W.A. Frost & Company, September 14, 2013

Her perspective: C

We had been here a couple of years ago and did their tasting menu - without the wine pairings - but it was FABULOUS, so for our anniversary dinner this year, we decided to do that again because it was so good last time when every dish had been so delicious and they spaced the courses perfectly.

We did the wine pairings this time (one course was a beer pairing) and they were off. They either did not compliment the dish at all or they only complimented only one part of the dish - which was disappointing. The cheese course had a beer pairing, which did not sit well in my stomach with the rest of the wines that were served.

So, course-by-course:

Amuse: House Cold Smoked Salmon with Pine Yogurt, Watercress, Citrus, Jalapeno, Radish
Pairing: La Marca, Prosecco, NV, Italy
This was the absolute best dish by far! The salmon was buttery and all the flavors just blended together perfectly. I just didn't think the wine enhanced the dish.

1st Course: Sweet Corn Soup with Crispy Glazed Pork Belly, Cherry Tomato, Avocado
Pairing: Rose, Chateau L'Ermitage, 2012, Rhone Valley, France
The pork belly was fantastic and the wine did compliment that. Also, the cherry tomatoes were very nice. The soup was underseasoned and you could not taste the avocado at all. The dish as a whole was just OK, but I could have made a meal from that pork belly.

2nd Course: Roasted Duck Breast with Rainbow Chard, Sweet Corn Polenta, Cherry-Black Pepper Gastrique
Pairing: Pinot Noir, Martin Ray, 2010, Russian River
Unfortunately, the best part of this dish was the Gastrique, except for the big piece of black pepper I got at one point that set my mouth on fire. The duck was too rare (not fully cooked to a rare temperature) so I could not taste duck. I felt like I was getting more corn soup with the polenta (too much corn) and the combination of the components did not compliment one another. The wine was just - there. It did nothing to enhance or compliment the dish.

3rd Course: Grilled Petite Filet Mignon with Potato-Parmesan Gratin, Summer Vegetables, Sherry Jus
Pairing: Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Creek, 2011 Paso Robles
The filet was cooked a perfect rare. We like our steaks at least medium rare, but ate it as prepared, hoping it would be a better flavor with the rest of the dish. Again, the components did not go together and it seemed as if the Summer Vegetables were just whatever they had left over from other dishes, rather than a well-thought-out part of the dish. The Jus was very tasty, though. This particular Cabernet was too heavy for Filet.

Cheese Course: Pleasant Ridge Reserve with Rhubarb Compote, Almond Granola, Micro Greens, Honey, Sesame Lavasch
Beer Pairing: Lonely Blonde, Fulton Brewing Co. Minneapolis, MN
The cheese was pretty good with a smoky flavor, but got lost when you started putting it together with other things on the plate. The Almond Granola and Micro Greens were scattered around the plate, which made it pretty, but not very conducive to eating them. The Honey was only there to keep the whole berries from moving around on the plate and did not add anything to the flavor of the dish. I have learned since that this particular cheese is being served by every Tom, Dick and Harry restaurant in the area, so it would have been nice to have something unique. The beer is an IPA, and, while I don't like hoppy beers, I tried it anyway. I couldn't even finish the small tasting glass of beer and definitely did not go with this dish at all. I would have been much happier with a nice Pinot Grigio or some sort of medium-dry white instead of beer with this dish.

Dessert Course: "Cheescake and Berries": Cheesecake Pudding, Glazed Berry Salad, Graham Cracker Pavlova, Strawberry Pate de Fruit
Pairing: Moscato di Asti, Vietti Cascinetta 2011, Piedmont, Italy
There's a reason the title is in quotes - because it wasn't actually cheesecake. The Cheesecake Pudding was just plopped on the plate and seemed like it was cheesecake that they didn't wait until it was fully set. William commented that it was like a "deconstructed" cheesecake. The berries were very good and fresh - the best part of the dish. While I always like anything "Asti", it did not help with the richness of the dessert, so I ate as much as I could (leaving half the cheesecake pudding, and not because I was full), then drank the wine down so that would be the last thing I tasted. It did go well with the berries, though.

Our server did check back after each course, but did so when both our mouths were full, so all we could do was nod. William had gotten a Coke at the start of the meal and, even though he wanted a refill, he was never asked for one or given the opportunity to ask for it himself. After dinner, I got a coffee and William got an Irish Coffee. His was at least a double-shot and all the sugar was at the bottom (not mixed in), he almost couldn't drink it. All the regular sugar packets in the caddy for my coffee had been wet at some point. I could break them in half and pointed that out to the server, who guessed they had been left out on the patio. Funny, the Spenda and Sugar In the Raw packets were just fine...

