JLK

Welcome, Matt. What restaurant?

I hate that I'm going to miss this, but I'll be out of town on business travel.

Brasserie Beck is outside your geographic range, but fits otherwise.

I second Liberty Tavern.

Happy Birthday, laniloa!

Bump! Who has been to Fyve?

I walked by the Grand Hyatt on Friday and noticed a new plaque on the building calling out "Cure." Metrocurean's list of openings, which is long, notes that it refers to cured foods. Worth checking out or is it a boring hotel restaurant?

A few details courtesy of Daily Candy.

Saturday night: * Tattoo - Belvedere and cranberry in a plastic faux glass only slight larger than a shot glass. $10. Craptastic (excellent word) crowd. * The Park - more of the same but for $12 (I think) in a plastic cup. * Saint Ex - a college student (rising senior, he proudly told me) bought me a Bavik. Just so he wouldn't feel too bad about his poor vision and questionable judgement, I subtracted eight years from my age and introduced him to my cute former colleague...who subsequently made up stories about her career as a stripper. It was one of those nights. I finally must accept that my idea of good time has changed these last few years, and that's ok. Must every DJ lean so hard on mash-ups these days??

I love Tabard Inn, but it's certainly not inexpensive.

Leftover gemelli with tomato sauce and meatballs after a girls night out. I'm seeing double right now, but typing (reasonably) well. Bed.

I walked by it today. Looks to be open, or close to it. Details?

Is RTC serving lunch presently?

Thanks for doing this, Binni and Chris! So far, really great. I have friends relocating to Portland next month so I'm excited about a preview of the city I hope to visit later this year.

Tonight's dinner at Dino is "evolving" nicely in my belly. A friend and I shared the much lauded burrata and then each had a half order of the lamb pasta (her) and the wild boar (me), swapping bites of each. Both were delicious, not to mention very, very filling. And yet we each got a dessert. I returned to the terrific Nutella pudding, or whatever it's being called, with bourbon cherries. I could eat that every night for dessert and die happy. My friend's tiramisu was also very good. The wine selections proffered by Chris were, as always, wonderful. I miss living close to Dino!

WJLA piece. It wasn't long ago that yogurt makers decided us to short us an ounce and charge the same price. Now I'm noticing it with milk (3/4 of a gallon instead of a full gallon) and ice cream (1.5 quarts from Edy's that looks normal until you put it side by side the carton you bought a month ago). It's pretty genius actually because many people would never take the time to investigate the matter. But I noticed, and I'm ticked.

Against my better judgement (I'm still dealing with this cough), I went to CoCo Sala with a few friends Friday night. I say that because I drank too much, and ate perhaps too little, and still have this #%$& cough. Two of us ate, two had already had dinner and just met us for drinks. First off, the space is gorgeous. Really lavish and full of ambiance. The banquettes in the room away from the door look super cozy in an "anyone wanna make out?" kind of way. There's a lot of chocolate brown (get it?) and deep red. My friends liked the loop of chocolate images that ran on the flat screen behind the bar, but I got tired of it pretty quickly. YMMV. Although the owners* easily could have made CoCo Sala more lounge than restaurant, the food we sampled was really tasty (if pricey). I loved the bacon mac & cheese with the aforementioned chocolate covered bacon. It worked for me, I think, because the chocolate was dark and not exceedingly sweet. The beef slider I had was really delicious. Although the bartender did not ask how I wanted it (nor did she ask my friend, who also got a beef slider), it came out just right. Juicy and really good flavor. To me, it did not have a strong blue cheese taste, which would have been fine with me, but I'm sharing that info in case the blue cheese scares off some would-be customers. My friend had the goat cheese and beet salad which I didn't taste, while I had the tiny, but delicious arugula and manchego salad. Beyond the teeny size, if I had a complaint it would be that the dressing wasn't evenly distributed. Still, I enjoyed the salad which featured lots of small bits of apple and other fruit. Desserts are...completely overwhelming. As cheezepowder noted, you can order one of five dessert tasting menus for $30 or choose the main dessert from those five tasting menus for $12. There are also hot chocolate samplers and other desserts like gelato on the back page of the menu. My friend had the spicy chocolate souffle which was a bit hit. My dessert from the co co grown up selection was interesting, and included several components, perhaps too many. I loved the malted shooter, but the flavors of the bananas foster (usually a favorite) part weren't quite right to me. The cupcake was on the dry side. We drank...a lot. I sampled one of the signature cocktails which was essentially a take on a mudslide (a guilty pleasure, awfully sweet, good for dessert) before moving to a sauvignon blanc by the glass. I left at least an hour before the rest of my group and I don't even want to think about the bill. My portion with 20% tip was just shy of $70. The bartender did not comp us any drinks at all which is either a solid business practice or damn cold. * In the interest of full disclosure, co-owner Bharet Malhotra is a friend of mine.

Thanks Zora!

I go for a mixture that's half Raisin Bran, half Smart Start (the one that used to be just plain old Smart Start but is now Anti-Oxidant version). Toss in some sliced bananas and chunks of pineapple with a very small amount of skim milk.

Kettle brand chips, Salt and Ground Pepper flavor. Bad girl.

I am a huge fan of Oyamel's Caldo Tlalpeño. As I sit here, still hungry after a fun, but small, meal at CoCo Sala, it's this soup that I crave, so much so that I may have to rush over to Oyamel for brunch tomorrow. But I'd also like to try making this tasty soup. I googled it and found various recipes, none sounding exactly like Oyamel's versions, but close enough that I can probably figure it out. Still, if any of you have made this soup, can you help a girl out (paging Zora!!), give her some tips? Thanks.

Oyamel. That was my best jury duty lunch. I like the soups (particularly the black bean and the chicken soup with cilantro, a little rice, avocado, etc.) and with a taco or two, you're still under the price limit you mentioned above.

Cookbook Publishers Try to Think Small and A Is for Amandine: A List for Beginners

Sorry, Chinatown.

I go for chips & salsa, Texas toast and bacon. Nothing more.