We Make Fondu
Bite-sized blog posts from The Fondu Team
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[This is a guest post by Mark Jackson (ccie4736), a Fondu Ambassador in San Diego]
Pricing:
You’ll be looking at $9-15 per entree. By entree, I mean one of those rice and beans plus food type combinations. And then of course you’ll have to get margaritas. While the margaritas don’t come in a large fishbowl, they do pack a punch. When I go here with three or more people, I usually order a pitcher of margarita which is about $30 and saves you a few dollars if you want to drink.
Distance:
A Cardiff restaurant; located on the 101. 5-10 minute drive if you’re located in Encinitas. 50-60 minute walk back after too many margaritas.
Thoughts:
The epitome of a Southern California Mexican food dining experience. It’s by the beach, the hygiene of the bathrooms is questionable and they serve large quantities of good food. When it’s lobster season, they serve super cheap, really fresh lobster (I think they walk across the street to the ocean and catch them). Las Olas is great for just about any occasion. It’s a fun date night, it’s family friendly and it’s a good place to take out-of-town guests.
The food is not too unlike your typical sit-down Mexican restaurant. But, in my opinion, it tastes a little better than, say, Casa de Bandini or El Torito. It’s also more laid back than other said establishments. The environment is one that encourages conversation rather than getting in and out as quickly as possible. There’s also a nice selection on the menu. There are the standard entrees for the hungry. But I also will sometimes just order their chicken tortilla soup (which is excellent) for a light but filling meal.
On a Friday and Saturday night it can get a little crowded. But I’ve never had to wait longer than 45 minutes for a table (and 45 minutes is unusual). Most of the time it’s about a 20 minute wait. If you get antsy, it’s fun to go and talk a walk on the beach.
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[This is a guest post by Maddy Forinash (maddyeff), a Fondu Ambassador in Portland]
Hey foodies! My name is Maddy and I hail from Portland, Oregon. As a college student I appreciate restaurants where my dollar will go a long way, but I never sacrifice quality for quantity. As cities go, Portland—being the place where “young people go to retire”—is a wonderful spot for people who are into trying new foods, drinking delicious coffee, or meeting very interesting people over a local microbrew. I am originally from Seattle, but even the Emerald City seems mainstream in comparison to this hipster paradise.
You will likely notice some prominent themes in my Fondu reviews and blog posts, but I will highlight them for you here. First, I LOVE brunch. In fact, I have a brunch group that meets every Friday mid-morning to try a different brunch spot throughout Portland. With the exception of school-sanctioned breaks, we haven’t missed a week since September 2011! Second, I LOVE coffee. My family owned a small neighborhood coffee shop in Shoreline, Washington for a few years and I have been a barista since I was sixteen, so I like to think of myself as a bit of a coffee connoisseur. To date, my favorite cup of coffee has been at Tasty & Sons, a hip breakfast spot in NE Portland where they brew their drip coffee using Stumptown’s Espresso roast…yum. And thirdly, I LOVE beer, so Portland is quite an excellent spot to be :)
One last thing to keep in mind is that, like most foodies, I try my best to stay away from chain restaurants (with the exception of Cha Cha Cha, a Mexican food-lover’s paradise, but I let it slide because it’s native to Portland and incredibly delicious). However, this has never been difficult because there always seem to be new places to try. I look forward to being your Portland Fondu ambassador and telling you more about my great city!
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[This is a guest post by Martin Molberg, a Fondu Ambassador in Copenhagen]
Visitor or local citizen, the perfect place to bring your loved one after dining out is at the historical building Rundetaarn (“the round tower”) in downtown Copenhagen. This one-day-a-year special event takes place on Valentine’s Day only. On the deck at the top of the tower, you have a great view over the city skyline. Inside, you can book a picnic basket with a small Champagne, two glasses and quality chocolates that you can enjoy with a little privacy in one of the many small window areas that holds blankets for this special occasion. Chill out the romantic way in this perfect setting. Entrance and picnic basket for two: 220 DKK (approximately $35).
