Bart

This just a guess, but I doubt it. The one time I was there, there was a line about 20 or 30 people deep 15 or 20 minutes before they opened. Right at 5:30, the door opened and people started going in and getting seated and I don't think anyone ever came out to survey the line or see if anyone needed anything. This was a couple years ago, just before Tom's review came out in the Post, so maybe things have changed since then, but like I said, I doubt that it would have. It sort of goes against their "no substitutions" vibe. There's no waiting area, or chairs inside either, so your best bet may be to bring a little collapsible chair, or show up after the initial rush and put your name on the list for a later seating. PS - thanks to you other two for the info!!

Any recent intelligence on the line situation here? What's it like a typical week night in November, say tomorrow (thursday)?

To answer your last question.............live, LIVE L I V E !!!!!!!!!!!! One of the reasons Bob's studio albums were so "bad" in the 80s is he didn't mesh well with the super modern recording techniques. He's more of a "get it down in one take and move on" type of performer and not a "meticulously assemble a track from hundreds of versions where each instrument recorded separately and assembled like a ship in a bottle" He's famous (or infamous) for recording songs in one take, especially in the early days. And if there were a second or third take, the song would often be quite different from the version they just played. It drove the musicians nuts! That's an interesting observation you made about the harmonica coming in before the vocal ended. I'll have to check it out. I would have bet money that (especially) the first album was recorded live, with no overdubs. Then again, maybe he didn't have that kind of pull as an unproven artist.

Also this brings up a point that Tom S sometimes makes..............if he gets freebies like champagne or a few extra shrimp or larger than normal piece of foie gras, he may mention it his review which will lead the rest of us to expect the same. When we don't get it, we'll be disappointed and suffer in silence, vent to our companions or post a negative review here, on chowhound, on yelp, etc. So this kind of thing could back fire in the long run. Sure the "free champagne" may get me in the door once, but if I don't get it, or if I don't get all the wonderful freebies that bloggers get (which I'm now expecting) I'm unlikely to return since I'll feel like I'm getting ripped off.

Where did this happen? How often does it happen? Are you a food blogger or is this all about your name showing up in your posts? How do I add my name to my signature block?!!??!?

Yes, no and maybe. I'm worried Don will get turned off by the solo acoustic singer/songwriter stuff before he explores any of the other 20 phases Bob went through. Part of what made those albums so earth shattering was the time period in which they were released. Performers didn't write their own songs back then. It just wasn't done. Song writers wrote songs, musicians played the music and the singer sang the lyrics. They were three different entities. And no one but Bob even dreamed of coming up with lyrics like he did. Looking back at it now (for the first time) you lose some of the shocking intensity that those early releases created. (I didn't live it first hand either but I've read dozens of books on Bob so I'm very aware of what a paradigm shift Bob caused. I don't want that to be lost on Don if he's wrapped up in Bob's weird voice or simple songs) And for me, I'd rather hear Freewheelin' than Another Side, but I'll take either over Ke$ha!

Bummer. Did you check stubhub and/or craigs list? Those options will probably very pricey though. (on the other hand, 2 tickets from Ticketbastard cost me $279.60 and I'm nowhere near the front row.......suddenly Cityzen or the Inn at Little Washington seems downright reasonable) I'd bet you could get a better deal out front on the night of the show. But that's a pain to deal with.

If you get tired of the acoustic, old timey, folky, dustbowl stuff, skip ahead to Blood on the Tracks. Even if you don't get tired of that stuff, skip ahead to Blood on the Tracks.

And there's also a great version of If Not For You on the "Another Self Portrait" official bootleg that MC Horoscope motioned. Same song, only completely different! And I'll second the disagreement with RWBoone's assessment of the Grateful Dead! While they were the first "jam band", they really have almost no relation to the current crop of jam bands other than they all play long songs. Musically, lyrically, and vocally the Dead were head and shoulders above Phish, moe, Leftover Salmon, etc. Dave Mathews is just a pop band with some "weird" instruments thrown in, which I guess gets them grouped with the rest, but they really don't belong!

