"WallStreetJournal" news and stories

Small plates. Swanky hotel addresses. Open floor plans. Avant-garde olives.

As customers balk at the cost of luxury dining, is this future for high-end restaurants?

With its tapas-style menu and nightclub ambiance, The Bazaar by José Andrés, a Beverly Hills, Calif., bar and restaurant, grossed $13 million last year when other luxury establishments like D'Amico Cucina in Minneapolis and Chantarelle in New York City are closing their doors, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"This restaurant-packed at a time when many others are discounting or closing their doors-may be the future of fine dining," the Journal reported.

The image above doesn't scream "dinner" to most -- especially those who spent childhood summers grubby-pawed and overheated, plucking them out of the cracks of walkways, driveways and wherever else they lurked.

But as this timely Wall Street Journal story reports, weeds are spreading to places other than just your garden, including the dinner table. Dandelion greens, purslane, burdock and lamb's quarters are becoming staples of both haute restaurants and homespun summer salads. They can now be procured both high-end ($9 per pound in one farmers market) and low-end (via elbow grease).

But can one waltz down a Brooklyn street and pluck a handful of dandelions from the edge of a vacant lot to pop in a pan for dinner? The short answer, says 27-year veteran forager and author "Wildman" Steve Brill, is "no." He quickly follows that it's not as hard as one would think, and that hunting for a free dinner "is like learning how to swim, dance or drive a car. Learning to recognize very tasteful, very healthful wild food is no different than any other skill."

His tips, a weedy poll and an additional "expert" opinion after the jump.

The tariffs that were initially going to be imposed on Roquefort were a retaliatory move in reaction to the European Union's ban on hormone-treated beef. But after a provisional agreement, officials from the EU and the United States decided to drop both measures. So, while the U.S. removed threats of tariffs on Roquefort, the EU has gotten rid of bans on imported beef from the U.S.

See how chefs are reacting after the jump.

Maybe you read about the fact that Campbell's Soup was the only stock on the S&P 500 that didn't fall that fateful day in late September, when the market tanked 700 points. This is like that. Only with recipes.

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), publishers are betting big that cookbooks will continue to sell even as everyone tightens their wallets significantly. No surprise there. Eating out is one of the first luxuries people cut back on in tough times.

But publishers are hoping this turn of events will help them peddle product during the upcoming holiday shopping season, which is shaping up to look otherwise pretty unappetizing. They are releasing a clutch of new cookbooks from well-known names, including Paula Deen, Jacques Pepin and Jeff Henderson, figuring that as long as people are cooking more from home, they will buy a book of recipes from names they recognize from the Food Network.

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Have you heard of "falsies"? They're the latest news in the beer drinking world. Falsies are pint glasses that have an extra thick bottom, so they look like a pint but actually only hold about 14 ounces (rather than the 16 ounces that a pint should have).

The Wall Street Journal did a piece on deceptive beer pours last week about this issue, and a lot of people are up in arms about it. I can't say that I blame them. If a restaurant or bar needs to raise prices, that's fair: most of us know by now about the hops shortage and fuel prices that are driving up the cost of beer. However, I draw the line at trying to cheat people out of beer.

Some establishments have unapologetically switched to 14 ounce glasses. That's also fine, as long as you inform your customers of that practice. I'm all for turning a profit, but businesses that cheat their customers are the lowest of the low in my book. Next time you're ordering a pint, make sure you're getting what you paid for.