deangold

We all begin at ground zero. Some are as anxious to move away from there as possible. Some prefer to remain there all thier lives. Some will just learn a few buzz words, and feel they know the subject while never really entering into the journey of exploration. Some seek validation in scores, and drink a narrow range of styles and wines. They think themselves expert because they can afford to buy all the latest and greatest hyped wines. Some, myself included, drink to have fun, learn new stuff and explore. Labels don't matter and ratings certainly don't either to these folk. Just good wine does!! Let someone in this category come into my restaurant and they are sure to be turned on to something I think wonderful.

A DR.Com get together and we didn't know it. We say you shiftig the tables as you sat down!

I just love the ribs... the rice powder just enough to catch every bit of the pig fat!

That was us.

We got there about 8pm or maybe a little later. Beatles still on the radio, and no mob scene. Maybe 1/2 full at the most. Had lots of sushi, a few rolls and a kinpira. None of it outstanding (ie up to Kaz or Tako Grill quality) but all of it better than most sushi in town. Got out for $60 for 2 with lots of hot sake. The rice was a little undercooked and under vinagered. But it hit the spot. We needed it and didnt want to shell out the at least twice as much we would spend to go to either of our two favorites!

Kotobuki

Hey I am the one who doesn't read any of the wine press for ratings. I know that there is no "objective" scale for tasting wine. In fact, there is no objective study aroun showing that anyone can reliably assign more than a 7 point scale and have any sort of tasting consistency. I always have a laugh when I see the 100 point scale. I also laugh when I see a panel tasting of, say Dolcetto or Rosso di Montalcino where the top score is around 90 and then a Brunello or Barolo panel where the scores are way up in the upper 90's. If I am in the mood for uncomplicate drinking, or I am having spicy and flavorful foods or even some sharp cheeses, the dolcetto or rosso will be the better wine ba far yet it never seems to score as high.

Can we check out their orbit and decide if this should be on the MoCo or NoVa dim sum rotation? Can't get enough of them cuttlefish balls! Yum!

Every few years there are reports of electrolytic ot cvatalytic devices that raise gas mileage by 10% or 50% or more. Doesn't mean they work. When there is more than a 3 person panel from a newspaper involved, it will be interesting news. Now its just a claim, unsuported. Was the tasting blind? What were the protocols. Is a sample of 2 wines that, frankly, I would never think of consuming, any kind of general test?

First off make sure you are talking to the STL (the manager of the whole store), the ASTL (the assistants) or the Shift leader (the person in charge of the store in their absence. Secondly, what ttruly makes folk happy in my experience is a business that is growing and listens to the team members concerns. It is not a manager who lets things go and doesn't take people to task for not folling thru with their job duties. Letting folk slack and then having the floor team membners take the heat causes unhappiness.

At the risk of getting too political here.... In an area like U Street, there is a huge amount of money available for the big developers to do their thing. DC has a well documented "Old Boys" network among the inner circle of developers who can get endless money for their projects. For a small business just starting out, the only way to get money (thru the DC gov't programs or the SBA) is to both own the building and to open the business (or to have so much net worth that the financing is not necessary). So if you are our imaginary developer, say your name is Norman J just for sake of argument, and you are pretty tight with Mr. W and all the big development guys and you are getting a ton of tax breaks and subsidized to renovate a building on U Street into condos and mixed use, who do you wanna have as a tenant? Charbucks or a couple of coffee heads who love their product and have some money together to put up a coffee house (even if they are opening the next Tryst)? Potbelley or someone opening their first restaurant? A quirky retailer or Pottery-Restoration-Sonoma-Barrel-Barn? Of course you want the safe money. And I don't blame the developers for doing what they do. I just don't like it. Now look at some neighborhoods that are much more entrepreneurial and have avoided the huge mixed use "redevelopment" system, like Tenley Town, Cleveland Park and Capitol Hill. Much smaller scale development, much more home grown business. Also these neighborhoods have very active ANC's and are active communities. Some business people will complain about how hard it is to do business in these neighborhoods. Its been said that America has the best government that money can buy. But there are real differences in the results that result!

