St Paul Mn: Little Szechuan Update/ December 28th

[MarkG]

their web site now says they'll reopen "around" new years day. Originally the remodeling was supposed to be done around dec 15th.

[AliceS]

just called and instead of getting the answering machine ('thank you for calling little szechuan, sorry we are temporarily closed due to kitchen remodeling. . .' I have heard it about 50 times now) someone answered. I asked whether they were open, she said next Monday, not sure if that means 1/15 or 1/22 though, someone else call and find out, I am too excited to dial.
651-222-1333

[The Dairy Queen]

THe 15th, according to this post earlier today:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

Did you guys ever get those Mervyn's "big sale" commercials where they showed the women standing outside the store, their faces pressed to the window chanting *open* *open* *open* I think of that whenever I think of Little Szechuan.

*open* *open* *open*

~TDQ

[AliceS]

now I am afraid, for a couple reasons.
I am afraid to go in the first few weeks because I am afraid you all will run me down.
Second, I am afraid that the new incarnation will be less fabulous. As my Paz pointed out, now that they have sunk money into it, are they going to stop sourcing their ingredients so well? Their shrimp last time was just super high quality shrimp, will they go for the cheap?

[KTFoley]

There's only one course of action left, Alice.

We need need to band together in solidarity, and go bravely forward in search of the truth.

In other words, a chowdown.

[The Dairy Queen]

Don't worry, I won't be leaving Nike treads (or Sorrel treads, this being winter in MN) on anyone's back in a stampede in the first couple of weeks. I'm a bad chowhound, really. I won't go in the first couple of weeks for the same reason I wait two weeks to see a hot new movie: I'd rather wait until the excitement settles down.

My recollection was that the service was awful. Plus, they are going to have a brand new kitchen; it will take a couple of weeks to get used to it. (And, I'm hoping, that their fancy new kitchen is set up so well that all of the service issues clear up. Maybe it was just poorly designed in the first place.) I'll continue to eat at China Jen and my other fav spots for a couple of weeks, let L.S. work the kinks out, let the lookie-lou's drift in and out, then go on some quiet weekend for lunch or early dinner. So, for me, T = the 15th + 2 weeks.

Alice, I share your concern about the quality. Didn't they say there was a kitchen fire? Maybe the remodel was paid for by insurance money and they won't have such ridiculous financial pressure that they start compromising on quality.

As far as a chowdown, KT, it sounds like a great idea, although I personally can't organize one for another month or so. And, honestly, I would probably wait until after Chinese New Year as I expect they will be absolutely swamped for that. I think chowdowns can be kind a nightmare for the staff because we typically order so many more dishes than a regular party and just try much smaller "taste" portions of each dish. I hate to do that to a restaurant during their peak times.

But, please don't wait for me--someone should go ahead and organize it. Pick a date, figure out how many people you can accomodate, announce it on the board asking people to contact you off the board by e-mail by a certain date, accumulate the replies, then make reservations, and e-mail people with the final details. I recommend just picking a time and a date that works for you rather than trying to negotiate one with everyone--you will never find a date and time that works for everyone, even with tons of notice because most everyone decides at the last minute anyway. (You can always put your e-mail address in your profile, rather than in the announcement thread, so you can edit your e-mail address out after the chowdown, if you wish.) In your announcement post, make sure to warn people to only contact you by e-mail and not chat about it in the announcement thread so you don't make the moderators cross enough to delete it.

You can either have everyone put their money in a kitty up front or ask everyone to pay their share of the bill plus tip. A calculator is a good thing. I usually recommend that people be accountable for their own drinks for anything other than tea (I can't remember if Little Szechuan has a bar...) Also, ask people to bring cash (not check, not credit card) and to please bring some 1's and 5's so you don't have the dreaded $20-breaking nightmare. If you think there's going to be more demand than you can handle, you can restrict it to chowhounds only (no spouses, kids, no army of non-chowhound'ish friends etc.) which, unfortunately will cause some true 'hounds to drop out for reasons of shyness or not being able to arrange childcare, etc., but it does make it way more maneagable logistically. Also, if you do allow kids, I always suggest kids pay 1/2 price. Sounds petty, but otherwise there will be someone who's on a tight budget and complains they shouldn't have to feed someone else's kid. That approach just quashes the complaints.

Go for it! (Of course, I'll feel so left out, *sob* but, such is life.)

By the way, totally random question: where the heck is MSPD these days? I haven't seen him post in eons.

~TDQ

[The Dairy Queen]

AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What's happening? I just tried to peek at Little Szechuan's website to find out their status (Pioneer Press said earlier this week--on Jan 4--that Little Szechuan is still remodelling their kitchen) and their webpage wouldn't come up. Am I just being a technology goober again? Or has something terrible happened to Little Szechuan?

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincit...

~TDQ

[The Dairy Queen]

Okay, whew. The website's back up. It still says it will be open around New Year's Day and to check back.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, I want more of those green beans!

~TDQ

[The Dairy Queen]

Thanks for the update! I guess we'll have to wait until 2007!

~TDQ