Did anyone see Anthony Bourdain's CNN show in Tokyo? He hangs out with and interviews sushi master Naomichi Yasuda. Among the things that were shocking (to me anyway) was the fact that Yasuda favors cheaper fish than the "high end" sushi chefs and he uses "weird cuts" of the fish. He also takes fresh (never frozen) fish, cuts it up, and then freezes it for weeks. It's supposed to make it more tender. The biggest shocker was when Bourdain asked him what was more important in sushi, the quality of the fish or the quality of the rice, and Yasuda answers without hesitation, "the rice" ?!?!?! Who knew?!?! You can probably find the entire episode on youtube or hulu (or maybe even the CNN site), but here's a blurb on it: http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/season-2/tokyo/

Just saw on the news this morning that "Komi will be closed today because of the fire" Not sure what this really means since they're closed on Mondays normally.

I still order CDs (gasp) and have never downloaded a song from iTunes (double gasp). If you want to get songs cheaper you can hear snippets of songs on bobdylan.com and also on amazon. You can also go the pandora route and make a Bob Dylan channel, but I've tried that and it ends up being a greatest hits channel with very little variety. There's a free streaming site called bobdylanradio.com which is great, but it's geared to the obsessed fanatic, not the casual fan or newbie. For every album track they play, the next 5 or 10 will live songs or studio outtakes from bootleg recordings. For you, that'd be like going right to a PhD class and skipping the 101, 201, 301 level classes. There's also spotify"¦"¦"¦.but I don't know what that is! Other than some kind of free music site. Then there's the illegal download route on bit torrent sites like piratebay As for the question on how important it is too actually watch him? For a freak like me, it's hugely important and adds a whole other level of improvisation to what he does to the songs. His facial expressions as he sings are sometimes priceless and nearly as entertaining as the music. I've often though that the Smithsonian should film every one of his shows and just concentrate on his face as he delivers the lyrics. It's art and it needs to be preserved! Unfortunately Bob is very camera shy and would never and has never let that happen. The best way to see it is up close at shows, and the modern day Dylan is less expressive than he used to be. There is some live stuff on youtube, but I'm not sure if it's the "classic" over the top, expressive Dylan.

Thanks Daniel"¦"¦.looks like I'm too late for that dinner. Bummer PS to my post - - I forgot to mention the best part of the meal. Besides the food, and the service that is. The music. THE MUSIC! We heard: Grateful Dead - Estimated Profit Bob Dylan - Gotta Serve Somebody Wilco - Jesus, Etc. Two of my all time favorites and my current/modern all time favorite. Take that Don Rockwell!

We may have to arrange a listening party for you. No food talk. All Bob talk PS - I don't want to hijack this thread and make it all about live Dylan. His studio stuff is amazing and it's what 99% of the people know. More on that later"¦"¦.off to a field hockey game with "Thistle" (well, her daughter)

A couple of point here. The changing the cadence/accents/chords/lyrics is not really shock value to shock the audience. It's more to surprise you with awesomeness and show you a different presentation of the song. Think Layla by Eric Clapton. There's the original fast, rockin' version and then there's the mellow, laid back acoustic version. Two different vibes, two different feelings, two different songs. But really only one song. Now imagine 50 different versions of Layla. That's what you get with live Dylan"¦"¦.. dozens of versions of your favorite songs. Imagine if you could see your favorite operas performed completely differently and they still packed as much of a punch as the original? Or maybe ended up being more moving than the original? But in all honesty, Bob isn't doing it for the fans, he's doing it for himself. There's a quote by him from way back in the early 60s where he says something like "I can't imagine anything worse than playing a song the same way over and over again" And many of his songs and albums were recorded in one take! There are tons of stories of session players saying they didn't know the chords until seconds before playing the song and then 10 minutes later Bob would do the same song with all different chords (that they also didn't know) or with rewritten lyrics. And I don't think you have to be a master of Dylan to appreciate him, but like anything else, the more you know about the subject, the more you can take from it. I remember reading some Shakespeare play in high school and not really understanding and certainly no liking it. But after we discussed it in class and learned what was really going on and the symbolism (or whatever it was), it took on a whole new meaning and suddenly became much better. To your line about "no musical talent and horrible singing voice", I'll leave you with a quote from Gene Weingarten of the Post"¦.."People who think Dylan can't sing probably also think Van Gogh can't draw

