nomadreader

The basics:  "Twenty-two, and knowing no one, Tess leaves home to begin her adult life in New York City. Thus begins a year that is both enchanting and punishing, in a low-level job at “the best restaurant in New York City.” Grueling hours and a steep culinary learning curve awaken her to the beauty of oysters, the finest Champagnes, the appellations of Burgundy. At the same time, she opens herself to friendships—and love—set against the backdrop of dive bars and late nights."--publisher My thoughts: I am not often a reader who makes much of first lines. I don't know if that's a trait unique to me, or a result that the first lines of books I read aren't remarkably good or bad. But when I started Sweetbitter , I read the first paragraph, put the book down, added it to my favorite passages, and texted it to Mr. Nomadreader: "You will develop a palate.  A palate is a spot on your tongue where you remember. Where you assign words to the textures of taste. ...

The basics: Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line  is Michael Gibney's memoir of sorts. It's a window into the world as a sous chef in a high-end Manhattan restaurant kitchen. As the title indicates, Gibney tells the story as though it's a single twenty-four hours. My thoughts: I spent many years working in restaurants, as a server and a bartender. I worked at chain restaurants and midscale local restaurants. Mr. Nomadreader and I met when we were both servers at Murphy's , a fabulous Atlanta neighborhood wine bar. Part of me still misses the restaurant life. I learned so much about food, wine, beer, and booze working in restaurants. I learned about cooking. I met fabulous people, both customers and my fellow workers. So while I'm always intrigued by books about the restaurant business, I've read enough clunkers to know I'm not the desired audience for books that shine a light on the business. Sous Chef  does shine a light on the restaurant business, particu...

The basics: Over Easy is a partially fictionalized graphic memoir of Mimi Pond's experience as an art student and diner waitress in Berkeley, California in the 1970's. My thoughts: I spent years working in restaurants. I never worked in a diner, but the wine bar in Atlanta where Mr. Nomadreader and I met, had an eight-hour brunch every Saturday and Sunday. Given my history (and Mr. Nomadreader's continued work) in the service industry, I'm drawn to books about the restaurant business. When I read Mimi Pond wrote a comic for Seventeen  in the 1990's, I immediately remembered her, and I also knew she wrote for The Simpsons . Over Easy  may be a debut graphic memoir, but she's an accomplished and experienced artist and author. Pond captures the essence of 1970's Berkeley well. I was eager to explore that world, and the level of detail helped me immerse myself in it quickly. She also captures the naivete of her former self well. As is still the case, resta...

The backstory: After reading and enjoying the first Stewart O'Nan novel I read, The Odds: A Love Story  ( my review ), I knew I wanted to read more of his work. When Ti at Book Chatter reviewed this one , it jumped to the top of my pile. The basics: It's the last night this Red Lobster next to a mall in Connecticut will be open. Christmas is a few days away, it's snowing heavily, and only five of the employees are coming with Manny, the general manager, as he transitions to assistant manager at the Olive Garden in nearby Bristol. My thoughts: I spent five years working full-time in restaurants and nearly as many working part-time in restaurants. Mr. Nomadreader and I met while we working at the same restaurant ( Murphy's , a winebar in Atlanta for those who are interested.) During my too-long stint in the corporate chain restaurant world, I managed to hold just about every job in the restaurant except, blessedly, the salad bar attendant. I didn't work in the Dar...

Welcome to Loving the Des Moines Life , my ongoing series of exploring my new hometown. Mr. Nomadreader and I had been hearing wonderful things about Alba, a restaurant in the East Village, so we decided to try it out on a Thursday night. A tasty summer martini! As usual, the first thing I want to explore at a restaurant is the wine list. Although Alba has their food menu (albeit an outdated one) on their website , they don't have their wine list. The wine list is long, but it's not terribly impressive. There are two major shortcomings. First, some of the price points are exorbitant. Of the wines I was familiar with, the lower-end wines tended to be 400 to 500% of the retail price. I balk at anything over 200%. The higher-end wines were priced appropriately. Even more odd to me were the prices of glasses. Typically, the maximum a bottle should cost is four times the glass price. At Alba, it was four times the glass price plus $2, which doesn't encourage diners to o...

Welcome to the first installment of my adventures around my new hometown of Des Moines! I'll bring you restaurant reviews, theater reviews, and re-caps of other cultural events as I explore and make myself at home here. Friday night, Mr. Nomadreader and I set out on our first Des Moines date night. We opted to have dinner at Proof , which overlooks Western Gateway Park. Proof is an interesting restaurant. It's open for lunch Monday through Friday. They only open for dinner on Friday nights, and they serve a $35 three-course meal with a different menu each week. There were three options each for the appetizer, entree and dessert. Thankfully, Mr. Nomadreader and I have remarkably similar taste in food (and almost everything, really), so we were able to enjoy two of the options for each course. Appetizers The heavenly gouda and garlic bisque For our appetizers, we opted for the gouda and spring garlic bisque, which ended up being my favorite dish of the evening. It wa...