memo#5

New York City College Of Technology, CUNY
Department of Hospitality Management

Janet Lefler Dining Room

Memorandum

To:Prof.Abreu
From:Malcolm Pendarvis
Date:March 6, 2018
R.E:N.Y Times Review #5

This week with Pete Wells brings us to a Pop-up restaurant that is now called Oxalis. A pop-up restaurant is a restaurant that just springs up in various locations, usually for one-night. It does not have a yelp review. This restaurant usually resided in Manhattan, where at some point they decided to take up a permanent location, after years of borrowing location spaces, with a fee, so after a while they decided to have a dinner with free tickets, and attracted investors that took a chance with them, and that’s how Oxalis came to being located in a former wine bar within site of the Brooklyn Museum.

Wells go on to described the food as “mild with a combination of focused coffee-and chicory cream sauce”. The meal price is reasonable for a four to six-course set menus ranging from 50$-60$. He describes the dish as starting off with pleasant bite size snacks, going on to potatoes that have been stewed in duck fat, then deep fried, which sounds amazing as an opener for the meal. However Wells described going back to Oxalis “as deja-vu in December, January, and February, when you are served some variation of scallops, duck, and yogurt. But then likes it as thought he dishes get a little stagnant they are still good.

The perpetual question comes, would I eat there? Yes as I like the creative process that the cooks do with ordinary ingredients to create something that is unique. Now Wells describe the interior “as a little dated, with the kitchen being a little off”, but despite that I will eat here as the biggest thing the service with the dated decor being offset by the lively wait staff who says expressions that you will hear when people talk to friends. Its warm, and inviting to the senses, making it a pleasure overall to eat here.

Providing Over 70 Years of Quality Service to the Hospitality Industry

memo #5

New York City Department of Technology, CUNY

Department of Hospitality Management

Janet Lefler Dining Room

 

MEMORANDUM

 

To: Professor Abreu, Dining Room Operations

From: Ananllely Segura

Date: March 6, 2019

RE: Pete Wells, A Beef Feast From Vietnam Gets a New York Showcase

Living in New York’s melting pot allows for many cultures to come together. Pete Wells shares how a New York based Vietnamese restaurant called “Madame Vo BBQ” does its best to show their culture and even add new elements to old traditions. As for environmental scenery inside the restaurant wells shares how it is more modern looking than your traditional Vietnamese restaurant. Wells also shares how Madame Vo BBQ shows upfront cooking methods like in your usual hibachi restaurant where the meat is cooked in the front of the house, in front of the guests. “New York City bureaucracy is unwelcoming to the tabletop charcoal grills seen in Hanoi, so an electric grill under a metal screen is embedded in each table“. Even though Madam Vo’s focus is on Vietnamese foods, trying things out of the norm or out of tradition such as a special sauce can be good for business, “an intoxicatingly good version of the pineapple-and-fermented anchovy sauce known as mam nem, and lastly a tamarind sauce, which suggests Madame Vo BBQ can follow or leap over Vietnamese tradition at will”. The owners Jimmy Ly and his wife Yen Vo offer more than one culture of food as well as incorporating the New York style into their atmosphere. Pete Wells states “They seem to be fluent not just in two languages but in two cultures, enabling them to serve dishes their families might recognize in a setting that outsiders might embrace”. Wells also shares the most popular beef theme Madam Vo BBQ has going on such as their sticky wings, “The wings at Madame Vo, sticky with caramel and fried garlic, are drive-straight-from-the-airport good”. Wells enjoys The oxtail congee, ” It frequently takes the form of a cloudy beef-and-rice soup…Everything about it is wonderful, even the scallion greens on top”. Lastly but not least is their boi tai chanh, “lean eye of round cut into thin pink sheets…fried shallots, raw red onions, chopped peanuts and slivers of fresh mint… Mr. Ly bathes the salad in tangerine-lime vinaigrette…splashes it with a bright-green, lemony pulp of fresh rau ram puréed in oil”. All the dishes are in someway out of the ordinary and pete wells addresses exactly which differences made on these dishes to make them their own mix of a Vietnamese and New York culture. 

