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Kemble Park Tavern, Palisades - Closed


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This is the former Starland Cafe space. When Joan Danoff announced that they were going to close, someone I know who is active in the neighborhood organized a fundraising drive and presented plane tickets and accomodations for Bill and Joan to go to Ireland, in appreciation for all they had done to foster a sense of community in the Palisades.

Does anyone know if Kemble Park is owned by the same people who own The Boat House a little further up MacArthur? If so, that isn't great news. They are decidedly NOT beloved among the Palisades communitarians--they are real estate developers who are responsible for a lot of the unfortunate McMansions that have been metastisizing around here.

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This is the former Starland Cafe space. When Joan Danoff announced that they were going to close, someone I know who is active in the neighborhood organized a fundraising drive and presented plane tickets and accomodations for Bill and Joan to go to Ireland, in appreciation for all they had done to foster a sense of community in the Palisades.

Does anyone know if Kemble Park is owned by the same people who own The Boat House a little further up MacArthur? If so, that isn't great news. They are decidedly NOT beloved among the Palisades communitarians--they are real estate developers who are responsible for a lot of the unfortunate McMansions that have been metastisizing around here.

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washingt...rhours/524.html

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No, Kemble is not owned by the Boat House group, one of the owners is Jim Foss, he is the former CRC corporate chef and is a real talent. Jim was a featured chef at the James Beard House in NYC. He was very instrumental in getting myself and several other Capital Restaurant Group chefs into the Beard House. I would describe His style as new American with Amish and New England influences. He has produced some of the best food I have ever tasted. I would expect big things for KPT.

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Last night I had an incredibly long piece of meat. At first I was shocked by its length - at least twelve inches - but when I realized the front part was folded underneath itself, my jaw dropped. Fully extended, this thing was legimtately eighteen-inches long. I didn't know how I was possibly going to get the whole thing in me, but fortunately, what it had in length, it lacked in girth.

Skirt Steak at Kemble Park Tavern, cooked a perfect medium-rare, topped with a little romesco and served with grilled onion, destructively overcooked fries, and a ramekin of ketchup ($21.95). A bottle of Sam Adams Light, culled from an underachieving beer list, and drunk in a warm, clubby tavern with an English-library feel ($5.95).

Cheers,

Rocks.

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A bottle of Sam Adams Light, culled from an underachieving beer list, and drunk in a warm, clubby tavern with an English-library feel ($5.95).

?!? An English tavern theme and no Bass Ale or Newcastle Brown on draught? For shame.

Oh, and someone's got to say it, Rocks - that first paragraph of yours was positively lurid. For a moment, I thought I was having a flashback to an old "letters" feature in Bob Guccione's magazine. :(

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Last night I had an incredibly long piece of meat. At first I was shocked by its length - at least twelve inches - but when I realized the front part was folded underneath itself, my jaw dropped. Fully extended, this thing was legimtately eighteen-inches long. I didn't know how I was possibly going to get the whole thing in me, but fortunately, what it had in length, it lacked in girth.

Skirt Steak at Kemble Park Tavern, cooked a perfect medium-rare, topped with a little romesco and served with grilled onion, destructively overcooked fries, and a ramekin of ketchup ($21.95). A bottle of Sam Adams Light, culled from an underachieving beer list, and drunk in a warm, clubby tavern with an English-library feel ($5.95).

Cheers,

Rocks.

We were serving skirt steak at Cashions Eat Place when it first opened in 1995. It is incredibly flavorful and when cooked and cut the right way quite tender. It really was under utilized and considered the butcher's secret like flat iron.

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Since we live in the neighborhood, we felt a need to check the place out. Apparently, others feel the same way, because the place was packed last night. The crowd was tilted pretty firmly toward the over-sixty crowd, which befits its dark wood-bookshelves-and wing chairs atmosphere. The music was making my indie-rock fan teenaged daughter a little crazy, an unpleasant mix of Kenny G-style instrumentals and Sinatra wannabe vocals. The food--well, a weird lobster bisque, flavored with anisette, vanilla and single malt scotch, with pecorino-topped croutons floating in it. The burgers were decent, but I wish the house-made bacon had been crisped more evenly instead of being partly flabby with a couple of burned spots. And the fries were limp in their chinese food containers. Veggie-teen's side of mac and cheese, in a cute little cast-iron cocotte was greasy, and the Dauphinoise potatoes turned out to be a thick slab of uninteresting scalloped potatoes.

Our nearest neighbor on the banquette against the wall, a PBS news personality, was not thrilled with the battered and fried trout "fish of the day," which had been described to her as "pan-cooked" by the waiter. Her dining companion didn't eat more than a bite of his gyro sandwich, telling the busboy that his first course soup had filled him up and no, he didn't care to take it home.

No beers on draft, just bottles.

Ho-hum. Well, we mostly eat at home, anyway.

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