Nadya

Count on you lot to ruin ALL FUN with this damn discussion of moderation!

Am in.

DRINKING!

Congratulations!!!!!!! We missed you during RW, but I hope to see you at work really soon to resume the rein with your characteristic good humor and charm!!! So happy for you!

Went to TenPenh for lunch (a party of 10!). We were very pleased with their menu. I had heard of course that the TenPenh/DC Coast/etc group does RW well and TenPenh lived up to the expectation. Had about 5-7 appetizers to choose from , all of their lunch entrees to choose from, and three desserts.

I had the spicy grilled calamari salad which was very good, the calamari were very tender and the srirachi sauce added a nice kick. We covered most of the entree menu, I had the crab three ways; the crab cake was decent though a bit too much filler, the crab ravioli was decent but not special, the softshell tempura was very well done with a nice softshelly taste and lightly breaded and the wasabi mashed potatoes that came with it had a nice wasabi zing and were of a firm but creamy texture with the softsell crab stuck in the top so it looked like the crab was clawing out of the potatoes...

Overall, a very good experience, especially considering it was a party of 10 and it was RW.

You know, I ate there once, and had a passably good meal, especially the grilled calamari salad, of which you speak, was very good. But I left with a lingering sense of discomfort that kept me from returning. I mean, apart from being serviced by five different waiters, what's wrong with the place?

Then it hit me. The hostesses were wearing these billowing silk-like caftan dealios seemingly stamped with "Harem 80% clearance sale" on top of their street clothes. Under a threat of death will I work at a place that makes me wear stuff that interferes with my carefully selected outfits, and for all I know, doesn't go with my complexion.

If that's what they do to staff we can all see, what do they make cooks do behind closed doors??

HA! That was hilarious, and so beautifully written! I felt like I was there myself!

Darlings, just a bit of advice, which is probably already known or unnecessary:

If OpenTable says nothing is available, go ahead and phone the restaurant before giving up.

Vidalia is open on Sundays.

So is Bis.

Is it just me, or is this Restaurant Week going rather sluggishly? The numbers are there all right, but it doesn't feel busy. As a certain figure skating commentator would say, "there is a distinct lack of frenzy."

And looking at cover counts, I feel like quoting another Spinal Tap character:

"I get a sense of it, but I don't understand it!"

[This came to me via friends, take a look if you're interested, and note that I know nothing about it except what is listed below. - N]

Event Planning Assistant Needed

Busy Georgetown catering company seeks motivated individual to assist In-House event planner.

You are: a college graduate, a quick learner, highly skilled in Microsoft Office, familiar with database and/or CAD programs (RoomViewer and/or Goldmine experience a plus), graceful under pressure, able to effectively manage your own time, enthusiastic about learning the event planning business from the bottom up.

We are: a $1.5 million+ sales team, the exclusive caterers at a popular wedding venue in DC, busy!, a small business who must employ team players, serious about our work but always looking to have fun while doing it.

Salary, benefits, and lunch provided. Major duties will be processing and disseminating of event paperwork including menus, rental orders, floor plans, and waiter notes, and other office work. The successful candidate does NOT need experience. The successful candidate has a can-do attitude, likes hard work, and wants to learn.

Please send resumes to booking@3citron.com. References a must. No phone calls please.

I've only been to the joint once, like two years ago for brunch, and remember that it took half an hour to get a French toast.

I went with a friend last Friday night and was completely charmed by a plate of BBQ ribs with collard greens. I'm a BBQ novice so I can't tell you any which style it was cooked, but tender and juicy it was, and even better the next morning over a warmed-up biscuit. Frickles are not to be missed, they are completely addictive. Very worthy wine list as well.

Darlings, thank you so much for the encouragement, I think it went very well and civilized. WETA people were very professional and lovely to me, and there wasn't any opportunity for snarkiness. I am sure I will curse and cringe when the sound becomes available because you hear your own voice rather differently, so what sounds like a young Montserrat Caballier to you, is in reality not far from a sound of a lab rat in labor. But I really enjoyed it and hope everyone else did, too. Thanks again for your support!

