Chuck Palahniuk was right. Forget the empowerment of males as valuable human beings and dancing nude around campfires yada yada.

This is more like it. Passion. Heavy breathing. And the proper use of Ikea furniture.

If there's one thing that bugs me, it's the “glory hallelujah” approach to business ideas. Witness, to name a few, business process reengineering, zero-based budgeting, participatory management, management by objectives, centralization, decentralization, and matrix management. All consigned to the dustbin of business fads. But before they were, consultants, evangelists, and business authors made fortunes telling us how these fads would transform every organization and answer every prayer.

All of these approaches worked some of the time, but none worked all of the time. As is the case with public private partnerships, or P3s, which are being tried of late in BC by various levels of government, including the Vancouver Parks Board, in its attempt to find a better way to provide food to park visitors.

I'm not necessarily opposed to P3s. If sharing assets, risks, and rewards between government and the private sector is the best way to provide the public with the highest quality at the lowest possible cost over the life of a project, then I'm all for it.

But P3s, which may come at the cost of loss of control over a public asset, don't always generate the efficiencies and cost savings that were projected in business plans and cases. Nor do they always provide better service delivery or user experience. The private sector does business for profit, not for the public good.

The City of Hamilton, on advice from a large management consulting firm, abandoned a P3 proposal to develop its entertainment and convention facility, because it concluded a P3 would reduce the community's access to the facility.

In Maple Ridge, a public private partnership to redevelop the downtown core was ruled illegal by the BC Court of Appeal. A forensic audit found that the proposed deal was deliberately designed to favour the P3. The community voted in favour of disolving the P3 contract and in 2004 Maple Ridge resumed control and ownership of the project, saving taxpayers between $9 and $11 million.

In Stanley Park, the Teahouse and Seasons in the Park restaurants are already run as P3s. Nestled among 1,885 acres of Stanley Park, they are almost inconspicuous. The Watermark, at Kits Beach is another story altogether. A concrete edifice with wood trim and a glass extension, it is home to a raucous second-floor crowd whose party noise dominates the ground level goings on that are more usual for a public beach.

And now there are going to be more restaurants patterned on Watermark, starting with Coal Harbour and English Bay. This time, though, the Parks Board will manage the development permit process for the eventual operators. With the Watermark, Barnett Family Holdings, which has a 20-year lease on the facility, was required to manage the development permit process on its own.

How did we get here? And is this where we want to be?

In February 2005, Jim Lowden, manager of Stanley District, at a Park Board Finance Committee meeting, recommended and was given authority to hire a consultant to review concession food services and develop a food plan strategy for a maximum fee of $30,000. The next time the matter appears as an agenda item is when the consultant's report was tabled at the regular Parks Board meeting on May 1.

Jim Lowden recommended acceptance of the consultant's recommendations, and the Parks Board concurred, save the opposing vote of commissioner Spencer Herbert.

I couldn't help myself, what with Google at my fingertips. Just who was the J.F. Group, the consultants who wrote the report and made the recommendations that Jim Lowden seems so keen to implement?

Turns out the “group” is a consultant named John Frittenberg, a kinesthesiologist and recreation consultant based in Ontario. Mr. Frittenberg does not have a background in the food business. He does have a background in recreation management, research, and writing. I was most taken with an article he wrote for the Life Action Network called “Successful PPPs Take Time” in which he states that almost all recreational facilities, programs, and services are candidates for public private partnerships.

Last week I emailed Jim Lowden and asked a few simple questions about the process by which the J.F. Group was selected. To date I have not received a reply. For now, it looks to me as if a senior manager selected a consultant who would make recommendations that the manager preferred.

For all I know, privatizing the concessions may be the best alternative. But is this the best process available for deciding whether the people who live in Vancouver want more profit-making restaurants on public beaches? And, perhaps more importantly, is this how most public private partnerships get their start?

It is very possible that, one day, we will look back on public private partnerships as just another business fad that didn't work. The risk, however, is that if P3s don't work, significant parts of what was once the commonweal will be in private hands.

Will be back early next week. Be good. I know I will.

Is it just me, or is Oprah's shiny penny superstardom about to fade. Take this billboard. Please.

I kid you not, Fairleigh Dickinson University is opening a branch campus in Vancouver and will be offering BS degrees in infotech and management.

This school is apparently not a fly by night operation. It's been around since 1942, and tuition is around $23k US per year. It has received final approval from BC's Ministry of Higher Education, and its degrees will be fully accredited by New Jersey's accreditation board.

