Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Don't You Just Love A Good Inexpensive Wine?
Love this, a wine worth drinking for just $6.99 or even stretching it out to $9.99. What is your favorite yet bargain wine?
Friday, May 21, 2010
A new twist in Wine Tasting at Home
This is interesting.
So you are planning a wine party and wondering what to serve. How about bringing the tasting room to you. Isn't what all try to do anyways.
Well it looks like Tasting Room, Inc. is doing just that, here are the details.
So you are planning a wine party and wondering what to serve. How about bringing the tasting room to you. Isn't what all try to do anyways.
Well it looks like Tasting Room, Inc. is doing just that, here are the details.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Orange County Restaurant Week - Plan to big out!
Ok foodies and wino's alike here is an event not to be missed, especially if the curren economy has hindered your ability to enjoy the delight of enjoy your favorite Orange County Restaurants.
First check out details at Orange County Restaurant Week.
and for a little sneak peek check out this article in the O.C. Register.
Enjoy!
First check out details at Orange County Restaurant Week.
and for a little sneak peek check out this article in the O.C. Register.
Enjoy!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Javier's Oh where Oh where has your service gone!
OK, this may surprise you by the long lines patrons encounter when they go to the local favorite Javier's Cantina, but unfortunately this is written with sadness. Why because instead of Javiers Restaurant being voted a favorite, I might have to vote for it to be the rudest.
If you have read my post before, one of my favorite things to do is get together with my girlfriends and enjoy a night out at a great restaurant. We always look for a restaurant that offers a great atmosphere, excellent food and fun service, so most would think that with the success of Javier's we would have found the perfect place.
So what a surprise we ecountered tonight. Our night started out great, we were all excited to get together. One of our friends made reservations, which actually surprised me because I was under the impression they didn't take reservations. So when she checked in they said, sorry we don't have your reservation. She thought, hmmm maybe I called the wrong Javier's and called the number and the hostess notes nope we have your reservation, we just didn't understand your name, hello it is Kristen.
So in she goes to get the table, oops sorry we gave your table away as your whole party is not here. Fine, what is the wait time and we are told 45 minutes.
Forty-five minutes into the wait, we approach the hostess to see how much longer the wait would be and she says 10 minutes, so we order a drink. 15 minutes later, my friend approaches the the host to see if our table was ready and when asked if it would be soon as were told an hour a ago it would be 45 minutes. The host totally goes off on my friend.. "I never told you that". Hello, we were all standing their and yes you did. We all thought, no problem, just what is the time frame, we had reservations, you gave a way the table and we don't mind waiting just would like to understand how much longer. But all a little surprised at his rudeness.
So as we determined if we should stay or go, the beeper goes off and we get a table, YAY! As we sit the waiter says to the help, uggh they already have drinks. (sorry buddy, yes that means your check will be a little less), so we order dinner and proceed with our conversation. Thirty-minutes into the meal, the waiter clears the dishes, puts the check down and gives us the look like aren't you guys done yet. No, would you like another drink, dessert, etc.
As we are continuing our conversations, we notice the staff continuing to check us out, picking up each glass the minute we put it down or walking by and rolling their eyes, looking at their watches.
It was so uncomfortable that we decided to leave and go have dessert somewhere else. But it really shocked us thus why I am writing this little rant.
You see this wasn't the first time, I had watched this lack of customer service at Javier's'. A couple years ago we went to celebrate the holidays and encountered the exact same service. Long wait, then a rushed dinner and walking away feeling as if our night had been cheated, not to mention the $$$ spent.
But this will be the last time we encounter such service, because Javier's is off our list of places to look forward to going to.
You may be thinking, well it takes two but seriously there was no issue on our part. Once we got seated we just wanted to enjoy each other and our meals and I will say my meal was good. But nothing is worse then to have rude service and a rushed meal when you are looking forward to an evening out. It is clearly their practice to move people in and move people out so they can turn those tables is the priority and service is not.
