Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I hadn't had Vernor's until I went to college in Michigan. I can't say I love it, though it's grown on me over the years. It is good for mixed drinks and for cooking (adds a great sweet/tangy note) so I often keep a few cans in the house.

I made the basic cranberry sauce and stuck it in the freezer already, so I know for sure that's a good one! :)

Haha, funny review. Somehow I don't think adult foodies are the target market for these balms though. :)

My husband recently got out of the restaurant industry after almost 10 years, and he and I still routinely dine out with Groupons. I am absolutely sympathetic to the restaurant perspective (and I know how thin their profit margins can be), but if they put out a deal I don't feel guilty for taking advantage of it. In fact, I generally take advantage of non-coupon deals too--I go to my local pizza place for 2-for-1 pizza and $5 burger nights, I take advantage of free or dirt-cheap happy hour specials, I frequent a local breakfast place that has a BOGO deal certain days of the week, etc. And often I spend money beyond those items, but sometimes I don't. Often I return to the restaurant, and sometimes I don't ever go there again. Of course I always tip at least 20% on the original price and I never ask for exceptions to any rules, but beyond that I don't feel any obligation to the restaurant's bottom line. Why should I? If the restaurant wanted to make sure customers ordered more food, they could certainly add that as a rule to the coupon. I don't routinely worry about other costs when dining, like whether the steak I'm ordering is "fair" to the restaurant since they're probably not making much money on the item. Why are coupons different?

Now, if a deal site is misleading businesses or not being upfront about the risks and opportunities, that's another issue. But I don't hear that from the post's author--sounds like it was simply an experiment that the owner decided was not worth repeating. I don't think there's any reason for customers that used the coupon to feel guilty. (Unless of course they're Ms Uttemeyer in which case they should feel ashamed of their behavior!)

I don't think 5 Guys is anything special. They opened a location down the street from a spectacular local burger place in my area and it is telling that there is a line out the door at the local place every weekend and 5 Guys is usually mostly empty. Unfortunately I live in the Midwest so no Shake Shack OR In-N-Out for me until I hop on a plane.

Eggs--scrambled with some green onion or sunny side up, served with thickly buttered toast. Comfort!

I agree that scheduling 2 hours for a 12 person dinner is probably a little on the tight side, but certainly not unreasonably so. But then the snowball of events happened that screwed it all up. I don't understand though why people are saying they didn't need to hold the table for you because you were late--if you were 15 minutes late and they say that deposit holds your table for 15 minutes, you should have had a table, right? (And while I wouldn't expect it, good customer service would be to even give a couple minutes grace period.) My husband worked in restaurants for a long time, and he says "no shows" or late parties are just some of the risks you assume if you decide to take reservations. The deposit isn't to make money if you don't show; it's to try to convince you it's worthwhile for you to show, that's all. I know lots of restaurants that won't even charge the deposit in the end, even if you blew them off.

So let's assume the restaurant did *want* to seat you promptly and really were ok with you being 15 minutes late, because they didn't have an incentive not to be. I am guessing they just plain screwed up. They mismanaged the table assignments, possibly the night's reservations too. Then--because of other factors such as your lateness, the configuration of the room, general busyness, whatever--they couldn't fix the mistake properly. And maybe because they were busy or even unprepared/incompetent, no one realized or took ownership of the fact that all these mistakes were made, especially on a group that was told they'd have to pay a deposit. (I think the deposit is the biggest sticking point--if they wanted you to guarantee you'd be there, they should guarantee a table that seats your whole party properly, plain and simple.) So while on a good night in a good restaurant, a manager or even the server would have understood the problem and worked to smooth it out or at least manage expectations, on this night in this restaurant no one did.

As for the service, I wouldn't necessarily call it "bad", but I would say "not proficient". A skilled server would have been honest about the time needed for various dishes and would have followed up more consistently when things weren't coming out on time. A skilled server and manager would have spotted the problem coming or even after it happened and done what they could to mitigate it. But again, the blame falls in various places--probably the kitchen staff who couldn't get dishes out on time, the poorly managed reservations for the night, your party for being a tiny bit late and not leaving much time to eat, etc. It was a perfect combo of factors that led to the unfortunate result of you all having to rush your dinner. I think you're right not calling the restaurant out, though, because it's not clear that it really was all their fault. (Though perhaps one could argue not attempting to smooth out the problem is their fault.)

Oh, the grilled Cider-Glazed Sweet Potatoes sound great. I might actually have to try those for dinner tonight!

Absolutely Bayless! Especially if the party was in his amazing garden.

Ribeye

Oooh, pumpkin cheesecake!

I have to give another vote for Lincoln Square, at least for everyday eating and drinking. We moved from there and now are regretting it!

I've canned jams and jellies, but I've not tried anything savory. Next on my list to try are tomatoes, and then who knows?