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agreed

Best Twins game I've seen this year last night.

No such thing as a business that doesn't make a mistake, or have a technical glitch. Barbette's one of the best places in town, and I'll be going back soon.

Yes, it was an excellent baseball game last night. Santana was on! Perhaps this is the start of something good...

Knock on some Red Sox some more and they might start looking better.

Salmonella is a fact if life, unfortanatly. This could very well bankrupt the place, unless they have a hell of a war chest.

Or forgiving diners. They are still on my short list of places to get food.

Regarding KSTP -

I've learned that you never talk to the media - ever. They will say one thing to your face, and ask you certain questions that might be innocuous during an interview, but later they will take all of your answers/comments out of context to make the sexiest news report possible. Way back in 2001, the Pioneer Press did an article on a computer security convention I was at. One of the reporters interviewed me, and I gave him some intelligent comments about how computers, hacking, and general geekery are a real passion for a lot of people, how it wasn't about destruction or malice but just for intellectual stimulation... but in the paper I was quoted, "man, it's all about passion, man...", making me sound like an idiotic kid with no language skills. The rest of the article misquoted everyone at the show, and painted us as a bunch of idiots. However small this was in the grand scheme of things, it gave me a sour taste for the media that I still hold.

This is pretty much universal. Journalism is so slimy these days.

That's odd; I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and never have much trouble finding something to eat there. Of course, it's possible that I just get over-excited at the sight of more than one vegetarian option on a menu....

Does anyone else need to be reaffirmed that raindog66 doesn't like the Twins? or is it all of MLB?

He needs to change his name to OTP ... One Trick Pony.

Well said Mpls Simpleton!

Now get off your knees and fetch me a cocktail!

I'd work for the Pohlad's in a second. If they need a manservant to fly around the world and make cocktails I'm that manservant! I'll even be your food taste tester. "Oh no, this lobster thermador is substandard, I shall finish it for you while they bring out the truffled duck breast with thyme."

I'd like to know what the two girls at View thought they were getting themselves into when they agreed to let you sit at their table.

(Because it's a tactic I'd like to try myself)

"Does anyone else need to be reaffirmed that raindog66 doesn't like the Twins? or is it all of MLB?"

You don't have to like baseball. That's OK.

But he's openly hostile. That something else. But then he hints that he might watch it if the team were doing better.

The Twins have enough followers (they're not fans) like that. They're all over the place when they're winning.

Aaah vegetarians... will they ever win?

Luke, you're probably right. I only go there every month or two, so it probably just doesn't register with me. There are definitely places I go more often (e.g., Town Talk Diner, Ike's, Mission) and it feels like there are only a few options.

If Barbette is reopened by tonight, I'll stop by. I hear such good things about the fries. And I like a sparsely populated place better!

The fuckin' Twins.

This is all well and good but the article is over a year old and they Twins didn't end up on that site. I think the hold up in the Whole foods is that the condo that was supposed to be built on the top of it is lagging much like the Nicollet that is only 12% sold and a total of 30% reserved.

jderusha: I guess I see the kind of situation that happened to me again happen ALL THE TIME to others. I guess saying ALL journalists are slimy is inaccurate, but I think on the whole the "news" industry is just falling apart into the abyss of mindless fluff and sexy news.

But I still hold firm that I'm never talking to a news reporter again... Just not worth it. So many ways for them to make you look bad, and absolutely zero recourse unless you have a rock solid libel case.

Maybe in 10 years if the news cleans up its act will I change my mind, but with so many people like KSTP and Fox 9 around, it's just...ish.

Also, when I listen to what MPR reports, and then I see WCCO or KSTP or KARE or whatever, usually on accident, it's hilarious how sensationalist and negative the TV news networks are especially. They spend so much time on things that matter very little, and glaze over the more important news.

It makes me angry, actually. It makes the situation for simple folk who might not know they're being spoon-fed crap even worse, an endless cycle of mindless stupidity.

We don't need any more stupid people.

But I still hold firm that I'm never talking to a news reporter again... Just not worth it. So many ways for them to make you look bad, and absolutely zero recourse unless you have a rock solid libel case.