Having just ended 10 years to Whole Foods, I can give some insight to the issues... Each store has a SSI whi is in charge of scanning prices. Printing new shelf tags is trivially simple. You shoot the handheld at the shelf, the price in the computer system is read, and if there is a difference then a new tag should be printed or the item pulled. If the system is wrong (ie a sale price is not entered or entered incorrectly) an email to the proper buyer should have it corrected by the next day at the latest. Every price change automatically generates a new shelf tag which should be put up the day the price change comes through. If the item is not in stock on htat day, a shelf tag should be generated when the item is stocked. If an item is rung up at an incorrect price, my policy at the Tenley store, and prior to that at Silver Spring, was to give the product away free and then have the customer service desk or cashier fill out a scan blooper slip so the price could be reported to the regional office. Any store has the power to do this. The store should be scan checked every 6 weeks at the most. There is no reason, except bad operations at store level, for wrong pricing to persist. So if you do see something persist like that, it is because the Store Team Leader is more intimidated by their team members than by angry customers. It would damage their team member hapiness too much to know that they need to actually satisify the customer first, no questions asked. After all, who are they, Nordstroms?

They are open right now. Soft opening. DOn't really know anything about the new operators of the former Bricks. They had to do a fair amount of work on some structural elements I hear. They had a soft opening over the wekend but I have yet to hear any feedback. I think some of my waiters were there. Park Bench is still a few weeks away. Last I heard they are still working with the local powers that be over the enclosed glass bar on the Ordway side but they have cleaned up and spruced up the basement part. Lots of big screens etc. The owners have a couple of bars in Annapolic and Baltimore. They seem to be nice guys. Sports bar as well.

Raindrops keep falling on my head....

Don... I didn't word my announcement very well. In a change of policy, we are now taking reservations for parties of 5 or under as well as the previous policy of taking reservations for parties of 6 or more. And hey, I am honored to be condsidered in the same league as Ms Allen. Thanks Rocks!

When we originally opened, we did not know how people would dine at Dino. As we went thru the test dinner process, it was abundantly clear that some tables were taking 2-3 hours and some taking 1 hour. We just could not predict a table time to book by. Now that we have been open a while, we are much more predictable and know the flow of the room. So we can write a reservation book that lets us book half the restaurant, and keep half for walk ins and not lose a lot of money with empty tables. Given our pricing, we just cant afford to hold a table an hour for a reservation and lose business when reservations have a 20-30% chance of no show. Also by offering reservations, we can smooth out the flow which tends to hit us hard at 8pm. We only have so many tables available at 8 but we can offer tables at 7 or 7:30 or 9 etc.

New from Dino--- We are now taking reservations for any sized party!

We use Salumeria Biellese

There is no truth to the rumor that there are animals missing from the National Zoo...

Our new fall menu is making its debut tonight. We have increased the mercato selections and decreased the "permanent" selections. The best selling regular items are all still there, but we did eliminate a lot of dishes we felt did better as mercato items with a more limited run. Mercato items will now run for a week or two and the "regulars" will only change if seasonality forces us to change things. Ther Mercato is now on the main menu in the center. The separate page that used to be the mercato is now our chese and salumi selection. Starting next week, we will be adding some fun salumi: gunciale, and flat pancetta with herbs and spices are the first two. We may be able to get some lardo soon as well.

