YumSugar

Yummy Links: From Weird Food Names to Bad Cooking Habits

YumSugar — Wed, 18 May 2011 11:20:43 PDT

The 25 weirdest food names, and what they sound like. - Bon Appétit
Could OpenTable face new competition from Google? - San Francisco Chronicle
Presenting Guilt Taste, Ruth Bourdain's parody of Gilt Taste. - Twitter
Just wondering: would you buy sushi from Walgreens? - Grub Street SF
Beware of exploding watermelons! - Guardian
Border patrol snags 385 pounds of contraband bologna. - Dallas News
Graduation gifts, sorted by college major. - Chow
Are chefs to blame for America's obesity epidemic? - Time
Bad cooking habits you should break. - Huffington Post Food

What Are the Hottest New Restaurants in Your Town?

Susannah Chen — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:29:32 PDT

Around 42,000 new restaurants open each year, and Spring seems to be award season for the ones that experience immediate success. This week, online reservations site OpenTable released a list of the nation's 10 hottest new restaurants, and they include everything from Stephanie Izard's Girl & the Goat in Chicago to Cleo in Los Angeles.

I was surprised to discover that no Bay Area establishments hit the top 10, despite OpenTable's strong San Francisco base. Still, it was fun to review it, then create my own mental list of the city's buzzed-about new restaurants. What, in your opinion, have been the most exciting openings in your town?

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Yummy Links: From Mike Tyson to Robert Downey Jr.

YumSugar — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:40:36 PST

Mike Tyson might be opening a kosher restaurant chain. - Eater
Caffeinated alcoholic drink Four Loko buckles to the pressure and goes decaf. - Atlantic Food
Why OpenTable is like iTunes, only worse. - Grub Street NY
KFC's bestselling Double Down has mysteriously disappeared in Canada. - Globe and Mail
NBC rolls out The Feast, another food site, in selected US cities. - The Feast
Portland, OR, is America's new food eden. - Time
Busting 15 food and cooking myths. - Huffington Post Food
Robert Downey Jr. is the new voice for Planters peanuts. - Serious Eats

Yummy Links: From Candy Corn to Pumpkin Dishes

YumSugar — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:30:44 PDT

Learn how to make candy corn from scratch. - Serious Eats
Take a visual tour through the Obamas' garden. - Feast
Meet AppleJack and Calvados, Fall's signature spirits. - The Atlantic
Is OpenTable worth it? - Inside Scoop SF
Find out what Iron Chef Jose Garces eats on a regular basis. - Grub Street Phillie
Combine vanilla beans and vodka and you'll get vanilla extract. - Eatocracy
How to deal with a drunken house guest. - Chow
Q and A with Mario Batali. - Eater NY
100 dishes that make use of pumpkin. - Endless Simmer

Is It OK For Restaurants to Cancel Unconfirmed Reservations?

YumSugar — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:09:11 PDT

To land a dinner time for two at Tyler Florence's new restaurant, Wayfare Tavern, I booked a month in advance through OpenTable. Two days before my reservation, I received a message asking me to reconfirm. Before I had a chance to call back, I received another. In a standoffish tone, the hostess said, "We are calling to confirm your reservation for tomorrow night. If we do not hear from you by 7 p.m. today, then your reservation will be canceled."

I was entirely taken aback by the threat. This is an issue that San Francisco critic Michael Bauer has already brought to light. But here are my two cents: hadn't I already confirmed my presence when I booked the reservation? What if I'd been out of the country until the day of and couldn't call back to confirm? A gentle reminder phone call would've been more apropos. And at the end of the day, there are too many good restaurants that don't require reservations for this redundancy to be necessary. What do you think?

Source: Flickr User joey.parsons

Yummy Links: From Leftover Pizza to Outdoor Dining in SF

partysugar — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:50:44 PDT

The best way to reheat leftover pizza. - Slice
Paula Deen has been robbed by her maid. - Huffington Post Food
The person behind Ruth Bourdain is still a mystery. - Wall Street Journal
Yelp has partnered with Opentable. - Eater
All salt is not created equal. - Chow
Is seaweed the new superfood? - The Epi-Log
The two Franks behind The Frankies Spuntino Cookbook discuss their dreams of being rock stars. - Feast
The best places to dine outdoors in San Francisco. - Grub Street SF

Checking Out a Restaurant on Yelp? Now You Can Make Reservations, Too

GeekSugar — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:15:02 PDT

If you're looking for a place to eat, Yelp is a great service, offering reviews, photos, recommendations, and even useful apps for checking out places on the go. Now, you can also make reservations straight from the site through a new partnership with reservations site OpenTable.

While users must have an account with Yelp (and be logged into it) to access the pop-up, you do not need to have an OpenTable account to make a reservation. Just use the site as you normally would to select the date, time, and size of your party, and click to reserve.

Open Table Adds Mobile Apps For the Palm Pre, BlackBerry

GeekSugar — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:43:59 PDT

The Open Table app for the iPhone has changed my mobile dining life, but even if you're not an iPhone user, you can now get in on this action.

Open Table has launched free mobile apps for both the Palm Pre and the BlackBerry!

Open Table jumped on the mobile trend early, and I'm glad to see them making their way into non-Apple app stores as well.

If you needed another excuse to spontaneously dine al fresco this Summer, I just gave it to you.

How Do You Make Reservations?

YumSugar — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:45:43 PDT

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal that reviewed online dining reservation applications prompted a discussion I had with PartySugar about the preferred method for booking reservations. If possible, I'll score a reservation online; it's convenient and sites such as OpenTable offer incentive points for doing so. Party, however, always prefers to book over the phone; she believes it's easier to get a reservation that way. I'm curious to know: how do you book your dinner reservations?

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Are You Willing to Hold Tables With Your Credit Card?

YumSugar — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:00:11 PST

The other day, I was on OpenTable to book a reservation at Range, a popular restaurant in San Francisco, and the online service prompted me to enter in my credit card number. It may not be the norm, but some restaurants - like Agave and Momofuku Ko - stand by this policy. Although it could seem risky to reveal a credit card number before any sort of purchase has been made, the practice seems to make sense for those restaurants who would have lost significant business due to no-shows.

What is your opinion on this issue? Are you willing to, or have you, plunked down your credit card number to secure a reservation?

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