One other note: the portion sizes were considerably smaller than the last time we did this, but the prices stayed the same. We understand that food costs have gone up and we would rather have paid a little more for the same experience we had the last time we did this.

If we go back, it will be a long time, and we'll think long and hard before doing the tasting menu again.

We're still looking for that restaurant in the Cities with consistently good food and service. If you have suggestions, please let us know.

Which Wich - July 8, 2013

We decided to try this place on our way to a movie. You pick up a bag inside the door and mark your order on it. Bring that to the register where you pay, then wait for them to make your sandwich. The lady in front of us in line noticed that those making the sandwiches were touching the bags with their gloved hands after the customers have been touching all the bags which is very unsanitary.

We ended up waiting about 10 minutes for our sandwiches, and while mine was supposed to be turkey bacon ranch, there was no ranch dressing on the sandwich because I had not marked that on my bag. Regardless, neither sandwich was very tasty and it was quite expensive. Better to go to Subway for this kind of sandwich. It's cheaper, faster, and better tasting. Not to mention, more sanitary.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Umm... I've seen this before. Wasn't it called Star Trek? Where the lil' ship has to fight the big ship and win, David and Goliath style? Pretty sure I've seen that one already.

Long movie for how much entertainer value it has. When the hell did Kirk developed a Tony Stark anxiety complex??? Wholly out of character.

The opening to the movie was fun (first scenes). After that it became terribly predictable and to a degree increasingly difficult to watch and take seriously. After I figured out that it was going to be a big ship vs little ship battle again, I lost interest. 

Hey, movie people! If you're going to reuse a storyline in a new movie, be sure you do something different so it isn't so obvious.

Was the movie overall entertaining? Sure. Should you see it in the theater? Only if you feel a need to see it on a big screen. I'd do a matinee show regardless (which we did).

We're back!

After multiple issues, both on the internet connection and with the site host, we're back in business.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Marcus Rosemount Theater

Well, that was sufficiently disappointing.

We see two good-guy characters return from the first movie, and one of them dies 15 minutes into the film.

I'm not sure what the point of this film was. Honest.

Iron Man 3

Well, even with the new baby we were still able to get a few hours free last Sunday to go see a movie. Since I'm a big Marvel fan....

Let me begin this by saying that I'm overall rather disappointed. I ended up getting distracted by so many elements of the film that clash with the established Marvel history as I know it and so much so that there are still parts of the film that I don't recall actually watching.

The Mandarin. One of Stark's 'ultimate' foes from prior comics and cartoons; reduced to being a hired actor strung out on drugs? The Iron Man suits, the ones to take a huge beating in the first two movies and The Avengers, now so easily destroyed by a small missile?  Those same suits that are supposed to be powered by the arc reactor in Starks' chest now running without it? Not only running without but recharging from a car battery?? And the prototype suit that seems weaker than all the other suits (and in fact tends to fall apart apparently at the slightest touch)? Or that the Iron Patriot (aka rebranded War Machine) armor is simply taken even though it has (or at least did have) security measures in place to prevent exactly that? 

And since when can you instantly heat a hunk of metal to melting point? I'm not talking about the instances where a bad guy was heating up a suit to get someone to come out, I'm referring to the big fight scene at the end of the film where the bad guys are instantly, and I mean on contact, melting and punching through the different suits with zero lag time and bits of melted metal fall away. They were talking earlier in the film about the temp being 3000 degrees, though I have to admit I didn't catch whether that was Kelvin or Celsius or what, but even then, assuming Kelvin, that's 5000 degree F. It takes steel a couple seconds, literally, to heat up and melt at temps like that. Based on prior movies, the Iron Man suits are a bit tougher than that.  

It's getting really hard to suspend my disbelief on this one.

I tried to stay engaged throughout the film but found I kept wandering into and out of sleep and day dreams during the viewing. I hate to say it but I'll have to watch it again to get all the parts I missed (I'll wait for a Dollar theater to do that).

I fear for the future of the entire Phase 2 franchise based on this movie. Hopefully the next Thor and Captain America films will fair far better than this one. Many people are calling this the best Iron Man story yet, and many others are sounding just like me saying it couldn't have been much worse.

