Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

kalamatas are my personal favorites

no way - if i get poor service, i should be able to tip lower. i don't think i've ever had service so bad i've not tipped altogether, but i think it can be justified (though very, very rarely).

a reliable go-to mix is nice to have.

for a "real" pumpkin cupcake recipe, i recently made these and thought they weren't very complicated and very tasty http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/pumpkin-cupcakes/

there is something nice about her trying to make all 3 slices equal, so that there would be no fighting back at the office! however it may have been more polite (or just less weird) to ask if you minded if one of the slices had a little extra and offered to cut it down.

i agree completely on the southern tier pumpkin - too EXTREME! of a beer for my taste - and i thought their creme brulee beer was sweet! they do however, make an amazing chocolate beer that tastes just like chocolate.

fisherman's pumpkin stout is one of my favorites - not too pumpkin-y. i think it's the only pumpkin stout out there (?).

ithaca brewing also makes a nice pumpkin beer but i'm not sure if it's sold in bottles.

moldy foods get tossed, bananas become banana bread, other fruits/veggies get composted.

drinking one now. delicious!

maybe check out cube 63 - it's BYOB so that should help defray cost.

we've been making a lot of eggplant rollatini this summer

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/08/eggplant-rollatini-recipe.html

gummy cola or root beer bottles

a simple caprese salad

i ordered the burger for lunch a week ago. my only complaint was it was too large and unwiedly to eat so i cut it in half. bad move, it was incredibly unstable after that! otherwise i gobbled it up, despite my sloppiness.

wasn't a fan of the spaetzle. i'll admit i'm a bit of a purist, and thought it would have been better with less cheese. it wasn't even a mac-and-cheese consistency, more like a spaetzle soup. we didn't finish it (2 of us were sharing and it's not a large portion).

the update i've been waiting for! good luck to them on reopening. as an architect, my experience is that it almost always takes longer than expected to open a place or to renovate - there are often hidden surprises and delays.