starfish

I had really good wings at Mark & Orlando's on Friday evening - buffalo and some Asian styled.

Very nice meal at the bar at Cashion's with two friends on Saturday night. Warm serano ham with gorgonzola stuffed figs was the star of the evening in my mind (company excluded.) Several good to exceptional meals at Granville Moore's in the last several weeks. Teddy Folkman is cooking some great meat right now. West End Bar Crawl a couple of weeks ago (Hook, Mendocino Grille, West End Bistro, Hudson, Vidalia) all of them were great for a cocktail and app (I do wish that more places offered wines by the half glass though.) A train wreck of a bartender competition at Beacon Bar & Grill on Monday night. Bad competition format, the most poorly organized event I have ever attended (not hyperbole,) when the scant bits of food that were offered made it to you they were tasty enough. The things we do for friends. A solid evening at Capitol Grille two weeks ago - very good smoked salmon, my favorite fried calamari in the city, but the kansas city strip was not as good as usual. Restaurant Eve rescued my evening from the horrifically bad place that I went first with their always lovely service and great food. Coppi's twice more since it got back on my radar screen a few weeks ago. Suprisingly good ribs, mac 'n' cheese and fries from the Adams Morgan Diner at 4am or maybe I was just really hungry. A great meal at Per Se but I wasn't paying the check. edited to be more specific about the which diner

Your's is an interesting point. However, one could certainly make the argument that a private complaint has far less impact on the restaurant than a public complaint in this or any other internet forum. While I personally would consider it irresponsible to discipline an employee based on one unverifiable internet complaint, I have known too many restaurant managers who have dismissed people for lesser offenses. As a recovering restaurant manager, I think it reckless to name names in all but the most egregious of cirumstances.

A late-ish dinner at Coppi's last evening left me wondering why I had not been back to this place for so long. My guest and I shared the serviceable charcuterie plate (not because we expected it to be great but because we were both famished and knew it would emerge quickly.) Having staved off a hunger induced mania, we could set about reaching a mutually agreeable pizza decision. We settled on the pancetta. The crust struck a crispy, crunchy, chewy balance. The inarguably fresh vegetables (mushrooms and onions and something else) sang a seamless chorus with the generous portions of pancetta, and an appropriately reserved amount of sauce. This was a very good pie. Charcuterie plate, very good pie, compelling service, a graciously waived corkage and the tab was $32 (not including tax or grat.) I left promising to the night that I would reacquaint myself with this charming little place soon.

I have done: Hook, Mendocino Grille, Citronelle Lounge, West End Bistro Blue Duck Tavern (not at thier best for this type of experience,) Hudson, Vidalia

I haven't been for dinner in quite some time so I am not sure if they are still having the Sunday special but I recall that entrees were half price on Sunday nights. In addition to good Bluegrass on some nights, the Blues on Sunday and the old school R&B/Funk on Monday's has been a consistently good time since they moved to the current location.

Last Saturday I ckecked out the newest addition to the Adams Morgan dining scene. The space formerly occupied by Rocky's and a two forgettable restaurants since has been reinvented as Evolve. The sign on the door promises "small plates - cool drinks" but that was not evident on my first visit. The menu is an excercise in brevity - salad, soup, chicken sandwich, french fries, fried calamari, lamb burger. Not really the meze I was expecting. The wine and beer programs are... a work in progress, I hope (the Corona I drank was the best of all options.) My lamb burger arrived medium well and with a well sized portion of crispy fries. It was a solid burger, overcooked for my taste but solid. It may appear that I am not a fan of Evolve, however, I plan to return. Small independant restaurants are an important part of the cultural fabric of this and every city. I wish them well and look forward to watching this place evolve (come on, I had to make that reference.) Surely they will expand the menu, upgrade fixtures, and grow the wine and beer programs. I just hope that they can do it quickly - that location doesn't have the best track record for longevity.

As a big fan of the Tonic in Mt. Pleasant, I am eager to try this place. I do hope that they will garnish the bloody mary's with the deep fried bacon swizzle stick as the orginal does.

as reported in tom seitsema's chat today, Charlie Palmer's is changing chefs.

in the strange but true files... Millie & Al's in Adams Morgan always has a debate "party" for the debates after the conventions.

easily the funniest first post in my memory. welcome, karen.

would prefer 8pm, but will be delighted with either time

Having had it as recently as last Monday - been meaning to post about that meal - I think that Cap Grille has the best "traditional" preparation of this dish in DC. But this raises an interesting question (to me at least) none of the high end restaurants/big name chefs would ever do this dish. Is the Grille's calamari the best because Richard, Power, Ruta, Monis, et al functionally cede this area to them? I also like their preparation too.

This evening I shall raise a glass to Maj. General Robert Smalls. Washington Post Article about Gen. Smalls and the ship the Army has named for him

still in...

The sound was off as was the closed captioning... so unless they are trying to appeal to the portion of the population that can read lips what's the point of having it there?

