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Pizzaandbrew

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Everything posted by Pizzaandbrew

  1. The building was sold but the article doesn't make any mention of the future of the restaurant. Given their lease probably transfers to the new owners, the restaurant may have been in the equation for what made the purchase make sense.
  2. Hill Country Barbecue Market in Penn Quarter has a cool mix of the traditional and stuff off the beaten path. Awesome packages available for pick-up and also open for All You Can Eat all day with TVs to boot.
  3. Not a Beard award per se but recognition of a guy who knows his stuff. "Chef Magazine Special Report: Chefs Nationwide Reflect on 2009, and Offer Their Predictions for Next Year" on chefmagazine.blogspot.com
  4. Weather permitting, we'll be out there tomorrow. It's a work in progress but outside, fun, green, adult beverages and good food..
  5. Is everyone going to understand he was "targeted" or get his humor? I have the utmost respect for his food and his restaurant. In this forum, just questioning what the ROI on a neighborhood argument is? Don's comment about hits on donrockwell today may indicate "all news is good news" and could very well be right. Simply offering a different perspective.
  6. The restaurant clearly has neighbors who see the restaurant as one. I've operated in Glover Park, Barracks Row and 14th Street. The people around you might not be your biggest customers but if you don't treat them as you would someone who lives next door to you, right or wrong, you're in for trouble. As the kids say, "Boom!". The folks coming to the convention center are in and out of town. They don't show up at ANC hearings and they don't call the Health Department. Your neighbors do.
  7. Whatever reasons you have for being confident he is correct, it doesn't make his response right. Especially (but not just because) when you have a neighborhood place (and regardless of what he thinks, this story illustrates he clearly does), doing right is more important than being right.
  8. Miles is really talented and Cliff is back in their fam too (Penn Commons). Miles might not be able to make lumpia as easily as Cliff but he's not on an island. Hope they find a way to work in the smoked lobster with crispy flash fried spinach...
  9. Hiring people without experience isn't a problem. If management is any good at all, they can train anybody how to carry a tray or take orders or learn about product; it is far harder to train people to smile, give a shit or finish a shift as strong as they started. I've worked with/hired/employed more than a handful of brilliant folks from there who were and are real pros - including Greg Engert (NRG) and Nahem Simon (Jack Rose). I also interacted with plenty of others who couldn't have been any less interested. IMHO, it is always the person, not the experience that matters and hiring for the quality of the person is a reflection of management. Hiring for experience is lazy.
  10. This promotion had a line out the door and down the block in Chinatown last Tuesday. Oct 3, 2016 - "How To Get Free ShopHouse Every Tuesday in October" by Rachel Sadon on dcist.com
  11. Great American has existed for 40 years and has 14 restaurants. You can take shots at their culinary aspirations or creativity but to say they are looking for easy cash grabs is unfair. They shoot for consistency and have brought anything and everything in hospitality that is reduce-able to a science to a science. In this regard they have an undeniable track record of success. Celebrity Chefs "strike while the iron is hot" and members here don't flinch. #doublestandard
  12. You go to the Victor Cafe completely for the experience. The food is fine but it is not what you'll remember. It is for Mario Lanza what the Brickskellar was for beer (and better maintained). Victor's is as Philadelphia as Geno's, Pat's or Jim's.
  13. So bummed I didn't catch up with this earlier. We would have been thrilled to have had you at matchbox in rockville. Glad to hear all went well. Chris
  14. Really enjoyed my first dinner experience here with my wife last night. Scallop and Tuna Ceviches to start set the bar high and my wife and I shared the Skirt Steak and Short Rib from the asados section along with sides of brussel sprouts and braised lentils. Nothing left us disappointed. Support service was solid. Howard, our server who told us he's been there since Day 1, was exceptional. When he let us know the Willamette Pinot Noir I ordered was unavailable, he suggested Salton Volpi PN from Brazil as comparable. Knowing nothing about Brazilian wines, I deferred to Howard and was thrilled with the substitution on its own merits. I was blown away when he dropped the check and the substitute was almost exactly 1/2 of the price of the wine I had originally ordered. Only thing even close to a complaint was for the price point ($150 for two on food alone without desert), you are right on top of the tables around you (my wife's coat and purse was intermingled with the woman at the table next to us and we were easily able to answer the questions of the friendly party of four on the other side us as they ogled our food; support staff knocked (but fortunately did not knock over) items on our table multiple times as they served the tables around us. Our server regularly needed to relocate if at our table for more than a minute or two at a time. I'll be thinking about the food long after I forget those petty quibbles though.
  15. Dr. Xmus - You'll be seeing menu changes very shortly at all the matchbox outposts. We've committed to 2 menu changes a year as a general rule of thumb. Our Executive Chef in Merrifield, Daniel Watterson, is as antsy about the first menu change in Merrifield since we opened in April as you are (he inherited the opening menu). With stops at The Inn at Little Washington and The Ashby Inn on his resume, Daniel's food is simple, rustic and consistently delicious. I'll let you know when the changes go into effect.
  16. Without wanting to belabor the point much more or wage a war of semantics, I would also offer if a server says they "can take it off" a check, they didn't need a manager to put it on the check. At the very least, the server was innocently delinquent in failing to review the check before presenting it. Worst (and probable case), this is a server targeting holes in a business' system and the people who patronize (or used to) the business.
  17. Can't speak for Biergarten Haus or their operating system, but operators on the whole have become incredibly sensitive to the ability of their employees to violate the trust placed in them by guests. Unfortunately, the reality is many people are out for the quick buck regardless of how shortsighted or inscrupulous it may be. Many operating systems have safeguards in check which (at the owner/operator's discretion) require managers to add the "auto gratuity" for a server. My gut would tell me that, regarding saf's experience, a manager wouldn't even be inclined to look at a table of four's check without reason much less add the auto-gratuity by mistake. This sounds like a server who knew they could manipulate the system. SAF, as an operator, I would always beg you to ask or question circumstances like these, not only so you keep your well-deserved money in your pocket but so the dishonest people are taken out of the system and get what they deserve.
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