Tuesday, April 11, 2000
Sturkey's cheesecake named ultimate dessert
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Whoops, Looks as if all hell is about to break loose ... again.
Seems the April issue of Delta's inflight magazine, Sky, includes a piece on eating dinner in four cities — aperitif, appetizer, entree and dessert — when price is no object.
Ultimate dessert? At Sturkey's, the Wyoming restaurant where Paul Sturkey is chef and his wife, Pam, is pastry chef. Sky suggests either tangerine cake with lemon and orange sauces, topped with orange sorbet or Bailey's chocolate cheesecake cake.
This happened once before: USA Today food critic Jerry Shriver featured the cheesecake as one of his favorite dishes of 1999. The Sturkeys got so many calls from around the country from people trying to order that they barely had time to reduce their veal stock. They're still getting calls.
They have a few minutes to breathe, because Sky just hit seatbacks. But when calls start, Pam is ready: “Tangerine cake is easy. We send the cake and sauces, but it's B.Y.O. on the sorbet.”
ON, THEN OFF: Let's see if we have this right: First Dr. Laura Schlessinger was coming to town for a do Thursday at Music Hall Ballroom thrown by Phil Burress and Citizens for Community Values. Then she wasn't, but Dr. James Dobson of Focus on Family was, but not until May 8.
Right, Burress says. As word got out about Schlessinger's visit, the National Organization for Women (NOW) and Stonewall Cincinnati mobilized, printing hand-outs and promising to show up in Washington Park, across from the Music Hall entrance.
NOW was objecting to (and reprinting) statements such as “feminists nauseate and sicken me.” Stonewall was reprinting statements such as “I call homosexual practices deviant.”
Next thing you know, Burress gets an e-mail from Dr. Laura: “I am currently embroiled in an unfortunate controversy ... There are people of goodwill and decency on both sides of the controversy. However, there are also those who do not express their disagreement in a courteous manner.”
Like handing out fliers quoting her? Across the street?
No, Burress says, “She was trying to be civil and tone down the real reason. Threats.”
From Cincinnati? “I don't know where from,” Burress says.
Members of NOW and Stonewall say the protest was to be purely peaceful, not threatening.
SEEN AROUND TOWN: That would be Hal Holbrook, dining late at Jeff Ruby's after Mark Twain Tonight! at the Aronoff.
Way late. Like midnight, long after closing time. Ruby stayed open at Broadway Series manager Van Ackerman's request.
Holbrook and his party of eight — Ackerman, Broadway staffers Gabe Johnson, Michelle Deremo, Michael Stokes and others — ate in the glassed-in dining room off the main room. The one reserved for power dining.
Lots of steaks (Holbrook ordered strip sirloin) wine and every side dish on the menu. “We ate 'til about 1:30,” Ackerman says. “The amazing thing is at age 75, Hal stays up every night 'til 4, journaling the evening — the audience and how they reacted, restaurants, everything.”
Knip's Eye View appears Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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