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Food for thought A gastronome's guide to some select NFL-city eateries
Have a comment or question for Dr. Z? Click here. Well, loyal readers, all I can say is that this is the friendliest collection of letters I've received all season. Either the rippers have gone into hiding or Jimmy, the barbed wire through which these missives must go, has decided to spare the poor old turtle some late-season grief and feed him a diet of softballs. Whatever the reason, it's a pleasant and unusual feeling to be able to shed the old war bonnet. And what makes this magic evening even more special is that Janice, my friend the waitress, reminded me and the Flaming Redhead that I won a dinner from Carmine, her boss and the proprietor of Pizza Man in Pompton Plains, N.J. On a Super Bowl bet, naturally. "And don't let him forget about it," she added. Forget about it? Are you kidding? Drinks for the house, Carmine old boy. And yes, I did want the Giants to win the game, but I never learned to bet heart first. On the subject of food, I'll lead off with my favorite letter, from Craig of San Diego, who cites Dave Anderson's Sunday column in The New York Times. Dave quotes San Diego restaurateur George Pernicano, who mentions that your humble narrator was the greatest eater he'd ever seen. "Didn't realize you had that prodigious an appetite," Craig writes. "You don't appear to be a large man." Then he wants a list of my favorite restaurants in NFL cities. Whew, we've got a lot to address here. OK, here comes a long, detailed answer: As for my size, I'm 6-foot-1 1/2, with a weight that varies between 230 and 260 during the course of any given year. Dave quoted Pernicano as saying that I ate a double-porterhouse by myself, thereby qualifying me for his greatest-eater prize. Someone's misfiring here. I know that if I read that about someone else, I wouldn't be very impressed. The actual incident that he has cited on other occasions involves the 1973 Super Bowl week in L.A., when my ex-wife and I drove down to San Diego to George's restaurant, the Casa di Baffi, which for many years was my favorite restaurant in the U.S., ate the menu and drove home. This sounds more impressive than it actually was. There were some appetizers, but the only mains were double-cut pork chops, porterhouse, tiger shrimps, veal Francese and abalone Francese. And that's the truth. I don't eat that way anymore. Well, most of the time I don't. My recommended restaurants for NFL cities? Oh boy, far too many to list here. I'll give you a handful of my favorites, and then do the ratings the Flaming Redhead and I came up with for the Tampa places during Super Bowl week, how's that? New Jersey: Park and Orchard in the shadow of Giants Stadium in East Rutherford. San Francisco: Bix, in the financial district. Oakland: Well, we're mad at Chez Panisse for the crummy way they handle their reservations, so let's try Bay Wolf. Chicago: Avanzare, for pure enjoyment. Nice bistro on the North Side in which my daughter and I had some happy meals when she was at the U. of Chicago. Minnesota: Nikki's, in the warehouse district because my cousin, Nikki, owns it and I was the one who told her she'd never make a go of the restaurant business. Atlanta: Grappa in Buckhead. Pittsburgh area: The Wooden Angel in Beaver Falls. Now, as for Tampa during Stupor Bowl week: Ratings are on a 10-point scale and represent an average of Linda's and my grades. All shades of grading are duly assigned points, via a method I worked out long ago, i.e., a 7+ over 8- is worth 7.44 points, for example. An 8- over 7+ is worth 7.56, an 8 over 8- is worth 7.89, a 7+ is worth 7.33, and so on. 1. SideBern's (7.83). The smaller and sister restaurant to the famous Bern's Steak House. We took half a dozen Giants' O-linemen there Tuesday night, then returned the following evening. The fresh, lightly broiled calamari in ginger did it for me. I mean you never see fresh calamari, even though most restaurants lie about their frozen rubberized gick and call it fresh. 2. Fleming's Steak House (7.67). Paul Fleming was in on the founding of the wildly successful P.F. Chang's chain. Now he has hooked up in some way with the Outback group, which, thankfully, hasn't cast its spell over this restaurant. It features correctly cooked, flavorful steaks. 3. Bern's Steak House (7.5). I go back a long way with the founder, Bern Laxer, back to the days when he was filling two airplane hangers with wine and crafting a 1,200-page list, biggest in the world (it's down to about 300 pages these days). I feel now, as I felt then, that the wines are an experience; the organic vegetables are fine; the Caesar salad, made at the table as it used to be before all that processed junk took over, is the best I've had in a long while; but something strange is done to the steaks, whether they're of the raw "tartare" variety which I fancy, or the grilled numbers. There's always the lingering odd taste of some weird and exotic flavoring. 4. The NFL Super Bowl pregame and postgame brunch and dinner , respectively, atthe Hyatt and Marriott (6.5). Good cold fare, stone crabs, shrimps and the like, rubberized roast beef, sauced-up chicken that had been sitting too long in the steamer, but puh-lenty of food. You know the drill. 5. Jackson's at Harbour Island (4.67). High-volume place with average seafood, heavy on the creamed creations. 