Bart

Thanks Don! We have a French drain (put in by previous owners) which helps I'm sure, but is not getting it all done. We recently bumped out the kitchen wall and the contractors tried to regrade the backyard to help the water drain off, but it actually made things a little worse. So now we're left with a small depression between the house the edge of the yard. it slopes off the the east for a bit, but then the ground slopes up a little so the water gets "stuck". My unprofessional opinion is that I need some fill dirt to level off the sunken area, and then I need a little grading to channel the drainage around the house and out to the front (which is downhill from the backyard)

I liked you more when you talked about listening to the Grateful Dead, but I'll take Widespread over Dave Mathews any day of the week! Anyhow, I just booked a table for your Sanguis Wine Dinner. Sounds great, can't wait!

Thanks Joe - I get that about Linden, but my real question was about your thoughts on the Gov's Cup. I'm not sure I understand the point you're making. A cut and paste from above: <<<< Are you saying that the fix is in and the Governor's Cup hands out prizes to C-ville and Richmond for political or tourism reasons? Or is it something else? Surely they can't award RdV or Linden or any other NoVA vineyard the top prize if they don't enter. >>>

The chef has recently left, and I don't know if they still have it, but the Westend Bistro has an "At The Pass" table/counter. We had a wonderful meal with tons of interaction with the headliner chef as well as the guys working the stoves. Great value too.

Thanks for all the info and insight Joe, but I don't think I understand it!!! Are you saying that the fix is in and the Governor's Cup hands out prizes to C-ville and Richmond for political or tourism reasons? Or is it something else? Surely they can't award RdV or Linden or any other NoVA vineyard the top prize if they don't enter. And as a possibly related aside, I find the Linden situation hilarious (in a good way). They've always limited the number of guests ("no buses, no limos, no parties larger than 6"), and a few years ago they only let "case club" members drink our on their deck, but more recently they've disappeared from the "Virginia Wine World". And by that I mean the state vineyard map (an actual paper folding map) and the state winery web site. I have an old VA winery map from maybe 5 years ago and Linden was on it, but on the last couple, it has vanished!! Same thing for the VA state winery website.........Linden used to be on it, but now they're not.

Has anyone been here in the last 4 and a half years?!!?!? I'm meeting a friend there tonight and the lack of action on this thread makes me nervous. Anyone have any recent feedback?

Not me! I like it right where it is. I'm a little confused though. Is current location (which will be renamed) going to keep the same menu? Will the new location (with the current name) have a different menu? I know nothing of the restaurant business or marketing, but wouldn't be easier to keep the current successful restaurant where it is and with the same name, and open a new place in a new location with a new name?

Thanks! Couldn't open it at work, but I'll try at home.

Alexandria, down near Mt. Vernon. Can you post the link or company names? Thanks!

I'm looking for someone to fix the drainage problem I have in the back yard. This is different from the "bad drainage, muddy yard and want to grow grass" thread in here somewhere. I have grass, but when it rains long and hard, or when a lot of snow melts, we get a lake back there. And if it's not a lake, it's usually soft and soggy for days. The previous owners put in a french drain which might have worked way back when, but doesn't anymore. Has anyone successfully dealt with this kind of thing? Who'd you use? Thanks!

I think this goes directly to your point about everyone's time being over scheduled and free time being in short supply. Someone might be able to handle a 10, 20, 30 minute wait on hold every day until you get a minibar reservation. The up front work guarantees them a seat at the table which can be scheduled and blocked off. But the same person might not be able to risk a 3 hour wait on the chance they get into the hot, new, no reservations place.

Jacques is on (Bourdain's) "The Taste" tonight

Yeah I know, but let's just say I work for a "company" that employs A LOT of people in this town. If all of them can't see the menu, it may be bad for business. Not yet obviously!

The "no reservations" question came up on the Washingtonian chat yesterday. It sounds like it was initiated by the same grumpy person who posted on chowhound last week about Rose's "lack of respect for the customer"

Funny. My wife and I were there (our first time) last Wednesday too. We got there a little before six and there were only 2 bar seats and a couple of tables left. We also loved the pork-lychee salad. It was our favorite dish by far for being so tasty and so weird (in a good way) and so different than anything we've had before. This was a server recommendation that we probaby wouldn't have chosen on our own. Take their advice!! The only thing we didn't love was the langoustine special. There was nothing wrong with it other than the size-to-price ratio. For 19 bucks we got 3 half langoustines. Each one had less meat in them than average sized shrimp. They tasted fine but the price seemed way too high and out of line with other, better and more filling options. The only other thing I'll note (in case anyone from Rose's is reading this) is my that work computer won't let me access the menu. I can get to the site, but when I click the "menu" tab, a new window opens up and I get this message: Your request http://rosesluxury.com/the-menu/ was denied because of its content categorization: "Restaurants/Dining/Food;Suspicious" I don't recall having that problem with any other restaurant. The other frustrating thing is that when I open the menu on my iphone, I can't "stretch" (enlarge) the menu graphic and it's so small that it's unreadable. If they could fix one or both, that'd be great! PS - I do have pictures I can post, but I don't want to offend anyone (Don!) from the other thread

