B.A.R.

If a key player leaves right out of the gate, without a major public f-up, there must have been something nasty behind the scenes. *edited to remove filthy language

Even if they are given away the potato rolls with horseradish mayo and a shred of chard meat remnant for happy hour, it's not worth it. You should go for dinner. They actually wheel up a cart of raw meat to your table and then a half-trained server begans to lie about the various cuts, aging, pedigree of it all. It's scary. I'm sorry you experienced it. Go get a Manhattan at Cashions.

Wasn't there a Jean-Georges rumor a few weeks back?

If memory serves me correctly, I had some proposals photocopied and bound at this place a couple of years ago. I must have walked by it a couple of times while looking for it. While waiting for the project, I got a coffee and a muffin. The muffin was good, but I remember being struck by how odd the whole place was. Half coffee shop, half coffee shop. Name that doesn't mean a thing. Shitty signage. Hidden location (even though it is RIGHT ON THE STREET). Surprised it is still in business. Oh yeah. If memory serves me correctly it is the first door on the right once you cross the canal heading south on Thomas Jefferson Street. edited to add presumed/imagined location

I went once. It blew. If it didn't already have a reputation in other cities it wouldn't ever earn one here.

True story. In a restaurant that I managed the owner had braille menus printed "just in case". The menu changed about once every three months, and the first three printings of the menus never saw the light of day. Then one day, my assistant came up to me ecstatic because he finally had the opportunity to use the braille menus on a couple he had just seated. Unfortunately, the didn't need them, as they were deaf. Idiot.

Doesn't Tom Power do all of the catering at Sheraton Four Points? They'd have a banquet room, and we know that the man can cook! It's about two blocks from Metro Center. Possibility?

Isn't that the greatest! Always makes you feel like you're home.

$186.00 per person for a dinner is a lot of money to 99% of the populace, including rabid food lovers with middle-class income people like myself included. I've spent that much, and more, many times. Only a few times have I even regretted the cost, and that always told me that the experience was not worth it. Whether or not the costs are commensurate with Maestro or Citronelle, Per Se, Tallivent, wherever is kind is irrelevant unless you've experienced it, and left gloriously satisfied, or, sometimes, kind of eh.

This is lunacy. All of these people could have been charged with reckless driving, but the cases would probably been thrown out. The addition of the alcohol test lamely validates the officers opinion, and adds barely plausible cause to his decision. However, it costs the person "charged" a bloody fortune in legal fees, classes, insurance, etc. Even the director of MADD, quoted yesterday, thinks this is stupid. I'm glad to see the Post highlighting this. They need to change this, and soon. I have a drink or two at Happy Hour all of the time, and then drive home. Now that I know some asshole cop with a boner for a promotion can make my life a living hell if my turn signal light blows out, I'm not drinking in DC. It may sound paranoid, but I've gotten a DUI once before. I deserved it. It totally sucked and cost a fortune (relative to my 21 year old earnings). I haven't put myself in that position again, and if two drinks and a shitty light filament can cost me 12 months of driving in the District and $1000's of dollars, fuck 'em. I'll spend my money elsewhere.

Precisely.Tom's guide is pretty easy to follow, thematically, and I think it's very clear even to the most daft readers that it is not a listing of the city's best restaurants. If this guide can wrangle just a few of the hundreds of lemmings from the wait list at Cheesesteak Factory to (insert name of listed restaurant here) the entire restaurant community is well served.

The half-stars are great for the casual diner that wants an even easier way to differentiate between restaurants. And the people that don't actually, you know, read the reviews.