I see where you're coming from, Cary. But I think Jason (and others) will agree with me when I say that you make matters much worse when you refuse to work with the media. A "no comment" or a "refused to comment" is much more damning that virtually anything you can say. And in a situation where there's conflict -- a political race, a lawsuit, whatever -- letting the other side be the only voice is tantamount to suicide.

The trick is to think carefully in advance as to what you want to say. And if there's someone sticking a camera in your face, just say you need a few minutes and then you'll be ready to go on. Reporters just want a good story, and it's generally a hell of a lot better for all concerned to make your sources look good than smear them all over the airwaves. Of course, making people look like inbred morons is entertainment, but Fox really has that down to a science, so few bother competing anymore.

Vegetarianism is a luxury diet availble to the western world, much like "low fat" and atkins.

Not true. Vegetarianism makes appearances in the diets and lifestyles of MANY cultures, several of them third world. India, for example, has a long history and tradition of vegetarianism. The same goes for Japan, Shogun.

That said, I could never give up my seafood. Delicious fishies.

As much as I don't really like the food...

Bryant Lake Bowl has quite a few decent things that can be prepared Vegan.

As much as I don't really like the food...

Bryant Lake Bowl has quite a few decent things that can be prepared Vegan.

shogunmoon, you troll.

Anyway, for whole foods, Trotters on Cleaveland and Marshall is great for lunch and breakfast.

"What do you care if this guy doesn't eat meat?"

I can respect their choice but I think vegetarians do get ribbed a lot (couldn't resist the pun) because they become so dead serious and humorless about it. A small minority are pretty damned preachyt, too.

They end up a punching bag because of it.

I am a total troll ;)

I do think it is odd some of the practitioners of "sustainable/local/ect" do not always have many veg options. Seems to me that we are all sort of on the same team. (This is assuming vegetarianism chosen for ecological and cruelty reasons.) Places like Alma do have pretty awesome veg apps, but sometimes no entrees.

Part of the problem though is the aforementioned lack of vegetarians generally.

One trick that I know works- make a reservation, and tell them you are a veg, or ask if they can do something for a veg. Most decent local chefs will make sure they have something for you (besides another gosh darned portobello sandwich), and be prepared with mushroom stock or what-have-you.

I know it is an extra step, and doesn't help for on the fly descisions, but it DOES work for "that special night." (Don Saunders at Fugaise, for example, will do this.) I suppose though, a veg might want to give money mostly to those chefs that are a bit more proactive.

Thank god for Lucia Watson and the Brenda Langton- it's always the chics that get it right! Sustainable/organic AND veg friendly. It does surprise me that Barbette lacks veg items... it seems like that kinda place.

At any rate, I would rather spend an hour hanging out with several militant raw-vegen evangelists then spend 10 minutes watching network news.

(total troll)

Kim Bartmann, owner of Barbette's, also owns Bryant Lake Bowl, and she's a real gem. I'm sure she's completely busted up about this. But she has many fans who will come out in droves to make sure they bounch make in no time.

Spoon River, Brenda's new place next to the new Guthrie. Dara wrote about it. Matt posted it. Nobody commented. Has anyone been there yet?

So, how did you arrive at the decision to become a vegetarian?

I look forward to trying Spoon River. Brenda needed a new creative outlet...the menu @ Cafe Brenda has been the same for 15 years.

Jason, "soft launch" sounds like trying to have sex after downing 12 shots of whisky.

Hooray the Boston bat boy!

Hey Cary, this might seem like a personal attack, but please don't take it as such -- that's certainly not the intent.

But given that it was a reporter from my paper who soured you on journalism forever, I had to do a little research and find out what happened. So I looked up the story in our archive.

Indeed, you were quoted pretty much as you said you were -- "It's a passion, man. It's all about passion." -- but you're not really giving the whole context here.

The story was spot-news coverage of a hackers convention in St. Paul (in 2000, not 2001). And you weren't even addressed in the body of the story -- you had your photo taken and you were quoted in the cutline. It's entirely possible you didn't even speak to the reporter who wrote the story, it may have been the photographer. In general, a photo caption isn't the place you would typically find a whole lot of in-depth discourse. The "story" of a photo really is the photo itself, if that makes any sense.

