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Kliman Online, Todd Kliman's Chog - Tuesdays 11-12 AM on Washingtonian.com


Meaghan

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not only is palena still moving to the westinghouse mansion, but galileo is moving far, far away.

i am not making this up:

http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/dining.html

Todd's comments echo what I heard a few months ago from none other than Roberto Donna himself. I had the pleasure of sitting next to him while we ate dinner following his grilling class (The class was excellent, by the way.) It was a very entertaining and enlightening conversation, where he expounded upon the current status of dining in DC, the role of the critics and writers, and his appearances on Iron Chef, as well as discussing his upcoming move.

Since the building Galileo is currently in is undergoing renovation, the building Owner offered Roberto rent-free space in Crystal City for a year. He plans to open a more casual trattoria in that location.

Upon returning to the current location in a year or so, Galileo would be bigger and better than ever, according to Roberto. Sounds like the Osteria would have more of a separate identity, with a separate entrance, and a new wood-burning oven for pizzas and the like. The main dining room would be expanded and fully renovated.

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not only is palena still moving to the westinghouse mansion, but galileo is moving far, far away.

i am not making this up:

http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/dining.html

Only in DC would Crystal City be considered far, far away! :)
But,but...it's across the river!!! :lol:

Not a long journey for dinner but well beyond the range of the power lunchers Kliman alluded to. That noontime run across the river, from either direction (I used to come in from Pentagon City on occassion) is an astounding pain in the ass.

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...Upon returning to the current location in a year or so, Galileo would be bigger and better than ever, according to Roberto...

This is the part that wasn't made clear in the Kliman chat. Kliman's note reads like the move to Crystal City is permanent, rather than just the temporary home for Donna to do something different for a year.

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This is the part that wasn't made clear in the Kliman chat. Kliman's note reads like the move to Crystal City is permanent, rather than just the temporary home for Donna to do something different for a year.
I dobn't know, it seems pretty clear to me that the relocation is just for a year while his current building undergoes rennovation.
The latest buzz is that Galileo will be vacating its outdated, dimly-lit space in early September for a year while its building undergoes renovation and setting up shop in Crystal City in the space currently occupied by [restaurant I am not currrently at liberty to divulge] which is apparently eyeing the space being vacated by Andale, which closed last week
.
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the todd kliman chog today makes me want to run to the station and grab a train to montreal. do they still go that far?

http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/dining.html

anyway, au pied de cochon has been at the top of my must list since seeing it on anthony bourdain's quebec show. who can resist a duck in the can?

We went there in June. The person at the next table ordered the duck-in-a-can--I watched the process of opening the can, plopping it out on the plate. Very amusing, but did not look all that appetizing, frankly. After all that, it was pale-looking, stewed fowl. I enjoyed my buckwheat blini, foie gras, bacon, cheese curds and maple syrup. Todd didn't partake of the seafood options at APduC, which are as amazing as the foie gras, meat and duck. An amazing place. We had a great time in Montreal, and my daughter is thinking about McGill. We also have family there. More visits in the future!

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Someone should tell Kliman that the Charcoal Pit in Wilmington, DE makes the EXACT SAME hot fudge cake that Hot Shoppes used to have. It's a cheap commercially made hot fudge sauce that they use, the same Hot Shoppes used 40 years ago when I used to make them at #10 which was on the corner of Wisconsin and Van Ness. I can't remember the brand name but I can still see the silver canister we would pump to top the cakes.

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From today's chog: "I just ate at the best little Indian restaurant in Arlington and I think your magazine should review it. It's called the "India Curry House" and it's located on Clarendon Blvd. next to the Clarendon Metro and the Clarendon Ballroom.

Their Chick Ticka Masala is the best I've ever had. The service was very good and the proprietors are very sweet people. I can't say enough good things about this place.

I highly recomend their restaurant and I sinserly hope that your viewers vist them soon.

Thank You,

Cherie Nelson"

Um, Ms. Nelson, if that is really your name, having eaten at India Curry House I can't help but think your post is a plant. The service was good and the proprietors may be sweet, the food was nowhere near the best I have ever had. In fact it wasn't that great in fact I was concerned about the food safety elements of the "buffet" which was far from warm. It may have been better than other Indian restaurants but it is not close to the best restaurant in the area or for the price.

