606 Congress - Blue Ribbon NYC - A Tasting Event

The other night I had the pleasure of attending a tasting event at 606 Congress in Boston. The restaurant, with chef Rich Garcia at the helm, is nicely appointed and was the perfect place to share a few new menu items. But these items were actually developed by Blue Ribbon, a foodservice group out of New York City, and then introduced to Rich and 606. Then we got to taste them.

Here's how it went...

After arriving and being feted with drinks - even some of those were created just for the restaurant - we got into the tasting. Here are some food shots and descriptions...

The Tasting Menu, Including Drinks

The Michelada. They make it with Harpoon UFO, Lime Juice and Hot Sauce. Tastes like a beer bloody mary.

Jeff Cutler and Rich Garcia

The mingling prior to the Tasting Event

Our Tasting Table at 606 Congress

Our place settings at 606 Congress. They took some care to create a nice presentation.

Bromberg Brothers Blue Ribbon Cookbook. Some great recipes inside. We received a copy as a parting gift.

The funky design placemats at 606 Congress

Menu and Logo from Bromberg Brothers Blue Ribbon Restaurants. Find them on Twitter - @BlueRibbonNYC

Manchego and Mexican Honey Toast. Light and divine. Still warm when it arrived. B+.

Another shot of the Honey Toast. The honey comes from Mexico and honey farms that Blue Ribbon operates.

Spicy Egg Shooters. Pickled peppers and olive oil mayo. These had a little kick, but were perfectly balanced. A-

Another shot of the Egg Shooter

Who thought Hummus could be fancied up? White Bean Hummus Toast. Best dish of the night. A

Another photo of the toast. Olives mixed in were perfectly salty for balance.

Fried Rock Shrimp. These popped when you bit them. Perhaps one of the best preparations of shrimp I've experienced lately. Just so well cooked that I was pleased. Taste was very good. B+

The Rock Shrimp platter

When I take food shots, I look for the best visual of the night. These win for that. While the Smoked Salmon Toast wasn't over-the-top as a winning dish, the fragrance was superb and the color was amazing. B

Another shot of the Salmon

Some of the honey. This was delivered so we could drizzle it on the "Northern Fried" Chicken Wings.

The Wings - a Blue Ribbon specialty. Taste was very good and the best feature was probably the breading/skin. It didn't fall off by itself but clung nicely to the chicken so you had a very balanced bite each time you sampled the wing. B

Wing on my plate

Honey drizzled wing on my plate

Rich Garcia explaining the dishes and the 606 Congress atmosphere and philosophy.

They have some wine.

In all, I had a great time and am looking forward to trying some of the other Blue Ribbon venues. They have a top-end sushi restaurant in New York City that I'd love to visit.

Have you been to 606? What did you think?

Novell Vibe Outreach Event - Boston

As many of you know, I create content for a living.

More simply put, I write stuff and people pay me to do so. I’m also a social media trainer, guest speaker and event organizer. To that end, I keep an event calendar over at WithJeff.com and schedule dozens of speaking gigs and training sessions each year all over the United States.

In my role as content creator and event organizer, I’ve put together numerous Tweetups. These have included events for Nissan, Society of Professional Journalists, Egg-Nog Fanatics, the audience of NomX3 and even Ford Motor Company. But recently, I jumped up a level and was honored to be able to merge a few of my skills at an event for Novell - it was what I like to call a Focus Group Tweetup.

The invitation-only event (tweaking the literal definition of a Tweetup with its exclusive nature) brought together 16 technology, community, social and business professionals to talk about a software product. I planned the event at the amazing Brasserie Jo in Boston - and I will tell anyone who will listen that it’s as close as you can get to dining in Paris without flying 3000 miles.

So, right off the bat I had upped the ante. Here are some photos from the night, some facts about the discussion, a link to the product if you want to try it out, and my evaluation of how things went. If you’ve ever wanted to organize a Tweetup, anyone can do it. You just need some organizational skills and the energy to pull it off.

I expect to be doing similar events in Salt Lake City and Austin, TX over the next month or so, and will be doing a few Ice Cream Tweetups over the summer in Boston. Just follow me on twitter if you’d like to be sure not to miss those Tweetups.