If you are visiting, why not also try “Det lille apotek” restaurant—the oldest restaurant in Copenhagen that serves classic Danish dishes. Or perhaps start the evening at NOMA—named the world’s best restaurant in 2010 & 2011 by Restaurant Magazine.
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[This is a guest post by Meghan Fay, a Fondu Ambassador in London]
We all want good food, but it’s also really important to get the right atmosphere for the occasion. No one wants to end up shouting the same thing over & over because you took your half-deaf gran to the loudest place on the high street. Or worse yet, do you want to go on a first date and end up at a table so small you awkwardly knock a glass of red wine all over your hottie-date’s white blouse?
No, I didn’t think so.
Here is a list of places in London that serve up some tasty eats while offering a pleasing atmosphere for your purpose.
FAMILY FRIENDLY:
Belgo Centraal. Take a stroll around Covent Garden and then have lunch here. The trip to the dining room alone is enough to get everyone excited. Walk in, go across the steel bridge and get greeted by waiters dressed as monks. Then, take the lift downstairs for a hearty Belgian meal. The Moules frites and rotisserie chickens are oh so good!
(£4.50 kids menu, 5 pm – 6:30, Mon-Fri, pm “Beat the Clock” menu, e.g., order at 6 pm and get it for £6, £15-25/person regular menu; Covent Garden, 50 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LJ; 020 7813 2233)And, if the kids are good, treat them (and yourself!) to a right-out-of-the-oven Ben’s Cookie afterward. Pure heaven!
(Opening Hours: 10 am -8 pm, Mon-Sat; Covent Garden, 13a The Piazza WC2E 8HD; 0207 240 6123).The Riding House Café. Head here for an eclectic brunch with the fam. The kids will love the pancakes, dad will love the steak tartare, and mum will love the décor. This place will tickle everyone’s fancy.
(£15-25/person; Fitrovia, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street W1W 7PQ; 020 7927 0840).DATE NIGHT:
Yauatcha. Impress your date with Michelin-starred food, without the usual stuffy white tablecloth atmosphere. Sit in the uber-trendy, dimly lit ground floor that features stars on the ceiling and a fish tank bar. Ordering lots of dishes to share seems to work the best. Don’t miss the venison puffs. Service can be a little slow, so I hope your chat is good!
(£20-40/person; Soho, 15 Broadwick Street, London W1F 0DL; 020 7494 8888).Cecconi’s. Elbow your way into the bar here and hoist yourself up onto the plush green leather chairs to start your date night with a glass of champers. Look around the restaurant from your central perch and the elegant hustle and bustle of Cecconi’s is sure to take your breath away. Well-clad couples linger over perfectly prepared pasta while dozily staring out the windows onto the dreamy streets of Mayfair. The nights in Cecconi’s start off quiet but grow livelier as the bar becomes more crowded, the bottles of wine empty, and the customers get younger. Come around 7:30 pm on a weekend to get the best of both worlds.
(£30-40/person; Mayfair, 5A Burlington Gardens W1S 3EP; 020 7434 1500).GIRLS NIGHT OUT:
Ciro’s Pizza Pomodoro. There is something strangely exciting about dingy places where people get dressed up. If you’re from NYC, it’s La Esquina. In London, it’s Ciro’s Pizza Pomodoro. So girls, make a reservation for a weekend night (after 8 pm is when it gets fun), put on the heels that make your legs look like Giselle’s, and grab your best handbag. After walking down the stairs into the dark cellar of a restaurant you’ll be shoved into tiny tables, be forced to shout above loud music, and, no doubt, your elbows will bang your neighbors’. Yet, among the walls plastered with pictures of Hollywood’s greats, as you eat your divine and unique concoction of a pizza next to your best girlfriends, you won’t be able to help feeling glamorous.
(£10-20/person; Knightsbridge, 51 Beauchamp Place, SW3 1NY; 020 758 9127).Dehesa. This cozy little charcuterie and tapas bar is in a lovely square in Soho. Dress up or dress down and you’ll fit in. It’s the perfect place for an intimate meal surrounded by your girls. The menu, comprised of small plates, is inspired by Spanish and Italian cuisines and changes each season. The hams, charcuterie, and cheeses are particularly tasty.
