Last week I got to leave Buffalo-on-the-Charles to visit Austin, Texas and Amy’s Ice Creams.  The first two days were fabulous. Chocoberry ice cream at Amy’s!   Temperatures were in the fifties!  I got to wear my shorts but more importantly I got to inhale Austin’s very specific laid back atmosphere.  The first night I got the cheapest room at America’s hippest hotel, the San Jose.  It was as someone predicted a noisy room but in the morning when I went downstairs I was already at Jo’s coffee cafe with a few loud black birds and a bunch of enthusiastic early morning bicyclists.  Jo’s is just what you’d expect at America’s hippest hotel.  It is open to the elements.  We can’t do that in Central Square.  Jo’s has developed a NY Yankees strategy of buying up barista talent so two familiar faces from Davis Square’s Diesel Cafe were making the drinks.  They were excellent. I had a breakfast sausage from Elgin, Texas and was ready to work.  At the end of our labors we had a few hours before a business dinner so three of us drove around Austin looking for food trailers.  We found the South Austin Trailer Park  & Eatery on South First Street.  Torchy’s Tacos, Holy Cacao and Man Bites Dog.  All in one convenient location.  Travel & Leisure named Holy Cacao’s Hot Chocolate the best in the country.  They can’t lie about stuff like that.  We ordered enough food food for six people but we don’t get to South First Street as frequently as we should.  Man Bites Dog had an outstanding lamb sausage served with Greek yogurt.  We will happily steal this item and serve it this weekend as part of Breakfast@TheBigTable.  The tacos were wonderful.  But we couldn’t dawdle nor could we search for pork belly sliders or Gordough’s aistream donut shop.  Instead we went to my favorite restaurant Uchiko and ate crazy amounts of high end food that concluded with a challenging tobacco whiskey pastry.  Its hard to stay ahead in an information age.  TW Foods also offers the same idea but  Uchiko still had a corn medley consisting of corn sorbet, corn jelly and dehydrated corn something or other.  Good grief.

The next morning was unusually cold. No more shorts.    I walked over the Congress Ave. bridge, home to hundreds of thousands of bats that emerge at sunset.  While I was looking at a historic marker in the shape of Texas,  a runner stopped.  “Yesterday’s sunrise was amazing.”  He and I were happy with that day’s sunrise.  “There’s a sufi saying that the man who rises early owns the day.”  Then he resumed running, heading towards the Texas Capitol,  perhaps stopping to share his cosmic cowboy wisdom with other visitors.

Doug Quint owns New York’s  Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.

http://www.biggayicecreamtruck.com/

He is an ice cream celebrity, born in Maine and a working musician who was in Boston to play bassoon at a show at Cambridge’s American Repetory Theater.  He has a happy demeanor that is infectious.  Most of the people in the ice cream business, but not all, tend to be large and cheerful.  Endomorphs, happy walruses.  We talked about his soft-serve truck and Toscanini’s.  I love soft serve.   We talked about city inspectors and burdensome rules.  We talked about food costs which are going up again.  And we talked about customers.  Both of us have smart customers, but smart customers are still capable of doing silly things.  We have a customer who has offered to protect us from space invaders and he has customers who like cherry chocolate dip because their drug habits prompt sugar ravings.  His customers can’t find him with a GPS-enabled smart phone and our customers can’t tell if we’re open when they are standing in front of the cash register talking to a menacing person armed with an ice cream scoop.  We both look forward to spring.

Fr Ja 28
Korean movies at the HFA and Iranian films at the MFA.  Both countries have great film makers.
On Fr, The Brattle is showing good movies about “the kids.”  They will watch these on their iPhones.
For film buffs the best film might be Gerald Peary’s History of Film Criticism on Sa athe HFA.

Brattle
5P 930P
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
730PEasy A

Harvard Film Archive Korean movies
7P The Power of Kangwon Province
915P HaHaHa

MFA Festival of Iranian Films
545P There’s Nothing behind the Door
8P  There Are things You Don’t Know

Sa Ja 29  MFA Festival of Iranian Films
1P  There Are Things You Don’t Know
3P  White Meadows

Harvard Film Archives
7PM For the Love of Movies
Gerald Peary’s History of Film Criticism

Vertex exit would be mixed blessing for Cambridge

Boston Business Journal – by Craig M. Douglas

• Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 11:19am EST – Last Modified: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 1:33pm EST

Boston’s gain in potentially landing Vertex Pharmaceuticals as a new tenant would undoubtedly result in some short term pain for the drug maker’s litany of landlords in Cambridge. But that too will pass.

Monday’s news that Vertex has signed a letter of intent for a big chunk of office and lab space in South Boston was anticipated for years, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. Indeed, brokers have been bantering since 2008 about the company’s likely hop over to Joe Fallon’s sprawling mixed-use development known as Fan Pier.

