Food news, restaurant news, offers and promotions and general musings
Thoroughly interesting post over at Gourmet Magazine - Pocketful of Dough
Bruce Feiler trawls the hottest New York restaurants and discovers that when it comes to getting a table at a "full" restaurant, a grubby twenty in the maître d’s palm can go a long way.
Hello 5pm'ers! Incase you haven't noticed, we have a few new restaurants on site for you to try!
Borsalino is an Italian restaurant based in Aberdeen that not only serves traditional cuisine but new style Italian dishes. The newly refurbished restaurant gives diners the option to enjoy a drink in the separate bar area, before or after their meal. The dedicated and attentive staff makes Borsalino a relaxed and friendly restaurant to visit!
Next we have The Long Way Home, a stylish and bohemian bistro bar based in Glasgow's West End. Jonathan has already mentioned this restaurant in an older blog. Previously Ad Lib on Byres road, the new bistro bar specialises in drinks of a gin variety. Their extensive range of gin is sure to make for a great night out 
They also sell speciality beer, a plus for the men. Food wise, the restaurant prides itself on 'cooked from scratch' dishes, so it will not disappoint.
Sannino's Bath street has also joined forces with 5pm. If you like Sannino's Elmbank, then you will definitely like it's sister restaurant. Specialising in tasty pizzas of all sizes, the restaurant is perfect for small or large parties. If you are going for a (romantic) meal for two, then the intimate booths and candles will provide the ambiance.
Book through 5pm for great deals!
The foodie chapter of the Hell's Angels will be in Dundee at the weekend
The Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight starts officially on Saturday. Designed to showcase all the brilliant grub and grog which is grown, caught, bottled and cooked in Scotland, there are dozens of events happening all over the country.
You can browse the full listings here but, for this weekend, you might want to take note of the Dundee Flower and Food Festival which kicks off in Camperdown Park tomorrow.
As well as all the thrills and spills that you would expect of an event that includes the National Vegetable Society Championships, the festival also features several chef demos.
Leading the pack are the ever lovable Hairy Bikers but, also among the other pan-rattlers, are the likes of Geoffrey Smeddle of The Peat Inn, Jacqueline O'Donnell of The Sisters and Bruce Price, Executive Chef of the Apex Hotel group.
If you fancy something with a bit more of a huntin', shootin' and fishin' flavour then you could take in Scotland's Countryside Festival at Glamis Castle which is also taking place this weekend.
Expect lots of home baking, artisan cheese and real ale among the ferret fancying.
If you are based in Glasgow then you might want to check out 5pm member Biadh. From Sunday, Chef Sam Carswell is running a crofters' menu using ingredients from small producers in the Highlands and Islands.
Ah, Texas. Land of the free and, according to this story in The Telegraph, home to deep-fried beer. I suppose it's a slightly healthier alternative to the deep-fried butter balls which they came up with last year.
Deer today, dinner tomorrow
As you are all no doubt aware, this Saturday is Eat Scottish Venison Day. According to its producers, the meat is not only healthy, nutritious and natural but also lean.
There are lots of events planned around the day itself but the Glengoyne Distillery, which is just outside of Glasgow, is getting in on the act early with a venison cooking demo tomorrow.
Hosted by Tom Lewis of Monachyle Mhor, there will be cooking demonstrations of new and classic venison recipes along with the chance to taste Tom's finished dishes. I expect that the odd nip of Glengoyne 10 year old will probably be on the cards as well.
Joint organisers of the event, The Scottish Venison Working Group, will also be on hand to offer visitors advice on venison such as what cuts to buy, how to cook it and where to buy it from.
In Edinburgh, on Saturday, Fletchers of Auchtermuchty will be displaying the world's largest recorded venison haggis at the Farmers' Market. From 11am, the monster haggis will be cut open and served up to market-goers.
Should you need any more convincing as to why you should eat venison, Fletchers are offering Eat Scottish Venison Day discounts on selected cuts at their stall in the market.
Lots of 5pm members feature venison on their menus. I'm not promising that it's on their menus today but the following are no strangers to the delights of a nice piece of venison fillet: The Horseshoe Inn at Eddlestone; The Sisters in Glasgow; Elliot's Restaurant in the Apex on Edinburgh's Waterloo Place; Opus One at the New County Hall in Perth and Blackaddie in Dumfriesshire.
