Friday, May 9, 2008

Buzz and I survived our lunch with Bill Kurtis and we will recount all of the details on Friday morning. I must say that even though I have been making fun of Tallgrass Beef mercilessly (albeit good-naturedly), I found it to be quite tasty. Of course, Charlie Trotter getting his mitts on it can’t hurt. We actually ended up at Charlie’s house for lunch. Everyone at the book signing went to Charlie’s, not just Buzz and I. We all took a trolley from the restaurant. As you can imagine, Charlie has a very nice pad. I was working on a Vegas trip with him. He’s got a new restaurant in The Venetian. True, Charlie and I just met face to face on Thursday, but he’s been a fan since he was a kid. That works for me.

Chef Hans was in rare form. He knows literally everybody. The cutest thing he did was to take Buzz and me into the kitchen at the restaurant when we got there. Buzz and I know nothing about restaurant kitchens, but I think Chef feels most comfortable there. I did log some time as a bus boy and dishwasher in my youth at a Polynesian restaurant in La Crescenta, California (Vince Dundee’s Kona Kai), but it was nothing like the kitchen at Charlie Trotter’s. Vince is Angelo Dundee’s brother. Yeah, I was running with the boxing crowd when I was a kid. We learned how to box from Angelo, and it came in very handy at prep school where disputes were settled with fisticuffs.

As I said, I make fun of Bill Kurtis a lot, but deep down there is something I like about him. He’s a pompous ass, but also kind of cool in a been-there-done-that sort of way, and he did kick ass on Channel 2 back in the day. He doesn’t really do anything anymore, yet he’s still just as famous as he ever was (or maybe even more so). He’s always been very nice to me, and I always feel somewhat guilty for making fun of him. Damn! I knew this would happen if I went to the Tallgrass lunch and book signing. It’s always best for me to keep my distance from the people that I lampoon. Truth be told, I’d probably end up liking Drew Peterson if I spent an evening with him at Buffalo Wild Wings.