Continue on...

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I actually talked about that message with Todd a couple days ago, and we both thought it looked like an insider job. :)

Washington, DC: Todd,

Have you tried the new PS7s yet? We had a superlative meal there over the weekend. Great spot, great service, and very good food. The breads are made by the pastry chef and are likely the best in town.

Todd: Nice.

And whom do I thank for this absolutely glowing endorsement of the new Penn Quarter restaurant?

a.) Danny Boylen, the general manager

b.) Peter Smith, the chef

c.) Bronwyn Jacoby, the publicist

d.) All of the above

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Washington, DC: Todd,

Have you tried the new PS7s yet? We had a superlative meal there over the weekend. Great spot, great service, and very good food. The breads are made by the pastry chef and are likely the best in town.

Todd: Nice.

And whom do I thank for this absolutely glowing endorsement of the new Penn Quarter restaurant?

a.) Danny Boylen, the general manager

b.) Peter Smith, the chef

c.) Bronwyn Jacoby, the publicist

d.) All of the above

My money's on c) the publicist :)

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Interesting, but doesn't really answer the question. :)
It's suspiciously nonspecific. "Bread is likely the best in town" makes it sound like the person is going out of their way not to mention anyone else's bread as a frame of reference. Someone with no dog in the hunt is more likely to say "it's even better than (insert paragon of breadliness here)'s."
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It's suspiciously nonspecific.
I suspect it was nonspecific because the questioner was seeking Kliman's take, not attempting to tell Kliman or his readers how much he enjoyed eating there. Afterall, it was submitted as a question, and not an FYI this place is fabulous and you and your readers should really go eat there.
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To be honest I just read the Chog last night and was a bit taken aback by the response to the post about PS7. Considering what I posted on September 5, and had confirmed that other blogs received the same notice from Cherie Nelson:

From today's chog: "I just ate at the best little Indian restaurant in Arlington and I think your magazine should review it. It's called the "India Curry House" and it's located on Clarendon Blvd. next to the Clarendon Metro and the Clarendon Ballroom.

Their Chick Ticka Masala is the best I've ever had. The service was very good and the proprietors are very sweet people. I can't say enough good things about this place.

I highly recomend their restaurant and I sinserly hope that your viewers vist them soon.

Thank You,

Cherie Nelson"

Um, Ms. Nelson, if that is really your name, having eaten at India Curry House I can't help but think your post is a plant. The service was good and the proprietors may be sweet, the food was nowhere near the best I have ever had. In fact it wasn't that great in fact I was concerned about the food safety elements of the "buffet" which was far from warm. It may have been better than other Indian restaurants but it is not close to the best restaurant in the area or for the price.

Continue on...

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Todd, what's all this October 30th Washingtonian.com launch talk? What will be new and different?
Well, they've sort of newspaper-ified it in the style of the WaPo and CityPaper. But the ratio of ad-space to content seems really lopsided...the ads are now annoyingly prominent. There doesn't appear to be any way to navigate to archived Kliman chogs, nor do they turn up on the site search feature.

Also in converting their existing content, not enough attention was paid to extended character set mappings; accented Latin characters got transmogrified in unpleasant ways. Check out what happened to "Côes-du-Rhí´ne" in Don's article on Ten Must-Have Wines.

Hmmmm.
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In his latest chog TK declareth:

Katz's is good. Real good.

But you know what? It doesn't begin to compare to the epic smoked meat sandwiches you can find in Montreal at Schwartz's and otherse.

He's right, IMHO. It's not the size; Katz's pastrami serving is quite adequate - at least, it was last weekend. But for flavor, for texture, Schwartz's smoked meat blows 'em away.
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i think shwartz's and katz's are the two best that i have been two at pastrami-like meats. i can't say shwartz's blows katz's out of the water, but it certainly blows any other place i have been to out of the water.
Sir-There's no such thing as pastrami-like meats. There is pastrami. And there is Corned Beef. And there is tongue, etc., etc. :) And to site Schwartz's over Katz's, which I am not disputing, not having been there (Schwartz's) since 1967, one better be ready to throw hands! I'd like to know when Kliman's last visit was to either joint, and a little more detail, before I take Schwartz's over Katz's. Thank you. And Zei Gezunt.
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Schwartz's is not pastrami (or its not advertised as such). it is called, strangely enough, smoked meat.