The new FDU-Vancouver campus will serve primarily international students from Pacific Rim and other Asian countriies.

President J. Michael Adams said, “We believe this will be a tremendous opportunity for international students to enjoy an affordable program while gaining the prestige associated with a degree from an American university.”

This is a good deal for BC, too. After the impending crash, BC may not have any ecomonic engines left except pot plantations and esl edu-tourism anyway.

Vancouver Police Board members are in a bit of a tizzy these days. It seems Chief Constable Jamie Graham's urban army has already burned though most of the $2 million allotted for its special investigations this year. Deputy Police Chief Jim Chu, who is in charge of the cookie jar budget, says the need for special investigations is, like the weather, unpredictable.

Crimes in Vancouver that get the special investigation treatment include murder, threats to life, and serious bodily injury. This year, the murder of Tracey Guthrie, the kidnapping of Graham McMynn, and two serial home invasion gangs have been classified by the Vancouver police as special. Related investigations have required all but $200,000 of the special budget.

All of which leaves me confused. These are terrible crimes that have had horrendous consequences for the victims, their families, and their communities. We want the police to investigate them and bring their perpetrators before the courts. But if your're a cop, what's so special about murder, kidnapping, and mayhem?

Getting murderers, kidnappers, and violaters off the streets should be the normal course of police business. It's what they do. As terrible as these crimes are, their prevention and solution should not be a “special” activity funded out of a “special” budgeting envelope.

The Vancouver Police Department gets $161 million a year to do their business. What the heck do they do with the other $159 million?

On a related note, the Chief Constable is reported to be on the lookout for some new toys.

He's back on the surveillance camera bandwagon. This time, though, he doesn't want them just for the Downtown Eastside.

The idea of stringing up 23 cameras in Vancouver's skids fell through a couple of years back because published studies found that surveillance cameras are not particularly useful for crime prevention. At that time, the police board kiboshed Graham's request.

But our intrepid Chief is not easily deterred. He's trying one more time to sell the police board, city hall, and the public on how good it would be if he could get his hands on some high tech privacy assassins cameras.

With the Olympics looming, Graham is concerned we might unwittingly leave the door open to terrorists. He says there are people out there who want to hurt us, and an event like the Olympics is an ideal venue for their particular form of mayhem.

Chief Graham now says he would like only a few cameras to be mounted in the Downtown Eastside. He is really more concerned with having them installed in the Granville Street entertainment district. Curiously, neither district is known for harbouring terrorists.

Surveillance cameras proved useful, after the London subway bombings, in identifying and charging suspects. The rest of the 2,000 or so cameras that are strategically placed around England aren't much use for anything other than for target practice.

Let us hope that Graham doesn't want 2,000 cameras strung up in Vancouver. At anywhere up to $15,000 each that would really blow his our budget.

Graham is right about one thing. Security measures for large international events are not to be taken lightly in this post 9/11 world. That's why NORAD and NATO experts are being called in to the 2010 security mix. The RCMP and CSIS will be marking their territory soon, as will US Homeland Security, FBI, and CIA, and the security and special forces of all the participating nations.

They'll decide how many security cameras are needed, and where they should go. As for Jamie Graham, if he's lucky, they'll let him look after the coffee.

If he does a good job, the big boys may just leave him some of those cameras. And that will be very special indeed.

I never eat the food sold at the concessions that dot Vancouver's beaches. But I've seen lots of people, mainly small children, happily snacking on such fare. A trip to the beach on a hot summer day, for many folk, would not be the same without fish and chips, hot dogs, and ice cream.

Starting this year, our “Liberal Light” decision-makers at the Vancouver Parks Board have decided that this food, along with whatever “healthy choices” the eating public may desire, is to be provided by entrepreneurs.

Under the soon-to-be-deep-sixed system, concessionaires, who purchased 50 to 75 percent of the food they sold from a Parks Board warehouse, kept a percentage of their gross revenue. After paying labour costs for employees they hired, trained, and supervised, they kept what was left over as “profit.” I guess we could refer to these folks, who are soon to be deep-sixed themselves, as “entrepreneurial light.”

In 2004, on food sales of $2.8 million, the Parks Board netted $413,000, or a profit margin of about 15 percent. Park Board expenses included the $215,000 cost of operating the warehouse, which it will no longer have to bear under the new system. Repair & maintenance costs are apparently not factored into the equation, which explains why the Parks Board can report such a high profit margin when food and beverage margins are normally in the four percent range.

