kturkey88

8pm for kturkey88 and my +1.

I'm thinking of giving a gift certificate to the parents who will be spending a long vacation in key west for the jan-march season. Any recommendations? The description above and menus at Louie's seem up their alley. Thoughts? Any other advice? Thanks in advance.

Sorry Chef! I too read Don's note wrong and assumed we were supposed to bring our own beer and wine. Thanks for understanding - and having us!

In, +1.

In +1. Thanks!

Equinox has been the bday spot for both my and my bf's in the past. We've only had great meals there and the tasting menu was one of our all-time favorites. I'm not sure about Palena (since I've only eaten in the front), but I'd say it's in a different league than Proof. If you're looking to stay along the lines of the Komi experience, I'd suggest Equinox between those two choices.

Why are the wine selections upstairs so limited compared to downstairs? We go to Sonoma a few times a month for the charcuterie and a few glasses of wine. If we can't get a table, we sit at the bar. When we can't do either - like we couldn't last night - we sit upstairs since the charcuterie is available up there anyway. We've had to do this before, so we know the menus are limited up there, but last night there were only 4 red wines by the glass on the menu and only 3 available. Is it some limitiation of the restaurant's layout? Or if it's an intentional choice, why? Who is the target clientele up there? Thanks!

We're in.

BLT is Laurent Tourondel's steak house, a copy of his place in NY. A la carte steaks, raw bar, etc. The give some great "extras" - a jar of pate as an amuse, huge, airy, hot popovers as the bread, and some dessert snacks with the check. http://www.bltsteak.com/

BLT? It's not quiet, conservative fine dining, but it's well dressed and I think a young guy might be impressed with it. The steaks are good and some of the sides are great (the succotash for one!).

What - I didn't get an invite?? (We did it on Friday.)

We are looking to "improve" our newly acquired kitchen. Has anyone had a better than average experience with a Contractor in the DC area during their renovations. This is a crowd with pretty high standards when it comes to their food. We are doing a tear it all out and rebuild so the more work you put em through the better. thanks, Jackie

Sea Catch has them - they're delicious.

Wow, I disagree. OE is in our weekly rotation (at least that) and, while we go for the oysters, I enjoy a few of their hot dishes when we need a little something more. I really like the shrimp and grits app and the calamari is fried nice and light - just the way I like it.

Our recent dinner at Equinox was outstanding - it was the first time in a long time I feel like we spent a lot of money on a place that was really worth it. Four of us had the tasting menu with wine pairings and while I don't remember everything we tried - it was all excellent. The french onion soup was almost creamy with sweet onions, the agnolotti cooked perfectly, the rockfish moist and delicious...yum. The service was solid - professional and served at the perfect speed for five courses. My only gripe might be that while all four of us tended to try different dishes for each course, at most two types of wine were brought to the table. I would have been really impressed if the dishes were all paired with a unique wine - if appropriate. (I'm sure there are cases where we'd see overlap, but I'd hope not in every case.) I don't know what took us so long to try the place, but we will be back.

Can someone give me an idea of the prices at Rosemary's? Thanks.

I was originally looking for the dive atmosphere more than an organized game night but thanks to everyone for the ideas on both. If anyone's been to some of these organized game nights, I'd be curious to hear how the crowds were at different places...social or serious? Rookies or sharks?

I'm not exactly sure if there's a legality issue here but when I went to school in VA, there were definitely college bars that would let us order a few pitchers and play cards at the table. Are there any bars in DC that would allow this kind of lingering and playing? I'd like to play some low stakes poker with my friends and my apartment isn't ideal. Are there any local places that would let a small group (even if it's just 4 people) sit around a table and play - assuming we would be ordering drinks the whole time?

