treznor

Cardinal rule for me is "Don't hurt the servers tip just because I got something for free/discounted". Now, if the reason I got something free/discounted is because the service was atrocious, that's another thing...

Even though I fly out of DCA at least twice a month, I've never seen those places :-) I pretty much always fly USAir (not due to loyalty, just due to price to the location I usually fly to) and on that terminal they are replacing some bar or another (don't remember the name) with a Gordan Birsch. Don't know if that will improve the choices or not. I'm usually there for breakfast so just hit up the bakery-type place that has decent OJ and a muffin. Cinnabon is over there too but that's not my thing early in the morning.

The owner of Chateau O'Brien is a Syracuse alum (of which there are many in the DC area) and PJASchultz is an alum as well. Somehow or another (alum newsletter maybe?) he got to word out that he was opening in the area so we went out opening weekend, or possibly it was a weekend or two before they were officially opening. The grounds are gorgeous (which is a recurrent theme for VA wineries). Getting to the place seemed a bit difficult as at one place with a very steep incline there were two cars on the side of the road with flat tires. Hopefully they've addressed that somehow. When we were there the place was packed (there really are alot of Syracuse alum in the area, plus I'm sure they sent similar messages out to other groups of people) but I remember the wines being okay, but not great, even for VA wines. We probably will return again, mainly to try the wines with less people around and see if that possibly changes my mind about a few, plus I don't think the dessert wine was being served yet.

Just opened my last (of 2) bottles of the 2003 Linden Claret a couple of days ago myself. I thought it was a tad washed out but still pretty decent. It wasn't stored wonderfully for the first year or so I had it though (room temp, didn't get my wine fridge until a year and a half or two years ago or so).

I'd probably just try and estimate it myself and leave a bit more than usual...

I'm fine with it not getting better as long as it stays approximately the same quality. With wine we're doing well to have a bottle open for 2 hours before it's gone, but some of my liquor bottles are probably approaching having been opened for 3-5 years.

The first time I went in (at least a couple weeks after opening I believe) I'm almost certain that I could have died and been laying on the floor and the waitstaff would have just stepped over me (or on me!). At no trattoria that I've been to or heard of would you be expected to order the same wine 6 times and then finally just go to the bar in order to actually get it (as happened to me at Bebo). I've been back and sat at the bar because I really did enjoy the food. However, glossing over the service problems that many have reports is absurd.

On a related note, PJASchultz and I were having a conversation the other day about our bar (measily though it is) and the question came up, does liquor go bad? I didn't think that it did but didn't have any conclusive proof. Some of our bottles have been around for a while as we drink mostly wine around the house and most of my liquor drinking is done when out at bars (where you can almost always find Tanqueray for a Gin & Tonic or a Tom Collins or a decent, if not good, tequila for a margarita or tequila sour). As far as advice goes, I'm a little weak but I don't find that I enjoy Tanqueray for my Gin & Tonics when I make them at home. For that Tanqueray Malacca I thought was quite good, but it's been off the market now for a couple years. I don't drink the brown liquors anymore (after bad bouts with whiskey and spiced rum in college) so can't help there. As for tequila, I personally enjoy a Sauza Commerativo (~$25-$30) for a decently priced tequila and an Herradura Resposado (~$45) for a little pricier bottle.

Ham hock or fatback is a tad more "traditional" but bacon does just fine for most boiled bean preperations. For baked beans bacon does much better. Regardless, the preperation above is the typical manner, basically you're just rendering out some fat to give some flavor.

What I found particularly interesting were the major jumps... Restaurant Kolumbia in at #42 and a new addition to the list, David Craig Bethesda #54, Butterfield 9 #63. While I personally agree with them (though I haven't eaten at David Craig Bethesda) it does looks odd to see new additions to the list entering this high when they aren't new restaurants, and from what I can tell the cooking hasn't drastically changed at either place.

