B.A.R.

Just to take this discussion waaaaaayyyyyyy off topic, I thought the Galleria (with the Maggiano's, Sax, Neimans, etc.) and the Tysons Corner (Bloomies, Lord and Taylor, etc) were both owned by the same folks. No?

Just checked with the Misses. She sqaid she ordered from the Chef's special's section of the carryout menu. It was called Beef in a Hot Pot. And she said there was no Chinese writing on the menu that she remembers.

It turns out this is the meal that keeps on giving. My wife decided to try some of the leftovers for lunch yesterday. Although she doesn't particularly relish spicy food, she does tolerate it well. But the spice wasn't the issue. About four bites into her lunch she began to get upset, extending a piece of beef on a fork towards me to review. "What the hell is this!?", she shrieked. I glanced at the piece of meat and it did appear odd. It certainly did not look like muscle. My wife jumped up and ran to the sink, thoroughly washing the piece of meat. I am far more of a physical sciences guy, but my wife is a bological sciences girl and she had to know what the meat was. After a thorough washing and dissection, she came to the conclusion that it was a section of heart right below the valve. There were a couple veins/arteries about 1-2mm in diameter extending up from the muscle, which was very dense ansd sinewy. She's 99.9% sure it was heart. Now, neither of us has an aversion to eating organs and/or other "less desirable" cuts of meat. My wife was pissed that she wasn't expecting it. She said it was supposed to be beef, and cow heart was not beef! I tried to calm her down, telling her that it goes to show how authentic the cuisine was. My wife wants no part of it, and now swears that she'll never eat Chinese food again. My gut feeling is we might not have gotten the "American" version. Has anyone ever had a similar experience? As a final note, the food still tasted great, whatever the hell it was!

My wife ordered food from here last not because she "heard it was good". I stopped and picked it up on my way home and liked what I saw, a barren rectangular room with none of seemingly mandatory fish tanks beads obscuring the doorway. In fact there were a couple cases of beer and a lone, aged refrigerator filled with, MORE BEER. Most importantly, it smelled like good food. I had never heard of this place prior to last night, and I had never read this thread. My wife called me on my cellphone as I was furiously changing lanes at 6mph on 395, attempting to read me the selections. I wasn't paying attention and heard something about pork and lemongrass and panfried noodles. I told her, fine, whatever, I gotta go. I picked up the food and jumped back into my commuter cell for the rest of my journey. Within seconds the car REEKED of spice. My eyes were watering the last five miles. I got home and unpacked the bag. My wife's container contained some kind of orange chicken dish. Fare for humans. I opened my container. I don't see any noodles....."Honey, where's my noodle thing" "I got you some wierd beef thing, they said it was hot. I know you like hot," she said. Nice.I ate the last half of my meal with a wet towel draped over my head it was so freaking hot. But it was a good kind of heat, the kind that doesn't burn your tongue, but subtly roasts you from the inside, like you inadvertantly consumed a small fission reactor. I slept uncomfortably. This morning, I jumped back in the commuter cell and got a 20 oz coffee for the journey. Somewhere around the 15th mile or fortieth minute, I lost track, things got a little touch and go. I was desperate for a large stand of bushes to sprout up in the poorly named "fast lane" of 395. I made it to work with seconds to spare and had an experience similar to THIS In a couple of weeks I'll take the Rockwellian challenge and try the Fish with Sour Mustard. But I'll do it on some kind of commuter holiday, maybe Columbus Day. *Edited to fix link*

Let's not forget: spaghetti carbonara

I've never been to Dino, and this review isn't going to dissuade me. The positives were greater than the negatives in the text of the review. Had I not read "One Star", I would have thought this was a good "two star" with great value wine and service. Just the kind of place I love! Didn't he give one star to that pastry shop in Georgetown where the service was a complete clusterfuck? Just seems, with the seeming ubiquity of two star reviews, that this "one" star is an odd fit. I know the owner posts here, and they might be disappointed. But Mr. Gold, if you are as busy as I hear you are, then this review shouldn't slow you down. Keep up the good work.