Whatever the case, again, you weren't a subject in the actual story which -- and I suppose you could say I am biased here -- read to me as a pretty straightforward, if a bit cheeky, "scene setting" news piece. In very general terms, daily newspapers provide news and "slice-of-life" type pieces about the community at large, written for a general readership. And in those terms, the story was a great success in my eyes.

The reporter who wrote it covers tech issues and certainly knew what he was talking about, and went out of his way to humanize hackers and point out that -- unlike some people think -- the vast majority are pretty damn smart and are more concerned about making the computer world a better, not worse, place.

All of that said, you were upset. And that's a drag -- it's never a good thing for my industry to see someone from the general public (as opposed to a murderer or crooked politician or whatever) emerge from the experience of talking to a reporter feeling like they've been misrepresented or violated.

But when you paint an entire industry in such negative terms, it's really not fair. (And this is this is the point in my windy reply where I'm talking about some of the anti-MSM discussion here in the broader sense, and it's no longer aimed at Cary alone.)

Some people seem to have this idea that the mainstream media is inherently evil, but when it comes down to it, the media ultimately consists of a bunch of people who are your neighbors, friends and relatives. Yes, the bigger the newspaper/TV station is, the more likely it is to be owned by a major company (that's located outside of the area) but the newsrooms are filled with people who live and breathe the same air as everyone else. I've worked for a family-owned paper, and I've also worked for a paper owned by the largest newspaper company in the business. (Now I work for the second-largest chain, and in a few weeks it'll be the fourth-largest.) But in every case, the vast majority of decisions about how and what and why news is covered have been made on a local level, not from some faceless corporate office hundreds of miles away. Indeed, I might even say some of the heaviest handed decision making from above came from that family-owned newspaper.

And most of those people who make those decisions got into the business because, well, it's all about the passion, man. Very few people on the frontlines -- I'm talking about writers and editors -- ever get rich from working in the media. If they're lucky, they'll eventually get to a point where they make a comfortable living.

I can tell you personally, my first newsroom job after graduating from four years of college was as a part-time features clerk where I made $3.85 an hour. I made more money in my other part-time gig as a cashier/stockboy at a liquor store (and, ironically enough, I had a stricter dress code there as well). The first few years of my full-time employment, when I was a general-assignment arts and entertainment reporter and columnist, my salary was barely above that of a shift manager at a fast-food place. It's a similar story for smaller-market TV reporters. And radio people -- well, they usually are at the bottom of the media payscale, and they have the least amount of job security.

Many of the people in my journalism classes from college never even made it into media jobs in the first place, and throughout my career, I've been surrounded by co-workers who have left the industry because when it comes down to it, you really have to want to be a reporter. The hours can suck -- it's never a 9-5 job -- and it can be really difficult and draining and, at times, soul killing.

I kept at it because I really love what I do and, eventually, all that hard work started to pay off. I'm busier and work harder now than I have in my 12-year career, but I do it because I love it and I can't imagine doing anything else for a living. I would say the same about the majority of my colleagues and friends in the industry.

I'm not trying to get sympathy here -- that's not my intention at all. Just trying to shine a little light and maybe put a human face on this industry so many people get so angry about.

I had planned to go off on a whole 'nother tangent about how newspapers are totally different beasts from TV stations, as are commercial radio stations from public radio stations -- not to mention alt-weeklies and independent publications like The Rake and whatnot. They all serve different needs and, quite honestly, are often staffed by very different types of people with different goals. But I'm tired, and I've already blathered on too much. I'll just wrap up by saying I wish there were even more media outlets. The more voices out there, the better it is for everyone.

Oh, and the KSTP piece was pretty sleazy! But it is what it is -- one sleazy TV news report, not an indictment of an entire industry.

Ross: Well said. Thank you.

Barbette is open.

I got sick at Barbette in April and when I called the man or woman ( I couldn't tell...) was pretty rude and seemed to not want to even talk to me. The food is nothing special and the service is even *worse*.... Brenda's great places will be my new home. Especially after the Salmonella outbreak, I will not patronize that place anymore..... "Salmonella is a fact of life"?.... a preventable one that wasn't prevented