Waitman

This feast ended up being moved to DC but we are anticipating future outings, so your help is appreciated ktmoomau (and Don). I am told that Downtown should be considered within the target area as well/

May need to get a gang of 5, including and 8-year-old and an 11-year-old into a restaurant in or near Annapolis with short notice on a Friday night. Decent food and a high likelihood of last-minute availability are key. The closer to home base -- walking distance from Mike's, on Riva Road (dietary restrictions preclude shellfish) -- the better. Thanks.

So, I had the legendary lobster ravioli and and I thought "this is pretty good, but who can't come up with something pretty good when your ingredients are a pound of lobster, a pound of butter and some chives?" In a way, the humble, delicious, steak tartar was more impressive. Certainly had more zing. But, what I really wanted to bring to your attention was that, at about 9:00 on a Friday night, there were many open outdoor tables. And it's only a few blocks from that free jazz thing on Friday nights at the National Gallery Sculpture Garden. There was some combination of rules and willingness to bend them that left me slightly confused, but I believe that they discourage the bar menu at the outdoor tables, but you can order a la cart from the not inexpensive main menu. But, since you saved all that money getting your jazz for free....

Maybe you and I just have a different approach to these things. When I consider what restaurant I want to go to, the first consideration is what I want to eat. Then I work through the various factors that limit my access to my first choice: cost, location, hours etc. When additional barriers are put up -- worse, when the whole restaurant journey is thrown into doubt, because you can't get a real answer before setting out regarding when or whether you might eat -- I see that not only as a limit on my choice, but an unnecessary one and one that calls into question the notion of a "hospitality" industry. You say "I still don't really understand why there is such desire to go somewhere that makes it difficult to get in..." I say, "why are they making it so difficult to get in to someplace I desire to go?"

This analogy only makes sense if a) it's other restaurateurs complaining that some "popular" restaurants get lots of business while treating their customers like dirt -- like the quarterback who treats all the girls badly but still always has a hot date -- or, b ) if people are complaining that the "cool kids" are using their popularity to line jump while the rest of us have to kill three hours.

I was a little pissy and apologize. But, when I'm annoyed, being told why I shouldn't be annoyed, is kind of annoying. I will respond after my snit has passed next time. In an age where we expect Amazon to zoom hair care products to our doorstep overnight, the internet to give us music instantly and free, restaurants to give us a napkin that matches our outfits lest a thread of lint pollute our ensemble, and urgent care personnel to send us a "get happy" card to us after our collar bones are set, I remain a bit baffled as to why asking a restaurant permission to be served at a certain time is considered particularly demanding. Sometimes, I'm pretty flexible. (Although the closest restaurant-rich environment to my current abode is 14th Street and none of the good restaurants there take reservations, thus giving me the option of inconveniencing myself, spending more than I want, or pinballing from joint to joint to see if there's await of less than an hour. A challenge compounded if there are more than two people.) But, sometimes, I want to go where I want to go, and not being able to do so in a convenient manner does cause the boat to float less well. I have no idea where this comes from. True.

Doesn't seem that complicated, but, let me lay it out for you. If you can't go where you want to go, that diminishes your delight. If you can't show your friend a cool restaurant that you think she would like a great deal, and that (likely) has better food than where you got a reservation. that diminishes the quality of your dining experience. If she can't get to a place she would have liked, it diminishes her dining experience. And she apparently isn't interested spending her non-obligated time at a museum or monument, which are less conducive to "catching up," as she didn't ask me to take her to a museum, she asked me to take her to dinner. I'm intrigued by your ability to analyze my stress levels and preferences based on a four-sentence web posting. Even I didn't know that I'd rather go to dinner to where I'm going than to Little Serow until you pointed it out. But now I feel better about not having options.

Sietsema writes: "The masses include senior citizens who might not be able to stand for long or don't go out after dark...I smell ageism.' No one (save me) addressed that observation at all other than to dismiss it. Therefore, very arguable that there is indeed a "lack of thought to older people." Just sayin'. Interestingly, I had a friend coming to town who wanted me to take her someplace interesting as she lives in some boring New Hampshire burg. I though first of Little Serow and Rose's, but an inability to leave work early to stand in line, the unreliability of her conference schedule and the necessity of dashing around town in traffic or killing several hours in a bar on a school night -- and still not being guaranteed a seat means-- I booked elsewhere. Not that we'll have a bad meal, and not that their bottom line will suffer and not that they can't run their business as they see fit. But, on the other hand, I am inconvenienced and my friend will enjoy her trip to Washington less, and those are legitimate considerations as well.

