JLK

My company's holiday party is at Old Ebbitt this year which, is nothing else, is a geographic improvement versus last year's (somewhere in Vienna or Falls Church; not great for my many young, drunk colleagues). Has anyone attended a private event at OE?

Does Volt really charge for water?

What kind of soup(s) has Palena been offering lately? Living downtown is kind of good for my budget, but sad in terms of what I eat.

How wonderful! Congratulations... (now that I know that this is a food-slash-matchmaking site, who else is single here?? lol)

Welcome, Randy!

Looks like the CP location will not be happening. There's a For Rent sign on the old McDonald's.

12-Year-Old’s a Food Critic, and the Chef Loves It

Matchbox

I, on the other hand, have had two great meals at Matchbox recently. The spicy meatball pizza has replaced prosciutto white as my go-to pizza. I like that it has heat versus knock-you-over-the-head fire. There's a slow burn that builds. On one of my recent visits, I had my parents in tow. While Mom and I shared pizza and mini-burgers, Dad's sweet tooth won out and he ordered a brunch special of French toast. When the server described the dish, it sounded like too much stuff going on (fruit, bread stuffed with some kind of cream, special syrup, etc.) but the bites I tasted were delicious and I know I'll be tempted to try a breakfast item next visit. Neighboring tables consumed lots of the egg dishes (served in small cast iron skillets). I can't speak to how they tasted, but they too looked tempting. Service has never been Matchbox's strong suit (IMO). The hostesses are nearly always surly or indifferent (or both) and more than once, I've been made to feel that they'd rather joke with other staffers than find me a seat. But service at the tables has been friendly and well-intentioned these last two trips.

Last night, the downtown Busboys & Poets was the place to be if you're an Obama fan...

Did you eat anything?

First trip to Enology! It was great to catch up with Chris, as always, and I liked the space. Hits for me included wine flights, the excellent peppered salami and the cheese selection. I also liked my arugula salad, however it was huge. We weren't crazy about the two flatbreads, unfortunately. We were expecting a thinner, perhaps crisper, crust and they were so heavy with cheese. Chocolate truffles were a great way to finish the night. We had a salted caramel each plus a white chocolate with olive oil and one chocolate with clove.

A few food highlights from my recent vacation in Puerto Rico: El Toro Salao and The Parrot Club (Old San Juan) - We had tapas and sangria at the former, and dinner at the latter, both part of the Oof empire. WARNING: the web site is very musical and doesn't seem to have an off switch. If it were up to me, I probably would have stayed at Spanish-inspired Toro Salao for a complete meal. I was completely in love with the decor and vibe, so when the croquetas de jamon and sangria I had were both terrific, I felt like "why move?" But my group of five had a wide variety of eating habits (one vegetarian, two others who didn't eat pork, two non-seafood lovers...you get the picture) so they wanted something more traditional than the tapas-heavy menu offered. The Parrot Club was nice, but not anything that reached out and grabbed us. After the filling croquetas, I opted to graze on appetizers including corn fritters (bland, disappointing), ropa vieja nachos (meat on the side due to the veg in the group; plantain chips instead of corn; nothing special), empanadillas con chorizo (tasty) and conch fritters (I didn't have any, but they were pretty popular). The vegetarian wasn't thrilled with her $16 platter of whatever. The only other entree ordered was a heavy, but delicious lamb shank. Ummo (Condado; near Marriott) - I freakin' loved this place, the rare combination of style and substance. It's a scene, but for people of all ages and the restaurant is just as popular with locals as tourists. We were there on a Saturday night and it was a zoo, but Monday night, tables were available with no wait when we walked by. Ummo is an Argentinean restaurant that emphasizes meat of various varieties. The specialty is the "paredilla", which two of use chose to share for the ridiculously good price of (I think) $42 - total, not per person. We chose not to have the morcilla and sweetbreads (I know, we were scaredy cats) and instead received extra skirt steak (fantastic, flavorful), chorizo (a slight kick, juicy) and short ribs (good, but not as good as the chorizo and skirt steak). The price also included two sides--we chose potatoes au gratin and a [boring] mesclun salad. I'd had a huge arugula salad with sweet peppers and bacon for an appetizer so I left my friend to the mesclun and tried to hog the rich potatoes. Even with drinks, we paid less than $40 per person which we all considered a steal. The vegetarian was muy contenta with her vegetarian dish chock full of interesting items. After a few hours in El Yunque, we tried to visit Luquillo's beach, but it was closed due to "contamination." We instead went to Seven Seas (eh) before proceeding to Las Croabas near Fajardo for an evening kayak tour of a bioluminescent bay. We killed time - and stuffed ourselves - at Ocean View Restaurant. The arepas were delicious - mine was filled with a curry-like chicken - as were the empanada-like pastries (pastellidas? I'm drawing a blank) de carne. Arroz con habichuelas didn't look like what I expected, but tasted great. Definitely not a veg dish--delicious pork base. I liked the tiled outdoor table we dined at so much I snapped a photo. Interestingly, this isn't a cash-only establishment; they take Amex. On our last night, we dined at Jam Rum Bar (Condado). It is, apparently, the sister restaurant to the more-established Marmalade. The space is attractive with a South Beach-inspired color scheme, but the drink menu is a broad mish-mash of items including a "low carb pina colada" which arrives looking like a plain, ungarnished martini to a tasty "pan de azucar sangria" to concoctions featuring guava or ginger beer. Jam charges for bread, which is off-putting, but it does come with three delectable spreads: roasted saffron garlic, whipped parmesan butter and pesto aioli. Overall, our dishes tended to be either greatly oversalted or bland; the chef clearly isn't tasting dishes before they leave the kitchen. My white bean stew with pancetta was almost too salty, but managed to stay in-bounds; the lamb meatball appetizer I ordered as a main course was inedibly salty. Scalloped potatoes with black truffles were underseasoned, but tasted great with a pinch of salt. To apologize for some of the missteps, the chef sent out a complimentary dessert of chocolate lemongrass. The gesture was sweet; the dessert, a liquid trainwreck. Jam is, in my opinion, trying to do too many things instead of focusing on doing a few things well, but the couple who owns both places is so lovely that you can't help but hope for them to succeed. Jam opened one month ago and is clearly struggling to find an audience.

