The World’s 50 Best Restaurants (2013)

Posted on by The Old Wolf

In 2010 I posted this over at Livejournal, but the The San Pellegrino list of the top 50 restaurants for 2013 is now available, so I thought it was worth posting here as well, with the appropriate update.

And hqiz, I still haven’t eaten at a single one of them. And probably couldn’t afford to.

The List

On the other hand, I have my own list of favorites. Decidedly less highbrow (with perhaps the exception of No. 12), but good, good eating. Note that with the exception of No. 1, there is no rank or hierarchy.

1. Piccolo Angolo, 621 Jane Street, New York City, NY

The best Italian food in New York, bar none.

2. Tommy’s Joynt, San Francisco, CA

Great buffalo barbecue, and beers from all over the world (not that I would know anything about that.)

3. Sabella & La Torre, San Francisco, CA

Wonderful seafood. I try to stop in every time I’m on the waterfront.

4. Phil’s BBQ, San Diego, CA

Barbecue to die for.

5. Settebello, Salt Lake City, UT

One of the few “Verace Pizza Napoletana” restaurants in Utah.

6. Eleven 11 Grille, Fishkill, NY

Run by some members of the family, great food in a nice atmosphere. Worth a visit any time.

7. The No Name Restaurant, Boston, MA

Good vittles at a reasonable price. I got scrod there.[1]

8. The Dish Cafe, Parkes, NSW, Australia

When I had their beef and burgundy meat pie, I died and went to heaven. You can see pictures here.

9. Antojito’s, Westley, CA

A nondescript hole in the wall off a nondescript freeway exit. Awesome mexican cuisine.

10. The refectory of Assumption Abbey, Richardton, ND

Dined here via the good graces of  a friend. A few more details and a recipe here.

11. Cha Non Thai Cafe, Salt Lake City, UT

Really good Thai food.

12. The Joshua Wilton House, Harrisonburg, VA

Very upscale. Until I cross-post here, you can read about my experience over at Livejournal.

In Memoriam

Restaurants that are no longer with us, but worthy of profound reverence for one reason or another:

1. Xochitl, New York City, NY

Xochitl Mexican Restaurant New York

This restaurant had authentic Mexican food and 7-alarm hot sauce before the bhut jolokia pepper had ever been bred.

2. La Fonda Del Sol, New York City, NY

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Tapas. That means a little food for a lot of money, but it was great fun, with flamboyant decoration.

La Fonda del Sol, 1960, Getty Images, Yale Joel
Interior of La Fonda Del Sol, Getty Images, Yale Joel
Interior of La Fonda Del Sol, New York City, 1960

3. Mama Leone’s, New York City, NY

Mamma leones2

Famous for 7-course meals of relatively average food, but in absolutely brobdingnagian quantities, the best analogy I’ve found today is Buca di Beppo – but even they don’t place these gargantuan wedges of cheese on your table and let you take them home. The restaurant was taken over by a large gastronomic conglomerate and promptly destroyed by the bean counters. Tragic.

4. The Proof of the Pudding, New York City, NY

This was Frank Valenza’s first 7-table restaurant of this name. I remember their duck à l’orange and the wall of bricks that you could sponsor.

5. Dër Ratskeller Pizza Shoppe, Salt Lake City, UT

Ratskeller Sign Large

You can read a full-blown post on this place. The best American style pizza I’ve ever had.

Edit: Done. You can read it here.

6. Ristorante Della Fontana, Salt Lake City, UT

Great Italian food, one of the more upscale Italian places in the city. Now a Japanese sushi joint.

7. Snelgrove’s Ice Cream Parlor, Salt Lake City, UT

655px-Another_view

Short of buying Håæœøgen Daðþz, or however they spell it nowadays, you couldn’t find better ice cream. Nothing beat a banana split with caramel cashew ice cream. The building is now just offices of some sort, but the sign is still there, tormenting those who remember it with great fondness.

8. The Tip Toe Inn, New York City, NY

Amazing potato pancakes (or latkes). I loved these with applesauce. 75¢, according to the menu:

9. Horn and Hardart Automats, New York City, NY

automat_f

I’ve mentioned these here. Also, in the same article, Prexy’s.