Irked at BF as they apparently make ficelles "when the baker is in the mood" and they nicked me for $17 for a length of hard salami that I saw at Whole Foods for $9. (I was going to say it probably goes well with the $12 challah and then decided against it) The price of genius!

Have a cance to swing by and, while I have some favorites, none specialize in Bahn Mi or Pho, which I think we'll be hunting for. Doesn't have to be specifically a Pho joint. In fact, a place that serves food other stuff plus Pho would be perfect.Love to hear your favorites. PS: No option to go anywhere else, so those suggestions will be filed away for the moment. Grazie.

This reminds me of the Wizard of Oz, where the Wizard's medals and trinkets merely confirmed what had already been shown: Just as the Lion already had courage and the Tin Man already had a heart, anyone who spent time at CityZen knew that Andy already had game and Jarad already had a palate. But there is something sweet about hometown boys getting the official recognition they have earned.

Heh. Sittin' in a Krystal, just as drunk as we could be When in walks the deputy sheriff and he's holding our TV... -- Jimmy Buffet, "The Great Fillin' Station Holdup" (When I was young and even dumber than I am now, I found myself shacked up with a young lady from Macon Georgia who was a great fan of Krystal and Jimmy Buffet, hence the link.) (PS she says anything after "Cheeseburger in Paradise" sucked and that true Buffet fans prefer A1A and A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean). I was briefly a chief cook and bottle washer for a Little Tavern once upon a time (10PM-6Am shift in Georgetown. Good times.) I find the though upthread that the new owners checked the recipe with the old hands pretty funny, but not as funny as the idea that anyone really misses them. There is better bad food around.

Cooked up the fish referenced in the District Fishwife thread. Grilled the Rockfish, which was one fat piece of fish. Made a sauce by pureeing sorrel, chives and parsley in the food processor and stirring it into a buerre blanc, the idea being to make it more an herb crumble made pourable by the butter than a butter sauce enhanced by herbs, and it met with modest acclaim. We also grilled the collars, which are gnarly looking, and did a semi-generic Asian dipping sauce from this article, except I forgot the scallions, which stared at me all night from the kitchen counter, annoyed at being overlooked, and added extra sugar and lime. To eat them, you kind of fish the flesh out of the nooks and crannies among the fins and bones, and it's very satisfying in the same way that getting an escargot out of its shell is. I also enjoyed the collar meat's unexpectedly chicken-like texture. I did feel a little guilty, though, enjoying fish that chewed like chicken for its texture in that fish should be enjoyed on its own account, and liking it for being like something else is like thinking that your girlfriend is cute because she looks like someone else. Maybe I'm thinking too much. We just grilled the octopus, which was probably actually squid, with with lemon and olive oil and garlic. It was nice. On the vegetable front, we served purple asparagus because the 7-year-old I helped babysit over the weekend had a thing for purple food going because of a lesson in school, complete with a bookmark with photos of "purple" foods, though I think blueberries are pretty obviously blue and not purple and I've always called it "red" cabbage. I tried that Thomas Keller trick of pouring red wine vinegar in the blanching water to help keep the purple purple, with imperfect results. Most of the stalks looked kind of green and washed out, like you'd accidentally thrown a red sock in with a load of pale green t-shirts. The little chevrons on the side and the tips, though, retained the faded red of a neglected barn, making the stalks look like they'd been photoshopped or shot in infrared light. Since we ran out of white wine vinegar and made the mustard vinagrette with red wine vinegar, it kind of complemented the asparagus and the whole thing looked a little like one of those experiments to see if lighting affects your appetite (it didn't).

I think I'm developing a pretty serious crush on Fiona who is lovely and tattooed and has a killer Aussie accent and serves up fish that is -- with Black Salt -- the freshest in town. Yesterday she flashed that smile and talked me into fish collars and octopus on top of the slab o' rockfish I bought. Not cheap, but everything a fishmonger should be. Both she and her staff are an excellent source of cooking advice and everything I've cooked from there -- from Monkfish pan roasted and served with confited fennel (I've been reading to many menus) to the best tuna I've ever tasted at home with pureed rosemary/white beans, has been spectacular. Sadly, I haven't noticed many of the "little fish" mentioned by Pool Boy, but the inventory seems to change daily so maybe I've just been unlucky. On the other hand: fish collars. Where do you see those? Also, I'm told that if you call in the morning, they'll hold some bones and heads back so you can make a fumet. I quizzed Fiona about grouper cheeks but she admitted they mostly keep those for themselves. Mostly. While we're on the subject of fish, anyone got a good fish collar recipe? Also, if you had a great deal of sorrel and a reasonable quantity of rockfish, how might you bring the two together? ETA: Results here, if you're curious.