With the warehouse no more, 15 concessions will be privatized and will then purchase their goods for resale on the open market. The sexiest locations–Spanish Banks, Westbank, Locarno, and Jericho–will be leased to still-undecided private vendors. The private vendors will become long-term leaseholders and will be required to complete all concession renovations necessary to sell sexier food. The remaining locations will be permitted to remain tired and dowdy.

In a related move, the Parks Board is also recommending, and arranging permits for, two new beach front eateries, based on the model that saw the Watermark Restaurant at Kits Beach come to fruition last year. The Park Board plan sees a large, licenced establishment at Coal Harbour to be open in 2009 (well in time for the winter sports fest that will soon follow) and a smaller bistro-style eatery at English Bay.

There are parts of this plan that will probably work very well. The Parks Board can get out of the food commissary business and focus on being a landlord, in the meantime saving more than $200,000 a year. The people working in the commissary will lose their jobs, of course, but job loss is not always a bad thing. The people and organizations running the concessions will no longer be required to purchase their resale inventory from the Parks Board. This may free them up to be more responsive to their customers and ultimately more innovative and profitable. The public may be able to buy food they enjoy at the concessions, and the prices may remain affordable. And maybe not.

Despite lackluster success in jurisdictions that have tried them, public-private partnerships are touted by BC' s powers that be as the economic soma we have been seeking. Slap a P3 bandaid on anything, they believe, and it will magically become profitable and competitive. No matter if profitability and competitiveness are not at the top of the priority list for a given endeavour. According to adherents of the P3 gospel, P3s are (in the words of my great-grandmother) good for everything from piles to pregnancy.

Tom Ross, a professor at UBC's Sauder School of Business, is a big fan of public private parternerships. He's quoted in the May 17 Vancouver Courier:

“The private sector is…capable of offering more innovative food choices. Public sector employees might be well meaning, but they also have protected positions. There's no gain for them to be innovative or to be better or faster.”

Let's leave aside Dr. Ross's inference that fear of job loss drives innovation. I'm sure that's not what he intended to say. What Dr. Ross was probably trying to say is that private enterprises more innovative than the lackluster public sector.

Take the Watermark Restaurant, for example. This concrete jewel has a 20-year lease to occupy the heretofore public shores of Kits Beach. In its first five months Watermark grossed more than $2 million and paid rent to the Parks Board of $86,000.

But Watermark is not known for its innovative food. Positive culinary reviews of this restaurant are extremely hard to find. Watermark makes its money selling appies and alcohol to those who like the indoor life and prefer to enjoy the view while getting oiled up. Meanwhile the beaches around it become more like landscaping and less like public space.

As for Dr. Ross, we know he is a friend of the Fraser Instititute and “one of the leading competition economists in the world.” Recently he was pioneering the first MBA-level course in Canada on public private partnerships, pending receipt of a $500,000 grant from Infrastructure Canada. No word on funding from the private sector for this one.

I guess they, and Dr. Ross, know which side their bread is buttered on.

Our trip to Seattle was tons of fun, and we got to do a lot of what was on our list. The things we missed we'll get to next time. Seattle is a fabulous city, and one I'll look forward to visiting again.

We had a bit of a late start mainly due to congested traffic in Vancouver, and when we got to the Peace Arch crossing there was a 45-minute wait. But it was one of those glorious spring days and that made the wait a little more bearable. Even so, by the time we got into Bellingham and started searching for our breakfast destination, the Little Cheerful, it was almost time for lunch. 

The Little Cheerful is a cozy rundown place in an older part of Bellingham. When we arrived, the Dead were playing in the background and the cook was misquoting Acton on power in a too-loud voice.

Our waitress, who was very friendly, convinced us to order the “benny” specials. A traditional version for my partner, and a vegetarian version for me. Both were served on biscuits instead of sedate Canadian-style english muffins. The traditional was that and no more. The vegetarian was a hippy deluxe road breakfast, ladled with plenty of mushrooms, artichokes, asparagus, and roasted garlic. Both came with home made hash browns. We were ravenous when we arrived, and stuffed when we left, and that was good enough for us. We're not in a hurry to return, but we were glad the Little Cheerful was there when we needed it.

