So anyone ever been to Amy's Bakery in Scottsdale?

Never been but have been following it closely.

FChat meetup at Amy's anyone?

 

I drove by today and it was closed. It is to reopen on the 21st.

A group of members on honda-tech.com are going on June 1st. Ill be going with them lol. F Chatters should join in.

 

Since I'll be in the area for Cars and Coffee, and that I own a Honda...perhaps I will stop by then to have some coffee with some sugar and abuse.

 

I don't think it will last that long.

 

I ate there after the Check Please episode. I called and made reservations, and then just happened to google the place and see the controversy. After I saw a video clip of them being interviewed, I immediately recalled the Seinfeld Soup Nazi episode - LOL!!!

Anyway...the food was great. I think Amy is a great chef.

HOWEVER - They don't know how to run a restaurant. The husband is the bottleneck to all service. The waitresses seemed to be young and intimidated...like they were afraid to do anything without his approval. All they seemed to be authorized to do was bring the food and refill water glasses. The husband took the orders and was the only person that could deliver the check. It took forever to order, and it took forever to get the check.

From our table, I could see Amy in the kitchen. It was very interesting to watch her. It reminded me of the movie "No Reservations." I could tell she was a stickler for perfection.

Again - Food Awesome, restaurant operation sucks!

 

Maybe a coffee get together is in order!

 

Thorazine, early and often (for Amy/Samy at least) and only bring your daily driver.

 

We might just have to pay a visit and rattle the glass a bit...LOL

I'm surprised Dave mentioned the "soup Nazi" episode, I thought you and I were the only Ferrari people that saw that one.

I was under the impression it was never shown in Arizona

LOLx100000000000000000

 

We were at a movie last week at Shea 14, a couple of nights before the story broke in the news and were considering going there for a bite after the movie, but the awning blurb was confusing. It seemed like they were not sure if they were a french bakery or an italian trattoria so we passed. I guess there was some ESP involved

 

per the AZ Republic, there is a job fair today, 2-5. They want to hire 30 ppl in advance of the "Grand Reopening" on Tues. Nothing spells successful relaunch like a fresh crew of free agents who haven't worked together or with this particular brand of crazy owner before. See Washington Redskins

 

With all the cameras that will be there on Tuesday, it would not surprise me one bit if Arpaio showed up to arrest them for tip theft. It's just his style.

 

What did you eat?

Ramsey can sometimes skim over details when commenting on his first meal at a place, but the things get got (burger, salmon burger, maybe ravioli?) didn't look all that great and he, of course, ripped them to shreds.

 

I had the ravioli that was featured on the Check Please show. I thought it was great. It was spicy. My wife had the eggplant parmesan...she said it was very good. I don
't recall even seeing a burger on the menu.

 

As best as I can tell the quality of the food was not the issue for customers. It clearly is something Ramsay picks on because that is the formula for the show.

But his visit uncovered something far more egregious - the pocketing of the service staff gratuities by the owners, as well as the blatant misinformation about the food being made from scratch on premises. It's well known that every major chain like Red Lobster and Olive Garden cook virtually nothing on site, but they also don't say that they do. Amy's trumpets its made from scratch claims on their social media pages, in their menu and in their advertising. That's just basic dishonesty.

The owners' personalities were also revealed to be just plain nasty and I guess most people would choose to take their business elsewhere knowing that fact. Greater Phoenix has literally thousands of restaurants and a bad place should be shut down by customer apathy.

 

Or at least the entire chain of command at Penske (including Rog), had never, ever, ever seen Seinfeld, according to the head cheese at SF.

 

The quality of the food is why the meltdown occurred. Amy had no idea her dishes were being sent back because Samy didn't give her feedback. Thus, she thought she was badass. The only reason they were on the show were to tell off the bad reviewers on Yelp and blogs, which we now know were not lying. Watch the very beginning of the episode again, they wanted Gordon to come in and do a fluff piece on the restaurant in an attempt to get free advertising. Everything else you stated was spot-on. The only thing Gordon actually liked were the cakes and pastries in which Amy revealed on Facebook were not made by her and were repackaged and resold.

 

I believe one of the things Ramsey blew up about was being told by the husband that the ravioli were made fresh in the kitchen, when they were really brought in frozen (could be mixing up my Kithcen Nightmare episodes...). Not to say they weren't good, Ramsey didn't really state a problem so much with flavor as composition, truthfulness and attitude.

Amy must have 86'd the burgers because I clearly remembering Ramsey complaining that the beef burger's bun was soggy (with grease) and the salmon burger was dry, and she was like "WELL WHICH IS IT WAS THE BURGER SOGGY OR DRY?!?!?!".
Two different burgers, baby.

 

As I understand it the customers during the filming are aware of the show and its needs, and the food returns are probably a tad out of the ordinary. Ramsay has a formula and it never varies. The food reviews of Amy's outside of Ramsay's show have never been dreadful

 

Back in 2010, there was a blogger and a Yelper who posted on both that the food was terrible. She lashed out against him and called him a loser and a moron. Go on Yelp and search it, you'll have to sift through the crap that has been posted on it due to the airing of the show, but go prior to the show and you'll see some reviews.

Here's the video of her in 2010: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nexQhKIx39Q]Amy Bouzaglo of Amy's Baking Company on the news regarding a Yelp review - YouTube[/ame]

 

We had the fresh frozen ravioli and plenty of time for discussion before it arrived.
I mentioned to Samy that Costco has the same but cheaper should he be looking to reduce costs.

They can all count on wonderful tips ... right through their hands and into Samy's!
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I just want to know when it's rebroadcast so I can virtually share in Ash's coffee and abuse.


via rubber ducky

 

Garlic aioli AND truffle oil on a burger loaded with mushrooms and blue cheese.

Good one!

 

*gag*

I don't see that one on the current menu anymore but the salmon burger is still there. I love how she goes from boring to flowery the further the menu goes. At the end it's all "creamy", "tender" and "fresh" and in the beginning it's just "French Fries" and "Salmon Burger" lol

Menu Specials | Amy's Baking Company

I'm sure her clientele appreciates the helpful translations of obscure and exotic ingredients like Pancetta ( Italian Bacon) and prosciutto (Italian Salt Cured Ham). I suppose Pommes Frites (French Fries) would have been too "authentic".

Hard to believe the website wasn't purposely written to be ironic/comedic/mocking of spelling and grammatical checkers:

"Amy’s Baking Company is an upscale full service Retail Patisserie as well as a full service European Bistro , Pizzeria and bar. Specializing in house made desserts, Artisan Gourmet Pizzas, Farm Fresh Organic Salads, house made Artesian Pastas fine wines and custom Martinis. We make all our food from scratch using only the highest quality ingredients to ultimately produce a superb product. We are best known for our fanciful cakes and desserts, elaborately decorated with homemade butter cream frosting and edible flowers and glitter."

 

So tired of hearing about this place.