* McDonald’s Dumps Heinz———————-WTF!!!!!

Did you guys catch this recent United Press International article?…

I don’t know about you guys, but in Jeff Eats’ book Heinz Ketchup is the “only way to go”…I don’t know about you, but the thought of Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup or some no name-brand ketchup on my burgers/fries doesn’t sit too well with me.

Read the article… personally Jeff Eats thinks that the folks running McDonald’s should be ashamed of themselves…looks to me like they couldn’t give a rat’s ass about guys like Jeff Eats and I’m assuming guys like you!
*****

“OAK BROOK, Ill., Oct. 26 (UPI) — U.S. fast food giant McDonald’s said the ketchup it buys just got personal, saying it would quit doing business with H.J. Heinz because of a managerial change.
“As a result of recent management changes at Heinz, we have decided to transition our business to other suppliers over time,” McDonald’s said in a statement.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Friday that McDonald’s is cutting ties with Heinz because former Burger King Worldwide Chief Executive Officer Bernardo Hees was just picked to run what is arguably the world’s most famous ketchup company.
Hees is a partner in 3G Capital which, along with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, purchased Heinz this year. Hees, meanwhile, remains the vice chairman of the board at Burger King, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Heinz said it would not comment on a customer’s business decisions, but the company had been pushing to regain some of the McDonald’s business, which first suffered a setback in the early 1970s, when a tomato shortage forced McDonald’s to find new suppliers, the Post-Gazette reported.
McDonald’s has 34,000 outlets, but in the United States Heinz has only been supplying two of its markets, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis, the newspaper said.”

* Name That Restaurant

Jeff Eats was just thinking–most people seemingly have absolutely no imagination.

Just because your name is Joe or Vito…doesn’t mean that you have to name your new pizza restaurant Joe’s Pizza or Vito’s Pizzeria.

Now be honest–which new pizza restaurant would you be more likely to try…Vito’s Pizzeria or Johnny Chang’s Pizzera?

With the above in mind, what creative names can you guys come-up?

* Darlene Love (Parker Playhouse–Fort Lauderdale)

One of the greatest Rock N Roll singers of all-time, DARLENE LOVE will be performing at the Parker Playhouse on February 14, 2014 at 8pm.

Jeff Eats is talking LEGENDARY!
Jeff Eats is talking ROCK N ROLL HALL OF FAME!
Jeff Eats is talking “HE’S A REBEL”!

You can buy tickets on-line at www.parkerplayhouse.com.

*Jeff Eats On The Radio

Gonna be “on” with stock guru Peter Bruno…

“Good Morning Jeff,
Our web site is www.peterbruno.com and clicking on the radio link on the right side of this page will bring you to a splash page where on the top of the page, one could listen live to the audio streaming on their computer or go to the www.peterbrunomedia.com page to listen live or hear replays of previous programs . Clicking on this direct link will bring you to that page. http://www.peterbruno.com/index.html
The “Managing Your Money” radio program is heard M-F at 5:00 PM on WSBR Radio – 740 on your AM dial.and each program is repeated on that same station in the evening at 9:00 PM. Listeners from North Miami and out West towards Weston and Sawgrass Mills can listen in their cars at 5:00 PM on WWNN Radio, 1470 on the AM dial or on our archive web site at www.peterbrunomedia.com the following day.
Hope this information helps. Call my cell with any questions.”

***** Amici’s Trattoria Italiana, Hammock’s Town Center–10201 Hammock’s Boulevard, Miami, Florida 33196, (305) 388-3787.

Jeff Eats, Mrs. Jeff Eats and two other couples–recently had dinner at Amici’s Trattoria Italiana in Kendall…check Amici’s website www.amicismiami.com for menu/prices.

Before Jeff Eats opines on the food, Amici’s unlike the vast majority of its red sauce South Florida brethern–sisteren (?) decorated with Italian urns old wedding photos and tomato cans is an absolutely gorgeous up-scale “looking” art/deco looking joint—that said, your shorts/tee shirt/flip flop-sneakers’ ensembles will work just fine there. To get some idea as to what Jeff Eats considers “an absolutely gorgeous up-scale ‘looking’ art/deco looking joint”–take a look at the video that’s on Amici’s site. Nothing for nothing, the video’s music had me thinking that I was watching a Star Wars’ movie—but I “think” I get the idea–that Amici’s restaurant is out of this world…then again, Jeff Eats maybe reading/seeing/hearing too much into the video/music–so let’s get onto the food.