If you have read my post before, one of my favorite things to do is get together with my girlfriends and enjoy a night out at a great restaurant. We always look for a restaurant that offers a great atmosphere, excellent food and fun service, so most would think that with the success of Javier's we would have found the perfect place.
So what a surprise we ecountered tonight. Our night started out great, we were all excited to get together. One of our friends made reservations, which actually surprised me because I was under the impression they didn't take reservations. So when she checked in they said, sorry we don't have your reservation. She thought, hmmm maybe I called the wrong Javier's and called the number and the hostess notes nope we have your reservation, we just didn't understand your name, hello it is Kristen.
So in she goes to get the table, oops sorry we gave your table away as your whole party is not here. Fine, what is the wait time and we are told 45 minutes.
Forty-five minutes into the wait, we approach the hostess to see how much longer the wait would be and she says 10 minutes, so we order a drink. 15 minutes later, my friend approaches the the host to see if our table was ready and when asked if it would be soon as were told an hour a ago it would be 45 minutes. The host totally goes off on my friend.. "I never told you that". Hello, we were all standing their and yes you did. We all thought, no problem, just what is the time frame, we had reservations, you gave a way the table and we don't mind waiting just would like to understand how much longer. But all a little surprised at his rudeness.
So as we determined if we should stay or go, the beeper goes off and we get a table, YAY! As we sit the waiter says to the help, uggh they already have drinks. (sorry buddy, yes that means your check will be a little less), so we order dinner and proceed with our conversation. Thirty-minutes into the meal, the waiter clears the dishes, puts the check down and gives us the look like aren't you guys done yet. No, would you like another drink, dessert, etc.
As we are continuing our conversations, we notice the staff continuing to check us out, picking up each glass the minute we put it down or walking by and rolling their eyes, looking at their watches.
It was so uncomfortable that we decided to leave and go have dessert somewhere else. But it really shocked us thus why I am writing this little rant.
You see this wasn't the first time, I had watched this lack of customer service at Javier's'. A couple years ago we went to celebrate the holidays and encountered the exact same service. Long wait, then a rushed dinner and walking away feeling as if our night had been cheated, not to mention the $$$ spent.
But this will be the last time we encounter such service, because Javier's is off our list of places to look forward to going to.
You may be thinking, well it takes two but seriously there was no issue on our part. Once we got seated we just wanted to enjoy each other and our meals and I will say my meal was good. But nothing is worse then to have rude service and a rushed meal when you are looking forward to an evening out. It is clearly their practice to move people in and move people out so they can turn those tables is the priority and service is not.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
A Wine List With No Wine
This time of year one of my favorite things to look forward to is our annual Ornament Exchange with the girlfriends. Of course the main reason is because we get to hang with the BFF's, but another aspect that I love is going out to a nice restaurant, enjoying a nice meal and of course a good wine.
Of course with the economy this year we are all watching our pennies but still wanted to enjoy the night. So we planned to meet at Irvine Spectrum and we chose Champs looking forward to a nice night with food, friends a fire and of course some cocktails.
As I was looking at the menu, I was really surprised they were severing Barefoot. Now I have had my days of drinking Barefoot but was surprised to see it on a dinner menu. More surprised to see it was $16.00 a bottle when you can pick up a bottle for about $3. I understand the mark up on wine, but come on.
So I asked the waitress as it was full restaurant and bar what other wine choices were there and she said let me check, our list has not been updated. Updated?
She came back and said the family of Barefoot was pretty much it besides a Shiraz. I was a bit confused as I looked at the list and saw several other selections. Then she continued, we must not have known they were closing at the end of the year and so they weren't buying anything new.
We all kinda giggled and thought oh well, it is about us being together not the wine. So I will take the Shiraz. A few minutes later the server comes back and she notes, "I have good news and bad. This glass of Shiraz is on the house". OK, why? "The bad news, you can see it is lightly poured and that is the end of the bottle!" Hello have you not heard of Trader Joes or Bev Mo, go buy enough wine for the night while your doors are open?
