That’s a question that we don’t necessarily hear directly from restaurant clients, but we know it’s something that many restaurant owners ask themselves. In a recent New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/dining/30comp.html that addressed the issue, chefs are squawking a bit:

“No one can afford to give food away in this economy,” said Scott Conant, the chef and an owner of the Scarpetta restaurants in the meatpacking district and in Miami.”

We can understand why – when a writer comes in for dinner, either on their own or with a publicist, why shouldn’t they pay, just like a regular customer? They gets to eat delicious food!

We thought we’d offer up a mini-case study to demonstrate how a “free meal” might look from the writer’s perspective, and to highlight the potential long-term value that can come from this comped transaction.

One of our account managers brought a freelance food and lifestyle writer to a client’s restaurant. The writer was doing general research for a future article in a local magazine, and also wanted to get familiar with this restaurant in an effort to stay abreast of the scene at large.  The writer’s agenda was just discovery, nothing specific.

The next week, this writer got an assignment from The New York Times (to keep this anecdote anonymous, let’s say the topic was vegetarian lunches). Though the writer hadn’t been assigned the Times story at the time of their free meal, they now have our restaurant fresh in their mind and in fact, while there, they had gotten a chance to learn that the vegetarian lunch menu looked excellent. So who do you think will be one of the examples in the Times story?

But let’s be clear: with a serious writer, it’s never a case of quid pro quo. This writer is not including our restaurant in the article as thanks for the free meal. They’re including it because the restaurant is a perfect fit for the story. The reason they knows it’s a perfect fit is because they now have a fresh, first-hand experience as a reference.

And the reason the writer was able to get that experience was because the meal was comped. There are very few writers, if any, who can afford to pay full freight to eat and drink in all the places they need to know about. Bigger publications have dining budgets, so their writers generally don’t accept comps, which makes it even easier for everyone, but the freelance world isn’t so (and those dining budgets are shrinking, too).

So when a restaurant owner is authorizing that comp meal, they should remember that it’s not really a “free meal” to the writer, it’s a tool that lets them do their work.

Believe us, most freelancers would prefer NOT to be dining out on a Tuesday night with a publicist, turning a meal into a reporting session—even if the food is great. Sure, there may be a few genuine freeloaders in the world, but legitimate writers are out seeking information, not freebies. The writer is the advocate for their audience and they need to experience the same thing a paying customer will experience so they can write with authority. Whether that experience results in publicity for a restaurant in the short or long term, it’s always a good investment.

Help raise funds for the Gulf Coast with our friends @ Irving St. Kitchen! Chef Sarah Schafer will be roasting a pig from Carlton Farms (with all the fixings), Wine Director Nicole Burke organized a walk around Oregon Pinot noir tasting, there will be live blues and your (ALL inclusive) $35 ticket will help benefit the New Orleans Foundation’s Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund.  Not bad, eh?

Check out details below…

I confess!  The 4th of July is one my favorite holidays.  No, I’m not going to sew myself a homemade American flag dress, or sing the Star Spangled Banner out my apartment window for all of Northeast to hear.  For me, this holiday is about slowing down and being grateful – over a huge slab of ribs and a lot of laughs.

The last few 4th of July parties I’ve been to have lacked one thing, a great cocktail!  So this year I asked Brandon Wise, bartender at Irving St. Kitchen, for a delicious and easy-to-execute cocktail recipe that I can mix up on site (and impress my friends with, of course).

His answer:  Pimm’s Punch.  It’s a classic English summer recipe that’s perfect for a festive BBQ, or cocktail party, and can be done in larger batches – perfect!  Bonus, it’s a gin cocktail and I love gin.

Hey Britain, we don’t want your King, but we’ll sure keep your cocktail!  Check out Brandon’s recipe.

Pimm’s Punch from Brandon Wise of Portland’s Irving St. Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 parts Pimm’s No. 1 (Pimm’s is a gin based spirit that should be available at your local liquor store)

2 parts London Dry Gin

2 parts fresh lemonade

1 part soda water or seltzer

Seasonal fruit salad (Brandon likes to use strawberries, cucumber, lemon and mint, but says you can also use what’s fresh in the garden)

Directions

Mix ingredients together in punch bowl with ice and add your summer fruit salad.