10. The Waverly Inn, Cheshire, CT

This was a restaurant de grand luxe in Cheshire – my mother used to take me here to eat during her annual visits to campus. There was also a burger joint and soda place called the Farm Shoppe – while it was not extraordinarily memorable, I recall it fondly because it was one of the few places off campus that we could go as seniors.

11. Schrafft’s, New York, NY

An upscale chain restaurant, mentioned in James Thurber’s “The Catbird Seat.” I remember eating there any number of times.

Eateries, some still here and some fondly remembered.

The Old Wolf is now hungry.

[1] That’s not the third-person pluperfect subjunctive, but rather the fish – which can refer to a specific type of fish, or whatever happened to be on special yesterday.

Piccadilly: You can’t go home again

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Back when I was working at Dër Ratskeller Pizza in Sugarhouse (a southern suburb of Salt Lake) in 1974 – more about this enterprise later –  just down the street from us at 780 East 2100 South was a little brown shack called Piccadilly Fish and Chips. Periodically we’d call them up and swap food – their employees invariably got tired of fish, and ours (rarely) were in the mood for something other than pizza.

Piccadilly Fish and Chips Logo

This little restaurant, one of several in Utah at the time, had the best fish and chips I have ever found in America, hands down.  I remember that when they were open, there was a neon sign that said ‘Now Frying.” In the 60’s, there were 10 locations; as of 2008, they were all gone.  An article in the Salt Lake Tribune, dated March 19, 2008, had this to say:

Salt Lake City’s Piccadilly Fish and Chips, the last surviving restaurant of the 39-year-old chain, will close in April, owner Allan Jones said Tuesday. “The food cost has gone up, and so have taxes and wages,” said Jones. Jones purchased the restaurant at 1446 S. State St. about 19 years ago when most of the other Piccadilly locations were closing.

Piccadilly, a Utah chain, had 10 locations in the 1960s, but they started closing in the 1980s, said Jones. The most recent Piccadilly closure was the Ogden restaurant, which closed in 1991, leaving Jones with the sole Piccadilly restaurant. The restaurant closed in May 2004 after the landlords at the former location at 780 E. 2100 South planned a renovation of the property that didn’t include Piccadilly. But, Jones reopened the restaurant at its current location in December 2004.

Jones said he has had a lot of feedback from longtime customers, who say they will miss the restaurant’s homemade clam chowder, jumbo shrimp and halibut. “Every week we have people come in who say they used to go to the other locations,” said Jones.

Jones has sold the building, but did not disclose the details of the transaction.

– Brianna Lange

I was heartbroken to find out that the restaurant was gone for good; very shortly after the restaurant had closed, I got to thinking about it and wondered if it still existed anywhere. I did a search, and Street View actually showed the restaurant on State Street.

New Piccadilly

I hastened down to the address, but sadly found only this:

Former Piccadilly's Restaurant

It was the end of an era, and I had missed it by only a few short months.

One review by “spumoni” at CitySearch read like this:

What a cozy shack. Staring at the counties of England on your way in is always fun. The fish is a little soft for my taste but the batter is good and stiff. Great chips and chowder and iced tea, and always a great deal. A little heavy, but every now and then who doesn’t want their entire lunch deep-fried? … They also have halibut and shrimp if you’re not into cod; chicken and egg rolls and stuff for people not into seafood at all. Equipped with Malt Vinegar and Lemon Juice at every table, you can almost feel the sea-wind hit the dark wooden walls outside.

Seriously, their fish and chips were divine, and their clam chowder was hard to equal. Sigh… I guess if I want good fish and chips I’ll have to spring for a ticket to London.

If anyone reading this has a picture of the old shack on 2100 South or an image of their menu, please let me know – I’d love to add them here.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[Edit: it’s really a tragedy when stores like this close down forever and their recipes are lost. People ought to post their secret formulas online, especially if they know they won’t ever be getting back into business. Just sayin’.]