it is great. i have eaten it three times, and katz's 4 or 5 at least. I go to katz's every time i go to nyc. katz's is the best pastrami I have ever had (people on eGullet spoke very highly of Langers in LA, and I went this summer and was quite disappointed). Schwartz's is the only meat I have had that approximates the Katz's experience.

http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/index_eng.html

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Schwartz's is not pastrami (or its not advertised as such). it is called, strangely enough, smoked meat. http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/index_eng.html
Nothing strange about it at all. From Wikipedia on Smoked Meat:

"Smoked meat, also known as salt beef in London, is cured, spiced, and flavoured in ways similar to corned beef and, especially, pastrami. Difference in meat cut and spicing mean that smoked meat's taste is different from either of these, and even varies from recipe to recipe. Because smoked meat is said to originate in Eastern Ashkenazi Jewish communities, it is often associated with other foods popularized by those communities, such as bagels."

If you happen to be in Ottawa and don't want to drive to Montreal, Nate's Deli on Rideau Street makes a damn fine smoked meat sandwich (and Black Forest Cake as well).

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Todd chat happening now. Does anyone else follow these in real time and find the updating excruciatingly slow? Not sure if I have technical difficulties, or if I need to just wait for the whole thing to get posted before following along...

Ever since Washingtonian's site was updated I've had the same difficulty when trying to follow the chat in "real time."

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He writes lengthy, thoughtful answers. It takes time to type. The delay is a limitation of the system, sort of like listening to someone speak through an interpreter.

What I hate is clicking to read it after lunch on Tuesday and being directed to the plug for the next Tuesday's chat. But that's a minor nuisance in the grand scale of things ...

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my sense is that he's not fed all that many questions.
Anecdotal evidence: I am batting .750 or .800 with my submitted Kliman questions. (Probably 4 or 5 total submissions, one was not answered.) I bat about .250 with Sietsema.

(In case you were wondering, yes, I do base some portion of my paltry self-esteem on my ability to get strangers to answer my questions on-line. You should see me during Gene Wang's Fantasy Football chat.)

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From the intro to the chat:

Last May, I reported that Eric Ripert of Manhattan's famed Le Bernardin was thisclose to coming to town to open a new restaurant.

No longer.

It's a done deal.

The restaurant, called Harvest, will replace The Grill at the Ritz-Carlton on 22nd and M Sts. Adamstein and Demetriou are doing the interior.

No word yet on how involved the pouty-lipped, four-star chef plans to be in the day-to-day operations of the new restaurant, which should open late this summer or early fall, but his arrival marks yet another high-profile addition to the city's dining scene

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TK is dropping bombs today! The Eric Ripert's Harvest will officially be the new place at the M St Ritz, Central might have some siblings in the works & the new owners of the Latham are morons, and Chef Wabeck's reappearance to come in an interesting pairing & reversal of roles:

Last spring, I reported that Jared Slipp, formerly the sommelier at Nectar and then Ray's the Steaks -- was going to be pairing up with a DC chef on a new restaurant -- a small place (no more than 24 seats, if I recall), with interesting, challenging cooking. Slipp swore me to secrecy at the time, but now I can say it: that chef is John Wabeck.

The plan was that Slipp, not Wabeck, would be doing the cooking (he's got mad skillz in the kitchen, apparently), and Wabeck, not Slipp, would be handling the wines (he's studying to become a Master Sommelier).

The big question, at that point, was getting the needed investors on board. Is Wabeck's departure a sign that things are, indeed, moving ahead?

More as I hear it.

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TK is dropping bombs today! The Eric Ripert's Harvest will officially be the new place at the M St Ritz, Central might have some siblings in the works & the new owners of the Latham are morons, and Chef Wabeck's reappearance to come in an interesting pairing & reversal of roles:

Must be a slow news day.

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"Adams Morgan DC:

good morning, I don't know if you have been asked this before, but what do you think about DC food blogs. I mean you know Don Rockwell b/c you work for the same publication, but do you think sites like dr.com are helpful or do the "writers" expect to much from dining--- esp. those who b/c they belong to a message board expect special service and perks? Is this fair for a restaurant?