In the interest of scientific research (and stuffing my gullet) I walked the five blocks from my office to the Potbelly at 14th and New York. I had never been before. I opened the door and immediately walked into the back of a person rudely standing in the doorway. I excused myself, glanced around at the sea of humanity that had crammed themselves into this small little store. The man wasn’t loitering, he was merely at the back of the long line. I took my place behind him, and was easily the patron #50. I settled in for the long haul and glanced at the surroundings. Awful. Kitschy, homey, artificially contrived. But a hell of a lot better than old subway maps and Coca-Cola table tents. I wasn’t there for the ambience. I was there for a cheap sandwich. But there was something warm and inviting about the place. Maybe it was the live music. Yup, this corporate, money sucking, lifeless entity found enough soul and extra cash to pay some guy to sit in the corner with an acoustic, guitar microphone, and amplifier & warble out Tom Petty and John Cougar. He wasn’t great and I wouldn’t have stayed to listen. But I’ve paid to hear worse and I was actually impressed by the gesture. The line moved quickly. Apparently it is one employees job to yell at the customer from an extraordinary distance so that an order may be taken, and the base of the sandwich could be thrown onto the conveyor belt. It was hard to communicate with her over the 15 feet and 20 people that separated us, and I was sure my sandwich was going to be fucked up. I got the turkey on wheat with lettuce, tomato, hots, & onions. I also got some shitty green olives on there, which I didn’t order. The sandwich quality was unexceptional. But for $4.38 it was a pretty good deal. I wouldn’t walk past the 100 or so restaurants/patisseries/falafel shops/hot dog stands etc. just to eat there. But if I was just ambling buy and my belly was grumbling, AND I only had $5 on me, I’d have no reservations about stopping.

I don’t deny that fruit flies are all over restaurants in town, and I don’t deny that they are introduced through produce. But Jonathon, you work in a kitchen, surrounded by produce. Are there more fruit flies in your kitchen or in your bar? I’d bet your bar. Why? Because it’s got everything they need to eat and breed.Food Source? Check. Maybe not rotting fruit and vegetables (Actually, how many slices of limes have fallen behind that reach in?). But certainly plenty of the greatest fermented fruit and vegetable I know of, alcohol. Breeding Ground? They can’t lay eggs in their food source, ‘cuz the alcohol will kill them. Next best place is a sink drain, because it’s dark, warm, and moist. Drain the ice bins. Rinse them. Pull out the refrigerators and sweep! Mop with bleach water and then pour the bleach water down the drain. Do every night, whether you are too tired, too drunk, or both. I have been five for five in eliminating these pests when I managed restaurants by thoroughly cleaning the bar, and keeping it clean. Actually, you can never really eliminate them but you can minimize them to the point that people are again talking about your spectacular food and drinks, and not about the flies. "Give me the fries, hold the flies."

Actually, these kinds of flies are often not fruit flies. I cannot remeber what they are called, but I've seen um' and killed 'um in plenty of restaurants. My bet is that there is a consistent, even small standing water somewhere in the restaurant (probably behind the bar) where these flies breed. Get rid of the water, your fly problem will be history. A good "bug guy" (not Orkin or any of those corporations. You need an independant guy/gal who lives to kill bugs) can find the problem easily. Sometimes the solution is as simple as making sure the ice bins get drained on a nightly basis. A slow drip into a floor drain makes for a nice little home for these critters. I can't imagine if they were truly fruit flies in the basement that it would be such a problem upstairs in the bar. There would be swarms of them downstairs. A great bug guy is Kenny from Accurate Pest Control. It's a Baltimore company, they do a few jobs in DC, and they are awesome. If anyone from Palena reads this I'd give them a call.

I can feel the anger in Al Dente. It's beautiful.

Happens all of the time. People pull out of lit parking garages, onto lit (albeit dimly) city streets. Many new cars have dashboards with a light sensor, so your dashboard lights come on, and you are none the wiser. That is, until you get pulled over or turn down a really dark street.I am all for penalizing the drunk drivers, but this is absurd. Surely our judicial system has more pressing things to consider.

Before deleting this post: Rocks will either, A) Go to the gym Order a pizza C) Masturbate vigorously D) All of the above

Rather testy first post, no?

Exhume Secretariat, it's time for a whoopin!

Good to see Kalin Cellars getting recognized. Terry Leighton has been making world class wines for decades. His winemaking philosophy as well as edict that he will release wines when they are ready to drink was a revelation to me when I met him over 10 years ago. His semillon is a stunner and the Cab's are elegant and refined. Bubblies are world class. Hell, everything is just delicious.

I'm surprised we don't talk of Cashion's Eat Place more often, given the accolades received by the chef, the handsome space, and sublime cooking. I went there for brunch with my wife and (egads!) two-year old daughter and had a marvelous time. The staff could not have been more accomodating, the food was delicous, and the homemade sausage was to die for. Ann Cashion is a magician with pig.

Free popcorn? This surely can't last, unless a 20oz Coke costs $36.

Steel cut oatmeal, honey, brown sugar, dried blueberries Orange Juice Coffee Lipitor

Was it the Madone SSL?