I rather liked the hanger, lots of good hanger flavor (though not quite as much as other's I've had) and the sauce with it had an earthy quality and thought it went very well. I don't remember the specifics about what exactly the sauce was though. The mashed potatoes that come with it, with chive and bacon, were good but a tad bland. The comment was also made that the potatoes and the steak tartare came out of the same molding rounds :-) Not that there's really a problem with that, just funny. The rice pudding with caramel for dessert was a bit odd. I liked it quite well, but PJASchultz pointed out that it was much more rice than pudding than what either one of us was used to, though we're used to eating it at Thai places rather than French places so that could do it. I did think it was funny when Jake tried to order the wine and asked the waiter to take away the bottle of the night's special wine on the table. Waiter was like "You're sure?" I thought to myself that Jake was more than likely quite able to make a wine choice without the waiter trying to push the special of the night.

I've eaten at Bullock's a number of times over the years (living in Raleigh and Durham for 6 years didn't hurt). While I love the place and eat there often, the BBQ isn't why I go. It's decent BBQ but not anything particularly special. However, the family style meal is something else. I've never ordered anything else and on any given night probably 50-75% of the people are having the family style meal. Oftentimes there's a line to get in, especially on the weekend; though it does move pretty quickly.

A site I've read for Carolina BBQ is Holly Eats. The place that is recommended for Lexington is appropriately enough called Lexington Barbecue. I haven't actually made it to Lexington for BBQ but the recommondations for other areas of NC have proven spot on so it'd be the first place I'd try. BTW, basically all Carolina BBQ is vinegar based sauce, though Western BBQ (which Lexington is the defining area for) has some tomato base added to the sauce and typically roasts just the shoulder as opposed to the whole pig.

2-3 blocks or so, maybe closer.

A wine that I've had a couple times now that I've enjoyed is the 2002 Shooting Star Blue Franc Lembarger. Most recently was at a Holiday Party last night. Nice little spicy wine, though I do think it needs to be open for an hour or so to let the hotness on the end to settle down. Around $12/bottle I've heard. My friend with the Holiday Party found it at Calvery Woodley I believe.

Stopped by today for lunch and ran into agm and DanielK (I think that's the right Daniel anyway :-) ). They were out of the Bob but it had been replaced with lamb meatballs with mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were a bit thicker than I've seen them typically, without lumps (hey, sometimes I like a couple lumps in my mashed potatoes :-) ), and wonderfully creamy. The lamb meatballs had a bit of a spice kick to them that took me by surprise at first but that I really enjoyed. Probably my favorite lunch dish that I've had there, though the mushroom lasagna runs in a close second.

What if you don't have a larding needle? Jamie: Well you better go get one. Yeah, that basically sums things up well :-)

I mentioned this to a couple people at the last happy hour. Unfortunately it had been a couple weeks since I'd talked to Jaime so I couldn't remember which morning show it was, and I got mixed up with what he was doing on the show... oh, and I didn't know the date :-) Not much use was I? :-)

I'd say it depends on what you mean by "serious". Regardless, I'm certain that Roberto didn't mind having some place for his staff to go and a place for him to cook while Galileo is closed for renovation. If you read the thread you'll notice a number of descriptions of the food, so you should be able to make up your own mind about whether or not it's a "serious" restaurant (whatever that means). If you mean serious as in upscale dining, probably not so much (or at least not as much as Labratorio and Galileo). If you mean serious as in is Roberto taking it seriously and putting out good food, I'd say definitely.

I'm more than likely in, at least for a little while. It'll be my first dr.com HH :-)