Cool ice cube twist…

Another fun way to use seasonal produce is to take an empty plastic container (or any mold you have around the house), fill it with water and fresh fruit or herbs, and freeze it into a large ice block for the punch bowl.  Keep your eyes open at resale or antique shops for great bargains on vintage punch glasses and punch bowls.

Cocktail, check.

Ribs, not so much. Last year, I was asked to ‘man’ the grill, but was quickly booted back to the veggie station.  This year, I’d like to avoid that… so I asked Irving Street Kitchen’s Chef Sarah Schafer for three simple tips to achieve success on the grill.

Sarah Schafer’s Three BBQ Tips:

1. Injection, injection, injection. With the right combination the flavor cuts right to the bone.  When I inject my ribs I like to use a combination of onion, garlic, Tabasco and butter.

2. Moisture! – when smoking.  When the smoker is full of meat more moisture gets trapped creating more humidity and more tender meat.  You can also use a water pan to add more moisture to the environment.  I like to put ketchup in the smoker to create smoked ketchup.

3. Thighs before breasts.  When cooking chicken remember if separate cook thighs first.  If it is a half chicken, use indirect heat with the thighs pointed toward your fire. This will produce a more evenly cooked bird and a better tasting breast.

Happy 4th everyone!  May your cocktails be balanced, and your grill smokey!

God bless America.

Yes, it’s true.  In addition to running Watershed, Lisa also runs the coolest wine event in town.  Lisa founded the festival in 2004 to celebrate Oregon’s incredible independent craft winemakers – many of these guys do not have tasting rooms and all make fewer than 2500 cases of wine per year.  The Indie Wine Festival is modeled after the Sundance Film Festival (it’s the only juried wine festival out there) and is set up like a farmer’s market (you can buy direct from the winemakers while you have your fill of bites from PDX’s top chefs).  This is one ticket you won’t regret buying, so if you haven’t already, get to it!  The festival is THIS Saturday at the Bison Building.  Buy tickets here.

Last Friday, The Oregonian’s Sara Perry caught up with Lisa to chat Indie wine.  Check it out here and see below.

This was quite the curbside jerky delivery from The Country Cat!

Anyone want a piece?  I just may be willing to share.

What a glorious beginning to April! Today Watershed celebrated Martha Holmberg’s first day on the job as Editorial Director with a delicious lunch at Clyde Common.  Chef Chris DiMinno rocked it!  Martha and I split the broccoli rabe salad with a creamy lemon vinaigrette, pistachio, herbs and a poached egg, and the wild nettle pesto grilled cheese with fontina, walnuts and pub mustard.  Other highlights: fried chicken sandwich with braised collards and russian dresssing and the grilled shrimp sandwich with cabbage and calabrian chilli slaw and avocado.

We finished our meal with a trio of desserts prepared by Clyde’s pastry chef Danielle Pruette.  Wow, is all I have to say.  Photo should speak for itself…

Warm gooey chocolate cake with coffee-stewed dates and coconut cream, lemon merraigne, pineapple upside-down cake with Lindemans cheery beer ice cream and oat-nut streusel

On Monday, twelve wine professionals descended on downtown Portland.  Their mission: to taste through nearly 170 wines submitted by Oregon’s craft producers all vying for one of the 40 spaces available in the 2010 Portland Indie Wine & Food Festival.

Judges arrived to the Hotel Vintage Plaza at 9 a.m., but the day started at 7:30 a.m. for our incredible group of volunteers, all of whom brought professionalism and industry expertise to the team.  Volunteers were assigned a group of judges – three panels total – and they uncorked, poured, set flights and cleared like there was no tomorrow.  A true team effort!

