Reporting Back

Zak (the baker) Stern hosted a very delightful and very well attended event Friday late afternoon, October 18.  Zak has become very well known in Dade County, because of his sourdough-based baked goods, and he's a BP resident!  He lives on 118th St, two houses from where Sylvia Linke used to live, and he bought Sylvia's house as well, as a place for his offspring to live.

Zak served a variety of edibles, and he also provided wine.  When the general mingling ended, Zak recapitulated the story of his life, which started in Kendall, and his adventures in places like Israel and France, and finally, how he decided to make a career in the food business.  Zak settled into a storefront/bakery in Wynwood, which is still his base, and he bakes for that outlet, a number of local restaurants, and several nearby Whole Foods stores.  My sense is that Zak, who is a very nice guy, is modest, and my best guess is that he's very successful.

When Zak finished his presentation, about himself and his evolution as a frankly master baker, he offered to take questions (a Q&A component).  One person asked him what local restaurants he himself likes.  His top choice was Walrus Rodeo on NE 2nd Ave at about 52nd St.  Since I had no other compelling food plans on Saturday, I decided to try them out.

Walrus Rodeo is a medium-sized restaurant, and it seemed almost full when my companion and I arrived.  The maitresse d' said there were no available tables, and we would have to wait about 1 1/4 hours for one.  I said we'd leave, and maybe come back another time -- I had not the slightest willingness to wait that long -- and the maitresse d' suddenly found us an open table.  (Hmm)

Our waiter was a little sketchy about the sizes of items on order, and he suggested we order about four items, even though he said inconsistently that items were somewhat small, but large enough to share.  Since neither of us was terribly hungry, we ordered a "za" (pizza, like Kanye West calls himself "Ye") and a kale salad.  Between those two dishes and the absence of ravenous appetites, what we ordered was in fact enough.

I would not return to Walrus Rodeo.  I'll set aside what felt like the manipulativeness of the seating.  The food was too expensive.  A relatively small six-slice pizza was $22, and it was not nearly as good as a much larger (about twice the size) $26 veggie with no cheese pizza from Tomato and Basil, which is much closer.  The salad ($17, which was much too much money) was fine, but neither the pizza choices nor the salad choices, nor anything else on the menu, allowed me to keep my preferred vegan restriction.  The restaurant was oddly much too noisy.  The ceiling appeared to have been covered with some contoured metal tiles, and the ceiling was high, so maybe it was that.  There was a tiny, but bizarre, 2% add-on to the bill ($.75) , and it was called a "Health Care Service Charge."  I asked about it, and the waiter said he assumed it was the restaurant's attempt to recover the amount they spent for health care for employees.  Also, I'm not particular about water, so I asked for tap water.  There was an extra $1 charge for Vero water.  I'm happy for Zak if he likes eating there, but it was so trendy as to be annoying, way too expensive, way too noisy, and not as good as I can get elsewhere.

As I was leaving Friday evening's event, Ryan Huntington approached me to ask if he could talk to me about his campaign.  We agreed on Sunday morning at 11:00.  What was initially curious about Ryan's having approached me is that he has never approached me before (but clearly knows who I am), has never called me by name, has not (now twice) asked me to host one of his yard signs, even though it's inconceivable that Mac Kennedy has not mentioned this possible opportunity to Ryan (twice), and has not, for example, said that he heard about this blog, and my always ready willingness to have candidates be guest authors, so they can use the blog as part of their campaigns.  But I cheerfully agreed to meet Ryan (why he wanted to meet at the recreation center was curious and unexplained).

Ryan knocked on my door at about 10:00 Sunday morning.  This time, he addressed me by name ("Fred"), and told me he needed to cancel our meeting, because his wife wasn't feeling well.  He said he'd get back to me to reschedule.  It is now 6:30 Monday afternoon, and I never heard back from Ryan.  We had exchanged phone numbers, so all he had to do was call.  In fact, we could have had our conversation by phone, if his wife wasn't feeling well.  That does not appear to be what Ryan had in mind.  As it happens, I have one of Mac Kennedy's campaign signs, and a Harris/Walz sign, clearly visible in my swale.  Ryan didn't even ask if he could add his sign.  Neither did Dan Samaria, who had come by to drop off his campaign literature.

So that's my report.  I won't go back to Walrus Rodeo, and I'm not voting for any BP Commissioners.  Mac Kennedy will get the most votes, as he should, and I don't care who comes in second or third.  The only difference it might make is that Dan Samaria might use his time to argue with Mac, and Ryan might not do the same.  But it remains to be seen.  There might be three functional Commissioners, or there might be two.  I've spoken to Dan, but not to Ryan, and I can't be bothered to guess what either of them will do.  As it happens, Mac sent out an e-mail today, and he talked about what he considers to be the Commission's recent accomplishments, which he seems to say he powered.  If that's true, then he can create a functional majority after the next two years whether Dan gets a four year term or Ryan does.