I've posted a couple times about Cafe Salsa in the "Restaurants No One Talks About" thread. It's one of my GF and I's favorite restaurants, especially since it's fairly close to where we live and very close to where she works. We've never been for lunch, but have been for dinner maybe 6-10 times. We've never had alot of luck with the entrees, though some have been quite good. However, every appetizer we've tried has been wonderful. Unless there's an entree that's just really calling our name we usually just get 2-3 apps each and no appetizer. I'm sorry I can't be more descriptive, but it's been a month or so since we've been. I know the empanadas are ordered often, though they're a tad dry but have a nice jalapeno green sauce with them. The alcapurrias is ordered very often, as are the little bits of meat that are surrounded in potato (which the name of escapes me at the moment). The tres leches cake for dessert is wonderfully creamy and decadent as well. I've never tried there wine, but have had there mojitos many times and their caipirinhas a couple times. I don't confess to be a mojito expert, but I've tried a few around town and haven't found a better one that Cafe Salsa. They don't skimp on the mint leaves which I find many places do and the whole drink just screams summer with it's wonderful minty refreshingness. There are about 15-20 tables downstairs I'd say and there are a handful more upstairs. There's also a bar upstairs and during some evenings there is salsa dancing (which they move the tables for). The first couple times I went I wasn't certain that the upstairs was for patrons as well (mostly just saw servers bringing down drinks), but one night (Saturday maybe?) we came in with 2 friends of ours and ended up being seated upstairs. Shortly after we got up the tables were cleared and moved to have a dance floor and music started playing. We moved to the bar for a couple rounds of drinks and sure enough the upstairs started to fill up as well with people dancing or sitting by the bar. One thing to mention, the floors are all dance floors. They look like standard hardwood floors, but evidently they keep both the upstairs (which I can understand as they actually use it as a dance floor) and the downstairs (which I don't understand) buffed highly and it can be quite slick. I've seen at least 2 servers wipe out during the times I've been there and I've almost done it as well. Walk nimbly. Overall, I really like this place. The food is interesting and much of it is stuff I've never had before, the mojitos and caiprinhas are awesome (I'm sure they have other cocktails, I just haven't tried them), and the tres leches for dessert is creamy, just slightly cakey, and just generally wonderful. Just watch out for the floors :-)

Along those lines then, those that knew what his name meant and the linking it implied, to those people they already knew the connection and, as you say, no further association was really needed. It would be like if Michael Landrum's name on the board was RTS or RTC, or if Jamie Stachowski's name was Kolumbia, there would really be no point in further disclosure. However, to the people that had no idea what the RG blog was, to those people MRG's post was disingenuous as they had no way of knowing that he was talking about a restaurant that he himself was associated with (through his wife). Personally, I'd probably wouldn't have said anything about the post and whatnot. In fact I did see the post prior to crackers' post in the thread and didn't mention anything because I just didn't particularly see the need to as it wasn't really that over the top. However, the righteous indignation over someone asking someone that's associated with a restaurant to state so in the thread about that restaurant is really what upset me. RG has stated that the conversation that I and her husband was having on her blog is over, so I guess the situation is at an end. I truly value those inside the industry that come and post here, particularly those that post about their own restaurant as I feel it really let's us know what's going on that we should try and check out. My only beef is that I do wish that people would be forthright when doing so, which I think most of us would agree with, regardless of whether or not we think this specific situation was handled well.

But agm, his name is Mr. RG! I had no clue who he was but as soon as I saw his screenname (MRG) I knew exactly who it was. All anyone asked him to do is be honest about the fact that he is married to someone that worked at the restaurant. You just can't have it both ways. If you want to post in your "anonymous blogger" guise, you can't post in the resturant's thread you work in because people will now. If you want to post in your thread, have a different name. If he had come into the thread as MrSmith (or whatever, I have no idea as to the actual name of Restaurant Gal and don't particularly care) with a signature or whatever saying his wife was an AGM at the restaurant not one person would have cared, and not one person would have known that he was associated with Restaurant Gal (other than the people that had already figured it out, and there's not much you can do about that). But you can't go an make a name here based on your "anonymous" blog name, then post on your restaurant's thread, and expect people to not pick up on it immediately.

Even though the Internet food writing scene for DC seems to really be quite vibrant, I still doubt that we touch nearly the same market that WaPo or the Washingtonian do. However, I do think Washingtonian might be giving him that push to remain the lead food critic in DC. I think he's clearly their at the moment, but I think he might be able to turn around and see others on his tail.

I finally bit the bullet and posted on her blog, or at least tried to. I've tried to post at least 5 times now, but each time a "page cannot be displayed" error comes up... I've now given up posting on the blog but maybe I'll try again later today. I copied off my response so it least I don't have to retype it every time. I really enjoy reading her blog (as I also really enjoy reading waiter's waiterrant blog). However, this incident has definitely left a sour taste in my mouth. As I posted on her blog, a number of us could easily figure out where she worked. I figured it out and didn't care one bit. I thought the stories were interesting and a good read. However, having her (or her husband, still haven't figured out if MRG stands for Mr. Restaurant Gal, or what) posting in the thread playing up the restaurant just isn't kosher. You can't have it both ways. You can't be both an anonymous blogger as well as playing up the restaurant that you work at.