My wife and I went to Cityzen last night (actually October 29th) for the first time and it lived up to, and surpassed all expectations. In fact, it blew them out of the water! It was the exact date of our 20th anniversary and I put a little note in the Open Table reservation saying something like, "It's our 20th anniversary to the day, so if EZ wants to go completely off the rails and make something crazy, we're up for it". I'm always looking for one of those Anthony Bourdain experiences where he goes into a place and just has the chef cook whatever he feels like cooking. No menus, no choices, just course after course of wonderfulness. Unfortunately, I've never had it happen before tonight. When we got to the hostess stand, she wished us a happy anniversary and when we got to the table we were presented with a card signed by the entire staff. The first was sort of expected, but the card was certainly not expected. Very nice touch! Our waiter (not really sure if waiter is the right term, but more on that later) came over with the with the menus and explained them: "On the left is the Chef's 6 Course Tasting Menu, below that is the 6 Course Vegetarian Tasting Menu, and on the right is a 4 Course Menu where you can choose one dish in each of the four categories" and then he said, "Or if you like, the chef can make a special menu just for you". I asked if that was because I put that little note in the Open Table reservation and he said yes it was. Naturally we jumped on that offer along with the wine pairings. We later learned that we were the only ones that night that had that special meal/menu, but it's something they offer all the time if someone asks. So my advice to anyone going there before they close is to ask for the special, secret, request-only menu. You won't regret it! A photo of the menu is attached. It lists 9 courses, but there were a couple more amuse bouche type things thrown in here and there. 5 courses appeared on either the 6 course tasting menu or the 4 course menu; the other 4 didn't appear on any menu! The regular 6 course tasting menu costs $120, but our extended menu was $165 each. Expensive, but worth it. We also got the wine pairings which on the 6 course menu are listed at $85/$135 for normal wines/vintage rare wines. We opted for the "normal" wine pairing but were charged $135 each, but I'm assuming the higher price was because we had the extended menu. Expensive but also worth it. We started out with a glass of pomegranate infused champagne which may have been part of the wine pairings or may have just been an anniversary gift from the house. I'm not quite sure, but it is something I want to try to make at home. They told us they cook down pomegranate seeds into a syrup and then add it to the champagne. The rest of the wines were all over the map and all were great. There was one glass (more like a half glass) per course, but I think there might have been an extra couple thrown in here and there. To the best of my recollection we had 4 whites, 4 reds, 2 dessert wines and finished up with port! Naturally each one of them came in a different shaped glass and most were things we wouldn't order (but that's why we did it) like a Riesling (very dry), a Gewurztraminer (also dry), a Chianti (huge and bold), not to mention the dessert wines and the port. My only regret is we didn't get a list of the wines we had. Back to the staff/servers"¦..there were a lot of them and they were all very professional, all dressed in suits, not snooty or stuffy, but ridiculously knowledgeable. We ended up having conversations with 3 or 4 of them and they all seemed to be long time employees. Our French waiter (he took our order) and wine pourer was there 8 years I think, the manager (?) was there 9 years, the guy pouring the water and clearing the plates has been there since day one! We talked to the manager (?) about growing up around here and eating scrapple, souse and head cheese that his grandmother used to make. After we asked our waiter where he was from (Provence), we talked about our mutual love of rosé. When we asked him why he thought it was so popular in the States now he said, "because ees sooo good!" We talked to the sommelier about where he was in Court of Master Sommeliers program, and what he thought of Virginia wines. He even hooked us up with a dessert wine from Linden Vineyards after we talked about how much we