Rieux

27 Restaurant at the Freehand Hotel is still excellent.  I go every time I am in Miami.  Great vibe, excellent food, excellent cocktails. 

Also, Alter in Wynwood is excellent.

I guess I feel that if you are making an entire concept for a restaurant, investing money and time in decor and, hopefully, doing menu research and development, that you get these basic things right. 

Edited to add:  it also goes to a pet peeve of mine - namely lumping Mexican, "Spanish", and Latin American foods together.  Latin America is a geographic concept - the countries are individual and draw from many different influences.  Central Americans tend to hate spicy food, whereas Mexican love it.   You'll find no tortillas in Brazil or Argentina or Chile, where corn is not a huge staple, just as you'll find little yucca in Mexico.  People get upset about Pan-Asian, what about getting upset about Pan-Latin?   And don't get me started about Spain -- yes, Spain was an influence on most of these cuisines, but in general you'll find few traditional Spanish dishes in the Americas.

11 hours ago, Kev29 said:

Um, guys...

"from Mexico, Spain and other Latin American countries"

This makes me want to scream. 

I should have noted, we showed up at 4:30 on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and were fourth in line for the bar.  Had we arrived 5 minutes later we would not have gotten into the first seating of the bar.  We were lucky we did.  We had the lamb shoulder tasting menu with the wine pairings and it was a spectacular meal.  I mean, really spectacular.  Everything was delicious.  The bar staff was engaging and fun to talk to, and did not rush us.  We left around 7, very, very full proclaiming this one of our best meals of 2017 (up there with Frenchie in Paris).  I bought the cookbook, and have since made the hummus, which is much better than the Ottolenghi version from Jerusalem.

In short, if you can't get a reservation, go early, get a seat at the bar.

Tom S. recently liked the new Italian red sauce joint Rosario on 18th St.  

If you do get out towards Chatham, Portuguese mussels at the Impudent Oyster are great.

Anybody been there recently?

It's still pretty good. It's very loud and the portions are small for the money, but delicious. 

Tail Up Goat, but I think they don't take parties more than 6. Mintwood Place (tell them about special needs before). Johnnys. 

The Brazilian Grill in Hyannis on Main St. is good for the whole rodizio meat on sticks thing.

Sesuit Harbor cafe is a great Bay-side place for all the typical lobster, scallops, fried fish you could want.  One of my favorites and we drive down a fair bit to get there. http://sesuit-harbor-cafe.com/

Also, not to be pedantic, but if you ask locals for suggestions this will matter - the lower cape is Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans.  Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and P-town are the Outer Cape.  Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich are the Upper Cape (like the upper arm), and Barnstable, Dennis, Yarmouth are the Mid-cape.  So you are really looking for Mid-Cape suggestions.  Again, not trying to be annoying, but these terms will matter when google searching, talking to locals, etc for suggestions.

I can get a reservation at Tinto or Aldine on Saturday.  Have a call into Vernick, but not optimistic.

Thoughts?? Was hoping for Italian, but can't seem to find the right place - Vetri is too expensive for the group I will be with

This place looks good.  I had been to an affiliated restaurant (Blackfish) ages ago that was spectacular.

Headed there for two nights this weekend.  Staying in Rittenhouse Sq.   Hope to visit some museums, the Chinese Lanterns, maybe see the fireworks over the river on Sunday night.  We have two breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners to eat.  I am overwhelmed by the choices.  Zahav intrigues me as I love Middle Eastern Food, but we would have to walk-in.  I am open to most any other must-eats...  

I saw someone selling mushrooms there Sunday.  Also, the mushroom lady was also at the Mt. P farmer's market Saturday.

Looks like we are getting Thai and Lao food!  

"Zabver Thai Closes in the Former Adam Express Space - Sabydee Thai & Lao Cuisine Coming" on popville.com

Headed to Philly for the first time ever this weekend.  Staying at the Palomar near Rittenhouse Sq.  Everyone says we should go to Zahav one night, and I love Middle-Eastern food, but obviously there are no reservations at this late date.

How realistic is it for 2 people to eat at the bar on a Saturday or long-weekend Sunday night?

