Restaurants

Three Oxford residents search for the perfect burger

Submitted by Kristin Williams on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2:32 pm

Three Oxford locals are on the hunt for the perfect burger. Beth Ziegenhorn, Greg Earnest and Jillian Pecoraro have decided to crown the best burger in Oxford.

The search will consist of the three visiting every restaurant that has a burger on the menu excluding all fast-food. The group has already visited restaurants including Round Table on the Square and Proud Larry’s.

The burgers are scored in five categories including taste, style and price. While they hope the find the best burger in town they don't intend to wade through any complicated burgers. This group intends to stick to the basics with classic burgers and fries.

Not only has this group been testing Oxford’s best burgers, but they have also enlisted the help of some special guest judges to help them find the best fries and the greatest local vegetarian options.

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Restaurant inspection "hot spots"

Submitted by Andy Wise, Chief Consumer Investigator/Andy's Restaurant Scorecard

Monday, June 20th, 2011, 3:52pm

There's a reason why "pink slime in the ice machine" rears its ugly head so often on Memphis-Shelby County restaurant inspection reports.

The ice machine is one of the "hot spots" on a health department environmentalist's checklist, according to Tom Powell, a former Mid-South restaurateur.

"The mold on the door, no one likes to clean it, or many are unsure how to adequately clean it without chemically contaminating the ice,” Powell said.

That's not the first area that should be inspected, though, he said.

According to Powell, right after the front door, a health inspector should walk in the walk-in cooler.

“Boxes of fruit or produce that are left in the walk-in cooler are often forgotten if the stock is not rotated,” he said. “Then you have rotting produce in the cooler.”

Food temperatures are a "hot spot," too, for obvious reasons.

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Restaurant menus full of tricks

Submitted by Andy Wise, Chief Consumer Investigator/Andy's Restaurant Scorecard

Monday, May 23rd, 2011, 5:29pm

Think of a restaurant menu as a maze -- designed to wind not you, but your money out the exit.

Gregg Rapp is a Palm Springs, CA, menu "engineering" consultant. He has designed menus for everything from fancy Hong Kong hotels to your neighborhood Taco Bell.

Rapp told one of my trusted consumer resources, Bottom Line Secrets magazine, that restaurants regularly use sleight-of-hand in their menu lay-outs. Each trick, Rapp said, is designed to persuade customers to spend more.

"The human eye tends to go first to the upper right-hand corner of a page," Rapp told BLS. "That's where you can expect to find a menu's "stars" - restaurant lingo for popular entrees with the highest gross profit margins.

"The upper right-hand corner won't necessarily display the most expensive things on the menu, only the most profitable. That's because highlighting a costly porterhouse steak or lobster might scare customers away."

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More than a meal announced

Submitted by Tammy Phillips on Wednesday, May 4th, 11:43 am

Submitted by Greg Beltz

Oxford MS charity, More Than a Meal has announced a fundraising event with a focus on food; it’s called the Great Southern Classics Summer Series at Ravine.
The cuisines of three legendary southern eateries will be recreated on three separate evenings this summer to raise funds for More than a Meal. The first restaurant to be saluted in Uglesich's of New Orleans. The Uglesiches retired before Katrina, yet the food made famous at their historic restaurant, at 1238 Barrone, continues to garner press and awards, such as the RoadFood 2010 Blue Plate Award. Anthony & Gail Uglesich appear frequently on TV, and make special appearances to cook for events in New York, Washington DC, and New Orleans. They also have two cook books, and maintain a website (www.ugelsichs.com).

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3 chefs + 1 sommelier = good times for good cause

Submitted by Andy Wise, Chief Consumer Investigator/Andy's Restaurant Scorecard

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011, 1:00pm

3 chefs + 1 sommelier = good times for good cause

Three of the Mid-South's premier chefs join sommelier Shanna Flashka to offer a special 6-course meal Thursday, April 21, 6 p.m. at Ravine, 53 CR 321, to raise funds for Oxford's Community Choice Pantry.

Ravine Chef Joel Miller said the meal will celebrate and feature the food of local farmers. Miller will showcase his skills along with former L&M Chef John Stokes and Oxford's University Club Chef Paul Adair.

Each chef will command two of the courses. Flashka will pair each course with a wine. The chefs will present the courses to guests with comments from the farmers who raised the produce and ingredients.

Cost is $45 per person. Proceeds benefit the pantry, which feeds the needy and offers nutritional advice. For more information, please call Ravine at 662-234-4555.

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Top Chef serves up Big Bad Breakfast

Submitted by Krista Pennie Myers, News Producer

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011, 5:35pm

Top Chef Masters contestant Chef John Currence owns a number of restaurants in Oxford, Mississippi. This weekend I ate at Big Bad Breakfast. The menu offers breakfast like poached eggs with country ham and oatmeal pancakes with strawberries. It also offers lunch like burgers, griddle-fried hot dogs and Coca-Cola brined fried chicken. It's the perfect place to eat brunch.

Check out the full menu here: http://citygroceryonline.com/restaurant.php?bbb

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