(£20-40/person; Soho, 25 Ganton Street W1F 9BP; 020 7494 4170).PARTY TIME:
Lemonia. This place is seriously good for a casual group gathering. It’s a family run Greek restaurant full of laughing people passing around plates of mouthwatering hummus, pita, kebabs, etc. The wine, food, and people seem to flow continuously through the restaurant’s indoor garden and traditional dining room. They have two set menus for large groups.
(Group set menus £23-25/person; Primrose Hill, 89 Regents Park Road; 020 7586 7454).Great Eastern Dining Room. For the group that wants a bit of a fancier affair, the Great Eastern Dining Room is a perfect place in the fashionable area of Hoxton. For pre and post-dinner drinks, there are two options where seats can be reserved: the normal bar upstairs and the cocktail bar downstairs. The restaurant serves top-notch pan-Asian food. The only downside is that, even for a large party, they are very strict on their two-hour time limit policy.
(Three different set menu options for groups: £20.50, £24.50, £40; Hoxton, 54-56 Great Eastern Street EC2A 3QR; 020 7613 4545). -
[This is a guest post by Elisa Mader, a Fondu Ambassador in Seattle!]
To dine at Seattle’s Sutra is to take part in a ceremony.
Quite literally, it begins with the beating of a gong, followed by a sort of prayer, a shout-out to the community farmers and foragers who contributed the fresh and unusual ingredients that make up the four-course meal you are about to receive. Then begins the explanation of the menu, an exhilarating litany of spices and preparations peppered with unfamiliar foods—Urfa biber? Sunchokes?—that marks the start of a culinary pilgrimage.
Sutra – Vegetarian Cuisine in the Wallingford neighborhood epitomizes this city’s foodie obsessions: Veneration for the organic, local and sustainable, as well as a passion for creative and beautiful food. Sutra’s staff members love the dishes they create, and their enthusiasm is infectious. And they are such masters of their craft, so adept at whipping up a variety of textures and tastes, that omnivores and carniphiles may not even notice that the meal is predominantly vegan.
My initiation into the mysteries and wonders of Sutra begins with the ritual ordering of the wine pairings. (There are non-alcoholic pairings too, with a variety of teas and sparkling elixirs flavored with housemade syrups.)
A flute of fruity organic Pizzolato Fields Prosecco from the Veneto region of Italy, and I am primed for the first course: A savory little butternut squash soup flavored with black cardamom and a swirl of thyme oil, accompanied by a roasted Chioggia beet and fennel salad, with cara cara oranges for a sweet contrast and kiaware sprouts (from daikon radish seeds) for a bit of a kick.
The enigma of that Turkish pepper, urfa biber, is resolved with the second course: A risotto cake pan-fried and imbued with the spice’s sweet, smoky zing, garnished with rainbow carrots and crispy sunchoke chips and served with an unctuous hempseed sauce. It goes down a treat with a velvety 2009 Lirac Rhône Reserve.
The third course, porcini-dusted celery root folded up like a crepe with creamy stuffing, is served with a smoked lentil, pear and kale ragout that makes me ask aloud why all vegetables are not prepared in a smoker. Our table figures out that a “gastrique” is a reduction, and that the port-based gastrique drizzled around this particular dish is particularly tasty. The wine pairing: A hefty 2009 Syrah from Woodinville-based boutique winery, Robert Ramsay Cellars.
To round out our palates, the dessert course arrives, glistening and seductive. It’s a fresh cherry torte with a dense little fig and mixed seed base, lightened with a saffron-coconut ice cream that I can’t believe is, again, vegan.
For $36 dollars, this extravaganza of flavors can’t be beat, and Sutra changes its offerings every two weeks. The restaurant operates like a dinner club, with one or two scheduled seatings per evening for the set menu. The mood is convivial and intimate, as appealing for romantic night out as for a gathering with foodie friends. I’m definitely going back. Check out Sutra – Vegetarian Cuisine here: http://www.sutraseattle.com/
—Elisa Mader
On Fondu: @lagourmande
On Twitter: @ElisaMader
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Some of them are our most prolific reviewers.