But most of those discussions had Vertex leasing roughly 500,000 square feet. Things went quiet with the subsequent downturns in the economy and real estate market.

Now we have confirmation that an LOI is place for some 1 million square feet in two of Fallon’s buildings. The layout would rival the amount of space now occupied by Vertex in Cambridge, San Diego, California, Washington, D.C., Iowa, Canada and the United Kingdom, according to the company’s most-recent real estate breakdown.

In Cambridge, Vertex leased roughly 915,000 square feet in 11 facilities as of last year, according to regulatory filings. Those operations were somewhat evenly split between the city’s Kendall Square neighborhood and the Cambridgeport area south of Massachusetts Avenue. Those leases are set to expire over the next seven years and currently cost Vertex around $40 million in annual rental expenses.

David Townsend, a senior director and Cambridge broker for Cushman & Wakefield, said Vertex occupies around 10 percent of the city’s lab space and will undoubtedly dampen the market with a complete exodus to Boston. The short-term effect could be downward pressure on rents in some neighborhoods as well as a curtailing of some development slated for the next few years. “It’s certainly a big swing in vacancy.”

Nonetheless, Townsend said there’s likely a silver lining to the story as well. Cambridge has been downright frothy in recent months, especially around the Kendall Square area. Vertex’s exit could help restore some balance in that regard.

Likewise, the company’s smattering of smaller facilities in Cambridgeport, including its 109,000-square-foot headquarters at 130 Waverly St., are highly coveted by many of the region’s smaller, rapidly growing technology startups. Townsend said the news might enable a new wave of players to finally splash into some choice Cambridge spaces. “The reality is that Cambridge is still tight. Demand is there.”

Today is Tue Ja 25, 2011.  It is 30 degrees and the sun is with us until 449PM.  We’re open until 11PM.

We’re having a Chocolate Festival.  Andy and Chad have been laboring away in the ice cream kitchen making many of the too many chocolate ice cream flavors we have in our arsenal.  The flavors change whenever a tub is emptied, which means we may not have these flavors when you arrive.  At the moment we’re serving

Belgian Chocolate which is our most popular chocolate and our second most popular flavor.
Gianduia is a combination of chocolate and Nocciola, or hazelnut or praline paste
Cocoa Pudding is our darkest chocolate.
Mocha is chocolate and coffee together.
Agave Maria  is a new flavor made with chocolate, expensive cocoa and Agave.
Smoked Salty Chocolate is an example of the current craze for salty desserts
Belgian Chocolate Sorbet
Cocoa Rum Sorbet

And right now we’re serving these non-chocolate flavors.
French Vanilla
Buttered Popcorn
Rum Raisin
Sweet Cream
Buckeye (chocolate & peanut butter)
Lemon Khulfee
Nocciola or Hazelnut
Strawberry Balsamic
Espresso
Maple Walnut
Burnt Caramel
Grape Nut Raisin
Gren Tea
Brioche
Ginger
Hydrox Cookie
Marshmallow Fluff
Cookie Dough
Fresh Mint
Malted Vanilla
Mixed Berry
Bananas Foster (with Rum)
Wort

Later this week we will have
Chocolate No. 3, which is our other Dark Chocolate
Black Bottom is based on the pie recipe from Mississippi.  Chocolate Rum with Ginger Snaps.
Cocoa Rum Chip  is Chocolate, Rum and chocolate chip
Chocolate Sluggo is complicated.  It is Belgian Chocolate with chocolate chips and Cocoa Pudding with almonds and Hydrox cookies, plus a ribbon of chocolate ganache
Malted Chocolate  tastes a little like a Malted Milk Ball.

We had a big snowfall, an industrious response and temperatures warm enough to dry the streets and sidewalks.  Breakfast starts at 10AM and on Saturday goes to 2PM.  On Sunday we start the smaller menu at 10AM and end at 1PM.

We have kept Sophia’s yogurt from Belmont and the creamy egg sandwich.  We changed the bacon sandwich and the pancakes.  Same MEM Tea amd coffee from George Howell, Barismo and  Batdorf & Bronson from far away in Olympia WA.

WinterBreakfast@TheBigTable
Every Saturday 10AM to 2PM
and
Every Sunday 10Am to 1PM Breakfast@TheSmallTable:

Design Observer is always worth reading.  Here is a review of the new Eataly in NYC by famous designer Steven Heller.