PS: On the way to the studio I was waylayed by a lady who tried to tell me about a foodie.net as a "premier food blog." Who?

Actually, I've never been floored with food at Bleu, and there are better places for my stilettos and von Furstenbergs. If you make me dress up, I better be pleased.

I'd have to say I agree with the following: if there are any limitations on the dress code, it cuts on the customer aggravation to have them out in the open with as much advance notice as possible. Almost every night, I would get to voice over the following:

"Hi, what's your dress code?"

"We don't enforce a dress code, but most people will be wearing business or business casual."

That lets the customer know what the surroundings will be, and lets them make their own decision.

That said, I have no problem tactfully suggesting people in gymwear to go change (although that happens incredibly rarely.) I also understand that someone who dressed up for an hour in anticipation of having dinner at the Citronelle or ILW will be majorly put off by a scruffy skank on the next table. Wouldn't you be?

Perhaps I can change your mind...

The potatoes, people, the potatoes. Ray's The Steaks' mashed potatoes.

See my signature line, babycakes. Thanks, Rocks!

Okay, last night I went to a restaurant for the first time. It was an Asian restaurant. I did not like it at all though everybody else at the table, including a trustworthy foodie, did like it. So what was wrong with the meal... ME! I ordered the wrong item. I went for something of which I should have been wary.

I tend not to post negative reviews of places where it is pretty clear that the problem in the equation is me. I am sure someone on the board remembers which physicist established that the mere act of observation changes a situation. Here, I ask do you consider what impact you have on the experience at a restaurant.

Aren't you being a little too hard on yourself? I don't think there's anything wrong with following your taste. In my mind, the key here is realizing that "this dish is cooked and tastes like it ought to, it's just that I, me, mine, do not enjoy that particular taste."

For instance, I don't enjoy creamy, custardy textures, never have. I never had a creme brulee or mashed potatoes I liked. I am sure they were all cooked by the book and tasted like they should have! Just not for me.

Then why not just direct to voice mail? Office person can check every 30 or so minutes to check if anyone called to say he or she would be late, but other than that, get back to them at a better time.

I know there are all kinds of reasons why this wouldn't work; I'm just growing really frustrated as a diner at the increasing limitations on when and where and how I can eat. I'm irked at the notion that if I eat out Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, graduation weekend, Restaurant Week, yada yada yada, I can expect to be treated shoddily. I'm irked at the notion that if I don't call at certain times I can expect to be treated shoddily. I wish my office gave me an allowance for rudeness or half-assedness during especially busy periods, but it seems that only the service industry does that.

Oh, irony.

[Please note: This isn't directed at Nadya--whose writings I always enjoy for their style and ability to get us talking about interesting topics--or at any particular restaurant at all, just the dining environment in general. And I'm kind of crabby today. Sorry.]

I am not even close to taking this personally so need to apologize.

There is no limitation on where and when you should or should not eat. The choice is yours. You won't be treated shoddily at a well-run place no matter when you call. However, my humble opinion was that everyone can benefit from a sort of an insider map to the realities of restaurant life. It's doesn't equal shoddy treatment to say, look, if you want to call at the busiest time, be prepared to hold a lot because it's busy. If you want to come for dinner at 7 pm with no reservation, be prepared to wait, because it's busy. If you want to have dinner at a quiet time, don't come at 7.30, because it's busy.

You don't get angry at IKEA when you choose to go shopping on Saturday afternoon and the lines are longer than let's say Tuesday morning, do you? The reality is that some times are busier than others. High volume necessitates having less time to deal with any one person during high volume times. How is it shoddy treatment to realize that?

On the second point, it seems like a waste of resources. To have to hire someone to answer the phone during dinner hours at a busy restaurant just so the caller can be told that nothing is available is a drag. It is an expenditure on the clueless and does not encourage them to get a clue.