For the last week, I have been determined to try new places and not rely on my standard rotation for dining. In that spirit, I went to the bar at Hudson last evening to have a cocktail and light dinner. There are many things to like about this place. The room is open and airy with an elegant feel; the bar stools are exceedingly comfortable; and they take the art of the cocktail seriously. However, all of it is wrapped in a too clever by half package that makes me less likely to return. Once he finally noticed me, the bartender offered me a cocktail menu – nothing on the menu had any appeal to me so I ordered a Manhattan. John, I believe his name was, made one of the better Manhattan’s I have had in this town. He apologized for not having any of his house-made bing cherries macerated in kirsch and offered a twist instead; I thought this a very nice touch. I decided to order the Santa Fe Hot Pizza – a barbeque pizza with black beans corn relish and chicken. I am not sure why I ordered such a non-traditional pizza and at first bite I was less than thrilled with my choice. Then I found myself eating the crust – I never eat crusts. I realized that this pie had grown on me and quickly. The sweet of the bbq sauce was balanced with the light heat of the chilies. I quickly devoured more than half the pie and eventually asked for the rest to be boxed to take with me. Other dishes I saw being served to tables and fellow bar holders were visually stunning and made me want to order more food though my hunger was sated. All of this should make for a rather impressive showing for this newcomer. However, several things bothered me (maybe my sensibilities place me outside of their target audience.) I detest televisions in the bar and they have two in prominent placement that make them hard to tune out. I especially dislike them when they show ESPN News or Headline News both of which are essentially on a loop. I can usually ignore the techno travesties that are the soundtracks for too many restaurants but at Hudson the volume makes this task nearly impossible. The cocktail servers attired in a low-cut, high cut combination never smiled – of course they occupied my attention because they are very attractive. Bartenders that make drinks in hopes that Tom Cruise is going to make the movie Cocktail II annoy me. “Flair” forces the guest to interact with the bartender at a visual level, whereas I believe that the level of interaction should be determined by the guest. I know that one visit and one dish is not a sufficiently broad basis to form an educated opinion. However, my quibbles are more reflective of my wants and needs in a restaurant than Hudson itself. I left with a sense that Hudson is a serious restaurant and cocktail lounge, just not one that appeals to me. I still might return for the pizza though.

in, as is count me.

I was offered my first job in DC over lunch at Orleans House. Negotiated my first raise there, hired and subsequently fired my first employee there. And later quit my first job there. Never cared for the food, but Orleans House will forever hold a special place in my heart.

A calvados Sidecar makes for a lovely twist on the WWI classic.

the cranberry sauce

I had the privilege of sitting with a veritable “Murderers Row” of DC bartenders last night – I will not name them as it is not my place to disclose the affairs of others. At one point, one of the members of our happy band of drink makers quipped “of the ten bartenders in DC that know how to make a proper sazerac, six are in this room and four of us aren’t behind a bar any more.” While there was certainly a touch of hyperbole in his statement, it wasn’t that far from the truth. We then set about lamenting the state of the bartending profession in DC. Next time you come across a truly great bartender, please give him or her a knowing smile when you thank them for a job well done. There certainly aren’t enough of them.

I had plans to meet someone at Café Napoleon on Saturday evening. I arrived a few minutes early and found a seat at the end of the bar next to the service station. I waited for ten minutes – I promise that is not an exaggeration – for the bartender to greet me and ask for my drink order. During that time I watched him flit about the bar making few drinks but mostly trying to make time with the two attractive women at the other end of this small bar. When he finally decides to grace me with the opportunity to order a drink, I ask for a Delirum Tremins (sp?) and hand him a credit card to start a tab. That is when the “show” really got going. This Tom Cruise wannabee proceeded to flip bottles and shakers at a dazzlingly annoying clip. I received a phone call from my expected guest indicating that she would not be able to make it this evening. Not wishing to spend another moment with this side show bartender, I placed a $20 on the bar to settle my tab. That twenty sat for fifteen minutes whilst this cocktail circus continued and I grew increasingly annoyed. The music was too loud for anything short of a full-on yell to have gotten his attention, and there were no manager-types in sight. After finally making his way over to me, he closes my tab and needs to be reminded to return my credit card. In total I spent 45 minutes in this place, 30 of them without a drink and 25 minutes trying to get a bartenders attention on a relatively slow Saturday night. If I were still in the restaurant business, I wouldn’t hire that guy to make carbon dioxide let alone a drink.

I have very fond memories from 10 years ago of dining at Amici's. I can still taste the bread bowl that was filled with shrimp in a garlic cream sauce. Nothing about that place was haut, but I recall it being deeply satisfying in the "I know this isn't good for me" kind of way.

And this is the part of this conversation that sticks in my craw. No one questions the right/justification for a Dr.'s office, Hair Salon, Dog Kennels, etc. to protect themeselves against the loss of revenue for a late cancelation or no-show. Yet many people - not speaking neccesarily about those that have commented in this thread - are outraged when a restaurant seeks to do the same. I can appreciate the natural counter to this argument, that a restaurant is in the hospitality business and should be accomodating to guests. However, when the social contract has so little value for so many people shouldn't a restaurant's obligation to employees and investors to make a profit require polite implementation of consequences for the guest that violates the social contract? Having said all of that, when I open my restaurant we will never ask guests for a credit card or cancel a reservation that cannot be confirmed.