Faith, Hope, Love and Good Pasta

This is the weekly, Food and Faith segment. If that sounds about as exciting as watching grass grow, move to the next post, I understand.

The interconnectedness of faith and food is as old as man -- or woman, since it was Eve who first bit into the apple. One can hardly turn a page in the Bible without finding a reference to food and drink: Jehovah rained manna from heaven on hungry, Jewish refugees, Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and Psalm Twenty-three’s, “he leads me beside still waters...my cup runneth over” are some of the Good Book’s most familiar passages.

In the Christian era, the first recorded miracle of Christ was at a wedding, occasioned by a shortage of wine. One of Jesus’ sermons required loaves and fishes to be distributed before he could begin, and the Last Supper was, well, a supper.

The literary world is no different. My literary friends tell me that a characteristic of the comic genre is that the comedy ends in a wedding or celebration. Something like, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I think. Imagine that without food and wine.

Find a love story and you are soon to find dinner. It’s just the way we are, food and love are complementary. Which reminds me that, charity, the highest form of love, is often expressed by feeding someone who is hungry. “If you do this for the least of my brethren you are doing it to me.” Just preparing a meal for loved ones is an act of charity.

All of this to say that I hope the materialists never win the battle for the American soul, where food is sustenance and pleasure without faith, charity and community. As Leon Kass puts it in his book, The Hungry Soul, men don't feed at troughs they dine at tables. Something is different here.

Man is not just a complicated collection of molecules. Nor is he an embodied soul. He is body and soul in a mysterious union, and the daily activities of charitable men are holy simply by their doing them. That is, it is not just turning water into wine that is good, but also drinking the wine made from water.

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And the Winner Is . . .

Given F&FW's policy of announcing a winner after a poll has received 50 votes , and that the "Who Will be President Poll" has received 51 votes, F&FW makes the following proclamation:
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The winner of the "Who Will be President" poll, in a landslide is, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Senator Clinton received 15 of the 51 votes or 29%, a full 7 votes and 14 percentage points more than Fred Thompson, who came in second with 8 votes. Food and Fort Worth is the first "major poll" :-) to predict the November 2008 winner, and that winner will be Hillary Clinton.

Our extrapolated full results and predictions are these:
Democrat presidential candidate: Hillary Clinton ------15 votes
Democrat vice-president candidate: Barak Obama -----7 votes
Republican presidential candidate: Fred Thompson ---- 8 votes
Republican vice presidential candidate: Jack Bauer ----- 6 votes

That's right folks, Jack Bauer. For the first time in election history one actor will run as himself, Fred Thompson, and one will run as the character he plays, Jack Bauer. Besides the obvious advantage of Jack Bauer intimidating the bejeebers out of the Democrats, Mr Bauer can also recuse himself of the DWI questions that Mr. Sutherland would have to face. That's just smart politics.

Remember, you heard it first ---- at Food and Fort Worth.

(My opinion on the winner? http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/ )

A Tale of Two Coffee Shops

One cafe has no menu, no prices posted, no items posted, and a line of 3-5 people every time you go. I guess they figure you know what they serve, why bother with a menu. The other has plenty of easy to read signage, hundreds of possible items to order, plenty of seating and no line. What's the difference?
Here's the difference:
Yesterday, I had coffee in Cosi's, a publicly traded company that is a bistro, cafe, bar, La Madelaine's type place. They have never shown a profit. Last year they lost $80 million. I had coffee, a bagel, and an earful of complaining employees about ten feet from me. The coffee, by the way, was lukewarm when served. Terrible.
Today, I had coffee at La Colombe. The cafe with no visible menu. But they do have hot, fresh coffee. I don't know how much money La Colombe is making, but it has to be a bunch. $1.50 for a cup of coffee, $2.00 for a croissant and the line is like the line at Starbucks on University, it's always there.
The CEO of Cosi's said that when they get their spending under control they will be doing better (todays WSJournal). I have a suggestion for the Cosi CEO and former Burger King exec -- when you start serving good coffee and good food you'll start getting some customers.
La Colombe knows the secret: please the customer. Simple. Customer wants good, hot coffee at a reasonable price. Great, that's what we'll do. Cosi's knows that appearance and image work . . . for a while . . . until you run out of first time buyers.

Can I say it one more time? I like Starbucks, but I hope that a local Fort Worth or Texas based company will do the same thing. Provide a pleasant atmosphere, wifi, great coffee, a light food menu and make a profit at the same time. Eurotazza, c'mon you can do it.