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jiveturk21

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  1. jiveturk21
    We don't have a dog, so I can't speak to how accommodating they really are with pets, but the Inn at Willow Grove was simply an awesome place to stay when we were there in June.
  2. jiveturk21
    Look has opened. It is right by my office, so I have been considering going there for a while, but I have never actually taken the plunge.
  3. jiveturk21
    When I read this article, the point that I took away from it is that you really can learn from almost anyone/anyplace if you actually get off your high horse for a second. I already knew this, but it was good for me to reread it, think about it and try to keep it in the forefront of my mind instead of buried somewhere in the back.
  4. jiveturk21
    Our lunch here today is a testament to why even I could be a restaurant consultant. I haven't participated in Restaurant Week for years, so we didn't take that into account when we walked into PJ Clarke's today for lunch. But, we were given a restaurant week menu, so we figured if we were already there and they are offering it, we may as well take advantage of it. The thing is, this Restaurant Week menu looked a little different. It was $20.13, but it only included two courses (appetizer and entrée). In my mind, this is a big no-no. If you participate in Restaurant Week, you need to actually participate, you can't offer two courses while everyone else is offering three. In essence, that is kind of bullshit. Even with that being the case, we still ordered off that menu. My plan was to order the crisp parmesan tater tots ($7.55 on the regular menu) and the Cadillac burger ($13.55 on the regular menu). The issue is that the Cadillac burger came with fries, but that seemed redundant with the tater tots. So, I asked if I could substitute a vegetable for the fries and explained my reason for asking to do so. I was told that there were no substitutions. Even after stating that I would pay an upcharge for a substitution, the waiter still told me I couldn't do it. So, we sent the waiter away and I relooked at the menu. I decided to order the deviled eggs ($9.70 on the regular menu) and the crab cake sandwich ($17.85 on the regular menu). So, while I can't speak for their food costs, their inflexibility in the end had me pay $20.13 for $27.55 worth of food as opposed to $20.13 for $21.10 worth of food. In addition, they lost even more money by not allowing me to pay for a substitution (say $2 or $3). More importantly, they kind of pissed me off in the process. By the way, the food pretty much sucked.
  5. jiveturk21
    I had the burger at Willow today for lunch (one of the perks of having a new client in Ballston). Eating on the shaded patio was awesome, maybe even a bit chilly (who thought that would be the case in August). The burger was pretty damn good, very smoky, cooked correctly and the bun held up to all of the juice. Two things that didn't make it perfect. One, if you have two patties, I think that you need two pieces of cheese, this burger only had one on the top patty. Two, I got no onions or mushrooms with my burger. I noticed this and said something to our waitress, she said that she would bring some out and I never saw her again (until we got our bill). I'm not sure if the onions and mushrooms would have made the burger better or sloppier, but I'll never know.
  6. jiveturk21
    I have never brought wine to a restaurant. Several years ago, I did go to one of Jose Garces' restaurants in Philly and realized that it was BYOB. They had a wine store next door, I bought some wine and they poured it for me (no charge, but I'm sure they made some profit off selling it to me in their store). In the future, I really would like to start bringing wine to restaurants. Why? For one, I have some nice bottles of wine in my house that I want to drink. And, while I can cook, I can't cook as well as the great chefs in our city, so it would be great to open a bottle of my wine and eat their incredible food at the same time. Second, as I get older, I get more and more pissed about being ripped off at restaurants with huge wine markups. Even though Dino doesn't charge a corkage on some nights, I would never dream about bringing a bottle there because they have an awesome, and good value, wine list. But, there are plenty of restaurants that charge 300% + markups and, instead of paying it, I just skip ordering wine (and possibly alcohol altogether). I would consider bringing wine there, even if they had a high corkage fee ($50). If I buy something for $150 (trust me, I only have a handful of these), I wouldn't mind paying $50 to drink it at their restaurant instead of paying the $450 that they charge for it. And, the restaurant should be OK with that because they get $50 for essentially opening up a bottle of wine and pouring it as opposed to $0 if I am bitter that they have an overpriced wine list.
