RWBooneJr

As recently as ONE year ago, Filipino food was a barely existing, dying cuisine in the DC area. We had perhaps a half-dozen restaurants in the suburbs, most of them steam-table food, and some with markets in them. This has become a mini-trend.

This is yet another example of a "me too" DC culinary trend. It started two years prior with places like Jeepney and Pig & Khao in New York and Qui in Austin.  As a Catholic school survivor, I grew up eating lumpia and other Pinoy dishes at parties at friends' houses. I've always wondered why there weren't more (or really any) Filipino restaurants in the area.

My guess is that Filipinos were simply more willing or able to assimilate, so there wasn't the demand for the sorts of gathering places that you see with other immigrant populations.  Or maybe it's that, for this population, those gathering places are more traditionally people's homes.  Regardless, now that food generally and Asian food specifically have become cool, perhaps the new generation now looks on the restaurant profession with more respect.  Or maybe the idea of a strong family core in the Filipino community is eroding as it has just about everywhere else in America and there's more of a demand.

Top Chef could also have something to do with the recent popularity of Filipino restaurants.  Two of the three places I mentioned were opened by Top Chef alum.

Regardless, it's a welcome trend.  In a weird way, it reminds me of my own roots.  Though, every time I go to a Filipino restaurant I half expect the meal to end with birthday cake.

On the higher end, Kaz, Equinox, Oval Room, and Kellari Taverna are nearby and have some lighter, healthy options.  On the low end, Teaism and multiple branches of Chop't, Sweetgreen, and Protein Bar are close.

Looks like Mio is likely done.

"We're having *only* staff meals, for as long as it takes, a spokesperson said, and every single staff member is going to have every single thing on the menu multiple times before we reopen to the public. We're doing this to be cautious well beyond the point of any reasonable standard, because our customers' trust means everything to us, and we're going to earn that trust and then some."

So, the idea is you force the grossly underpaid staff -- as a condition of employment -- to eat potentially contaminated food until you can prove that none of them got sick?  Sounds reasonable. 

A ghost town after hours....now that is stunningly cyclical.  Going back to what jpbloom wrote above from at least the late 70's well into the 90's that neighborhood's happy hour volume was significant and often overflowing.

The neighborhood is still packed after hours. It just isn't this website's demographic.

Actually, I'd bet this website's demographic is astonishingly old, at least by Internet standards. But I'm astonishingly old by Internet standards.

On 9/8/2015 at 9:22 PM, DonRocks said:

I believe you, but could you cite some respected articles or sources? (For my own edification; not because I need "proof.")

And do you think there's any overlap between the reasons I gave, and the reasons you give? I would say that "systematic disadvantages minorities have in the hiring process" are a result (direct or indirect) of "centuries of oppression and discrimination." I may be wrong (admittedly, I'm just now starting to think in these specific terms, it's late, and I'm very tired), but there seems to be a causality here, or at least some sort of relationship.

This is a good primer.  And, yes, "centuries of oppression and discrimination" is one of the causes, but not the only one.  Sometimes its as subtle as an interviewer being better able to relate to guy or girl from his or her neighborhood, college, fraternity, etc.  In the aggregate, it means that it's harder for a minority to get the position.  The idea is that you take affirmative steps to combat those forces.  Sometimes it's quotas, but these are clumsy and have lost favor.  It could be as simple as holding a minority college fair or giving greater representation to minorities in the hiring process.

Affirmative action isn't atonement for centuries of oppression and discrimination. It's meant to combat systematic disadvantages minorities have in the hiring process. There are hundreds of reasons for this, everything from overt discrimination to a lack of knowledge about the quality of traditionally black colleges. That disadvantage is well documented but not well understood.

 Well, I'm off to get a hand job at Starbucks.

I'd have serious concerns regarding both the cost and the quality.

Not sure how flounder/fluke gets "fatty," though.

What do you mean when you say, "My flounder flower was fatty?" 

See picture @ 10:00.

Here is a description of the typical "VIP" experience (at the end), which is similar to what I remember from a few years ago.  What you actually get isn't really any different than the usual dessert service, so I assumed it was a clever way to clear a table.  The key thing, which is described here, sounds like something different entirely.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

This, unfortunately, means exactly what every gun nut thinks it does.  It's the supreme law of the land and there's really nothing to debate.  Every American has an unfettered right to arm themselves however he or she sees fit, from the peaceful hunter to the idiot "militias" with machine guns, grenades, and anything else they can get their hands on.  It's a horrible anachronism with grotesque consequences.  It should be repealed.  It never will be.

