DanielK

Closed, with no plans to reopen. Family decided to retire rather than renew the lease.

Closed and reopened as Crossroads BBQ and Grill.

Still sucks.

This place has been closed for 2 years. 

It recently re-opened as Xi'an Gourmet 川陕名吃. I haven't been yet.

I eat Chinese in Rockville at least once a week.

Our most common stops are China Bistro (dumplings and small veggie plates), Bob's Shanghai (XLB, siu mei, maybe some salt & pepper fish), and A&J.

We'll mix in Peter Chang's, Joe's, Big Wang, or Jin River when we go with people who want spicy - I'm the only one in the family that wants it normally. That dry hot pot at Big Wang is fantastic, but there are other good things on the menu as well.

Less frequently we'll go to East Pearl (Cantonese), Super Bowl Noodle (pan-Asian noodles, surprisingly good at multiple cuisines), Mandarin Express (Yunan), Shanghai Taste, or Jumbo Jumbo (Taiwanese).

Somewhat related, there's also Riverside Hot Pot, when you're really hungry. Or Iron Age, but that's Korean, not Chinese.

It was a ton of fun!

First they did a demo of making the dough, then of rolling out the wrappers, filling them, and forming the dumpling. We all spent about 30 minutes or so practicing, and then they served us a complete banquet including the dumplings we had all made.

Great deal for $40. Definitely get on his mailing list and sign up if they do it again.

The space was still empty when I went by this week. If Big Wang is taking it over, that's still some time away.

I don't see the value of the "likes" if they're anonymous. If you believe that the names with the reactions has been a source of harassment to individuals, can we just disable the feature altogether?

This is carrying on way further than I expected or wanted. Please recall my disclaimer that this was ONE incident, that I did not witness. Everything I have seen over the years at RTS, and from Michael himself, has indicated that customer service is always a focus of theirs.

The host in question was not ML - the quote was "we have been doing it" not "I have been doing it", "we" as in RTS. The host could have been there for a long time, or it could have been his first day.

I have since communicated with Michael privately, and of course there are details from him that contradict some of the details from my friend's version of the story.

I don't expect Don to nuke this discussion, but I think the horse is beaten at this point, and would like to see us move on.

2 hours ago, hopsing said:

I agree that we have only heard one side of the story.  After re-reading the story, my question:  if the remaining party was only one or two blocks away, why not just wait for them to arrive?  Sounds like it would have only been 3 minutes.

They weren't given that option. They saw the incomplete party ahead of them get seated, asked for the same treatment, and after just a minute or two of calm exchange were asked to leave.

This was a (non-DR-member) friend of mine who I trust. She posted it on Facebook, I asked a couple of qualifiers and got her permission to post it here. I don't think she's really interested in following up on it.

If anyone from RTS still hangs out here, I'd be happy to put them in touch with her directly. The email address I had for ML is no longer active.

21 hours ago, Genevieve said:

This is one of our go-to celebration spots, and I thought we would likely take our son there to celebrate his graduation next month. But not if I have to worry that we'll make a reservation and then be kicked out if the host feels we're "getting frustrated" by treating his different groups differently, and/or doesn't like an expression on someone's face.

I don't think it's fair to reconsider it as one of your go-to spots because of one data point. I'm a big fan of RTS, and continue to be so, and probably should have had that disclaimer in my original post. I'm hoping it was just a one-off interaction, but I also wanted to make sure my friend's voice was heard.

Posted without comment - a story from a reliable friend of mine about her visit earlier this week.

Quote

We had a reservation for tonight. Me and two of the five in our party arrived. The other two were coming from the metro.

Group in front of us asked to be seated without the whole group being there. Guy says no. They say but she’s 30 seconds away. Guy says ok and seats them.

We ask to be seated. Guy says no. We say our other two are just a block or so away. He says no, it’s the policy blah blah I can’t seat you.

Ok I say but you seated the party ahead of us and they didn’t have everyone.

Guy says it’s up to me I don’t have to seat you at all. Friend tries to intervene says we just want to get a drink and get settled can we get a drink while we wait. Guy says no we don’t do that blah blah we have been doing it this way for 15 years... etc.

Me: again, you seated the people before us so we were asking to also be seated.

Guy: you are getting frustrated and I can refuse you service.

Friend: yes you mentioned that.

Me: makes face like oh hell no you wouldn’t

Guy: you know what I am not going to seat you tonight. Have a good night.

Me and Friend: texting our other friends what’s going on.

Guy: i am asking you to leave. He goes and opens the door for us.

We leave.

Oh, and this was all conversational tone of voice - no voices raised on either side.

12 hours ago, monsterriffs said:

 There were constant rumors of staff dissent and turnover

Same when he was chef/owner of Mannequin Pis in Olney.

Just now, dracisk said:

Thanks. I always confuse Germantown and Gaithersburg, two far away places with long names that start with G.

Just a bit further to Gettysburg...

On 4/26/2018 at 12:28 PM, DonRocks said:

Whole Foods acquired Fresh Fields in 1996.

I still slip and call it Fresh Fields now and then. And I call Costco Price Club.

21 hours ago, dracisk said:

I'm so excited for a nearby (to Silver Spring) Wegmans! The closest (Gaithersburg and Columbia) are currently at least 30 minutes away.

It's unfortunately Germantown and not Gaithersburg, and not right off 270, so that much further out. My couple of visits there have been underwhelming (lousy food from court, cheeses not stored properly), so I never consider going.

Agreed, redeveloping that site has always been in the plans, so I don't think Jon and Ankur were surprised by this week's announcement.

10 hours ago, rockcreek said:

Pretty exciting stuff!

We gotta have our Sunday night post-youth baseball pizza, so hopefully any disruptions are minimal.

Um, if by disruptions you mean that the building they are in is going to be razed, then yes there will be a disruption.

Hopefully they will find a nearby spot to move the business.

17 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I find a hair in my food probably once a week.

Stop shaving in the kitchen.

You were just saying about Barca?

18 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Wow, Liverpool’s win of 3-nil is a shocker.  I guess the premier league is still a step below La Liga (until Liverpool destroys Barça or Real Madrid).

Because of the way that money works in those leagues, I think the top teams in La Liga will always be better than the EPL. In the last 10 seasons, only 5 teams have made the top 3, and it was 2004 since someone other than Barca, Real, or Atletico won the title. In fact, add in Valencia and Deportivo, and you can go back to 1983 as the last time someone else won the title. Barca/Madrid finish 1-2 almost every year. They can afford to sit players in league games for tournament play.

EPL has had 4 different winners in the last 5 seasons, and 7 different teams have finished in the top 2 spots. In the 25 year history of the league, only ManU has ever repeated as champion in consecutive years. I'm not saying there's parity from the top half of the table to the bottom half in the EPL, but there's enough parity in the top half that every game matters. EPL teams hit CL tournaments tired.

They played the Fillmore in Silver Spring last year. They're basically J-pop with a heavy guitar presence.

17 hours ago, DonRocks said:

[Should I split this thread into smaller units? I have no idea.]

No. We're not active enough in the discussion to warrant multiple threads - they'd die off if we further divided.

There are message boards on Euro Soccer out there that have active threads for every match, every player, and even threads about a single call, but this is not where that discussion happens.

Same list as previously, or new wines?

20 minutes ago, MarkS said:

Going tonight.  Per Don's recommendation as my last dinner in Moco. What to order?  It all seems good.

Tandoori Scallops and Crab Masala are my two favorite apps. MUST get the pickle plate. Some people prefer to order all over the menu, but I like to pick one region and dive in. I find myself doing the West region a lot because that's less represented on most Indian restaurants here.