As I mentioned 27 seconds ago there were 6-people at the table…ordered food included—veal parmigiana ($13.95), sausage & peppers ($12.95), shrimp fra diavlo ($14.95), lasagna ($10.95), penne vodka ($13.95), large 18″ NY-style pizza ($11), eggplant parmigiana ($11.95) and everyone agreed that the food was real good. Now just so we are straight, although Amici’s is a “dolled up” joint, under the surface it’s your basic-hearty red sauce Italian joint where you come to fress (non Jews look it up) with plenty of Coke/Pepsi, beer, wine to wash down the food. For you guys who like a pecking orders, Jeff Eats would put the lasagna and sausage & peppers–as 1-2…but like I said before, everything was real good.

Let me wrap this one up…

Jeff Eats loved Amici’s Trattoria Italiana. Good solid food, good service, reasonable prices—and a nice change from the mundane “mom & pop” Italian joint decor.

Amici’s Trattoria Italiana is open Monday-Thursday 11am-10pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-11pm, Sunday noon-10pm.

The Manhattans

* Mardi Gras Casino– Great Concert Series (Hallandale Beach)

I don’t know about you guys, but Jeff Eats thinks that it’s absolutely absurd to pay a “king’s ransom” to buy a a concert ticket…sometimes, the service fees are literally more than the “seat” price.

Anyway…

This past year the Mardi Gras Casino has/had a Rock N Roll/Pop concert series that priced tickets at $10, $20, $40 a ticket—with a service charge of maybe a buck or two per ticket. The acts that have already appeared…The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Grass Roots, The Association, The Atlanta Rhythm Section, The Marshall Tucker Band, Jay & The Americans—still left to go, Fire Fall on November 12th and The Manhattans on December 31st…

Be smart– keep an eye on Mardi Gras Casino’s website www.mardigrascasinofl.com as the casino has all types of entertainment coming through—and you won’t have to go for you lungs to get a ticket.

* Rhino Donughnuts & Coffee (Boca Raton)

Jeff Eats loves and I do mean LOVES a good donut or two or three…with that in mind, I’m hearing that Rhino Donuts & Coffee a gourmet donut shop is currently under construction in Boca Raton…I really don’t have any particulars on the business other than it is located in the same strip -center as Spandini’s Pizzeria (see review 5/15/13) which is right across the street from Mizner Park in Boca Raton. Now, this again is hearsay as Jeff Eats is no Perry White—that in addition to the Boca location-Rhino has three other South Florida stores also under construction. The hearsay-story also says that Rhino makes outrageously delicious donuts and that the planned Boca menu is limited to coffee, donuts and a handful of muffins.

So…you now know as much as Jeff Eats knows about Rhino Donuts & Coffee.

Let’s keep an eye on this “one”…sounds like something that Jeff Eats might really enjoy trying out.

***** Joji Yogurt

Yesterday..

Jeff Eats tried a really cool “food truck” Joji Yogurt- at a Boca Raton street fair. Joji serves (pun intended) Miami to North Palm Beach, so you’ll need to check www.jojiyogurt.com to find out where this truck is on any given day.

Real simple concept, the side of the truck has 6-self serve frozen yogurt machines and a toppings bar. For 5 bucks you get an 8oz. cup which you can load-up with all of the yogurt and toppings that your little old heart desires.

Now, you and I both know that Joji Yogurt is a “variation on a theme”…that being the local self-serve frozen yogurt store—with the differences being 1. that this is a store on wheels and 2. the purchase price no matter how little or how much you “take” is capped at $5.

