Mark Dedrick

Tell me about these Campari tomatoes.

Well, not to disagree with Rocks, but I always enjoyed it. It was never in the top echelon of DC restaurants, but I never had a bad meal there, and had many very good and memorable meals there. It was really good for lunch and was a go to spot when meeting somebody closer to downtown than my Capitol Hill office. They did interesting things. I had a couple of very memorable meals there, including one of my best friend's bachelor party dinner for ten of us. I liked it, I'm glad it was there. And I'm sad it's not. In part because it's part of the host of restaurants who won't make it through to the other side. If I had to pick like 10, 20, 30 restaurants that I would protect to survive if I could would it be on there? Of course not. But so many spots will close, and having a place that was good close makes me sad. It also makes me concerned because I had dinner at the original Momofuku in the East Village relatively soon after it opened. It was one of the most memorable and eye opening meals of my life. I ate things there that I had never tasted, and it really opened my mind. Some of this stuff, like ramen, is now commonplace, but it wasn't then. And Ssam Bar, when it first opened, was also a mind-expanding experience. Stuff like ramen and bao that I now take for granted were not part of my life before then. I know he didn't invent them, but he introduced me to them. We had dinner at Ko in the original Noodle Bar location shortly after it opened. I think David Chang has been a real force for good in the American dining scene, and I'm sorry to see him in what he has described as crisis. I hope things in American dining aren't as bad as I fear, but no matter what I'm sorry to see this restaurant close.

The "Not having bread because I didn't plan ahead enough to bake it" has been a consistent theme for me the past two months. A number of days of "Oops, we can't make sandwiches today for lunch because I got tired and didn't bake last night."

I smoked a lamb shoulder on Sunday for the first time. Served it with kind of a faux mint chimichurri. It was fantastic. I'll definitely be doing that again.

Flour seems to be more widely available these days, but wanted to let folks know that both District Fishwife and the Creamery at Union Market have started carrying it. Just bread flour for the Creamery, and bread, AP, and wheat flours at the Fishwife.

On Wednesday night I made pozole. It was really outstanding, and we'll get two lunches out of it as well.

I was able to grab some soft shells yesterday from District Fishwife, and grilled those along with some sauteed pea shoots. It tasted exactly like spring.

Not sure if it is the best, but Sushi Taro is doing take-out I believe.

That's definitely still happening, and perhaps even more so than when they all first started doing this. Right now Fishwife, Teaism and the Creamery are treated as a single entity, and their orders should all arrive together. Harvey's, Al Volo, Laoban, Almaala Farms are all treated as their own individual entities. Mercato has a bit of an issue on deliveries as a result of this, as often drivers will show up to pick up say two orders from two separate entities (I had this happen with Almaala Farms and Fishwife). The driver will then pick up one of the orders, but check that they have picked both up. In the Mercato system that's then treated as both orders complete, and it's absolutely impossible to get anyone from Mercato to respond. In these circumstances I'd encourage people to call the vendor in question as soon as you notice a mistake. They can put in to have another driver pick it up, or, as happened in one instance for me this week, they can add your shipment into another shipment you have pending (that happened yesterday for me as a Fishwife order was just put in with a Harvey's order).

An update on Union Market shopping, as this continues to be an evolving issue, and there have been some hiccups along the way, but I believe everybody is trying to figure things out. 1. If you have Mercato Green, they provide free deliveries on orders of over $35. You can sign up right now for a 14-day free trial of Mercato Green, and after that it's $9 per month. 2. While initially all of Union Market was considered one vendor, that's evolved as apparently some vendors were running quite a bit behind schedule on putting together their orders. So right now District Fishwife and the Creamery can both be ordered under the "Union Market" hub, and orders of over $35 get free delivery. That's particularly useful for the Creamery, because often we may just want milk, and it's easier to hit $35 combined with the Fishwife. The Creamery also has cheese, yogurt, butter and eggs. 3. If you're looking to push your order at the Fishwife over $35 you can throw in a bag of frozen shrimp, canned tuna or sardines, or a bottle of wine. 4. If you want to be certain your order is correct, place your order online and then call the vendor directly. It's basically impossible to get in touch with Mercato, but I've had great luck placing my order, then calling Harvey's and specifying what it is I'm looking for. 5. In my few attempts to do so I've had a lot of trouble scheduling a delivery from a regular grocery store, so Union Market has made things work for me in the interim, along with my CSA. Almaala Farms has a much smaller selection, but I've had good luck getting vegetables and some other items through them. I had basically not done grocery delivery before this whole thing, so I've been learning as I go. I hope this is useful.

