A reader kindly recommended a visit to the Kraus Haus restaurant at N8660 Clover Valley Road, Whitewater. It was a kind recommendation: the food is excellent and the atmosphere enjoyable. Now it has been some years since I have written a restaurant review, but writing follows living, and I’ve not stopped eating these last years. The Kraus…
Restaurant
Film, Restaurant
Spinning Plates
by JOHN ADAMS •
Spinning Plates is a 2012 documentary, well worth seeing, about three very different restaurants. (The tagline is “It’s not what you cook. It’s why.”) It’s now available online via Netflix. The hour-and-a-half film shows the ambition and intensity, but also the financial, emotional, and even health concerns as the restaurateurs grown their establishments.
Restaurant, Review
Review: The SweetSpot Bakehouse
by JOHN ADAMS •
Located on the west side of town, at 1185 West Main Street, the SweetSpot Bakehouse in a small, unassuming bakery. It bills itself as a ‘small-town bakery,’ and so it is. That’s its charm and advantage: it does one thing (baked goods) very well, some things well (coffee, tea), and a few others (all-day breakfast)…
Food, Restaurant, Review
Catching Up with the SweetSpot
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve reviewed the SweetSpot previously, and here are a few quick remarks about the new menu and remodeling of their location at 226 West Whitewater Street. I’ve not yet reviewed the SweetSpot Bakehouse, on the other side of town at 1185 West Main St, Whitewater. Remodel (and Menu Changes It Brings). The remodel adds a…
Food, Restaurant, Review
Restaurant Review: Jimmy’s Classic Italian Beef
by JOHN ADAMS •
A new year, a new month, and an unexpectedly happy find: that’s how the resumption of restaurant reviews starts off. At 535 E. Milwaukee Street in Whitewater one finds Jimmy’s, a sandwich shop with a more robust and satisfying menu than one might have expected from driving past. On so many trips along that street,…
Food, Restaurant
The Future of Fast Food?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Business, Economy, Free Market, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, Restaurant
Shop Small on Saturday, November 28, 2015
by JOHN ADAMS •
If you’re out and about on Saturday, I hope you’ll shop at some of the many independent, small merchants of Whitewater. You’ll find a wide selection of items for purchase as gifts, and good restaurants at which to eat while shopping during the day. Best wishes to all for a happy and prosperous season —…
Beautiful Whitewater, Business, Food, Hip & Prosperous, Restaurant
Restaurants Transform a City
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater is a small city, not a California metropolis, but even a prosperous place like San Francisco benefits from a growing restaurant culture: SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, as this city polished its reputation as an essential food destination, a stretch of Market Street just a short stroll from the groundbreaking Zuni Café remained stubbornly…
Poll, Restaurant
Friday Poll: End of Tipping at Restaurants?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tipping at Restaurants? View image | gettyimages.com Yesterday I posted a story about a restaurateur who was ending tipping at his establishments, because he thought this more equitable to all his employees: Under the current gratuity system, not everyone at a restaurant is getting a fair shake. Waiters at full-service New York restaurants can expect…
Business, Food, Restaurant
The End of Tipping?
by JOHN ADAMS •
View image | gettyimages.com I’m not sure what to make of this, but New York restaurateur Danny Meyer contends that ending tipping at his establishments is the right decision: Big news out of Manhattan: Dining out is about to get turned on its head. Union Square Hospitality Group, the force behind some of New York’s…
Beautiful Whitewater, Food, Restaurant
Whitewater’s Advantage Over Copenhagen, Home to One of the Finest Restaurants on Earth
by JOHN ADAMS •
In Copenhagen (population 583,000), a famous chef (René Redzepi) plans to close temporarily his famous restaurant (Noma) and turn part of it into an urban farm: Foraging superstar and chef René Redzepi is closing his famed Copenhagen restaurant Noma, which has been named the best restaurant in the world multiple times. According to the New York…
Business, Restaurant, Technology
Are Automats Restaurants?
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a story over at the New York Times about a new business in San Francisco, Eatsa, that’s like an old-fashioned automat: “[a]t this restaurant, customers order, pay and receive their food and never interact with a person.” See, Restaurant of the Future? Service With an Impersonal Touch @ NYT. (The story’s somewhat puzzling because reporter Claire…
Economics, Economy, Free Market, Immigration, Labor, Restaurant
Film: From Dishwasher to Award-Winning Restaurateur
by JOHN ADAMS •
I suppose that if I wanted to curry favor with others, I’d talk about the need for immigration restrictions, or at the least I’d avoid taking a contrary view (a restrictive position being so popular these days). That would seem to me a timid way to face the world, unfit for robust Americans. One should…
Drink, Food, Restaurant, Review
How Many Visits for a Restaurant Review?
by JOHN ADAMS •
How many trips should a reviewer make before publishing a review? I think at least two, if not three.(Exceptions would apply when one is revisiting an establishment that one has reviewed previously, or when one is traveling and a second visit is impractical.) One can review after one evening, but a single, first-visit review just doesn’t seem…