When you check Joji’s website, you’ll find that it has something like 2,000,000 rotating yogurt flavors and 2,000 rotating toppings. Yesterday, Jeff Eats tried the pineapple sorbet, vanilla and chocolate yogurt flavors and chopped peanuts and chocolate sprinkles toppings… everything was delicious on a sunny 85 degree South Florida day while walking from tent to tent looking at endless wind chimes, leather braclets, and paintings. Maybe it’s just me, but I could swear that I’ve seen some of the same paintings for-like 20 years at various street fairs. Anyway, I digress…

You regular guys know -that Jeff Eats has for a long time considered self-serve yogurt stores a “fad.”—I’ll even go on record, that the fad has ended and the predicted store closings are the next shoe to drop here in South Florida and elsewhere around the country. With that in mind, I gotta tell you, that Joji Yogurt’s food truck “one price” concept is genius…absolutely perfect for street fairs, carnivals, private parties—unlike a brick & mortar store, the truck can go where the action is.

Now nothing for nothing, Joji’s concept can be easily duplicated, replicated, copied in a flash. That said, yesterday was the first time that Jeff Eats had seen a “price fixed self serve yogurt” food truck in action, so the props and shout-out go to Joji’s.

You got Joji’s website. Its phone number is (954) 788-2565.

* Amazon.com, Inc.

Jeff Eats loves to “shop” at Amazon.com…For you guys who don’t know what Amazon.com is, take a look at its corporate profile ala Yahoo! Finance:

“Amazon.com, Inc. operates as an online retailer in North America and internationally. The company operates in two segments, North America and International. It operates retail Websites, such as amazon.com and amazon.ca, which include merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors and those offered by third-party sellers. The company serves consumers through its retail Websites and focuses on selection, price, and convenience. It also offers programs that enable sellers to sell their products on company’s Websites, and their own branded Websites. In addition, the company serves developers and enterprises through Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure that enables virtually various businesses. Further, it offers Kindle Direct Publishing, an online platform that lets independent authors and publishers to make their books available in the Kindle Store; and programs that allow authors, musicians, filmmakers, app developers, and others to publish and sell content. Additionally, the company manufactures and sells the Kindle e-reader devices. It also provides co-branded credit card agreements, and fulfillment and advertising services. Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.”
–
Now…if I have read Amazon.com’s financials correctly, this company which does billions of dollars in yearly sales has never-ever reported a profitable quarter. In a nutshell, it grosses tons of money and loses a fortune, yet as I type—its stock is trading at $360 a share which capitalizes the company at something close to $160,000,000,000.

WTF…

Any all explanations will be appreciated.

* Meatball Room (Boca Raton)

Jeff Eats isn’t sure on this…but I think- you guys know that I “reside” in Boca Raton…with that in mind, at least once or twice a week I’m in The Regency Court (3011 Yamato Road, Boca Raton) shopping center which is like 97 seconds from my home.

Anyway…over the past 10 years or so, four different restaurants have occupied a particular 6,000 square foot- space in the center. If you do the math—that means that on average, a joint lasted about 30 months in the spot—not exactly sure, but I think the last guy maybe was there 9 months and the guy before him 6 months, but who’s counting! The point of this “rambling”—the word longevity doesn’t come to Jeff Eats’ mind when he thinks of this particular spot and its past tenants. By the way, the first tenant and second tenant were “American Style” restaurants and the last two were Italian. To rough this out a drop more, the American Style joints had decent enough food/service and the Italian ones-had horrendous food/service. Jeff Eats can surmise why the Italian guys closed- but the “American Style” failures are open to conjecture—the best guess here, is that the rents were obscenely high, but that’s just an educated guess based on heresay.

Anyway…the other day Jeff Eats received an e-mail press release from an Italian restaurant named Meatball Room…who for right now- we’re gonna call “Guy #5” with a Grand Opening tentatively scheduled for the first week of November…that pr- piece is printed below for your review.

