Seanchai

In the Wine for Dummies vein, I like anything by Oz Clarke. When I was breathtakingly ignorant about wine as opposed to my current status of simpleton, it was a non-threatening introduction to an arcane world.

Back to Top Chef, note the clues they drop in the first few minutes or so about who will be leaving. Last week they focused on the close friendship between Sara and Dale so you knew one of them would be axed. Dale's immunity made the answer pretty obvious. Any bets on when Howie leaves? It's got to be tonight, unless he ends up on Tre's team in the restaurant wars. Are we getting to the point where his fellow contestants look to set him up for a fall? The body language toward him (or more accurately, away from him) at the end of last week's show was a killer.

Porterhouse steaks, roasted red new potatoes with applewood smoked bacon, sauteed baby bella mushrooms with thyme/lemon/white wine and lots of garlic. Not really a summer menu but I just had a hankering. Accompanied by Clipper City Loose Cannon IPA. I did have some fresh picked cherry tomatoes to remind me it's not fall just yet.

Not so much music as the dulcet sounds of Ms. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus DVD, especially if I'm prepping and don't want the kids near the big knife. Otherwise, mellow stuff like Jack Johnson or Cephas & Wiggins.

Just as an addendum to Eric's post above, there have been a number of openings and closings in Cville over the last several months: VaVino on the Downtown Mall has morphed into enoteca; same basic concept but with an exclusive Italian focus and slightly more extensive light food menu. The Blue Bird Cafe on West Main St. has closed and been replaced by the Horse and Hound, a British-style gastropub (their words). Wild Orchid on West Main St. has been replaced by Zinc, a French-style gastropub (again, their words). Southern Culture on West Main has finally been replaced by Maya, a more upscale take on Southern style cooking. Starr Hill Brewery and Music Hall has closed. Fans of the beer, take heart. They are still producing Starr Hill brews and are even planning a tasting room at their new Crozet location (about 20 minutes west of town). Also, the unlamented Fuel Co. has closed its doors as well. Patricia Kluge wants to focus on her over-priced wines instead.

Among my very generous Father's Day gifts was a container of Compli, which supposedly is the perfect cooking herb complement to a specific wine varietal (mine was viognier). Is this a load of hooey, or is there something to be said for handcrafting a special blend of dozens of dried herbs into a container of unknown shelf life?

Funny about the Jewish Mother. We had one of those here in Charlottesville established on the Downtown Mall in the late 90's. Hanging out at the bar during happy hour, it was evident to even me that this had to be one of the most mis-managed places ever. Cooks coming out during service at the bar filling up on top shelf liquor, bartenders running dummy check scams and many "managers" who appeared to be hired on their ability to look good, this place hemmorhaged money. No one was that surprised when it tanked despite pretty good deli which Cville is still missing.

I'm heading down there for a conference next week pre-Memorial Day, and i was wondering if anybody had any particular suggestions. Since my two young boys will be coming as well, we'll be looking mostly at the good beach-bar/marina dining options as opposed to haute cuisine. We've enjoyed Bubba's for the water/boat proximity (less so for the food/drink), Croaker's for pretty good seafood and Rockfish for freezer food with good people watching. I've heard some good things about Tautog's. Any other ideas?

Healdsburg, CA in the middle of Cali wine country: http://www.cyrusrestaurant.com/

An odd choice maybe, but Rick Bayless. My mom was/is a great cook but I never believed that I could do that. Cooking was always something that was a distant skill that I never anticipated being able to do well, much like learning how to play the violin or ride a unicycle. Someone recommended his Salsas That Cook book to me and after trying several recipes, the revelation that I could indeed make delicious food that didn't involve pressing microwave buttons or flipping a burger really fired my imagination and opened the possibilities to the happy journey I now find myself on.

That's good stuff! By the way, welcome from a fellow food/wine/beer lover from the Sabre!

Now that I no longer live in DC and live in the wilds of central VA, I accept the fact that I am always going to be hopelessly behind the times in knowing what's good and what's not. In fact, I just picked up this flashy Members' Only jacket with these loops on the shoulders that I thought made me look really chic and edgy, but I am given to understand that it is somewhat out of fashion. Oh well. And so after I read about the fall of Matchbox following its expansion, I actually had the poor taste to really enjoy my lunch there yesterday. After a morning of touristing with my wife and lively 6 and 4 year old boys, a lunch of mini burgers with the onion straws and a large pizza with oven roasted tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella really hit the spot. Trust me, having a great draft beer selection and good service was much appreciated by the wife and me after dealing with the scrum of the Air and Space Museum. Luckily we were seated in one of the oversize booths on the 3rd floor so we didn't add that much to the din of the place. As I said, I'm just a rube now but I definitely added this to the list of places that I can enjoy both with/without kids. Parents out there know that can be a very short list indeed.

This beautiful spring day in central VA has inspired me to be sort of ambitious about an herb/vegetable garden this year. As many folks here seem to have graduate level knowledge of growing dos and don'ts, do you have any specific suggestions for good resources (books, websites, etc.) on learning the basics? My past successes and failures have been based on random chance; hopefully I'll pick up some ways to improve the odds.

