Jonathan

Our fearless chef has just been named by Forbes as one of "30 Under 30," food and drink professionals for 2017...oh the wonders of PR over actual cooking.

"30 Under 30, Food and Drink: Meet the Gastronomes who Will Change Your Diet in 2017" by Maggie McGrath on forbes.com

i choose not to think people are quite as sinister and plotting as one would have to be to make this all a part of a long con. I truly believe they were dying on the vine and had to make desperate moves to stay afloat. 

It follows with eschewing the club idea(no, they did not have 1000 names on a waiting list); a more "affordable" lunch option for NYE; and offering a la carts at the bar. All moves made to get more butts in the seats when reservations aren't being booked.

1 hour ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Oh my god, they axed the price!

"The Shaw Bijou Dramatically Slashes Price, Dials Back Concept" by Missy Frederick on dc.eater.com

That was quick. Pretty shocking they couldn't see this coming prior to opening. But hey, at least they learned before the gas got shut off.

Apparently pizza wasn't fast enough or casual enough before...

On 11/15/2016 at 1:33 PM, Tweaked said:

&pizza receiving $25 million in venture funding, expanding to NYC, Philly and Baltimore. 

Conveyor belt pizza...the worst of the worst.

ironically, conveyor belt ovens, due to the multitude of parts, are typically the most expensive types of ovens when compared to deck and wood fired ovens.

2 hours ago, Gadarene said:

Man, that marinara pizza when you were there is still one of my all-time DC dishes. So freaking good.

Thank you. That means a lot. One of the best pizzas I ever had in my life was also a marinara pizza, but from Florence, Italy.

1 hour ago, Tweaked said:

Granted this was my first time dining at Ghibellina, but my impression is that if I had friends who wanted to go out on 14th Street and they picked Ghibellina I'd be fine going again, but I wouldn't really seek it out myself.              

I hear they lost their chef

The plating of this food is pretty terrible across the board. It makes Cedric's food (which is typicallly very delicious) look rather unappealing.

Quinoa Hushpuppies sound like a good way to use quinoa. How were they spiced?

Well they clearly have created a buzz;)

4 minutes ago, TedE said:

I see places like Shaw Bijou akin to clubs that offer bottle service.  You aren't getting your money's worth, but that is beyond the point.

But clubs that offer bottle service don't have the overhead of a Shaw Bijou. Shaw Bijou has a very slim margin for error, and most likely needs to be very near capacity every night to stay open (I would imagine).

23 minutes ago, franch said:

Laura Hayes (WCP) is going tonight.

rereading the Sietsema piece, it's not as awful as on first read. he seemed to like the food for the most part, disliking the foie course and a course that features something he doesn't like of the savory courses. I do think tasting menus across the US neglect dessert as sort of a throw away a lot of times (notable exceptions including Alinea and Jean-Georges), which is a pity.

I think TedE is right. every review will not only be "is this food excellent?" but "is this food as good as the food at [Eleven Madison Park/Momofuku Ko/Pineapple and Pearls/Metier]" and the answer MUST be yes for Shaw Bijou to thrive.

still excited for tonight!

21 minutes ago, Bart said:

Maybe times have changed or maybe it's just the price that made him review it early.  In his chats over the years he's often said if a place is charging premium prices, they should be functioning perfectly and review-ready on day one.  He often follows that up with, they're not offering reduced prices early on, so they are fair game for a review. 

First off, Tom, and reviewers in general, go to restaurants so much earlier these days because they don't want to be scooped by each other or bloggers or yelpers and the myriad of other food journalists that didn't exist even 5-10 years ago.

secondly, while Tom didn't hate the food per se (and I don't think many people thought he would hate the food) the tiny portions (a tasting menu should not just be an array of hors d'oeurves) and the huge price point create a huge problem for Shaw Bijou. A restaurant is not just the food in a vacuum, it's the sum total of all the parts. And the perceived value has to be there. Early indications are that this is not the case for Shaw Bijou.

There are tables available tonight if anyone is interested...personally, I'd rather take my wife to Portland, Oregon ($673 for two, round trip) and go out to 3 or 4 restaurants and food carts before dropping $1,000 in Shaw at the Bijou and then heading over to Ben's or Jumbo Slice for pizza.

11 minutes ago, Tujague said:

Ouch.

I just find it unconscionable to serve food for that price-point yet have people leaving hungry. While I am by no means suggesting every restaurant should be a Golden Corral, the whole staff should have eaten the meal from start to finish and then amend it.

3 hours ago, ad.mich said:

I have a hard time believing it's an effective way to book a restaurant though.  A look at the number of openings on their website seems to back that up.

Quite a few tables left indeed...and from my experience, there is nothing that makes a restaurant sexier than it being full of people (sure, decor matters, but when a restaurant is brimming with life and merriment, it is sexy).

1 hour ago, Waitman said:

Well, though Bronx-born, he was raised decidedly middle class and his exile to Nigeria (to live with a former academic) came about because he was being a jerk around the house, not out of some extended stretch of poverty.  It's colorful, but not exactly Dickensian.  

[And nobody whose ever ridden the New York Subway has any sympathy for the mendicants trying to sell you candy or save your soul].

Kwame's problem is that, at this point, his attitude dwarfs his actual resume, the undeniable pretentiousness of his restaurant (nitrogen-cooled cocktail glasses, the members-only club) overshadows the sort of things that actually would impress a hardened gastronome crowd (the BP gig, the seat-of-the-pants multiethnicity of his catering).  