To make what has now turned into an absurd- long story shorter…this evening Jeff Eats just happened (wink wink!) to walk by the Meatball Room which is in the final stages of construction and watched from the “outside” the training of its new staff…Two of Meatball’s owners, John and Louie seeing Jeff Eats’ nose pressed against the window, invited me in…and I gotta tell you, that after a 32 minute conversation with them, I really-think that Meatball Room has a shot of being a huge success. The reason I “say” this…both John and Louie have “tons” of experience both in the front/back of the house–The menu they showed me, had a great selection of reasonably priced Italian stuff and the decor–which resembles an upscale sports-bar with loads of flat screen tvs (do they still make fat screen tvs?) and an out-door dining patio is perfect for the neighborhood-family crowd that populates the immediate area. Finally…Louie insisted that I try the wood fired margherita pizza that he was “testing” on the new-staff…not wanting to be insulting, Jeff Eats had two slices and I gotta tell you, that the wood fired pizza- thin/crisp/sweet sauce was absolutely dynamite. Can’t speak for anyone else, but I think that my buddies over at blog- Worst Pizza www.worstpizza.com are gonna love this pizza, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Now nothing for nothing…Jeff Eats knows that 2 slices of test pizza don’t make or for that matter-break a restaurant—who knows, the rest of the food could be garbage and the service stinks—or maybe the rent is a killer…What I do know, is that Jeff Eats has been around a ton of restaurants and the gut-call is that Louie and John (not sure if there are other partners or not) are gonna pull this one off.

As they say in Uganda—Only time will tell!

By the way, you can check menu/prices at www.meatballroom.com.

Take a look at the pr piece…and Jeff Eats will update you guys after eating a “real” meal there.

*****
MEATBALL ROOM, HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED AUTHENTIC TUSCAN ITALIAN RESTAURANT, TO OPEN IN BOCA RATON MID-OCTOBER, Located in The Regency Court, adjacent to Woodfield Country Club, the restaurant features authentic fare, artisan cocktails, designer desserts and mu
By Simply the Best PR
BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 7, 2013 — /PRNewswire/ — Meatball Room (www.meatballroom.com), the highly-anticipated, newly designed Tuscan Italian restaurant, announced today they have retained Simply the Best PR (www.simplythebestpublicrelations.com) as its Public Relations firm of record.
Meatball Room’s extensive menu is highlighted by 12 different meatballs made fresh daily, ranging from classic Italian, to brisket, salmon, Reuben, eggplant, turkey, chicken, vegetarian and much more.
Executive Chef Louie, who recently moved back to Florida from Las Vegas after serving as Executive Chef at The Sugar Factory American Brasserie, the highly-acclaimed 30,000 square foot restaurant at The Paris Hotel, is in charge of all aspects of the kitchen at Meatball Room. His authentic Tuscan-inspired signature dishes include homemade pastas and unique sauces, wood burning pizza oven, Pollo, Veal, Pesce, Melanzane, Ravioli and much more.
Meatball Room features:
•Lunch and dinner daily
•Sunday brunch
•Wood burning pizza oven and open kitchen
•Indoor and outdoor patio seating
•Indoor/outdoor bar
•Cocktail lounge
•Champagne ladies night
•Private parties
•Catering
•And more
With the debut of Meatball Room, Boca Raton has a new choice for genuine Italian cuisine that is Tuscan at heart, but reflects modern tastes and lightness. A full bar with a carefully selected wine list, hand-made cocktails and a daily happy hour featuring bar bites and drink specials will be featured.
The Dessert Menu is extensive and is unlike any dessert menu seen in South Florida. Mouth-watering highlights include a wide array of homemade ice cream sundaes, cheesecakes, tiramisu, numerous milkshakes, innovative ice cream sandwiches, delicious cakes, a Whoopie Pie Tower, and so many other choices.
The restaurant is 5,500 square feet, seats 260 both inside and on the outside covered patio, features a wood burning pizza oven, open kitchen, LED lighting throughout, plasma televisions at the bars and private party room.
“Our publicity will include a series of grand opening events to introduce the restaurant as a place to enjoy genuinely delicious Italian dishes and exciting drinks in a comfortable, relaxed yet beautiful atmosphere,” states Kim Morgan, President of Simply the Best PR. “We are particularly excited to promote Executive Chef Louie to the media to showcase his extensive and impressive experience in Tuscan fare and exciting desserts.”
Meatball Room The Regency Court 3011 Yamato Road Boca Raton, FL 33434 www.meatballroom.com 561-409-4111
Contact: Kim Morgan Simply the Best Public Relations (954) 261-2149 kmorgan@goodpresspublishing.com
Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/10/07/5280284/meatball-room-selects-simply-the.html#storylink=cpy