hungry prof

They do, but I think there's a difference between a few tablespoons of milk in a coffee and filling a large cold cup with milk on top of two shots of espresso.

Much simpler explanation, I think. I suspect they don't want people ordering a "double iced espresso in a large cup" and then filling it to the top with milk. (This practice is so infamous at Starbucks that the drink created has a nickname, which I'd rather not repeat). If you want an iced latte, then they want you to pay for it.

Thanks, all. Some great leads, here. And, yes, Carvel still exists with a bunch of area locations. Apparently, however, Fudgie the Whale is no longer a standard cake that they offer. What is Carvel without Fudgie the Whale?

My soon-to-be eight-year old has requested an ice cream cake for his party. Anybody know where I can find one? Carvel is a fall back, I guess, but Carvel always tastes so. . .unlike ice cream. Thanks.

This sucks. Georgetown could so have used that restaurant.

That particular friend is very hard to impress and even harder to get to give up any control. She was skeptical of going to a place where she'd have no say in what she ate, but you won her over. An impressive feat. Also, I should give a quick tip of the hat to Rocks. I messaged him midweek to see if he had any recent reports on Rogue 24. He said he didn't, but he did reference a reliable and very positive review from a year or so ago. Helped convince us to take the plunge, and we are glad we did.

Terrific 24-course "Journey" at Rogue 24 last night. One of those meals where certain dishes just keep you thinking about them for a while afterwards. All twenty-four dishes were not equally hits, but there were far more hits than less-than-hits (there we not true "misses" in my view). Among the dishes that most impressed us: Duck blood lavash/liver spread/onion marmalade: part of the initial plate of small bites that is the first thing to come out. The cracker, the mousse, and the marmalade work perfectly together Swordfish belly/blood orange/fennel/truffle: as good as any sashimi you'd get at a fine Japanese restaurant Foie gras/parsnip/apple/almond: a piece of foie with a parsnip puree and almond bread. I can't recall a dish I've had in DC recently that i enjoyed as much as this one. Fluke/spinach/lemon/brown butter: perfectly cooked fish, left to shine on its own without much saucing. Pigtail doughnuts/pear butter/pork fat dust/mustards: like southern dim sum. I could have eaten six of these, easily. Araucana cured yolk/elephant garlic/potato/ruby sorrel: an exquisitely cooked egg with a think piece of garlic "paper"on top. A simple egg. Shenandoah lamb neck/new zealand spinach/pepper compote: a rectangular cube of braised (?) lamb neck; the purest red meat dish of the night Squab leg/pear/rutabaga/mashua/tarragon: squab "two ways"; a recognizable boned leg and a roulade; gamey, a bit salty, flavorful--excellent Chocolate/cherry/pistachios/sage: the plated desserts were not overwhelmingly sweet, which we appreciated; this was probably the sweetest of the bunch other than the. . . Happy endings/little things/small bites: a box of six different petit fours. I don't remember them all, but I do remember delicious orange chocolates, mint meringues, and fudge covered peanut balls. We brought a couple of bottles of our own wine, so I can't say much about the wine service. But we did have few cocktails to start. I had their take on a Boulevardiere, and it went down way too smoothly. Another friend had their version of a gin and tonic, nicely garnished with juniper berries. Service was excellent with no lapses in explaining some of the non-obvious dishes to us. One of the highlights of the night for me was having a table feet from the kitchen. R.J. was as engaging as he could be given that he was apparently down three cooks on a busy Saturday night. I'm always impressed with the calm amidst the storm of a well-run restaurant kitchen. Other than an occasional stern, "Let's go" from R.J., there was never any sign of stress from the kitchen (which is managing what I have to imagine is a very complicated ballet with a number of tables working their way through 24-courses while others are doing 10-courses, all at different times). Really enjoyed this meal.

Have you had fish from the Blacksalt market? I ask not to question your judgment, but just so I know your reference point. Saying it's better than WF isn't actually saying that much to me. Saying it's better than Blacksalt would be a significant statement (and almost hard for me to imagine since I've always been very impressed with Blacksalt).

Silverman also spent time in the David Chang empire in New York. Maybe he learned something there and the pattern here will follow that of Ko, which did not accept reservations when it first opened but eventually transitioned over to a reservation system. I don't know where that transition point is, but presumably it's after the initial flurry has died down, at least a bit.

