Capital Icebox

Has the restaurant actually opened yet?

No. Unless you are on the list, or enjoy buffets, or both. I am neither.

This is not a surprise to me.

Episode 229: "I'm Homer Simpson, the most powerful food critic in town, who will never get his comeuppance! You hear me? [shakes fist at sky] No Comeuppance!"

Cheesesteaks are cheesesteaks, I guess, but it is a shame that so many of them, especially the "authentic" ones, use cheez whiz or American cheese and forgo fresh mushrooms for canned ones. You can make a damn fine cheesesteak at home with fresh mushrooms and provolone, and I have a hard time understanding why so few of the many purveryors of cheesesteaks don't go this route. "Authentic" doesn't mean a lot to me if your sandwich tastes like ass.

And I take issue with the owner claiming in the Post to use the best products available and making all the fixings himself each day when that obviously isn't the case. But I have lots of issues.

The bread is not bad, Gold Crust does the baking, but they are soft rolls and not the harder ones like you get in Philly.

I stopped by for a cheesesteak today, first time. The bread is pretty decent, but the mushrooms (as feared) are indeed "butt mushrooms." That is to say, they are canned, which seals in both the mushroom and what seems like the taste and aroma of its fertilizer. The cheese is standard industrial American cheese, which stands on the prep station in a tall brick.

Did the person writing this article bother to eat one of the cheesesteaks? It is unclear. I had one and it was fine, except for the nasty ass mushrooms. Did she bother to investigate the owner's assertion that he uses "the best products available", preparing "all fixings at the shop each morning?" Clearly not.

I realize it's just a cheesesteak, but if you're going to be billed as one of the best, you have to be better than this.

Also, Gold Crust is technically "around the corner," but quite a ways down the road. It's like saying that Capital Grille is "around the corner" from the White House, which is technically true, but it leaves the wrong impression. This and the discrepancies noted above make me wonder if the reporter wasn't just given a whole spiel by the owner of Al's which she printed nearly verbatim.

Buyer beware.

I have never had fried chicken breast there, it's always been little drumsticks and wings, and they've always been great. I have found the collard greens to be on the vingeary side, but never too peppery. Maybe it was just an off night. My last visit was a few weeks ago and things were up to snuff.

Headed to Jeddah and Riyadh soon. Would love to hear from anyone who's had experience dining out in the Kingdom, and I'll be reporting back when I return as well.

What was all the cryptic talk about the Silver Spring branch of CO Kitchen? I never understand when he starts talking about "hints". Was that a hint to the owner to call him or some disguised hint to the reader?

My ass-umption is that the individual was confused and was probably thinking about, or had heard about, Ray's the Classics and that Tom was hinting for Gillian to give him a call if she was thinking of opening up a second venue.

I am going to go to 8:00 concert at the Lincoln Theatre this Friday. I need further information about this place.

1. Does it take a reservation?

2. Is the food portion big?

3. Is it easy to access from the metro?

4. How many tables?

Thanks

1. No, but you don't need one. It's a carryout place with some plastic tables upstairs (see #4).

2. Enormous would be a better word.

3. Across the street.

4. There are four stools at the counter downstairs, and four tables in the upstairs dining room, each of which seats four people, IIRC.

I've decided that a great number of little neighborhood Salvadoran/Tex Mex joints are either owned by the same extended family and/or are supplied by the same supplier so use the same salsa, margarita mix, guac, etc. Total bummer.

I asked once and was told that the salsa, chips, and guacamole are all made in-house, FWIW.

And they are expanding next door -- which will double the patio dining space out front.

It means, I thought I saw a почитать!

Or, if I'm not too rusty, "Look who had to write another article!"

It could also be the old Soviet code for "The DCist comments section drives me to drink!"

Armagnac. Schneider's has a nice selection, and the price is right.

But most importantly, have they put a carpet on the floor so your feet won't freeze when Winter comes? And are the tchotchkes no longer hanging from the ceiling? And where did they hang those drapes? There were only 3 windows (okay, maybe 4) to start with...are they hung randomly around the room? Mariana wasn't much of an architectural masterpiece to start with so any improvement will be huge, I just have problems picturing the room any differently than my (slightly distorted?) memory.

1. No carpet on the floor. Why would this make your feet freeze, though? Do you dine barefoot?

2. No more tchotckes, I'm afraid.

3. There are drapes on the windows, and some along the opposite wall if I recall correctly.

4. The room doesn't look that different if you've been to Mariana. It is more of an improvement to what they had than a complete transformation.

