Lydia R

Here's a rhetorical question for everyone, which is more of a "point to ponder" rather than an actual question where I'm seeking an answer:

Why do we know, or think, that Todd English has something to do with this restaurant?

So,  here's the first line of narrative text currently at the website:

A Destination

MXDC Cocina Mexicana by Todd English offers Mexican cuisine with a modern touch. We're located on 14th St, a block from the White House and a short walk from the Washington Monument.

But, in 2013 Missy Frederick reported on a press release stating Todd English's consultancy with MXDC had "been fufilled."

I just wish the food was better.

So, every food service provider orders stock based on standing inventory, previous sales during last homestand, etc. Tonight, no vendors have any bottled water to sell in the stands. Be sure to BYOB for the rest of the homestand or be prepared to wait in line and watch the game on tiny wall-mounted TVs. Just saying...

Jose Andres' Pepe food truck will be inside Nats Park for select home games -- tonight and Sunday are such games.

I had a fried to order chicken sandwich and it was fresh with a "safe & sane" amount of sauce. Unfortunately, here weren't any tapas or dessert items on the menu board. My +1 went and got a second fried chicken sandwich during the first "lights-out delay" and that sandwich had way too much sauce.

Pepe was parked inside the Park behind right field, near the new Team Store, and where the "Build a Bear/Screech" store was previously located. There was no real line today although every customer took an extra minute or two to order.

Edited after the game was suspended.

Mark! Considering how many times you've told me about this place, that's a mighty laconic answer!

What do you think of Watergate Pastry? Now that I think about it, I'm not entirely sure.

Do they still sell small boxes of "ends" trimmed from their pastries first thing in the morning?

NOTE: I now, devilishly. have 666 posts.

Exciting times. Hopefully they'll be able to keep it together into the post-season.

The pizza here (original location) is my favorite so far in Baltimore, 

In the same week that the Matchbox empire stated that they were looking for funding to take their concept national, there was this piece in in the Baltimore Sun by J.M. Giordano about Joe Squared:

They're looking for $220K for the build-out and move. I hope they'll be able to take the roof-top garden with them.

The article closes with this quote that sounds like a similar quotes about DC neighborhoods like H Street and Shaw.

Besides the much-needed building repairs, Edwardsen blames the move partly on the rising real estate value in the Station North area. "When we started that strip of North was abandoned," Edwardsen said. "This is a result of gentrification. It's getting that the only new businesses which can afford it are the chains. We're trying to secure the future so we don't lose our real home, original customers, and neighbors."

The North Bethesda location (Old Georgetown Road & Democracy Blvd) that previously housed Hamburger Hamlet and Dupar's is in the midst of becoming a NYAJ's. Not sure how long the reno will take, but that parking lot will become a nightmare.

"New concessions include "Throwin' Cheese" in section 130, which will feature "decadent" macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. >snip< The Virginia Biscuit Company arrives in May in section 113, and offers homemade Virginia biscuit sandwiches, including ham, fried chicken and chicken fried steak biscuits."

Here's a fuller description from WaPo on the new food options:

"Nationals To Offer A Virginia-Themed Food Stand This Season" by Kelyn Soong on washingtonpost.com

While "Thrown' Cheese" serves a bland mac-n-cheese (think Kraft stove-top), the mac served at the Virginia stand was savory and had chunks of crispy meatballs incorporated in the rich cheese sauce. Virginia's version is spooned from a restaurant pan and topped with breadcrumbs. On Wednesday, their sandwiches appeared to be served on buns (not biscuits) with a side of kettle chips.

The Virginia Crunch (smokey and not too sweet) was a hit with my seatmates and would be improved by having smaller "popcorn ball" clumps in the bag.

I don't know how WSJ determines which articles are accessible by all and which are behind the pay-wall. I originally subscribed to WSJ before it was on-line and always felt mocked by the growing pile of unread papers in my office. When it was first offered, I eagerly changed my subscription to paper-less and have benefited from the on-line research tools.  Other than the wine column that gave Don heartburn, the reporting is thorough and well-written.

For example, yesterday's edition had an article entitled: Restaurants' Secrets to Keeping VIP Diners Happy by Alina Dizik. While some of the information is well-known to even casual readers of DR.com, some were new to me (e.g., Seven Rooms, LDV Lifestyle, and Table8).

To court the many out-of-town executives traveling to Washington, D.C., ThinkFoodGgroup uses Table8, an app that enables users to pay for last-minute reservations during peak dining hours. Top diners, whether they are referred through the app or not, are assigned to the restaurant's most experienced servers rather than seated by section, says Stew Newbold, director of restaurant operations at ThinkFoodGroup, which owns Washington-area restaurants including Zaytinya, Oyamel and Jaleo. More advanced servers are better able pick out natural interruption points during service, Mr. Newbold says. As soon as a VIP customer arrives, an email alert goes out to a half-dozen employees.

