Random Taste for Thursday 1/18/18

Here we go again for the 3rd year ... a brand new set of tastes for 2018 ...

 here's the SECOND of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  Stone Crab & Seafood Festival
Location:  Ft Lauderdale
Meal:  Lunch
Drink:  Coca-Cola bottle (my own)
Appetizer:  Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with Corn Salsa and Remoulade Sauce
Main:  Tuna Platter
Side(s):  Yellow Rice (with a surprise piece of sausage hanging out in the pile)
Dessert:  Shaved Ice
Server:   Grille 401 Las Olas, SeaShore Seafood and Tikiz (app, main and dessert respectively)
Website:  https://www.goriverwalk.com/greater-fort-lauderdale-events/stone-crab-seafood-festival
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/events/594444477345974/?active_tab=discussion

Another weekend ... another festival (dare I say ... 2018 just may be the year of the festival when it comes to this blog series).  This time, the shindig was held downtown right on the riverfront in a park that holds many an event year round ... and it was packed.  Like too many people packed.  Like long long lines packed.  Like one errant human away from a riot packed.  Luckily, no riots broke out and the humans mostly behaved themselves ... but it was so poorly organized (or else so overwhelmingly attended) that I *almost* ditched it after showing up and seeing the scene in favor of the chalk festival a few blocks away -- except, full disclosure, I had attended that first and it only had three sad food trucks next to a homeless encampment that seemed to reprise the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression.  For a full tally as to how this festival fared in the Troy-score (and managed to set an all time new low rating), see below:

AMBIANCE:   9/10 (Esplanade Park, as a prominent feature on the Riverwalk, is a pleasant enough promenade most days for most things -- including other events we've attended there ... and despite the crowds, you still can't beat enjoying an outdoor festival in the middle of January right next to the beautiful water ... so long as you worked your way to the outer edges once you got your food, you could enjoy the scenery much better ... the one point deduction comes from the live music that was playing as it looked like they were two young girls who might have been made to perform against their will)

FOOD:           7/10 (although there's an underlying theme of disappointment in this post, I want to clearly state that THE highlight of the afternoon was, without a doubt or any hesitation on my part, that appetizer crab cake ... it was served fresh and hot with a nice crunch and that cold corn relish had a perfectly seasoned sauce that wasn't too kicky but still served to amplify each bite ... the points start to come off for the other parts of the meal -- a tuna steak, happily steaky and not flaky but that was barely warmed through and lacked any seasoning [-1], a lobster roll that looked delicious that I almost had from that same stand except they ran out serving the last one to someone just a few people in front of me in line [-1] and a self-serve shaved ice food truck with a sign that promised my very own gum ball at the bottom of my dessert that simply wasn't there [-1])

SERVICE:      3/10 (let's face it -- it was a tangled throng of people in lines, lines and more lines, with no guidance from any festival planners... so it seems only fair to deduct one point for each ten minute interval I spent patiently waiting to get a little closer to a vendor and its wares [for those of you who do not want to do the math, that was a full hour I spent waiting between two lines] plus a deduction for a bit of a bait and switch with the marketing saying there would be dishes for $5 implying a tasting opportunity that simply wasn't the case universally with all vendors)

BACON:         5/10 (I'm pretty sure I saw some bacon at the drunken oyster stand [a place which I begrudgingly had to pass on due to the aforementioned poor line management] ... but I saw it nowhere else ... with the fact that bacon and seafood aren't a typical pairing [although they *should* be], we'll award half the points in this category out of sensitivity to the cuisine)

BONUS:         9/10 (+3 for the sheer size of that main dish though, even if it did need some extra seasoning, +3 for the stone crabs [at just one stand] which looked delicious on other people's plates but were too expensive for my budget [$28 for two "knuckles"] and +3 for that crab cake appetizer dish which really did make my experience that day worth all the first world struggles of the afternoon)

TroyScore:  33 out of 50 -- aka 66, a D

Random Taste for Thursday 4/6/17

And so it continues ... a brand new set of tastes for 2017 ...

 here's the THIRTEENTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  Rendez-vous Bakery and Bistro 
Location:  Oakland Park
Meal:  Lunch
Drink:  Coke (in a can) with a slice of Lemon (on the glass)
Appetizer:  n/a
Main:  Poulet Cordon Bleu Panini
(Breaded chicken, ham, swiss cheese, mustard a la ancienne spread)
Side(s):  Bag o chips
Dessert:  n/a
Server:   We didn't get his name ... 'cause he kind of abandoned us (see more below)
Website:  http://rdvbakery.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/RDVBakery/

Counting the original 50 Tastes from 2016, in 62 meals at (mostly) SoFlo eating establishments, we've never ever eaten at a place that scored a D.  Sadly, number 63 was that place -- and all because it was the worst service we experienced since this all started (in that category, we've never ever given less than a 7 ... until now).  To share in our disappointment, see below for this record-breaking (in all the worst ways) Troy-score:    

AMBIANCE:   10/10 (giving credit where credit is due -- the place is pretty darn cute ... from the outside where it kind of looks like a fancy barn in the countryside to the different sections inside where it seems like they might have expanded over time to a patio area for outdoor bistro-ing ... and you might be able to see it in the accompanying photo, but the pièce de résistance is the pastry bin and dessert cooler underneath the shingles that serve to transport the indoor customer to a market booth in the old country).

FOOD:           9/10 (it was lunchtime in a bistro, and I chose chips instead of salad or fries [the latter of which I could have gotten for a four dollar upcharge -- so I'm guessing that maybe they call in the night shift for extra help when that side gets chosen during the day?], so I guess I can't complain too too much about the bag of chips thrown on the plate ... but I'm still going to deduct a point for the financial disincentive regarding the "french" fries ... as for the panini, though, it was perfectly crispy on the outside and perfectly gooey on the inside, and those chicken tenders made it perfectly meaty for a healthy hearty lunch)

SERVICE:      2/10 (there was a sign on the door when we arrived that said something to the effect that the management was hiring servers, and I have to hope that the one we got on our lunch visit was either so brand new that he hadn't completed training yet OR that he was waiting to leave employment as soon as his replacement was hired ... of course, it might have been that he was just super chill and super laid back or super not into lunch shifts, but he was a super disappointment ... our order was taken and our food was delivered after a bit of a lengthy wait, so the bare minimum expectations were met [hence the 2 points in this category] -- but the food took forever to arrive and we were ignored at the end of the meal ... after saying he'd return with the check, we waited a good 15-20 minutes while he did side-work in front of us and ignored us, prompting us to get up and say how "we'd really like to leave but we'd also like to pay first" ... our "honey badger don't care" waiter was so ingrained in not caring, that it was only when we made a small scene in front of the other diners [of which there were only two or three other tables, so it wasn't that things were crazy busy or anything] that the other server on staff that day helped us get a check so we could pay and leave) 

BACON:         6/10 (bacon appeared to be on the lunch menu three times in various dishes -- a hot sandwich, a panini and a pasta dish ... but can you imagine how much better my Poulet Cordon Bleu Panini would have tasted if I could have added bacon [although I probably would have been shocked at the upcharge based on how they calculated the cost of dropping some potato pieces in the fryer ...])

BONUS:         7/10 (+3 for acknowledging that maybe we should have focused on the bakery and dessert items ... or come for dinner instead of lunch, +3 for the guests with whom we shared this experience [the long lost nephew and the mother were both in town and joined in on this meal], and +1 for being a place to which we will most definitely return because surely better servers have been hired by now and this low score can be redeemed in the future)

TroyScore:  34 out of 50 -- aka 68, a D