chickenlover

Lagunitas does a pilsner that I like. I am not sure if it is distributed on the East Coast. There's a couple other West Coast pilsners that I like that I am certain aren't distributed on the East Coast. Sorry, I know that's not very helpful...

My Wusthof is severely dull so maybe I'll take it into Strosniders this afternoon and we'll see how good a job they do (hopefully people won't be calling me Lefty when I'm done).

Please report on the results. I am looking for a good sharpener that doesn't require me to cross the river.

I like seeing the names of the producers but I agree that including them with each menu item is rather cumbersome. I personally would prefer to see them listed in a separate part of the menu, kind of like the credits.

I am in charge of wine this year (among other things) and I kept it simple and cheap. Bottles of Pinot Blanc from Lucien Albrect and village Beujolais imported by Robert Kacher (can't remember the name.) My family is not picky and neither am I.

Farro is also available at Vace (behind the counter) for you Cleveland Parkers. I remember it being pretty pricey though.

A couple weeks old but very interesting article on the war of words and turf in Cleveland Park

Carman Article

Some juicy stuff there. Maybe Sabores should focus on their food instead of on Dino. My meal there a couple weeks ago was quite bad and the lighting they've installed made me queasy. In fairness the service at the bar was excellent, but that's not enough to bring me back.

Does anyone know who, in the DC area, sells bacon in slab form? I've asked at Whole Foods in Silver Spring and at the Laurel Meat Market and no dice.

And, can you freeze it in slab form? How long?

I think I saw some at Canales in Eastern Market last weekend.

I'm not sure how many of you saw 60 Minutes last Sunday, but this report on the new generation entering the workforce was extremely interesting and illuminating. Take a second to either read through it or watch the video.

Personally, I find this article a little insulting. Maybe people in their twenties are lazy and self absorbed. I am getting old enough that I am not entirely sure what people in their twenties are up to. But that's not the point. The point for me is that the culture of work in corporate America sucks. A lot. It used to be that you paid your dues, worked hard and you were eventually taken care of. (At least that's my impression of how it went.) Now you pay your dues, work hard and you get laid off because the company needs to bump up their earnings. And if you're lucky enough to still have your job, have fun doing the work of all those people who were just laid off. Increasingly employees are seen as business assets rather than members of the team or family and are being asked to make tremendous sacrifices in their personal lives for the sake of the company's bottom line. If young people are resisting this I say they should be applauded not chided.

Rant over.

It was great meeting everyone last night. Thanks to Don for putting this together and I'll echo the thanks to the bartenders. They were awesome.

I should be there +1

I've been back from New Orleans for a couple weeks and am only now getting to writing it up. Although I was in town primarily for a family event we did get some good meals in.

I'd been wanting to eat at Cochon ever since I read Johnny Apple's last review in the Times and I wasn't disapointed. While some dishes were merely good, others were transcendent. The wood fired oyster roast is one dish that I will remember for a very long time. We had 2 orders for the table and easily could have eaten 4-5 times as many. A salad of tender pork tongue and crispy fried pig ear offered a great contrast of textures. And fried boudin balls and fried chicken livers on toast were both simple and delicious. Mains, with the exception of rabbit and dumplings, were not quite as exciting as the small plates but definitely solid.

I'm a fan of any restaurant where I have to walk through the kitchen to get to the restroom. It also doesn't hurt if the all the waitresses call me baby. Casamento's on Magazine St. is such a restaurant and it is old school with a capital O. We had a great late lunch of oysters and po'boys after an afternoon of drinking. I found the oysters a little bland (maybe it's the time of year), but the po'boys, which they serve on texas toast here, were terrific.

My grandmother hosted brunch in a private room at Commander's Palace. I was impressed by the restaurant's professional service and really enjoyed the musicians, but the food didn't do much for me. I glanced at some plates on the way out and I have a feeling that I would have had a much different experience had I sat in the dining room and ordered off the menu. We did have their signature dessert, spiced bread pudding topped with merengue, and it was great.

On our way back to the airport my uncle took us to get muffalettas at some place in Metairie. According to him, they are better than Central Grocery's. I can't say, but they were quite good and a perfect end to my regrettably too short trip.

Is it a bad thing?

The only drawback, aside from cuts and burns, is that I tend to over salt.

Has anybody seen Bluecoat gin around here? According to their website it is now available in DC, MD & VA

I got a bottle at the wine shop in Cleveland Park a couple weeks ago when they were doing a tasting.

Staunton

Staunton, VA

I'm heading to the Shenandoah this weekend with some friends - one of whom is from Staunton, VA. He's recommended that we have dinner at Staunton Grocery. Their website currently lists only a sample spring menu. Does anyone have any experience with this place or know anything about the chef (Ian Boden)?

In order of Frequency:

Greek Deli

Vace

2 Amy's

Palena Cafe

Corduroy (though not so much since I moved uptown)

Children are like cake. Fun to make, but more fun to eat.