Others are our most passionate advocates.
A couple are even our most helpful beta testers.And they are all just plain interesting people!
Follow them, chat with them, eat with them…and maybe they’ll share some of the sweet Fondu swag we gave them!
View Fondu Ambassadors in a larger map*Want to become a Fondu Ambassador too? Learn how at http://bit.ly/yWPwUh*
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Want to grow your Marketing experience? Now is your chance—Fondu is hiring!
Fondu is a fun, new way to share bite-size restaurant reviews with your friends. We’re an angel-backed startup in midtown NYC and our team of five is incredibly ambitious and moving at lightening speed.
We’re looking for a Marketing intern to help grow our community of passionate foodies by developing and executing on both grassroots and large-scale initiatives.
Some of your responsibilities:
- Help maintain our social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Quora, and our Blog
- Creating marketing materials for pitching to possible partners
- Working with restaurants to run contests and promotions through Fondu
- Getting out to food related events to build the Fondu brand
Requirements:
- passionate about food and restaurants
- excellent writing and communication skills
- comfortable getting out there and talking about the product
- experience maintaining many tasks at once while not missing the details
This is an unpaid position, but you will be well rewarded in the network, experience, and intense games of Dominion. We’re looking for interns to work about 20 hours/week.
If this sounds exciting to you, send over a resume and a quick paragraph about why you’d like to work with us to gauri at fondu dot com.
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Fondu is and always will be a labor of love by you and us. It’s a partnership. But you all have been “laboring” so hard—reviewing thousands of places and inviting scores of people—that we thought we would up the ante a bit.
Introducing: the Fondu Ambassador program.
- Suggested User Status - Always wondered how to get into that top list of Fondusers? Well, here’s your chance. All Fondu Ambassadors will be featured on their local Suggested User list. You will be front and center because you’ve already got a presence on Fondu and we know you’ll be a great resource for new users.
- A Blog Post a Month - Every month, you will have the opportunity to write one blog post and have it published on our community blog. You can write whatever you want as long as it relates to food/drink/Fondu. Whether it’s a lowdown on nightlife in your town, commentary on the food industry, or just some ideas you have for the app, we’re excited to help share your knowledge and taste with the world.
- Swag - While you certainly might find yourself walking with a bit more attitude, confidence, and style as a Fondu Ambassador, what we’re talking about is good old-fashioned stuff. Shirts, stickers, cards; that kind of thing. We’ll send you some swag for yourself and a lot more swag for sharing—with friends, family, foreigners, anyone who you think would appreciate feeling some of the Fondu love.
We know we’ve got some impressive power users and we want to recognize you all. We hope that you’ll set the tone and be the example for a whole new wave of reviewers. If you’ve already been spreading the word or if this program makes you excited to start, apply to become an ambassador by emailing Orion (orion@fondu.com). Let him know your name, job, city of residence, and include a brief blurb about why you would be a fantastic Fondu Ambassador.
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If you recently migrated your App Profile Page to a normal Facebook Page (as we did yesterday), you might find it hard to add the proper work to your employees individual profiles. We suspect it’s because the Page category is now Product/App which is sorted lower on the “Where have you worked?” text box under Edit Work And Education. Of course, if your company has a dedicated company page separate from your app(s)/project(s), this is irrelevant.
The workaround we figured out requires that one employee already have successfully linked their work to the Facebook Page. This person will then have a work Smart List (automatically created) on the sidebar to the left of the home newsfeed. Once in this list, there is a small text box on the right to “Add coworkers to this list”—see the above picture. If you add a coworker here, voila, they will receive a notification to fill out the corresponding work information to add to their profile.
Another possible workaround may be to change the category of your Page to something that shows up higher in the edit work list (i.e. company).
If you end up using either workaround, be sure to comment below with how it worked out for you.