  7. jiveturk21
    I am skeptical of a lot of things, especially celebrity chef restaurants that open to a lot of fanfare. Even though I really liked my visits to Graffiato and Bandolero, I didn't think that Kapnos could be as good as everyone says it is. But alas, Kapnos really is that good, maybe even better than that. Our server was solid, but unspectacular. And maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't order the tyrokaftari again, but other than those two miniscule complaints, there is absolutely nothing else negative I can say about our experience last night (unless having a hard time pronouncing many of the dishes counts). When you go to a restaurant and order 21 items (food and cocktails) and you would only consider not ordering one item (tyrokaftari) again, I would say that is not just a home run, but a grand slam. Tzatziki, taramasalata (incredible!), stone baked flatbread, royal red shrimp, farm house vegetable salad, spicy watermelon, gigandes (huge fan!), greek fries, poached lobster (perfect pasta), marinated spring lamb, suckling pig (stand out), roasted duck, spit roasted chicken (incredible value), chocolate mousse cake, cookies, gonzo, papadapolous (I miss Webster), Hollywood (perfection), rum lemonade and game face. Incredible, freakin incredible.
  8. jiveturk21
    In the past, they have allowed the viewers to pick the winner. This season, they were pretty clear that the viewers and the network would be picking the winner. No idea how that works, but my guess is that whoever gets the least amount of votes is booted and the network picks from the remaining two contestants. If you did not watch the entire season and only watched the three pilots, I could see why you would think that these three contestants had a good chance at making a good show. But, if you watched every episode, the idea that Russell was a finalist is almost laughable, he was always on the bottom. With all of that being said, the pilots were, for the most part, very good (which tends to happen with editing and production value). I still don't get Russell's show - I'll taste your cabernet sauvignon sorbet and I will make you bacon bourbon ice cream!? It just was a crappy idea based around a crappy premise - how does bacon differ from fat, or for that fact ice cream, when you are talking about culinary sins? Either way, I really liked the pilots from Damaris and Rodney. I'm not convinced that Rodney's pie ever would taste good, based on his performance on the show, but he is a good fit for a show like that. I also like Damaris' show idea as well, even if it likely won't be much about the food. And, with what I know about reality TV, I would not be surprised to see the "couples" played by actors that have never met each other before.
  9. jiveturk21
    I went for a very early lunch today (I wanted to read outside before coming back to a bear of a meeting this afternoon). I have never been to CF Folks before, but I think that I may be the only one that can say that in the surrounding area, when I left around 12:30 PM it was pretty packed. I had the leg of lamb special ($14.95). The potatoes (red, smashed, crispy on the outside) were very good. I thought that the lamb itself was simply OK, just a few slices of typical lamb with typical gravy. The greens were nicely dressed, but there was way too much bitter frisee in the mix on my plate. The piece of bread, with corresponding frozen pat of prepackaged butter, was a throw away. Still hungry, I got the bourbon and pecan bread pudding for dessert ($3.95 + $1.50 for a la mode). It was too dry for my taste, but the flavors were good. I do, however, take umbrage with the size of the dessert as it only took five bites for me to eat it. I don't need, or even want, a huge dessert for lunch, but this cost much more than it was worth. Overall, I see why this place has a following (the sandwich prices are quite low), but I didn't see the value or quality for me to go running back soon. I will give it another chance and try one of their sandwiches, it just moved down my personal list of places to go to for lunch.
  10. jiveturk21
    I would definitely put Jimmy John's above Quizno's and Blimpie (are there even any of these left?). There are some things that I like about Jimmy John's over Subway or Potbelly or Firehouse, but in the end, I would say that Jimmy John's ranks slightly lower than all three of those places (again, this is after one visit, and this is mostly value driven). And, I think that all of these places are lower on the scale than Jersey Mike's or Penn Station East Coast Subs. And, still again, all of these places fall behind Jettie's and Taylor Gourmet and TakEatEasy and DC Po Boy (all of which are in walking distance from my office).
  11. jiveturk21
    One more thing, as little polish as Rodney has, Russell has about the same amount (which is not very much). But, at least Rodney has a point of view, I have no freakin clue how Russell spins his seven culinary sins into a TV show that makes any sense. Overall, I liken this to the Major League Baseball Draft. Teams are often enamored with the high school pitcher that has all the upside in the world, so they draft him over that college outfielder who has been an All American two times. Sometimes I feel that people would prefer to make something out of nothing, and only do that once in 100 tries, instead of picking conservatively and being right 99 out of 100 times.
