Mark Dedrick

We're going to be in Rome, Perugia and Santo Stefano di Sessanio in October for a wedding (which is in Santo Stafano di Sessanio). Anyone have any good recommendations, either for food or for stuff to do/see? I've never been to Italy before, and am very much looking forward to this trip.

Lebanon - We ate with my in-laws at Schmizza Public House. Pizza Schmizza is a (terribly named) Portland chain, and this is one of their concepts. It's not bad, although nothing special. Their pizza is decent, and they've got a pretty robust beer list. Given the other options in Lebanon, this is one of the better spots to eat. That says more about Lebanon than it does about the restaurant.

Just spend three nights in Vegas hanging out with some friends from around the country. Here are some of the places we dined. Julian Serrano Tapas - This spot is located in our hotel, the Aria. This has become my preferred place to stay when in Vegas. Location is good, the rooms are quite nice and pretty large, and they've got a nice casino and pool. They've also got some good restaurants, of which this is one. I had lunch here when I first arrived, and it hit the spot, as did the glass of Txacholi. Lotus of Siam - This was the best Thai meal I had on this trip (better than Pok Pok NW in Portland). It didn't blow me away as much as the other time I dined here, but everything we had was really good. Bazaar Meat - It feels kind of strange to travel across the country to go to a Jose Andres restaurant, but that's what we did. This new spot is located in the SLS Hotel, and it was fantastic, and perhaps the best smelling restaurant I've ever walked in to. Just walking in made all of us extremely hungry. We had five people, and we made it through a lot of the menu. Croquetas de Jamon were very good, although this is a preparation I've had at other restaurants of his as well. The best thing any of us ate was the "cheesesteak" (and actually two folks had the "reuben"). It was a tube of bread filled with steak and a liquid cheese sauce, and it was incredible. I'm doing a bad job of describing it. The steak tartare was prepared tableside, and was one of the better versions I've had. For our main meats we got a quarter of a suckling pig, and that was phenomenal. For the steak we had a beautiful 2.5 lb wagyu/black angus ribeye. It was really good, but just not as good as the pig. The wines we had (a rioja and a duero) were both great, but it was a very expensive list. Beauty & Essex - This is a newer restaurant located in the Cosmopolitan. Pretty much everything we ordered tasted fantastic, but the experience was marred by some real service errors. We'd conferred with our server on our order, ordered two different wines to pair with what we ordered, and she indicated how it would be coursed out. Instead, after a totally normal beginning, the food came out extremely fast, to the point where we actually sent back two items because we simply didn't have room for them on our table. They dealt with this well, comping those dishes and re-firing them, but it did lessen the experience a bit, as did the fact that this might be the loudest restaurant I've ever been in. That said, the food was really, really good. The great dishes were the tuna poke wonton tacos, the yellowtail sashimi, the Spanish chorizo arancini, the Thai style deep-fried shrimp, the molasses glazed pork belly, the Double Barrel Pork Chop "Al Pastor", and the 40-day Dry-Aged Tomahawk Ribeye. A few things were good, but not spectacular, including the Smoked Paprika Dusted Scallops, Broccolini, and the Grilled Cheese, Smoked Bacon & Tomato Soup Dumplings (apparently a signature item). Two items, Brussels Sprouts and Dry Aged Chuck Sliders, were basically zeroes.

We unfortunately had to cancel our reservation at Holdfast so that we could attend MusicFest NW with my brother as part of my sister-in-law's birthday gift. But that was a good decision. I'm not a music festival fan in general, but this was well done, and Iggy Pop put on an incredible performance. He's still rocking out shirtless at age 70. Pok Pok NW - I actually ate here twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. I'm not sure if it's just that incredibly high quality Thai food has become more common or not, but I wasn't as impressed by this location as I was by the original. It does take reservations, which is a nice feature, and it's still good. It just didn't absolutely blow me away like my first few meals at the original location. Green Room - Great cocktail bar, located right next to the Multnomah Whiskey Library. Kenny and Zuke's - I really enjoy this place for breakfast. The pastrami hash did its job extremely well, fueling me up for my ten hours of standing in a field watching music. Raven and Rose - I don't typically stay in this part of town, but we did this time. Raven and Rose has fantastic cocktails, and I love the upstairs bar space.