Special mention goes to Neil Forbes who looks after the kitchens at The Atrium, blue and Cafe St Honore in Edinburgh. Venison is a regular visitor to The Atrium and Cafe St Honore and we hear rumours that, on an as yet undecided Saturday later this year, chef Forbes will be doing a venison carcass butchery demo at the Atrium followed by lunch.
We'll fill you in on the details as we get them. Meanwhile, here's a pic of an Atrium venison dish. It's roast, wild, Borders Roe deer served with a rosti, spinach, Scottish chanterelles and broad beans.
Remember Blas restaurant? It used to be at Kelvingrove? Specialised in Scottish food?
Well, a few months back it turned into the Lock Inn, a funky pub that seems to be going great guns.
Dave the chef from Blas has resurfaced at the An Lochan restaurant on Crow Road. The premises are now known as Blas at An Lochan and, as the name suggests, the next few months will see a gradual melding of the two restaurants' styles.
The current menu is here.
3 Floyds Beer: their labels are a bit different from the old Tennents lovelies
Aberdonian beer lovers are in for a treat this week as Musa hosts two beer dinners.
Tonight, the much lauded 3 Floyds brewery team are in town to match seven of their beers with five courses of Musa's innovative food.
Next Friday night, the Stone Brewing Co from California will be following the same format. BeerAdvocate once called Stone Brewing Co, 'the all time top brewing company on planet earth'; a description which may give you a clue as to how popular these events are likely to be.
Tickets for each event cost £30. You can find more info on the BrewDog site. On that note, the BrewDog team seem confident that their BrewDog bar should be up and running in Aberdeen by the end of Spetember.
Award-winning chef Tony Singh closed down his Tony's Table restaurant in Edinburgh on Saturday night.
The restaurant had traded for about a year and a half and, although it had attracted favourable reviews and a Michelin Bib Gourmand, tough trading conditions forced its close.
Speaking to the blog last night, Tony said, 'When the crunch came in 2009, we kept our heads above water. We were well priced and people were coming in. In 2010, it seemed as though every restaurant in Edinburgh city centre was doing two for ones. All our stuff is made from scratch and using decent ingredients. We couldn't cut the price without cutting the quality.'
Tony insisted that the closure of Tony's Table would have no effect on his other city centre restaurant, Oloroso.
When trading conditions improve, Tony hopes to bring back the Tony's Table brand.
A couple of months back, we told you about Roisin and Matthias Llorente who had taken over the Olive Branch Bistro on Colinton
Road in Edinburgh and were in the process of moulding it to their own design.
Well, Bia Bistrot is now up and running. Gaby Soutar gave it a thumbs-up in The Scotsman at the weekend. Her review is here.
We also told you about The Drake opening at the Charing X end of Woodlands Road in Glasgow. Joanna Blythman reviewed it recently in the Sunday Herald and gave it one of her fairly rare good reviews. Read all about it here.
Writing in The Herald, Ron MacKenna seems to have had a more puzzling experience at Sam's Kitchen, a new Malaysian restaurant on Cambridge Street. It's a few doors down the road from 5pm member the Four Seasons, a Chinese restaurant whose menu would appear to be easier to navigate than the one that Ron encountered.
Sticking with 5pm members, The Grill Room at The Square got a cracking review on Friday from The Glaswegian. The review is here. You can see what offers The Grill Room has today by looking them up here.
David Friel will be grinning at The Grill Room
If you would just step this way, I'll show you to your operating table
If you are of a nervous disposition or just in the middle of your breakfast then you might want to skip to the next post. Those of you with a stronger stomach, read on . . .
The blog came across this article in The Telegraph at the weekend. It's about Flime a proposed new restaurant in Berlin which is advertising for would be diners to donate body parts to the kitchen.
They are also on the look-out for a surgeon. Presumably to harvest or should that be 'to source' ingredients.
The menu is a mix of classic Brazilian dishes such as feijoada but anyone who has seen The Silence of the Lambs may wish to steer clear of the figado ao feijao mulatinho, a dish of liver with butter beans.
It's either a great spoof or a new restaurant has just made one of the all time great PR blunders. Either way, it's probably not the best place to suggest for a first date.
