Robert3

Great question as I am going in 24 hours and would love some suggestions from great dinners, to great wine to great pizza to great gelato.

Thanks everyone for your responses and advice. Lots of different opinions out there; my inclination is to keep the food simple and basic. This is more on the side of a fun/semi-serious tasting with a couple of friends that have little or no experince with Bordeaux of 20+ years. I have selected a diverse group of wines, trying to span the region and the decade. (I will save some of the bigger wines I have for another decade or so.) Ch. Chasse Spleen 86 also L’Ermitage Chasse Spleen (the second) 86 Ch. Larmande 85, 88 Ch. Leoville Barton 82, 85 Ch. Montrose 83, 89 These wines have been upright for the last week or so. I don't know that I will be decanting all of them as they have not been stored in pristine conditions so I am hoping that some are still good as it has been some time since I last opened them. Cheeers and thanks again. Duck

I am doing a tasting of old Bordeaux (1980s) and would like some advice on what to serve to accompany the tasting. This is not a dinner. Thanks. Duck

I would add Grapeseed to the Blacks and Passage to India, particularly if you are interested in wine.

Has anyone visited since Chef Panguad resumed kichen duties? I see on their website that there is no corkage fee Monday-Friday. That is an appealing policy.

Is that an offer to establish a new restaurant standard? Maybe we could entice several restuarants to come together to produce a good quality cassoulet and use the event to raise funds for a good cause?

Since Paris and Toulouse are not in my travel plans this winter, I have had to satisfy my annual winter urge for cassoulet with local DC restaurants and my own cooking. So far the results are very mixed. Over the last month I have had cassoulet at Bistrot du Coin, Bistrot Lepic, Les Halles, and La Miche (Bethesda). By far the most satisfying was found at Bistrot Lepic. As with all the restaurants, the issue is not the size of the dish but what is inside and how it is done. Bistrot Lepic offered the full complement of expected meats and sausages, including a very fine leg of duck confit. As important, the beans were not mushy, but the dish was still sufficiently moist. Overall, this was a very good effort particularly since I enjoyed it by happenstance as an item on their DC restaurant week lunch menu. Bistrot du Coin provided an okay cassoulet with all the essential elements. Certainly the fact that is readily available on a daily basis is a plus as is the fact that they offer a very good selection of wines (a plus for Bistrot Lepic as well). Less satisfying was the cassoulet at Les Halles (despite it being readily available), and their less than outstanding wine list. The least desirable was found at Le Miche. Their idea of cassoulet is found in a so called Peruvian white bean that reminded me of a giant lima bean. The name and appearance might have been okay if the beans had not dissolved into mush. Even more odd was the fact that there was no sausage at all, let alone a garlic sausage. Finally, forget the wine (as I did perhaps for the first time ever eating cassoulet); even Montgomery County rules does not deserve the blame for this list. Altogether a very unsatisfying experience. Given it is freezing outside my desire for cassoulet continues much to my family's disappointment. The folks at Lavandou promised they would let me know when they have it on the menu, which they do several times each winter. I anxiously await as I do any other suggestions of restaurants with cassoulet to die for.

Any chance they will be serving cassoulet this winter?

Thanks to Don for the February 2007 Washingtonian article on restaurants with great wine lists. I particularly like that he includes info on corkage policies and price, something that would be nice to include in all restaurant reviews. Question: for those restuarants in D.C. with no corkage price listed, should we assume that they don't allow patrons to bring their own wine?

Does anyone know their corkage policy?