dcfoodie

The pork looked like THE thing to order. Pupusas (or pupusitas) were pretty good, but not the best I've had. My grilled chicken was flavorful, but a little boring.

They need more margarita glasses.

God! That's gotta be the weakest top 5 list I've ever seen! It's so obviously written by someone who's never been on DC for more than a day with a Zagat guide. I think we need our own top 5 foodie-to-do list. The only thing on that list that I might keep there is Ben's Chili Bowl.

Dennis Horton (Horton Cellars, Gordonsville, Orange County) has world-class Viognier

This is one of my favorite Viogniers. I drank a bottle of this tonight and it's readily available at Burkas just south of Porter and Wisonsin Ave.

My personal opinion is that Straits of Malaya has the best combination of roof top dining with good food. Old Glory has decent BBQ -- I especially like the pulled pork. In other news...When did Ardeo get a roof top deck?!

Ok.  Who's up for La Casona at 11th and U this coming Tuesday?  Let's say 6:30PM?  Read more about it here in this recent Washington Post story.

I'm in! I need to find some decent Salvadorean within the city limits. Plus it's on the way home from work for me!

I'll be leaving my office before 5:30 and can help assert squatters rights.

We'll mainly just need an opening to get to the bar.

Explain.

Yes, please do!

But lots of luck finding one of them open. 

Porter St on the West side of Conn. Ave. usually has spots if you are willing to walk a little bit.

You are correct, but HH can certainly start earlier! 

I say someone should get there early and confiscate the entire bar for us...

With are meal we enjoyed a few glasses of the Trebbiano di Soave which was crisp and refreshing.

I love that soave.

Playing some tennis tonight...but, Bistrot Lepic's wine bar is having a special dinner to celebrate and there are still open spaces. Here's the text from the email.

Evening starts at 6PM

Live Entertainment, starting at 7:00PM

Kir Royal @ $5.00

Special pre-fix Menu

(Available in both the Wine bar and the main dining room downstair)

$32 pp

Appetizers

Velouté d’asperges au crabe

Terrine d’artichaud, fromage de chèvre

Persillade de champignons

Salade de roquette aux anchois

Terrine de foie gras (add $5)

Entrées

Paleron de Boeuf braisé

La grande salade de cuisse de pintade

Canon d’agneau aux deux purées

Millefeuille de saumon

Poisson du jour

Desserts

Soufflé aux fruit de la passion (add $5)

Regular Menu always available

Reservation strongly suggested for the main dining room

Tel: 202 333 0111 - Bistrotlepic.com

I once lived only a half hour away from New Haven in Waterbury and the idea of this place gets me really excited. I can still remember what the pizza tasted like. I always preferred it to NY-style pizza, which has a tendency to have a weak crust and be overly greasy. Does anyone have info on the when it might open???

Dropped by last night to check it out, but they were closed for a press party 

Went to Ardeo instead and had a decent meal.

They're always closed Tuesdays...weird. Same thing happened to me. They're web site said that they were open for lunch on Sundays, and I stopped by only to be very dissappointed that they were only actually open for dinner. They've since updated the web site.

Some co-workers are planning to have a big dinner at this place and I'm trying to decide on whether or not the food might make up for the company I'd be with.

Mem Sahib

Apparently, the menu is prix fixe and they wash your hands for eating sans flatware.

Has anyone been?

I've never been myself, but some friends of mine keep trying to get me to go with them too. They say the food is good -- I wonder though. You know they have belly dancers right?

Rocks is obviously away.

Jokes on me. I'm off to bed -- Certain to awake tomorrow morning to a tannin hangover. Maybe Michael will take pitty on me and hook me up with a reservation...

Maybe it's the 4 glasses of valpolicella talking, but I'm still trying to figure out if this post is a joke or not.

A few answes to some points raised so far...

Pinci and Pici are both spelling we have seen in Toscana.  Pici is more likely the way its spelled in Siena.  We ahve been struggling with our pinci making and have run out each night.  THeservers are supposed to inform the guest when we have to make a switch.  IF this is not happening, its a good thing for me to know.

On the tomato front... we will be introducing our "Al Mercato" page to the menu in a week or so.  It will be where we show off our daily vegetables, fresh fish etc.  Without it when we run out of something it leaves a big hole in the menu.  We decided to wait to bring it out as we wanted to focus on the regular menu and keep the quality high.  The one and a half nights we were out of heirlooms, the supplier told us we would be getting them.  RIght now it will be day to day, as the locals are not yet in.  In a week or two, we should be awash in local heirlooms.  Yum!

The prosecco is finally on its way.  We forgot to order it.  We ahve 3 cases in tomorrow and tonight we are serving it by the flute only as we have a few bottles on hand.

Thanks for the updates Dean. And thanks for the links on your reviews page.

There has been some back-channel talk of doing happy hour at Dino's this Friday.  Is there anyone else who might be interested?

Sounds like a plan...

Pinci pasta -- The pici (note correct spelling) that I have eaten numerous times in Tuscany is hand-rolled and sort of like extra-thick spaghetti.  Their "Pinci" al cinghiale seemed like plain-old ordinary spaghetti that I would find at the grocery store.  Our server confirmed that they weren't using hand made pasta that night for some reason...  Again, very disappointing - it's not like pasta is difficult to make.

Curious...I just did a quick search and it seems like most spell it pinci and not pici, but I see it spelled both ways. What is the difference in meaning between the two?

Also, I wonder if the pinci I had Thursday night looks the same as what you had. Here's a slightly blurry pic.

What I had was more like a lasagne noodle than wide spagetti. It seemed homemade to me and was pretty perfectly cooked. Sounds like there are some kinks to be worked out.

I also did a complete writeup of both of my experiences at Dino and posted it last night on my web site. I hope I was accurate with everything.

I've updated my avatar so that it shows a picture of mdt so everyone will now know what he looks like.

Thanks. That clears things up a lot for me.

Cafe Ole is right around the corner from me and I'm there almost once a week having a glass of wine with the hummus special (hummus with seasoned lamb and fresh pita bread). Other favorites of mine are the Lebanese Celebration and the Chicken and Macaroni salad. The tapas, as well as the glasses of wine, are very reasonably priced - sometimes $2 and $3 cheaper than those of other similar places -- plus, they taste better. I've had a few, err...inconsistent trips, but 90% of the time, everything is perfect. When you go as much as I do, you're bound to have a few less than perfect trips. The outdoor patio is perfect and it's barely ever completely full.

Corduroy would be my choice.

Edited to add: Woops, just read Walrus' post more carefully.

Always!!!! 

Everyone is always welcome, with or without posting that you are joining in.

We really do need to come up with a secret handshake or password

Trouble is recognizing people. I was at Dino last night and I knew mdt was there too, but I had no clue what mdt looked like.

Parking near 2 Amy's sucks ventworm nut.

First, Happy Birthday! Second, you might want to try parking in the Giant lot behind 2Amys. There are usually spots there.

CF, I have to apologize for laughing at the sandwich switcheroo story! Can't remember who else mentioned mis filled orders when ordering ahead. I guess when you're on the fly, you gotta take your chances.

Twas me. I didn't get the completely wrong thing though. They just put toppings on my pork shoulder sandwich and Amy's hot dog that weren't ordered.