treznor

To their credit, they do state in the magazine the methodology for the awards. Of course, if you just happen to see the award on the wall of the restaurant or in an ad for the restaurant you wouldn't know that the "Award of Excellence" means any schmo with $250 can get it.

WOW! One third of restaurants don't get an award! That's pretty picky! [/sarcasm] Statements like these, made in all seriousness by the Executive Editor of the magazine are exactly why these awards are useless. 2/3 of the restaurants that bother to pay the entry fee ($250 I think?) get some kind of award.

You are indeed correct. I've been lucky enough to not experience either (that I know of) so mixed them up in my head.

Could always be corked somehow just like a wine... never heard of it happening in vodka but I would guess that it's possible? I've had a bottle of Three Olives Vanilla, which also has a cork, on my bar for 4-5 years now (maybe someday it'll be gone?) and no sign yet of off-smells. I guess that Brett can be on the cork of a vodka bottle just as it could be on a wine bottle.

We had one at Bouchon a couple weeks ago, but that isn't any closer than Maine :-)

People may remember this cake for a bit :-)

A fall of 85 meters into water is very survivable as long as you don't land prone or supine. Walking away with no real injuries, as appears to be the case here, is definitely within the realm of possibility.

Don't forget Steak & Ale... also closing.

Horton has a number of "wierd" wines based on different fruits that are interesting to try. I think I've only bought one bottle from them ever (a Poire I believe) but interesting nonetheless. The Viognier is typically what they hold up as there best wine. I've tried it a time or two and not found it all that great. Horton definitely is one of the largest Virginia wineries but is very much a typical Virginia winery from probably about 5 years ago, i.e. they make drinkable stuff that is priced too high for what it is. Over the last couple of years it's been interesting to see a handful of wineries keep prices approximately the same as they had been all along but get much, much better. One of my favorites has always been Rappahannock, mainly because they are more convenient to DC than Barboursville and the Monticello wineries and thus I visit more frequently.

The last message in the Public House thread seems to indicate that it's still open, just that you should call first to make sure. I haven't been out there since November or so which was before that message so I don't have any recent first-hand experience.

There are a number of wineries in the area. I'd second KeithA's statement. Rappahannock Cellars is quite good (and I used to be a member of their wine club until I moved out of state) and Oasis is horrible. Horrible may not quite describe it properly... The grounds themselves are beautiful so we had high hopes (care put into the grounds = care put into the wine?) but the wine just is not good. Supposedly they have very good champagne but I've never tried it as it's something like $5 for a tasting. Linden and Grey Ghost are also in the area and are pretty decent.

I'd second Flint Hill Public House. Call them first to make sure they are open (and I think reservations are a good idea). We went to the Flint Hill Public House the night after going to the Inn at Little Washington as well... It's tough to compare to the Inn at Little Washington as very few places could compete, but honestly we probably enjoyed the meal almost as much (the Inn meal was special for us for a completely different reason, but that had nothing to do with the food or the service). There's a good chance that alot of that was setup by expectations, we expected alot out of the Inn (and received it) and didn't expect very much at all really out of the Flint Hill Public House (since we didn't know very much about it) and got alot more than we expected.

There are a number of burgers that have names... Probably speeds up ordering quite a bit as you don't have to name every topping you want...

Went tonight with my fiancee (soon to be wife...) and my parents. While everything that's been said about the burgers is true and I won't disagree at all that it's one of the best burgers I've had, it was a bit too.... chaotic for my tastes. When we got there (at 8:30 or so) they were at their occupancy capacity so they were holding people outside to wait. This caused a bit of confusion as people went inside to be turned around to wait outside (they did have someone at the front most of the time though letting people know). After we waited for the line to die down we were let in and then since there was no line and were being pushed a bit to go up and order we never really got to see the menu. I didn't have a problem since I had read a description of most of the items on here but the other people in my group just ended up with the first burger they saw on the menu. By the time we left there wasn't a line and there was actually a table or two available. Again, awesome burger. If we ended up there when there weren't any lines, I'm sure we would have thought the whole experience was awesome. Not alot the restaurant can do about the fact that they are popular, but just something that should be taken into account.

Burgers are about the only use I know of for iceberg lettuce. It isn't there to add taste but is there rather as a juice shield for the bun. Iceberg's leaves are large enough to cover an entire burger whereas alot of leafy vegetables are not. Now, places that put shredded lettuce on burgers should just be shot.