He's chosen to leverage his personality into millions of dollars of backing and thousands of words of publicity.  He's charging prices that the best chefs in the city -- guys who spent far longer than he did working hard and honing their craft -- don't charge. It's a risk he chose to take, and he surely must know that it rubs a lot of people the wrong way.  In three months, he'll either be the Joe Namath ("We're going to win.  I guarantee it") or the Jeb Bush of the DC culinary scene.  In the meantime, it's pretty easy to find the guy more than a little off-putting, to say the least. 

If I could "love" this, I would. 1000 times over. But I'll say this, I still find Joe Namath despicable even though he won a game.

7 minutes ago, TheGut said:

most of the dishes are mash up between American and Mexican style dishes.

I'm not a mash-up kinda guy.

I bet if you mentioned high-chairs to the owner they would remedy the situation.

21 hours ago, TheGut said:

The Wife, the little princess, and myself stopped in for brunch on Saturday.  We had high hopes going in.  Meal and service were flat.  We were not impressed. Also, how can a place not have any high chairs for kids?  All they had were booster seats.  Normally, I would not care but now that we are trying to get back out there on the dining scene, we have to take the little one into account.  We felt like this place was sending out the vibe "yea, some kids are okay, older kids.  Don't bring your kid if they are less than a certain age...."

With that said here is the one dish that I guess made the cut.

1.  Biscuits & Eggs: jalepeno biscuits, slow poached eggs, arbol hollandaise (the biscuits were like rocks)

Were there any dishes that were more Mexican? Seems an odd choice to put what amounts to eggs benedict at a Mexican restaurant (Mexican culture has a rich breakfast/brunch tradition).

21 hours ago, TheGut said:

4. Bouillabaisse: little neck clams, gulf shrimp, roasted peppers, braised corvina, savvoy cabbage, potatoes, and grilled crostini

Perhaps the photo is misleading, but this looks like quite a small portion, and a bizarre ratio of broth to fish.

6 minutes ago, genericeric said:

To bring this back to SB - this seems to be the trend in private clubs these days.  People are becoming less interested in pulling out the jacket to go sit in a formal dining room eating country club food to see and be seen.  They want a place to go 'hang out' where they feel comfortable and included.  Where you can do work, get a drink, maybe work out (though that doesn't seem to be the case here) in a relaxing environment.

Im not quite sure how this differs from a country club. Work out? Get a drink? "Hang out and feel included?" 

Do you mind clarifying this just a bit. Thank you.

6 hours ago, Bart said:

6 hours ago, Simul Parikh said:

1) This place is going to be a failure of Ishtar proportions.

Or

2) This place will surprisingly be good.

Or

3) We are getting massively punked. Especially, Jonathan

My money is on number 3. This cannot be real. Can't wait for the reality show. 

Another component of the Shaw Bijou is a members-only club, slated to open on New Year’s Eve. Few details have been released, except that members will have 24-hour access to the space, and a private second-floor bar. While the concept sounds pricey, Gorsuch says dues “won’t be much—just enough to keep frat boys out.” He says a panel will ultimately pick members based on character and career over who can pay top dollar.

“It’s more about curating people, a social experiment” says Gorsuch. “We’re shooting to have people in different circles, because otherwise it’s going to become a boy’s lobbyist club, and that’s what we do not want. It will be more about seeing what people are doing in their industries, and putting them together.”

The same part of the article caught my eye as well Bart. And thank you for thinking of me, Simul.

Lucky for me, I am now living on the North Fork of Long Island, far removed from Kwame, Shaw Bijou, Michelin and Dining Guides. So, God bless everyone involved (and with all the talk of "social experiments" and "curating people") they will need all the blessings they can get.

11 minutes ago, Gadarene said:

And that pizza looks frightening.

It is representative of the way they looked every time I went there as well as all the photos I have seen online.

2 hours ago, Pork Belly said:

So glad to read this chain. I thought I was going crazy after reading all the praise heaped on AP's pizza in other forums. Here's my pizza, half of which is the massive outside crust virtually devoid of toppings. I almost always finish what's put in front of me, but those bread bombs were too much to choke down. I also wasn't crazy about the addition of honey to this particular pie -- the combination of honey and tomato sauce was a dead ringer for the Spaghetti-Os of my youth.

All this earned AP's pizza the title of "most disappointing pizza in DC" in my round-up of DC pizza places.  You can find the entire list here:

"Best Pizza in DC: 2016" by Rick Chessen on rickeatsdc.com

This looks so far removed from what I expect when I order pizza anywhere, that it's just shocking to me that it was just named the #1 restaurant in Washington, DC by Tom. 

While I applaud the team there for wanting to do something a bit different from Neapolitan pizza, the end product still needs to be good. Different for different's sake doesn't do it for me.

Julien doing Julien.

"8 Hands Farm Opens Farm-to-Butcher Shop in Cutchogue" by Vera Chinese on northforker.com

28 minutes ago, Bart said:

Here's the question I asked and Tom's answer, from the chat today..   Not sure I understand the numerical ratings and better though.

Q: Your Top 10

Tom - I'm confused by your Top 10 list, specifically, the order. Some of your high numbered places (6-10) all received 4 stars, but #4 and 5 received 3 stars. How or why does that happen?

A: Tom Sietsema

Partly because favorites are highly personal. They call to me in different ways. Komi, for instance, delivers exceptional food and gets four stars. It's also a rare treat. I'm more likely to eat on a regular basis at All-Purpose, which gets three stars for its Italian-American menu and hospitality.

His twice a year dining guides are silly. He should spend the time reviewing restaurants that would typically not receive the press because they are/were off his radar or off the beaten path.

And perhaps, he should even consider stepping aside as food critic...this isn't the Supreme Court. It shouldn't be a lifetime appointment. Some fresh blood with some fresh eyes/palette would do the Post wonders.