Mark Dedrick

I've been a bunch recently, but haven't written anything up. This is one of my favorite spots on 14th Street.

Just a few quick comments based on a single visit this past weekend: It's really crowded. When we, at around 2 pm or so, tried to get into the cafe portion we had to queue up like at an amusement park for about a half hour to get into the cafe itself. There are four separate stations you go to to order your food (to align with the four regions highlighted above). Due to how crowded the place is, this means that it would be extremely time consuming to try to order, say, a main from one station and a side from another (or at least that was our read of the situation). They were out of a lot of things! For example, I wanted to get the Oxtail Pepper Pot, only to discover when I arrived at the North States station that they didn't have that. Looking around, the other stations were already swamped, so I went with the Oyster Pan Roast. My wife had a similar issue with a side she wanted to order at the Creole Coast station. It's pretty slow. My oyster pan roast was cooked to order, which was a very nice touch, but it did mean that even being third in line at that station I had to wait maybe ten minutes for the two people in front of me to be taken care of before I could even order, and then additional time before my order was ready. This is probably a fixable problem (many of these are fixable problems except for the crowding). The food was, I would say, pretty good. The oysters were tasty, the broth was good, and the whole thing was fine. It's among the better museum dining options in the district, and given how long you are likely to spend at the museum (we were there for more than five hours) you'll probably want to re-fuel after finishing the below-ground exhibits and before tackling those up above this is definitely the spot to hit.

We ate there this past Wednesday. And we were able to grab two seats at the downstairs bar after a 40 minute wait (when we arrived at 7:15 pm). HOWEVER, the day before Thanksgiving isn't exactly a normal day, so I wouldn't count on this at all. Also, it remains fantastic, and with incredible service. Really love this place.

So, as I posted earlier, I was out in northeastern Wisconsin (primarily Appleton and Green Bay). I was there to work on a Congressional and Presidential campaign (which did not end well for me or my candidates), but thought I'd take a second and quickly write up some of the places we ate while I was there. I'd never been here before, and quite enjoyed the town of Appleton, and the whole Lambeau Field experience in Green Bay. In more than 35 years of attending games (I'm not sure exactly how old I was when my grandmother first started taking me to Charger games) I don't know that I've ever been to an NFL stadium with metal bleachers. Appleton Lombardi's Steakhouse - If you're looking for a steak, it's fine. I'd say it's inexpensive by DC prices, but probably quite expensive by Appleton, WI standards. There's apparently a connection with the Lombardi family, so there's a good selection of memorabilia. We sat at the bar as we wanted to watch the Oregon Ducks play on television (spoiler alert, my entire week was pretty much a disaster) and had excellent service from the bartenders. The brandy old fashioned isn't exactly my favorite drink, but they make a very nice version here (I figured when in Rome, or Appleton in this case). My steak was cooked perfectly, and as I decided to go full on steakhouse stereotype here I also really enjoyed my wedge salad, which was $6, and probably double the size of what I would typically see around here. If you're interested, the Packers' opponents will always stay at the Paper Valley Hotel, which is where Lombardi's is located. As a result a bunch of Colts' players were finishing dinner as we arrived, and the Colts' owner and his entourage were doing so when we left. Rye - This was the best food I had in Wisconsin, full stop, and in a modern and well designed space. It would look right at home on 14th Street. Cocktails were very well made, and service at the bar was very good. The restaurant was surprisingly crowded for a Monday night (I offer this without any idea about the Appleton dining scene). In particular we enjoyed the walnut crusted walleye (which I'm not seeing on their menu right now as I'm trying to remember what we had) and the Whisky Bacon Shrimp. Mai's Deli - If Rye wasn't the best food we had in Appleton, it was probably Mai's Deli. It's a tiny hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant. The sign on the outside said that they had the best stuffed chicken wings, which wasn't a think we knew existed, so we ordered those as well as the Pho Combination (steak, shrimp, beef meatballs and tripe). The stuffed chicken wings were awesome, deboned and stuffed with cabbage, carrots, onions and other goodness I couldn't pick out. And the pho was also very, very good. I'd definitely recommend, particularly if, like us, you were interested in getting away from fried food. Cleo's Brown Beam Tavern - I didn't get any good photos, but you should do a quick Google image search. It's decorated in a full on Christmas theme apparently year round, and with as much Christmas decoration as the Miracle on 7th Street at Mockingbird Hill last year. They've got a good beer list, good service, and incredible people watching. Stone Cellar Brewpub - I ended up here twice. I found there beers perfectly fine, if rather unmemorable. I'd say the same about their food. Like many menu's I saw in Wisconsin, they have a separate schnitzel section, as well as elk stroganoff. I opted for the elk burger, which was way too dry, which I know is a risk. The pizza was solid, with the extremely thin cracker-like crust that I encountered several other places as well, so I would guess this is the Wisconsin style? Also, everywhere we saw they cut the slices into squares, even though you're working with a round pizza. Frank's Pizza Palace - Also perfectly fine pizza, if you want pizza and you're in Appleton you may as well go here. I didn't love it enough to make a particularly strong recommendation.