We organized each judging panel to include one winemaker, writer, chef, sommelier or retailer and moderator to ensure a dynamic conversation about the wines.  We were also excited to host Herb Quady, of Quady North Winery, who came from Southern Oregon to audit judging, something we do every year for transparency.

Judges, see a complete list below, started the day tasting through none other than Oregon’s signature varietal, Pinot noir.  By 12:30 p.m., teeth were sufficiently red and lunch beckoned. Executive chef  John Eisenhart of Pazzo Ristorante prepared a palate cleansing pasta and fish lineup served in the Hotel Vintage Plaza’s Wine Room (sans the wine, of course), and at 1:30 p.m. volunteers and judges were back at it.  Zinfandel, Syrah, Pinot Gris, Rosé, Riesling, Chardonnay – it was quite the line up, but by 3:30 p.m. the three panels of judges successfully completed their task.

The Portland Indie Wine & Food Festival is the signature event of the Indie Wine Foundation, a non-profit devoted to supporting craft winemaking in Oregon.  As apart of the Indie Wine Foundation’s educational programing, we transcribe all the judges notes for each wine, and send them to the respective wineries (Anonymously!).  This professional feedback and critique offers wineries subjective tasting notes from some of the industries leading voices such as Alice Feiring, author and journalist, and Bernard Sun of Jean-Georges Management, LLC.

The forty wineries selected to pour at the 6th annual Portland Indie Wine & Food Festival will be announced April 2.  Please stay tuned.  From what we heard from the judges, it looks like 2010 will be yet another competitive year, with beautiful wines.

We are a completely volunteer run organization led by Lisa Donoughe of Watershed Communications and Catherine Healy of Flint Design Co.  It takes a village, and we couldn’t do this without the passionate people who volunteer their time.

Thank you volunteers and judges!

2010 Judges:

Michael Davies, winemaker, A to Z Wineworks

Alice Feiring, journalist and author

John Grochau, winemaker, GC Wines

Tim Kennedy, winemaker/president, Don Carlo Vineyard

Toni Ketrenos, wine buyer, New Seasons Market

Ted Loos, freelance wine writer, Town & Country and Sherman’s Travel

Claud Mann, chef of TBS’ Dinner & A Movie

Naomi Pomeroy, chef/owner, Beast

Jason Smith, director of wine, Bellagio, Las Vegas

Bernard “Bernie” Sun, corporate beverage director, Jean-Georges Management

Cathy Whims, chef/owner, Nostrana

Summer Wolff, wine broker, Sokolin, America’s Premier Fine Wine Merchant

I was delighted to receive a lunch delivery by two of my colleagues yesterday.  What it this you might ask?  Below are the Italian Cured Meat sub and Poblano Torta sandwiches from Bunk.  Lota and I split the two – definitely the way to go.

My vote goes to the Torta.  It was incredible!  What a difference provolone picante makes.

Yesterday, Portland’s own tea smith, aptly named Steve Smith, gave KOIN Keep it Local host Araksya an insiders look into his new tea line Steven Smith Teamaker.  Watch as Smith, founder of Stash Tea and Tazo Tea, takes viewers on a tour of the Smith Teamaker small batch facility and tasting room in Northwest Portland, where he shows Araksya how to blend (and slurp) tea.

Click here to view the segment.

One of the many perks of working in restaurant industry is getting cooking advice and recipes from the chefs themselves.

Last Sunday, while I was savoring my WT (biscuits dressed in sausage gravy and two fried eggs with potatoes) at The Country Cat with a friend, I casually mentioned my afternoon undertaking (baking a cherry pie) to Jackie Sappington, pastry chef and co-owner of The Cat.  ”You want my recipe?” she asked, to which I smiled and proclaimed, “YES!”  My master plan worked…

Now, those who know me know that baking is not really my thing – I’m more of a spontaneous cook.  In other words, I do not use measuring cups very often.  Yikes, I know.  So in this case, I need to give much credit to my roommate Ellie – baking master – whose careful measurements and dough rolling skills made our cherry pie even more delicious.

Photos below.  Jackie’s recipe soon to follow…