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Novell Vibe Cloud Outreach Tweetup - Boston, MA - April 25, 2010

The food was amazing - a Prix Fixe menu prepared with four courses and select beverages from Brasserie Jo.

The guest speaker for the evening was the talented Doug Haslam. He talked about community and collaboration - two of the facets that the Novell team is trying to foster with their Vibe Cloud product.

The Novell team was on hand to discuss how to use Vibe Cloud and to answer questions from various social media luminaries. Essentially, Vibe Cloud is real-time social collaboration made enterprise-secure.

Here are some shots of the evening...

The list of attendees included...

Doug Haslam

http://twitter.com/dough

http://doughaslam.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/doughaslam

David Karp

http://twitter.com/limeduck

http://www.limeduck.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dkarp

Steve Garfield

http://twitter.com/stevegarfield

http://stevegarfield.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevegarfield

Meg Fowler

http://twitter.com/megfowler

http://megfowler.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/megfowler

Bobbie Carlton

http://twitter.com/bobbiec

http://www.carltonprmarketing.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbiecarlton

Ellen Rossano

http://twitter.com/ellenrossano

http://ellenrossano.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenrossano

Shwen Gwee

http://twitter.com/shwen

http://www.med20.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/shwen

Todd Van Hoosear

http://twitter.com/#!/vanhoosear

http://itsfreshground.com/about/todd-van-hoosear/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/vanhoosear

Christine Major

http://twitter.com/cmajor

http://www.christinemajor.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemajor

Stephen Dill

http://twitter.com/srdill

http://stephendill.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/srdill

Cappy Popp

http://twitter.com/cappypopp

http://www.thoughtlabs.com/about-thought-labs/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/cappy

In all, I think everyone enjoyed themselves and the event met or exceeded the goals we set at the beginning.

Have you ever attended an exclusive Tweetup? What are you thoughts about how businesses might start using this meeting model going forward?

Dinner at Jean Georges Steakhouse - Las Vegas - at Aria Hotel

Food is near and dear to my heart. I've been through times and situations where I wasn't allowed to eat solid food for six weeks and times when I was on a liquid diet for months. But I've also been feted at the most luxurious restaurants on earth and have dined on food that still makes me sigh orgasmically.

With that preface in mind, the meal I had last week in Las Vegas was top-notch and as memorable as any other on record. Here's the situation...

I was in Las Vegas on business and my friend Kevin Palmer sent me a message. It implied that Kevin had set me up with either the folks at Caesar's or Aria Hotel and they were going to take care of me. Being a skeptical human, I wasn't sure whether I should believe Kevin and thought nothing of his note until I got a Twitter update from @arialv.

It said that Aria would like to speak with me privately about having a meal at one of the signature, on-site restaurants....Jean Georges Steakhouse.

Aria and I traded a few emails and it was decided. I would dine at Jean Georges with a friend and I would be the guest of Aria Hotel.

WHAT?! That's right. As guest of the hotel I could order anything I wanted and my only obligation was to enjoy myself. Well, I did that all right.

With Kristina and Reggie and Taron waiting on us (I took my friend Derek Wilmot to dinner as an objective observer), we experienced all five, six or seven stars Jean Georges had to offer. We started with wine.

Beginning with wine at the table (see photos above of handwritten note from Reggie for what we had), we chose the tasting menu and set ourselves up for a treat. Here's that menu...

And here are the photos of each dish...

From start to finish - even with a post-meal tour of the kitchen - I was impressed. The service was impeccable, the food was divine, the preparation was perfect. If there was one thing I took issue with, it was that the Filet Mignon was too large after sampling so many delightful dishes before it.

Is there a verdict? Sure. This place is fantastic. From the moment we walked in, I felt appreciated and respected. The food was great and the pairings of wine were perfect.

I welcome the opportunity to try other Aria Hotel restaurants the next time I'm in Vegas, but I'll be sure to make one of my meals at Jean Georges.

Next thing I've got to do is get my co-host on NomX3 to come with me so we can do a show at this place.