Bart

Great photos as usual Eric!  Are you just using your phone?  Do you tweak them with some app after the fact?

Don -

   You missed this little nugget.  $995 per person and if that wasn't ridiculous enough they add insult to injury by tacking on an ultra tacky $5 "fee".  

Also, this........😂

PS - I'm a fan of the chef and love Bresca, but what did Maya Anjelou say......."When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."   😂

16 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

 

The service and food were fantastic.  I'm just not sure I really buy into the pricing of high end sushi.

 

Can you expand on this Eric?  What do you mean?  Are you saying that high end sushi is expensive, but it shouldn't be that expensive?  In other words if the piece of tuna on your plate cost $10 to buy, prepare and serve, they will charge you $20 for it?

What are you complaining about Eric?  That's a mere 240% increase from earlier in this thread!

I'm beginning to think some of these places are pushing the envelop to absurd levels because there are enough suckers and fools out there to support this insanity, present company excluded of course!  I mean, I have no problem dropping stupid money on a great meal, but lately things have gotten ridiculous.  I was looking at the menu for Jont (sister restaurant to Bresca) the other day and the cheapest wine by the glass is $20!  (You can get the entire bottle of that Pinot Noir retail, for $23!).  The average price for all of their wines by the glass is 40 bucks!!!  They also have an item on the menu called "Jont goes all in" for $650!!  Not sure if that includes wine or not, but it doesn't mention that, so I doubt it.  They also charge you a $2 processing fee for making a reservation, WTF?!?!  You'd think they could just eat that charge for those kind of prices.  #tacky.

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand, I took my daughter to Sushi Taro for her 21st birthday last November and we got the $100 Kaiseki meal and it was transcendent.  I probably ruined both kids for "regular" sushi for the rest of their lives, but maybe I'm naïve and clueless (guilty!) but I find it hard to believe that this meal would be twice as good as what Sushi Taro put out.  I realize that "twice as good" is a ridiculous and unmeasurable statement, but if I had $200 burning a hole in my pocket, I'd hit up Sushi Taro twice, in a heartbeat.

Eric - why?  There are tons of "weird" dumplings on the dim sum menu so why don't "normal" dumplings make the cut?

But the real reason for my post was to say that I did a large carry out order from here last night and they threw in a free order of Sesame Chicken!  

These guys are doing their second annual Kinship Roast Chicken Dinner on Sunday night, and shockingly, even in the pandemic, it's not sold out.  I just got an email saying seats are avaialble.

https://kinshipdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Kinship-Roast-Chicken-Dinner-2021-1.pdf

I like the comments!  Check out the comments to this Glenn Kessler/Fact Checker article on Biden's address last night where he's desperately looking for something to be horrified over:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/11/fact-checking-bidens-address-nation/

This comment pretty much nailed the article in a nutshell:  Kessler's summarization that the speech was "light on facts" was more misleading than either of the two things he complains about.

On 3/3/2021 at 8:22 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

 

This poster's bitch-fest is so wrong and @Tom Sietsema just enabled her.  As a frequent user of Opentable, I know how it works.  If you want an outdoor table, you can specify it in your search by checking the box that says "Outdoor" under seating options.  And when you make a reservation, you have to select an outdoor table.  You cannot make an indoor reservation and just put you want an outdoor table in the comment box.  

Same with Resy and Tock - each reservation time states specifically if it's dining room or outdoor.  

As a counterpoint perhaps, I recently made a reservation at some place which I no longer remember, on an app which I no longer remember for an indoor table, but when I got the confirmation email, it was for an outdoor table.   This was in January and not in a warm spell, so I called the restaurant to try to get this changed, and the person on the phone basically said, "Yep, we have you down as inside, but the app doesn't allow the distinction" or something like that.   

Apologies for the fuzzy memory, but the gist of it was, I reserved an indoor seat, and was given an outdoor seat, but the restaurant knew what I actually selected.  So maybe the apps are not always as straightforward as they could/should be.  

I made a very similar post like this last fall.  My father's interment was at 9am so I was looking for a brunch/lunch place.  Busboys and Poets seemed prefect because they were open all day including breakfast and was very close (Shillington).  The deal breaker was that because of Covid we would all have to sit at different tables (6 per table max) and they couldn't set up a coffee station or a buffet and they wouldn't let us mingle about.  It would have been a bunch of people sitting a different tables not mixing and not mingling.  I don't blame the restaurant for the restrictions of course, but it ended up being more trouble than it was worth.  We ended up just going back to my house and having it "catered" by a few wonderful neighborhood friends.

I realize this wasn't much help, but when you're looking at places, make sure you find out how normal/abnormal the situation in the restaurant will be.

Hahhaha!  No worries Don.

