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Review: Paramount Room
This past weekend, Chicagoist visited the trade show of the National Restaurant Association and its sister convention, the International Wine, Beer and Spirits Event. Despite the downturn in the economy, the convention was still hopping, filled with new products, new packaging, extravagant pavilions and thousands of companies hoping to sell the “next big thing” in food service. You’ll be seeing products and companies that we met up with at NRA featured over the next several months but for now, here are a few notes from a first-time attendee.
To a natural-foods lover, the sheer amount of processed and pre-made food was overwhelming. Think about all of those frozen onion rings and chicken wings we all love to chow down on - all of them have to be sold somewhere, and we are willing to believe every last one of them was in that room. We saw everything from frozen, pre-made savory crepes to frozen, pre-made churros, with just about everything in between. At the other end of the spectrum, the selection of organic and natural food was huge, if stuck in a back corner. Indeed, the trend at this year’s NRA seemed to be “going green” - either in reality or in image. There were a ton of companies selling the new faux-plastic takeout utensils, made of cornstarch, as well as others selling energy efficient appliances, special water filters and green cleaning supplies. In the final category, Swine Flu (or the threat of it) made several appearances, including one memorable sign of which we managed to catch a picture.
For the nerds at heart, gadgets were everywhere in evidence. We were particularly entranced by the new Dyson Airblade hand dryer, which dried our hands in 2 seconds flat without any annoying shaking. Also mesmerizing was a complete, self-contained system for juicing oranges - dump a bushel of whole oranges in the top and out comes perfect, fresh, pulp-free juice at the bottom. We’ll post a video as soon as possible - it’s worth seeing.
Don’t think that the NRA show is all about glamorous gadgets. The most surprising thing, for a new visitor, was all of the things needed to make a restaurant work that the public never cares about. Entire restaurant-related retail areas exist that we hadn’t even considered - for instance, there were several companies selling menu covers! Chef’s clogs! Restaurant non-skid carpeting! Employee lockers! Infrared outdoor heaters!
The International Wine, Beer and Spirits Event produced a small treasure trove of local, artisan companies. American craft distilleries were well represented. One of our favorites here at Chicagoist, North Shore Distillery, was showing off their extensive product line - and we got a tip that they’ll soon be trying out some entirely new types of liquor. We also met regional producers of fruit liqueur (some of the best we’ve ever had) and limoncello (absolutely the best we’ve ever tried), which we’ll be profiling in the coming months.
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The Dyson Airblade is the future. I've never seen it in Chicago, but you can experience the rush at the Louisville airport.
It IS in Chicago - I'll eventually write a post on it, but I've seen it at the Big Bowl off of Michigan Ave, as well as some other LEYE restaurants.
It's a hand dryer. It may be the hand dryer of the future, but it's still a hand dryer.
And if memory serves (I was only there once, maybe a year ago), there's one in the Caribou Coffee on the west side of Kingsbury where Ontario dead ends.
They have them at Union Station.
And at Fat Kat I believe. and if those are NOT dyson airblades in the mens room then they are damn close. It's like putting your hands near the back of a jet engine without the annoying disintigration of your hands thing.
there's also one in the AMC on michigan ave.
but yes, those things work so much better than regular hand dryer.
The airblade is incredibly loud. Almost requires hearing protection to use the thing.
Air hand dryers are HORRIBLE germ spreaders. The optimal procedure for washing/drying your hands in a public restroom is to wash, grab a paper towel to dry and use the paper towel to open the door.
That's why there should always be a waste basket right next to the door so you can put the used paper in it on your way out.
I HATE when there are only air dryers with no paper towels. This is especially distressing when one doesn't have a long sleeved shirt or scarf on.
This is not germophobic...it's common sense. Door handles have copious amounts of germs!!!
One day, in the future, paper towels will be made out of air.
Ingrid, this is actually the POINT of this hand drier - not only do you not actually touch the machine, but it's coated in anti-microbial stuff. Now, you can buy into that or not - but that's the angle they are taking.
Okay, I'm really bored today, so I must submit pointless replies to every comment. Thus, please allow me to pose some relatively useless questions about this hand-washing procedure ... all in good fun, of course. Not that I question your right to follow it, of course. I question more its necessity, or, more importantly, its effectiveness.
If I've just washed my hands, my hands should be germ-free. Therefore, I am not going to contaminate the restroom door handle by touching it on my way out.
But wait, you say. What about the person (you know who you are) who fails to wash his/her hands as he/she leaves the restroom. Shouldn't I use a paper towel to open the door in order to protect myself from this person's germs?
My reply: Sure. Why not? But isn't this same person with the contaminated hands also going to have to touch the door handle as they leave the restaurant entirely? Why should I worry about the germs they leave on one door handle and not the germs they leave on the other? Why shouldn't I carry a paper towel around with me everywhere I go?
Personally, I prefer to trust the human immune system to do some of the heavy lifting on this. We evolved it for a reason.
