Keithstg

Team USA. Way to run the table in prelims!

Hartford On20, on the 20th floor of 1 State Street (aka The Steam Boiler Building). Note that it's open for lunch only during the week, and dinner Friday. - Edited to remove recommendations I already made upthread.

Brasserie Perrier is closed, unfortunately. Not sure what has gone into that space, although we'll be in Philly this coming weekend for Vetri on 2/6, so will report back.

WRT the "next such policy", a friend of mine works for a pretty large privately held company. The company's owner / ceo sets bonus targets for a group of employees each year. In the conversation with my friend, the CEO gave out the bonus figure, then added - "but if you quit smoking, your bonus will be 10% more". While my friend's smoking status isn't medical information per se, I thought the situation more than a little odd. I agree that least one of WFM's aims seems to be lowering health insurance premiums - but that's nothing new. In fact, my employer has all types of health related incentives for employees in terms of free yearly physicals for officers, health questionnaires that provide a monthly discount on the premium, etc. The food discount is similar, but based on more invasive criteria (depending on your personality, I guess). I'd be interested to know what effect the policy has a year from now.

Peasant would be my first choice, followed by Allen & Delancey. I'd stay away from Il Mulino, honestly, especially on a Saturday night.

We went to brunch at Art and Soul for the third time in as many months this past Sunday. Sadly, the third time was not a charm. Previously we enjoyed relaxed surroundings, good service, and solid, if unspectacular entrees. This Sunday was a complete mess. After being seated promptly at 2pm, our group went approximately 10 minutes with no drink order delivered, this after having our waitress stop by and ask if we were ready to order, at which point we did order our meals, and remind her of our pending drinks. Appetizers arrived quickly, along with our missing drinks. We didn’t see our waitress again until after our main courses had arrived, about a half hour after our appetizers were finished. Out of our entrees, one of the four was incorrectly prepared (turkey burger requested without cheese had cheese – our guest is lactose intolerant), and another was so incorrect (fried fish plate as opposed to crabcake benedict) as to be laughable. After our waitress came over to confer with us over our incorrect entrees, we placed another drink order (just one beer and coffee refills) while we waited for our dining partner’s entrees to arrive. I’d be remiss in not adding that during this time we had a discreet discussion with the manager about the difficulties with our meal up to this point, while two of our four entrees sat, getting cold. Another member of the wait staff brought out a re-prepared turkey burger, but we were still without the crabcakes benedict, almost 30 minutes after receiving our initial entrees. At this point, my wife opted to simply eat the mac and cheese side that had been ordered (and initially forgotten by the service staff, only to show up with our re-cooked turkey burger), rather than roll the dice on another interminable wait . Despite speaking with a manager, service did not improve perceptibly, and we were still waiting for coffee refills and another beer, which we had been ordered back when our entrée mistake had been discovered, and when the restaurant had been about 1/4 full throughout our time there. Rather than wait, we asked the manager for our check. ANOTHER 15 minutes, and we had paid and left. In sum, Art and Soul failed (for us) this Sunday, and despite enjoying the restaurant on previous brunch visits, we are unlikely to return. Management was not effective in expediting our meal in any meaningful way, which I should note was our only ask. Really a shame, as what correct entrees we had were pretty good (Fried Chicken, Fried Steak, and Mac and Cheese), and another brunch option on the (quasi) Hill would be appreciated.

As a Wine Rack client, I can tell you that they are pretty much the only game in town (DC proper, anyway). As to pricing, compared to equivalent space in NYC, or CA, expect to pay more per case for less access, and no delivery support functionality. Worse where there is none, however.

Damn - when?

Etas-Unis on the Upper East Side is always a nice experience, and would seem to fit your criteria.

We went to Againn after the Caps game on Sunday evening. The restaurant was somewhat sparsely populated, which is a good thing, as they seem to be getting a little time to settle in. Our server was gracious, and well versed in the menu given how short a time the restaurant had been open for. The crab salad appetizer seemed a bit pricey at $19, but we found the dish easily large enough to share, with a very generous amount of jumbo lump crabmeat, representing a good value. The salad was very light and refreshing, which is good considering our other orders were on the heavier side. Both the steak and oyster pie and the shepherd's pie were served in individual cast iron pans, and were hearty and well seasoned. Our only quibbles were that the top of the steak and oyster pie was a bit overdone, and that the shepherd's pie was light on the rosemary, but those are more personal preferences than anything else. All told, we had an enjoyable, hearty meal in a great atmosphere for around $100, including tip and a chesapeake pale for me, and a domaine chandon pinot meunier for my wife. The space is beautiful, if somewhat hard to find, as others have noted. We look forward to going back!