This is helpful, thanks. I'm in San Juan now. Any other suggestions? We're at La Concha (Isla Verde).

Thanks for the reminder that I didn't post, Ericandblueboy. My happy hour at Panache was similarly disappointing. Given that I work in the building, we were all pretty excited to have any place to walk to for drinks (other than O'Malley's in the Holiday Inn/Crown Plaza which I personally think is gross). Other than some bizarre overhead light fixtures in the bar area, the space is very stylish compared to the rest of Tysons' social establishments. It reminded me a lot of Oya with the white leather. But the space is HUGE. Huge as in "this place would have to be terrific to fill it with people at any one time." There's the main dining area, a private dining room, a moderately big bar area and then another large space to the right of the bar. The servers pretty much threw free food at my group of about eight coworkers so we sampled everything from the bland risotto balls to the super salty guacamole on toast. The service was friendly, but pure comedy in terms of accuracy. When we [stupidly] decided to order a few other items from the menu, we received items we didn't order, and didn't receive items we did order. This place is doomed.

I'm not sure the H Street Vapiano is proceeding. The front is all sealed up again, no permits displayed and no workers present.

Good for you! One of the things I struggle with is dinners during the work week. I order take out/delivery at least twice a week. Between a desire to eat healthier AND spend less, this system needs to go. Any suggestions for easy dinner ingredients to keep on-hand? I need to stop ordering out, and also cut back on the pasta dinners.

I made my first visit to A&J today and thanks to a business partner who works in Frederick, I'm hoping to get there more frequently in the future. Yum. If A&J had a Chinatown location, I would be a combination of really happy and really fat because pot stickers are easily among my top 5 favorite foods. Fortunately my lunch companion also loves dumpling-like foods so in addition to the pork pot stickers, we had steamed beef dumplings (good, but totally outshone by the deliciousness of the fried pork pot stickers). We also had scallion pancakes and steamed spare ribs. When we ordered the ribs, our sweet and friendly server expressed concern that we wouldn't like them. I figured she meant because they were marked spicy, but then she clarified that the meant the five spice rice powder coating which, incidentally, we loved. We polished it all off and received a bill for $17 and change. Amazing value. * In the interest of full disclosure, gnatharobed and I have become friends thanks to this wonderful site and I went to my lunch today armed with her terrific suggestions.

Anything new re: Frankfurt? I have two hour layovers there en route to and from Barcelona next week, flying Lufthansa. FRA

Lucky me - I'm making a last minute (and brief) trip to Barcelona next week for work. We're staying at the Hilton Diagonal Mar so I'd love suggestions of what to seek out/avoid near the hotel. Keep in mind that I'll be with the same picky-eater client I have mentioned previously for most meals. He actually might do well in Spain because he loves seafood. Nothing haute though. Any ideas?

I'm surprised no one has commented on the new Safeway downtown. It's your typical Safeway, albeit a nice clean one, but for this neighborhood, it's HUGE. Beyond the fact that we needed a grocery store, I am really enjoying what it's doing in terms of increasing foot traffic on a few blocks that are sometimes a bit desolate.

I am trying to help a client in New Orleans find a personal chef for an ongoing gig. It could take the form of coming in and cooking meals to be served immediately several times per week OR someone who comes in only once or twice a week to prepare several days' worth of meals. Know anyone? If so, please PM me. Thanks!

I hate you all We're going to Cafe Trope.

Has anyone ever actually eaten here? I'm in a jam - trying to find a place to eat for tomorrow night, group of 7. A friend booked Sequoia and I said "hell no." Looking for alternatives and Smith Point has availability.

Archaic indeed.