stevem

Want to note the opening of LEESBURG DINER BY CK in, not surprisingly, old town Leesburg on King Street. This is run by the same fine folks that own/run Cafe Kindred in Falls Church. It’s a very similar menu and the food was just as good.
 

Apparently, the diner has been there in some form or fashion since 1865. It’s a pretty large space and has been funkily renovated. 
 

More info at:

https://www.loudountimes.com/entertainment/leesburg-diner-by-ck-reopens-on-king-street-with-a-fresh-new-look-and-owners/article_75a050a8-6d20-11ee-810a-4b81eb4a517a.html

Yep. Tonight we had bread basket, the oyster larb gai, chicken, and the lamb tonight. Ice cream sundae for dessert. Really enjoyed everything although the larb gai and chicken stood out. Sat at the counter which was fun. Service was attentive but not overly solicitous. I was worried we would be in and out in 45 minutes but didn’t feel rushed at all. Restaurants are expensive now…

Didn’t see a thread for the *other* Solace Outpost in Falls Church City. Tons of outdoor space and a cute mini-arcade inside. Their pizza was gone for awhile and appears to be back. It’s perfectly good bar pizza, and it’s a nice place to eat and enjoy one of their many beers. 

It’s the 4th and the Rosslyn location was open and crowded with folks like us going downtown. Long line moved very efficiently and our Pepperoni and Korean Chicken slices were hot, tasty, and filling! And bottled Boylan sodas are always a treat. 

Wow, no posts here for years! Enjoyed the family style dinner here over the weekend. Particularly liked the tandoori chicken, burrata/strawberrries salad, and the khatchipurri (egg and cheese bread thing). Left feeling very full but not gross. Price of $55/person seems very reasonable, and I appreciate the included service charge being noted by the server and circled with a Sharpie on the check. Have now been here and Maydan, need to get to Kirby Road to complete this group’s trifecta.

2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

It’s such a pleasure to enjoy a high level restaurant that:

* includes all service charges in their menu prices

* DOES NOT have a “Tip” line on the credit card bill

I recently went to a high-level restaurant that had the first, but also presented the diner with a blank tip line on the credit card bill (in case your service was so good, you might feel compelled to leave more than 23%, or whatever the going rate is).

Thank you, 2 Amys. Now, please get some comfy bar chairs!

Was there a few weeks ago and had the exact same reaction about the (no) tipping. Such a delight. Bar stools didn’t bother me that much either.

13 hours ago, buzzy said:

Big fan of Liberty BBQ, especially their fried chicken. Had it when they had their Sunday Brunch, had it for lunch a few times.

My family loved it so much, Christmas Eve two years ago, we ordered it for family dinner.

It did NOT travel well at all. Everyone kind of looked at their plate, wondering what it was. 

Liberty Fried Chicken...eat at the restaurant. 

Or a two minute drive if you pick it up exactly when it’s ready. AKA get really lucky.

Continuing the trend, Liberty BBQ has very good fried chicken.

4 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Fitzgerald’s and The Tombs have the same menu right now but the Tomb is still closed, lacks staff.  $16 for a glass of Veuve is dirt cheap.

I miss the Tombs very much for Sunday brunch (coffee cake/French toast/EPL on TV).

I do not believe the pleasure of finding a free and close parking space can be overstated.

The Applebee’s is closed, and redevelopment will be starting before too long.  FWIW there is free parking on weekends/evenings in the Kaiser lot, and the City has agreed to preserve some additional parking during construction for the State/Thompson’s/Clare and Dons.
 

Also, The State is open now for dinner/outdoor free music several nights a week. The set-up is well done and it’s a nice place to find yourself. 

Agreed. Very sad.

Enjoyed the pop-up at the Dabney - Summer Rental. It’s outside, mainly seafood (lobster rolls, crab cakes, etc). They have some extremely specific rules with respect to reservations, ordering, food pick-up from the counter, 90-minute time limits, and other logistical issues. Although these might be annoying in Before Times, they resulted in a very safe and enjoyable situation. Right now, rigidity is a plus. And I haven’t had a good crab cake in a very long time.

I love the beaches too. The North part is definitely more crowded than the South, but still much, much less crowded than the Eastern Shore. Some of the food is terrible but some is pretty good. Duck Cottage is a wonderful coffee shop/bookstore. And, you’re at the beach. The beach is good.

9 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Yes, I haven't been in ... well over twenty years, I think - it was always very rustic and craggy (lots of pickup trucks with fishing poles on them).  No good food, no nice beaches - why does everyone go here? 😉

That said, I always *loved* throwing the little bags of (popcorn? bread crumbs? bird seed?) to the seagulls trailing the Ocracoke Island Ferry. And I've never seen one miss - the Baltimore Orioles would do well to hire one.

