starfish

notti bianche will also have a table. please stop by both chef and i will be attending.

i need a shower after reading that. i am sure that there is a special place in hell reserved for people like this.

i was there recently and it beared a vague resemblance to what i recalled was a cool joint with decent service and good que. i am not shedding any tears over thier closing.

not trying to slight biddy mulligan's (they do pour a damn fine pint of stout) but wow what a downgrade.

while i am pretty sure from the tone of the post that she feels the bar is insult. there is another side of this coin that i didn't occur to me until now.there is a very logical reason for a woman by herself or a small group of women to not wish to be at the bar. unfortunately there are too many predatory men in the world who view women at a bar as targets. i am sure that women at a bar occasionally receive unwanted attention, and that is not something that i would want to interfere with my meal. a quick wit and the aid of a good bartender can usually diffuse even the most boorish of advances, but still... just another perspective.

second vote for cashion's sonoma has a comfy feel to it marcel's does a nice job aroma w/ sushi to-go from spices

i could not agree more. the standard of service should apply to all people irrespective of amount ordered, age, race, gender, et. al. throughout this discussion one thing has bothered me a bit. there seens to be an implication that a restaurant's bar is some sort of culinary purgatory where one spends only as much time as required before ascending to a table. for most good restaurants, the bar is a destination unto itself and not a place to which one is "relegated". i personally prefer to dine at the bar.

in TK's defense, his previous gig focused on restaurants within the city due to a readership that was overwhelmingly dc-based.

that is crap. i cringe everytime i see a guest pouring thier own wine in my restaurant or any other for that matter. that to me reflects inattentive service. if one does not wish for wine to be poured, then open your piehole and say so. to presume that a restaurant or server is simply trying to push another bottle (yes i know that it happens in some places) is unfair and cynical. most good restauranteurs and servers know that guest experience is far more important than how high the check can get.

6pm sound fine by me. see you there.

i just gave myself the night off...anybody up for a happy hour?

no it does not need to stop at restaurants. every dollar spent at a barnes and noble mega-super-take-over-an-entire-city-block-bookstore is a dollar not spent at the independent bookstore where the person assisting you with finding a particular book is more likely to have read said book. but that argument misses what i consider to be the more relevant discussion. this is not an argument about chains vs. independents, the more important discussion is about quality versus mediocrity. one of the highest grossing restaurants in this city is laurial plaza, a gleaming paragon of awful dining for which mediocrity would be a step forward. should any of us support them because of their independent status? like most things in this world, neither virtue nor vice can be assigned wholesale to chains or independents. what we, all true lovers of good cuisine, is vote for quality - wherever it may be found - with our wallets. i do not doubt the power of a small group to change the culinary world.

i have not eaten in the dining room in at least three years. i always sit at the bar becuase i agree with bonaire, the service there is terrific. but while tom, mark, and patrick were mentioned, the lovely and charming sonja was not. she also does a very nice job attending to the needs of her guests.

another option would be capital grille, it is on the same metro line and is about 1/2 block from a station. i would reccomend you sit at the bar as you might be pressed for time. items i would encourage you to try: the smoked salmon is some of the best that restaurants in this city are offering, the lobster crabcakes, and their very fun and spicy calamari. those three apps and you might not even need an entree.

also a short cab ride away is montramarte. they are doing very good things with a casual french menu.

welcome to dc, kat. you will find that the community of restaurant professionals here to be a fun, interesting, passionate, and generally happy lot. there are high concentrations of industry people at the old ebbitt corner bar for the late night happy hour, bedrock billiards for the adams morgan set, bistro du coin for those who are still hungry after work, the bar at capital grille on sundays, monday nights at palena. welcome again.

i am also a big fan of the tabard. it is consistently one of the best places for grown ups to have a drink (i think i just figured out were to go when i leave work this evening). while i have not dined there in a several months, i recall having been happy but never wowed by the food. at that price point, i expect a places that deliver wows on a more regular basis. but i do adore sitting in any of the very different rooms for a bourbon, and good conversation.

while i am sure that none of the members of this forum would do this... restaurant guests: do not under any circumstances walk into a restaurant ask for assistance with the wine list and then make horribly rude, uneducated and misguided statements about that list to the person who you asked to assist you. especially do not do this in vain attempts to impress your boss who in your absence had the grace to admit that "the size of your prick and how big of a prick that you are have an inverse relationship". surely there is a special spot in hell reserved for such people.