I had the privilege of sitting with a veritable “Murderers Row” of DC bartenders last night – I will not name them as it is not my place to disclose the affairs of others. At one point, one of the members of our happy band of drink makers quipped “of the ten bartenders in DC that know how to make a proper sazerac, six are in this room and four of us aren’t behind a bar any more.” While there was certainly a touch of hyperbole in his statement, it wasn’t that far from the truth. We then set about lamenting the state of the bartending profession in DC.

Next time you come across a truly great bartender, please give him or her a knowing smile when you thank them for a job well done. There certainly aren’t enough of them.

Forget making a proper Sazerac, there are plenty of bartenders in this town who can't even pour a pint. Since moving to DC I've basically given up on going to bars.

That's fair. Maybe Tom is considering value? Rasika and Jaleo are both less expensive than Corduroy or Palena (main dining room). Also, the comparisons you make are of restaurants that he lists in different categories. Maybe the system makes more sense if you consider the ratings in that context.

Any time a critic makes a ranked list people are going to pick it apart. That's just the nature of the beast. Overall, I don't have any big problems with Seitsema's ratings. It just seems that he values decor/ambiance more than I do--which could explain his nicking Palena and Corduroy and elevating Rasika. I'm not sure what's going on with Jaleo. He just likes it a lot more than I do.

Let me be the first to complain about the star ratings. According to the stars Rasika is a better restaurant than Palena, and Jaleo is a better restaurant than Corduroy. I happen to like both Rasika and Jaleo, but c'mon.

I happen to agree with you. So this hypothetical was real. We held the table, rejecting perhaps 10 other parties who called or walked in (it was a 9:30 reservation) and we got burned. Because of this, and my refusal to simply cancel an unconfirmed reservation, we are going to institute the dreaded credit card requirement for the future for all parties of 6 or more. It sucks but I'm not sure there are any other viable alternatives.

The restaurant could always require the diner to call them to confirm on the day of the reservation. As long as the restaurant is clear about their policy when the reservation is made, I don't see a problem.

He was very disturbed by the entire situation, especially given that the customer made an abrupt and blatant threat to him that she would be blasphemous towards him

From this day forward I resolve to only blaspheme The Lord and treat chefs with the dignity and respect they deserve.

With temps dipping into the 40's this weekend is it time for me to pull my basil and make that big batch of pesto I've been putting off? Or will they be fine until it frosts? Thoughts and suggestion from people who know what they are talking about are appreciated.

I agree with the arguments against bottled water in general, but one thing that I think is being lost in this discussion is that DC's tap water is disgusting. It has an unpleasant taste and may contain harmful amounts of lead. In my experience, no amount of filtering can remove the taste. For that reason, I buy jugs of water for home consumption and only order tap water when I am trying to keep the bill down. What really gets me is when restaurants mark up the water at 3x retail. It feels unfair when tap water is not really a viable option. It makes me wonder what the corkage would be on a bottle of Evian

It's been a couple weeks, but I am still thinking of the meal I had at Le Pigeon. When I last lived in Portland, East Burnside was full of methamphetamine and prostitutes. Now it's a burgeoning restaurant district and home to Gabe Rucker's (Food and Wine Best New Chef) tiny little restaurant. We got their early and sat at the counter. Gabe discussed nearly the entire menu with us before it got busy. Starters were good but not quite as impressive as the mains. They were tongue bacon and pickled egg salad and seared foie gras with apricots in puff pastry. I felt obliged to order the tongue after hearing how much work it took to make tongue bacon, but ultimately the tongue was kind of bland. The egg salad was nice though and I appreciated the creativity of the dish. My better half had the foie and loved it. For mains I had pork with curried fennel and she had beef cheeks bourgignon. The beef cheeks were the best I've ever tasted, fork tender and great depth of flavor. The pork and curry was really outstanding. The pork chop was sous vide, served on top of the curried fennel, with something else I can't remember. The flavors just worked. Dessert really sent this meal over the top. Profiteroles with foie gras ice cream. This dish was insane, made even more rich by a thick caramel sauce. I could have eaten 2 or 3 plates of these.

If you are ever in Portland, go to Le Pigeon. It rocks. This was one of the best meals I have ever had.

I think bread will prove to be a "trailing indicator" of the ever-improving culinary scene sprouting up (and coming into) this town. Likewise bagels, deli, ice cream ... cheeses are already arriving on the scene. The biggest problem right now is one that won't go away: the height restrictions on buildings based on the Capitol Dome. This by definition limits the population density downtown, and means that a baker can't have 80-stories of tenants living right above the bakery, which in turn means that customers need to commute to get there, but since there's a paucity of parking, they won't do it, and so it turns. That's why these street carts are so significant - they're able to avoid the sky-high rents downtown and provide interesting cuisine to people working in that bank - the bank that used to be a bakery.

Cheers,

Rocks.

Are population density, downtown rents and parking the only things keeping the DC area from having good bakeries? I can definitely see this downtown, but if this were true wouldn't we have good bakeries (and delis, etc) in the suburbs? I am not the best judge since I live in the district, but it seems like we're lacking such things in the suburbs as well.