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And . . . closed.  Sign says to visit them in Foggy Bottom, their only location now.

Closed and reopened as Crossroads BBQ and Grill.

Still sucks.

Closed, with no plans to reopen. Family decided to retire rather than renew the lease.

We went for Thanksgiving 2012 for the sole purpose of seeing the northern lights.  We had considered locations in Sweden and Finland but chose Tromsø because it seemed to offer the best mix of things to do during the day and we had never been to Norway.  The town is small, but it does at least offer a worthwhile museum (The Polaria), interesting architecture (not just the museum, but also a typically modern Nordic church), and Mack, the world's most northern brewery.  (Tromsø has a lot of "world's most northern" appellations, whether true or not.) We went dog sledding one day, which was a ton of fun, even if touristy.  I also liked being based out of a smaller city because I was able to rent a tripod so didn't need to lug one all the way there from DC.

A mostly successful first dinner at Sababa.  I think Sababa hits the right level of restaurant for what CP seems willing to support these days.  Priced well for casual dining during the week but certainly a place you could go to celebrate a birthday or bring out-of-town guests.  Granted Sietsema's review came out this past week, but Sababa was pretty much full on a Wednesday night. 

That said I did have some nit picks...

I'm having the DC Dining Guide completely revamped, from top to bottom, for the first time ever. We've made it down to Shaw, and I was struck by how many restaurants have closed in recent times: Mockingbird Hill, Shaw Bijou, Drift on 7th, Eat the Rich, 1905, Southern Efficiency, Thally, not to mention older closings such as Dickson Wine Bar, Mr. P's Ribs and Fish, Axum, and Table. Yes, there's Convivial, and also three of those closures were essentially one Ruppert/Brown restaurant - still, things don't seem quite as heady as they were just a few years ago. It's largely intuitive, but I'm on this stuff about ten hours a day, and I'm just "sensing" less activity, and that sense was bolstered last night by the reality of the Dining Guide. This is why I voiced my post in the form of a question, rather than a statement. Still, other than Convivial, I don't see any restaurant in Shaw that I would run to; I think Mount Vernon Square (or, West Convention Center - whatever you want to call it) is the most intriguing area in DC right now - granted, that could be considered "Shaw South," but it's also pulling downward from U Street, and eastward from Logan Circle, and arguably includes Convivial. I think the Marriott Marquis might be tugging things a bit to the West: I think Tom Power is something of a Warren Buffett when it comes to DC real estate - I thought he was insane for sinking so much money into that townhouse, but right now he's batting 3-for-3 in real estate ventures.

I try to keep my personal feelings out of things like this, but I'd be lying if I said that in this non-inflationary economy, I didn't think a real estate correction was coming - if it comes, things will retreat towards blue-chip areas, and West Convention Center, supported by the Marriott Marquis, is about as blue chip as it gets right now - investors and restaurateurs know this.

From their website:

Sunday through Thursday

After a failed attempt obtaining tickets at "will call" for Cirque du Soleil (long story), we found ourselves looking for lunch. While the overall operations of the eatery have changed a bit, it still takes effort to find which options are available, since that varies according to the day and the time. 

Just announced on their Facebook page Earl’s will be closing the Ballston location in 2 weeks

Facebook page

Last day in Ballston June 14

Delhi (Connaught Place area) is likely most famous for the Jantar Market and the close-by Jantar Mandar, an unwieldy, interesting, but ultimately somewhat baffling (at least for me) astronomical park/collection of buildings. The Market is not so interesting to me, and swarmed with hawkers trying to steer you into certain stalls, and away from certain streets towards "better" ones.

I stayed for the second time in the Le Meridien hotel

You might want to plan sooner than later, because I have it on good word that Rob Rubba is leaving.

Click

On a completely different note, one potential emerging trend that's been happening in baseball this year is the abandonment of a traditional starting pitcher.

The Rays, well known for their adherence to analytics, have started Sergio Romo (a long-time set-up man for the Giants and key to their bullpen in three WS title runs) in the first inning of certain games where the opposing team's batting line-up is top-heavy with right-handed hitters.  The Angels, with Mike Trout, are one such team.  This makes some strategic sense, because Romo has a heavy platoon split -- his career OPS against RH batters is a staggeringly low .561 (compared to a decent but hardly dominant .687 against LH batters).  If a manager would do something like this in the 7th or 8th inning, why not in the 1st?  That said, Trout is one of the few MLB hitters with a reverse-platoon split -- his career OPS is 50 points higher against RHPs.

Thanks to an astute member for pointing this out to me:

"Etto and Garden District Co-Owner Tad Kurtz Has Died" by Jessica Sidman on washingtonian.com

Linda’s Cafe on Lee Highway Set to Close, Could Soon Be Replaced by Bob and Edith’s, by Alex Koma,  June 4, 2018, on ARLnow.com.  Cold.  Stone cold.  Another reminder of the importance to a small business of owning the building in which you operate.