I'd be interested in knowing if this article and the link to the WSJ blog in the quoted section are behind the pay-wall or open access.

Good decision.  We were at last night's game the first 7 innings were maddening. We almost left early and we never do that. >clip< Tanner Roark's first save was something to behold, especially given how he got the last out.

I know there are strong opinions about Chick-fil-A on this board. [http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?/topic/3875-chick-fil-a-a-large-atlanta-based-chicken-sandwich-chain-now-with-a-food-truck/?p=48817] [i'll fix links when I'm not behind a big, green firewall]

As a reminder to darkstar's post in the Eating at Nations Park thread, this season has a new promotion [http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?/topic/8631-eating-at-nationals-park/?p=290739]

For seven days after an at-home save, show your game ticket (or season plan holder card) and get a free regular sandwich.

The Orioles opening home stand of 2015 is well underway. Changes include the departure of Gino's and Stuggy's (Eutaw Street) as well as Polock Johnny's (Section 5). They've been replaced by Baltimore Burger Co, ESSKAY Gourmet Hotdogs, and Smithfield respectively. The Baltimore Sun's Richard Gorelick describes changes here. He also describes a healthy option from PlantBar that serves cold-pressed juices and vegan food.

The Flying Dog stand on the lower concourse has no taps, just bottles and cans, For local draft beer, head upstairs (or up the nearby elevator) to Section 332-336 for Flying Dog and Heavy Seas. There's also a Sweet Water (Atlanta) stand between them.

Other choices on the lower level include: Natty Boh, Goose Island, Blue Point, Sam Adams, Modelo Especial & Corona (at Ole Mole), and lots and lots of Bud (even a Cardinal Red beer wagon, without the Clydesdales).

If you were at Sunday's game too, here's the gigapan.

Reading this thread I was almost hoping that GRK was the new name of the fast-casual Greek franchise presented on CNBC's The Profit. It's not. "The Simple Greek" is still exclusively in the Pittsburgh area. Oh well. 

On the beer front, the District Drafts stand up near section 309 (and probably the rest of them) apparently will open with 3 Stars Citra Saison with Lemon Peel, Atlas Rowdy Rye, some sort of Red from Mad Fox in Falls Church, and a DC Brau "special" beer that tasted a lot like Penn Quarter Porter.  The Red Porch (downstairs) had some new offerings such as Hardywood Park Pils, Deschutes Black Butte Porter (hopefully to be replaced by something like their Fresh Squeezed IPA when it finally gets warm), and a couple of others that I do not remember (OK, I think Allagash Saison has replaced Hardywood Park Singel).  The same two awesome female bartenders are back for another season, as well.

At the Red Porch, Karen (taller, field-side) and Laura (concourse-side) tend bar. Both are truly awesome - it's definitely worth knowing where they pour during the off-season.

On Saturday, Dujuan (across from the Presidents' Club) had: Atlas Rowdy Rye (6.2%), Port City Porter (7.2%), DC Brau Stone of Arbroath (8%), and Three Star Ghost White IPA (5.9% and only 12 oz v 16 oz for the other taps). Dujuan thought the next tap up would be Mad Fox Irish Dry Stout (4.25%). End of the winter brews.

There's a slightly different selection at each of the District Drafts stands (Secs 119, 138, 225, 309). On their website, Mad Fox posted a map with their projected draft schedule. Sometimes they're at only three of the four stands. Maybe the breweries will understand this marketing opportunity, step-up, and send "beer educators" to enlighten the stand staff (in 2011, Shake Shack opened with managers and team leads from NYC). The extra "white space" below the map is from Mad Fox's website, sorry. [Moderators - please fix, if possible]

Edit to add that if you were at Opening Day, here's the gigapan link: http://mlb.mlb.com/photos/gigapan/?gpId=61fd8fa437f17302e0fbb73e0d65f3fb&c_id=was&year=2015&partnerId=ed-9077543-789098123

The Fox Chapel Shopping Center in Germantown has a sign up announcing a new Bon Chon Chicken. Specifically, it's the recently closed Roy Rogers (previously a Wendy's). This is the same shopping center as the Honey Pig (opened in October 2013).

Should I be worried that Bon Chon's sign included the word "addicted" in large letters?

I wonder how many more years Jin River and Bob's will continue to be able to exist in the area? Development has been pretty slow, but those buildings are going to get torn down sooner or later.