Headed up to Manhattan this past weekend with an extensive list of restaurants and bars that I wanted to sample. My wife and I figured, hey, we're kidless for 48 hours, let's attempt to hit as many places as we can. Of course, the gods smirked at me as they knocked me down with a high fever four hours after arriving in town and I got to spend Sunday afternoon and night wrapped in a hotel blanket shivering. Nonetheless, I managed to recover enough to salvage some epicurean benefit from the trip. I had a monstrous and extremely tasty burger at Molly's Shebeen and Pub on 3rd Ave. at 22nd St. The wife had the recommended house made onion rings instead of the fries with her burger and gave a big thumbs up. Seriously, it was the best tasting burger I've had out in a long time. Monday morning we had a great breakfast at the Clinton Street Baking Co. in the Lower East Side. I had their famous wild Maine blueberry pancakes with maple butter (excellent if a bit sweet) with a big mug of hot apple cider while the wife devoured her Spanish egg biscuit with melted jack and tomatillo sauce. Considering it was sleeting during our walk down Houston St., this comfort food hit the spot plus plus. It's a very small place and I'm told weekend brunch waits can be hours long. The big event was our dinner at Lupa in the Village Monday night. Our reservations were originally for my fever-ridden Sunday, but we were able to switch them (one of the big perks of the Sunday-Monday trip as I'm sure on the weekend we would have been SOL). Wow, what a fantastic experience that was. Not necessarily "fine dining" but unbelievable food delivered with exceptional, seamless service in a bustling, high energy atmosphere. We were early for our table and so thought we would go to the bar to sample their extensive wine list. We stood at the corner of the bar as we didn't want to take up bar seats with so many people eating at the bar. However, despite telling the bartendress we were just waiting for our table, when two seats at the bar opened up she immediately invited us to sit down and make ourselves comfortable. As it happened our table was ready 15 minutes early so we moved right there, a nice 2-top against the wall in the lively front room. Our waitress was excellent as well as she guided us through the menu while we munched on the basket of foccacia with olive oil. We ended getting the Prosciutto Di Parma and the housemade sopresseta plate, a salad and three of the pastas to share: the Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage & Fennel, Bavette Cacio & Pepe, and the special Orecchiette with Broccoli rabe and Sausage, all very different but incredibly toothsome and keeping with Batali dictum of the sauce being just a condiment for the more important pasta. It definitely has set my standard for what what fresh pasta should taste like. While not as extensive as I would have liked, we were 3 for 3 in having our high expecttaions not only met but exceeded. I'll take that percentage any time.

We had the dumb luck of scoring a 7 top on Sunday afternoon, but that was almost immediately after they opened, not later in the day. How flexible are your plans?

Thank you Zora, exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

Does anybody have a really good southwestern U.S./TexMex cookbook they would recommend? I feel I have my Mexican covered with my Rick Bayless collection but I do get hankerings for saucy spicy cheese covered stuff, various grilled meats and chilis (as well as chiles). All suggestions welcomed short of recipes off bottles of Taco Bell salsas, unless they are really good of course.

Tria does have a really cool vibe about it. You'd think there would be a comparable place in DC ... cheese, wine, beer. It just makes sense.

I recently obtained a Michael Chiarello cookbook that I'm really enjoying. Last night pork Bolognese with rosemary and garlic fettucine accompanied by oven warmed rosemary and olive oil focaccia with smoked mozzarella and sundried tomatoes. Tonight chicken breasts alla vendemmia with oven roasted potatoes and spring greens.

While his fiction truly does suck, I do enjoy his food/restaurant writing. A sports columnist I enjoy, Bill Simmons, really captures the vibe of a guy sitting around with his buddies shooting the s^% about sports, pop culture and what have you. Similarly, Bourdain captures the extreme and colorful commentary that occurs when restaurant staff are doing the same thing. Does he exaggrate for effect? Of course, but so do the best storytellers.

Echo the Trio breakfast experience and add the Fox and Hound patio for the lazy early summer/late afternoon drinking session. Fantastic people watching, service less than attentive and often a bit bizarre. Ah, my days of late 80s slackerdom! Also, thanks for the City Blues shout out upthread. My now wife met her future in-laws with me at City Blues soon after they opened. ABout six months ago we were trying to recall the name of the place and the mention above locked it in.

Standard Tap is always a good option, in the Northern Liberties nabe.

No. The meat's not bad, but portions are small and certainly not a great value.

Good call, we did that last trip. Enjoyed the salumi and small plates, pepporoni pizza was excellent, gelato (olive oil and pumpkin) out of this world good, nice primitivo I had never heard of, very good service. Since I only get to NYC about once a year, I feel guilty about doubling up on a place with so much still to experience (of course, that won't stop me from hitting McSorley's mid-afternoon for about the 1000th time, but that's different ).

Guinness on tap is plenty upscale for me! Thanks for the input. This will be an odd, arrive in Manhattan Sunday noon, leave at the crack of dawn on Tuesday trip all because Grandma is taking the boys to the Berenstein bears Tuesday morning in PA. The trip will have an Italian motif as we will be hitting Sunday lunch at Luzzo's for coal-oven pizza, Lupa late Sunday night dinner and inoteca for Monday lunch. Tuesday night after The Daily Show taping is the wild card right now. If we want a change from Italian at that point, we will be looking at various mid-range to casual options. We could hit Molly's Shebeen or the Waterfront Ale House for burgers near where we are staying. If we were sticking with Italian , we're considering Cacio e Pepe, Bianca, Frank or Da Andrea or maybe just Arturo's if we wanted to go back to pizza. Any other casual/moderate choices below 34th street we should be thinking about?