Rieux

Just a couple of notes - leaving, hitting any of the places in Columbia Heights or Mt. Pleasant for take out, and heading back could take as little as a half hour depending on traffic (likely light at lunch time and dinner time) and assuming you call in an order ahead of time.

I wouldn't walk anywhere in that general area, personally.  The roads are terrible, and the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital can be dicey, especially for an out-of-towner.  It's fine once you get west of Sherman.

I'd add, that slightly farther away, on Mt. Pleasant St. and Irving is Each Peach market, which has amazing sandwiches and side salads for take away lunch.  The Dude sandwich, in particular, is great, and should get more acclaim on this board.  They also have a great selection of pastries, drinks, etc.

Go to any of the places on 11th: room 11, el chucho, meridian pint, red rocks, maple, kangaroo boxing club, or the coupe (also take out). Mi Cuba cafe and thrip khao are not much further at 14th. All closer than brookland.

Avoid Trios if you want good food.

What about Hank's Oyster Bar?

Many Latin markets will have frozen ones. You are probably not near Mt. pleasant st, but the el progreso market has them. Try calling a Latin market.

What a strange little article.

"Several Sickened After Apparently Dining or Drinking at D.C. Restaurant" by Tim Carman on washingtonpost.com

Ha! That's my home town. Next time you are in Ridgefield, ask for recommendations!

Not super helpful, but the cafeteria at the Inter-American Development Bank on 13th and NY has excellent salteí±as on Tuesdays. It also has great arepas, pupusas, empanadas and Latin American main dishes. You need to know someone to get in the building, but the cafeteria is a delight.

Post review click

If true, very exciting.  Any guesses on who it might be?  I heard that Chef Geoff's was looking in the neighborhood some years ago.

"Lease Signed at Heller's Bakery in Mount Pleasant" on popville.com

Will be in Miami Sunday night with my sister for just that one night.  Staying at the Raleigh.  Where should we dine?

So far looking at Barceloneta, Yardbird, Restaurant Michael Schwartz, and Bazaar but open to other suggestions.  It is restaurant week, and all of these except Yardbird are participating with a $39 dinner deal.  We are late 30s, early 40s, and don't see each other much, so we want somewhere fun, and tasty.

I am probably the only person who cares, but it has been resurrected!  Hooray - I now have a source for my Brazilian pastry cravings.

"Lia Cafe International Reopens in Mount Pleasant" on popville.com

Ok, headed back to Nassau for a week next week for work.  Staying at the Hilton.  Last time I was there I was unimpressed with the food options (and with Nassau itself).

Any recommendations?  I'll be looking for dinners, and most likely be by myself at night after the workday.

Glad to see they've changed the way they explain the service charge! It's clearer now and not misleading (which I think was probably an error on the part of the person who wrote the menu the night I was there, not nefarious).

I do think they should just raise the prices of each item by 18% and say tip is included, though.

This is really unfortunate.  Did you speak with a manager?  Establishing a reputation for good service is important for any new restaurant, but especially for one trying to upend the tipping culture.

We didn't as it was totally unclear which member of the crazed staff running around was the manager, and, by this point we just wanted to get out of there and go home.  I almost always tip 20%, so it wasn't the amount or the fact that there was a service charge, it was the way it was communicated.  I didn't want to complain and either have the manager think I didn't get the concept of a service charge, or think I was complaining to be cheap.

I was underwhelmed last night.  My friend and I got there at 8:30 and were able to get a table for 2 immediately.  My main criticisms, which are substantial, are the service and the noise.  The food was fine, but no where near good enough to make up for the other two issues.

We ordered a small plate of the kohlrabi salad and the fried pickled chard stems, a beer, and a glass of wine.  Starting up front, and throughout the meal, service was awful.  There were at least 4 servers for the small restaurant, but none seemed particularly invested in our table, and the service was 100% inattentive.  To start, our two plates came out, and my friend's beer, and it was at least 15 minutes until I got my glass of wine.  And, I was unable to tell anyone I was still waiting, as not a single one of the servers, who rushed by the table, paused long enough for me to even be able to catch their eye or to call out to them.  Finally I got my wine later.  The kohlrabi salad was fine.  Not bad, not great.  It was something I could make at home.  I loved the pickled chard stems, and I think they were one of the highlights of the meal.  We ordered some more plates, but noticed that they were already out of 2 of the 4 meat dishes by 8:30 -- there were substitutes, but they were not terribly interesting -- a chicken breast and thigh.  We decided to order the rabbit leg, the quail, the beans and tomatoes, 2 corns, and shitake mushrooms with pesto.  They came out in dribs and drabs, but the dirty plates were rarely taken away when new dishes were dropped, which I thought was weird, as the server was right there.  They didn't stay long enough for me to ask them to take the dirty dishes away.  That was frustrating.