The Pain Quotidien poster had to be a ruse. I mean, seriously, you can remember how to spell Pain Quotidien, but now are miffed Tom won't tell you if there is one in the area. And you've been trying for four weeks. Just like mr. "all nude". These posts actually make me chuckle, and I like the fact that Tom posts these comments, it makes for a much more lively chat (and post chat discussion)

It's been a while since I've managed a restaurant, but the health code laws are so comprehensive and arcane that virtually no restaurant could operate if they followed the letter of the law. I've always been a clean freak and hired and worked with chefs who were like minded, but I have never in 10 years seen a chef or cook wash his hands every time he touches a piece of food. Or change tongs, spatulas, spoons, etc. after each use. Always take these reviews with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, the quality of health department inspectors varies wildly. I have had inspectors (albeit in Balt. & DC) literally fill out my inspection certificate in the lobby. I have had others with super health code hard-ons that have spent over two hours looking through every nook and cranny and putting a thermometer in everyting but the cook's spincter. Any health inspector, if sufficiently pissed off or grumpy, could write up an ominous sounding review of even the most spotless of kitchens.

All the more reason the "incident" shouldn't have made the review. Huh? You're not attempting to stereotype an entire city due to one sentence, uttered by one hostess, in one restaurant are you?

Tom gets paid to write. Concisely. Accurately. He was very complimentary of the service. He was very complimentary of the food. He was not too complimentary of the hostess's comment, which, when viewed in the context of the whole article, seems like an anomoly. Did he experience homophobic reactions each and every time he visited Charleston? He doesn't say. And that's why I have a problem with this. Tom has said on his chats that he will use negative service experiences to illustrate a larger problem. If there isn't, or wasn't, larger issues regarding homophobia than this one statement, he did a very good restaurant a disservice. I'm a clam! *edited to remove a more stupid post than this

I waited tables in Baltimore, on North Charles Street, near many of the gay nightclubs. I thought I was fairly cosmopolitan at the time. One night, two well dressed businessmen were seated in my section. They immediately ordered a bottle of expensive Champagne. As I poured the wine, I asked if they were celebrating anything special. One of the gentlemen told me that this was his “partner” and they were celebrating “their anniversary.” “Congratulations,” I said, “What kind of business are you in?” “I am a physician, and he is an accountant.” “That’s an odd business,” I said, blindly bumbling forward. At this point the two men began laughing, at me. “We’re not business partners,” they explained. “we’re life partners. We’ve been together for 11 years.” I was mortified at being exposed for the hayseed I actually was. But it was an innocent mistake. I apologized, we all laughed, and they became great customers of mine for several years. I know from friends who have worked at Charleston that they used to have a rule regarding the seating of tables. It was fairly simple. A customer could sit at any table they chose, provided it was not already promised to another customer. Closed section, closed dining room, window table, patio table, did not matter. As long as it wasn’t promised to someone else. Now here I am making suppositions, again. Tom asked to be seated at the corner table. The hostess thought the request odd, because she did not read them as being “gay” or a “couple” or even simply “two guys who wouldn’t mind sitting next to each other”. Apparently it was a nice table, Tom said so, and probably frequently requested. So the hostess went back to the manager in order to make sure that table hadn’t been promised to another customer. She was given the approval by the manager. Then she made the mortal, individual mistake of uttering her first impression. Which was a wrong thing to do. But it doesn’t seem malicious to me. Now we are sitting here debating whether or not Charleston is “gay friendly”. This seems much ado about nothing, and I blame Tom. The only way this incident should have been incorporated in this review was if he was made to feel somewhat unwelcome during the entire meal. But there is no mention of that. Just a single statement from a naïve and ill spoken hostess. If this singular incident was somehow indicative of a greater problem he witnessed at Charleston, he should have said so. Because Charleston is an excellent restaurant, frequented by blacks, gays, jews, whites, Indians and everyone else in between.