I'm on grand jury duty right now (ugh) so I treated myself to Bantam King today for lunch. I quite enjoyed the Spicy Miso Ramen,

Ate there on Sunday night, and the food was fantastic as always, particularly the Mole Pork Collard Greens. And the dining room was packed, which was comforting as it's often been close to empty when we've been by before.

I was sure this had been talked about on this thread but apparently not. And if that's the case, the fault is mine, as I'm the person who spends the most time on here talking about taco options on or near the H Street corridor. This place opened up earlier this year in the former Grace Deli spot on the corner of 7th and H. Per Prince of Petworth, they've applied for licenses for both outdoor seating and to serve alcohol, both of which would be nice. In my opinion, right now these are the best tacos on H Street. The tortillas at Impala remain the best, but I much prefer the tacos, and really the rest of the offerings I've tried, at Fresca, although in fairness they are very different establishments (Impala is a full sit-down restaurant with a bar and patio while Fresca is a small, counter-service establishment with minimal seating). So far we've mostly stuck to tacos and tamales, and I need to work through the rest of the menu.

We've now been here three times, and we are huge fans. One thing Bart mentions, and that I really enjoy, is that while you are ordering small plates, they actually course out your meal for you, they don't just throw plates at you as soon as they're done. That's a complaint of mine at many places, including some that I really love, like Maketto and Bar Pilar. Over-ordering has been an issue for us on two of the three times we've eaten here as well. But so much of the menu looks so good I have trouble editing it down.

FWIW, the music venue downstairs is also quite solid. Reasonable size, good sound system. And they frequently get very good bands.

Bibiana is my go-to spot for a work lunch right now. I'm a big fan.

I'm going to be in the Appleton/Green Bay area early next month. Any recommendations?

We went last night, arriving around 7 pm. The place was busy, but we were able to grab seats at the bar after about a five minute wait (and the people who arrived just after us were able to grab two seats after about 15 minutes). I completely agree on the Seafood Misto, it was fantastic, in particular the snapper crudo. The Crispy Fried Mushrooms might have been our favorite thing, however. For lack of a better description, they just tasted extremely mushroomy, and the avocado ranch sauce was fantastic with them. For larger dishes, we got the Eggplant Parm, which was very good, although also really a lot of cheese for just two people. I'd order it again in a heartbeat if I were there with a group of four or more. The Pan-Seared Beef Short Rib was also wonderful, served with cucumber, onion and filet beans. I wish this place was in my neighborhood.

I really wish 2 Amy's was closer to where I live or work. I've enjoyed every time I've been there, but I've been there far too infrequently.

As always with an H Street restaurant, my fingers are crossed. Initial impressions are primarily that I do not love that beer list. *edit* The beer list isn't as bad as I was remembering from looking during the H Street Festival. Apologies.

We used to come here with some frequency before shows at the 930 Club. Of course, as more and more places have opened in the city, and this neighborhood in particular, we've gone less and less frequently. Last time we went we were the only people on the first level of the restaurant.

I like his food and I have enjoyed my meal at every single one of his restaurants I've been to.

On the whiskey side, I know you can get Whistle Pig rye, Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye (I think you can also get their gin), Jefferson's bourbon, Colonel Taylor bourbon and whiskey, Booker's bourbon, Knob Creek (bourbon and rye), Bulleit (bourbon only), Templeton rye, and I know a whole bunch of others that I can't remember. It's a quite decent selection. On gin you can get Henricks, Bombay Saphire, Beefeater, and I believe a couple of others.

I'd say the sandwiches are comparable to Sundevich, although I don't believe Sundevich offers pastrami, so they're slightly different operations (although still obviously competing in the sandwich realm.

I'm going to look into this, thanks for the heads up.