Yep! Just up the hill from the flea market. Very strange

The Apprentice is a great book! If you have any interest at all in Jacques, read this book! It's a quick read. If you know nothing about Jacques, reading this book will make you think he's the coolest guy in the world. If you know a ton about Jacques, reading this book will confirm that he's the coolest guy in the world.

I was going to make IALW's "Tuna Masquerading as Fillet Mignon". The foie gras is not a required component so I'll do without this time. This link looks like a word for word copy of the cookbook: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/filet-mignon-rare-tuna-recipe

Thanks! I just found these: http://www.dartagnan.com/Foie-Gras-Cubes/ZDUFG008-1,default,pd.html?dwvar_ZDUFG008-1_freshFrozenWeight=Frozen%20%2f%201%20lb&cgid=Fresh_Foie_Gras#start=4 1 lb of irregular cuts for $31. This would be perfect for my dish.

Thanks! Maybe someday, but not today! The foie was more of an extra for the recipe so I'll probably just skip it.

Not sure if this belongs here or in "Help Needed", but anyway, I'm trying to recreate an Inn At Little Washington dish that calls for seared foie gras and have no idea if you can get it around here. Is there anyplace that sell it in a non-mousse form?

This is from Todd Kliman's chat today in response to someone who commented that none of Voltagio's restaurants (Volt, Range, Family Meal) made the top 100:

I agree. I think Nina also got screwed by not having an ice cream maker in her kitchen. I have no idea if that's a standard piece of equipment, but she seemed to expect one to be there. Also Emeril said he couldn't eat Nick's duck dish, but he ate all of Nina's swordfish. To me, that should have eliminated Nick right there.

We ended up picking Water and Wall because of Don's recommendation and the fact that it was only a half a mile from our final destination:

Taking Don's advice from my question in the "help needed" forum, my wife and I stopped by this place last night. We had very limited time between work and a 7 pm commitment so we only got drinks and apps. There were lots of parking spots available on the street and we parked directly in front of the place. Surprising for a Friday night I thought. We got there a little after 6 (in time for free parking) and left a little after 7. The place looked fairly empty, but we were there early and stayed only in the bar area. When you walk in, there's a 10 or so seats at the bar and a few low tables with seating for another 10 or so. The main restaurant is to the right of the door/bar area and we never went in there so I'm not sure what what happening in there. The service was great - very friendly, casual, fun and attentive. Our main server was the bartender but we also interacted with a couple other women (hostess and manager maybe?). They were all very hot! ;-) When we sat down our server/bartender asked if she could check our coats and we said no thanks, but a couple minutes later my wife's coat slipped off the chair next to her and when she picked it up to stuff it in the corner, the hostess noticed this and ran over and asked if she could check it for us. Nice catch on her part! A little later in the meal, a third woman (manager?) stopped by and asked how our food was and if the wings were too hot. I sort of joked that they could be hotter and she immediately offered to bring out some hotter sauce. It wasn't at all necessary, and we had a nice chat about the place and how they are going to expanding the menu and offering new dishes. The menu itself was pretty small. You can see it on their site, but there were only maybe 10 entrees and 10 apps. (just checked....it's actually 9 of each). They also had an additional appetizer and main course special that was not on the menu. Actually the menu online is similar but different to the one we saw last night. Since our time was short, we only ordered apps, but they had happy hour specials on 3 apps and a couple mixed drinks and a few whites, reds and one rose. They all looked to be about half price from the regular menu. We got the octopus special which was good, but not as tender as the most recent one I had at Kapnos. We also got the steak frites with truffle aioli, chicken wings with your typical buffalo wing sauce spruced up with creme fraiche, and the sweet breads. The sweet breads were served on a bed of relish and covered with the (now) very spicy wing sauce (this time without the creme fraiche). It was a very interesting combo that worked well. The sweet breads themselves were melt in your mouth delicious......they could be "tongue chewed". No teeth required! They were my favorite dish of the night. Four glasses of wine and four appetizers only cost us 63 bucks before tip (happy hour pricing) but because of the great service the meal ended up being just shy of $80! ;-) This is not really a convenient area for us to get to, and it's not close to home, but if I'm ever in the area again, I'd make a effort to go back. Two thumbs up!