Adam23, thanks for the detailed review. What were the prices of the entrees? How was the pricing on the wine? I will be stopping by in the near future to try that foie.

From what I heard last night, they're still in the soft opening stage and won't officially open until the 24th. That came from someone in the business. YMMV.

They're definitely open -- Tuesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner. The floorplan is very similar to what was there during the Mariana days, but the room has been updated with new tables and chairs, a paint job, seats at the bar, and plenty of drapes. I'm hoping to check out the cooking in the near future. There was no menu posted, unfortunately.

A vendetta in the making?

brr, dr.com, 8/21; Link

Anonymous, Tom S. 8/30 Link

It's not a vendetta yet. They posted about it here, sent a letter to NB, and still didn't hear anything, so then they turned to Tom. When they start picketing outside the restaurant or launch the website www.iwasrobbedofadecentsaladbyaprickwaiteratnotti.org, then you have yourself a vendetta.

My cousins from Memphis love Three Pigs in McLean for chopped BBQ. Never had it, never been to Three Pigs but I like the way it looks.

Three Pigs is crap. Dry, bland, and chewy are three adjectives that come to mind.

I have yet to have real barbecue in the metro area, I'm afraid. I assume when it happens we'll all know.

I don't think Tom would misreport this. That said, I don't see this as any big deal at all. If it was, in fact, supposed to be for family and friends, it speaks volumes about the owners handling extra guests so seamlessly.

Cheers,

Rocks.

I don't think Tom would misreport this, either. I think the "two owners" who told him that their party was crashed did. Perhaps they were unaware that staff at both Eamonn's and Eve were telling people both in person and on the phone that Monday was their opening, but don't sully our reputation because of it.

I just wouldn't want the good people of Eve and Eamonn's to think that we were crashing their party, because we didn't.

WoW, that's not good.

It's also not true.

"Tom S.: It's true: Eammon's/A Dublin Chipper (110 S. Pitt St., Alexandria) opened last night for what was supposed to be a friends-and-family, let's-see-how-this-all-works type of service. But some impatient online chatters apparently crashed the event -- much to the chagrin of the good-natured owners. The "real" opening is 5 p.m. tonight."

This is wrong on so many levels: the opening was Monday, not Tuesday, and I can't think how anyone could've crashed this event when several people called and were told Monday was opening night. Whether or not that person answering the phones should've said this is another story, but this is an unfair slight against the people of DR.com, who are much more well-behaved than to crash a party that they're not invited to.

Went by last night and the banner outside says "Opening September 5, 2006" and the renovations inside appear to be minimal (i.e. no structural changes to the building are apparent). I'm going by for a closer look (in daylight) today.

Does anyone have a reliable list of restaurants who are extending the deals into next week?

Yes.

Take a look at the M-C menu. The regular price of the foie app is $12.

If that is the current menu and the dish offered last night is the same one shown here, then you might have a point.

Morrison-Clark should not be participating in Restaurant Week. The servers need to attend restaurant service boot camp and the kitchen needs to start trying some of its dishes.

We analyzed the menu. There are approximately eight appetizers available during Restaurant Week. Two stuck out to me not because I was interested in ordering them, but because of their upcharges. The shrimp and grits appetizer had a $5.00 upcharge, which I thought bordered on unreasonable. I don't care if the chef went out and harvested the shrimp himself, $5.00 is a big appetizer upcharge during Restaurant Week. (By way of comparison, certain appetizers at Corduroy the night before had $3.00 upcharges. My Corduroy entree of incomparable scallops had a $5.00 upcharge.) The other appetizer that made me hold the menu at different angles to see if I was misreading it was the foie gras, which denoted a $10.00 upcharge. Ten bucks. Did they force feed the duck beluga caviar? Is the portion size akin to a Big Mac? Were the ducks of royal lineage?

Regardless, neither of those appetizers appealed to us.

I'm sorry, but Corduroy, too, has a $5 upcharge on its appetizer menu for restaurant week (for the softshell, and it is worth it), and I just don't see how that is a large upcharge when you are already getting three courses for thirty dollars. The $10 upcharge for foie also seems entirely reasonable, since foie is one of the mose expensive items you can have, and especially given that at many restaurants where foie appears on a tasting menu, it carries a fifteen to twenty-five dollar upcharge.

Pop Quiz, Hotshots: What are some of the best values on Corduory's wine list at the moment?

(I don't have time to go through the fourteen pages of this thread to sniff out the answer, as our reservation is in just a few hours.)