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AVP
09-10-2009, 12:32 PM
Master Sommelier and General Manager Michael A. Jordan has left the Napa Rose restaurant at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. Disney issued a statement today that said in part, "After 9 years of service, Michael Jordan is moving on to persue his passion for food and wine on his own." The statement goes on to thank Jordan for his service, and to wish him the best of luck.

AVP

Malcon10t
09-10-2009, 12:41 PM
Master Sommelier and General Manager Michael A. Jordan has left the Napa Rose restaurant at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. Disney issued a statement today that said in part, "After 9 years of service, Michael Jordan is moving on to persue his passion for food and wine on his own." The statement goes on to thank Jordan for his service, and to wish him the best of luck.

AVPOh man, I wonder if AdK is going to survive this... We were just talking about him Sunday.

MammaSilva
09-10-2009, 12:43 PM
Oh man, I wonder if AdK is going to survive this... We were just talking about him Sunday.

GMTA!!!!!!!!!! If they announce that Chef Sutton is leaving I'm sending in the paramedics!

adriennek
09-10-2009, 12:50 PM
Oh man, I wonder if AdK is going to survive this... We were just talking about him Sunday.


GMTA!!!!!!!!!! If they announce that Chef Sutton is leaving I'm sending in the paramedics!

Here's my gut reaction:

My concern for the Rose would be what will happen to the Sommelier program. He was the one who taught the program and got the servers to take the tests and be certified. I really hope that continues.

When AVP called me and told me someone was leaving NR, I HAVE to confess that I was more relieved that it wasn't Andrew and/or anyone on his chef team. Yeah, you'll need to paramedic me then!

Adrienne

Ohthatjeff
09-10-2009, 01:00 PM
I hope he doesn't unretire again. His tenure playing with the Wizards was just painful to watch. :cool:

LLCMC
09-10-2009, 01:44 PM
I hope he doesn't unretire again. His tenure playing with the Wizards was just painful to watch. :cool:

LMAO. I'm glad I wasn't the only one having thoughts of this nature :D

janell
09-10-2009, 06:48 PM
Im sorry to hear he has left. Wishing him well in what he does next.

I hope this doesn't mean that they are going to mess up Napa Rose. I hope they leave it as it is, its a great place. And don't take get ride of the cream burlee. lol

Boo's Mommy
09-10-2009, 06:55 PM
I hope he doesn't unretire again. His tenure playing with the Wizards was just painful to watch. :cool:

Sadly, it took me 6 hours to finally get this!:eek: i'm soo lame.

adriennek
09-10-2009, 07:14 PM
I hope this doesn't mean that they are going to mess up Napa Rose. I hope they leave it as it is, its a great place. And don't take get ride of the cream burlee. lol

I don't know that MJ leaving would cause changes to the menu. That's the chef's domain.

Adrienne

bennette
09-10-2009, 07:20 PM
Well, I want to die.

Which I'm sure is an overstatement but I don't like the sound of anything that decreases from the overall quality of food and beverage experience there.

cstephens
09-10-2009, 10:11 PM
When AVP called me and told me someone was leaving NR, I HAVE to confess that I was more relieved that it wasn't Andrew and/or anyone on his chef team. Yeah, you'll need to paramedic me then!

Yeah, same here. I don't expect changes unless Andrew leaves.

potzbie
09-10-2009, 10:28 PM
Another victim of the economic turn-down.

Find the most senior member, who makes the highest salary, and start cutting, downward.

And wish him well, in your press release.
:rolleyes:

adriennek
09-10-2009, 10:31 PM
Another victim of the economic turn-down.

Find the most senior member, who makes the highest salary, and start cutting, downward.

And wish him well, in your press release.
:rolleyes:

Huh????

Adrienne

cstephens
09-10-2009, 10:38 PM
Another victim of the economic turn-down.

Find the most senior member, who makes the highest salary, and start cutting, downward.

And wish him well, in your press release.
:rolleyes:

So you're just making up reasons that suit your personal beliefs, no matter what the real reasons are? Ok then.

