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B.A.R.

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Everything posted by B.A.R.

  1. B.A.R.
    This is a great one and I have NO idea what the answer is but am very much intrigued. The mashed potatoes and stewed green beans look atrocious, but I am guessing tasted good. The creamed corn and the shortbread with berries look too damn good to be someplace shabby. And that looks like meatloaf with mushroom gravy, not a combo you would find at a dump. Also, that looks like a decent wood table underneath. Can you just PM me the answer?
  2. B.A.R.
    This is an excellent list. I might add Euginie Bouchard. I'd like to play doubles, with Arthur Ashe on my team against maybe Gabby and Sharapova.
  3. B.A.R.
    I really should make a road trip. I like to be home in bed by 10 anyway, because I am old and boring
  4. B.A.R.
    I think this concept by David Chang is brilliant: "David Chang's Startup Is A Restaurant Without A Restaurant" by Issie Lapowsky on wired.com A fine dining kitchen with no restaurant. Just delivery. Money saved in rent, FF&E, China, Glass, Silver, etc keeps quality high, prices low. Custom made delivery containers for presentation. This seems to be suited only to densely populated urban areas, but if I could get a dinner of 2941 quality delivered to my house, I might never cook dinner again.
  5. B.A.R.
    So my wife was having drinks in Trattoria Villagio over the weekend and met the owner of a new craft brewery to open in Clifton. She was surprised that it would be in Clifton, a town not known to embrace large businesses within its confines. My wife asked the propreitor if she has had any pushback from the community, and the propreitor had said "not much". Apparently, this was before a local hearing and the Clifton Coalition is starting to fight back. I love craft beer, and I love Clifton, but I'm not so sure about a craft beer and entertainment complex is a good fit here. I welcomed the opening of Paradise Springs Winery, and do stop in there on occasion, but it has more of the feeling of a party site than a working winery and is a mob scene on weekends. I hope this is not a carbon copy. I could not find a website for the new brewery, but here is the opposition website. http://www.clifton-coalition.org/loudmouth-brewing-company.html Also, I think if you are opening a brewpub and entertainment facility in a reserved, bucolic town, you might have wanted to go with a different name.
  6. B.A.R.
    It can't be in Italics for the pizza alone, as the restaurant does not actually serve pizza. Been there 1/2 dozen times and the food has always been solid, but not exceptional. Just pretty good. My wife was there Saturday night (because Trummer's was closed for a private party) but I did not ask her about the food. Can't comment on the pizza, because it is carry-out only
  7. B.A.R.
    Drove past on Monday night at 8pm and all the lights were off. That cant be a good sign.
  8. B.A.R.
    Had the Farm Burger a few weeks ago. One of the best Burgers I have ever had. The Bar menu has grown considerably over the years, and is essentially a restaurant in and of itself. Very good.
  9. B.A.R.
    A little bit of narcicissim and a whole lot of blather
  10. B.A.R.
    I'm unsure about where high-end sushi restaurants get their product, but I suspect they utilize several small vendors, as well as a large specialty vendor such as True Whole Foods. And much of it may be shipped directly to them via FedEx from all over the world. I used to purchase a lot of seafood from Foley fish out of Boston, and the quality was always very high. Here is how it would work. Let's say on Tuesday afternoon, we would get a list of items "likely" to be in the various market docks in the northeast. If I recall correctly, they sourced from four or five different markets in the US and Canada. So on Tuesday night, by midnight, you would place your order. Wednesday morning, 4am-5am, Foley buyers would have a consolidated list of orders for all of their US customers, and purchase fish from the market to fill the orders. They would only purchase product that was the highest quality.. "top of the catch""¦Grade A"¦etc. Later on Wednesday morning, we would receive an email confirmation as to how much of our order was filled. It could be none, or it could be 100%, but it was generally between 60-80%. The fish, scallops, clams, oysters, whatever were than packed in ice and priority overnighted to us, so we would receive it on Thursday morning before 9am. The product was always impeccable, and not too much more expensive than local wholesalers, shipping included. I imagine this was because everything they bought was already sold, with the exception of whatever they purchased for their own retail sale. They even had a Fish School, where you go to Boston for a few days, learn about the various fisheries and ecosystems, tour their facilities, and head out to the markets with their buyers. I imagine high-end sushi restaurants work in a similar manner.
  11. B.A.R.
    My wife and I thought the same thing. Me: "What do you want to order next?" She: "Try to order something without pork."
  12. B.A.R.
    I love the Tartine Book. Been using it for 6 months and love it
  13. B.A.R.
    Went on Saturday night and had a very, very good meal. JohnL's comment above is fitting, as this is far more like (what I imagine) a speakeasy to be than anything else. The entrance is absurd. There is no sign, simply a light above a door in an alley. I was standing right in front of it and had no idea. There were Microsoft Word signs posted in other businesses windows further encouraging you to search ...I'm guessing people ask where it is with regularity. It was snowing, and I noticed a person wearing a dishwasher uniform sweeping snow from in front of a door. "Is that the restaurant?" I asked? "Yes," he replied in broken English...."is clever?" No. Is silly. So that's where most of the quibbles end. The place is tiny. A massive bar fronted by 8 bar stools, maybe four hi-top tables of four, four dueces, and lounge seating for perhaps 16 more on very comfy sofas and armchairs. Next time, I will request seating in that area as it looked so comfortable and the deuces are right next to each other (you cannot walk through the space between tables), not allowing for much privacy. For such a small place, the menu is quite large. There are perhaps 20-25 dishes on the "regular menu" and an additional 20-25 weekly specials. Much like the Red Hen, the menu was curated perfectly to my taste, and there was nothing I would not have ordered. Everything we had was good to great, the only miss being the pear dessert. Cocktail selections were fabulous and the beverage program here is impressive. Service was great as well. One thing I wish we would have ordered was a "Board". There are three selections: Meat, Cheese, and Vegetable, and each time one came out of the kitchen we wished we had ordered one. We were going to stop back after the play and grab a nightcap and a board, but by that time everything was coated in ice, so we headed to the hotel. This was absolutely a delightful experience, and I'd recommend it to all.