Except that it has nothing to do with the physical discomforts that certain seating strategies may or may not inflict pain disproportionately on the aged, thus possibly making them -- de facto, if not de jure -- ageist, which was the discussion underway.

St. Michaels Any high-end purveyors of local (or, hell, imported) quality stuff in or around St. Michaels? One of the great mysteries of life is how so much fish sold so close to the water can be so bad, and why the best produce is often found downtown, not near the farms. But I'm hoping this might be different.

A son of someone with arthritic knees and friend to several people who have aged into hip and knee problems -- problems that do not strike the young with great frequency -- I think it's pretty obvious that any seating policy that has people on their feet for an hour or more will have a disparate impact on older customers, the differently-abled, the temporarily lame, etc. It has nothing to do with the style of the cooking and bringing up L'Auberge is frankly absurd. Limited reservations policies as practiced by the Red Hen, (the late, great) Dino's and even Babbo means that reservations are taken at all times, not just times when it's already easy to snag a table, but some tables are left open for walk-ins. "Fucking with norms" is not, per se, admirable. Fucking with norms by making spaghetti pasta? Admirable. Fucking with norms by making it (arguably) less convenient to eat there? Not so much. Props to the collectible signage, but bravado does not justify everything. Sometimes you're being brilliant. Sometimes you're just being a dick. (To be sure, I've eaten at Rose's twice and like it. I'd like it more if I could eat there without screwing up a whole evening, though) Yes. It's almost always possible to get a seat at times where it's particularly inconvenient to go somewhere.

I'm more worried about restaurants who treat customers as though the restaurant is the DMV, unconcerned with the fact that customers have lives to lead. You are correct, restaurants are under no obligation to make anything simpler. Nor are they under any obligation to cook good food, have flattering lighting, treat you with courtesy, refill your wine when you knock the glass over or any number of things. And, as long as they're popular, why should they worry about their customers? People have every right not to put themselves through the queue. However, in a forum like this it's certainly fair to point out that the restaurants are shifting the equation in their favor and lament the lack of alternative approaches.

This is a bit off as it assumes that the restaurant -- like an illiterate peasant subject to the merciless whims of the global potato market -- has no control over its policies and could not make it simpler for you to get a seat. If we're going to get all Mr. Economist about it, I'd just like to point out that if you assign any value at all to your own time, every minute spent queuing or listlessly wandering waiting for that goddam text that tell you your table is ready (or worried that you missed the text) adds to the cost of the meal, so that the restaurant can earn better profits. The cost can be minimized, but it exists.

Something of an exaggeration -- God knows the phrase "the customer is king" no longer resonates -- but when one is hiring someone to perform a task for them there is generally the expectation that the hired hand goes the extra mile, not the person paying the bills. And, broad egalitarian principles aside, if someone's not in charge, nothing is going to get done. When dropping $200 on dinner, I prefer that the person in charge (politely, respectfully) be me. As someone who "actually patronizes" Rose's Luxury, I don't see how their policy makes sense from my point of view. It disregards my preferences and schedules entirely. I mean, they can do what they want, but let's not call it 'reasnable.' I wonder why you think restaurants should cater you your preferences regarding their cooking, which could be construed as their "art" and thus be a little sancrosact, but you're supportive of them calling the shots without regard to their customers when it comes to the more mundane task of seating people. The Red Hen does strike a nice balance and I appreciate it.

Having spent days trying to get a reservation at The French Laundry (I finally got in as a walk-in), I used to enjoy the democratic opportunity offered by Little Serow. But the trend is getting a little absurd. Not taking reservations at a ramen place is one thing, a restaurant with pretenses of fine dining (Rose's Luxery) ought to strive to make the customer experience as pleasant as possible from beginning to end. One can't help but wonder if the no reservation trend relates to the "egotarian" trend that aroused some ire on this forum. The masters are at the mercy of the servants, because the servants are now artists.

They throw a lot of strikes.

We have a winner.

Some of these recommendations (Eastern Market, Barracks Row), while technically on the Hill, would take far longer to get to from Union Station than Penn Quarter or, especially, H Street. Granville Moore's seems to close their kitchen 3-5 on Saturday but also seems open for beer, and you could stroll H street on the way there and see what catches your eye. Tom Seitsema likes Popeyes .

Somewhere I read an article about a visit to the Rungis market outside Paris and the author noted the bar at which truckers who had driven in overnight from the provinces to drop their loads of poulet de Bresse, belons de Normande and melons de Clavoillon were eating saucisson sandwiches, drinking red wine and smoking as the sun came up. Thereafter, the combination of such sandwiches, served with a glass of vin du pays, was known in our household as a "French Trucker's Breakfast." It makes a great lunch. (Variation: olive oil and thinly sliced parmesan with the saucisson).