Author Archives: Robert

The Denomination of Punch and Friday Night Lights In 21st Century life, there aren’t too many settings in which punch is served. Today, punch is strictly a church party offering. Years ago my grandmother and her friends owned elaborately decorated sterling silver and crystal punch bowls. They were brought out at bridge clubs and sewingContinue reading “The Denomination of Punch and Friday Night Lights”

The Egg Man… Food suppliers are the ultimate behind-the-scenes partners of the restaurant business. In an industry where margins are sometimes as thin as a slice of prosciutto, a good food purveyor can mean the difference between a profitable year and a used restaurant-equipment auction. When building business relationships, the successful business owner looks forContinue reading “The Egg Man…”

PARK CITY, UTAH— Do Mormons eat breakfast? I’ve been in Utah for four days and still haven’t eaten a decent breakfast. Granted, this is a ski resort and everything is centered around getting everyone to the top of the mountain as quickly as possible. It is my opinion that it would be a much nicerContinue reading “The Search for a Decent Breakfast in Park City, Utah”

Las Vegas II LAS VEGAS- My friend Bud Holmes used to own a casino in this town. He told me that in the 1970s he and his partners came up with a novel idea: A 99-cent breakfast buffet. Some might wonder how any establishment could survive, much less thrive, serving a 99-cent breakfast. According toContinue reading “Las Vegas II”

Wise Men Say. LAS VEGAS- Greetings from the Glitter Gulch. I’m here on a business trip, my first visit here since 1993. Since then, celebrity chefs from all around the globe have opened branches of their famous eateries. I arrived at 1:30 a.m. last night ready to eat in as many of those restaurants asContinue reading “Wise Men Say.”

Besh at Bat My friend and chef, John Besh, from Restaurant August in New Orleans, was a recent guest on the Food Network’s cooking competition Iron Chef America. The following is an account of that competition with reverence to Ernest Lawrence Thayer. Besh at Bat The outlook wasn’t great, for young Chef Besh on thatContinue reading “Besh at Bat”

Larry Jackson I have written often of my favorite barbeque restaurant, Leatha’s, in Hattiesburg. It is one of the most unique restaurants on the planet. Not because the barbeque ribs are fall-of-the-bone tender, the sauce is sweet and inimitable, or the beef brisket is smoked to the core, but because of the people. So manyContinue reading “Larry Jackson”

Screaming Yellow Zonkers II A few weeks ago I wrote a column about one of my all-time favorite snack foods Screaming Yellow Zonkers. Until then, I thought that Screaming Yellow Zonkers had been relinquished to the junk-food trash heap of history. I hadn’t seen them on supermarket shelves in years and had resigned myself toContinue reading “Screaming Yellow Zonkers II”

Watershed How far will a man travel for a good piece of fried chicken? The answer: 383.75 miles. While attending a party in Atlanta last year, I was approached by numerous people on several separate occasions over the course of the evening. All asked one question: Have you been to Watershed? Some added …and haveContinue reading “Watershed”