For your extended attention span at lunch:
•It's no secret that Detroit was hit extremely hard by the recession. Few things brought the city together during this grim time as much as five-year-old restaurant Slows Bar B Q. Its owner has taken on the role of community builder with the resources Slows has provided him: "He advises other business owners on everything from liquor licenses to using salvaged lumber." [NYT]
•The average person's wine pairing is fairly one-dimensional: Big reds with steak, lighter whites with fish, and something in between for poultry or pork. Obviously, it's a lot more complicated an art than that. Yesterday, Adour's Executive Chef Didier Elena told us that "education and culture are involved. If you speak about [pairing with] lamb to a person coming from Bordeaux, naturally they’re going to think of Pauillac. If [it's] someone from the Southeast of France, they’re going to tell you about Côtes de Provence." Meanwhile The Globe and Mail points to cutting-edge sommeliers like author François Chartier, who skips the traditional model and instead "looks to aromatic compounds found in foods and beverages to come up with what he believes are far more harmonious pairings." [Global and Mail; The Feast]
