32 minutes ago, steveeat12 said:

My doctor has ordered me to eat more salads.  I am writing this e-mail to see what peoples favorite restaurants they like in Bethesda that offer  the salads.

I think it as "the best of the best salads in town".   If anyone knows a fantastic restaurant that (in your opinion) is the best salad in town please do let me know.

Thank you

Stephen Hosmer

stephenhosmer12@gmail.com 

Honestly, Cava would get my vote.  Sweetgreen is good as well, but you somehow end up paying $18 for a salad, which seems absurd.  Barrel & Crow has a good beet salad, but it's a smaller portion.  Persimmon has a wedge salad that's not remotely healthy but tastes really good.   Maybe Jaleo, where you could assemble some good tapas and call it a salad?  Endives with goat cheese, Catalan spinach, and the Sauteed cauliflower with dates and olives are all good.  The first is actually really easy to make at home.  Good luck.

17 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I heard P.F. Chang's in Friendship Heights has closed permanently - is it that?

P.F. Chang's is vile. So, no.

5 hours ago, lion said:

I've been getting tired of the same toaster oven or big oven pizza at home as well so ordered a 12" BK carbon steel pan to try. Sur la Tab has had discounts of 30-40% off. Unfortunately, recent articles are suggesting that they will end in bankruptcy. 

Just had that awful moment where a restaurant that's been a big part of my life here in DC will have to close permanently if things don't turn around in the next week or two. I work in finance, I know this is all real in the abstract, but hearing it from a family favorite really was just a heart wrenching moment.  What makes this even tougher is that this is a place that does delivery and carryout - and they're still just weeks from the end.  Ugh.  Ugh ugh ugh.

4 hours ago, lion said:

We did sign up for it and have been using it on the weekends. Last night our son wanted to watch Star Wars, A New Hope. Otherwise we've been watching Avatar, The Last Airbender with him as a daily family show after dinner. Have you ever watched Star Wars Clone Wars? Wondering if it's ok for a 6 year old. 

Other than that, we signed up for Epix, my wife loves the British dramas, so Belgravia, has become her guilty pleasure. It's funny though how much the theme music sounds like Downton Abbey!

Clone Wars is a bit more violent than Airbender - there's actual (cartoon) deaths.  They're of clone troopers, usually, but I don't think that's really a distinction that the 6 year old mind can make. Our son watched it at age 7-8 and was totally fine, but it scared his slightly older friend so your mileage may vary.  For what it's worth he - at age 11 - basically took the day off after school ended to finish watching Season 4 on May 4th - the day the last episode was released - so it made an impression.

On 5/11/2020 at 10:37 AM, Bob Wells said:

Total disaster at the usually dependable Blue Ridge Grill in Brambleton yesterday. Somehow they were not prepared for all the people who wanted to get some decent takeout for mothers day. I had to wait in a car line for TWO HOURS and when I finally got my order and went home, not surprisingly there were major screwups. Spoke to one of the managers who apologized and agreed to refund the entire cost but still, the whole ordeal was a major downer on Moms Day.

I've had two really bad experiences and two really good ones. The two bad ones were at higher volume places. 

The first really good one was at Barrel & Crow, which is using a pared down menu, allowed wine purchases with a discount, and included a thank you note. 

Little Beast Bistro was also a good experience - totally contactless and on time. 

The higher volume places were essentially trying to do their normal menu, including customizations, with no adjustments for the reduced kitchen crew.  I was given times (that were more than an hour out) but ended up standing outside for 45-90 minutes at each place.  Not really convenient.  I'd like to see more restaurants do dishes that take away the prep work, but are more family sized.  Make me a great lasagna that I can heat up for four people or a taco kit with all the ingredients prepared and stored separately. That has to save time and effort on the restaurant's side as well.

On 4/23/2020 at 10:11 AM, DanielK said:

They're not going to. But their other location CSNY a mile up the street remains open.

Yes it is - that was my dinner last night (CSNY).

We've basically stuck with our delivery staples - the places we want around post-apocalypse.  All our dine in favorites are closed, more or less, but we have tried to order from our occasional visits (Jaleo, Gringos, etc) to the extent we can.  For the places that are just closed, we're getting gift certificates.  Between full time work and 'teaching' at home, I haven't really felt the urge to go downtown to pick anything up.  

9 hours ago, Steve R. said:

It's 12:25am on the 15th. 🤔

Hmmm......

6 hours ago, Tom Power said:

I have never heard of cat fishing either.  I have heard of the bus bucket buffet though.  I worked at one place  where the manager insisted all liquids left in customers glasses  got shaken out into the trash. That accomplished 2 things  - minimized how much he could drink out of those glasses AND it made the garbage; that he would have to take out at the end of the night, EXTRA heavy!

I'm impressed the manager was the one who took the garbage out!

1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

Me too.

Getting ready to open a bottle of Linden Vineyards Wabi Sabi.  First time they ever made it - basically it sounds like they threw together some leftover lots of wines and it ended up tasting good (that's a technical term there), so they released it.  Viognier, Vidal Blanc and Semillon blend.

2 hours ago, jandres374 said:

The original location in Rockville has closed. We used to frequent often when they first opened and even had them cater a party for us. As others have mentioned quality dropped as competition increased.
https://www.mocoshow.com/blog/the-original-urban-bar-b-que-has-closed-chapman-ave-in-rockville/

Agree completely - I work in the building across the street and almost never ate here because it simply wasn't good enough.  The owners were often there, though, and were still quite friendly.  I wanted to like it (and did like them) more than I did.