Huge difference between southern outer banks and northern outer banks. Very different experiences. Not making judgments - just the truth.

5 hours ago, Rhone1998 said:

While we were there the Governor had *just* ordered a mandatory mask order for retail establishments.  Prior to that, a lot of places had signs up asking or demanding customers wear masks, but apparently it wasn't the law until that order was issued.  So keep that context in mind.  If compliance in DC is maybe 95%+ (I'm talking about wearing masks inside shops/restaurants), maybe it was 85% there.  Certainly most people were, but we would definitely see people occasionally walk into a place without masks.  Sometimes they were challenged by the establishment, often they weren't.

Just walking down the street? No one would be wearing masks.  On the beach, definitely not.

That said, did we feel safe? Yes, because we never dined inside, spent very little time in stores at all (and when we had to go to a store, only one of us would go in, obviously wearing a mask, and retail workers were almost 100% masked), and most importantly we just never found ourselves in crowded situations (it's very easy to find space on the beach to yourself there, at least in the southern part of OBX where we were).

Thanks! We are going north where it’s more crowded but I’m pretty confident in our ability to stay out of group settings (and order plenty of carry out). The only place we love is a coffee shop in Duck and they seem to be appropriately stringent.

On 7/4/2020 at 7:42 PM, Rhone1998 said:

OK, after two weeks in the Outer Banks, it's clear this is not somewhere you go to for the food.  That said, we found a handful of places that stood out from the rest and that we would go back to:

Best of the bunch was a Mexican food truck in Ocracoke called Eudardo's. This simple taco stand produced our best meal of the trip -- freshly made hot tortilla chips with guacamole, carnitas tacos on masa tortillas, fried fish (local mackerel) tacos on flour tortillas -- everything was excellent.  I wouldn't quite say it is worth a trip to go to this place simply because you have to take a ferry to get to Ocracoke and the wait can be long, but if you're there I'd highly recommend this place for lunch (they also serve breakfast if you happen to be staying on the island).

80 miles north of Eduardo's, in Nags Head, a completely different experience - Woo Casa.  The menu is all over the place (tacos, poke, banh mi...) but everything we tried was tasty.  I was particularly impressed by the banh mi (which had all the flavors you'd expect from an Eden Center sandwich) and the truly excellent fries.  As of June 2020 they are technically only doing take out, but if you don't mind the strip mall parking lot ambiance, you can eat at one of the three picnic tables out front.  The owner is super friendly.

Toward the end of our stay we were craving spicy food, and my wife found Single Fin Thai-Sushi. Ordinarily I would run as fast as I can away from a Thai restaurant that advertises sushi but in OBX you don't have that much choice, so we gave it a shot, and at the end of the day it wasn't bad at all.  I'd say it was about what you'd expect from a B+ Thai restaurant in the DC area, nothing mind blowingly good but a place you'd be happy to go back to when the mood strikes.  The waterfall beef and garlic pork were both quite good, and drunken noodles, ordered spicy, were chewy and satisfying and delivered the needed kick. 

Honorable mention goes to Buxton Munch, in Buxton, for decent crab cakes, seafood tacos (the day we went they gave us a choice of three locally-caught fish), and fried oysters.

Ice cream shops abound on OBX but most serve up Hershey's or some other similar crap.  Booty Treats is no exception but at least they get really creative with their combinations and add-ons, so you can create something pretty unique there.  And it's just a block walk to the beach.

Did you feel generally safe out and about there? Masks, etc?

It looks lovely.

So, did you buy the fish by the pound and carve it yourself? Trying to gauge little effort vs no effort.

On 3/27/2020 at 4:22 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

Thought it might give each other ideas based on where and what you're ordering for take-out or delivery.  

We’ve had a number of experiences that have been a little funky (small retail too). I think, as long as they can communicate there is a delay and be nice about it, everyone is prepared to grant the necessary slack. It’s when the communication breaks down that it becomes not ok and very stressful, especially in a small space.

BTW, the mixed drinks to-go at The State Theatre in Falls Church are really good, well-packaged, and very reasonable!  Not how I thought I’d be supporting local music but we are where we are.

Sadly, no. I don’t think I’d feel remotely comfortable even with their wonderful staff.

I enjoyed my Shackburger and Shake (that I stress drank) during the Watch Party last night. I finished my shake around the time Howie hit the 2-run homer.  Finished the Fight!

Had the Banh Mi dog from Haute Dawg place Sunday. It was very tasty although I kind of hated myself while I was eating it.

I ate at the Moscow McDonalds three or so times a week in the early 90s and I won’t apologize. Day old Apple Pies make a great breakfast. 

Extremely small.