After an absence of a few years, my wife and I found ourselves in our old Adams Morgan haunt on Saturday night. A few times around the block looking for parking, a conversation about whether this or that was gone or new, and a stop at Fleet Feet for running shoes, and we were ready for dinner. Between the snow and Valentine's Day, I suspect the opening of Roofers Union had escaped many peoples' attention, so we were able to get a last minute reservation despite it being Saturday night in Adams Morgan. First, a word on the space. It's beautiful. The second floor facade of floor-to-ceiling arched windows provides the best possible view of the bustle below on 18th Street. The room is wide open with a rustic chic feel nodding to the blue collar namesake of the restaurant. My wife thought that the roofers' jumpsuits hanging on one wall was a bit too literal a nod, but that's a minor complaint. The ceilings are high and the surfaces hard, so this is not a quiet room but that's excusable given the bar vibe of the restaurant. (One oddity: the two-top tables are too long, making conversation a bit difficult. As a consequence, the couple next to us were sitting at a right angle to each other rather than face-to-face. Again, not a major complaint, but these are not cozy, romantic tables.) As for the food, we enjoyed everything we tried (I'm going off of the menu that I found online, so some elements we actually had may have been different). This is not life-changing, transcendental food, but it is well-executed upscale comfort/bar food. We started with two "Snacks." First, deep-fried brussel sprout leaves with lemon and honey. These were very tasty, though primarily because anything deep fried is good. I didn't taste much lemon or honey, but I did taste lots of good oil. I thought they were a bit over-fried, but I could have eaten a lot of these. Then, we got the roasted cauliflower with mint and pine nuts. There was also a crumbled cheese in the mix--perhaps ricotta--that was not on the menu. Again, I'd say I mostly tasted the very good roasted cauliflower as opposed to the other elements of the dish, but that wasn't a bad thing. Roasted cauliflower is a great thing, and this is a fine rendition. We skipped over the "Stuffed" (i.e., house-made sausages) and "Stacked" (i.e., sandwiches) parts of the menu to get to the "Simple." Here, we opted for the beer-steamed mussels with andouille and chili served with a pretzel roll on the side. The mussels were fine, but I thought the broth was had a bit of a one-note chili character I like spicy food, and the level of spice was moderate but I didn't detect much andouille. Again, I was happy eating this, but it could be even better with a bit of tweaking. (The pretzel roll, on the other hand, should not be tweaked at all. It was great.) Finally, we tried the 1/2 brick chicken with smashed fingerling potatoes and arugula (there were also some roasted tomatoes on the plate, though I don't think they were listed on the menu). This was a very satisfying plate of food. The chicken was perfectly done with the nicely charred skin that one expects of chicken under a brick, and the potatoes were a terrific side. The greens were a bit over-wilted from sitting directly under the chicken, but again, I think that's something easily rectified. We closed the evening by splitting a sundae of vanilla ice cream with fudge and pretzel praline. What can I say? It was a good sundae, but I don't encounter t many sundaes I don't like. Unfortunately, their coffee/espresso machine is not yet installed because I sure would have loved a double espresso with that sundae. For drinks, we both had cocktails to start. I don't recall their names, but I had a rye based cocktail (loosely resembling a Manhattan) while my wife had a bourbon/fruit/soda concoction. Both were the creative, delicious concoctions that we've come to expect from the Ripple team. I also had a glass of sauvignon blanc with my dinner that was perfectly fine, if not perfectly memorable. Finally, service: the service was terrific, and it was clear a lot of effort went into training up the staff before the opening. If anything, the service was too good. Food arrived very quickly, more quickly than we frankly would have preferred. I suspect that service will reach an excellent equilibrium once everybody settles in a bit and exhales from the initial rush of opening. All in all, we concluded that this is a place we would definitely visit again, even if we won't necessarily go out of our way to deal with parking in Adams Morgan to eat here. If we still lived in Adams Morgan, I have no doubt that we would visit Roofers Union frequently. And perhaps that's what Roofers Union ultimately is: a very good neighborhood joint (one of the best in this particular neighborhood) that doesn't need to be anything more than that to be an excellent addition to the dining scene.

Top Chef Rule #1: Whatever Tom wants, Tom gets.

I read things like this Young and Hungry piece by Jessica Sidman and wonder, "What the hell is wrong with people?"

Kenji Lopez-Alt strikes again: reheat your pizza in a waffle iron.

I suspect most of the local butchers have them (or can get them). I'm pretty sure I've seen them at Wagshal's, for example.

Looks delicious. I prefer them fresh as well, but they tend to be a bit tricky to cook at my desk midday. Canned sardine and avocado sandwiches worked for Alton Brown. Forty-five pounds later, I can say they worked for me, too.