Went to Mendoza for three nights on a little side-trip from B.A. The good was great, the wine was unbelievable and there was much more to do there than I was prepared for. We wished we had another night or two.... Anyway - about the food. There's a strip in Mendoza city right off of the Plaza de Indepencia that has a row of restaurants where we found locals and tourists mixed in. Our first night's choice actually ended up being our favorite dinner of the entire trip - B.A. included. We sat outside at Sr. Buque because the cooler, adventurous "Il A Fran" (that's my best guess as to what it was actually named) that we want to go to wouldn't take us until the next night (assuming we made a reservation). At Sr Buque, we started with a delicious mushroom and cheese crostini - a toast the size of an Italian Store sandwich with piles of sweet, salty, sauteed mushrooms and cheese on top. Wow. We ordered the asado ribs and then - after loving them despite all the work to cut each piece of meat around a dozen or so ribs - we ordered a full bife de chorizo after that (this meat was that good and like 8 bucks). Terrific meal, outstanding service, great wines. We felt like locals at this place -anyone in Mendoza city should definitely check it out. We had a lunch at Ruca Malen winery (as part of a wine tour), that was enjoyable because they paired four courses with four of their wines, but the crowd I was with seemed to believe the food was better than the wines that were serving. (I liked the Ruca Malen Kinean though, fwiw.) We returned to Sarmiento (street? Ave?) that night to eat at "Il A Fran" (again, my best guess). It has a really cool wine room in the front of the restaurant where you can buy, drink and I believe taste wines. We had our absolute favorite wine of the trip here (my new favorite) - a banarda-malbec blend, Siesta en el Tahuantinsuya - but the food was forgetable. We also went to Francis Mallmann's restaurant, 1884, which was nice - it was the first place we really saw and enjoyed cocktails (since everywhere else was focused totally on the wine) and the pisco sour was fantastic. The food was good - fancy/schmancy Argentinia style - "baby goat", and I can't remember what else, and the restaurant itself was set-up beautifully - a grand room with high ceiling and without wall decoration and an outside terrace with 15-20 tables...very nice, romantic. In the future I'd skip it and go to Sr. Buque - but it was a nice dinner and with all of the hype, we had to try it.