4 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

In times like these, I am really ok with this, they have geared up their software to accommodate more restaurants quickly, to make it possible for a lot of restaurants to convert over.  They are hiring drivers, and making sure there is availability in these strange times.  If they need to take some profit to make this work for places that can't ramp up to provide their own delivery, and get to more people and places then take out would allow.  I'll bite, especially right now.

I don't disagree with this at all.  Just for places that have their own delivery, I try to default to that instead of uber or seamless.

1 hour ago, dcs said:

I believe they charge the restaurants a healthy percentage “commission” per order (20% - 30%?). If you really want to help a restaurant by getting takeout order directly from the restaurant. Many now have online ordering where you an pay and tip online. All you need to do is pick up the bag at the restaurant. About as contact-less as it gets. 

The points guy did a great review in January of how these guys hide their fees: I forget how to properly do links

They each mark up the food in different ways - some hide it in the food prices (while claiming its the restaurant), others do it through a service charge or delivery fee.  It's all the same bucket, though.  It doesn't go to the restaurant. We're definitely trying to call in orders and pick up (where that's reasonably safe) or to use delivery that the restaurants do themselves. 

Quite sad. I enjoyed his posts.

8 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Although I haven't said so, I've been thinking the same thing.

Seeing as though we now have a "wartime President" - in wars, we have "acceptable collateral damage." 

Without being unfeeling or uncaring, allow me to at least ask: Is it really worth it to disrupt the entire nation's way of life for four months, as opposed to having, perhaps, 10,000 deaths?

Society has currently determined that it is, and I won't argue otherwise, but I have no problem putting the issue out for discussion.

Quarantine for months should not be necessary - we really need to ramp up the testing capability, though. That's what has allowed China, Singapore and other countries to flatten the curve. Identify cases and ringfence them aggressively. That buys time to work towards a vaccine.

Extremely important.  We wrote to our favorite local restaurants last night asking to buy gift certificates.  Would encourage everyone to do the same to the extent they can.

39 minutes ago, Count Bobulescu said:

Sometimes bad stuff just happens, and can't be avoided, and sometimes it can be easily avoided.....

SoftBank Owned Patent Troll, Using Monkey Selfie Law Firm, Sues To Block Covid-19 Testing, Using Theranos Patents 

Believe it or Not

Patent trolls suck - these guys have a particular level of suck that goes beyond the norm.

Here's what their website says: Since 1997, our Bib Gourmands have been awarded to restaurants offering a good quality menu for a modest price. These establishments have a menu (starter, main and dessert) for a maximum of 33 euros in the provinces and 37 euros in Paris. Quality and price … those are the only criteria in the awarding of our Bib Gourmands.”

6 hours ago, Count Bobulescu said:

Will DC lock out Virginians?

Two potential cases surface in Virginia. [WAMU]

The Contessa sent me on a face mask chase. I was at least a day late and $ short. Three grocery stores, and three pharmacies, OOS, backordered, no ETA. 

This virus at 2% fatality is twenty times more lethal than the flu.

We tried to order face masks for our Hong Kong employees in January - there were no supplies online. I think you missed by more than a day.

On 2/24/2020 at 4:14 PM, DonRocks said:

One thing I'm keeping my eye on is "Number of New Cases" vis-a-vis "Number of New Deaths."

...

(I'm not sure if this makes any sense to people, but it does to me).

I feel like I completely get this ratio due to my extensive experience playing Plaque, Inc. on my iPad.

I've always integrated the cheese into the pasta in the pot, adding some of the water on top.  Honestly, though, I've never gotten the same consistency at home as I could during my brief sojourn at a restaurant.  The water you use to boil 40 servings of pasta is basically a giant coagulant at the end of the night that'll tighten up any sauce, stray chest hairs, minor home repairs, etc.

Any recent diners?  Going up there for lunch this week on a whim - still up to par?

---

Self-update here.  Went for a lunch yesterday before hitting up Black Ankle Vineyards.  Appetizers were the roasted carrots and the ravioli.  Both were quite good - the former was a cold dish and quite sweet due to the carrot juice reduction and accoutrements.  Mains were the burger and mushroom ragu.  The ragu was very good, but might have fallen more into the appetizer side of the equation.  The burger prompted a debate on whether it was Palena good or just below.  We settled on just below, but that's high praise in our house.

Interestingly, the 5 course tasting menu looked even better than the a la carte, we just weren't hungry enough to merit that much food (nor did we have enough time).  Would love to go back and try that another time when I'm not driving.

Kids welcome?  Not sure if I'll be in town, but if so, would love to come.

18 minutes ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

I'm sure this is waaaaay off-topic, but I have had good success with California Wine Merchant. Greg is one of the more knowledgeable people in the trade, and he knows the growers and producers in person. His curated wine club is incredible -- six bottles every other month, and none of them are available in shops or stores. Many of them are from a production run of 100 cases or less. Or do as I do and visit about once a year, drink myself into a stupor, and buy about five mixed cases to ship home.

Three words: Montgomery County sucks

No wine shipments shall pass (picturing Gandalf standing in front of my door with his staff).  

27 minutes ago, deangold said:

These are wines I am familiar with from the restaurant. I really don't know how civilians find new wines. I hae enough wine in my cellar to not buy a new bottle for ten years or more.

I have enough wine in my cellar to last through Saturday night - but only because I get home from a trip abroad Saturday afternoon.

The struggle is real.  I just hate buying random cases and not liking 80-90% of what I've just bought.