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Bart

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Everything posted by Bart

  1. Bart
    My wife and I went the other night and absolutely loved it. We got the chef's tasting menu and much like Graffiato, there was A LOT of food. For $65 it was a great deal and we left beyond stuffed. Also like Graffiato, it seemed very flexible. If you wanted or didn't want something they seemed to do whatever you wanted. Mike Isabella was there in the kitchen directing traffic, seasoning and checking plates before they went out. It was refreshing to see a "named" chef actually working in the kitchen. We sat at the bar (my request) so we could see the show. I really liked the seats because we could talk to the all the chefs and see the dishes being made. When we got there at 6:30 the palce was pretty quiet (maybe 1/4 full). When we left around 9 the place was packed with every table full and a horde of 20 or more people around the door, and this was a Tuesday! I don't think they had a separate bar area so they were just standing there waiting. So if you go, make a reservation or go early!
  2. Bart
    I hate to come in here and get all negative, but as I was looking through the Mt. Vernon subsection of the Virginia section of the Dining Guide, I noticed this place was listed and I was a little (read A LOT) surprised it was included. I've only been there once (Jan 2012) so factor that in, but I have no desire to return. This is what I wrote for my first ever (and never submitted Yelp reivew): The first line was based on the raves on Yelp and the crowd in the place on a random winter weeknight. <<<< For the life of me I don't understand the positive reviews of this place. I went the other night with 2 other people and there were major problems with all the dishes. The calamari app was obviously not homemade and was right of a frozen bag. That's not a deal breaker but it was horribly bland Two of us got schnitzels which were ok, but one was ruined with the massive amounts of salad dressing they put on the salad on the same plate. The schnitzel ended up being a sponge for, and tasting like, the Italian dressing. The salad itself was one step above the most basic salad you could imagine at a supermarket salad bar. My schnitzel plate came with fries so I didn't have the dressing problem but the fries were also right out of a bag (frozen not fresh cut) and also bland. I never salt my food but had to tonight on the fries and calamari The third dish was the fish sandwich which was hard and dry and was left half uneaten. I wish I could like this place because it's VERY local for me, but this was just bad. >>>> If anyone has been more recently or has please post, because (as Tom S often says, and some here hate) I wanted to like this place!
  3. Bart
    Here's another review: http://dcist.com/2013/07/first_look_kapnos.php#photo-4 Here's an excerpt and a counterpoint to the "shi-shi" menu items above: "But the dish I'll be back for is the duck phyllo pie. It's got a little bit of everything going on: the crunchy, buttery phyllo shell gives way to tender duck meat, balanced out by a tangle of vinaigrette-kissed watercress, red onion, and bing cherries. It's a rare occasion when at least five different flavors and textures all play well together."
  4. Bart
    JK Rowling used it in Harry Potter a few times I think. But she's, you know, British.
  5. Bart
    Guilty. I don't know what "ad.mich" means but I was the one who objected to "price point" to Tom S. It makes no rational sense, but I'm driven mildly insane whenever I hear or see those words.
  6. Bart
    So what would happen if you didn't fix these things? Is it just a matter of aesthetics (more grey space and a bigger box)?
  7. Bart
    The insanity continues. Eater is reporting that they are opening a more exclusive area inside minibar called "Jose's Table". It's for 6 people max and you get additional dishes not on the regular menu. The good news is they roll up drinks, tax and tip into the price. The even better news is it only costs 3 grand! Yes, three thousand dollars. http://dc.eater.com/archives/2013/07/01/minibar-gets-even-more-exclusive-with-joses-table.php
  8. Bart
    I guess I'm just not that outraged or upset that he's hyping the fact he's about to "murder" a restaurant or the fact that he sometimes does murder restaurants in print. That's the job isn't it? Report the good, bad and the ugly. I don't know if you saw he's chat yesterday, but someone wrote in about going to Masa 14 and asking if there was any shell fish in a certain dish because her child had a severe allergy. The server checked with the chef and gave the thumbs up, but soon after eating the dish, the kid couldn't breathe. After more checking, they found out that a cutting board was used for both chicken and shrimp and was likely the source of the contamination. Anyhow, the thing that made the writer seethe with rage was the manager wouldn't let them leave (to go to the ER) until they paid the bill! Anyhow, if that happened to me, I'd want to murder the restaurant too, but that's maybe an extreme case, but I'm sure Tom has had some god awful experiences that go beyond bad to insulting to making you boil with rage. What's he supposed to do, bury the story?
  9. Bart
    I don't get your heartburn. Is it bad to use Twitter? Is is bad to give bad reviews? And why is he bad for the city? I'm asking honestly (not snarkily). I sometimes read comments like yours about Tom or Todd K or "DC food crititcs" and I'm never sure what the issue is or why we need to "throw all of them out and get some new blood in here"
  10. Bart
    I realize this comment is now out of date, but Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve fame likes this place. According to the "Chef's Feed" app, he lists Kimchi House as one of his favorites (only 5 other places were picked by him). Specifically, he likes the Bi Bim Bap, saying, "The best spot for family Korean cooking. The kimchi is made from vegetables grown in the restaurant's garden."