OK, so it wasn't going to be a wine night! On to the next tradition which normally ends with a chocolate or espresso martini. So off to the bar we go, to see if the bartender will give us a little sampling because we all like them a bit differently. So we ask a female bartender, do you make a good chocolate martini, "yeap sure do". Great! A couple minutes later, she notes she was going to have the male bartender make it as he makes it better. So we ask him and then ask if we could sample one. No problem and off he goes to to make his special martini! He taste one, then two and then three and me and my friend look at each other and think this not good. He responds, yeah guess I don't have the right ingredients to make you guys one. Hello is this not a bar!
So what is the point of this little rant. Sadly the recession is hitting Champs and it is closing. That is horrible for all the people about ready to lose their jobs. But I have to ask is the real reason it is closing because of the recession? If you are going to keep the doors open, hello make a simple menu with what you have available. Don't hand your customers a menu with 10 selections on it and say umm, we have one. Don't you still want to make your customers happy? More importantly for the business, don't you still want to make some $$ before you close the doors? If not, hello close the doors!
Luckily good friends, conversation (hey we even saved some money it was our cheapest holiday event in years), made the night special.
Of course with the economy this year we are all watching our pennies but still wanted to enjoy the night. So we planned to meet at Irvine Spectrum and we chose Champs looking forward to a nice night with food, friends a fire and of course some cocktails.
As I was looking at the menu, I was really surprised they were severing Barefoot. Now I have had my days of drinking Barefoot but was surprised to see it on a dinner menu. More surprised to see it was $16.00 a bottle when you can pick up a bottle for about $3. I understand the mark up on wine, but come on.
So I asked the waitress as it was full restaurant and bar what other wine choices were there and she said let me check, our list has not been updated. Updated?
She came back and said the family of Barefoot was pretty much it besides a Shiraz. I was a bit confused as I looked at the list and saw several other selections. Then she continued, we must not have known they were closing at the end of the year and so they weren't buying anything new.
We all kinda giggled and thought oh well, it is about us being together not the wine. So I will take the Shiraz. A few minutes later the server comes back and she notes, "I have good news and bad. This glass of Shiraz is on the house". OK, why? "The bad news, you can see it is lightly poured and that is the end of the bottle!" Hello have you not heard of Trader Joes or Bev Mo, go buy enough wine for the night while your doors are open?
OK, so it wasn't going to be a wine night! On to the next tradition which normally ends with a chocolate or espresso martini. So off to the bar we go, to see if the bartender will give us a little sampling because we all like them a bit differently. So we ask a female bartender, do you make a good chocolate martini, "yeap sure do". Great! A couple minutes later, she notes she was going to have the male bartender make it as he makes it better. So we ask him and then ask if we could sample one. No problem and off he goes to to make his special martini! He taste one, then two and then three and me and my friend look at each other and think this not good. He responds, yeah guess I don't have the right ingredients to make you guys one. Hello is this not a bar!
So what is the point of this little rant. Sadly the recession is hitting Champs and it is closing. That is horrible for all the people about ready to lose their jobs. But I have to ask is the real reason it is closing because of the recession? If you are going to keep the doors open, hello make a simple menu with what you have available. Don't hand your customers a menu with 10 selections on it and say umm, we have one. Don't you still want to make your customers happy? More importantly for the business, don't you still want to make some $$ before you close the doors? If not, hello close the doors!
Luckily good friends, conversation (hey we even saved some money it was our cheapest holiday event in years), made the night special.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Grape Stomp - One of my favorite I Love Lucy Shows
Remember the I Love Lucy show, when Lucy is stomping the grapes in Italy. Ever think wow, I want to try it.
Well the time is ripe (hey that was good)!
Locally head to Temecula this month for a variety of stomping.
Sept: 19th - Calloway Winery
Sept: 20th - Oak Mountain Winery
Well the time is ripe (hey that was good)!
Locally head to Temecula this month for a variety of stomping.
Sept: 19th - Calloway Winery
Sept: 20th - Oak Mountain Winery
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