I wish I had taken a picture of the "La Mitraillette," ...  I ended up treating it like an open faced sandwich ...

This is apparently a thing.  There is zero chance any Belgian would pick one of these up and eat it like a hoagie.

Could someone in the business please explain for us why, if it's absolutely clear that a restaurant isn't going to reopen, they say "Closed for renovations?" Is it to stave off creditors? Are there some other reasons?

I can see an owner wanting to hang on until all possible avenues have been explored, but this happens nearly *every time* a restaurant closes.

So what are the possible reasons a restaurant would do this?

Speaking of this, the original Palm Restaurant is not reopening:

"Miss Steak? Palm Restaurant Selling Original 2nd Avenue Location" by Rich Bockmann on therealdeal.com

Ladies and Gentleman: I present to you now, the First Edition of ... "Name That Northern Virginia Dive Bar!"

J.V. Restaurant

So what are the possible reasons a restaurant would do this?

It's an (often futile) attempt to maintain the business' goodwill while the owner tries to sell or otherwise figure out what to do.

"Beefsteak Review: Making Vegetables Bright, Beautiful - And Fast" by Tom Sietsema on washingtonpost.com

Bump.  Anyone seen it elsewhere?

Senart's, Pearl Dive, Blacksalt, Sea Catch, Joe's Seafood, Oceanaire

Yes, it's well-known "insider information" that you should *always* ask for your pizzas at 2 Amy's "Well-done." They all know what it means - just do it. That's something you won't find on any other website except perhaps Chowhound.

Maybe one other. 

What format is the mailbox in now?

Am I misremembering that this was once -- maybe 30 years ago -- a local chain?  I distinctly remember one in Tysons Corner, downstairs by the larger of the two movie theaters that predated the first major renovation (Roth's Tysons Corner 8, which was near Lord & Taylor, long before there was a Lord & Taylor). 

According to the always authoritative Wikipedia, they raised $50 million last year on a purported valuation of $500 million.

It's not quite as bad as no barriers to entry -- there are moderators.  And everything on the Internet will eventually be worthless.

I'm not sure what to tell you except that you're talking to the wrong person. Up until about a week ago, I had heard the name Reddit, but had absolutely no idea what it was. And quite frankly? I still don't, other than that there's apparently some forum aspect to it.

It's DonRockwell.com meets the Wild West, except for any and every subject known to man.  And it's immensely popular.

I don't want to parse your post to pieces (and me doing so is the only way we could possibly have a cogent discussion about this), but suffice it to say we disagree on numerous things - some fundamental, and others much more nuanced. That said, it doesn't matter, because you can have two drastically different philosophies, business models, or whatever you want to call them, and both can succeed.

Pity.  It would be an interesting discussion.  As the article you link to points out:

Companies like Facebook and Google try to create the illusion that their platforms are moderated by algorithms, not people. They quietly employ huge teams of human moderators, working under strict nondisclosure agreements, and yet these platforms feel the same pressure as Reddit to expand faster than their human resources allow. So an increasing amount of what once was moderation now falls to normal users like you and me.

Those "huge teams of human moderators" aren't cheap.  And, unfortunately, it would appear that far too many "normal users" either tolerate or enjoy content that you or I would find repugnant.

There's no shortage of trolls out there, and keeping them at bay is a lot of work.  My original point was only that the founders of Reddit knew this all along and chose to ignore it.  They're only addressing the issue now because they are big enough (and hence well capitalized enough) to do so.

People in this industry don't know what they're doing.

They know exactly what they're doing.  It's all about drawing eyeballs without the traditional expense of creating content.  It doesn't much matter if the content is any good, as long as lots of people are reading it.  The vile content that inevitably results is often better for this purpose than anything useful or informative.  That's a sad commentary on "society," but such is the world in which we live.

That said, there is still a big market for useful, informative content.  As you've learned from the countless hours you've spent organizing and policing this site, it's just extremely costly to create.  Imagine what it would have cost to pay someone a decent salary to do it.  Then multiply that by every major market in the U.S.  Suddenly, we're talking about (many) millions in startup capital.