i had brunch at bourbon (aptly named as they have dc's largest bourbon selection) early this afternoon. it was solid, far from great but definitely sufficient for a very tired guy and his hung over friend in search of brunch, with a patio, and a place to watch the game. we settled on bourbon. one of the nice things about their brunch is that they offer both a brunch menu - fairly standard dishes executed reasonably well - and their regular menu - think upscale diner food with a slight southern tilt. i had the cheese steak sandwich which was mad from strips of black angus, pepper jack cheese, roasted red peppers, and caramelized onions (can't remember the bread). in contrast to most cheese steaks, one could clearly identify the beef in this sandwich. it contained too much gristle to be eaten as a sandwich, but once i grabbed a fork and knife to sort through a little bit it was well worth the effort. my friend had the bourbon toast - a french toast that was made with a bourbon egg batter and bourbon laced maple syrup. i was allowed one bite - but that bite was pretty damn tasty. after brunch on the patio which unfortunately during the late fall does not get much sun until the late afternoon, we moved inside to watch football. while sitting at the bar i noticed that bourbon serves allagash curieux beer. this is truly amazing beer. it is made from the allagash triple which is already a reserve beer. after brewing, some of the triple is then aged for six months in old jim beam bourbon barrels. the result is a beer that is resplendent with golden malt, a rich lingering finish, and well-balanced hops. it is an extremely small production beer - i have been told by the distributor that less than two dozen cases are brought to dc (allagash's number one market) every six months. i am not positive about this, but i think that bourbon and café saint ex may be the only places serving it. it is offered in a 22oz bottle and it is simply manna from the beer gods. two pieces of caution if you plan on ordering one: 1) the curieux has 11% alcohol content, so don't plan on drinking them all night, and 2) it ain't cheap; $22 per bottle at bourbon. i also need to make note of the very gracious and professional service. most saloons provide service that tends to lack polish. bourbon was a very pleasant exception. patrick, our server/bartender, was knowledgeable, extremely pleasant, and executed his job in a way that suggested some fine-dinning training in his past. i have been to bourbon a few times since it opened a few years ago - only for a quick cocktail or to meet friends. i am very happy to be able to add it to the list of places that provide solid food without expectation or pretense, and one of the best beers on the planet. if you go there and order one and don't like it, bring the mostly full bottle to me for full reimbursement.

for diners... do not under any circumstances arrive 40 minutes early for your reservation and then get pissy when your table is not ready. reservations are there for the convenience of the guest and to maximize operational efficiency of the staff. identifying how many tables can be accommodated during a time period is akin to an algorithm. here are some of the factors to be considered: how much can the kitchen handle how much can the bar handle how much can the floor staff handle how much can the dishwasher handle building in a little extra capacity to accommodate the walk-in traffic that eats at the bar how quickly can the table be reset after a guest leaves at a busy restaurant, if a guest is seated early or late for their reservation, then they have altered the system that reflects all of the aforementioned thought processes. they force the restaurant to overbook a time slot which potentially can have an adverse impact on every other guests food quality, level of service received, and overall experience. in a small restaurant one table of six being 40 minutes early can have an impact on operations. add one more early table and two late tables and your very well considered plan and your once smooth night has now evolved into "the weeds". this mini-rant was inspired by a particular group of guests at notti bianche last evening - the full details of which are not appropriate for this thread. i will however share that the worst part about this early table was that their actions were clearly intentional. when they called for a reservation the time requested was not available. the closest available time was 45 minutes later. they agreed to the later time. a confirmation call was made, and the time was again confirmed. and then they appear at the door at the original time they requested. that is just impolite.

while bars are technically not allowed to stay open an extra hour - the timing goes by the "business day" - police generally look the other way because of the logical argument of it not yet being three am. however, every smart bar/nightclub owner that i know recognizes that nothing good can come in that last hour. more importantly the extra revenue is not worth the added risk.

i went to the bar at morton's on connecticut avenue last night - meeting a freind who works in the building for plans later. until last evening i had assumed that the real differences between the big steakhouses was the service. the menus have pretty much the same fare, the wine lists are all expansive with a few gems and a few clunkers, they each did a pretty good job with a good cut of beef. had i been in the mood for a steak, i most likely would have continued to believe in this general culinary parity. cold and rainy nights scream for lobster bisque. a soup and the chopped salad was just what i wanted. the bisque arrived and to it's credit it was piping hot and it had the proper consistency, and that is all i can say to it's credit. it had no richness, the sherry influence was also m.i.a., and the two pathetic pieces of lobster claw were boiled for what must have been an interminable amount of time. if you scratched the surface of this soup you got more surface. just bad. if the only good things to be said of the bisque are that it was hot and liquid, then the only good thing to be said of the salad is that it was cold. it was listless lettuce haphazardly tossed with low grade blue cheese, some way past their prime tomatoes, and something that had the texture of bacon but none of its porkly goodness. the dressing was a thin vinaigrette that would have gone undetected except that i knew something was making the other ingredients slick. i am very gratefully for the gracious service provided by damian and liz (i think that is her name). but for $45 (pre-tip) for 2 beers, criminally bad soup and salad, i felt violated.

that was, i assume, a joke. but i am actually looking into what it would cost to have braille menus.

in the interest of reciprocity (we speak of the stupid things that our guests do) i shall now share the dumbest thing i have ever said to a guest. last night a party of three arrives for a 7pm reservation. i greet them at the door and notice that one of the gentlemen in the party is blind. i change thier table assignment to place them at a table that has the fewest obstacles leading to and from the table. i am very careful to lead him to the table and discreetly let him know that his chair is right in front of him. after everyone is seated, i distribute the menus. i am very careful to alert this gentleman to the fact that his menu is right in front of him. he very wryly replies "i am sure that it is, but i still don't think it will help me much". telling a blind man where his menu is...easily the dumbest words ever to pass my lips in a restaurant. i am glad that he had a sense of humor about it.

i have known derek for several years and i consider him both a colleague and a friend. i am never surprised by great stories of service experiences at firefly, however, that was a truly extraordinary and gracious demonstration of how a good manager handles difficult situations. bravo, derek.