Wanted to update this by letting folks know that I have now used Mercato to order food from Harvey's, District Fishwife, The Creamery, and Laoban Dumplings (they had actually just opened in Union Market before all of this went down). Everything worked well, particularly once I figured out how to use the system. Most things are very straightforward. For meat and fish you put in the number of lbs, but if what matters is the number of pieces, you can click "details" on each item, type what you want (I would like 2 NY Strips that combined weigh approximately this weight) and they'll give you the correct number of portions. Similarly, for Harvey's, you can order items that aren't on the website that they carry. For example, I got some sliced corned beef, and sliced swiss cheese which I know they carry, but which were not listed on the site. I just typed the request into the "details" line on one of my other items. Laoban Dumplings is selling frozen dumplings, but also other Asian market items, like fish sauce, soy sauce, etc. Also toilet paper. Anyhow, worked very well, all food was packaged well, and they set the delivery on our front porch and texted us when they did. Would recommend.

This deserves its own thread, but we ordered delivery from Grazie Grazie on Monday and really enjoyed it. Things like salads and sandwiches suffer a bit on delivery, rather than eating them there, but the 8+1, the new version of the 9th Street Italian, reminded me of original Taylor. I'll order again.

I've been trying to be very good, and for a while was cooking lunch as well as dinner every day of work from home, but last week that all ended. Maketto has been an outstanding delivery option for us. Noodles, sandwiches, dumplings, and all awesome. And you can get a cold brew growler thrown onto your delivery as well.

Wanted to let people know that Schneider's is doing both contactless pickup at their store, as well as delivery. And they've dropped the minimum buy for free shipping from $250 to $100. I'm not sure how large their delivery radius is.

i wanted to flag for people that the retail food options at Union Market remain open. Most of the market is shut off from the public, but one door is open, and District Fishwife, Harvey's Butcher, Almaala Farms, The Creamery, Cucina al Volo, and Vitus Wines are all open. Crowds when I have been (like today at 11:30 am) are basically non-existent. Most, if not all, of those people are also doing delivery food via Mercato, which I have not tried, but which sounds like a good option. In talking to the owner of Harvey's, for example, he mentioned that you can specify what you want (2 lbs of chicken thighs) but then also specify how many pieces you want in the notes, or how you want a particular cut of meat to be cut. And they'll then follow those instructions. Harvey's will also shrink-wrap anything you like for freezing. Anyhow, they've been getting me through all of this, thought I'd pass the tip on to others.

Yes, I ate there last week. In short, we had a very good meal, and enjoyed the experience very much. The great dishes were really great, but there were a couple of misses, that just didn't quite work out. Service was excellent (as expected given Carrie being there), and the wine list was very interesting. I'll go back.

We went a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it. We had a group of three, and walked in at around 7:15 pm on a Saturday night. It took about 30 minutes for a table in the bar area to open up, and the staff was very welcoming, and got us cocktails while we waited. Everything was fantastic, particularly the service. The wine list has many very interesting choices. I'll write in more detail later, but we're excited to go back.

Overall I like this place, and the people are super nice. My main objection to the place is that the space itself becomes very unwelcoming when it is full. So on a Wednesday early evening it's a great place to meet a friend for a glass of wine. But on a weekend I wouldn't set foot in here. Of course that's a problem for most H Street bars.

On U Street itself there's no place that I like better than Archipelago (I have not been to Imperial yet). If you expand to include V Street and some of the cross streets (not 14th) I'd say Izakaya Seki. But we are big fans of Archipelago. As for your geographic divisions, I agree. If I'm going to eat at Archipelago or Izakaya Seki (or Haikan, Hazel, American Ice Co, etc) I'm not considering spots on 14th Street when deciding where to go. The same is true in reverse.

I had lunch here earlier this week and quite enjoyed it. It is extremely similar to Bibiana, or at least seemed that way. They have a three course business lunch (same as Bibiana) which is a good deal, and which is what everyone at our table went with. My grilled squid was delicious, as were the items from the antipasti bar.

We go here quite regularly these days, basically any time we have a show we're going to at U Street Music Hall or Lincoln Theater. Our go tos are the Hot Chicken Steam Buns, Sichuan Eggplant, Dan Dan Noodles, Sichuan Dry Fried Green Beans, and Smashed Cucumber. At happy hour prices the Dan Dan Noodles are $6 (regularly $10) and the Steam Buns are $5 (regularly $7). The drinks are great, service is friendly and attentive, and it's seldom slammed. Strongly recommend it.

We've been to San Sebastian before, and agree, it's an incredible city.

Not sure if this is the correct thread or not, I couldn't find a better one. My wife and I are going to be in Galicia later this fall, and we've never been. Anyone on here have any recommendations, suggestions on things or places not to miss, or even a city in which to base our operations? We have flights booked right now and not much else, so everything is appreciated.

Definitely! I "discovered" Full Kee for myself when we were kicked out of our office on the Hill because of Anthrax and were temporarily located in the GAO offices. After that I would also often hit this during jury duty. Or pre-some of the delivery service apps we would get carryout from here when it was late and we didn't want to cook. It was among the first "good" Chinese food I ever had.

Just bumping this to say that if anything the food right now at Kith/Kin is the best it has ever been. We had an outstanding meal there on Saturday night. And the wine list is just as disgraceful. The "best" options are spending $50 for Kim Crawford or something similar.