 

Memo HW 5

New York City College of Technology, CUNY

Department of Hospitality Management

 

Janet Lefler Dining Room

                                                                                    MEMORANDUM

To: Professor Abreu, Director of Service

From: Jonathan Ortega, Student

Date: March 7, 2019

Re: Can a Pop-Up Settle Down Without Losing It Fizz?

                                                                                                                                                           

 

In the article that I read Pete Wells is going to be reviewing a pop-up place. He starts say how pop-ups are a fun place to eat and to have a good time. During the review he was talking about a Danish Chef Bo Bech who created a pop-up kitchen at Cosme in Manhattan, and that he is some ingredients that he was thought by farmers and Shelli fisher that happened to be from Virginia.  Pete Well goes on by saying that former pop-up Oxalis chef Nico Russell is a veteran of Daniel which is from New York. Wells claims that Russell has ducked through many series of restaurants that maybe would have given him the key.

Mr. Russell has sold some tickets on his Oxalis dinner, and he did good that a few investors were interested. And that is how he was able to have a place in Crown Heights and he opened in November in Brooklyn Museum. According to Well Mr. Russell has a vision for Oxalis, and it is the one behind the bistronomie movement in France and the followers from abroad carefully considered food served without the hoopla that drives up tabs. And he goes onto talk about dinner that is a reasonable price of $60. And how both the price and the understated cooking style reminded him of Contra, which opened with a five-course, $55 menu.

Pete wells starts to give advice on how the dining room could use some boost to make it look better. And he argues that the way the servers have been coached on their lines so far underlines the decorative stiffness. And that the servers are always trying to push a nonalcoholic beverage pairing for $20. Before ending the review, Wells said that sometimes he wondered whether it would get the air circulating if the bar popped up in the dining room, or vice versa. There’s probably some simple fix, or a series of them, that would give Oxalis some of its old sense of adventure. You can sense it lying there, waiting, when you taste that cajeta, those scallops, the fantastic little potato cakes.

Diamond Memo Post

New York City College of Technology, CUNY

Department of Hospitality Management

 

Janet Lefler Dining Room

 

MEMORANDUM

 

To: Professor Abreu, Director of Service

From: Diamond John

Date: 02/28/19

 

RE:Can a Pop-Up Settle Down Without Losing Its Fizz?

 

In this article, Pete Wells speaks about restaurant “Oxalis”. Oxalis once used to do pop-up shops and in this article Wells critiques how to upkeep the excitement now that the restaurant has settled down. We will discuss Wells thoughts on the restaurant, and my outlook on service and Oxalis itself.

 

Firstly Wells speaks about Oxalis’ excitement being a pop up shop. Oxalis’ pop ups would sell many tickets and Wells’ thinks it is due to guest feeling they are discovering a new experience and new flavors. Through a couple of ways Wells feels that Oxalis’ exciting feel might deteriorate. These include the bar, which is to the rear of the restaurant and completely separated. Finally the service seemed very rehearsed and try being that the servers used very dry phrases that didn’t sound natural. The dining area seemed to be very serious, in accordance with the servers spiels, and though that isn’t horrible, that is not what the owner is going for therefore the restaurant’s appearance needs more flavor.  On a brighter side Wells enjoyed the restaurant’s Non-Alcoholic beverages, wine list and, the menu. Dishes were seasonal, very nicely presented and, flavor shined through.

 

Overall I believe I wouldn’t go to this restaurant. The mood seems very serious and in Pete Wells words “Solemn”, almost too much for my liking. The prefix is also a bit pricey, but I might consider visiting on a special occasion. As far as service I would ask my staff to practice authenticity but proper word or phrase usages so that conversations don’t feel rehearsed. Wells gave Oxalis One star and according to his judgements, it is justified.

 

Providing Over 70 Years of Quality Service to the Hospitality Industry