myDedham - Recent Comments

Mansion with no Furniture

pete briquette — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:55:06 GMT

Writing posts and comments about the towns website obviously does not register at Town Hall, neither does a telephone call. I have called and asked why a meeting was not posted and was asked, "Why do you want to know?".
What department actually pays for the website and how much does it cost?. Also what happened to the Summer Intern from the High School who was going to straighten the whole thing out and show people what to do?
Brian, "there's a girl you should be interviewing if you want to find out about the state of affairs in the different departments at Town Hall". Or did she take a 'Vow of silence" before she started.

You forgot to mention...

SamAdams — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:00:34 GMT

You forgot to mention the toll this disgustingly greasy food takes on ones body. I spent the next day getting reacquainted with my bathroom decor and the text on the Immodium box. I shoulda known it was coming seeing as how I wanted to vomit 5 minutes after eating the half of a burger I was able to choke down.

The bland cajun fries and 1/2 grease burger quickly made their way to the garbage. GOOD RIDDANCE!

it's the basics . . .

kei-o-lei — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:47:05 GMT

there are a lot of simple things that haven't been done yet in Dedham

plenty of room for improvement

Speaking of sounding like a consultant...

Eric C. — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:40:43 GMT

I went back and re-read the posts to see if I somehow missed something the first time around, but the consensus seems to be that the food is pretty good and people liked the restaurant but thought it was a tad pricey.

I'm not sure how someone patronizing a business and then posting his/her feedback and comments on a blog is interpreted to mean the business should never have came to Dedham, isn't wanted here, and should pack up and leave. Not one of the five posts insinuates anything of the sort, so I'm not sure if you read too much into the posts or what.

As for my words, I clearly didn't say The Halfway Cafe was better. I think that would be an apples and oranges comparison. The price-to-quality analogy to Mickey D's seems like a valid method, certainly one of many, to measure the value of what you get for what you pay for.

As for Legacy Place, I can't wait for it to open and one of the first places I intend to visit is Ruth's Chris. That will certainly be more than $20 for dinner for two, but it's all relative to what you expect and what you get. Nothing more, nothing less.

Opinions

Theresa J — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:56:12 GMT

Last time I checked, a blog was a place to express an opinion and share information, nothing more, nothing less.

Hey Five Guys, Welcome To Dedham

John Moran — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:43:34 GMT

Thanks for investing in Dedham, but you just aren't good enough for us.

We were expecting free food and you let us down.

Your decor is cheap. Must have spent over $100,000 at least, but you don't live up to our stadards.

You have too many people working behind the counter. We much prefer understaffed businesses.

I can save money going to fast food chains but some times I forget that I get what I pay for.

The Half Way Cafe is much better. They do have great food, but their rent and overhead is much less, plus with the alcohol they have other sources of revenue.I would imagine the rent for Five guys is at least twice The Half Way.

It is unfortunate that all these Business Consultants posting here didn't put in their 2 cents prior to this company making an investment.

Is this how we treat new business ventures investing in our community? Good luck to anyone else thinking about trying to come here.

Oh and by the way, Five Guys. You really should be as enlightened as the rest of us. We really are better than you because we are on the Renewable Energy Committee.

Renewable Energy is an important issue, but is it necessary to tear down others to elevate our own stature?
Shouldn't an important Committee member use persuasion and diplomacy with Five Guys and show them the light. Instead the Dedham way is to club them over their heads.

I can't wait for Legacy Place to open next year. So many other businesses for us to show our superiority to.

Five Guys

cherylann — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:56:27 GMT

I agree with the comments you made, Brian.I would also add while waiting for my order, I felt like I was standing on top of customers sitting down trying to eat in peace. I think the space is a bit small.
P.S
I shared my fries with your dinner companion as there were so many of them!

Two updates

Brian — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:24:23 GMT

I have two updates on this front. Yesterday afternoon someone at Town Hall, or more likely at the Dolan Center, read this and corrected several of the deficiencies I pointed out. To whomever that was I thank you, but would like to point out there are still several meetings listed in the Times that don't yet appear online, to wit: several subcommittees of the Master Plan Committee, tonight's Water District meeting, the Planning Board and the Library Trustees.

Secondly, I missed the Selectmen's meeting the other night, but heard Sarah MacDonald had proposed a policy setting minimum standards for what should make it online, and requiring that it be done in a timely manner. As I've suggested before, she wants one person from each department to be responsible for making sure the information ends up on the website.

