Perez and I huddled around my iPhone and read the review.  Perez had received a call from Chef Jack a few moments ago, and we hurriedly logged onto Food Dude’s site to read with our own eyes.  Our excitement built as we scanned the article, and soon Adam charged into the kitchen holding high a printout of the article, congratulating us all with a huge grin on his face.  Chef arrived shortly after and began to thank us all for our hard work.  We all expressed our gratitude to him for guiding us to this high point in our careers.  The rest of our workday was filled with a palpable energy, with much patting of backs and winking nods.  All of our diligence had paid off. Portland Food & Drink’s Food Dude is the definitive voice in the Portland food scene.  Receiving this honor from him helps solidify us as one of the best restaurants in town.  Here’s my favorite passage from the review:

When I review any meal, I consider all of the parts swirling around and building on each other. The host, the server, the menus, bartender, sommelier, and finally the kitchen, each choreographed to come in at just the right moment. In some restaurants there are more parts than others, but each one is no less important. When the moment arrives when the meal is finished and I sit back in my chair – all of those elements are now a composition.

Putting aside the emotional components, I mentally scored the composition: front of the house four stars, service four stars, quality of drinks four stars, sommelier four stars, quality of food 3.75 stars; it was one of the most perfect meals I’ve had in Portland. That final dinner confirmed what I already suspected – Ten 01 is my restaurant of the year.

I’m glad food dude described us in this way.  Ten-01 is a special place. I feel priveleged to work as a cog in such a well running machine.  All of us here strive for the best.  We all push to be better, while at the same time holding each other up.  From owner to dishwasher, from Chef to busser, we are commited to our product, and to one another.  A fluid mechanism truly greater than the sum of it’s parts.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 10:12 am and is filed under by Jeff McCarthy, press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.