Toocherie
09-11-2009, 06:52 AM
actually, economic down-sizing was my first thought too . . . . .but I'm sure the people who really know what the reason was aren't talking.

cstephens
09-11-2009, 06:56 AM
actually, economic down-sizing was my first thought too . . . . .but I'm sure the people who really know what the reason was aren't talking.

Oh, sure, there will always be speculation pretty much when anyone leaves. I just don't believe in bashing Disney without knowing what the story is and just assuming the worst of them. Who knows, maybe they just didn't like the color of Michael's ties - TIE CENSORSHIP!!!!!! ;)

Karin
09-13-2009, 06:26 AM
Another victim of the economic turn-down.

It can't be just as they've said? That he's gone to pursue his passion for food and wine on his own? Why the negative assumption? Do you have some insider knowledge that we don't have?

TowerofTerror
09-13-2009, 11:49 AM
Whys Michael Jordan leaving Napa Rose??

Iceman
09-13-2009, 09:16 PM
I will say that I've noticed the quality of Napa Rose (food and service both) declining in recent years. Perhaps it is time for some changes. I certainly wish MJ well in the future, but hope that the new management can reinvigorate the all-around excellence that surrounded this restaurant for its first several years of operation.

KarenW2
09-13-2009, 11:58 PM
Since the Princess and the Frog seminar went WAY over time (they didn't even START the session, til after well the original time it was supposed to be over!), we only were able to see about 20 minutes of it (after having camped out in the way too long to begin with queue, for 2.5 hours, before they even started taking people's cell phones, cameras, etc.!!), because we had our 5:30 reservation, at our favorite seats #7 & #8, at the Chef's Counter!

We were going into it a little sad, since one of the items on the Expo Live Auction that night was an "experience" with having Andy as your person chef for the night, so we figured he wouldn't be working, he'd be at the auction. We were much happier, when we were seated at the counter, because we found out he was indeed there and working his magic in the kitchen! When we mentioned we thought he might not be there because of the auction, he said, "well, they had several really good items on the list". It made us wonder if they even let him know that HE was actually one of the auction items!

No matter, I went with my menu choices, with the standard caveats about my food/health challenges and my hubby told Andy to surprise him. When he said that, Andy brightened and asked him, "Wow! Do you want to try some really weird stuff, or just normal stuff?" My hubby said he was up for anything. The "weird" item turned out to be an octopus salad with various greens and things in it, along with "potato salad"! I tasted the octo and found it to be really tasty and a nice texture that Andy had pre-descibed as, "like steak" and we agreed. He also brought him a nice size piece of a particular trout that Andy had recently found a supplier for and it was really good. The rest of his dinner was the started items from the Vintner's Menu and that was fine with him, especially the dessert with the "goat cheese ice cream" on it!! I didn't even take a taste, it didn't sound good to me.

I had mentioned to Chef that I was ordering the short ribs, since they sounded wonderful, but it had been a tough choice between that and the duck, which I really enjoyed the last time, so since I ordered the short ribs with the incredible risotto, Andy had them bring me out a "taster" size portion of the duck I liked so much (2 slices, which was fine!). For my dessert, I ordered their Sharfenberger Chocolate cake that on the menu comes with cinnamon ice cream, but I always request their amazing chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream instead.

The restaurant was totally packed Saturday night, including diners in the lounge, as well as some of the "big wigs", John Lasseter and friends, so we didn't have as much of a chance to chat with the staff, but Andy made it a point to come over for a few seconds at a time, to see what was happening. When they serve us, he always likes to tell us what we've received, but when he got to my dessert, he said I had the aforementioned Sharfenberger chocolate cake, then he paused, then said, served with their chocolate chocolate chip ice cream, which he then said was what he considered to be an amazingly good choice! Our favorite pastry chef was working that night, and training a new girl who was having only her 4th day on the job! We've always enjoyed talking with the pastry chef and when she saw that the dessert plates that were about to be given to us had very melted ice creams, she told the server to wait and she decided to give us an extra scoop of each of our ice creams, because of the melted ice cream on our plates. That definitely met with our approval and thanks!!

