Trader Joe’s Wine Aisle
As part of the FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 I doubled down on the effort to send a message to Trader Joe’s by getting the store listed in the 2011 Best of the Capital Region results.
Granted, this is a secondary effort, and it’s a daunting one at that. Since almost everyone shops for groceries, almost everyone has an opinion on the best store. But really in the area, we only have three real supermarkets to choose from, Price Chopper, Hannaford and Walmart. Given Price Chopper’s regional roots it has won handily for the past few years I’ve been tracking the poll.
Breaking into a three-way category with a fourth smaller business is a daunting task.
As fate would have it the Best Wine Store category is in a very similar situation. There are really only three major wine stores in the area: Exit 9, All Star, and Empire. I suppose there could be an argument to made that one of the smaller places is actually better like F.L.O.W. or Delaware Plaza. Perhaps I should be campaigning for one of them.
But I fully expect the results in this category to contain some kind of split between the big three merchants in town. And honestly, choosing the best among the three is splitting hairs. So I really feel fine mucking about with a write in campaign for Trader Joe’s both here and under Best Supermarket.
Not everyone was convinced by the wisdom of this decision.
Ride the Dinosaur
This isn’t a retraction, per se. But I do feel the need to set a few things straight.
At the end of last month I wrote about an unexpectedly bad experience at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Troy. I said that it was a mystery that I hoped would be solvable. And I also said that until that day, I would be in no rush to return.
I’m glad to say that the mystery has been solved, and now I’m actually eager to get back.
What brought the dramatic turn around? Well, Dinosaur took my experience very seriously, and I got to spend some time on the phone talking with the Director of Operations, Michael Varipapa. He confirmed after talking with the kitchen manager that indeed on the day I was in they had run short of sausage and unfortunate shortcuts were taken.
Still, Michael wanted me to come down to the restaurant for a face to face conversation and to show me first hand what they do to try and achieve consistent high-quality barbecue, every time. I was game, and AOA Greg was kind enough to come along.
Let me tell you, it was an eye opening experience.
What is Best in Life?
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
~Conan
I don’t know why the subject of The Best has been coming up recently. Maybe it has something to do with the Times Union’s annual reader poll of The Best in the Capital Region. What is really interesting is that I seem to be embroiled in several conversations that shouldn’t be able to exist in the same universe.
Over here on the FLB, B and I are going back and forth about how, should the FUSSYlittleBALLOT be successful, it would improve the state of affairs of food in Albany. While he permits for the possibility that he could be wrong, B asserts that when people
See their favorite didn’t make the top spot, they just think that’s stupid and keep going to the place they like. This is just human nature, and like differences in personal taste, you aren’t gonna change it.
Yet over on Facebook, Kristi Gustafson was dismayed by some of her favorite spots blatantly campaigning for votes in the Times Union poll. Due to some freak social media glitch I can’t seem to locate that conversation. However, the very notion that local businesses would alienate their core consumers in order to try to reach the top of this list indicates how important being voted best is for bringing people through the door.
For the record I think B is only partially correct. I believe the businesses campaigning for votes are keenly aware of the poll’s impact, and I’m delighted by the irony that the TU’s social media strategist is put off by the social media strategies initiated by the paper’s poll.
We can hash this all out in the comments section. Because what I really want to elaborate on this morning was the conversation I was attempting to have with Kristi in 140 character chunks about the difference between The Best and The Favorite.
Saturday’s Soft Serve Standings
This past Saturday was glorious. The sun was shining, and it was most definitely a beautiful spring day. At noon, still smelling sweetly of smoke from the pits at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, I arrived at On the Farm in Latham without my jacket. I had a stack of scoresheets, a digital scale, and an overwhelming desire to eat some ice cream.
It was an auspicious beginning for the first annual Tour de Soft Serve.
There were a few no shows, but all in all ten intrepid eaters went forth to sample the wares at five of the most beloved seasonal soft serve stands in Albany County (plus one just over the river in Clifton Park): On the Farm, Guptil’s, Country Drive In, Kurver Kreme and Jim’s Tastee Freez.
This slate was highly influenced by reader nominations as well as the geographic footprint of these stands. All in all this tour was completed in less than four hours. But all of the work was worthwhile. Because while some may insist all soft serve tastes the same, I and the rest of the eaters from the tour can assure you it does not.
There was one establishment that rose significantly above all the others, whose soft serve was superior in almost every measure.
