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Of Mice, Men And A Little Restaurant Love

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By JEFF HOUCK | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2008

Been to your favorite restaurant lately? You might want to go soon. Goodness knows if it will be there tomorrow, what with the way eateries and chains have been closing and filing for bankruptcy. These are rough times.

Consider the news in recent weeks:

R.J. Gator's Florida Sea Grill and Bar's parent company, J&D Restaurant Holdings, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Tampa-based Shells Seafood Restaurants asked a judge to change the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to a Chapter 7.

Arigato Japanese Steak House, founded 30 years ago in the Tampa Bay area, was forced to seek bankruptcy court protection from creditors.

Even McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant company, had to change plans midstream. The company told some of its U.S. franchisees they would have to find other ways to finance restaurant improvements after Bank of America Corp. refused to increase lending so they can buy machines for such new menu items as espresso and lattes.

Add to this the Bennigan's/Steak & Ale debacle, and it puts a tidy bow on one of the worst summers for the restaurant industry. The year likely will be messier from a business standpoint as it rolls along and the credit crunch takes a bigger bite.

I know times are tight. High prices on everything have motivated all of us to cook more at home and to pay more attention to our purchases at the grocery store. But times are even tighter for your local restaurateur, who has seen profit margins shrink or vanish completely.

If you have a few extra bucks, pick your favorite eatery and plan a special night out for dinner. That way, the place you love will get your money directly. The trickle down of your visit will feed servers, bartenders, busboys, cooks, restaurant owners, delivery trucks, food providers and farmers.
Talk about an economic stimulus plan.

BOCUSE WRAP-UP
If you waded through all the copy I wrote about Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud and their efforts to boost the United States at next year's Bocuse d'Or culinary contest in Lyon, France, you know what a landmark moment this is for cooking in America.

But it wasn't until I saw the set-up at the Bocuse USA competition site at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival last weekend that I got a full grasp of how momentous the program was.

It's one thing to talk about big-shot chefs supporting the endeavor to find the best young chef in the United States. It's quite another to see legendary namesake chef Paul Bocuse hobnobbing with Keller, Boulud, Jean-George Vongerichten, Traci Des Jardins and dozens of other giants. It was like hanging out with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman at the Justice League.

Tampa Bay was well-represented, with New Port Richey-based Enodis supplying the four kitchen setups for teams to work in and Raphael Perrier and Jean Thibault of Kahwa coffee of St. Petersburg in attendance. Kahwa provides coffee for the Bocuse event in France.

Timothy Hollingsworth, a sous chef at Keller's restaurant The French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., took top honors along with his commis, Adina Guest, who serves in that capacity at the Laundry. They'll train for the next three months in a lab next to the restaurant that holds an exact replica of the kitchen they'll be working in at the Bocuse in Lyon.

For photos and video from the event, go online to my blog, The Stew, at www.tinyurl.com/TheStew.

MANY THANKS TO ALL
I just wanted to say thank you to all the readers who sent kind notes last week about the former Flavor section. Your appreciation is, well, much appreciated. Glad you could drop by here in the new digs for The Stew.

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