  11. Bart
    You went to school with Nate Silver!?!? Wow. For those that don't know him, in the last election, he successfully predicted the electoral outcome of every single state and (I think) all the congressional elections. He was predicting Obama to win by a wide margin for months prior to the election and was the whipping boy of lots of right wing media outlets as being just another liberal media type shilling for Obama. Turns out, he's just a guy who pours over tons of data, does some statistical analysis and and bats at nearly 1000 in the prediction business.
  12. Bart
    I'll echo this frustration with phone numbers. I was looking up some place recently and I wanted to call them for some reason, but the phone number was a scanned image and not clickable! I had to go back and forth between my phone screen and the web page about 5 times before I successfully typed in the number. Hardly the end of the world, but in this day an age it sould be punishable by a weekend in jail and 400 hours community service!
  13. Bart
    I'm nearly ready to give up drinking wine at dinner because of the prices. Or maybe I'll start pounding down a couple glasses in the car before going to eat! My wife and I were at Rasika a few weeks ago and the only Chardonnay they had was 60 bucks ($22 at Total Wine)! And that was one of the cheaper wines on the list. I don't buy $60 wines for home consumption, so why do I do it when I go out? Hell, for 60 bucks I could have had another meal!
  14. Bart
    That is hilarious and should be your signature line, or be put on a T-shirt or something. As for burgers in the running, I'd nominate the "Le Burger" from Bastille in Alexandria. My wife and I tried that place the other night and couldn't resist a burger that was topped with foie gras. Here's the description from the menu: Le Burger Smith Meadow Farm beef burger*, duck confit, foie gras 23 Caramelized onion marmelade, aioli*, tomato, lettuce. Pommes frites
  15. Bart
    Have you tried to find the 400's on ebay or craigslist? Maybe the ick-factor of used head phones is too much for you, but sometimes you can get new but discontinued items on ebay.
  16. Bart
    It's surprising that they didn't include Hartland Orchard in Markham (Exit 16 on Rt 66). It's the same exit you take to get to Hollin Farms, which they did include. The other surprising thing was that all the travel times were from Mclean, not Del Ray!
  17. Bart
    The line about DC places looking to Philly and NYC was well timed with this tweet yesterday from Tom Colicchio
  18. Bart
    Thanks for the info! I was orginally asking about freezing because I figured that $28 for a 5 pound order was pretty cheap, so I was thinking of ordering 10 pounds and storing it until it was needed. It was only then that I realized that it was $28 per pound with a five pound minimum! Sadly, that priced me out of both the 10 pound and 5 pound order. That was probably a mistake but it's too late now. Would I be able to come to your shop and get a pound or half pound of Sablefish or is it always sold in five pound portions?
  19. Bart
    I get a bag of their Gold Rush apples every week. If you've never had a Gold Rush, check them out. For my money, they blow away Honeycrisp or Fuji or Pink Lady or any other. Their sweetness is incredible (but make sure you eat them cold for the best flavor)
  20. Bart
    Is it a good or bad idea to order extra to freeze and use later? (the sable fish)
  21. Bart
    Have you grown them before? Have you had success? I gave up a few years ago becacuse they would always split and start to rot before they got fully ripe.
  22. Bart
    Yep! They're still there. They have great prices on plates and bowls too. We just redid our kitchen and my wife wanted plain white plates from Williams Sonoma. WS sells them for about $25 per plate. Best had damn near identical plates for $75 for dozen!
  23. Bart
    Don - I can't do myself and I'm not sure it even matters, but the Arcadia Farm dinner that was supposed to be on May 19 has been moved to this coming sunday, June 2nd. Here's the calendar link: http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?/calendar/event/1368-arcadia-farm-dinner-and-benefit/ I have no idea if this thing is sold out or if there are tickets still available, but it looks pretty cool. Anyone else going?
  24. Bart
    Interesting article on why it's so hard to get a table. "The Waits Are Too Damn Long: With So Many New Restaurants, Why Is It Still So Hard To Get A Table?" by Jessica Sidman on washingtoncitypaper.com
  25. Bart
    This place is worth a stop if you're in the area. My wife and I have been there a few times in the last couple of months and have always enjoyed it, and shocker of all shockers, the executive chef was there, *cooking* every time we've been there! They have two main dining rooms and a bar area in the back with a porch that looks out onto a nice yard/garden. They also have rooms available upstairs and if you hit it right, you can get some great deals. Back in Dec or early Jan, they had rooms for 70 bucks a night I think, and this is a B&B style place. Anyhow, we were there last friday night and I was thrilled to see that four and a half pages of their five page wine list was Virginia wines!! Even more exciting was they had some wines $12, $15 and $22 per BOTTLE! They had them in very limited quantites, and our first choice was sold out, but it was still a refershing surprise. They also have lots of events like wine dinners and tastings and music festivals.
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