We had a very nice, relaxed dinner, at our favorite restaurant in the resort, so that was good, since the rest of the Expo was such a ZOO!!! I think we made Chef Andy's night, when we told him we left the session long before it was over, because we had our dinner reservation there!!

We were asked by several cast members that night, what we thought of the Expo and we gave them some answers. We spoke to one of the guys who'd been our waiter a previous time that we'd just that morning seen John Travolta, his wife Kelly Preston, and their daughter, Elija Blue. They were there to promote their new movie, with all of them in it, that was their daughter's first role in a movie, so they were pretty excited. Next on, was Nickolas Cage, there to hawk HIS project, the upcoming Sorcerer's Apprentice, that looked very mysterious and much like the other National Treasure movies. After that, came a small scale replice of the Mark Twain Riverboat, gliding out onto the stage, filled with all the Muppets, doing a number and promoting themselves.

But, of course, the absolute HIT of the night was seeing JOHNNY DEPP, all dressed up or "dreaded" up, in his full Captain Jack Sparrom costume, make-up, semi-drunken swagger and all!! He tried to talk to Jay Rasulo in character, asking him if he'd seen the "talking frog" (Kermit) who he'd just seen backstage, but even tho I'm sure they had rehearsals, Jay Rasoulo didn't know what to do!! He had a teleprompter with HUGE letters, but mostly, he just stammered and looked uncomfortable.

When talking to our previous waiter and telling him about Johnny Depp's performance, he told us, "Yeah, he was supposed to be coming in for dinner tonite, but he changed his order to over $1,400 in wine, to be sent up to his room!! We thought that was pretty funny. Maybe he really IS shy after-all!

All of this was mentioned to say, we had another great dinner at NR and we really hope things don't change for the worse, now that Michaels gone. The pastry chef told us that one of the guy's from Club 33 was going to be coming to work at Napa Rose, so we thought that was interesting! Kinda like "Musical Chairs", I guess!

Karin
09-14-2009, 12:39 PM
I will say that I've noticed the quality of Napa Rose (food and service both) declining in recent years. Perhaps it is time for some changes. I certainly wish MJ well in the future, but hope that the new management can reinvigorate the all-around excellence that surrounded this restaurant for its first several years of operation.

I haven't noticed a decrease in anything ever at NR. I'm sorry you've had less than stellar experiences.

I'm not sure what you're referring to regarding "new management". Am I unaware of a "management" position Michael had? Sommelier isn't really "management", that I'm aware of.

cstephens
09-14-2009, 01:51 PM
I'm not sure what you're referring to regarding "new management". Am I unaware of a "management" position Michael had? Sommelier isn't really "management", that I'm aware of.

Michael was also General Manager of Napa Rose.


I've been going to Napa Rose since a month after they opened, and I can't think of any decrease in either the food quality or service myself.

adriennek
09-14-2009, 02:04 PM
I'm not sure what you're referring to regarding "new management". Am I unaware of a "management" position Michael had? Sommelier isn't really "management", that I'm aware of.

I'm not sure there is a new management yet. Has anyone heard who his replacement is??

Adrienne

Crazydave
09-14-2009, 04:57 PM
Thats too bad.

I really enjoyed the Wine Tasting Classes that he put on at the Food & Wine Festivals.

I never saw him at the Napa Rose...maybe because we always went on a Sunday or Monday night.

Kudos to him for building up the Wine program there.. hopefully, it will maintain the structuret that is there.

AVP
09-14-2009, 05:29 PM
It made us wonder if they even let him know that HE was actually one of the auction items!Tony and I went on our anniversary, and mentioned the auction to Chef Sutton. He hadn't been told, and didn't know what I was talking about. The servers standing at the pass all knew, and joked that they needed to keep him informed.

AVP