I never wrote up our Paris trip in January.  I got around to writing about Normandy in the France thread, but left out Paris!

It's been a while, but here are my reflections:

La Bourse et la Vie:  Daniel Rose's casual bistro.  Small, excellent service.  I recall loving a scallop appetizer, having better than average steak frite, and really knowledgeable wine/beverage service.  Fun, would go if nearby, but not a "must eat".

We had reservations at Daniel Rose's Spring for New Year's Eve, but, unfortunately, a week before they had a water leak and had to close the restaurant.  They happily transferred us to his other restaurant Chez La Vieille, nearby, giving us table and time preference.  This very small, very old, very storied restaurant has a first floor bar and counter out of a painting. We were greeted with excellent champagne, and eventually made our way up the apartment staircase (you go through the apartment staircase and hall to get upstairs, the kitchen is a small cubby off the hallway) to the jewel box of the second floor, with 5 tables, purple walls, and a retro 60's mod French feel.  Dinner was several courses.  I remember excellent foie, briny oysters, a delightful blaquette du veau, good desserts, great pairings.  The star of the show was the cheese course with truffles, which I am still dreaming about.  It was a good meal, not very expensive ($130 total including wines pp), and fun.  Afterward we walked over to Notre Dame to hear the bells toll midnight.

Another highlight was dinner at Rimal, a large, bright Lebanese restaurant.  It is sophisticated inside, we went on New Year's day so it was full of local Lebanese and Syrian families.  The huge assortment of mezze we ordered were fantastic, as was the bread, and the wine.  I really enjoyed this restaurant.

The best meal of our trip, and one of the best of my life, was at Frenchie.  We were lucky enough 1) to get a reservation, and 2) to get there first, so we had our pick of tables.  We chose to sit at the two stools next to the kitchen, the only seats with a view of the cooking.  I can't recall all the courses or wines, but, seriously, everything was amazing, the service spectacular, informal, and fun, and the wine pairings superb.  I thought it a bargain for $150 pp including wine pairings.  The hype is true.  If you can get a reservation, go.  

Ouff. This has gotten weird.  Who even knows who did what at this point!?

"Car Wreck Becomes a Train Wreck and I Fear an Oil Tanker Wreck Next" on popville.com (note the comments also)

16 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Remember Sandy Duncan?

She had a glass eye!

3% on Netflix is a fun Brazilian series that's like a better Hunger Games.  I prefer to watch the original Portuguese with subtitles (but, I speak Portuguese).  There is an English dubbed version as well.

The salty oat cookies are actually baked in Cape Cod by a company called kayak cookies, I believe.  

Interesting conversation:  http://www.popville.com/2017/04/wtf-truly-wtf/#comments 

Closing.  The food is terrible.  The barstaff is great.  My competitive karaoke team has been competing there for years, and it was much loved in that karaoke league.  It was a great place to see local bands.  But, no loss on the food...

If they did close, it's probably due to their inexplicable decision to stop doing delivery several months ago. They said they couldn't make money doing delivery by partnering with Grubhub, so they stopped. With a driver and a typical phone ordering system they could have had better margins. 

The place was SMALL and not really an eat-in place. Depending on pick-up orders is not a good plan, as the number of people within easy pick-up distance is not huge.

I live two (long) blocks away and stopped ordering regularly because usually, for me, ordering means it's raining or I'm tired or lazy (or in PJs) so I don't want to venture out.   I know I shifted a significant  number of orders to Beau Thai (even though I preferred several Zabver items) once they stopped delivering.

They had mentioned wanting to renovate the upstairs to be a dining room. That might have worked out for them if they had pursued it.   It's a shame. The people were lovely. 

Possibly closed?  Phones disconnected - paper on the windows.  But, the website still works and there is a hand written sign on the window saying "opening soon" -- whatever that means.

Jaleo was kind of perfect for the group.  The food was solid, a friend with a gluten/dairy allergy was able to order from the special menus (a nice touch at Jose Andres restaurants), the two-year old with us was accommodated, and everyone was happy.  Was the food the best it possibly could have been in the DC area? No, but we didn't need that.  What we needed was a place we could linger, and hang out, and talk.  In the end it worked out well, (and the price was not bad).