Todd Kliman:

I guess the question is -- helpful to whom?

To the person who knows little about the area's restaurant scene? No. To the person who loves to go to restaurants and eat and drink but who isn't the sort of person inclined to dissect the dish and the rationale for pairing a certain course with a certain wine? Again, no.

There are some people on these boards who know an awful lot about food and drink, to be sure.

Some of them are actual insiders -- people who work in the business. Some of them disclose their connection, some don't. It hardly matters either way, since the nature of the Internet is that readers don't read all that carefully and the information, in the end -- the sheer information, not whether it is true or false, rumor or not, honest critique or public relations -- is ultimately what is retained in the great collective memory.

And some of these people are quasi-insiders -- people who are fond of a chef or restaurant and who then become fans or, if you will, groupies of that chef's place. People who want to be on the inside. Special treatment invariably follows, which in turn leads to gushing posts on the message boards, which in turn creates a buzz about a place."

So I guess he's saying that DR.com is helpful to no one. Meanie.

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Keep in mind that this is in reference to something Kliman reported nearly a year ago:

and Chef Wabeck's reappearance to come in an interesting pairing & reversal of roles:

And should be tempered with this remark:

Is Wabeck's departure a sign that things are, indeed, moving ahead?

A question that Kliman does not appear to know the answer to.

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Todd Kliman:

I guess the question is -- helpful to whom?

To the person who knows little about the area's restaurant scene? No. To the person who loves to go to restaurants and eat and drink but who isn't the sort of person inclined to dissect the dish and the rationale for pairing a certain course with a certain wine? Again, no.

There are some people on these boards who know an awful lot about food and drink, to be sure.

Some of them are actual insiders -- people who work in the business. Some of them disclose their connection, some don't. It hardly matters either way, since the nature of the Internet is that readers don't read all that carefully and the information, in the end -- the sheer information, not whether it is true or false, rumor or not, honest critique or public relations -- is ultimately what is retained in the great collective memory.

And some of these people are quasi-insiders -- people who are fond of a chef or restaurant and who then become fans or, if you will, groupies of that chef's place. People who want to be on the inside. Special treatment invariably follows, which in turn leads to gushing posts on the message boards, which in turn creates a buzz about a place."

So the industry pros are of possible value, but none of the rest of us? Sounds like someone doesn't care for this board very much.

What about those who are none of those things? What about the home cooks? Bakers? Shoppers? Those who like getting together to explore and discuss _______ ( fill in the blank with ethnic restaurants, cheap eats, various markets, food books, etc.)? Donrockwell.com posters are not exclusively chefs and their panting groupies.

I take great exception to the comment that "the nature of the Internet is that readers don't read all that carefully." All internet readers? And why is that any more true of internet readers than of any other kind?

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So the industry pros are of possible value, but none of the rest of us? Sounds like someone doesn't care for this board very much. What about those who are none of those things? What about the home cooks? Bakers? Shoppers? Those who like getting together to explore and discuss _______ ( fill in the blank with ethnic restaurants, cheap eats, various markets, food books, etc.)? Donrockwell.com posters are not exclusively chefs and their panting groupies.

It is apparent from Todd's missive that he spends little time actually reading the board, which is unfortunate given what he said about it today to his readers. I agree with him about the "gushing" problem (although it seems to be less and less frequent), but he seems to ignore the serious amount of self- and group-policing that goes on here. No potshots are allowed, and if you are going to really criticize a place, you had better be prepared to back it up with details and experience. I think if Todd spent some more time reading (and posting) here, he'd have a better appreciation of what this board can be.

Then again, if I were a restaurant critic I don't know that I would feel much love for my competition, either.

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He probably views places like DR.com as competition (as if he doesn't have enough of that) and it would have surprised me if he had said that, overall, sites such as this add value.
It's a little late to be worried about internet discussion boards. That train left the station several years ago.
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"...And some of these people are quasi-insiders -- people who are fond of a chef or restaurant and who then become fans or, if you will, groupies of that chef's place. People who want to be on the inside. Special treatment invariably follows, which in turn leads to gushing posts on the message boards, which in turn creates a buzz about a place."
So Todd, how does your constant raving about places like Etete differ? The fact that you aren't posting it on a message board?
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