In Seattle we drove straight to the Watertown Hotel which is  near the University.They obliged us with an early check in. We liked the hotel, which is small and fairly new, with well laid out rooms decorated in a nautical theme.

Although the Watertown is out of the downtown area, and getting to some of Seattle's attractions takes a bit more time, it offers some extras that make it good value. A full self-service breakfast is offered every morning, and a wine tasting featuring local wines every afternoon. The rooms are stocked with Aveda soaps and shampoos. A small gym and Giant and Specialized bikes are available, as is a shuttle that can take hotel guests to various destinations around Seattle. All for a little less than the downtown hotels we researched. We'd definitely stay here again.

Stuffed from brunch at the Little Cheerful, we decided we'd have to put off our planned lunch at Salumi to another day. Instead we took the hotel shuttle downtown, and made our way to the Pike Street Market.

At the market we checked out the various goods on offer, watched a fish or two being thrown at the Pike Street Fish Market, and stopped at Local Color for our first sample of local roaster Caffe Vita's espresso. It was a rich and wonderful brew, and Local Color was a charming spot, part coffee shop and part local gallery.

We then walked though Belltown, eventually ending up at Seatle Center where we looked up at the Space Needle and walked around the Experience Music Project, which was operating on limited hours during our time in town. We'll have to wait for out next visit to check out the displays. Although he may have Canadian origins, I don't particularly like EMP architect Frank Gehry's work. It's been said that Gehry is Gaudi without the gaudy, but I think I prefer Gaudi.

We took a cab back to the hotel. I had an initial moment of comfort as the driver was listening to Schubert's Fifth Symphony. Before long though, he was driving one-handed, and shouting into a cell phone in Russian. By the time he got to the Freeway I was sitting close to the edge of my seat while we weaved through the traffic. No matter. We got back to the hotel in one piece.

Sitka and Spruce, which had been our first choice for dinner that night, was closed. We were very hungry, and very tired, having burned throught the Little Cheerful's ample calories, and we had no Plan B. So we got in the car and let it take us where it lead. Which is how we ended up on Broadway in Capitol Hill, my partner's previous life as a Dead Head and his fond memories of Broadway past having absolutely nothing to do with it.

We drove around a while looking for a place to park, which gave me a chance to scope out the neighbourhood, but there didn't appear to be much to see. Most shops were closed, a few restaurants were open, including a Mexican-themed place with windows open to the sidewalks and tables occupied with twenty-somethings drinking huge Margaritas. We decided to give that one a pass, and in the end chose what was probably the best of a bad lot.

Byzantion is a family-run Greek restaurant. Its decor was tired but still retained a little charm. Ravenous, we ordered the fried artichoke starter our server recommended as the most traditional choice. Thirty years of eating Greek food, and neither of us had heard of it. It came breaded, with a couple of lemon wedges and a side of runny, uninspired tzatziki. It was edible, but not by much. And so we resigned ourselves to our fate. Dinner would fill our stomaches, and bore us to distraction.

But that's not how it turned out. I'd ordered arni pistou, and my partner ordered the mousakka. Both were accompanied with crisp, almost al dente vegetables, his entree with rice, and mine with delcious roast potatoes. My roast lamb was well-cooked and tender, while his mousakka was well composed and flavourful. We had a few minor complaints—too much salt in the jus, not enough bechamel atop the mousakka, and the wine, a sour and uninspired riesling had been added to the list without much attention from the proprietors. But it was really not that bad. Nothing Gordon Ramsay couldn't whip into shape in half a week.

And so ended day one of our Seattle sojourn.

 For my first major league baseball experience my partner purchased tickets over first base, about 30 rows up, for an afternoon game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. We headed out to Safeco Field after a leisurely morning.

I had it in my mind we needed kettle corn and barbeque to make the experience truly authentic, and a passerby had guaranteed me that Jones barbeque, reputed to be the best in Seattle, had a stand in Safeco Field. But all we could find was Porters, where we bought a chicken sandwich to share. The line up at Porters was long, and we got to our seats just as the first pitch crossed home plate.

The barbeque was uninspring, but shared between us, along with the kettle corn, provided enough calories to hold us till dinner.

Until the seventh inning, the game was pretty flat, with the Rays scoring one technical hit. The game moved quickly. After the stretch there was a bit of action, but still no score for the Mariners. Ten million dollar man Richie Sexon struck out twice and was booed by the home crowd. The Mariners were not hitting and in the end they lost to the Devil Rays.

