craftsmanship, consumerism, virtue, privilege, and quality

"Lauren Michele Jackson is a writer and PhD candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago."

you don't say

https://scontent.fbed1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/22365287_10212021943118593_4178892090444639246_n.jpg?oh=db49ebbc0c033f92510dfe9ac50e0420&oe=5A3F8AB7

so breezy, these tomatoes

who bakes cherries with honey

is there in fact any such thing as a honey baked cherry

There's at least one recipe, but it's more roasting.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/254592/honey-roasted-cherry-ricotta-tartine/

Garnet color and soft, crisp saline body makes it sound like a Neti pot after a bloody nose.

now why didn't i think of that!?

http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2017/10/17/california-restaurant-proudly-serves-popeyes-chicken-as-their-own-charges-13.html

don't know if this was noted on another thread. didn't really know where to put it either. the appropriation thread?

the reallocation of chicken thread? the outside chicken thread?

I feel like the whole artisanal craftsmanship blah thing might finally be on the wane as a marketing device, but maybe it's just that I live in a really boring neighborhood in Queens

I've always thought if I had a venue that needed to serve food as a condition of getting a beer/wine or full liquor license, I would do something like this rather than try to cook food. It would be curated (the best things from Trader Joe's, etc) at reasonable prices, and their source not hidden.

People have a gut reaction against that kind of markup situation, even though all food served in restaurants is marked up.

Usually, yes, but this would be a performance venue or even neighborhood bar situation where the attraction is definitely not the food. I'm thinking the $3.99 TJ's frozen ham and mushroom tart (which I love) being offered at say $7-8.

They'd get away with it if they announced it instead of hid it.

For a while, my local beer place included the take-out menus of several nearby restaurants in its drink menu, and encouraged people to have their food delivered to them at the bar.

there is a beer bar down the street (that doesn't serve food) and they encourage people to bring takeout to the bar or even get food delivered there! which i thought was nice of them.

x-post!

People kind of have a reaction against that sort of overt markup though, even though it's really no different than any other markup you pay in a restaurant. Paying $8 for a tart that cost the restaurant $3.99 to make = ok; paying $8 for a tart that cost TJ's $2 to make and was sold to the restaurant for $3.99 = not ok.

all the local brewery tap rooms have a rotation of food trucks that are there for the latter half of the week!

better than a jar of moldy eggs and a basket of soggy pretzels.

Was sort of surprised to see this company is still in business
https://floyddetroit.com/

OTOH they have branched out from just making "table legs" into making actual tables as well.

Like many Aviary drinks, the one called Science A.F. (ostensibly a reference to the microbiologist Alexander Fleming) is made at the table. A small blue flame compels Scotch and other ingredients in the lower chamber of a vacuum coffee maker to ascend to an upper chamber filled with fruit tea, as dry-ice fog carpets the table. This took about five minutes and produced something that tasted like the fruit punch that might be served at a convention for designated drivers.

On the other hand, I admired the balance and complexity of the Wake and Bake, a mutant rye manhattan made with coffee- and orange-flavored vermouth. What I can’t imagine ever loving is being asked by a server to stick my head inside the inflated plastic bag in which it is served, to see that it really did smell like an everything bagel. It did, but it was one of several moments when I felt like a parent helping the Aviary staff to complete a project for the science fair.

After a round or two, the alert drinker may become gun-shy. A friend I’d invited for lunch gamely sipped a Boom Goes the Dynamite, which had never cooled below tepid despite having fumed vigorously from the dry ice inside its laboratory flask. Leaving a third undrunk, she asked for a Bloody Mary.

“Our Bloody Mary is very unique,” our server said brightly. “It takes about 15, 20 minutes to make.”

“Is it served ... cold?” my friend asked, hope flickering weakly in her voice.

It was. A few minutes later, a relatively traditional Bloody was poured over many tiny ice marbles inside the bowl of what looked like a small spittoon. Around the spittoon’s broad brim were arranged five garnishes, or side dishes, or condiments, including chopped razor clam with celery sorbet and a little pillbox of horseradish jelly.

When we were alone again, she sighed and said, “I was hoping for a glass.” The Aviary’s Bloody Mary, by the way, costs $38.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/dining/grant-achatz-office-aviary-review.html?hpw&rref=food&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

things that could be a Portlandia sketch...

i went to the Aviary in Chicago and it was ridiculous in a good way! my wife had this:

https://assets.worldsbestbars.com/bar_425_320/Aviary%20small%202_54b4f577c5d8c.jpg

i'm onboard with elevated weirdness in food (if it's good.)

(*food and drink)

i doubt i will be going to any place that serves 40 dollar bloody marys but they are a hoot to read about!

actually, the lunch menu described in the review is not out of my price range.

"... and served in a man's hat."

"hand-made, small batch" plaid shirts

https://www.jc-rt.com

please kill me

those are ugly

they don't look ugly to me.

The restaurant thing reminds me of the Vespertine review in the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/food/jonathan-gold/la-fo-gold-vespertine-review-20170902-story.html

can you get a Plaid plaid, do you think?

https://www.1843magazine.com/features/crafting-a-life

man those are some long paragraphs

Craft paragraphs.

Does it mention how white-collar workers CAN flee their desks to become artisanal picklers, but other workers can't?

I mean, I haven't yet seen the tenderly written article about the Wal-Mart cashier who bravely left it all behind to become a candle-dipper.

opening a business is a luxury pursuit now. like instead of buying a supercar you decide to dip pickles.

So plaid

oh thats totally my pet peeve. Reading about the guy who started the awesome food cart who used to be in finance. Of course.

Yeah, "Oh, so you retired at age 38, how nice for you."

tbh there are always the Bar Rescue episodes where some old guy is like “I retired and sunk all my savings into this place!” and the floor is about to cave in

https://scontent.fbed1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/28166390_1937206333259676_2608775016509568454_n.jpg?_nc_eui2=v1%3AAeELwvwC0_EUXUo1eZ3PIYLCCD4Mq5IGgIJ71YYLOVtG-QoL1GnJ_xivVtmjUWvamoZLeZoCqM3sq0_i6BIi1_rQ3RV5d33BGudqb2IR7iI2Dw&oh=504054fab968f0ac68aa9bbd35767ca2&oe=5B1471C9

^
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8H9ISa0SpXCpzysmnLUypjY3cgx3rIUpZMMZcsKx6ORLcnI0r_A

plaid shirts

i love the picture of the two tailors in plaid shirts, with beards, measuring the man wearing a plaid shirt, with the beginnings of a beard, presumably to fit him for a fourth plaid shirt (not pictured)

I come from a long line of tailors. My grandfather was a tailor. My great grandfather was a tailor. My great great grandfather was a tailor. My father was an investment banker, and, prior to 2015, I had never held a needle and thread, let alone sat in front of a sewing machine. But after graduating from an expensive private college with a degree in comp lit and moving to Brooklyn, I realized that, while there were already dozens of neophyte "high-end" tailoring houses already in the market, none seemed to possess my unique specialness. With my heritage, my trust fund, and a year of private lessons, I founded Brooklyn Cephalopod Fine Shirtemaekers, Maekers of Fienee Shierts.

I started that paragraph hoping you were going to tell us how you took up sewing :(

Lock thread

lol man alive

My grandfather actually was a tailor in Brooklyn. Sadly, my father was not an investment banker and I have no trust fund.

A propos of nothing really but I really want to move to the country and slowly restore a whole houseful of woodwork by hand with qtips. There's definitely an appeal as compared to city life. How will I afford to eat while I strip 100 years of paint off a banister, you may ask? Hmmph. Good question.