Of the food, the rabbit was fine (basically tasted like fried chicken), the beans and tomatoes were the other best dish of the night, the corn was just like any elote I have had in Mexico or on the street, the quail was briny, with lots of capers, but tough and a minuscule portion for the price, and the mushrooms were mushrooms with pesto - nothing special.  We each ordered another glass of wine, and had dessert - blueberry pie with peach ice cream (which had no discernible peach flavor) and poundcake with tart cherries for me (which was a butter-soaked toasted pound cake that was too rich).

None of the food was bad, but none of it was amazing.  I felt like I could make all these things at home, armed with a stable of Ottolenghi's cookbooks.  The noise was terrible.  I am young, I like to party, but man!  First, a loud table of 6 people in their twenties took the table by the window and proceeded to scream, yell, and be obnoxious all night, but they were encouraged by the waiter, who would spend minutes on end with them hooting and hollering (perhaps contributing to our poor service, but hey, there were 3 other waiters, where were they?)  Most of the other patrons in the restaurant looked around annoyed, but the waiter continued to goad the table on.  Second, the acoustics are weird. We were sitting near the bar, and when I went to the bathroom, over all the noise, I could hear my friend ordering our dessert from far away, in a closed room.  Sound REALLY carries.

Finally, we were annoyed by the service charge.  Not by its existence, but by its execution.  The menu board says "No need to tip, service is included".  Verbatim.  So, one would assume that the prices on the menu board include service.  But, that is not the case, the bill has a service charge added ON TOP of the menu prices.  So, perhaps saying that "serivce is included" is not the best approach.  Given the horrible service we had, maybe we were just touchy, but it galled us to realize this when we got the bill.  I don't think I'll be back.

Really excellent dinner here last night.  We sat at the counter (which was really cool, even more so because I could watch the chefs cut the fish, and they were using the same knives I just bought in Japan).  My friend and I each had a cocktail to start - the white negroni for me, and something with lavender for her.  Both were really good.

She had the octopus appetizer, and raved (I don't care for octopus, so didn't try it).  I had the olive oil poached tilefish with fava beans and fried artichoke hears, which was very good.  Perfectly cooked fish, with hot, crispy artichokes, and fried favas, with a sprinkling of Japanese hot sauce.  It was light, summery, but substantial.

As a main I had the salmon with peas, which was very good.  The broth was rich and buttery, the peas crisp, and the salmon perfect.  I was tempted by the scallops, but they had a bechamel sauce and lobster and seemed too rich for me last night.  Friend had the trout with almond ricotta which was amazing.  Crisp, light, and just overall delightful.  We shared a bottle of very good rose, and a peach dessert.  I was very impressed and will be back.

(Edit to add:  total bill $180 including tip.  I thought it was a great value for the quality.  It could easily have been $75 less if we had skipped the wine and cocktails).

Is that study of legal or illegal immigrants? This morning I was watching Trump saying that Mexico forces its rapists, drug dealers, killers to America. I haven't the slightest idea if that's true.

ETA:  as best as I can tell, the study doesn't distinguish btwn legal or illegal immigrants.  I'm not entirely certain that illegal immigrants can start  a business, file tax returns, etc. without getting busted.  So logically, the study is mostly immigrants with legal status - which has nothing to do with what I stated (and I apparently misunderstood Trump, he was literally saying Mexico forces its unwanted to America, which does seem ludicrous).

The studies don't usually disaggregate, although through my work I have done a lot with immigrants from Latin America (both here and in their countries of origin) and our surveys/focus groups support the entrepreneurship thesis.  I am not at my work computer, but here is one article that may be of interest:

"On The Rise: Immigrant Entrepreneurs" by Jose Paglieri on money.cnn.com

and

"Undocumented Entrepreneurs: No Social Security Number, Owning A Business" by Duarte Geraldino on america.aljazeera.com

That's the Hay Adams at 16 and H

Wow. To the first sentence of Ericandblueboy, actually several studies have shown that immigrants are usually among the most entrepreneurial and risk taking citizens in their country. It takes initiative, guts, and a daring spirit to leave your family, friends, and culture to strike out to the unknown.

Cheapest at Costco right now is $499 for one with two carafes. We got ours, with just one carafe for something like $300 on Black Friday.

Wait until Black Friday and get one at Costco. They heavily discount them that day.

Red Hen can get mobbed, and it is hard to get a reservation.  But, the bar (no reservations) is huge and is the best place to sit.  Just get there early.

Red hen