This white bolognese was very popular in the Weekly Menu Planning group and would be great for a tomato-less but still meaty lasagne. (Swap meats for whatever your family eats - eg ground turkey instead of pork.)
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Christina bait. Could you please share the recipe?
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That looks really delicious 
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Ummm…need this recipe, pleaseandthankyou!
Checked out a newish place run by the same folks who own the best restaurant between PGH and Philly with a bunch of friends. It’s low-key, yet somewhat refined comfort food with a distinct PA Dutch influence.
It’s a little odd that they have you order both drinks and foods at the counter, but perhaps that’s meant to convey casualness 
We got a bucket of their popcorn for the table to share, and I started the night off with a very good mocktail, the Pink Pony Punch and really… how could I NOT with that name? 
(ginger beer, lime, pomegranate, blood orange, walnut bitters) & followed it with a Moscow Mule, bc let’s not go crazy with this Dry January / Soberish thing, now 
, and my PIC and I shared a bottle of a reasonably decent, local Grüner Veltliner.
I knew I def wanted to get the radishes with smoked butter and sauerkraut pickle salt
and the pickled shrimp with lemon, parsley & dill (both dishes faboski)
but the crispy pork belly sticks sounded appealing, too. I forgot to take a pic, but what arrived were two skewers with a hunka luscious pork belly each. The portions in general were massive. We passed the pork belly around, worried we might fill up before our soup/main.
My widowed friend had ordered the arugula salad with warm bacon dressing, mushrooms, goat cheese & crispy potatoes
and the mac and cheese,
both of which would’ve been plenty of food for 2, and yet she’d also ordered the 10 point braised short rib roast (fork-tender, flavorful, fabulous, with a horseradish cream sauce to drown in) — needless to say she took home leftovers.
My PIC and I also shared the very good, very rich Dutch onion soup,
(didn’t finish)
and the pork schnitzel, which was perhaps the only let-down: while the pretzel breading made for a crispy panade, the meat itself was a bit tough and dry.
The apple mostarda it came with was great, however, and our friends enjoyed their workman’s plate with a german sausage that is the closest to a traditional brat I’ve ever had outside of Germany, apparently from a local butcher. Spices and seasonings were spot on.
I’d hoped to try the much-lauded sticky toffee pudding cake with butter pecan ice cream, but there was absolutely no way.
Guess we’ll have to return 
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That onion soup! Wow!
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It was fantastic. The guy’s fancier place books up for the year within 10 min after reservations go live in early spring.
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It saves payroll costs
But the food was served at the table, as were the drinks, so it’s not for lack of staff
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You can calculate as a restaurant owner how many seats you have, how many guests you expect etc and come up with how many work steps they have to do, e.g. take orders, serve dishes, clean table etc. to calculate how many servers you have to hire. If you eliminate one complex step like taking orders you will need to hire less servers than in a full service restaurant. In addition, taking orders is a more complex work step which requires more training which you can also eliminate. Restaurants are working in such small margins that even hiring 1-2 less server with such a model will bring you more chances of success (At the same time, it lowers the “quality” of a restaurant as it can be more seen as a fast-casual concept, e.g. we avoid for dinner any restaurant with counter service)
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As was hopefully evident from my report, we didn’t mind putting in our orders at the counter. It’s a casual place with great food.
Gotta get those steps in 
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For us it is a no-go concept - US restaurants serve dishes way too fast and so we always order in several rounds and don’t want to stand in line multiple times during dinner. In addition, such restaurants tend to create more hectic, fast turnover places and the last thing we need after a hectic workday is a hectic restaurant
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Our dishes arrived at a very leisurely pace. Nothing felt rushed at all, giving us plenty of time to both eat & converse…in short, not anything like the picture you seem to have in your mind 
Perhaps casual eateries on the West Coast are more casual than in the mid east. Bummer about your bad experiences.
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@ChristinaM and @LindaWhit. I use this NYT recipe without the amlou and add about 1/3 cup of chopped pistachios.
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Well I know where to get a reservation next time I head that way!
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Kimchi all winter long!
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I give it about 6 weeks before it’s gone. It’s extremely diet friendly so I tend to snack on it whenever I’m hungry and don’t have calories left in the budget for snacking. Nooming. 24 down. !!!
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Congrats!
It takes me a while to go through a jar of kimchi - I tend to eat just a few tablespoons at a time.
This is why I keep pickle brine in the fridge and take a swig from time to time.
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