I'm sure this thread already exists, but I can't find it. Went here today for lunch, and really enjoyed it. As opposed to Friday, when they apparently had such a crowd that they ran out of pastrami by 2:30 pm, it was pretty quiet at 12:30 today, with no line, and plenty of seating inside. It's been a while since I've eaten at Wagshall's, so I can't second the position of the Post that it's the best pastrami in the city, but it's a really good sandwich. I had the Stacked, which was pastrami, slaw and dijon mustard on a kind of brioche bun. I got potato salad as well for I'm not sure what reason. The sandwich wasn't huge, but was definitely plenty of food, and as mentioned in the article it was a remarkably engineered sandwich, as it maintained structural stability throughout. And the pastrami itself was pretty fantastic. I'll definitely be back.

Noel was there last time I was in there, but that was probably three months ago or so.

Yeah, I agree with pretty much all of this. A group of my friends and I made it the "Oregon bar" in the late 90s and the home for both Oregon and Oregon State in the DC area. Outside of the morning soccer matches (and sometimes the evening UFC) it was relatively empty, and they were willing to put all of the televisions in the whole establishment on our games with sound. And they had those huge satellite dishes which allowed them to get games that weren't available on normal television (it's really interesting to think back on how much technology has changed over the past 15 years or so). As Oregon got progressively better, the crowds got quite large, for big games we'd fill both sides of the place. But the general terribleness of every other aspect of the place drove out Oregon State and then eventually Oregon as well. All PAC-12 games are available on regular cable, so all bars can get our games now, and if you look hard enough you can find bars who will put your games on (we're currently at Irish Channel and Heavy Seas). And other places make small efforts to make their food not completely terrible, and will do small things, like put Oregon beers on tap.

Agree 100% on Sisterfields. My friends, who live in Jakarta, wanted to go, and it was delicious, but could have easily been in DC. Which I'm sure is exactly why they wanted to go there. The clientele at Pak Malen was slightly different.

Singapore --> Jakarta --> Bali --> Yogyakarta --> Singapore It was a pretty awesome trip, we had a great time.

