Mark Slater

Ashok owns Annabelle, not Mirabelle.

This is a problem I ran into with corporate places. I worked at a place that had "partnerships" with Gallo, Terlato and Kobrand. This obligated us to give their products 1/3 of the list. This leaves out the small, family owned wineries that I prefer to utilize. Gallo and Constellation dominate the supermarket category. Ever wonder why you see La Marca Prosecco everywhere? Gallo. Kim Crawford? Constellation.

Memorial Day at Le Dip. https://dcist.com/story/21/05/31/joe-biden-kamala-harris-sighting-lediplomate-dc-restaurant-lunch-memorial-day/?fbclid=IwAR3cgj5TNX7IoJN3rl2TMzmXsX443nibXTKH4rmR3GSWEsV08qyB3qNIM6I

Tip pooling doesn't work in every situation.

Happy Hour at Joe's Seafood Prime Steaks and Stone Crab starts at 2:30. If you sit in their awesome bar area, you can pig out on King Crab, raw bar and all the other goodies they have. Reduced price wine and cocktails, also.

Wow, Eric. That's disappointing to hear. Those are the two dishes I wanted to try.

Humm has a gig London too.

I thought he stepped away from EMP.

Well, here I am again gushing about my favorite restaurant in Georgetown. My friend and I went to celebrate not only our recent vaccinations, but also his 81st and my 69th birthdays. As mandated by the District, seating is reduced, so no crowding. We had the front room all to ourselves. Martin, as always, was very welcoming. Henri, our captain whom I've known for about 30 years, was on point as usual. I never dine here without starting with the wonderful Oysters Chaumiere- super plump baked oysters with spinach, hazelnuts and very light cream sauce. For a fish course, I had the best soft shell crab I can remember having in years. Simple, sauteed with lemon butter. Couldn't have been better. For mains, I had a craving for veal. The special of the evening were Grenadins de Veau au Porto. It was accompanied by copious amount of wild mushrooms. I found it very satisfying. We passed on the souffles and instead chose creme brulee and chocolate cake (no candles, no singing!!). Martin invited me to bring Skippy, my canine companion, but it was past his bedtime. Skippy retires at 7PM for the night. He missed some stellar table scraps.

My dog Skippy is always very interested in what I'm eating. I tried to explain to him that clam chowder is not dog food. He still begs with his eyes. He really likes the fried noodles that come with Chinese take-out soup. He's very good at cleaning his dog food bowl. He gets a handful of high quality kibble and 3.5 ounce serving of meat with each meal.

“cracked sauce” (a mayo-based remoulade)

I had lunch yesterday at Circa Foggy Bottom. I made an OpenTable reservation indicating "outside seating". We got there at noon and were seated immediately at a nice table on the patio. Unfortunately, the Foggy Bottom Metro has daily buskers. Yesterday, there was what I called a "wedding singer" belting out horrible songs, plus there was a guy playing the mandolin in front of the restaurant. The noise was too much. It made the outdoor tables unpleasant. We moved inside, which was quite empty and had a nice lunch.

I tried TJ's frozen wonton soup when it was first introduced. I liked the flavor and wontons until I looked at back label: 1650mg Sodium!

Buca di Beppo is Guy Fieri's new ghost kitchen. Flavortown!