During RW it's a big help to get someone to answer the phone during dinner/lunch rushes to take reservations for the following days. Because I'm too busy managing guests in front of me to look up the bookings for tomorrow, day after, etc. The point I was making that whoever's answering the phones can successfully manage requests for the following days, but not for "right now". Managing requests for "right now" requires buzzing me, distracting me, and most often nothing is available anyway because even if something was, there's fifteen walk-ins at the bar waiting their turn, and the person at the office can't see that.

Nadya, serious question: why don't they get a second person to work the stand during crush time? If the answer is "money," I'd direct my ire at management more than I would someone calling at 7 PM for a 7:30 reservation.

Cheers,

Rocks.

We actually do ALWAYS have two people working the stand at all times. One, known as "point", to assign tables, and the other, known as "runner", to take people to tables and monitor dining room.

During restaurant week we would sometimes get a third person to sit in the office and take phone calls during lunch/dinner rushes. This is a huge help, and most helpful when taking reservations for days following today. I am very grateful to our management for taking this step. You have simply no idea what the phone traffic is like between 6 and 9 pm on a regular RW night. It's really bad.

It's a bit less helpful to manage ongoing traffic, since I am the one with the list of bookings for today, and the person taking the calls has to check with me before taking anyone for tonight. Typically, this is what would happen:

Intercom to host stand, "Can you take four at eight?"

"No."

"Ok."

The point isn't that you CAN'T call between these hours. THe point is that if you do, your experience will be worse. You'll be on hold a lot, and I'll be harried. Because there's too much going on.

I don't understand why restaurants participate in Restaurant Week, if they don't want to deal with these type issues. It almost seems as if you are waiting for restaurant week just to make fun of those that don't dine out on a regular basis, and don't know the "rules". I have stopped going out for restaurant week, because the service always seems to be somewhat condescending in nature....... just like most of these articles.

I think we all are entitled to the privilege of making fun of that which is funny. Don't you think it's funny when someone expects to be able to book two prime slots on a Saturday night and choose one later?

You think my car mechanic doesn't make fun of me looking at him pleadingly and trying to describe the noises my car makes? Like, the second I walk out?

Not at all in the family as other people took care.

Mostly learned by osmosis from hanging around people who cook professionally, overhearing bits and pieces, and realizing that I am every bit as smart and nimble as them, and the only obstacles to great cook-reputation were own fear and sloth. Also from discovering that people don't expect cooking talents in anyone glamorous, and liking to surprise them.

Actually, I like to take the game one step further and let the establishment "discover" that I am, in fact, DonRocks himself. There's a couple of different techniques -- start by having everyone at the table call you "Don" or "Rocks;" get down to the Kinko's and have them print up some busines scards to leave ostentatiously strewn about; critic the wine list aloud in great deal, complaining about the lack small house champagnes and mid-priced "finds."

Once recognized, act embarrassed but deny nothing. The results are spectacular: extra plates, free bottles of red Burgundy; walk-in knee-tremblers with the model-length hostesses; comps out the wazoo. Usually I can get friends to pay me just to join me at dinner,so I can walk away well-fed and fifty or a hundred bucks to the better on a good night.

It helps keep up on Rocks' posts, both so you can drop in the poetic language and trenchant analyses that mark Rockwellian criticism into conversation whenever a chef or an owner walks by -- and so that you know where not to go. Last month I got behind in my reading and ended up at Sushi Kappo Kawasaki not having read Don's savaging and was saved from a painful and inevitable death only by having read at random an eGullet thread on fugu earlier that day.

This strategy works particularly well for new openings, as the owners are particularly eager to please. Inevitably, the "real" Rocks shows up a couple of days, writes the place up and no one is the wiser.

I tried to pass for Rocks, but results were parlous failure, so I would rather bang the chef.

Me too! I've also found that banging the chef works wonders if you're trying to get special treatment.

Actually, for that to work you'll need to KEEP banging him. Otherwise, it will work against you.