Restaurant Review: Mill Valley Ora

I finally had the opportunity to go to Ora, a self classified "blend of Pan-Asian cuisine and boutique wines and sakes from around the world" located in Mill Valley. I have a long history with 24 Sunnsyide so I was curious to get back in the saddle and give it another ride.

The menu itself (PDF) gave the place a rough start. The best part of Ora is that you are eating dinner in a converted classic house. Every time I walked into 24 Sunnyside when it was First Crush, I got a feeling of home - familiar people, familiar food - but not just my home; the home of a jovial friend who made it big and is willing to share his or her success with food, drink and fun. The fireplace, wood panel walls, comfortable seating in the living room or parlor created a unique atomosphere most restaurants couldn't even replicate if they wanted to. The owners made a wrong turn when they opened up Mi Casa at 24 Sunnyside, but vindicated themselves by quickly closing the raucous restaurant and opening up Ora which returned to the cozy homey feel complete with multiple fireplaces. Which brings me back to the menu, with section labels like "Beginnings", "Nourishings", "Land", "Water" and "Garden" - it seems pretentious in a place that should not be pretentious.

I understand the intent to juxtapose comfort, luxury and simplicity, but sometimes the best ideas can be poorly executed. No one wants to go home to someplace that requires too much thought to figure out. We go home to relax, unwind and enjoy life's simple pleasures - a glass of wine, a choice cut of meat, crisp vegtables.

Order
Spicy Cocunut Curry Bisque
Soft Spring ROlls (Vegetarian)
Himalayan Truffle Crusted Day Boat Scallops
Lamb Chops
3 drinks (2 sake cocktails + 1 glass wine)
Total Cost: $82 + Tip

Dinner was great. The Spicy Bisque lived up to its name - it had a lot of spice - but I enjoyed it especially the bites that had mango to provide a balance to the spice. The lamb chops were xceptional - large cuts, cooked to a perfect medium rare (lamb chops were always my favorite at First Crush). The Ichiban Cooler would be a perfect drink on a hot afternoon in Mill Valley - the Cucumber juice combined with a mellow sake created a refreshing cocktail to enjoy before dinner.

One great part of the evening was seeing familiar faces. There are a number of people who have been with the owners for a number of years as they have worked through creating the right mix at 24 Sunnyside and Toast. Seeing familiar faces gives me a good feeling that there really is a vision and the employees see it too - always a good sign (like at La Ginestra - I've only ever had two waiters serve me in more than 30 visits there).

Bottom Line: Ora might be the best of the bunch that has been in 24 Sunnsyside (including the Thai place before First Crush). Aside from the menu, the restuarant delivered a fairly authentic Mill Valley experience - great food, good atmosphere, nice wines - and just the right amount of hipness to create a strong enough buzz for people to return.

Food: Good. Spice and accompaniements could be better utilized
Location: Downtown Mill Valley is a great location
Ambiance: Unique comfort while retaining a hip energy
Service: Rushed. Our waiter did not spend much time with us.
Price: $$$

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Life Without TV: Day 21

Today I might be considered a criminal, but I do not think I broke any law.

I used µTorrent to download the three most recent episodes of the Soprano's. I'm sure that HBO does not want people to download the episodes via P2P applications because they would rather have people subscribe to their channel via a cable or satellite company.

I am a subscriber to HBO but can not access the content because my TV is broken. I feel that because I am still paying $125/month to Comcast for premium digital/HD cable including HBO , I should be able to download HBO shows through other means. I am paying for the right to view the content live on TV, through On Demand and to record it on my Tivo, therefore, I am in fact licensing the right to view the content through any means so long as I do not use that content for commercial means. So, I am not breaking the law (non-subscribers who download are breaking the law and I disabled my computer's ability to share the file with others which would also presumable be breaking the law).

That all said, if HBO would just join this new era of digital content and make their shows available on their website or amazon.com, I would be happy to buy it directly from them for $2 to $5 per episode. At 4 episodes per month, I would be paying them $8 to $20 per month directly and they would not even need to share any of that revenue with the cable company.

THAT is smart business for HBO (and other content companies) AND good for the consumer. So, then why are networks not putting there best shows online?

Five Benchmarks for Iraq That I Would Like to See

I'd like to see our government publish regular reports on economic indicators in Iraq. These indicators will show the results of the military, political and economic work being done in Iraq. It can be inferred that if the economic indicators are trending better, progress is being made. The implication is that with improving economic conditions, people will be more focused on building Iraq and less focused on tearing it down. Focus on the future is a great way to battle the anger, despair and apathy that cause destruction.

The key will be a. which metrics, and b. how will it be measured. EIther of these can be manipulated to tell a story if not carefully crafted. I am going to be searching for these regular updates and if I find it, I will post it. Of note, Unicef has the richest data I have seen so far, but they do not have any trending data - which is most important.

The following benchmarks address: money in your pocket, food on the table, and a sanitary roof over your head...

1. Unemployment Rate
2. Wage at 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile
3. % of Houses with Running Water
4. % of Houses with Electricity / Average Hours per Day Available
5. % Homelessness

Imagine, with these five factors measured each month, we would have very strong data to be able to track progress and have a logical discussion and get away from guessing, soundbites and posturing.

Life Without TV: Day 19

Day 19 and still without TV. I do not miss it that much, to tell the truth. However, we did have our family in for the weekend so I wasn't going to watch too much TV anyway. Some new developments...

