See you Tuesday

Enjoy the long weekend whether you're in Wilmington or Dover or Rehoboth Beach or Stone Harbor, N.J., or somewhere out-of-sight cool and relaxing. (Summer isn't officially over until autumn begins Sept. 23, but doesn't it already feel done, over, out?)

We'll be back with new posts on Tuesday. So eat and drink something delightful this weekend and be prepared to tell me all about it. That's your homework. No crying about the homework. Look, summer is deader than Lindsay Lohan's career, okay? Move on already. Geez.

Reader mail

Reader mail returns! Send in your queries. We run your thoughts and our answers every Friday.

QUESTION: We had our wedding rehearsal at the Chadds Ford Inn 20 years ago. We went back for our 5-, 10- and 15-year anniversary. We wanted to try the new Brandywine Prime, but have heard some negative reports from some people that went to it right after it opened. They said the service was very bad, it was overpriced, and they did not like the decor. The food was ok. What is it like now? Any suggestions for some other special place? We love Dilworthtown Inn. I heard of someplace (Gilmores?) in West Chester, and another (Sedona?)in Kennett. Thanks, Bob.

ANSWER: Bob, first off, congratulations on the anniversary. I heard the same rumblings about Brandywine Prime soon after it opened. (I also remember, during the winter, it was very cold inside the restaurant.) I believe many of the problems have been addressed. Some restaurants stumble out of the starting gate and have a hard time recovering. But Brandywine Prime owners Dan Butler (Toscana Kitchen + Bar and Deep Blue), Mike Majewski and Paul Bouchard are all dedicated restaurant guys who care about quality and listen to customer feedback. I had a meal there (ceviche, calamari and dry aged ribeye with exotic mushrooms) and really enjoyed it -the wine list also is definitely worth paging through. My one quibble: the young wait staff seemed pretty green. In an April 20 review, Eric Ruth wrote "servers may not always be there when you want them (my companion's draft beer is presumably still en route), and the food isn't always pushing the envelope as hard as it might, but Brandywine Prime nonetheless stands as one of the most significant, appealing additions to upscale regional dining in years. He gave it three stars (very good.)
Gilmore's is a completely different dining experience. Owner Peter Gilmore is an alum of Le Bec-Fin and brings a French sensibility to his cozy 35-seat West Chester BYO restaurant, located in a townhouse at 133 E. Gay St. I love this restaurant, especially for a special occasion. (If you go, get the "candy apple mousse" - if it's still on the menu. The kitchen creates a candy apple sugar sculpture and fills it with chocolate mousse. It's a work of art.) Don't know Sedona - maybe you mean Savona, 100 Old Gulph Road, Gulph Mills, Pa.; (610) 520-1200? This French/Italian restaurant gets raves. Haven't been. But here's the web site, www.savonarestaurant.com. Or maybe you want to give the Fair Hill Inn a shot? What about The Orchard, a BYO in Kennett Square?

QUESTION: My wife and I retired to the Lewes area 2 years ago and have given up hope of finding good Italian restaurants in Sussex. We tried at least 6 different places. Two of which turned out to be not bad the first visit. We always go back to see if they can replicate themselves. Unfortunately, they just can't do it. Two phrases that seems never to be heard by them is 'Al Dente". The pastas are served overcooked to the point of mushiness. The other word is spices. The sauces are bland and tasteless and generally seem to be heated up out of the can. No garlic taste, no taste of basil, no oregano.....Nothing. It seems we have to wait until we go back to New York to have good Italian food. So my question to you is; Do you know of any reasonably good Italian Restaurants in Sussex? I'd be willing to bet if you have we have tried them..... Thanks for any info you can provide. Lost without our Italian food-Joe Roche Milton DE
ANSWER: Joe, your letter reminds me of an email I once received from a wonderfully witty colleague who lives in Kent County. He said "down this way, most people probably think Al Dente is some guy from 'The Sopranos.'"
"Italian" food is so diverse. Southern Italian is more tomatoes and garlic; it's so different than the "Italian" food served in the Veneto region. Go to Trieste and you'll get pork and sauerkraut, which is considered Italian. I could go on and on. I'm a student of Italian cuisine and travel and eat around the country every fall.
Have you tried La Rosa Negra in Lewes? Or maybe Ristorante Zebra, 32 Lake Ave., Rehoboth; 226-1160? There's DiFebo's in Bethany Beach and Adriatico in Midway and Rehoboth. Or perhaps, if you want to drive a bit, Tutti Gusti in Ocean City, Md.?

Crabby

Does slacking off one day from the blog make me a slogger? Sorry, faithful readers, busy days at the NJ and my partner in crime, the always eloquent Eric Ruth, is on vacation this week. I'm sure he's doing some major investigative food journalism which hopefully involves a beach and a frosty beverage.

So, did you read Molly Murray's story today about crabbing? Somehow, I've let the whole summer go by without once picking hardshell crabs in a crab shack.

How did this happen? I love the smell of Old Bay in the morning. Life doesn't get any better than sitting at table wrapped in brown paper and picking steaming hot crabs until your fingers are covered with little cuts and burn from all the salty, spicy seasoning. Heck, I don't even mind, much, the greenish yellow mustard (crab fat). And I know better than to eat the devil fingers (the spongy and unedible gills.)

My favorite side order with crabs? More crabs, please.

And washing it all down with an icy cold draft, or two, or three, is pure heaven. (Did you notice that the great crab houses always seem to have country music playing?)

Regular mallet tappers know that the best crabs - i.e. the fattest, heaviest crabs - can always be found in September. This weekend, I'm determined to gather the gang and feast on crabs.

