Diners Without Frosted Tips has moved

Site Info | Written by Nathan Mattise

Exhibit A: Foie Gras Ice Cream Sandwich, foie gras ice cream on Oh, Ginger Snap cookies.

That… isn’t found in Syracuse, N.Y.

For the better part of the last six years, I called Syracuse home. It lead me to start this endeavor in 2009 after wrapping up my undergrad years. The area provided fertile grounds for other cool food media like SyracuseDiners.com, ToTs coverage, the Dead Diner Project and Barcode Magazine. However, like even the best of meals, sadly it had to come to end.

(No, not this blog – my time based in Syracuse)

This morning I hit my first proper diner in my current home of San Francisco, Ca. (and their airport had one inside so the local total is two).  With that, Diners Without Frosted Tips officially moved too. No longer will my links focus primarily be on CNY, though I did save a few CNY diner reviews to post for posterity’s sake.  My  month of silence featured wrapping up loose ends with school/work, securing a new job, then working out the kinks for a west coast transition. Now that’s all behind me and it’s time to eat again. Review of St. Francis Fountain up soon, props to the Humphry Slocumbe ice cream folks in the meantime. I’m coming for Secret Breakfast sometime soon.

 

Mobile Food Week Review: The Belgian Food Company (London, UK)

Review | Written and photographed by Nathan Mattise

Directions | Web site | Overall Rating: 3

Go ahead, laugh. I spent nine days in Europe, six of those in London, and my best UK food memory came from a little vendor outside the tube stop on Baker Street. The food they were pushing doesn’t qualify as a classic national dish.  The appearance of this place screamed chain as much as the Hagen-Daas folks selling crepes in France (though The Belgian Food Company is apparently London based with only two locations).  However, when a thrifty afternoon caused my girlfriend and I to opt for street food instead of a real lunch, this is what she craved.  She didn’t become a Sherlock Holmes adventurer in her temp neighborhood, but what a discovery.

Another theme week… Mobile Food

Site Info | Written by Nathan Mattise

All blogs love a good theme week.

Each year of our short existence we’ve done a Diner Week where there’s a daily featured review, spanning diners from across the country and culminating in a 5/5 review. Last year we showed our U.S. Futbol support with a week of diner reviews written in the form of patriotic songs. This time around things get a bit more practical.

It’s been about a year since I went to Europe for nine days and the local media is pushing something that reminds me of it every second. While I can get takeout at some diners, that’s nothing like having a true breakfast of mobile food.

This comes in a variety of forms: true street food, food trucks, grab-and-go counter places, etc. Each day we’ll revisit a mobile food experience from the past year and use the same scale as always with a few tweaks (ex: true mobility of the food) to put it in perspective. I’m not sure any of the locales can match the Boulangerie I had the pleasure of eating at in Giverny, France (below), but there’s only one way to find out.

The 2010 Best of Menu

Food Essay | Written by Nathan Mattise

It’s usually fun to do year-end lists, but here’s the one exception to the rule. All the Diners Without Frosted Tips Best-Of Menu does is make you hungry and upset that you can’t get this flavor daily. Alas, the world (or at least CNY) needs to know about these dishes for their own good.

Diner Week Critique: Rideau Inn B&B (…and Ottawa, ON)

Review | Written and photographed by Nathan Mattise

Directions | Web site

I had never been to a Bed & Breakfast before but I certainly felt equally comfortable with both parts. Beds have been a staple of my (and every other mid-20s human being’s) life for years with increased importance during college. Breakfast has become an increasing passion through the Diners Without Frosted Tips project.  Together, this concept couldn’t lose.

What made the Rideau Inn B&B even better was it’s location – Ottawa, ON. It’s cool in its own right to spend a weekend in Canada (yet another new experience) but I stumbled on something better. Ottawa may not have been featured in any Man V. Food,  [Food] Paradise or the like yet, but it’s definitely a food town. One hell of food town at that.