I'm wondering, in the shorter horizon, how Jin River will fare after Peter Chang's opens essentially across the street.

This exchange originally started on the Fried Chicken thread:

Great topic.

I miss Gillian Clark. Will she ever fry again?

I can't speak for her, but the last I heard, she was in California.

Gillian Clark left CA at the end of the year, and is now the chef at Kitchen on George in Mobile, AL.

Interestingly, here's the announcement about Chef Clark's new job:

I still miss Colorado Kitchen. Sigh.

Given the most recent comments in this thread, here's an interesting read from Bloomburg Business by Kyle Stock and Venessa Wong. It's the "oral history" of Chipotle: "The builders of a $22 billion burrito empire"”the founder, his father, his college buddies, key execs, and a couple of pig farmers"”open up about how they won the fast-food future. And yes, they dish about McDonald's."

David Carr - late of the Gray Lady, but also remembered from City Paper. Bob Simon and now this.

Longreads has a brief reading list of his writing and writing about him.

Is anyone following this item from NBC-4 about Montgomery County's Department of Liquor Control?

Every drop of alcohol in Montgomery County must be purchased from the county's Department of Liquor Control's warehouse in Gaithersburg.

County Councilman Hans Riemer wants to change that.

"The report shows it doesn't have to be this way in Montgomery County," he told the News4 I-Team. "There is a way for us to reform how we handle liquor control in the county to protect public health and give people the choices they want."

Riemer said the report presents five different options for deregulating alcohol sales starting on page 85. The choices range from completely eliminating the agency to moving toward a system more like Virginia's.

<snip>

Riemer said even though some of the options could potentially eliminate more than a hundred jobs and lose $20-30 million a year in revenue, the money could be made up by charging private distributors for the privilege of selling the county's alcohol.

The News4 I-Team reached out to County Executive Ike Leggett for comment. His spokesman pointed us to the Chief Administrative Officer's official response in the report on page 107, stating, "In our opinion, local liquor control has served Montgomery County well. We have lower alcohol consumption and higher revenue for public purposes than other jurisdictions. There are not liquor stores on every corner."

He then lists multiple problems he has with the report, including his belief that "to 'make up' for the $30 million in revenue lost for the County" would "involve increasing fees and costs to County licensees and/or imposing a County liquor 'piggyback' tax."

The debate over funding and the future of the entire Department of Liquor Control will now be considered by the Council's new ad hoc committee on Feb. 27.

Published at 6:15 PM EST on Feb 10, 2015

Opening in Milestone Center, 20940-B Frederick Rd, Germantown, MD on Feb. 5, 2015 (via Burger Joint's Facebook page).

This location is in the Giant side of the shopping center near Starbucks and about 0.6 miles from the Smashburger (near Wegmans).

 Song of the Sea begins its only area run on January 30.  Most beautiful animated tale I've seen in the past two years (and maybe bring a hanky).

That same week, Song of the Sea will also be at the Angelika Pop-up (a long block from Union Market). The screen sizes at the Pop-up are not as majestic as this film deserves.

Instead hit Crave, also new in Monkey Mall, but located near the Cheesecake Factory.

We had a Peets in our neck of the woods (Mt. Vernon area) in a strip mall on the northbound side of Rt. 1.  I think it opened sometime this summer and closed a few weeks ago.  It came and went so fast I don't think people even had time to realize it was there, but it seemed like a perfect place for people to stop on their way to work.  Guess not.

On 15 Dec, Rebecca Cooper wrote a short blurb about this in the Washington Business Journal. They're pulling out of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan (guess they aren't running for President):

Peet's Coffee and Tea closed its Alexandria and Bristow locations Monday as part of some adjustments the California-based company is making to its portfolio.

The announcement came the same day Peet's said it will close all its remaining stores in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania in order to focus on the D.C. market.

West End Cinema: 16 - 22 January 2015

If you missed the summer screenings of this film, it's back for a one screen, one week run.

Since this thread is already loopy with martini variants, here's the video for Smirnoff's 'The Mixologist' commercial describing the deconstructed, steampunk reboot of a vodka martini including tapwater from the Library of Congress:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B3Dwmxo4OM

Thank you for posting this report. PoP's 8/15 post included this nice photo of their storefront:
 

they don't appear to have a website but they are active on facebook and instgram and will post their menu once a week on instagram.

 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/13thStMeats

Instagram: http://instagram.com/meats.and.foods

Website to order for pick-up: https://squareup.com/market/meats-and-foods
Non-working URL: http://www.meatsandfoods.com/

edited to correct FB URL