DINE BEAT : RESTAURANT NOTES DINERS' RIGHTS SPELLED OUT.Byline: - Larry Lipson, Daily News Restaurant Critic The Zagat Survey Zagat Survey (pronounced za-GAT)[1] was established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979 as a way to collect and correlate the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering New York City, the Zagats surveyed their friends. , America's best-selling restaurant guide, now has its own, just-launched Web site - www.zagat.com -that allows diners to vote for their favorite restaurants and submit their own reviews. It also has come up with a Diners' Bill of Rights. It includes the right to courtesy and generally good service starting with the taking of reservations, the right to be seated within 10 minutes of the reservation time, the right to cleanliness and freshness, the right to make special dietary requests, the right to send back unacceptable food and drink without charge, the right to sit in smoke-free and cellular phone-free areas, the right to bring wine in for a reasonable corkage cork·age n. A charge exacted at a restaurant for every bottle of liquor served that was not bought on the premises. corkage Noun a charge made at a restaurant for serving wine bought elsewhere fee, the right to complain directly to the manager, and the right to leave no tip if service is bad. And there's a space for a personal write-in right. Mine would be the right to be told before ordering if a wine on the list or a dish on the menu is no longer available. How times change Here's one of the incongruities of life in 1999: Starbucks recently raised its price of a cup of coffee to $1.65. And every Wednesday you can buy a hamburger at McDonald's for 29 cents. So that's how it is today - a burger costs only 29 cents while a cup of coffee could set you back $1.65. Wine Tour making a stop Fifty-five Sonoma County wineries Sonoma County wineries are the producers of wine located within Sonoma County, California, USA, generally part of the Sonoma County AVA.[1] Background will be pouring their wines at the Wine Tour fund-raiser for the Arthritis Foundation 4:30 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Provence at the Westlake Village Inn, 32001 Agoura Road, Westlake Village. Tickets ($40 advance, $50 at door): (805) 379-2960. Helping of hemp hemp, common name for a tall annual herb (Cannabis sativa) of the family Cannabinaceae, native to Asia but now widespread because of its formerly large-scale cultivation for the bast fiber (also called hemp) and for the drugs it yields. Give a chef enough rope and he'll make a hemp dinner. Using hemp seeds and hemp oil, chef Neal Fraser of Rix, 1413 Fifth St., Santa Monica, has put together a five-course, hemp-flavored meal ($55 per person) that will be served June 7-9. Are you ready for hemp-crusted scallops, hemp seed couscous cous·cous n. 1. A pasta of North African origin made of crushed and steamed semolina. 2. A North African dish consisting of pasta steamed with a meat and vegetable stew. , curried hemp oil and the like? For those interested in this culinary dalliance, reservations are now being taken. Call (310) 656-9688. Napkin notes Look for the new Mi Piace, in Calabasas at 4799 Commons Way - No. 3 in the mini-chain (others in Pasadena and Burbank) - to begin limited lunch and dinner service Monday. The Italian trattoria trat·to·ri·a n. pl. trat·to·ri·as or trat·to·ri·e An informal restaurant or tavern serving simple Italian dishes. [Italian, from trattore, host, from trattare plans to go ``full blast'' on June 1. Information and reservations: (818) 591-8822. . . . Monday is now bouillabaisse bouil·la·baisse n. 1. A highly seasoned stew made of several kinds of fish and shellfish. 2. A combination of various different, often incongruous elements: a bouillabaisse of special interests. night at Le Petit Bistro, 13360 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. The popular lobster, crab and seafood-crammed bowl with rouille Rouille (French, 'rust') is a sauce that consists of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and chile peppers. [1] It is served as a garnish with fish and fish soup, notably Bouillabaisse. Rouille is most often used in the cuisine of Provence. (spicy mayo sauce) served as a three-course, prix-fixe dinner comes with a fennel fennel, common name for several perennial herbs, genus Foeniculum vulgare of the family Umbelliferae (parsley family), related to dill. The strawlike foliage and the seeds are licorice-scented and are used (especially in Italian cooking) for flavoring. salad and four-berry fruit soup a la mode for dessert. Price is $19.95. Reservations: (818) 501-7999. . . . Lawry's top exec, Richard N. Frank, chairman of Lawry's Foods and son of the founder of Lawry's the Prime Rib, has been named recipient of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award by the California Restaurant Association. The award will be presented June 27 at a dinner at the Miramar Sheraton hotel in Santa Monica. . . . New policy at Charlie G's Prime Steakhouse, 18663 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, is the inclusion of either a large baked potato, portion of pasta or vegetable accompaniment with each main entree order. Reservations: (818) 344-1191. |
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