About 20 years ago, when the white zin craze was at a much higher peak than it is today, I was managing at Angeli restaurant in LA. We had a waiter, Julie, who was a tiny girl, and a dancer. She was all of 5' and maybe 85 or 90 pounds. One day these two big biker dudes got seated in her section. She was trying to sugest a wine for them. They were rude and condescending to her, so she gave up. I was about to intervene but she finally got them to pick a wine and they chose Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel Late Picked (well it might have been Pagani now that I think of it...). Julie got the wine and presented it to them. They didn't even stop for a second to look at her but, dismissively, wave her to open it and pour it. She pours a taste and they again dismiss her... "Just pour the shit!" was their chaming response. Julie has now turned dark red. She has also developed that glint in her eye that I always tried to avoid provoking as her boss. The jerks finally picked up their glasses and go to sip "that shit". They are taken aback that this wine is actually red! They snapped their fingers at Julie, who was pouring water at the adjacent table. "This shit is red!" "Yes!" replied Julie. "Zinfandel is that pink shit!" "THIS ......... IS ......... RED" growled Julie, now standing all 60 inches of her height, straight as a ramrod. The biker dude was looking at her and said "I wanted the pink shit." Julie now moved the water pitcher close to his head. Whether her intention was to give him a cooling shower or to kong him over the head with it, I was beginning to feel quite sorry for him. Julie was staring him down with one hand on her hip, the pitcher waving at his head and her eyes closed to mere slits. Well actually he was so tall and she so tniny that she was looking up at him slightly... but I digress. The biker dude showed, at first, anger on his face. Contempt then appeared. This wisely and quickly melted into meekness. Finally, with a sheepish tone, he muttered to his friend "Guess we'll be drinking the red shit." "Yes you will" said Julie sweetly, before performing a half turn on her toes and walking away with her dancer's grace. They wound up tipping her $40 on a $100 tab.

Thge Dino family is looking to adopt a host. While I will not promise that our family is not disfunctional, it certainly is a fun family. We have been open 90 days and our business continues to grow. We will be poening for lunch soon. We have a full time or part time position for host person. We are looking for someone who is energetic, outgoing with a great smile. You must be experienced and really care about our guests. If you are interested, please drop an e-mail to dean@dino-dc.com

We are up for it. We can do any time. AS tot he dim sum and what time issue, when we used to go to GF n a rgular basis we went at either 11 or 1 and it was always excellent. At about 12:30 they start putting out some more elaborate things, more substantial and lunch like than at 11:30. I find this to be true at Hollywood East as well. THe shabbiness at Good Fortune spread far more than the dim sum. FIlthy unrepaired bathroom, grubby waiters station, tables in disrepair, waiters not on the ball etc. None of that has to do with the time of day.

Whole grain bread spread with veganaise and grainy mustard and thick slabs of our last homegrown tomatoes.

I am sure there are 20 and 21 year olds who know one hell of a lot about wines. When I was 20 I worked at Wally's in West LA. Thru assiduous work, I managed to taste every California cabernet from both the 1974 and 1975 vintage. I mean I even arranged a tasting of every farking Inglenok Cask bottling (and there were something like 20 distinct cask bottlings!). Yet I just didn't know what a wine tasted like, year by year as it evolved over say 10 or 30 years. Just not enough miles on me. I did know what wines tasted like over a 2-3 year evolution as I was collecting wines by about 18. I was pretty damn good at matching California cabs or Zins or Chards with food. I had great breadth of knowlege but little depth. Thats one thing that, unless you are born into a wine priented family, that its hard to come by by age 20 or 22. Can a 20 or 22 year old do a great job with a wine list? Of course. Is there something more that someone with 20 or 30 years of experience can bring to the table? Yes. But only if they have the thirst for knowlege that the 20 year old just discovering the amazing world if wine. And some open mindedness. Great wine peeople are a real find, whereever you find them, whatever their age. However if you ask me who affected me most with wine service over teh years, they were all seasoned folk with more than a bit of grey in their hair. Thanks for this post which brought back memories of Paul at Scandia in Los Angeles who taught me what a White Burgundy was and Roberto at Fiaschetteria Toscana who always brings a little richness into my life when I have the joy of being told what to order- wine food and cheese. Maybe someday he will let me select something on my own!