They are back in business. Without rehashing the entire linked post, the taxes have been paid. But for a further explanation, please click on DaRiv18's link. No affiliation to the Argonaut obviously, just a regular patron.,

MacArthur (Bassin's) has Corison. Great post, by the way!

Another good breakfast spot in Bar Harbor is Two Cats, located at the beginning of cottage street as you enter Bar Harbor from Seal or Northeast Harbor. May not be open this time of year, though. Some other places we make sure to visit when lured from our summer place off of NE Harbor are: Miguels for tex-mex, Galyn's on main street, and both Cafe Mache (on Cottage) and Michelle's (on main). None are great in the sense that they would blow your mind in DC (or Portland for that matter), but offer solid food, nice atmosphere and a minmum of tourists, even throughout the summer.

These would have been good points to include in your review, although eight months ago isn't recent. Seems posts based on long ago experiences crop up from time to time - a little context is helpful.

It surely does. Rest in peace, Mr. Ali.

Sounds like your decision has already been made since Nate left, but I'd recommend SPQR.

I was at Sou'Wester this weekend as well, heading out of the Caps home opener early to make it over for a 9:30 dinner. The dining room was crowded, with a healthy buzz, so I guess it is fair to say that the word is out! For appetizers we had the crab bisque and the fried oysters. We noticed a bit of a delay in our appetizers arriving (nothing major), when our server appeared and switched out my soup spoon for a knife and fork, with the apology that the chef did not like the way the bisque came out, so another portion was being prepared. While my wife had her fried oysters, I had a portion of the bibb lettuce salad. Both the oysters and the salad were great - the oysters being prefectly fried and the pepper aoli was a great counterpart. The bibb lettuce salad was simple and clean - and a very nice addition. Thanks! My bisque arrived shortly, and my wife was treated to a portion of the heirloom tomatoes with basil dressing. Both the bisque and the herilooms were also excellent. For mains, we had the corned beef and the fried chicken. The corned beef was fantastic - as gennaro mentioned above, just a wonderful piece of meat. The fried chicken was ok - I could also have done with a more assertive breading, although the pieces were fried beautifully. All in all, a great meal, at a very good price (I think we came out at $135.00 including a bottle of wine). What impressed me most was how the kitchen dealt proactively with an item (my bisque) that was not to their liking, and went above and beyond to put out great food. The deft handling of a potential problem struck me as a great sign of where this restaurant is headed - unsurprising given the level of talent here. We look forward to returning, and having such a good option so close to the hill.

Definitely Ace Beverage for spirits. Wine is far more subjective, and I rarely buy out of district aside from mailing lists / auction. For me I'd say Macarthur, Schneiders, WWOW, Pearsons, CW. That said, I shop most frequently at schneider's, considering location, etc.

This just in (From Eater, anyway) - Fabio Trabocchi is back in action, this time at Four Seasons.

If you can get to Shake Shack (the madison sq. park one) before 12:15-12:30, you probably won't have to wait long, if at all. After 1, you're basically SOL until 4pm. Living in Gramercy meant lots of trips to SS for the family - we did use the webcam to plan trips as well.

To Richard Keane and Bill Meehan.

As a group, the chefs this season are very impressive. I wonder how much of the casting was done in response to what has been perceived as a very weak season across the board last year? I don't see a Hosea or Stefan coming in the top 4-5 of this season talent-wise. Great to see the Voltaggio boys doing well!

Wow, it's really bad. That said, first time I have checked over eG for any length of time since April 2005 - and judging from the DC forum traffic, I haven't missed anything. Steven Shaw's new picture is incredible as well.

You're absolutely right, Dan.

Personally, I do check the board a bit less since the software "upgrade", which I don't care for. I've also fallen into the cycle of not posting on meals because for many of them, another post would echo comments made by many others on the restaurant thread. Also, I find if I wait more than a day or so after a meal to get something up, my memory starts to get hazy... All forums have ups and downs. Don't know if this period can be considered a "down", and honestly I'm not worried about it. Dr.com remains the most informative, troll free, and interesting food forum in DC by a long shot. The level of civility, even among "controversial" posters here is really incredible. In the past four plus years, I've seen folks come in with first posts that on many sites would be considered complete troll jobs, only to later become valued members of the forum. I don't know if anyone here also checks out Mark Squires board, but compared to the schism that went on there, this "declining participation" or whatever is a walk in the park.