It’s a busy weekend. The 6th Annual Fredericksburg Oktoberfest put on by the Blue & Gray Brewing Company kicks off Friday evening and runs through Sunday. I plan to be there Friday evening. You can see the full event schedule here. On Saturday I’ll…

FREDERICKSBURG AREA FOOD BANK Participates in Inaugural Hunger Action MonthLocal food bank joins forces with Feeding America network to fight hunger in THE FREDERICKSBURG REGIONSeptember 8, 2008 – FREDERICKSBURG, VA – This September, FREDERICKSBUR…

And Dave is not happy, particularly when it comes out the McCain did not in fact rush back to Washington, but is doing an interview with Katie Couric at the exact time he should be on Letterman.

It’s that time of year and many brewers are releasing their wet, or fresh hopped beers. Rather than using the typical dried hops, the hops are used in the brewing process fresh from the harvest. I’m quite fond of these beers and enjoy very much the str…

Uh-oh. (Check out about 5 minutes in.)

This is an interesting article about how the iPod generation has impacted how music is recorded and mixed at the source. By recording louder to compensate for the crappy ear buds most people listen through, a lot of the detail in the music is lost. I do see this effect though. My older CD’s are […]

Long before reading Dr. Vino’s blog I have wondered about this subject. On several occasions I have visited restaurants with their Award of Excellence posted prominently by the door only to look at their wine lists and wonder what was excellent about it. Now it turns out that an intrepid blogger was able to get the Wine Spectator award with only a phone number and clumsy website.

If you decided to get a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for you restaurant wine list, what would you need? The answer according to Robin Goldstein is $250 and Microsoft Word. Restaurant not actually required. Goldstein, the author of The Wine Trials, has a posting up on a new web site describing how he invented a restaurant name, Osteria l’Intrepido, a riff on “fearless.” Then he typed up a menu (”a fun amalgamation of somewhat bumbling nouvelle-Italian recipes”), put together a wine list, and submitted both to Wine Spectator–along with the $250 fee. The list was approved and given an Award of Excellence.

Further, the author of the phony restaurant says:

It’s troubling, of course, that a restaurant that doesn’t exist could win an Award of Excellence. But it’s also troubling that the award doesn’t seem to be particularly tied to the quality of the wine list, even by Wine Spectator’s own standards. Although the main wine list that I submitted was made up of fairly standard Italian-focused selections, Osteria L’Intrepido’s “reserve wine list” was largely chosen from among the lowest-scoring Italian wines in Wine Spectator over the past 20 years.

As a restaurant owner this leaves me in a real quandary. The award does seem to impress people, and probably solidifies a restaurant as a wine destination in consumer’s minds. However without any sort of measurable standards the award is meaningless.
Thoughts?

All of a sudden, now that we’re on the verge of making a deal, John McCain drops himself in to make a deal. I really worry about this politicization of it.
“Frankly, we’re going to have to interrupt a negotiating session tomorrow [Thursday 9/25] between the Democrats and Republicans on a bill, where I think […]

An excellent post on the “S” word and the typical HSer reaction when challenged on the issue.
Not once have I seen or heard an expert explain WHY kids absolutely and unequivocally NEED regular activities with children their age. Never have I seen or heard anyone explain why children NEED social interaction with other children at […]