I believe in the human immune system too. This is why I don't use the anti-bacterial hand lotions and such. I do believe that a "little dirt don't hurt" (I'm not on the scale of Howard Hughes :)
But I also don't trust people to wash their hands properly...and as much as I believe in the human immune system, I also believe in the ability of ecoli to knock me on my ass.
Do you know they once traced a case of ecoli poisoning to human feces found on a movie theatre seat?!?!?!?!!!
Also, I got an infected hang nail once...my finger swelled to the size of an apricot and when I went to the doctor they all freaked out, telling me that it was a staff infection and if I didn't get in when I did I could have died from it. That really scared me.
And let's not forget about the power of MRSA either.
I just feel much more comfortable using a barrier to open doors. The only reason air dryers are preferable to businesses is the mess factor, which I understand because people can be pigs...but it's just not as safe as the procedure I described above.
Sadly, paper towels would not protect you from ecoli in human feces on a movie seat. (I have to wonder exactly how they traced that.)
And this still leaves my question about the handle of the door to the establishment itself, which is no less likely to have been touched by those who don't wash their hands than the bathroom door -- if a person leaves the bathroom of a business, it stands to reason they eventually will have to leave the business itself. How is touching the front door any less dangerous than touching the bathroom door?
I agree with you..door handles, hand rails...they're everywhere. AAAGGGHHH!!!! :)
But don't you think that the most dangerous knob of all is the one that someone touched right after they just finished wiping their ass and either not washing their hands or not washing properly?
This is why you'll see me opening doors with my shirt sleeve, the bottom of my shirt or a scarf. Sometimes I don't..there are times when you just can't take that precaution but the next step in the battle to germs out is trying very hard not to touch your face with your hands.
It's a wild world, baby!!
"But don't you think that the most dangerous knob of all is the one that someone touched right after they just finished wiping their ass and either not washing their hands or not washing properly?"
Um, they actually just washed their hands...hence the need for an air dryer.
Are you insane or just crazy?
Oh you're talking about the door...not the dryer.
Apology accepted.
Actually, I think the front door is more likely to be dangerous, because it's being handled by both genders and thus twice the number of people. More people equals more possible points of infection. It doesn't matter which door is handled first, as any germs viable enough to concern you would survive the probable duration of time between using the restroom and leaving the business. Simply sitting around for a while won't lesson the number or viability of the germs contaminating a person's hand.
This is why I don't worry about this stuff. There's not much you can do, and most of what you can is generally pointless.
But I suppose we shall have to agree to disagree on this one. :-)
This is why I always make the people I'm with open doors for me. =D
dont you then worry about all the germs that are on your scarf/shirt? especially a scarf that i assume you wear very often between washes? think of how germy !
I'd rather have the germs on my scarf than on my hands. I'm not trying to cause a sensation here..I just do what I think is the best. For me. I did have the scary experience with the STAPH infection as mentioned above, and my dad battled MRSA a couple of years ago (that was frightening).
I do what I can to keep germs away...I know people who carry bottles of that anti-bacterial stuff and area always using it...I prefer not to go that route. I believe those anti-bacterial lotions are actually causing more harm than good.
But I also think that we can cut down our chances of getting harmful germs by using a barrier when we open doors or touch hand rails.
Trivia question: What is the biggest, worstest germ carrier in a hotel room?
My theory of germs is this -- if you can't see it, it's not there.
And for the record, it's not a "staff" infection, it's a "staph" infection, as in staphylococcus.
Yeah...I realized that the second I hit the send button, but thanks for pointing it out anyway. :/
Those orange juicers have been shown at the NRA for years and I still have yet to see one in the U.S. In fact, in previous years there were 4 or 5 booths hawking them.
I've seen said juicers at some bar on Lincoln, though I can't recall which one, as they had cheap bloody mary's. More importantly they have them at a crappy dinner in my hometown of 20,000 people - you just need to look harder.
The Airblade has been at the Museum of Science & Industry for at least two years.
Pita Inn on Dempster has a similar high speed one called the Xcellerator.
Did anyone else see NRA and think National Rifle Association?
Yeah, I did. I was thinking, "how are these tards turning swine flu into a gun debate?" My apologies to tards everywhere.
"Smuckers hut" *giggle*
"Those orange juicers have been shown at the NRA for years and I still have yet to see one in the U.S. In fact, in previous years there were 4 or 5 booths hawking them."
A diner I would got to in Carrol Gardens, Brooklyn had one. I didn't realize it was a big deal.
motel bar - 600 W Chicago has 'em
Does anyone know who is making the Limoncello mentioned in this article? What is the best brand to purchase?
Haz to agreebing airdry and such ver nice for us germs. we wuz all over nra and only Liz teria waz sad to be killed. Liked mes restingrooms best. I mostly sicken tired from closeness to sani professional such murderesses. See me germsunite.com
this article might be talking about something more advanced, but the Austrian Bakery on Clark in Lincoln Park has a machine where you put in an orange, and it gives you back fresh squeezed orange juice.
I think they have one of those at Orange, on Harrison. It's mesmerizing.