both loved that place. The food of course, was exquisite. Every dish was masterpiece of flavors, and layers, and textures and even temperatures. There were a couple of dishes that were mostly served cold (fish dishes), but also had a warm piece of vegetable (or some ingredient) included as well so you got this wonderful and surprising contrast. During one of those dishes, I said to my wife, "this is like that McDonalds dish where "˜the hot stays hot and the cool stays cool'". Later near the end of the meal we got to thank Chef Ziebold for a wonderful meal and I mentioned the temperature contrast like the McDonalds meal "where the hot stays hot and the cool stays cool" and Eric immediately said, "Yeah, the McDLT!" Too funny he remembered that. One of the warm/cold dishes was the amuse bouche we had that I think was called a Lobster Crepe. It wasn't a traditional crepe shape at all but instead was like a compressed cylinder that was wider than it was tall. It was some sort of cool lobster wonderfulness in the middle wrapped in a warm crepe skin on the outside and topped with little crunchy things that were sort of a high end shoestring potatoes. Some of our other favorites were: "Charred Sashimi of Skuna Bay Salmon" which came out looking like a miniature rectangular pizza but instead of having tomatoes and pepperoni on it, it salmon and mango and micro greens on it. The crust of the "pizza" was a super thin crispy layer of fried tofu. "Globe Artichoke Gratin" which is a funny name since the star of the dish a couple pieces of melt in your mouth sea urchin. "Poached Main Lobster Cassoulet". Enough said! Except to say that the broth was so good it could have been served plain in a glass and we would have loved it. "Sautéed Moulard Duck Foie Gras" This was probably our favorite dish of the night. It was very nicely sized slab of seared foie gras on top of a "dumpling" of the most tender pulled pork you can imagine, and wrapped in a "dumpling wrapper" of cabbage. All of that was sitting in a little pool of broth that the menu describes as "Darden Ham Emulsion". It might sound weird, or like too much meat but it was absolutely heavenly. I pity the poor vegetarians out there. ;-) The duck breast and lamb dishes (2 separate dishes) were no slouches either but the four dishes above were our favorites. I love root beer and have never had a more intense root beer taste than in the "Cityzen Root Beer Float". I don't know how they did it, but it's like they took all the flavor in a 2 liter bottle of root beer and compressed down into a few bites in the dessert. After that we got few more things that were not on the menu. One was a little plate some small cookies and little scoop of ice cream with "Happy Anniversary" written in chocolate calligraphy and the second was our fourth dessert(!) plate which had a tiny, airy vanilla milkshake and a "bar" of chocolate mousse with a few little brownie/cookie things here and there. It was all too good for words. I now understand why Don and others rave about EZ and Cityzen. It's on a whole other level. At some point near the end of the meal, we saw Chef Ziebold (who was in the kitchen working all night) take off his blue apron and we were worried he was going to leave before we could thank him. We asked our waiter if he was leaving for the night, and he said, no he was just getting more comfortable. Then about 5 minutes later, who arrives at our table but the Chef himself. We of course gushed over the food, talked about the McDLT, talked about his new place, which if I remember correctly is going to be at least as formal as Cityzen. I think I asked if he was going to go more in the direction of Rose's Luxury and he said it was going to be another formal place. He probably spent more than 5 minutes talking to us and couldn't have been nicer and more gracious. It was the perfect cap to a perfect night. On the way out we stopped by the kitchen to thank the rest of the chefs, thanked our waiter, thanked the water guy/plate clearer, thanked the sommelier and thanked the manager at the door. The experience was so perfect that we felt the need to thank them all personally. When I asked the manager if it was possible to get an email tomorrow with a list of the dishes we had, he handed me an 8X10 envelop and said, "why wait until tomorrow, you can have it right now" The final perfect detail to a perfect meal.