Making My Minutes Count
Happy Monday. FUSSYlittleBALLOT season is much like a pledge drive for public radio. It seemingly goes on and on forever. And right now we are in the worst part. The middle.
Those eager beavers who take care of things quickly have already gotten in their polls. And those who wait until the last minute still aren’t going to budge until April 22. But this is the time to keep stoking the fire, and trying to reach new eager beavers who will take action now.
Just yesterday the FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 got a fantastic endorsement from Albany Kid. And I hope that some of the other bloggers out there who read this will consider going to bat for this effort as well. But I know that some of you still aren’t entirely convinced. This is one of the reasons I love blogging. Because, when you aren’t convinced, you let me know. Much like B did when he noted:
Daniel, what’s missing from this (unless I didn’t notice it in the previous post) is how you expect any of this to make any difference, even if your efforts are successful.
Well, let me tell you.
Ask the Profussor – Ballots and BBQ
The past few weeks have seemed like a blur. AOA celebrated its third birthday. I bought butter by the case from Adventures in Food Trading for the Jewish Food Festival. Ryan from Caffé Vero sat down with me and talked about what they do so I could write up their macchiato for All Over Albany. Flying Pigs Farm was inspired to open a Capital Region location for their CSA. And the FLB hit a milestone of 600 posts, which even for me seems like a lot of fussiness.
Now we are in the middle of FUSSYlittleBALLOT season. Luckily for everyone the voting is over on April 22, so you have fewer than two weeks to endure my constant droning on about asking all your friends and relations to vote for the full slate.
On top of it all, the Tour de Soft Serve was completed yesterday, and I’m tabulating all the scores. There was one clear winner, so now the battle seems to be for second place. But I’ll have the full report in the days to come. And if that weren’t enough I had an illuminating discussion with John Stage, owner of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, and one of his chief lieutenants about a lot of things, including their sausage.
All of this is to say that a few of your questions got lost in the shuffle. But they are very important to me, so here are your answers.
Spread the Word
I cannot believe it is Friday already. It is amazing how quickly time flies when you are trying to convince people to line up behind a slate of amazing local businesses for the designation of “Best of the Capital Region”.
Now is the time when I really need your help.
Hopefully you are at least partially convinced about the FUSSYlttleBALLOT 2.0 scheme. But even if all my readers voted the full slate, this blog still doesn’t reach nearly enough people to effect this change. Despite a healthy discussion on the Table Hopping blog, Kevin Marshall mentioning this effort earlier this week, it appearing on the TU’s Schenectady Blog, and Kristi Gustafson featuring the FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 in her post on the poll, this will only work if I can get your participation and involvement.
If you believe in what I am trying to accomplish, you need to help spread the word. Here is what I would like you to do. And it has nothing to do with Twitter or Facebook. Please send an email to anyone you know who might possibly be interested in participating in this scheme.
I know. It feels a bit intrusive. And it sounds like a lot of work. But I’m going to make it easy.
Pork: Be Inspired
Less than two months ago I first wrote about Flying Pigs Farm. They are an amazing pork producer that is less than fifty miles northeast of Albany and just about twenty-five miles east of Saratoga Springs.
Then I got a bit upset when I found out why one cannot find their products locally.
But I just got some encouraging news from the farm this week. They are starting a ten-week meat CSA, starting on May 10, 2011. Initially this was just going to be available for pick-up at the farm in Sushan or down in New York City. However, if they can secure a modest number of subscribers, they will establish a Capital Region drop-off.
All Over Albany mentioned this a full three days ago, with links to all the details. Me, I may be a bit late to the game, but I’m going to try and sell this thing.
Tour de Soft Serve
The FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 declares that Crisan has the best ice cream in the Capital Region. But gelato and soft serve are about as far apart as a Cuban sandwich is to a PB&J.
At first I thought that soft serve was like a religion in the region, but now I’m starting to feel that it’s more like a cult. I’m very excited that so many people have expressed interest in joining me on this tour, and it was great to have my eyes opened to people’s passionate backing of their favorite seasonal soft serve stands that weren’t even on my radar.
Actually that last part made my job a good bit harder.
The list of potential stops on the tour went from five to twelve. And even five I think is pushing the reasonable capacity of adults to critically consume ice cream over the course of a single afternoon. Despite being tempted to include a sixth stop, I capped the tour at five. Not everyone is going to be happy about which places made the tour and which ones got left off. But let’s try to take the long view. We can revisit some of the other places next year in the Tour de Soft Serve Extended Remix.
Here’s the plan for the first Tour de Soft Serve on Saturday, April 9.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 