I went in there once a couple years ago on a pilgrimage to see the White House Christmas Tree, and to eat at Central.  Since it was right across the street, we took a stroll through the lobby, and honestly, putting my hate and disgust for Dolt45 aside, I wasn't that impressed with the inside.  It's a great old building, but it seemed a little weird with this enormous, cavernous space that was part hotel lobby (front desk/check in), part bar area, and part restaurant(?).  I think there were tables there with people eating but I can't completely remember.  All of those spaces sort of merged into each other with no demarcation and it just felt a little weird.  Like where does the lobby end and the restaurant start?  Are those tables in the middle part of the bar or are they some other thing?  I'm probably not describing this well, but the feng shui was way, way off!

The building from the outside is a total beauty, especially at night, other than the name over the door!🤣

"Trump Hotel Employees Reveal What It Was Really Like Catering to the Right Wing Elite" by Jessica Sidman on washingtonian.com

Yup!  That was my post to Tom.  It’s nice(?) know that I wasn’t the only one. 

As an FYI to the DR community, they are adding a 20% "Included gratuity" on the bill and they do not tell you about this.  At least my server didn't mention it.  I ended up tipping close to 50% the other night.  It's printed on the bill, and definitely my fault for not noticing, but I can't help feel a little taken advantage of.

Gold Rush are amazing storage apples.  The flavor improves a month or two after picking and they stay firm and crunchy until June or July when they run out of the previous year's harvest.  Of course they store them at something like 33 degrees under nitrogen, but even in the home fridge they'll last forever

In the Before Times, I was a big fan of Kuhn's produce at my local farmers markets.   They still come into the area at multiple farmers markets, most days of the week.  Their schedule is here and they also have weekly delivery/pickup options.

https://kuhnorchards.com/

Kuhn's is a great source for apples, especially, Gold Rush..........the greatest apple you haven't yet tried!!  😉

For your clicking pleasure:  https://littlewildthingsfarm.com/

Thanks to the tip from @eatruneat, I had a nice bowl of ramen here last night.  All seating was outside (current DC policy), and it was surprisingly pleasant (although last night was a fairly warm night for January).  They had a large 2-sided tent set up out front with a big heater blowing warm air into it.  They also had these little attachments for propane tanks that blew out hot air.  A couple tables had them aimed right at them for additional heating.  I felt no more at risk eating here than I do walking on the street or buying groceries.

I had never been here before so I took the server's advice and got their Shoyu ramen supplemented with an Onsen egg.  Very rich and tasty!  

Thanks ERE!!!   I actually had that tab open on my computer from yesterday, but I somehow missed the popup message on the initial page, and that sort of makes my case from above.  If you navigated to their menu page without hitting the main page first, you'd have no idea that they were serving on site.  

Anyhow, thanks for the tip!!

Does anyone know if there are any Ramen places in DC that are open and serving food on site?  I've been looking at websites of ramen and non-ramen places and I'm shocked at how little information on dining status is presented on most of them.  Instead of a clear message like, "Closed for indoor dining, but we have patio seating with heaters" most of the sites I've looked at force you to try to guess what they offer or make an assumption.

Anyhow, if one is craving a bowl of hot soup on a cold day and wants to eat on site, are there any options?

Thanks!

16 hours ago, Keithstg said:

For January, nothing. Bummer.

I'm attempting the same, although the results of the GA senate runoff may force me hoist a glass to toast the continuation of democracy in America.

Thanks ERE!!!!   Like others upthread, I was hoping you'd respond!!!  😊

Thanks also for the info on restaurants only doing carry out.  I had a surprisingly hard time finding out the status of restaurants and dine-in eating in San Diego.  I found lots of color coated rating charts, but nothing on what the current color-rating level is!  

I did some research last night and found that most places were only offering carry out and Juniper and Ivy and Herb & Wood and a couple others were already sold out on the Christmas/NYE meals, so it might be a home cooked event anyway.

I'm going to start going through your list for NYE choices and just general eating.  Bummer about Trust being closed, but I'll be googling Fort Oak in seconds!

Thanks again!!

Does anyone have any intel or suggestion for a restaurant in the Little Italy area (or nearby) for New Years Eve?  Let's just assume it's a normal year and places will be open......that may be foolish, but I figure it's easier for you, dear reader, to list favorite places, and then have me do the research to see if they're open, than have it go the other way around.

Also, please feel free to weigh in if this is a horrible mistake.   Not the dining out during Covid, part, but the dining in Little Italy part.  I don't know anything about San Diego and was given the task of finding a place in the Little Italy area, but if that's a bad idea, I'd rather know now than after the food arrives!

I'm sure Kinship will not disappoint.  They have a Christmas Eve menu to go that includes morning after options.  It's also available on the 23rd.

https://kinshipdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Christmas-Eve-Takeout-Menu.pdf

I haven't done a "big night" meal like this from them, but their regular Covid carry out meals have been great.

How about kitchen tools/utensils?

I use my wand mixer a lot more than a lot of things.  Or go for a real souped up version and get her a Vitamix?!?!

A big stock pot with a heavy duty bottom will serve her well and last forever.