Rhone1998

Couldn't agree more. And through last year we had all of our son's birthday parties at home, and they were really as much adult parties as kids parties. They were great and we all had a good time. But now he's got a much bigger class at school and the culture if not the rule is if you invite one classmate, you invite them all, and we just don't have the room.

I'm looking for a creative venue for a kid's (fifth) birthday party. I'd like to find a space where the kids can have a great time, but where the adults aren't bored out of their minds. If you've been to a lot of kids birthday parties recently, you know what I mean. The ideal I have in my mind (fully realizing this doesn't exist) is a bouncy castle attached to a bar. Where can the adults go and be (responsible) adults, while the kids get to run around and have fun, too? Any ideas DR.com? thanks!!

We got ours from M&M Appliance in the District. Over the past few months the igniters on two of the burners have kept clicking even after the gas is lit.

Curious, who have you had come service your Blue Star? The place we bought ours from won't do it anymore.

Well, the longer the term for the lease you can expect, the longer you should be willing to wait for the price you want. And commercial leases can be pretty long term, right?

Wine Enthusiast - $5.99 per year This one I can't vouch for as I haven't done it.

In case anyone is interested, looks like you can get a subscription to Bon Appetite magazine for about $4 here by applying coupon code 55963 at checkout. worked for me just a few minutes ago.

During our visit at the end of May we had a wonderful meal (and a fun celebrity sighting) at Herbsaint, and, though a completely different experience (old school, charming, pretty over-the-top) really good food at Brennan's as well. One recommendation for a more casual, kind of under-the-radar sort of place is Eat New Orleans. http://eatnola.com. (note: it's BYOB).

I stopped by about 2 weeks ago. Short answer, no. It was pretty terrible.

We got takeout from Thip Khao tonight. Snakehead laab is already on the menu, didn't see any blue catfish yet.

I don't believe the postmates service works like this. It doesn't depend on restaurants participating in it. They will basically deliver from anyone.

not that it's that big a deal, but you don't even need to deal with the "site:" thing on the google search. Just type in "coffee grinders donrockwell.com" and it will pull up the relevant thread here.

In case anyone is interested, this, along with about a half-dozen other Evil Twin beers, is available at Rodmans on Wisconsin Avenue (or was last night).

I think it's partly semantics. If I recall correctly, they include the small drumsticks in their "wings" category.

I read something somewhere that a change in ownership was involved, so Daniel may not be a part of this anymore. Also maybe I'm just being naive but is it fair to assume that "sud" refers to beer suds?

The only place that comes to mind is the cafe at Ikea, but that's probably not it. This is a good one!

For what it's worth, Ruta was in the kitchen for my lunch (Friday starting around 12:30) and dinner (Saturday 7:00 reservations, dining room 1/2-2/3 full when we got there), not sure about brunch.

Some observations from three recent meals at The Grill Room (lunch, dinner, and brunch)... The service ranged from fine (lunch at the Rye Bar, where, by the way, the full restaurant lunch menu is available) to pretty poor (brunch) to nearly comically inept (dinner). It was 45 minutes from when we sat down at the table for dinner to when the first bite of food - the amuse - arrived (with bread following a moment later). Our wine glasses were not refilled once throughout the meal. We didn't experience the champagne trolly, but I think it was random chance, or maybe because we'd ordered cocktails (which themselves took maybe 20 minutes to arrive). We repeatedly had to ask for coffee refills at brunch, and across both meals pacing was crazy slow. Generally the staff we encountered in the dining room were friendly, chit-chatty in some cases, but inattentive to details like describing dishes or observing what each table needed and the pace they were looking to have their meal. Food was generally much better, with just a couple of misses in my opinion. For lunch, I just ordered the burger and nothing else. The beef was very flavorful, enhanced by a pretty bold cheddar broiled right into the underside of the bun. But I thought the patty was too thin for the size of the bun, and it came with barely any pink despite my request of medium rare. Excellent pickles and very good thin-cut fries came with it. Dinner was much more successful. Awesome bread basket, particularly the sourdough and the cornbread. Beef consume from the tasting menu, a shared plate of gnocchi, lamb with artichokes, and a cheese plate, accompanied by red Burgundy, made a damn fine meal. The consume and gnocchi have already been described extensively. I will say I loved how the fava beans and those tiny little mushrooms I can never remember the name of played so nicely against the gnocchi, in terms of both flavor and texture. The lamb itself was pretty boring but the artichokes and the sauce on that plate were nearly worth the price by themselves. There was a nice variety of 6 or so interesting cheeses on the cheese plate, accompanied by honeycomb, fig preserves, and fruit & nut bread. I wish they had come with a written list. I also got a chance to try a small bite of the dover sole appetizer and the halibut entree, both of which were delicious. In particular, I loved the almost earthy complexity that the shellfish sauce on the sole brought. Across all meals and most dishes, one thing that struck me is that the vegetable accompaniments were often the most tasty, interesting components on each plate. I'd love to try to put together a vegetarian meal here one day. Service aside, I think The Grill Room is probably suffering from an unfair comparison some folks are making with Palena, the reputation of which, I might suggest, grows more and more inflated since its closure. Palena was never a perfect restaurant, but over time we tend to remember the unique, amazing things about it and forget the imperfections. The Grill Room will never be able to compete with Palena's ghost.

(There are two shad roe threads in Shopping and Cooking.) I was perhaps naively surprised when Fiona at District Fishwife told me they were likely not going to carry shad roe this year due to sustainability concerns, then I looked into it and found confirmation from several sources that shad is probably not the best fish to consume right now. Fair enough, I just never thought it was that popular (besides me and my dad, I personally don't know anyone who actually likes it.) Anyway she hooked me up with some $4/lb walleye roe, which looks similar, just lighter in color...we'll see how that goes cooked with some bacon tonight. Anyone ever had this before?

Man I wish I was as good a writer as Todd Kliman.

I have seen it at the Ris stand at Union Market.

In!

Agree 100%. Ooohs and Aaahs (however you spell it) is much, much better than Florida Ave. Grill.

They don't look particularly Spanish but all I can think of is 100 Montaditos.

They say the hams were "started" in June 2012. So I assume that 2.5 years is nearly all curing time.