Two young Japanese men sat across the aisle from us, wearing shirts emblazoned with Johjima's and Suzuki's names, the two young Mariners who did seem to inspire the crowd. These young guys managed to catch two pop balls, including one that went up high, hit a wall, then bounced down on the back of my seat. I was too busy ducking and covering my head to realize what had happened till it was over.

After the game we wandered towards Pioneer Square and Elliott Bay Book Company. On the way we stopped in at Cafe Umbria. We like their coffee, particularly the Bizzari blend, which is available in Vancouver at the Well on Dunbar and 17th and at Sciue.

The Elliott Bay Book Company store was huge, not as big as Powell's in Portland, but still overwhelming. If I had to spend the rest of my life in one of them, though, I'd definitely choose Elliott Bay, because despite its hugeness, it is cozier than Powell's.

Getting back to the market for our dinner at Matt's in the Market turned out to be a bit of a challenge. We walked back from Pioneer Square, and headed towards the water when we encountered sidewalks that were chewed up and cordoned off. We wandered along at sea level till we got to the Pike Hill Climb sign. Up we went, my quads protesting silently.

When we arrived at Matt's at 7:45 our table was ready. I sat in the corner and had a very nice view over the market and the waterfront. It being a Wednesday, it was live music night, and my partner had a view of the muscians and a large mirror on the wall, with occasional glimpses into the open kitchen behind the counter.

Despite the limitations of his outlook, Matt's was pretty much perfect for us. Energetic, but not boisterous, cozy, but not cramped. Everyone, including the servers and the chef, was having a very good time. Despite being seated beside a violinist and an accordionist amidst a happy crowd in a very small room we were still able to converse comfortably.

For starters we ordered the piri piri clams and the smoked catfish salad. The clams were a standout, steamed perfectly in beer, with just the right amound of piri piri. The catfish was dense and meaty, lightly smoked, and paired very nicely with bosc pear and roasted pecan, very substantial, and almost a meal in itself.

For mains we orderd the halibut and the king salmon special. The halibut was dense and wonderful, accompanied with tomatoes and kalamata atop crisp haricot and potato fennel gratin. The salmon was poached, served on a bed of buttery garlic mashed potatoes, also with crisp haricot and topped with a spring pea and leek concoction. Very very nice. Both went well with the Tomas Pinot Grigio, and we went home that night happy and satisfied.

Rumour has it that Matt's may have been sold, and will soon relocate to larger quarters. We hope its spirit, ambience, and cuisine are not lost in any future transition.

After breakfast we walked up Roosevelt a couple of blocks from the hotel to a nearby Trader Joes. But our main goal for the morning was Seattle chocolatier Fran's Chocolates  in the University Village Mall to pick up some sea salt caramels, which, though we didn't know it at the time, made Oprah's “O” list this month, for what that may be worth.

All I knew about Fran's locale was that it shares a zip code with the Watertown Hotel. A charming fellow behind us in the check out line at Trader Joe's knew Fran's well, having been there for Valentine's Day. His nanny apparently did not like the salted caramels, which he had mistakenly bought for her.

He told us Fran's was no more than a ten minute walk from where we were standing, through the campus, past a couple of frat houses, and down a little hill.

We set off. Forty-five minutes later University Village Mall came into view. We weren't sure whether that helpful fellow was a very fast walker or someone who never got out of his car. Apparently both kinds of people live in Seattle. The long walk had its rewards. It was another nice day in Seattle, and we got a bird's eye view of Ravenna Park and a sidelong glace at Husky Stadium.

There was plenty of serious shopping to be had at U-Village. Not just the typical mall merchants like Barnes and Noble, Gap, and Eddie Bauer, but Khiels, L'Occitane en Provence, Anthropologie, and Pottery Barn Kids. There were plenty of prosperous and carefree shoppers, many of whom were young mothers pushing strollers.

Stangely enough, not a decent cup of coffee was to be found, so we ended up at one of the two Starbucks, where I had a soy latte that took the edge off my need for lunch, and my partner had an espresso that stayed mainly in the cup. Starbucks' espresso appears to be equally bad in its home city as it is in Vancouver.

We bought a few things from Fran's–a box of truffles for my mother, a 70% bar, and a couple of dark sea salt caramels. My mother loves the truffles. We found the 70% bar very nicely blended. It reminded me of Cocoa Camino's Bittersweet Bar, and we ate about half of it at the mall. The whereabouts of the other half is  a mystery.

