Article Contributed on: 10/20/2007 4:37:40 PM
With a Jaundiced Eye: The blog for the sleep deprived
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Last night the little lady and I went to Trapper's Restaurant on the 4th floor of the Holiday Inn to celebrate her birthday. We have heard a lot of comments about how it is Parker's only four star restaurant. After I panned BB's Bistro, I had a lot of people tell me I should upgrade and go to Trapper's.
First, let me say I had a meal that will go down in infamy. It was a nice ambience, just what you would expect in a Holiday Inn, but the cuts of meat were really poor.
The heated stone they give you was a unique touch, but I know that meat only gets tougher as you cook it, not more tender. So when they bring you rare steaks that are stringy and grisily and you get to cook them in little pieces yourself; well, it doesn't get better as the meal progresses; it gets worse.
Now, we racked up a hundred bucks for dinner and each had one drink and no dessert. We hit the Dairy Queen on the way back to the Pinery to recover our losses. Here are some other observations for those of you wanting to partake of Trappers fare. First, make reservations at the Fort; it won't be any more expensive and you'll have a good meal. Four other points:
1. Parker has been afflicted over the years by people coming here from other parts of the country. They will be swilling beer at the War Horse and say, "You know what this town really needs is a _______ like we have in California, New York, Florida, Boston, etc. So, they start a restaurant like BB's, Trappers or any one of a number of joints which are supposed to bless us locals with the grandee culture of one of the coastal areas or Texas.
2. The only ones that work out are places like IndoChine or Juntz where the owners are there slaving away making sure the food they serve is done properly. Jeff and Yume at IndoChine and Tadashi at Juntz are the difference between success and failure. Otherwise, it would degrade very rapidly. Absentee ownership is a death knell.
3. Top grade places take unusual care in procuring their meats, fish and vegetables and they are fresh and require very little preservatives in a well-run establishment. Most of the franchise chains and second tier restaurants order through Sysco or some other restaurant supplier and their cuts of meat are what you would expect in a bar that serves food as a second thought.
That is why the Chile Rellenos at the War Horse now taste like Crisco pie crust dough. They started stocking California Pinot Griot and forgot about how to make good food. The War Horse is another place which has lost its way and is no longer worth frequenting.
Fish should arrive flash frozen and be sushi grade. Vegetables should be purchased locally at farmer's markets , not shipped in through the Walmart hub/spoke distribution system where they are limp the day they arrive.
4. In a high end restaurant that prides itself as four stars, as Trapper's would like to think they are, I expect the cook or the maitre'd to come out sometime after the entree has been served and check on how the meal is going. The waitress is just trying to get the food on the table and earn a tip and she is not going to ask for trouble; no feedback occurs between the customer and the restaurant unless it is solicited from on-high.
Some things in Parker have changed and other things remain the same as they were back in 1976, when I fell off the turnip truck. There are still only a handful of restaurants that are worthy of their billing. Personally, I am either going to IndoChine or Juntz tonight and try to recover my palette from the gouge that is in my tongue from last night.
Then, tomorrow, I am going to go buy a couple of Filet Mignon's and cook them myself. As a gourmet French food lover once told me: "The best food you will get will be at home". How true it is.