Ok, now, let's pretend for a second that these characters are a bit more real and talk frankly. Since when would Tony Stark build a suit, prototype or not, that was so seemingly flimsy and flawed? The Mark 42 armor had more bugs in it than Windows 98 when it was first released. Couldn't fly at first, then had no weapons (and yet some of them worked anyway....), and apparently had a few leaks in it. Remember the suit was starting to fill up with water even before Jarvis told Stark to take a deep breath. You can recharge the suit off a car battery? Whatever happened to powering the suits from the all-powerful arc reactor?? Also, minor side note, the Mk. 42 suits was sized to fit Tony. If you've been paying attention over the last couple years, you'd note that Pepper is a bit taller than Tony, and yet the armor fits her just fine?

Since when does Tony have to tell Jarvis NOT to target Pepper? Doesn't Jarvis know her already, and based on past behavior would likely point out that she was one of the Extremis targets before taking a shot at her?

Another thing; since when was Stark's home address a secret? Recall the film before this where he had a house full of guests for a birthday bash with catering, valet parking and such? How secret is that?

Something else kinda unrelated is that Tony apparently had a lot of time since the New York Incident to build a small army of armors. We got to see them all for about 10 minutes total. It would've been awful nice to see more of them, especially since he went to all that trouble of building them in the first place.

And now, after all that, Tony finally gets the surgery to remove the rest of the shrapnel from his chest, something he could've done a few years earlier had he really wanted to. And then he just chucks the old chest reactor into the ocean. For a guy was so terribly paranoid about folks getting his tech and using it against him, he seems to just be throwing it all around and leaving it lay about now.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that in this film, we see Pepper being Pepper like we'd expect. We see Happy being Happy like we'd expect. We see Tony do a near 180 degree flip on his personality which is so far removed from his character/personality as to be a little unsettling (recall he was held captive in a cave for months, tortured, threatened daily, that whole 'phoenix personification' thing). He came out of everything being even tougher than when he went in. Now, IM3 shows him having anxiety attacks and being, for lack of better phrasing, afraid of his shadow? When did this happen??

And, not a single mention or appearance by a SHIELD agent anywhere. You'd think with a threat like they made the Mandarin appear to be that SHIELD would at least be in the loop somewhere watching things.

And the Mandarin. I was so looking forward to the tech vs. magic fight.

For those that are unaware, and I'll put this simply and quickly so folks can understand, the Mandarin was just a guy, a regular joe, until he found/acquired the 10 rings. A-HA! You remember the 10 Rings? The terrorist group from the first film? As soon as I heard that mentioned in the first film I had visions of where everything was heading. Anyway, these rings were each a magical item in their own right, and each had a specific power or ability. For example, one could manipulate Time to a degree, another could heal, some had power over the basic elements and weather, etc. etc.  All ten of them together were a significant force to be reckoned with. The Mandarin himself, in some incarnations, was an anti-technology zealot which is why Stark was the perfect target. The two foes would battle back and forth, one trying to eradicate all technology from the planet (and thereby become the most powerful person and hence the new Ruler of the planet) and the other using every thing he could to prevent that and foil the evil plot.

So now out comes this movie, and the Mandarin is nothing of the sort, not at all even remotely like what we were expecting. And other than seeing the symbol of the 10 Rings terrorist group, there is no mention of them what-so-ever. We do get introduced to AIM though, and that was even a bit of a let down. AIM was always after Stark tech, to sell or reverse engineer and stuff. In the film, AIM was kind of a joke actually.

Remember back when Iron Man was flying and took a tank launched exploding sabot shell to the head? Plummeted to the ground and made a small crater at impact? Then crawled out, destroyed the tank with a small missile and proceeded on his merry way? Fast forward now to IM3 where the Mk. 42 armor gets hit by a truck and falls apart. Where a single medium missile destroys all the Suits from Mk. 1 to 7 (and by destroyed I mean blown into tiny little bits). Even the suit that took the exploding shell to the head disappeared in a puff of fire and smoke. Either that was one terribly powerful missile, or somebody wasn't doing their homework when they wrote this script.

I could go on and on here about all the things I saw as problems or issues or contradictions in this film, but I think you get the idea. This was a decently entertaining movie for the most part, even though I had trouble staying awake in a couple spots. But it just grates on me so much knowing some of the histroy of Stark and Iron Man and seeing it all flipped over and flattened on a pancake griddle set to high heat.

Lil' problem...

We have a newborn in the house. Our baby boy is going to take lots of attention, and prevent Maryanne and I from doing our jobs here. We'll try to poke the others a bit and get some action for you.