Now I'll try to parse the four sentences in question. Tom asked for the corner table. The "young hostess" found the request odd, because, she thought, they "usually saved it for couples". She then checked with the manager, who we can presume told her "sit them where they want" because that is what happened. Tom then ASKED "Was there a problem?" She should have stopped right there and given the answer to the question, which was NO. After all, they were already on their way to said table, if not actually seated. Instead, she told them what she, IMO, naively thought of the request. Hostess: "We usually save this for couples." It seems to me this was merely an awkward and unnecessary utterance of an inexperienced hostess. Nothing more. And I am surprised Tom included it in his review. Generally, he uses individual instances of service flaws to highlight something he found pervasive at the restaurant. But he is effusive in his praise for the service throughout the review. I really thought that his mentioning of this "incident" was unnecessary. I've met Tony Foreman a couple of times, know a lot of people who have worked for/with him, and read the Charleston training manual, albeit six years ago. He rigorously trains the staff on all manner of customer service. The staff at Charleston is uniformally among the most professional you will find in this area. The service at this, the "flagship" restaurant has always been graceful and gracious. It seems that this was just a simple mis-statement by an inexperienced hostess that now has caused a mini-brouhaha, at least in our corner of the world.

Not only mortified, but probably unemployed. Mr. Foreman is the best at what he does in Baltimore and has a reputation for little tolerance of service "slip-ups" such as these.

I'd like to start off by saying I have never been forced to stay anywhere for 2 1/2 hours except the time I was arrested for drunk and disorderly, but I digress. If you are so rankled by the "slow service" -SPEAK UP! I was thinking about this moron on my commute into work. Any reasonable person would have said, after the entrees were dropped "one hour" into their lunch, "You know, we're in a bit of a hurry, we only have an hour. Can we just have our check?" What the hell was this person doing for the 1 1/2 hours after their entrees were served? Even if this persons original complaint, slow service, is accurate, after the entrees have been dropped the rest of the time is ALL ON THEM. I can eat a luncheon entree, leisurely, in twenty minutes. With a glass of wine This complaint was crafted by an idiot. I hope Danny blasts them in a response to Tom. He'll print it. I'll be darkening the door to Notti Bianche soon, as a show of support.

I don't disagree that there are very particular people who would be aghast at the site of ice water coming within five feet of their table. But how often does that happen? Once a night? Once a week? I know that there has been no emperical study on this, but generally customers hate this practice. I've never once, in fifteen years of managing restaurants, had to address a serious diner complaint about not immediately being offered choice of bottled/tap/or still. Just my two cents.

I’ve usually seen this accomplished by the customer asking, whenever the busperson or server comes over with the tap water, “Can we have some bottled still/sparkling instead?” Works like a charm.Years ago I managed a restaurant out in the country where people actually had a choice. We had well water at the restaurant, and there was a distinct minerality to the water. It wasn’t pungent, but it was apparent. The chef (who owned the restaurant), wanted all guests to be offered bottled still, bubbly, or tap. We worked out how much water a person would drink/waste over 2.5 hours (about 1.3 liters). We then raised entrée prices by about $1.00 each to cover the costs. People were always shocked, shocked, when they got their bill and weren’t “charged” (of course they were, we just decided to pass it through). On a nightly basis I got to here at least five or six tables tell me how much they hated being asked that “loaded question”, then ending up with a $48 bill for water during their meal. (Maybe little known fact, people drink far greater volumes of water when there is no ice in it). And some people may want to believe that the waiter is simply trying provide greater service. Some actually are. But a majority of them are looking at it as a short-sighted way to pad the check. And people hate it.

Exactly. It's all about perception. A few minutes wait for a drink at a bar isn't even noticed. Fifteen minutes alone at a table would seem like an eternity. And there would be the extra pressure for the staff to "get to you" before they were actually out of the weeds.The specials $$ scam is truly the mark of amatuers and happens ALL OF THE TIME. To try to state it does not is foolish. Giving drinks to most of the people who have to wait for tables? Only seen it happen if the wait was, as Nadya said, extraordinary. Mr. Hegedorn does seem to have been the one restauranteur who was overly generous to the clients he held in contempt.