Our recent 2 week trip to Argentina was just as great as CrescentFresh told us it would be. What food - and what bargains! Our favorite dinners (even then ones where we were gluttonous) ended up costing around $50 for 2. We were a little worried when our concierge sent us to Tierra de Parrilleros in Puerto Madero [Tierra de Parrilleros, Olga Cossettini 851, is permanently closed.] for our first dinner in B.A. We thought we were destined to end up in the B.A. version of Outback, but we were so pleased with this place that we also dined there for our last dinner in B.A. It probably looked the most commercial of all the places we went, but it had our favorite meat and cheese (fiambres y quesos) app platter and if you're a sucker for creamed spinach like I am - it was creamy, buttery and smooth without any of the heaviness - it was the best I've ever had. Plenty of food and a nice walk along the docks at night. I obviously recommend. We tried Ristorante Dora but didn't have the best luck [Ristorante Dora reopened at Avenue Leandro N. Alem 1016 on Nov 1, 2010.]. The electricity went out in the entire place while we there (which was definitely entertaining) and while our melon y jamon crudo was solid, the fish we ordered was blah. Underseasoned perhaps, or maybe we just misordered and it wasn't to our taste. We both agreed that it could be worth another try if we wanted to get away from meat one night, as most of the dishes focused on seafood - fish, paellas, etc., but we never got back to it. Another place we thought was destined to be a tourist trap was the Museo del Jamon off of Ave 9 de Julio. We ended up there for lunch when almost everything else was closed on a Monday afternoon. An extremely pleasant surprise - we returned for our last lunch in B.A. as well. A simple and fantastic meat and cheese platter again (maybe we're predictable?) and a refreshing, spiced gazpacho washed down the salty crudos and funky cheeses I love so much. Both times we were there it was virtually empty - despite the name that originally scared us away. While I didn't taste anything complicated, I'd again recommend the fiambres y quesos here. On CrescentFresh's recommendation, we hit Petanque while we were at the San Telmo Sunday market and also enjoyed it. The tartare we sought out was just as delicious as it looks and the restaurant felt fun and alive - it was definitely the place to be. The owner was great and we were seated within 10 minutes of receiving our complimentary cocktails while we waited at the small bar. We hit Central for dinner and really enjoyed the creativity of the food and the place. We had a pate app and a manchego cheese tartlet that I wish could start every one of my meals - it was creamy and sharp, but light enough to make us consider ordering it again for dessert. For dinner, my SO had the salmon a la plancha that I had a hard time keeping my fork out of. Desserts were too tempting to pass up so we also enjoyed those. The food was very good and it's definitely funky - I'd warn that it's funky in a way that not everyone would appreciate. It's very dark and there's pretty loud techno music in the background - it had a sexy vibe and was a nice change from the other places we went to - but not where I'd be taking say, my parents, any time soon. I'd generalize and say that our experience in Recoleta (where we stayed for 3 nights - we jumped around neighborhoods by staying in different hotels) was kind of a bust. It's a nice section, but most of the people we saw, talked to, etc. spoke English and assumed we spoke English and therefore spoke it to us - which we weren't really going for. We had a disappointing lunch on the Recoleta strip - San Balbo? Or something Italian like that. [San Babila?] The carpaccio plate was huge, but the soggy gnocchi and canned tomato sauce were a huge disappointment - especially when post-meal, we realized that this flop was one of our more expensive ones. I'd skip it. We did however find this little place called Rodi-Bar. It didn't really look glamorous, but the veal milanese and budin de pan (homemade bread pudding) made this diner-like place a nice surprise. Two others I'll mention were Parrilla 1880 in San Telmo, whose food was solid, but whose service was the worst we received while in B.A. We felt treated like second class customers because we were tourists - ever though our Spanish was more than adequate to order dinner. We even ordered a second bottle of wine and an additional mini-dinner out of spite. Might have been a stupid decision, but we would have missed out on their delicious homemade egg noodles with four cheese sauce if we hadn't gone for it. We also tried Spirit, a tapas and oysters bar in Palermo. We only stopped in to try South American oysters and I won't say that I wasn't a little scared. If you're an oyster fan, you might want to try a few, as the creaminess is something I wasn't really expecting, but after just a few, I was done. They're thick and meaty, but the clean, refreshing finish (as I like) wasn't there, and with me, mentally, that wasn't working. Hope this helps. I want to thank CrescentFresh for his great recommendations and general advice. LoganCircle - Have a safe trip and a great time!

My mom and sister booked Christmas night reservations at English is Italian but just got a phone call telling them the restaurant is actually closed that day. If restaurants aren't closed, they seem to be booked. Does anyone have any suggestions for a nice dinner on Christmas day? They've been to E.isI. before and loved it - so that's their style, price range, etc. Thanks.

For what it's worth - when I took my s.o. for his birthday back in October, we got the three course tasting menu. There was plenty of food (and tastes - since we're not "allowed" to order the same thing), and with cocktails, a bottle of wine and dessert cocktails - we left feeling happy that we didn't go for the 9.

Oooh...I disagree. I may be crazy for cheese - but I thought the cheese on the this sandwich was perfectly suited for the dish and very flavorful. It was gooey and a little grainy with the perfect amount of funk to complement the salty, wonderfully thin-sliced ham. My SO says he still prefers his deviled eggs filled with steak tartare, but we still think the sandwich was a great addition to a classic and time-tested menu.

[Atlantic City. No - it's nothing like Vegas...] but I'm going up next week for a night...is there anything worth eating there?

I'm looking forward to hearing more! Please keep the reviews coming - names of restaurants, food/wine I can't miss, etc. My trip's a month away and I'll take all the advice I can get. Thanks CrescentFresh! PS - If you hear any buzz about the place to be for new years (for my SO and I) , please pass it on. Thanks!