We mostly did a tour of our old favorites. Pubbelly continues to be my favorite restaurant in Miami, and it did not disappoint on this trip. This time, however, we were seated in the Pubbelly Sushi restaurant, although they were serving both menus. I'm not sure if this is how they normally operate or not. Michael's Genuine Food and Drink - It had been a few years since I'd eaten here, and the last time I went I was a little disappointed. This time around, however, it was a fantastic meal. Everything was really great. Pao by Paul Qui - This is a new restaurant in the completely absurdly over the top Faena hotel. Our table looked out over the $17 million gold-plated mammoth skeleton, and we walked by a statue of a partially flayed unicorn to get there. It was probably the "best" meal that we had on the entire trip, but it was way, way too expensive in my opinion. You couldn't get a bottle of wine for less than $100. We particularly enjoyed the Kinilaw, the East Side King Fried Chicken, and the Smoked Shortrib Asado. Broken Shaker - Great cocktails in a super relaxed vibe. I'm a big fan of this place. Regent Cocktail Club - Equally great cocktails. Taquiza - We'll get lunch here at least once per trip. It's in the part of South Beach where we like to stay, the tacos are really good, the chips are incredible, they have a good beer list and it's affordable. Le Sandwicherie - We'd never been here before, but it was fantastic. We got the SOBE Club (Turkey, Brie and Avocado) and the Italian (ham, salami, prosciutto and provolone). Both were really good.

We were there about a week or so ago, also on a Saturday night, and also in the dining room. Our first experience at either of his restaurants. Everything was good, but we left somewhat disappointed (perhaps in part by how amazing Himitsu was the night before). The pacing of the meal was very strange. We were racing through courses at the beginning, and then had a long (like 30 minutes) gap. One thing our server told us is that they are currently working on three new restaurants which will all be open relatively soon. That could also be taking attention away from other things.

So is Surroundings closing? Or they will just be more integrated?

From experience, you can't just buy a single beer at that store. I was trying to buy something to take to a party we were going to at somebody's house, and I tried to purchase a single large bottle. They told me I'd have to pick up at least one other beer before we could complete the sale.

Nice! I've never been to Walter Scott Wines, but that's a beautiful area. I love Cristom, St. Innocent and Bethel Heights. I'm very curious exactly how bad the traffic is going to be. The local paper is pretty grim in their assessment, but who knows.

There also continue to be a lot of new restaurants opening up, at most price points. In the past year we've seen Sospesso, Stable, Hill Prince (bar, but I'll include it), BAB Korean Fusion, Pow Pow, the Haymaker, Farmbird, Nandos, Mythology, Fresca, and I'm sure many others that I can't remember off the top of my head. I tend to think it's a neighborhood in transition, and that people are trying to figure out what works here and what won't. Oh, and on the question of whether H Street is lacking in sit down dining options anymore, I certainly don't think so. Just last night we were debating while walking to dinner whether to eat at Maketto, Sally's Middle Name or Sospesso. And all three of those are located on the same block. And we didn't even cover in that discussion Stable, Red Rocks, Imm Thai, Impala, etc that are all in the 1300 block of H Street.

Very sad news. This was a fantastic neighborhood restaurant, and one we visited on many occasions. It was good for solo dining at the bar, for meeting people for drinks, for late night dining, and for taking folks from out of town. There's no other place on H that can do everything that this place did.

Agree on the "hotel-ish" comments. It's also huge, which makes it feel less intimate, and more like a hotel.

A too bad. When I had clients staying at the Omni or the Marriott up there it was a reliable place to grab dinner.

We are headed to my hometown of Silverton, Oregon to watch with my parents and a few friends. Looking forward to the experience, and hoping for good weather. August in the Willamette Valley is usually a pretty good bet for clear skies.

Has anybody been recently? And any thoughts what the wait time would be on a Friday or Saturday night?

Walking by the H Street location the past few days it looks closed (after being open for a short time). Per Eater, they may be closing the H Street location permanently. "The Halal Guys Close Problematic H Street Restaurant" by Warren Rojas on dc.eater.com

We go here at least once a month, and it remains one of my absolute favorite restaurants in the city. Consistently very good food. The spicy laab, the shrimp dumplings, and the fried chicken are probably my favorite things that are consistently on the menu, although the specials are also outstanding.

Anybody been recently and have any good recommendations? We're headed down for the weekend later this summer.

This is a tough one for me. Soundgarden are one of my favorite bands of all time, and Chris Cornell is one of the truly great frontmen and songwriters in rock history. "With Chris Cornell's Death, We've Lost Another of the Grunge Era's Towering Rock Stars, and One of Its Best Songwriters" by Steven Haydn on uproxx.com I have many memories of Soundgarden, including a number of concerts, but my main one is me and my friend, as freshmen in college, heading to Laserdisk in Salem, OR, to pick up Superunknown at midnight when it was released (this was something you did back in the early and mid 90s). Badmotorfinger was such a monster of an album, and we were so excited. We played the heck out of Superunknown that night.

They kind of do the dynamic pricing, but sometimes not? And they don't really play it up any more, at least not in my experience.

They are very good wings and burgers. I'm definitely a fan.

I haven't been to Le Grenier in years. Is it worth going back?

I'm going to have to agree to disagree with Logan on the fries. I think they're very good right now. On comparing to Dino's, I haven't had theirs so I can't.

I'll point out as well that if you go on Monday the mussels are $12 for a bowl, which is what we had earlier this week. There has been a change in the kitchen (Lo left Granville's to open the new Sospeso down the street), but the quality of the mussels and fries has remained the same.

And salmon poke!