.. of course with his standards the only remaining restaurants would be diners that line their entire kitchen with tin foil. That's safe, right?

I am also beginning to worry, what place is next? There is a wonderful restaurant I got engaged at.. I hope it never happens there..

That's my thoughts for now.. off to shovel the driveway -- enjoy the blizzard if you live in the state where it's happening.. If you don't, I bet you're envious.. Well maybe not.

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There are some nights...

...when I wish I could be pumped full of foods due to my laziness and exhaustion.. I can't even get the energy to chew tonight.

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..nights like this...

I wish I lived in New York City... I don't know why. Just feel like I'm missing out on something..

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The Bangkok skybar: Yea, I'd get on a plane for that

Those who know me know I'm not much one for airports, airplanes, or even long drives.. People joke that I rarely get out of the county I work in, (though I travel through three counties a day to get to work while they typically stay in one, so who's the homer now, holmies) ..

But last night while waiting for my wife to get her eyebrows done at the mall, a hair cutting place of course not just a store ripping eyebrow hairs off, I was pursuing the latest GQ magazine when I saw an ad for the Lebua Skybar in Bangkok. Actually, it was an ad for Bombay Sapphire, but it could have well been a better ad for the skybar..

Forgive me, but maybe it's because I am 'stuck' in the county of my residence, but I never heard of the skybar. Until I did a bit of research on it, of course.. It's ranked as one of the world's best bars .. It sits over top of the city of Bangkok .. It's beautifully blue-hued and immediately has a presence..The city of Bangkok, pollution and all, is able to be viewed from high atop at the bar while sipping your Bombay Sapphire, or cocktail of your choice..

And yes, this, my friends, is something I would take a plane to go an see..

American restaurants and bars are not nearly as creative as our world neighbors.. we think plywood floors and filthy beer nozzles, along with dollar drafts, bring in the consumers. Yes, this is true.. But how much more I'd prefer the air night looking over the city I live in.. though the city I live in has few lights at night and few attractions besides Yuengling Brewery (And not to slam Yuengling, I drink Lager often).. But my point is, unlike Thailand, or Japan, or other nations on earth, our country rarely thinks about dining as an experience, but instead just something to do to go eat quickly.

I'd much rather go to a place where you don't just drink, or eat, but instead spend a night out.

There's an Italian restaurant near me called Mattucci's Italian Restaurant.. Haven't been there for some time now, but maybe it's time to go back. It's the type of place that you're at for a few hours -- the food is cooked from scratch and it's truly authentic Italian cuisine. Some people I hear talking about it get agitated that the wait for food is as long as it is.. But that's not the point of the wait. The point is, that the dining is an experience that you enjoy talking and having the company of others while you wait for dinner to be served. You have a 'night out' not just a quick dinner. Americans forget the glorious parts of dining or drinking.. Having a drink above a cityscape would be a wonderful pleasure compared to the obnoxious crowds at any given local tavern on a Saturday night..

And while I may never get to Bangkok to sip a beer above the city, I can perhaps recreate the scene in the restaurant I eventually own in my future (yep, still a dream).. I may just have to use wallpaper of a city.. or maybe I'll own a skybox way up high... Dreaming, dreaming..

In the mean time, I'll simply envy the bartender, who even on dull nights get to see the view of Bangkok like no others ..

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