More corkage controversy

This missive was posted a couple of days ago under the comments for the “Corkage is a no-no…but not so fast” article we ran last month. It was so interesting that we decided to push it front and center to give you some more Food For Thought.

From Prof. Restaurant to ELV (August 24, 2008):

I do not and will not allow anyone to bring their own bottle(s) into my restaurant. Why? Because of all of the hassles associated with it…if you don’t charge a corkage…sales suffer and the server feels slighted. If you charge a corkage…it always seems like someone “expects” to get that fee waived…plus I have had people on numerous occasions call ahead and ask if they can bring a bottle, the hostess says “sure, as long as it is not a bottle from our list” and they showed up with 3 magnums of the cheapest wine imaginable..it was embarrassing that people around them thought I served that stuff!!

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Power lunching Vegas-style

Faster than a speeding paella! More powerful than a locavore! Able to leap small frog legs in a single bound! (Look, up in the Las Vegas Business Press —  in an article in the current issue by Valerie Miller —  It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s ELV!)

 http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2008/08/26/business_life/iq_23419153.txt

…Yes it’s ELV … strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal carnivores!  ELV … who can change the course of mighty rivers (of good wine by drinking it), bend steak in his bare hands, and who, disguised as John Curtas, mild-mannered attorney for a great international law firm (Armstrong Teasdale), fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and a great Caesar’s Salad!

Actually, we were interviewed for the article about the top power-lunching/deal making restaurants in town. And lest you think ELV endorses Starbuck’s, please be advised (ELV loves sounding like a lawyer) that my occasional morning meeting there should not, under any circumstances, be interpreted as me actually liking the pathetic pastries and bitter brews of those franchises….

And BTW: that handsome devil in the picture with me is my partner, uber-attorney Bruce Leslie. Truth be told, he really was doing a deal during the photo shoot, whilst yours truly was working on a KNPR script.

Esquire Magazine’s Top 20 Steaks + Unnatural thoughts on the Wagyu

We at ELV are omnivores in the purest sense of the word. But our time as beef eaters may be coming to an end, if the soothsayers at Esquire Magazine (among them our pal John Mariani) are to be believed.

And no matter what your opinion of meat eating — this article by Tom Junod (in the current issue) will make you reconsider what you think about consuming beef cattle — especially the super premium ones.* In it, Junod compares the funkiness of an aged, American Wagyu porterhouse to a French whore’s armpit.

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