  12. jiveturk21
    Rodney definitely has a personality, but is that enough to make a good show around? I feel like he struggles with the most basic presentation tasks on the show and, to be honest, his food has been pretty terrible this season (no, I have not eaten what he has made on the show, but they more often than not comment that his food is terrible). And, maybe I am missing something on this one, but do you think that more people would tune into a show where the guy always makes pies? Or the woman who always tries to make vegetables the star of the dish, but doesn't want to eliminate meat altogether? By the way, I want to make something clear, I have had many great things at Dangerously Delicious Pies and I really like Rodney. I just don't think Rodney is doing well at all in this competition.
  13. jiveturk21
    This season has pretty much been a disaster, but we keep watching it. I would be shocked if anyone but Stacey won the show, but I was also shocked that Nikki got kicked off last week. Not only was she great on camera, but she often made very good food and had a good point of view (meat on the side). While Stacey is also all of those things, the other three contestants - Damaris, Rodney, Russell - are kind of a joke to me. In particular, Rodney and Russell move on week to week, and seemingly have no good qualities other than the fact that they are so rough around the edges that the Food Network wants to prove that they can mold them into great food show hosts. Whatever, I am getting worked up just talking about it and I don't even like the show. What am I doing with my life!?
  14. jiveturk21
    Thankfully this board is around! I had no idea that this showing had started up already (crappy DVR!), so thanks to everyone for reminding me that it's on and I need to fix my DVR.
  15. jiveturk21
    You know when you are making a mistake, and you know that you are making that mistake, but you make it anyway? That is what lunch was like for me today. I have been hearing a lot of commercials about Jimmy John's on the radio, so I figured I would check it out. I started my walk there and hesitated once I got to Breadline. Could I really pass up Breadline to go to Jimmy John's (even though I ate at Breadline just last week)? Figuring that it is only fair for me to try ALL of the sandwich places in the world so that I can compare them to one another, I bypassed Breadline and went to Jimmy John's. Even though the menu seemed simple, I had a hard time digesting it. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed annoyingly scattered. Anyway, after finding out they didn't have any hot sandwiches (boo!), I decided on their bootlegger club. They asked me if I wanted cheese on it, I asked what kinds they have, they told me provolone (only one kind of cheese, boo!), and I said yes. 99 cents later, I had provolone cheese on my sandwich. Why there is no cheese on this sandwich, but on almost all of their other sandwiches, is kind of crappy (boo!). I then asked if I could add bacon and they said yes, but it would be $1.79 (boo!). Thinking that they may actually pile it on for that price, I said yes, but they only added two pieces to it (by comparison, you can get bacon at Subway for $1.00 and that is four slices). In the end, the bootlegger club with cheese and bacon, and a bag of chips, was $11+. Walking away with this sandwich in my hand, it reminded me of one from Potbelly (size and weight) and I was thinking that the same order at Potbelly would be about $8+ (boo! on value). Overall, I will say that the sandwich was not bad, especially the bread (yea!). The jalapeno chips I got (their brand) were pretty good too (yea!). But, in the end, I just don't see a lot to differentiate Jimmy John's from the slew of other sandwich places out there. In fact, I would put this near the bottom of that list in value.
  16. jiveturk21
    I had lunch at Mio yesterday. The weather was perfect, so I ate outside on the patio. Kudos for having plenty of umbrellas to provide shade. A bit of a knock for playing the music so loudly that, even outside, it became a bit irritating. Three course menu for $22 was a pretty superb deal. Roasted pumpkin gazpacho had good balance, just enough heat to offset the richness of the dish. I could see someone saying that it is a bit heavy for the summer, but I didn't feel that way. Salmon was cooked perfectly for my entrée. I wasn't a huge fan of the mashed potatoes though (not sure exactly what these were, maybe some sweet potato was in there too?), just too heavy for the summer. A dessert of sesame seed pound cake was a good ending to the meal. I want to note that I was also very impressed by the bread served (hot!) with herb butter (not too cold!). Good lunch spot and I will definitely be back for some drinks on the patio on the next nice day we have (which seems like will be today).