Garrett County

I have been up in GC two weekends in a row for birthday/bridal related activities.  The bridal related activity was at Lucas Farms which was beautiful, a little warm on a bright sunny day, but given all this rain, at least it was sunny.  We had dinners both weekends at Tomanetti's in Oakland because it was either convenient to where we live, or wouldn't be as crowded as lake places.  It is mostly American-Italian.  What they call fresh pizza dough (more pan style than their thin crust) has gotten better IMHO.  I still like Brenda's a little better, but it isn't bad.  They have big entrees, and you are likely to go home with leftovers.  We also had wings, not the best wings I have ever had, but they may be some of the best in GC.  We also had a greek salad, that was chopped salad style, which isn't what I had last time I was there.  I thought it had a tad bit too much dressing- I normally ask for it on the side and I forgot- but otherwise good.  We also had mozarella sticks, which I thought were a pretty good darn rendition of mozz sticks and didn't seem to be just Sysco to me.  They have a nice little side patio, if the weather isn't bad.  Their wine selection is not broad, but we found something that we could drink.  For the birthday celebration we bought out all their champagne and prosecco.  

Call for Entry window for The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today has opened (until September 3, 2018)

So I got a few details about the dinner after reaching out to The Left Bank. A well informed diner that I am, I kinda like to know as much as I can prior to the event. Mandy Arnold, proprietor of The Left Bank , was very helpful in providing bits about the event. 

I can recommend these two as we just dined there in the pat week--

The Quality Chop House
Elystan Street

Agree that the beer was not up to par.

Just received this email message:

only saw the Mushroom guys with ramps today, $8 for a small bundle, and they had morels, $12/pint.  Strawberries and asparagus are almost gone; only 3 farmers had them today.  Cauliflower is coming on strong, as are sugar snaps and snow peas.  Lots of beets and young onions and lettuces.  

Just to note, this is not correct. Let’s not lump all of Latin America together. Just like all of Africa isn’t the same, and India isn’t Sri Lanka or Pakistan  

DC has the largest Salvadoran population in the US, many other Central Americans, and large Bolivian population. These countries, however, are not much known for cuisine, and even the famous foods like pupusas from El Salvador, or the breakfast tamales and spreads you get in Guatemala are not that exciting. What DC doesn’t have is a large Mexican, Argentinian, Colombian,  Puerto Rican, or Peruvian population - the Latin countries known for food. Although you are seeing more and more arepas and empanadas, which means that the few Colombians, Venezuelans, Uruguayans, and Argentinians are bringing some tastes of home out to market. 

On May 20, 2018, I enjoyed a very delectable lunch at Mikko's Café, which serves casual modern Nordic fare.  See café menu.  Seating is limited to 5 seats at the back counter and 4 at the front so take-away is a very quick and convenient option.  Mikko plans to expand to al fresco dining with beverage service in the near future.  I can't wait for the expanded café menu!

I enjoyed the following:

Today (Memorial Day), we went to one of my hubby's favorite fish places for brunch:

Barbara Fishtrap
281 Capistrano Road
Half Moon Bay, CA

Something I would like to see from either the pro- or the con-side is how other cities in the United States have been affected by similar systems.  In this great land of democratic laboratories, surely there must be analogs we can study.  I don't want to hear hypotheticals about what could happen to restaurants and bars and DC--I want to know what has happened to restaurants and bars in similarly situated cities.

According to the Department of Labor, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Montana, Minnesota, and Guam have the same minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped employees.  So, because we're talking about the effects on restaurants, let's look at San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Las Vegas.  San Francisco will be $15 an hour starting in July.  Seattle is $15 an hour.  Portland will be $12 starting in July.  Las Vegas seems to be about $7.25 to $8.25, depending on benefits.
 

We traveled in 2016 with a pair of 16 year-olds.  A few thoughts about sushi in Tokyo:  

If you go to the Tsukiji fish market area, be prepared for a European experience with hawkers trying to lure you into their stalls for sushi.  It's okay, but you may get the crappy cuts that seem to be reserved for foreigners.  Still a must-do and there are plenty of good items, just make sure you eat where you want to eat and not at one of the nondescript interior stalls.

In Ginza, we found what was supposed to be the ONE rotating sushi bar in all of Ginza, Numazuko Sushi Bar. (https://www.numazuko-bar.com/) It's on the 4th or 5th floor of a building on one of the main drags and we had two outstanding meals there.  We were the only non-Japanese but there was English on the menu and there are plenty of apps to help you with fish names anyhow.   Everything was fresh and with the rotating bar, there is no chance that you are going to get served the apprentice's cuts.  One night the server was a little slow to ask us about alcohol and the 2 adults rolled out stuffed, without booze, for $30.  

We stayed at a Ryokan in Kyoto on one splurge night and they set us up with an insanely good kaiseki restaurant; the kids had shabu shabu with local Ome beef (think Kobe but in the Kyoto locale, it is supposed to be even more marbled than Kobe) while we grazed our way through course after course of little gems consisting of Ome beef or impeccably fresh fish, often with interesting accompaniments.  The advice we'd gotten was to wait for Kyoto or Osaka to go all out on a meal; the value is better there. 

If I was going to Japan without the younger one we took with us, definitely Ryokan experience that was more romantic than what we did.  A higher end sushi than we did and at least a couple more fine dining experiences.