THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9412300263
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On the Town
SOURCE: Sam Martinette
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Later this month, this column celebrates an anniversary, having begun in 1988.
I generally take advantage of the occasion to reflect on some aspect of the restaurant business, and this year I thought it might be fun to look back at the first month's columns and see how the subjects fared over the years.
Not so well, I'm afraid. The introductory column, which ran on the cover of the Jan. 20 Compass, was all about the stiff competition restaurants faced in Ghent. It featured a photo of the Intermission, which is now San Antonio Sam's. I followed that up with a column on Two Pesos, an excellent fast-food Tex-Mex concept that opened on Military Highway but lasted only a little more than a year. Now it is the site of Hooters.
Week three was about a dandy little place on Colley Avenue called the Raw Bar Bay, which you now know as the Colley Cantina. The fourth column that opening month was about a Waffletown in Ocean View that also had some great Filipino food. It was torn down long ago. Over the next weeks we'll revisit a couple of the restaurants featured that first couple of months.
Speaking of anniversaries, I spoke recently with Ethel-Raye Greenspan of the Single Gourmet, and she advised me that her organization will celebrate its seventh anniversary at La Galleria on Jan. 19. Cocktails begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:30, with a choice of three entrees for $42, inclusive.
You may recall from past columns that the Single Gourmet sponsors dinners at area eateries for those who enjoy dining with other single people without the pressures of having a date. More a social gathering than a match-making situation, several couples nevertheless have formed as a result of meeting at the events. Other upcoming dinners include those scheduled for Alexander's on the Bay, The Trellis in Williamsburg, the Bistro at Le Chambord, Mahi Mahi on the Oceanfront and in February at the Orapax Inn. For membership information, call Ethel-Raye Greenspan, 623-0687.
Frank Lipoli, an entrepreneur known for the versatility of his ``My Dad's'' products, has done it again, this time with a homemade bread pudding that has developed so well over the past couple of years that he now is marketing it to restaurants following a bang-up holiday season.
``We call it My Dad's Country Bread Pudding,'' Lipoli advised me last week. Based on a recipe devised by his father, Tommy Lipoli, the bread pudding surfaced at the Bayou Boogaloo a few years back but really made its mark at a St. Jude Gourmet Gala two years ago.
``We were really just offering it as a tasting, but when we looked around we had the longest line,'' Lipoli recalled. ``Then people started asking how they could get it for the holidays.''
The result was a holiday gift package of nearly two pounds that serves six and sells for $6.95; a half-tray that serves 20 to 25 people ($17.50); and a full tray that serves 40 to 45 for $35.
Lipoli and his wife Debbie will start the new year by marketing the pudding to restaurants to offer as a dessert. His biggest commercial account so far is Croakers, a seafood eatery near the Lesner Bridge in Virginia Beach, but he plans to make the rounds during the next two months when his Botanical Garden operation is closed for remodeling.
I asked Lipoli what's so different about his bread pudding.
``It might sound corny, but one big difference is it's prepared with love, and that comes through in the flavor,'' he replied.
More tangible, perhaps, is the fact that he uses a Baltimore-style, Lebanese roll, pecans, coconuts, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices he declined to reveal.
``Then it's topped with a delicious homemade rum sauce and cinnamon sauce that we make ourselves, and plan to bottle, which leaves a great aftertaste,'' he added.
New this holiday season was an apple bread pudding, a variety on the original.
``The thing about our bread pudding is that you have to go to the source to get it - and people have - coming from Richmond, Williamsburg, even North Carolina,'' Lipoli said. ``You can't get this in your neighborhood supermarket.''
For information on My Dad's Country Bread Pudding, call 857-1854 and leave a message. by CNB