6. Sculley's and the Rusty Anchor, Madeira Beach (4.0). The Redhead charmed some local (loco?) youth into revealing his special sleeper restaurant. Tourist trap for tourists on a tight budget. Selection of fried yuck. 7. Columbia (3.835). The city's oldest and most famous restaurant. Did I once love it? So long ago I can't remember. Too big, too much screeching noise, too many meals rolling out in assembly-line fashion. Fine selection of prestige Spanish wines, though. 8. Palios Brothers (3.165). Hangout for old Tampa-area football coaches. Everything's fried, and I really enjoyed my heaping plateful of chicken livers and gizzards (lizards?), but it was a bit too earthy for Linda, whose low grade brought the average down. 9. Billy's Stone Crabs and Steak, Tierra Verde (3.0). Pretty much like Sculley's, but nasty service blitzed the rating. 10. Shula's (2.5). Awful, schlock service ruined everything. Food just OK. Steaks had a gasoline taste. Finally, on to football. Sorry this took so long. But get me started on rating anything -- food, wine, movies, football players -- and you're in for trouble. Nice letter from A.J. Munchak of Taylor, Pa., thanking me for enshrining son Mike in the Hall of Fame. Hey, it wasn't just me. There were 37 other selectors. Let's stay with Hall of Fame questions for a while. Paul of Leakwood, Kan., feels that Otis Taylor is the greatest receiver not in the Hall. Wants to know if there's any hope for him. I'm an old AFL guy so I always spoke up for Otis in the past. The problem is that many of the selectors are too young to remember the magnificence of this great receiver. Don't forget that his best years were in the mid-'60s to early '70s. That's 30 years ago. From Ron of Milwaukee and Tom of Racine, Wisc., come support for Jerry Kramer. It bothers me, too, that Kramer was one of the rare Seniors candidates turned down. I'm still trying to figure out why. Then after he was dinged, he never seemed to re-emerge. It's sad. He deserves to be in. L. Nguyen of London, Ontario, wants the behind-the-scenes action on Bill Parcells' failure to make it. Forget the floor debate. It was pure payback for a guy who has given the writers a hard time. He'll make it eventually. I think the general feeling was to let him wait his turn and gain a little humility. Max of Grenoble, France, wonders what ever happened to Pat Fischer, the great little Cardinals cornerback. He deserves to be in, along with about 30 Seniors who will never make it because only one can come in per year. I keep screaming for a second entry, annually. I'm greeted by a shrug. What about Bob Hayes? asks Clayton of Denver . I'm for him. But he'll have to wait in line. Again, the Seniors logjam problem. Larry of Indy asks if this is the lamest Hall of Fame class ever. No, although I'm sick that my man, Dave Casper, didn't make it. I disagree with you about Lynn Swann, whom I've always felt should be in, despite his lack of overpowering numbers. I disagree with you about Marv Levy. If Bud Grant deserved it, so did Marv. And I disagree with you about Jackie Slater, who played at a high level for 20 years. "Unspectacular," you say. How many O-linemen are spectacular? I agree with you about Ron Yary. He wasn't on my early ballots, although when it came down to a simple yea or nay at the end, I voted yea, which I'll always do unless I feel the guy is an absolute stiff. As for four of the seven being involved in the media, thereby boosting their chances, uh uh. It works just the opposite. Writers don't like TV folks. One general question and then we'll get to Super Bowl stuff. Gary of Philly has a 1-2-3-4 lineup of questions. You gonna pay me overtime, sport? OK, let's do 'em. 1) Best team that didn't win the Super Bowl: 1976 Steelers. 2) Best QB who did not win the Super Bowl: Tie between Otto Graham and Sammy Baugh. 3 and 4) Most overachieving and underachieving player/coach: I take it you don't mean only Super Bowl, so to answer this I'd have to go back through about 40,000 players and a few hundred coaches, and, you see, I'm not as young as I used to be, and it's 2 a.m. and the wolves are howling outside and, as we used to say in the U.S. Forces in Germany, I've had the schnitzel with these questions. Lee Dobbins of Leeds in Jolly Old England wants to know if the Dolphins can dethrone the Ravens with a stronger-armed QB. Why not? They beat them, 19-6, and Fiedler had a pretty decent day, but, of course, Tony Banks was handling the Ravens' attack and the Baltimore defense hadn't yet risen with the fury it showed in the late going. Still, they're not all that far apart. Jim of Vancouver doesn't want to take anything away from Ray Lewis as a player, but he feels that the two dead guys in Atlanta cast a huge shadow over Lewis' career. Does that bother me, he asks? Yes, but how does a writer handle it without flogging the story to death, as it already has been? Remember, Lewis was not convicted of murder. But neither was O.J. , goes the counterargument. It's confusing, it's a festering sore, it's nasty. It's something I'm always aware of, as I write about Lewis. I can only try to play it story by story and weigh all the issues and try to write fairly and honestly. More Ray Lewis, this time from Josh of Houston, who wants to know how he graded out on my Super Bowl chart. No. 