Let the shells go a flyin'!

Where should we go? My heart usually belongs to Lazy Susan's in Lewes or The Tap Room in Chesapeake City, Md. The Hill Top off Pa. 41 near Avondale, Pa., will do in a pinch as will Lestardo's in New Castle. Kelly's Tavern in Port Penn is another favorite haunt, though you can't bring your kids there. They only have a bar license. Haven't been to Boondocks or Sambo's Tavern - another no kid establishment- both in Leipsic, in a few years. Still worth a visit?

Spill your secrets. What is the best crabhouse around?

Comment, comment, comment.

Welcome to Ramsay's hell

Gordon Ramsay is the kind of pithy, quote spewing chef that food journalists pray to interview. The "Hell's Kitchen" host and potty mouth chef gives his opinion about an upcoming $1 million lawsuit. (A restaurateur isn't happy about an upcoming episode of Ramsay's new series "Kitchen Nightmares.")

"[The plaintiff] is a man who got very scared and very embarrassed about his lack of professionalism.... We were issued a writ because, God bless America, if the toilet paper is not thick enough and you come out with a rash on your ass [you get sued]," Ramsay said.

Gold, people, gold.

Bourdain in Cleveland with a Wilmington connection

Got home late last night and missed the beginning of "No Reservations." (Some day, I'll remember to set the DVR.) Aside from "Top Chef," this is my favorite TV show - ever. (It's on at 10 p.m. Mondays on the Travel Channel) "No Reservations" is a travel/food show hosted by the fabulously witty Anthony Bourdain. Last night, Bourdain visited Cleveland. He broke bread with Harvey Pekar, best known for his autobiographical slice-of-life comic book series "American Splendor", and his wife Joyce Brabner, who used to co-own a Wilmington, Del., comic store with, I believe, artist Tom Watkins. (What happened to Watkins? I thought his style was really original.) Scenes from "No Reservations" morphed into "American Splendor" illustrations. Very, very cool. No big surprise this series got an Emmy nomination. I've got to catch a re-run.

"You don't pull the mask off the ole Lone Ranger..."

Philadelphia magazine has published a photo of Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan.

LaBan is being sued by a restaurateur who objected to the reviewer's critical remarks about a "miserably tough and fatty" steak.

Philly mag editor Larry Platt doesn't see the big prob with pulling the mask off LaBan.

"This whole debate of his anonymity just smacks of so much self-importance," Platt says.

"Listen, the guy eats meals and writes about them. He's not Valerie Plame, okay?"

No freebie just a little sympathy

You can tell school is back in season, especially around the UD's Newark campus. Seasons Pizza on Main Street put up a sign reading "Woo hoo! Welcome back students" and the crowds returned to Main Street restaurants.
We dropped into Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant for dinner just before the crush of people. Iron Hill is always a reliable dining experience and the wait staff is friendly and usually polished. But, just a pet peeve, why don't they make the tables a little bigger or the apps plates a little smaller? We had a table of four and we were trying to share two appetizers - and the kid with us was eating a pizza - but there was barely any room on the table. We had to put salt shakers and other things on the floor.
When the food runner came out with plates for our appetizers, he dropped one on my mother. It hit her wrist bone and it hurt.
She gave out a "Ouch!" and the runner says, "Oh sorry. Want me to bring over a manager so you can get something free?"
Are you kidding me? What kind of reaction is that? To me, a more heartful apology is always nicer than a freebie, which, for the record, we didn't ask for or receive.

Dino dinner

I'm a sucker for any dinosaur tidbit and I love this one from National Geographic:

Today's top athletes would be no contest for meat-eating dinosaurs that ran on two feet, according to new computer simulations of how the extinct predators moved.

"Now I'm no slouch, I can run, but … I think I'd end up being lunch for T. rex," said Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Britain's University of Manchester.

Tyrannosaurus rex could reach a top speed of 18 miles an hour.

SIW, one last time

Food writers don't like to keep secrets. That was what I told a caller who complained that I spilled the beans on her favorite place by writing about H.G. Haskell's SIW Vegetable stand in Chadds Ford, Pa. She said that now it was being overrun with newcomers and she didn't like it one bit.

Oh well.....

I just went to the stand at lunchtime - wanted to pick up a variety of heirloom tomatoes and Claudio's fresh mozzarella cheese in brine to make caprese - and yep, there were a lot more cars than usual in the parking lot. You could tell the stand has been quite busy and the bins weren't as full as they usually are. But the refrigerator had plenty of cheese and homemade salsa. Darn, no Hawaiian heirlooms - that's one in the photo. A pretty good assortment of heirlooms, although not nearly as many as last week. The rain could be blamed...

One last time - this is how you get to the SIW stand. (Loyal regulars usually just call it "Haskell's") :

Take Del. 141 north, turn left on Del. route 100 (Montchanin Road) - follow the signs for Route 100 and STAY on Route 100 (After the first 2 miles, you'll have to turn LEFT to stay on MONTCHANIN RD / DE-100. Then, you'll cross into Pennsylvania. This is a winding "back" road. You'll travel on it for a while and you'll go pass Center Meeting Road. Route 100 eventually becomes Chadds Ford Road. Keep an eye out for the white SIW sign. It's on the right side of the roadway. There's a parking lot. The actually address for the stand is 4317 S. Creek Roadm Chadds Ford, Pa.

(If you keep following Route 100 you'll eventually come out onto U.S. 1 - directly across the old Chadds Ford Inn, which is now Brandywine Prime restaurant.)

The Big No

The Big Mac, the triple-decker burger that may have contributed to America's growing obesity epidemic, is turning 40. I'm not celebrating. Are you?