Since I hadn't heard the discussion or seen the proposed policy, I didn't want to comment on it in the original post. Now I have seen it, and while I think it is a step in the right direction I still believe we have a long way to go. It's short enough that I'll print it below:

1. Each department and/or committee should designate one person responsible for maintaining their department/committee page and any additional pages the department or committee creates. For the purposes of this policy, that designee will be referred to as the "webmaster."

2. Each town department must display on their department home page, a list of key personnel and their contact information, including phone number and email address (if applicable).

3. Each committee must display on their committee home page, a list of committee members and their contact information.

4. Each committee, elected or appointed, must post meeting dates on the web calendar as soon as meetings are scheduled.

5. Each committee, elected or appointed, must post meeting agendas on the web site at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.

6. Each committee, elected or appointed, must post meeting minutes once they are approved by a vote of the committee.

Thank you, Sarah, for taking the lead on this. I hope your fellow Selectmen will adopt this as a first step at your next meeting, which will be announced online, of course.

I agree about the price but...

Katie — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:18:45 GMT

I respectfully disagree with your overall review. Five Guys is the best burger around. Everything there is so fresh. If you go with another person, only get one order of fries b/c they really pile them in that bag. The whole idea of Five Guys is to not be fancy and serve good food. I like it. Granted, you can't eat there everyday.

Good, not great

Eric C. — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:38:55 GMT

Having never heard of this restaurant until several weeks ago when I read about it in the Times, I was looking forward to giving it a try. What's not to love about a place that prides itself on burgers and fries?

Like Brian, I learned after the fact that a regular burger is actually a double-patty. Two regular cheeseburgers, two regular fries, and two regular sodas dented the wallet for somewhere around $19.50. Ouch, indeed.

The food was really good: obviously fresh, good quantities, free beverage refills. Not putting myself in the tree-hugging camp, the brown bag and styrofoam cup didn't even register as unusual. In fact, I like the cup and bag for the fries because they dropped in plenty of extras.

Was it better than just about any other fast food restaurant? I'd say without a doubt. However, I can get a double-cheeseburger, regular fries, and large sweet tea at McDonald's for a little over $3 off the dollar menu. Price-to-quality means 5 Guys will be a rare destination, but I won't go so far as to say I'll never return.

Makes me think of the motto for The Halfway Cafe in a bizarro universe: Good food cheap. 5 Guys would be more like: Good food, but not so cheap.

I'll have to give it a try

daveatkins — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:33:36 GMT

$10?? Yikes. One of the attractions of 5 Guys when I lived in DC in 1994 was that my girlfriend and I could eat there for less than $10 total. Not quite as good a deal as the Costco Cafe ($3 for two people = two hot dogs and sodas; still the same price!), but cheap and good were the principal attributes of 5 guys back then.

In-and-Out Burger is another artery-busting, digestionally challenging burger joint I am very familiar with from my days in Northern California. Fast food, simple menu, plenty of grease. Always big lines of people that moved relatively fast. Main thing was the food was cooked "fresh" -- an alternative to the water-logged sponge burgers (Quarter Pounder with Cheese) at McDonalds.

Eco-friendly? Healthy? Hah! Not part of the charm. I should note that when I was loving those burgers at 5 Guys and In-and-Out, I was also driving to work everyday, smoking a pack of cigarettes a week, and weighed 30 pounds more than I do now.

Hear, hear!

Eric C. — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:59:27 GMT

Absolutely, positively could not agree more! I have used the town's website successfully on several occasions so it certainly has the ability to be a positive medium of communication.

However, I recently ran into the brick wall of nothing available for the ZBA. I wanted to contact the members of the ZBA in support of the Stop & Shop gas station but couldn't even learn who the members were, much less have an easy way of contacting them. A call to Town Hall got me the names, but nothing else.

The lack of use is sad since the hard part of the process (development, design, etc.) was already done. If individual department heads or committee chairs don't deem it necessary, pressure needs to be applied. For the department heads it seems to me that the Town Administrator has the power to apply the pressure (although this could be a case of the pot calling the kettle black). For the boards and committees, the pressure needs to come from us, the voters. I'd recommend bringing it up every chance you get to hammer home the point for what really should be a no-brainer. Hmm, would using the term no-brainer and a government process in the same sentence qualify as a pun?

Photos from the consecration

Brian — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:06:48 GMT

In the Cardinal's blog on Friday he posted photos and wrote of the consecration. It's a brief account, but a nice one.

Photos online

Brian — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:34:07 GMT

Dave has a couple photos up from his ride this morning on Westwood Blog. No one from Westwood joined him, but there were a few brave Dedhamites out on two wheels.

CORI

Jim — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:47:33 GMT

On Thursday. August 21, the Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 to adopt a town-wide CORI policy. The policy is now in place and should be posted to the Town web site soon.