I watched the Golden State Warriors beat the Utah Jazz in Game 3 on live satellite feed when I was flying home from JFK to SFO. The 4 inch screen gave me a headache and I missed most of the 4th quarter when we lost the feed over Colorado :-(

Amazon Unbox is pretty cool. The quality is really quite good (just as good as DVD, but not quite HD) and the download is pretty fast (I use Comcast Cable Internet and only needed to wait 3-5 minutes to start watching). I'm not sure $1.99 is the right price per episode, but even still I'm a big, big fan of Unbox. If they could get more content besides just movies and fox channels (for example, no HBO shows), I think this would be the format of the future- pay per view for anything direct from the content provider - not through a cable intermediary. I imagine digitally delivered content breaking down into four different buckets:

• LIVE: Sports, News, Events, Etc. could command the highest price because they have timely content people want right now. The would probably be priced higher and have commercials (best of both worlds) because of the time factor of the show (it's hard to fast forward live TV).
• Premium / No Commercials: Pre-recorded shows that can be bought pay per view at a higher price point to compensate for no commercials. High production quality is important here. (aka Unbox)
• Premium / With Commercials: The same pre-recorded shows but priced more cheaply because they are commercially supported. No fast forwarding allowed.
• Free/Amateur: The long tail of video content will be user generated content, smaller production companies making a splash, etc. This will most likely be free, but the best will rise to the top and join the ranks of premium.

So, Good Guys (now owned by Compusa) sold our warranty contract to GE. And GE won't honor the contract because they say it is our fault that the TV is broken (it isn't). So now, we're going back to Sony direct... it will be interesting to see if they will help.

Lastly, I have to confess. We went over the Holiday Inn last night to watch the season finale of 24. My in-laws are staying there this week and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch it Live. So, if Unbox had a LIVE TV version for $4.99, I probably would have paid and then we could have been the comfort of my house. Maybe just being at the Holiday Inn Express for the evening made me smarter...

Starbucks Revisited

A year and a half ago, I wrote here about the true cost of buying coffee from retailers. Today, I saw this incredible stat on the The Bayesian Heresy :

"Over the past decade the price of raw coffee has fallen by two thirds - while the market for take-away coffees has trebled, from $30 billion to $90 billion per year. From farm to cafe, the coffee travels over 6,000 kilometres - and increases a total of 16 times in price." [reference]

Wow. The intended implication is that while conglomerates push the price of raw materials down, the price of finished goods is going up - creating exponential profit increases. Always in the mood to translate this to how it affects one's inner selfish soul, on top of the $500k or so you're investing over the next 30-40 years in your morning coffee, you're valuing the service at retail coffee stands at a premium multiple because they roast and brew it for you.

Life Without TV: Day 9

So... my TV is still broken. It is under warranty, but we might not get a new one for months. Uh-oh. This has potential to cause serious disruption. We had a baby 12 weeks ago and acquired all of the pre-requisite electronics to help us manage our new more home-centric life -Plasma TV, HDTV, Tivo, XBox 360, HBO, DVD Player. Any one of these pieces of equipment could fail and we could still chug along... except the TV. The TV is at the heart of the whole solution because it is the interface for the others. Key questions that have crossed my mind recently:

1. Can I use my PC to watch my Tivo? Yes, but I would need to connect my Tivo to my home network (not just my internet connection) first which would require me to see the Tivo interface via the TV.
2. Can I manage my Tivo subscriptions on the Internet so that shows I want to save (24, Sopranos, Entourage) do not get deleted by shows I do not want to save (my wife's subscription to Beverly Hills 90210)? Both Tivo and Yahoo TV let you schedule shows but you can not manage them (edit season pass, delete, change save settings, etc.).
3. Can I watch TV live on my PC using AT&T's new service? I found that AT&T is actually powered by MobiTV (my client) but does not offer the channels I typically watch (TNT, HBO, Fox).
4. Will someone let it slip what happens to Tony Soprano, Turtle or Jack Bauer before I get back onto TV?
5. And most scary of all... do I need TV at all? I've already given up my car in favor of walking / bus riding. Maybe this is another modern invention that I could live without. The only problem is... I've got two warehouses to take down and a few scores to settle before I become Don of NYC... Am I willing to risk that?

Tonight, we will be trying out Amazon's Unbox service to watch the most recent episode of 24. Downside: It costs $1.99. Upside: No spoilers at the watercooler. I originally tried to see if we could use Joost because of all the buzz, but it has not launched yet.

Life Without TV

Just finished listening to the Warriors game on NBA.com. This is the first time I have listened to a basketball game on the radio in more than 15 years and only then when I was in the car. Why did I listen to what some are the calling the greatest Bay Area basketball game in 30 years? Two reasons:

1. I've suddenly become more interested in the NBA for the first time since I was rooting for Charles Barkley and the Suns to beat Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the '93 finals, and
2. When I turned on my TV tonight, I found out it does not work.

Finding myself without TV and without radio on the "biggest" basketball night in a generation, I naturally turned to the the Internet. At first I watched the scores update every few minutes on Espn.com's gamecast, but then I got frustrated and spent time looking for a way, any way, to actually watch the game.

I checked TNT's website - no luck.

I then checked MobiTV on my phone - no luck.

Finally, I checked NBA.com and found some video highlight reals delayed about a half and live audio of the radio feed. So, there you have it - Life Without TV solved by the Internet... sorta.

The repairman comes tomorrow so I hope to be back on live TV tomorrow night and in time for the next round of the playoffs.