Banco

I know I would make this an awkward 11, but if someone drops out can I be an alternate?

Bumping this up, because we're doing it again this year. This is a great chance to see first-rate choral singing--for free! The Washington National Opera Chorus is giving a FREE benefit concert on Sunday, February 5 at 4:00 at St. Ann Catholic Church on Tenley Circle. The program includes beautiful, diverse selections from the operatic and non-operatic repertoire. Free-will offerings benefit a fund set up by the American Guild of Musical Artists to support unemployed or disabled singers and other musicians. For more information click here. I hope to see you there!

Aw, shit.

If memory serves me right, there is a panel on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel that depicts JP in beautiful chiaroscuro seated at the right hand of JC. The restoration of the 1980s, contrary to academic opinion at the time, returned it to its vivid authentic glory. When I can turn a single potato as he does then I will consider myself an accomplished cook. When you consider all the things he might have said over the past several years of celebrity-mongering food-whoredom, he has been unusually discrete, even by his standards.

I've also been using the S-Z Tritans for years. I go through a set of six every three years and buy them online. They go in the dishwasher, as I never get anything for the kitchen that requires kid gloves and I drink far too much wine to have it any other way in what JC referred to as a servant-less household. They are durable, retain their clarity well (though this is more a question of your water hardness, dishwasher type, and detergent) and are available in the right sizes. I really wouldn't think of buying anything else. ETA: correct breakage rate.

We were at the bar on Saturday, my first time back since my "lost weekend" experience over 5 years ago. I enjoyed the "Ultimate Sushi" option, and my wife had one of the more modest combos. Everything was superb, that's the only way to put it. I could quibble with the slight heaviness of the tempura on the clams I had, or the amount of wasabi (as majmaj mentioned as well) but the overall standard was so high that they're barely worth mentioning. Everything was clean, fresh and marvelous. I tried especially to focus on the quality of the rice this time, to rewarding effect. Still one of my favorite places to eat in Washington.

We four plan to be there. If our new kitchen is finished by then (a big if) we might even manage to bring something worthy of this august crowd.

I second that. I had that the last time I was there and it was excellent.

I agree wholeheartedly with fuzzy and Dan. However, if you want to clean out your gut I highly recommend pure psyllium husk. It's what is found in Metamucil, but that brand also contains all kinds of other stuff (sugars, flavorings, fillers) that you don't need. The Konsyl brand (available at CVS) is 100% psyllium. In my opinion that is all anyone needs to maintain regularity without stripping your body of naturally beneficial bacteria or introducing the other junk found in Metamucil and various "cleansing" drugs.

Atlas Room and Ba Bay both make good ones, and they're pretty quiet.

One thing the article brings out very well is the economies of scale the kitchen gains from a tasting-menu format. Concentrating on an unvarying set of dishes allows the chef and his staff to take advantage of specialization and assembly-line processes in the kitchen. This reduces time, waste and costs, but in a format that many consumers still seem to regard as a luxury option worthy of a higher price. And that is precisely the reason I often (though not always) steer clear of tasting menus. Although they are widely seen as the best way to appreciate a chef's talent, skill and "personality", in many ways they are in fact the opposite: an efficient assembly line to reduce costs and maximize revenue, usually run by the staff.

I would agree, though your initial oversight is an indicator that there are only a few classically French restaurants left within the city.

For lunch today, had the crack rolls as usual, but also the cold vermicelli salad with grilled pork. This was a perfect summer salad: almost a pho without the broth, with sprouts, apples, basil, mint, cilantro, carrot, and tangy marinated grilled pork served with a fish sauce. Delicious and refreshing.

Wife's birthday dinner this Saturday at Fiola, then off to the Fringe Festival. I'm looking very much forward to trying this place, esp. in view of all the positive commentary here. Anything in particular I should not miss?

Where?

I just returned from lunch there a couple hours ago. They are only doing pizza for lunch now while the crew gets its legs, then the rest of the menu opens up at 5:00. But in talking with whom I believe was Mr. Isabella himself I learned that they have been slammed during the dinner hours practically since they opened. Downstairs is open seating but upstairs is reservations only. The pizza I had today, the "classic," was very good for its type: a concentrated sauce of melted cherry tomatoes, garlic, and Sicilian oregano, which I ordered with added prosciutto. I don't know about Jersey/NY/New Haven pizza, just what I've had in decent places in Italy, and that for me is the standard. This was not Italian pizza, but it was good. The crust was savory and foldable, but also thin and with just enough tooth to make it interesting. And the tomato sauce, really a jam, was excellent. No cheese of any kind. At $14 plus $3 for the prosciutto, overpriced for what it was, but given the location I think they won't have any trouble maintaining that price point. When I saw the gnocchi and other pasta being prepared for dinner service I thought of coming back tonight for dinner. The wine list is interesting and diverse. I had an $11 Dolcetto which was a good exemplar of this wine, a rarity in my experience.

I'm telling you, Rivers would be perfect. Can you imagine what he would do with the whole atmosphere in which the restaurant must operate? The Kennedy Center, the opera, the social profile of the audience, the Watergate? It would be a cornucopia of material for his standard formula.

Zora, a Römertopf is a covered ceramic vessel used for baking roasts and the like, still very much beloved by housewives and -men in Germany, and I believe even available stateside at places like Sur la Table. You're probably thinking of a Rumtopf, which is a large crock used to preserve fruits in rum or other spirits for use in delicious desserts and other concoctions in the wintertime. What Sauerkraut is to cabbage, Rumtopf is to fruits.

Your friends should get in touch with Gordon Ramsay and ask him to do a "Kitchen Nightmares" episode there. It would be the ideal venue for his schtick: a perfect location beset by awful management. Seriously.

I have spent many hours, as well as more brain and liver cells than I care or am able to remember, winding down from a show at the incarnations of that locale over the past fifteen years. There is nothing else close by that is open at that hour. As the "600" it was an establishment of almost dada-esque mediocrity, with incompetent and often downright rude bartenders. The food was institutional fare that you might get at a typical catered wedding. "Rivers" delighted us all when it opened, because it is a venture begun by some of the stagehands who work at KC and we all thought that just about anything would be an improvement, and overall, it is. But it is subject to the same pressures as before: a mostly elderly clientele, either residing in the Watergate or post-show suburbanites, whose standards in food and drink probably don't rise much beyond what they might get at their clubs. Both groups have few other options in the immediate area even if they were interested in finding them. The rest are sporadic seasonal visitors such as cast members and tourists, or foreign artists from a place like Spain, England, Italy, or France who end up there after a show and who valiantly but vainly try to contain their amazement at the lack of savoir vivre in the capital city of their guest country as they observe the scene around them.

Such a great thread

It looks to me like an Italian version of those food emporia in the basements of big department stores in Tokyo, like Isetan. If that's the case, then this is a very welcome development for DC.

It must be extremely difficult for anyone in the wine trade to enjoy the basic but ample pleasure that the beverage has afforded mankind for centuries while having to keep track of all this shit.

I was on my way to lunch at Vidalia at about 1:00 and saw many trucks headed West down M. Must have been the same emergency. Bad news. I hope there are no casualties.

Nice pictures!