The Hotline

Posted on by The Old Wolf

der-fernschreiber-der-hotline

Shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy White House installed a teletype hotline to be used as a direct link between the heads of Washington and Moscow. It was created on 20 June 1963, and announced to the public on 30 August of that same year.

This device was used for the first time during the 6 Day War of 1967, when Lyndon B. Johnson communicated with Soviet Premier Alexsei Kosygin. Leaders would type their messages in their native languages, and the received communications were then translated.

450px-Jimmy_Carter_Library_and_Museum_99

No, one of these was never used as part of the Kremlin hotline. This one was from the Carter era, probably part of the Defense Red Switch Network.

The teletype system was which was replaced by facsimile units in 1988. Since 2008 the Moscow–Washington hotline has been a secure computer link over which messages are exchanged by email.

The Old Wolf has spoken, and the NSA is listening.

Really Old Stuff

Posted on by The Old Wolf

image_1217-Jerusalem

 

This is a picture of a pottery fragment bearing what is believed to be the earliest alphabetical written text ever found in Jerusalem. See more at Sci News.com.

_68733943_warrenfieldart

 

Even older, the image above represents an artist’s conception of Warren Field in Scotland about 10,000 years ago, with material burning in one of several pits which comprise the world’s oldest calendar.

The world is so full of a number of things…

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Population: What’s your number?

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Population

The chart above is a screen capture from this BBC website, which allows you to calculate your approximate place in humanity’s march based on your birthdate. According to the supplementary explanation,

Both numbers have been calculated using UN Population Division figures. The first is an estimate of how many people were alive on your date of birth. It is one possible value based on global population figures and estimates of growth rates over time. Data before 1950 is less accurate than figures after that date. The second number includes calculations based on the methodology of scholar Carl Haub, who estimated how many people had been alive since 50,000 B.C. His calculation has been amended by the UN to include additional points in time.

What I find intriguing is that the population of the earth was estimated at being relatively stable between 1500 and 1750, at a level of 500,000,000 people. Naturally there is no way to empirically verify population figures for that time period, but this was the best shot based on Haub’s calculations (see the link above).

Five hundred million is a number that sticks in my mind – it’s the first declaration of the Georgia Guidestones:

  1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

Guidestone

The English face of the stones.

Georgia_guidestones

The stones showing the English and Russian faces.[1]

If you’ve never explored this arcane bit of Americana, it might be worth your while just to learn about them. Erected in June of 1979 by an unknown individual working under the name of R.C. Christian, the stones offer ten suggestions for the success of humanity:

  • Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
  • Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
  • Unite humanity with a living new language.
  • Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
  • Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
  • Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
  • Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
  • Balance personal rights with social duties.
  • Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
  • Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

While these are evidently the ideas of a single individual or perhaps a like-minded group, there is nothing in here that I could remotely take issue with. I especially like the idea of avoiding “petty laws and useless officials.” Naturally, no one advocates culling 93% of the world’s population, but it seems like a reasonable number to allow the Earth to regenerate its resources faster than they are consumed. At the rate we’re going, humanity will collapse under the weight of its burgeoning numbers before technology is developed sufficiently to sail in and save us all. It gives one pause.

Like Kryptos, another conundrum erected for the amusement and edification of mankind, someday we may know the full story behind the Georgia guidestones… but perhaps we won’t. Whatever the case, I think they stand as an interesting monument to one man’s desire to build a better world.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] One can see that the stones have been defaced by vandals, and then cleaned as well as possible. The Russian stone says “хуи вам мы хотим жить,” which appears to mean “You dicks, we want to live.” This, more than anything, stands as silent witness to the fact that we could certainly do without certain members of society. While everyone has a right to live, it is clear that as population increases, the percentage of people who fall into the edges of the bell curve increase proportionately as well.

bell_curve

 

The above bell curve is generic, and could be applied to just about any trait of society – intelligence, political spectrum, or whatnot. If we label the graph “humanity,” in the sense of how apt a person is to desire a world that works for everyone rather than just themselves, we can see that the number of jerks we have to deal with increases proportionately. Our schools would do well to balance academic education with social education.