  17. jiveturk21
    I did not read this entire thread, just the last two posts on this page. Reading those posts, along with the fact that the last post was two years ago, my guess is that this place is no longer on anyone's radar. I'm happy that I hopped on here after lunch today as opposed to beforehand. I have never been to Breadline until today. Even though I have been active on this board for years, I remember almost no mentions of it. I didn't plan on going here today, I was just walking around the city enjoying the weather, came across Breadline and said to myself, "OK, I'll give it a try." It was good, damn good. I had the chicken and fennel piadine. The flatbread was awesome, so were the contents inside. It was BIG, especially for the price ($8.00+). I don't know what Breadline was like before, but if it was better than what I had today, it must have been pretty awesome. I'll go back for this version either way.
  18. jiveturk21
    Newnan I think that Newnan is considered an outer suburb of Atlanta, so I am posting this here. Even if it is not, I don't think that we have a thread on middle-of-nowhere-Georgia, so it would go here by default. Zaxby's. Order at the counter place that "specializes" in chicken, mostly tenders and wings. The tenders were OK, the crinkle cut fries were actually very good, the cole slaw was terrible and the Texas toast was gross. Chick-Fil-A. Yes, these are all of the place now, but we went twice while in Newnan (lots of kids and the play places keep them occupied) and I would say that both exceeded what I have tasted in the DC area. There is nothing different on the menu, but imagine the fries fresher, the chicken crisper and the service even nicer. Taco Mac. The food pretty much was dreadful. But, they have a huge beer list (maybe 200+) and the liquor selection (High West, Blue Coat, etc.) far exceeded everything else in the area. And, my High West Rye on the rocks was only $5 per generous poor. Speedi Pig. This is in Fayetteville (I think), but close by Newnan. Best barbecue that I have had in a long time (please note, I am not an expert on this). The smoked chicken wings and onion rings were outstanding, everything else was good to great. Marco's Pizza. Kids wanted pizza and this is, I'm told, the best pizza in town. It sucked. Hooters. The food tastes the same as here, the waitresses are much more attractive though. Publix. No real reason why I am putting this here other than the fact that I was surprised that almost everything seemed to cost 10-15% more than our Wegman's.
  19. jiveturk21
    We went to Firefly today for lunch. I didn't think that I had been here before, but once I walked in and saw the big tree in the middle of the room, I remembered going there several years ago (but don't recall anything other than that). I had the $22 two course lunch - salad/soup/appetizer + sandwich/entrée + soft drink/coffee/tea. I went with a corn gazpacho (pretty good flavor, too watery for me), the shrimp roll (greens were dressed perfectly, shrimp and roll were great, but the proportions were off) and iced tea (I really don't have anything to say about this). Overall, the food was good, the service was pleasant and the atmosphere was nice (definitely not too loud for lunch). My only quibble is that the two course lunch essentially gets you a drink for free (I guess I shouldn't complain about this, but I'm not sure how much of a "deal" this is). My soup and sandwich were $22 together, I think that you can "save" some money by ordering differently, but I think in some cases, you may actually pay more than what it would be a la carte. In the end, it doesn't matter, this is a perfectly good lunch spot.
  20. jiveturk21
    Impromptu dinner on Thursday night. Dinner was much better than brunch I had a few years ago, but not as good as when they first opened. I think that they have settled somewhere in the middle, which is still good, especially for this area. Food (impressed with the rabbit ragout and sweetbreads) was better than the drinks (I had a laughable sazerac at the bar). Wine list is still solid. Setting is beautiful, but there are a few chinks in the armor (fluorescent lettering on black boards announcing drink specials in the bar). Service was mostly very good, a few upsell attempts made it less than perfect though.
  21. jiveturk21
    Sorry for being delinquent on my responsibilities, they make me do work from time to time. Trust me, I try to avoid it as much as I can. Congratulations to Arlene!