Restaurants frequently make guests wait for a table, even if it is ready. Sometimes, this is indeed to force a sale. Other times, it is done for altruistic reasons. Nadya is absolutely correct in that any restaurant, regardless of their seating capacity, can only handle a certain number of people in a certain time period. Just because a table is empty does not mean it is ready to be served. I have seen three, four, five tables receive poor service for an hour because inexperienced managers and/or host/hostesses were so out of touch with how their restaurant was performing that they didn't understand one table waiting 5 or 10 minutes would make all the difference in the world.

This has to be the first interesting Food Section in seemingly months. I have spent the last 14 years of my life managing restaurants of varying degrees of scale and Mr. Hagedorn's contentions embody everything that is wrong with managers, partners, and owners in this business. He shouldn't have even tried to broach the bottle water issue. If customers adverse reaction to this nuisance of a "sales tactic" helped caused you to leave the business, three cheers. Do you, as a restauranteur, have to bear a seemingly inordinate amount of inane, petty, and ridiculous comments and complaints? Maybe...if you let them get to you. He made a very wise decision leaving the business, as, despite his obvious talents, his attitude was probably giving it a bad name. Ms. Richman's rebuttals seemed, to me, reasoned and spot on. Tom's chat is gonna be nuts. Brian Reymann *Edit to add my name, and other stuff

And they smoked. No wonder their extinct.

My wife and I dined there about three weeks ago. I've never been to the Rib in DC, but have been to both outposts in Philly and Baltimore in the past. I love the ambience and the serenity of the Rib, not to mention the cast of characters at the bar. The food has always been top-notch, although my wife sent back her reck of lamb the moment it was delivered. Maybe we missed something on the menu, but the eye of each chop was no bigger than a nickel. They replaced it without a second thought, and we had a fabulous time. I get the feeling the Rib wopn't be around much longer. I'm in my early 30's and was the youngest person in the house by a good 20 years. Buzzy, the Owner, has got to be in his late 70's, and there might be a reason you don't find restaurants like it around anymore. Kind of sad, because it is by far the best steakhouse experience in DC, Ray's excluded. PS- I second the Marquis Phillips Shiraz. Had both it and the Hahn Merlot. Neither will make you want to start a wine blog, but the Phillips was very palatable.

I was there last week and I still remember how good those carrot fritters were. You definitely missed out. I am consistently impressed by Zaytinya, the food is always spot on and the olive oil ice cream is one of my alltime favorites. Service has always been great as well, although on my last vist the waitress did not seem to be terrible pleased with her chosen profession.

The pooling of tips has long been established in top-flight restaurants. In my experience, both as a manager and a waiter, it works fabulously provided you have strong management. When there is strong management, the level of professionalism and teamwork is generally very high. Poor management, tip pooling is essentially the "good" waiters carry the "bad" waiters. The 20% service charge isn't even that big of a deal to me. At the level Per Se operates, I don't think many would not go there solely because of this. I think from a PR standpoint they should have just said, "Effective September 1st all of our employees will be on a salary and prices will rise by approximately 20%." Now, what is really the "groundbreaking" news to me is that the tips will be pooled amongst the entire staff, surely in effort to compensate the BOH. Everyone in the biz knows the great disparity between $/per hour and $$/year between the waitstaff, and every other person who works in the restaurant, to include managers. I am no employment lawyer, but I believe this distribution of tip money means he can no longer use the tip credit, even if all of the "tipped employees" earn more than minimum wage. So he's going to have to pay everyone a lot more per hour. I've heard it estimated that Per Se grosses around 7.5 Million a year. At 20% gratuity, that amounts to $1,500,000 per year. If they have 50 employees (which is surely low), that's $30,000 per year/ per employee. What I wonder about is what the base level of compensation will be per employee. I can't imagine many top flite waiters in Manhattan wanting to work for $75,000 per year, let alone potentially $50,000. No matter how nice the restaurant. I've heard about the mandatory gratuity and pooling at the FL, but I've never heard that the pool was split equally with everyone. Has anyone else?

I'm starting to get a little nervous. The reception on my satellite dish is all shitty and my dog is hiding under the bed. I know this may be a little far-fetched, but were not talking impending alien invasion here, are we Rocks? Rocks? Rocks? Hello?

This is just torture. Foodie torture.