Singapore Food and Drink Labyrinth – This was our first meal in Singapore. It was very good, although looking back on it I also find it slightly disappointing. It’s self-described as “Modern Singaporean Cusine”, and it’s quite modernist. They offer two tasting menus, the “Discovery Menu” which is nine courses for S$98 (with an option to add three more for S$30) and the “Experience Menu” which is 14 courses for $158. There’s a lot of overlap between the two menus. The wine pairing was S$50 for the “Discovery Menu” which is what we went with, and I would say it was mediocre, not terrible interesting, and not a great value. We should have just gotten a bottle. Some of the dishes were absolutely fantastic, including the Hokkaido Scallop and the Hamachi crudo served with a kind of congee. The best dish was the Soft Shell Crab “Chili Crab”, which featured a tempura-style fried soft shell, with a chili sauce ice cream. It was fun, inventive, and delicious. Other dishes were more clever than good, including the Smoked Bone Marrow “Beef Rendang”, which came with an odd “tree” that had rice crackers and something called “dried beef carpaccio” hanging from it. Corner House – Beautiful restaurant located in a 100 year-old bungalow in the middle of the Botanical Gardens. It’s all tasting menu, and there are four to choose from, including one vegetarian menu. We went with the “middle” of the three non-vegetarian menus, the Menu Degustation. It was a fantastic meal, and I can see why they both got and deserved a Michelin star. The service was fantastic, and the plates were absolutely gorgeous. Probably the highlights for us were the Varanger red king crab (the crab was done three ways, and served with cucumber, melon and caviar) and the Japanese A4 Toriyama Beef. Burnt Ends – The best meal on our trip, period. It’s self-described as “Modern Australian Barbecue”, and it’s a tiny restaurant. 18 seats at a chef’s counter staring right into the kitchen (and to the giant grills and cookers that they use for basically everything), six seats opposite the chef’s counter staring at the wall, and a six person chef’s table, which I believe requires some sort of set menu and minimum food order. They take reservations for 6 and 6:30, which we booked for the chef’s counter. The menu was a bit confusing for us, and we found the wait staff not particularly helpful in explaining to us how we should approach the menu (I find it quite amusing that I’m complaining about a waiter not explaining their concept to me, but so be it). This led to us putting together an order that we were unsure of, and then immediately realizing that you could simply turn everything over to the chef and have him pick a menu. We asked about this option, and our waitress said we picked a price (listed on the menu as between $150-$250 per person), then the chef would talk to us and put together a menu for us. We went with $150 (and in the end they charged us S$115 for our menu), the chef asked us a few questions and we were off and running. Highlights were basically everything, but the things we enjoyed the most were the “steak frites” (wagyu tartare served on a fried potato and topped with caviar), “beef marmalade and pickles” (probably our favorite dish, and not something we even considered ordering when looking at the menu), some sort of grilled hybrid crawfish/lobster creature, and the steak. This restaurant would absolutely kill it if it opened in DC. We both loved it. Chinatown Hawker Center – The description I heard of this place before we went was “sprawling” and that’s a good adjective to describe it. This hawker center seems to go on forever. When we were looking for a particular stand (Smith Street Taps, which was closed all four times we tried to visit) we kept discovering more and more sections with more food stalls. I’d say that the Chinatown Complex was less “nice” than Maxwell Road, but had some extremely good vendors. For example, the noodle and dumpling place that we visited twice had probably the best noodles and dumplings that I’ve ever had. Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken and Rice – This is one of the two hawker stands to get a Michelin star, and it’s located in the Chinatown Complex. It may be silly, but we had to give it a try. We got in line at about 10:30, and were served a little over an hour later. We got the chicken and rice, Char Siew with noodles, pork ribs with rice, and some sautéed greens, which were Chinese broccoli. Everything was fantastic. The chicken was incredible, both pork dishes were full of flavor, and the noodles were fantastic. The rice was a bit of a letdown from Tian Tian, but really loved it otherwise. Ya Kun Kaya Toast – This is a thing I wasn’t aware of at all before our trip, but Kaya toast is toasted bread topped with a coconut jam, sugar, and some other stuff. At this place, at least, it’s served with soft boiled eggs and dark soy sauce to dip it into. It was located directly next to our hotel, and I’m glad I tried it once. Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice – Located in Maxwell, this is a famous chicken rice place, as it’s appeared on Anthony Bourdain’s program, as well as Gordon Ramsay’s. Typically I think there’s quite a line, but there wasn’t really at 10:30 am when we stopped by. I am certainly not an expert in chicken rice, but this was really good, and they may have the best rice I’ve ever tasted. Really wonderful. Marina South Delicious Food – Also located in Maxwell. Here we had the black carrot cake, which we learned contains no carrot at all. It’s a radish cake stir fried with eggs and other seasonings. The black version contains soy sauce. We were big fans of this dish, and the place where we got it. Economical Delights – This place is located in the Maxwell Hawker Center, which is the “nicer” of the two hawker centers we visited. We were here for breakfast, and the only thing we tried was the Economical Bee Hoon, which is essentially stir fried rice vermicelli. The base version was something like S$1.40, and you could then pay slightly more to add additional toppings, like egg, or chicken sausage. Delicious. Raffles – We had to do it. The Singapore Slings were ridiculously priced at S$31, but I’d still recommend doing it. The hotel is very cool. Bali Blue – This restaurant is located in the middle of the Botanical Gardens. We ended up here for a drink when it had gotten too dark to really wander around the gardens any more, but it wasn’t quite time to check in for our dinner at Corner House. It’s a nice space, and it did feel like Bali when inside. Our cocktails were quite well made, and affordable by Singapore standards (around S$16). Oxwell & Co. – We met friends here on their roof deck, which was quite nice. It was a very nice spot to hang out and have a conversation. Operation Dagger – This is a very cool cocktail bar, they have one of the most difficult to decipher menus I’ve ever seen, and they produce quite inventive cocktails. It’s a bit of a challenge to find, as it’s located through a barely marked door (and by marked I mean it has some symbols on it, not that it has any sort of sign), and you then go downstairs until you arrive at the bar. I had the “Corn N Oil” which had creamed corn, smoked agave, chili, lime and hazelnut oil. It was a good and well balanced cocktail, and it involved a lot of steps to make it, including dry ice. My only complaint is that you have basically no idea what you’re going to get from the menu descriptions, and when you go around midnight on a Friday night the bar is way too crowded to actually have a conversation with the bartenders. The Gibson Bar – Extremely solid cocktail bar. It’s part of a family of bars and restaurants, and this one is located on Bukit Pasoh road, right on the edge of Chinatown. Nice cocktail list, and the Australian bartender we had was extremely good. Jigger & Pony – Another bar from the same family as the Gibson Bar. At Gibson we were there around 5:30 so there was only one other couple there. We were at Jigger & Pony around 11:30 so the bar was packed. But the bartender was fantastic and very good at paying attention, and he made fantastic cocktails.