  22. jiveturk21
    Rehoboth With most restaurants jammed the night of July 3rd, we stopped by Cabo (in the old Porcini House location) for some Mexican food. It is almost impossible for me to believe that this place is owned by the same person/group as Espuma because Cabo, in a word (or maybe two), is downright awful. We got there early (5:30 PM) because we had our one year old with us. Service was comical from the beginning, several servers running around like chickens with their heads cut off in a restaurant that was maybe 30-50% full the entire time we were there. It was crazy, they weren't just auctioning off plates at the tables, they would walk into a room (I would say that our room had eight tables, four of which were taken) and say, "Who ordered the burrito?" Are you freakin kidding me!? Do you know how many people in a room in a Mexican restaurant might order a burrito or a taco or an enchilada!? Anyway, drink orders (a variety of margaritas) were placed within minutes of sitting down, but took a while to come out. They tasted awful. They weren't too sweet, which was good, but lacked any real flavor whatsoever. Our appetizer was a dip trio (guacamole, queso, salsa) seemingly straight out of a jar served with maybe 20 tortilla chips. It took us a while to get some more, but I'm not sure why we bothered when the dips were so bad. Dinner came a cool one hour and twenty minutes after we ordered it, awesome when you have a one year old with you. All the food was terrible. One of our servers (we seemed to have about five, but no one was actually focused on anything) finally realized that it was a shit show and came over to apologize to us. She told us that there was only one chef in the kitchen, the rest of the staff called in sick. Maybe you should put a sign at your host(ess) stand that says, "Be forewarned that we only have one chef and a bunch of clueless servers tonight, your experience will suck, but we will still charge you the same amount for your food as if we actually had a clue what we are doing." When she gave us the check, she brought a random drink out to us (not one that we had ordered before) and said that it was "on her" because the night was so bad. Gee, thanks. Third time in my life that I have not given a tip - the previous two were a Waffle House in Kansas City and The Crabhouse in Fair Lakes (before it became Joe's Crab Shack). Cabo was the worst of all those experiences. PS: This is a serious question. If you kitchen staff is essentially MIA on a night, do you still open the restaurant, pretend that everything is OK, all the while knowing that your customers are going to be screwed?
  23. jiveturk21
    Bethany Beach Even though my family has been coming to Bethany Beach on and off for 20+ years, we have never really gone to any "fine dining" establishments in town. Maybe we hit up Patsy's once or twice, but we usually head up to Rehoboth to get our fix. But, now that we have a one year old, and even the 20 minute drive each way can seem daunting, we searched for a local spot that would be on par with what Rehoboth has to offer. After some quick research, we settled on 14 Global, right next to the post office off of Bethany's main drag. It is tiny and crammed, but the food was spot on, WAY better than we expected. Duck confit and shaved asparagus salad, venison sliders, corn pone bread, short rib and lobster tacos. All were pretty much home runs. Well made cocktails, solid wine list. Service was mostly good as well, although a bit scattered as the night went on (servers were leaving as the crowd dwindled). The only downside to the meal was dessert - peanut butter cheesecake with bananas and chocolate - and it was a BIG downside. It was almost as if it came from another restaurant, completely unappetizing. Whatever, I had eaten ice cream every day so far at the beach, don't need another dessert anyway. So, in the end, this is a huge plus for the Bethany Beach area. Later that night we stopped by Beach Liquors - southern tip of Bethany proper, right off Route 1, next to the CVS - to get some red wine for sangria the next day. I figured we would find something serviceable, but was SHOCKED to find an awesome wine selection. They even had a temperature controlled room with a lock on it to keep the good stuff (and there was a lot of it). Prices were cheap, compared to many stores in Northern Virginia, and I am telling you that the variety was super impressive. I may stop back by to stock up on the way home. Two unexpected gems in Bethany.
  24. jiveturk21
    Whitefish salad and fries for lunch. I know nothing about whitefish salad, but this tasted great, the bagel was fantastic and there was good balance with the other items on the dish (capers, lettuce, radishes, etc.). I also really liked the fries, better than what I have had here before. The one downside is that our server(s) were rushing us even after we kind of asked them not to. It was lunch, but they were not jammed, not sure why they were being so annoying.
  25. jiveturk21
    I have now been to Woodward Table and WTF. I would say that Woodward Table is a good, sit down place for lunch with some colleagues. But, if you want truly awesome food for the money, WTF almost can't be beat in the area. I had a chocolate coconut brownie bar from there last week that was $2.75, it weighed about a pound and was infinitely better than any cookies/bars/cupcakes that I have had over the past year. If I worked closer by, I would go here at least twice a week and likely weight fifty pounds more than I do right now.
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