We also split one of the salted caramels, and the first word that came to mind was “luxury.” Every ingredient in the caramel was the highest quality.  It was a bit of a challenge understanding the salt connection for a couple of seconds, but it all came together.

I must confess that just this moment I've eaten the entire second caramel myself, and the first bite was tastier than the second, but that's just me. Fran's makes incredibly fine chocolate—the kind that makes great gifts.

We were delighted to find a Williams-Sonoma store in  U-Village, and we loaded up on a few treats: their dish and hand soaps and some sauces, including the Niman Ranch Bacon pasta sauce. If ever there was a store sorely needed in Vancouver, Williams-Sonoma is it. They don't even ship to Canada over the internet, so we were delighted by our unplanned encounter.

We decided to take the bus back to the hotel, and the ride provided us another view of the University of Washington campus, and a stop a mere two blocks from our hotel, which we got back to around 2 pm.

I'd had quite enough of walking for that day, thank you very much, having left my orthotics at home. By now, my feet were killing me. So we hopped in the car for a drive into Fremont, hoping to have lunch at Persimmon.

It being a weekday, lunch at Persimmon was not on. But a kind and friendly woman in Persimmon did open the door for a quick chat. She sent us across the street to Paseo for their prawn sandwich.

Paseo is just a little hole in the wall, and most of its menu features Cuban-inspired sandwiches. We ordered two–a prawn and a cuban pulled pork. Both came with the house sauce, not as spicy as we might have liked at our requested “medium”, some jalapenos, bits of cilantro, and piles of caramelized onions. Pure messy deliciousness, and unbelievably filling, despite our by now ravenous appetites. We loved it, but found  the pulled pork very dense and solid. Paseo does not advertise, but another review is here.

After lunch we went around the corner to Phinney Street to check out Lighthouse Roasters espresso. This was a friendly, funky neighbourhood roaster that looked like a place where coffee is taken seriously. The fellow at the bar pulled us a couple of shots  which we found to be smooth, with a caramelly aftertaste. Nice, but it seemed to lack the bitter notes that we relish in our coffee.

After lunch and coffee the plan was to head back down the hill to Theo's chocolates, but they were closed when we arrived, and are apparently only open to the public on Sundays. Just then it started to rain, so we returned to the hotel for a much needed afternoon nap.

Around 7 pm we headed out in the car again. Our plan was to stop by Sitka and Spruce to see if we could pop by for a late dinner, since we were still full from the Paseo sandwiches. But we were out of luck once again. Matthew, the chef, was out of prepared food, having cooked for the first seating, and not in the mood for firing up the kitchen again that night. He was quite charming about it, and invited us back for lunch the next day, but we'd earmarked our last lunch for Salumi.

Sitka and Spruce was full of happily animated diners, and the counter was covered with bowls, mostly emptied of what had been on offer that evening. We liked the quasi-family concept and the idea of surrendering to a young chef who cooks what ever he feels like cooking. Sitka and Spruce will be on our list for our return visit to Seattle. With a 4-year lease on his space on Eastlake, we may be more fortunate next time.

We then went for another drive, ending up at the Ballard Locks just at sundown. It was cold so close to the water. We spent a while watching for salmon smolts through the fish gates, but didn't see any. A blue heron was waiting downsteam, hoping for some supper, but he may have been out of luck.

Since we were only slightly hungry by 9 pm, we decided on Bandoleone in Fremont for dinner because we knew they served small plates. The room was warm and dark, and service was very attentive. We told our serer we weren't very hungry, and he suggested we order three small plates to start. He steered us away from a couple of dishes he said were only so so. Despite having what we thought was our fill or pork at Paseo earlier that day, our waiter really encouraged us to order the pulled pork carnitas, which we did.

Bandoleone's version of pulled pork was very different from Paseo's. It was very delicately shredded and its spicing complex; the carnitas came with three salsas. We loved the habanero ketchup, and thought the tomatillo and traditional salsas were very good as well.

Next we ordered wild mushroom bolsa, which, being a winter dish came with a heavy cream sauce. It was garnished with pistachios and artichokes. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and the dish was very enjoyable.

Last we split a crab cake, which sounds odd, but it was generously proportioned and meaty. The crab cake sat on a bed of plantain hash and wilted chard, a very interesting and tasty combination. After these plates we were full, and ready to return to the hotel. We would definitely like to come back to Bandoleone some time for a real dinner.