For Eamonn's burger I'd probably rate it as Not Worth the Trip. I only had it once but it was definitely both dry and pretty salty, and yet didn't have a lot of flavor. Just not sure why you'd want to fry a burger :-)

When I was young we lived in a farm house for 10 years and had a large black snake living in the basement. I think I saw one mouse in the 10 years we lived there. Now granted, my mom wouldn't go into the basement because there was a black snake living down there, but really we rarely saw him and we just saw his molts every now and then. I'd much rather have a snake that stays out of the away as opposed to mice. Probably not an option for restaurants though...

If they aren't allowing tips on credit cards, hopefully they are letting people know prior to the meal. Otherwise I could see some upset servers when they end up with no tip because people don't have cash.

I didn't ask, but didn't see ashtrays, saw people leaving to smoke outside, and didn't see anyone smoking inside when I was there. Based on that I'm guessing that it may be non-smoking.

I hated the Brita pitchers as well since I'd spill water alot of the time when the lid fell off. We got a larger Brita that has a tap on the front (that looks similar to the Pur pitcher in the link a few posts up) so you just hit a button to let the water out instead of pouring. That seemed to be working better for us, though we moved to a house where the fridge had a water tap on the door (with filter) so we haven't really used the larger Brita pitcher much to see how it would have turned out. If you have a bit of room, a water cooler is an option as well. I friend of mine has one in his apartment and he loves it.

Stopped by tonight for dinner. Things are still a bit slow, but that's to be expected as they just opened. The menu is pretty much as described above; chicken wings, hamburgers, and such for bar food with a couple of larger entrees tossed in such as hangar steak, red snapper, and roasted chicken. Beef on weck and kielbasa make it onto the menu. I had the hangar steak which is pretty much a copy of what he had at Restaurant Kolumbia, though I think the blue cheese port sauce may be new. The beer selection was fairly nice, with about 8-10 beers on draft and another 15-20 or so by the bottle. Plenty of good beers to be had; I had a Magic Hat #9 by the bottle and a Longhammer IPA draft. The room itself is a bit small. There's probably room for about 35 or so people in the dining area of the room, and another 35-40 seated in the bar portion, with room for a bit more standing in the bar area. Tonight when I was there both the bar area and the dining area were pretty full. There's an odd bar/table in the middle of the bar area that's an interesting use of space and is pretty cool. Basically the bar area is a triangle, with one leg being the bar, one an exterior wall, and the other the dining area. In the center of that triangle is a triangular bar/table for people to use. No idea where they found such a thing but it looks pretty handy as it increases the number of seats in the bar (though it does decrease the number of people that can stand in the bar by a larger number than can be seated). There are plenty of HD TV's around the bar (8-10 I think). Overall, it's a place that I really wish had been open when I lived in the area. I definitely would have been in multiple times a month just for a decent dinner and maybe watch a game. I don't think it's necessarily something to go out of the way for, unless you are craving one of the things that Jamie is one of the only to do, like the beef on weck (which Jamie has told me in the past he doesn't understand the fuss over as it's basically just a roast beef sandwhich :-) ) or his kielbasa, etc. But if you live or work in the area, it's definitely a place to try. It should be a real credit to the neighborhood.

They seem to be doing pretty well at it so far. I'm in the area for dinner a fair amount and stop by somewhat frequently (2-3 times a month maybe?) during the week and it almost always looks packed and I end up going somewhere else instead. I do enjoy a couple of their pizzas fairly well, but not enough to sit at a crowded bar for dinner :-)

That's the one. It's called Leesburg Pike at that point but alot of Alexandrians (especially the ones that don't live in Old Town) it inevitably just ends up being called King Street. I concur with his assessment by the way. When I lived in the area alot of dinners were consumed from Edy's and the Chicken House (across the street).

If there is, I haven't found it... I'm just talking about DC itself (not sure if that was the focus of Carman or not) as there are good places in the surrounding areas, just not in DC itself, at least that I've found. I've certainly seen the unevenness of spice in their food. The first time I ordered the food was awesome and really impressed. The second time I couldn't finish my meal as it was overly spiced (it wasn't too hot I don't believe; too tingly rather), and I'm not a guy to miss alot of meals. The third and fourth times have been decent; good enough that I'll continue ordering there intermittently when I'm staying at hotels in the area, but not something I'd go out of the way for. From the one or two items I've tried outside of the ma-la part of the menu, everything else seems to be standard Chinese takeout quality.

From DCFoodies.com: http://www.dcfoodies.com/2008/04/corduroy---reop.html