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=23968

Steven Heller

My Big Fat Fast Food Feast at Eataly

The line for gelato stretched around the block

The Slow Food movement was founded in the Langhe district of Piedmont, Italy, in 1986 and has spread throughout the world as an alternative to you-know-what. In Torino, Italy, it is manifest in Eataly, a food emporium and eatery on Via Nizza just across the street from a massive Fiat factory turned cultural center and hotel. From the outside, Eataly looks like a typical big box store, but inside it is a veritable small town of gastronomic wonder with individual cafes and lunch counters each serving specific kinds of food, including meat at one, fish at another, etc. There are also classes for slow food adherents. A New York version of Eataly, started by Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, opened in 2010 in the 36,500 foot lobby space of the old Toy Building on Fifth Avenue near the Flatiron Building, quickly becoming a magnet for epicures, gluttons and everyone in between. It is also as crowded and chaotic as Times Square, which dissappointingly subverts the intent of the original.

Sightseers and diners mingle in Eataly’s 36,500 feet space
Slow food? While the products and produce are fabulous, Eataly New York is little more than an upscale fast food court. Of course, its better to eat healthy than the daily fare served at any of the industrial food chains, but there is a kind of unharmonic dissonance when good, slow food is comodofied on such a grotesque scale. And despite its spacial humungusness, people are sardined in the space, moving, milling and spilling. Why would anyone want to eat – slowly – in that environ?

Maybe it’s just a New York thing. Eataly in Torino was not without its crowds (among them tourists, of which I was one), but one could always find a seat for a leisurely and delicious meal. New York is so jam-packed that the other day, people waiting around the block for gelato were only allowed entry ten at a time. Gelato in winter? Eataly in Torino is brimming with artisanal food stuffs and local products, while in New York it is bursting at the seams. And it seems, Eataly New York suffers, not from a lack of quality (it would be perfect if not for the throngs), but from a misguided sense and aesthetic of grandeur as large as Mr. Batali and Ms. Bastianich. Perhaps in order for Eataly New York to be sustainable, it must sustain too many people all at once.

Batali and Bastianich burst with booty

New York has always been known for its crowded and trendy culinary establishments. Food has long been more than mere sustenance — it is art, culture and entertainment — and let’s not forget, status too. Food as accessory. Once, people shopped at convienice stores (or stores that were convienient), now consumers will go far out of their way, not just for bargains to places like Trader Joe’s or Fairway, but for status foods with exotic packages and exclusive sustainable pedigrees.

Eataly in Torino offers much the same things, but in a modest, natural away. Italy may have fast food, but the speed limit is considerably more restrained. Eataly in New York knows few restraints. Rather than a soothing experience, stress appears on the menu. The minute one walks through the door, leisurely dining is rare. Contemplative time at the fish, meat or pasta counter is impossible. Speed is the essence of the Eataly experience — Eatfastaly — because the speedier the traffic flow, the more people can be allowed in ten at a time, and get to the bigger, fatter, faster feast.

Right now, at 7P on Mo Ja 10, 2011 we have

French Vanilla

Belgian Chocolate

Rum Raisin

Chocolate Chip

Sweet Cream

Hydrox Cookie

Mocha

Nocciola

Cocoa Pudding

Espresso

Coconut

Maple Walnut

Mint Chocolate Chip

Burnt Caramel

Grape Nut

Aztec Chocolate

CBC Wort

Irish Cream

Earl Grey

Goat Cheese Brownie

Mint Hydrox Cookie

Chooclate Peanut Butter Banana

Blueberry Chestnut

Salty Saffron

Blackberry Lime

B3

Mixed Berry

Peppermint Stick

Heath Bar

Khulfee

Black Bottom

Strawberry

And since you have read all of this and may come to visit on a cold Monday in January , we also have a demitasse of Blood Orange Grand Marnier Granita for free if you ask

Thinking Cup sells Stumptown Coffee from Portland, OR.  Thinking Cup just opened at 165 Tremont Street facing Boston Common, by the Park St. station, near Avery Street.

http://www.thrillist.com/food/boston/ma/02111/downtown-crossing/the-thinking-cup_american_breakfast_coffee_date-spots_dessert_lunch_sandwiches

Blue State is from Rhode Island and they are at 957 Commonwealth Avenue near the Paradise and EMS.

Voltage is on 3rd Street, across from EVOO and ‘ZA.

Ride Studio sells expensive bicycles and coffee in Lexington Center and will soon be reborn.  Meantime Lexington residents can walk across the street to Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks or Peet’s.

Bourbon will open in the old Sears Building near Porter Square in Cambridge.  Soon no one else will remember the old Sears Building and I will describe the building as hosting a small collection of Japanese businesses, an attenuated Little Tokyo.

Another cafe will open on Broadway in Cambridge across from the Longfellow School.  Cambridge shuffles programs and renames buildings but the buildings themselves usually remain.  Right now the Longfellow houses first year high school students, who were known as freshmen when President Kennedy was elected.

And of course Starbucks is opening another coffee house in Harvard Square, across from the one in The Coop, and on the same block as the one in The Garage.  You can also go one on Broadway, another on Shepherd Street and the one on Church St.