1 player on the field, not so much against the run (there was so much swarming to the ball that Lewis was just one of the guys in the mix) but vs. the pass. It was one of the greatest days I've ever seen a middle linebacker have in coverage, maybe the greatest. I don't record garbage time on my charts, so I've got Lewis' numbers up to the field goal that made it 34-7 with 5:27 left. This is his chart for his coverage in man or zone when he had to clamp on a receiver: First half: Incomplete to Mitchell with Lewis defending and almost intercepting. Check mark for a good play. Forced incomplete to Hilliard, Lewis deflecting and McAlister almost intercepting. Check mark. Knockdown on a crossing pattern to Jurevicius. Check mark. Played off Ziegler's block and tackled Barber for a two-yard gain on a second-and-10 screen. Check mark. Deflection of a seam pass to Toomer, Sharper intercepting off the deflection. Check mark. Second half: Knockdown of a seam pass to Mitchell. Check mark. Six passes thrown Lewis' way, six check marks. Perfect day. Joe of Indiana, Pa., asks if Lewis would be as good if he had to take on blockers, since the DT's job is to keep him clean. Ditto for Jack Lambert. Ditto for Mike Singletary . Old-time MLBs, such as Butkus and Nitschke and Lanier, liked to punish the blockers, but the modern way is more efficient. Joe also asks my opinion of Steve Young as an analyst. I didn't catch his work last Sunday, but generally, I like Steve on TV. Intelligent guy. Minimum of b.s.. Double question and comment posing as a question from an old correspondent, Ani of Ann Arbor (Annie of An Arbor?). Sick of the two-week break and phony hype and old angles rehashed, he says. Yeah, me, too, but I'll tell you why I like it, and this is straight from the shoulder. I do my Super Bowl preview piece Sunday night, after the championship games, and I like to see it in print that first week, when it's still fresh and all the heavy breathing hasn't yet begun. With the one-week layoff, the piece runs only a few days before the game itself, and very few things are fresh at that point. Part two -- how will Marty Mornhinweg's offense fly in Detroit, given the Lions' personnel? Don't know. Don't really know why Matt Millen hired him. Let's give him a chance, OK? One thing is for sure. Few people will get the spelling of his name right, and unfortunately, Ani, you fall into that category. The key thing is knowing where to insert the all important "h." Arthur of Melbourne finds missed opportunities setting up possible turning points in the game. Not me. A play or two here or there? So what? There was no way the Giants were going to successfully attack that Ravens' defense, which unhinged Steve McNair and Rich Gannon and then Kerry Collins . It was an overmatch, and that's why I didn't much like this Super Bowl. The verdict was in way too early. The only thing keeping the Giants in the game was Trent Dilfer. Dan of Jacksonville Beach puts the big dinger on the XFL and gives it two years at best. I agree, for all the reasons you named. I'm all for more jobs for the workers, but modeling the game I love after pure trash such as professional wrestling is, at least to me, the worst kind of pimping. Tom, a gloomy Ravens fan from Pasadena, Md., is already worrying about next year, i.e. Brian Billick's commitment to Dilfer, plus the fear that Harry Swayne will return at RT. I don't see how Billick can seriously start the season with Dilfer as his guy. Brad Johnson? Trent Green? Can they scrape up the bucks to buy those guys? You're right, Swayne's gotta go. And they'll be looking for a quality wideout in the draft, presuming, of course, they come up with a QB who can find him. Rob of Winnipeg, and I thank him for his kind words about my work, wants my recommendation for a writer with brains and style. I've got plenty. Graham Greene, John LeCarre in the old days, Isaac Bashevis Singer . What's that? Oh, you mean sportswriters? Well, I'm particularly partial to the columnist in our little hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, Mike Vaccaro. Rob's second question concerns my wine writing, a topic that also interests Dave of Burnsville, Minn. Once upon a time I was the wine columnist for the New York Post. Now I'll do a very occasional piece for the Princeton (N.J.) Packet. During the football season I just don't have the time. But I still love it and have pages and pages of charts and ratings. You ask where you can find my writing. Well, if you know someone who has a file of old Wine Enthusiast magazines, look for the August 1996 issue. I did a piece on the Napa Valley Wine Auction that got me banned for life from that event. Why? Because I actually mentioned that some of their wines didn't taste very good. A weird story. It started as a letter to the Flaming Redhead (we weren't yet married at that point), and ended in the hands of a guy named Tisch who edited the Enthusiast. He wanted to run it as a piece, and I said OK, and unfortunately didn't do a tight enough edit on some of the raunchier stuff. The Auction folks took it big.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Paul Zimmerman covers the NFL for the
magazine and CNNSI.com. His "Inside Football" column and Mailbag
appear weekly on CNNSI.com. To send a question to Dr. Z, Click here.
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