  14. B.A.R.
    This is an odd day. My anniversary is this weekend and my wife and I had no plans. The in-laws volunteered to take the kids and all of a sudden we had a free night. We quickly went through options: Baltimore? St. Michaels? Annapolis? Charlottesville? Charlottesville! Hotel reservations were quickly made, theater tickets purchased, and a friend of mine who is in the wine business in Charlottesville suggested THIS place for dinner. Not sure if I have a reservation there yet, or not - but if I do I will report back.
  15. B.A.R.
    I have a case of Hopslam if anyone is interested. Would prefer to sell the entire case, as opposed to 6 packs. I bought 2 cases in Ohio this past weekend (because I could) and don't need it. Paid $19 a six pack, so the total is $75 Pick-up in Downtown Dc or Fairfax (by George Mason). PM me.
  16. B.A.R.
    Late to the party, but there is a Halal grocery store next to the Woodland's in Fairfax (off Jermantown). They have every cut of lamb imaginable, and what I have purchased has always been pristine.
  17. B.A.R.
    Yes, underrated. This is an astoundingly good restaurant that knows exactly who they are, what they are doing, and execute almost everything at a supremely high level. Rose's Luxury, and Le Diplomate, and Fiola Mare,..(etc., etc.) get a tremendous amount of very deserved press, but they are not better restaurants than Red Hen. I like them all very much, but if the question posed to me was "Where do you want to eat tonight?" on most night's, it would be the Red Hen.... .....agreed. A caveat, I also thought that CityZen was one of the two or three best restaurants in the city (Komi, Sushi Taro Omakase counter), and despite 4-Stars, and Chef Ziebold's pedigree, and Jarad, and Andy....it was underrated, or perhaps overlooked, by too many people.
  18. B.A.R.
    Isn't it about safety?
  19. B.A.R.
    Moisture? You don't want moisture. A relative is a food scientist who spent a year getting deli ham to absorb more water. A 3% increase in water retention per pound rolls up to become millions in extra sales. Deli meat should be moist, but shouldn't have moisture. If your deli meat glistens and sweats, it is chock full o'bullshit.
  20. B.A.R.
    Stopped in for lunch today. As I was buying for my two daughter's and they aren't adventurous, ordered the most pedestrian things on the menu (Singapore noodles, lo, mein, etc). It was pricey, but the portions were enormous. Three noodle dishes were $34.00 and easily could feed 6. As we waited for our to go order, I stood between the lobster tank and the kitchen door and watched a parade of great looking dishes exit the kitchen. Behind the register hung whole crispy ducks, roasted chicken, and a roasted pig they were carving portions from and adding to dishes. Place was full at noon, maybe 80 patrons, and lots of staff. All of the customers were Asian, excepting us. Can't wait to go back with my wife and a few friends and do a deep dive of the menu. This place looked very promising. I'd add a picture of the ducks, but I don't know how. (Rocks, it's on my FB page if you want to grab it, feel free)
  21. B.A.R.
    ^ - I have not been in a few months....but this is still my favorite restaurant in the city right now. Walk in early (before 6) should be no problem/minimal wait. Later? Be a savvy bar patron and position yourself to grab a seat or two when they become available....or put your name on the list and go have a drink at Boundary Stone.
  22. B.A.R.
    I loved the old 29 Diner. I am ambivalent, at best, about this iteration. It makes me feel sad, because it's obvious someone put their money and passion on the line for this project, but it feels all wrong. The tables are anchored in place to the floor and wall, but the booths have been replaced by chairs, some short metal chairs with wide fronts and deep rounded backs that afford plenty of room for more rotund patrons (me!), some simple wooden stools with no back that make no sense whatsoever. But because the chairs move, the net result is less space than you had previously with the booths. I don't much care for the decor of a roadside diner, it's a pretty low-bar. That being said, after removing the booths, juke boxes, the children's artwork and old pictures, and slapping on some paint, they just randomly hung high school and GMU basketball jersies on walls from wire hangers, slappedon a few bumper stickers, and tossed around 1990's bric-a-brac. Meh. The menu is miniscule by diner standards, particularly if you venture past breakfast. Don't be scared off by the two Silver Dollar pancakes for, I think, $7.95. These "silver dollars" are easily 10" in diameter and barely fit on the plate. The brioche French toast was scarfed up by one of my daughters, so I cannot comment on the flavor. She's had plenty of brioche and brioche French Toast, and commented that the bread seemed like regular old bread to her, but tastewd pretty good. I ordered the Sausage gravy with biscuits. Very buttery and undercooked, doughy biscuits smothered in a gloppy sauce that tasted of flour, studded with decent sausage. I order this all the time, all over the place, and I always hate it. Why cant people make this dish taste good....or is it just me? At any rate, there is far more staff on-duty than in years past, and they were delightful, eager, and earnest. I wish them the best.
  23. B.A.R.
    Does anyone know if Chef Luangrath's Laotizan menu is still available and still awesome? My whole family is sick, so this gives me an excuse to buy half the menu for myself and eat it over the next day and a half.
  24. B.A.R.
    I haven't called the restaurant to confirm, but this menu Sunday night looks delicious.....and if the pairings are included, for $70pp, it's an amazing value.
  25. B.A.R.
    Any news about Andy?
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