All the links are worthwhile (to me) except links to twitter accounts. I can see myself wanting links to the restaurant itself to check hours, phone number or the menu and I can see having links to the discussion threads for current info on what to get/avoid. But if I don't see the need for twitter info.

Sometimes I use the Guide and other times I use the Guide, but I think they are two different things and now I can only find one. The one I can find now has lists of restaurant links broken out geographically by words: "Dupont Circle to Georgetown", "14 St North of G St". The one I can no longer find has an interactive map where you click on a certain neighborhood, "Federal Triangle", "Chinatown" and then you get lists of restaurants. I'm pretty sure they both used to be accessible through this site, but I don't find the "map" version anymore. Does that one still exist?

The "problem" with getting into Dylan is you almost have to be an expert on his entire catalog to fully appreciate his brilliance. I'm talking about Bob as a live performer here. For him, a song is a living thing that grows and ages and changes. This drives some people crazy because they want to hear the song they know, not the one that Bob is performing......."I couldn't even tell it was Tangled Up In Blue until halfway through the song" (said in cranky, whinny voice). Sometimes he'll rework a song for an entire tour and then go back to the original way, sometimes the song will change from tour to tour to tour and never sound like the studio version again. Shelter From The Storm is a good example. The studio version is absolute perfection, but he's probably done 10 different and distinct versions - - a slow version, a fast version, a reggae version, an old time country version, a version where the first 3 lines of the stanza are normal, but the last one done in a completely different way, a version where he jams all of the lyrics of the line into the first measure of the verse instead of spreading them out over all 4 measures, etc, etc, etc. Then there are a million variations of inflections and accents that he does within a line of verse or within a single word. (Not accents like an Italian accent obviously, but putting emphasis on the first part of the line, or the last part, or the first part of a word, etc.). So the chord progression might be the same for a couple of these different "versions" but the way he accents the delivery of the lyrics turns them into completely different songs. Then he'll completely change the chords to the song while keeping the lyrics the same. I'm not talking about slight change in chords or an extended intro, I'm talking about a complete rewrite of the all chords so the entire sound and feel of the song is different. Sometimes these re-writes are done in advance so a fully rewritten and fully realized song is presented. Other times, he'll rewrite the song as he's performing it so you end up with something very different than you started with. I witnessed this live during once during what is now my favorite version of Mr. Tambourine Man. The song started out fairly normally (not like the album version, but a standard version for that year (2000)). The lyrics were delivered in a standard way, and were sung normally. But about halfway through the song he started stretching our the first word in each line and then singing the rest in a staccato type of delivery. As the song went on, the first word got stretched out longer and longer and the staccato got more and more pronounced, so instead of lines being delivered like they're written: Take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind Down the foggy ruins of time, Far past the frozen leaves The haunted, frightened trees, Out to the windy beach Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow They ended up sort of like this: Taaaaaake me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind Dooooown the foggy ruins of time, Faaaaaar past the frozen leaves Theeeeee haunted, frightened trees, Ooooout to the windy beach Faaaaaar from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow The bolded parts are the syllables that he emphasized in a staccato way. It's impossible for me to accurately describe what the song and vocals actually sounded like but what I wrote is a rough approximation. You have to hear it to fully appreciate it, but back to my first point, unless you know what it's supposed to sound like and have already heard a thousand other versions that weren't like this, this one wouldn't probably be as mind blowing. But for me, who is very familiar with the song, this version was mind blowing. And to see him rework it on the fly was even more mind blowing. But Bob, in his typically perverse way, never delivered those lyrics in the same way again. One and done. On to the next version. Constant change

This is from a little write up I did for myself when we last ate there, exactly 3 years and 2 days ago: <<< Next up was called A Tin Of Sin. The description from the menu reads, "American Osetra Caviar with Peekytoe Crab and Cucumber Rillette". It was a small metal tin covered with a layer of caviar which sat on top of a layer of cucumber which sat on top of a layer of crab. (I may have mixed up the order of the last two layers.) It was served on a layer of slate for the plate and came with two pieces of small, but thick and fluffy bread and a little mother of pearl spoon. (See first photo below) The idea was to use the spoon to scoop through all 3 layers and place it on the bread to eat. And the taste, WOW! This might have been the best dish all night! (See second photo below) I don't know how to describe it, but it was wonderful. We could have eaten a vat of caviar/cucumber/crab mixture and loaves of the bread. On the regular 3-course menu, the Tin Of Sin was a $24 supplement! >>> As I said upthread, I don't have specific memories of everything we ate that night (though we loved every bit of it), but this dish was and still is burned into my brain and taste buds

If I were you I'd do the Gastronauts Tasting menu and I'd get it with all the extras/supplements. Yeah, it's expensive, but if you're making the trip and spend a lot of money already, don't skimp out at the last minute. On of my favorite dishes was the "Tin Of Sin" which was a supplement to the regular menu. I've forgotten a lot of the dishes we had, but that one is burned into my brain. Worth every penny. On the wine thing............Welcome to 2014. Sure, it may qualify highway robbery, but damn near every place out there jacks up the wine prices like that. Did you see Tom S's chat this week? Someone paid $30 for a GLASS of wine at Fiola Mare. Also, there are VA wineries (RdV) charging $95 per bottle at the vineyard! All of it is enough to make you quit drinking or bring your own bottle and pound it down in the parking lot, but that's the way it is.

I found this blog post via twitter. Lots of beautiful photos, a review, and a timeline of the chefs' careers. (is that apostrophe in the right place!??!)

Wow! I've made regular stock/broth before, but it only takes 8 or so hours. What do you get from bone broth that you don't get from regular broth? A deeper, richer taste?

The Whole Ox makes and sells their own broth (lamb, pork and beef) so you could get some "home made" broth from there.

Wow. How sad and how brutal. I didn't know him, but remember being very impressed after reading a long article about him in the Post (?) last year. He seemed larger than life and an unstoppable force. Screw ebola, that cancer is the real evil. Rest in peace, and thoughts and prayers to his family.