dcandohio

Off the Record, for the cozy underground vibe, the bar snacks and classy bartenders. District of Pi, for having the digits of pi inlaid on the bar. 701 when there is live music on the weekend. Points for comfy club chairs. Don't judge me...the bar at Philips on Maine Avenue. It's a long expanse of wood with solid, large bar stools and a great view of the water. Points for tour bus people watching. Second floor of Clyde's gallery place. All that classic wood paneling feel of Ebbitt, easier at lunch. Oya...the fire feature behind the bar and the georgous people who are there (excluding me).

I hate to admit it but the main entrance bar at The Hamilton is very nice - it has an old-school feel with lots of dark wood and tile. I saw food coming out and was not tempted, but it's nice to sit and have a drink there when the place is not slammed. Feels historic, and classic.

Tonight: Grilled chicken breasts with a Carolina-style sauce Black eye peas cooked with bacon Romaine salad with pomegranate viniagrette

I went to Mosca's last year. I lived near there there (between Westwego and Waggaman, if anyone cares) until I was 14. The food is good, possibly great if you are not used to plentiful fresh seafood. But the famous dishes are really easy to recreate, heavily laden with fresh garlic. The history of the place makes it noteworthy, and part of the allure is that as much as New Orleans has changed, Mosca's is still difficult to access. It's close to nothing, on a godforsaken stretch of Highway 90. The parking lot is gravel, the building is plain and weather-worn, and the surrounding property is a swampy field. It feels like you yave gone to a different place and time. You sense the ghosts of mafiosos long dead. But those famous oysters Mosca are just fresh oysters in a thick bed of garlickly, seasoned breadcrumbs drenched in olive oil and blasted under a broiler. My Mom used to make them, easily as good as Mosca's.

On an unusually warm weekend, I have a pot of black eye peas with local bacon in one pot, and red beans with a smoked turkey leg in another pot. I will freeze in two-serving containers for the inevitable cold, nasty days ahead. Happily, we are going out for sushi tonught!

The turtle cookies were awesome. Some places try to replicate them, but no one gets it quite right. When I was in high school I worked for a while at Dorignac's and back in the day there was a McKenzie's outpost there. I ate quite a lot of stuff while working, back when i was young enough to be able to eat like that without getting fat.

Are you from New Orleans? I am. I miss McKenzie's so much. Cream puffs, turtles, pies, king cake....everything was delicious.

I checked with my best friend, who lives in Hollywood very near the Diplomat. One suggstion was Market 17. I've eaten there twice. It's pretty nice inside, and I recall not much except feeling fine with the experience. Another suggestion...there is a place just up S. Ocean Drive from the Diplomat (it would be a very short cab ride, and so close that perhaps the Diplomat would shuttle you). It's called GG's, but it used to be Georgio's. There is a very casual side (with a bakery) and a more formal, white-tablecloth side. There are great water views, and it is (or at least was, last year) fancy enough to be considered special occasion. There is also a lot of new development near the Gulf Stream rack track, and this is not too far from the Diplomat. I don't know what is there now, but I ate at two places (a "Mexican" place and the Yard House) and both seem to aim squarely at the main-stream, middle-budget diner who seeks quantity over quality. I vist that area a lot to see my friends, and my conclusion is that unless you are in a real seafood dive on the water, or an ethic small restaurant, the quality of the food in the area is surprisingly mediocre.

Downtown Hollywood is very cute but the restaurants tend to be fun more than serious. Sushi Blues is OK. The live blues music is a big draw and the sushinis just OK. The restaurants IN the diplomat are supposed to be good. I've only eaten at the bar. You can take a water tqxi from right outside the Diplomat to FT. Lauderdale. It's a fun boat ride and it opens you to lots of FLL options. Eric, if you get a break, walk north from the Diplomat along S. Ocean Drive about 3/4 mile. There is a little beachy-looking taco place right on the street that is quite good.

To my lovely neighbor, who married her sweetheart last night. She gained a husband, and we neighbors gained a great addition to the cookouts, impromptu porch parties and weekend yard projects. We loved him the first time we met him!

We did the bollito misto dinner last night with the Don Rockwell discount. $30 for the meal and $27 each for generous pours of 3 very good wines. It was my first time eating tripe, and +1's first time eating tongue. Fun experience. The standouts, for us, were the insanely delicious aioli and green sauce (like a pesto). Was there crack in that aioli?

I just want to report on what a class act Liberty Tree is. We had a service SNAFU on New Year's Eve. What happened is not important; it's the kind of thing that happens on a very busy night when staff get overwhelmed. I sent an e-mail to the "contact us" link on the web page, expecting nothing but hoping my comments might prevent future issues. Scott Hamilton responded with a very thoughtful description of what was going on backstage that demonstrated a true concern for his customers and his staff. He apologized, owned up to the issue, and said he was using the incident as a teaching moment for his staff. It was very heartfelt and very professional. He made it right. When a small business acts this way, I am eager to give it another chance.

Ramen from Toki Underground Rice Paper in Eden Center Bangkok Golden Kale salad at Lincoln Garlic shrimp at Jaleo SunDeVich Palak Chaat from Bombay Club (slight edge over Rasika!) Harvest Pizzeria (Columbus) Wellfleet oysters while in Cape Cod The turkey I smoked for Thanksgiving

Ended up here for convenience...don't ask...and here is my advice. Happy hour Sangria OK. Happy hour wine is plonk. Calamari is Sysco grade. Aiolis are boring. Fried eggplant were under-cooked. Have a quick drink and go someplace else.

Yes, I think so. The menu said leg of lamb. But the meat was in cubes. It was sooooo good.

I am on every day! but since I am not in DC all the time, I don't post as much as I'd like. But the site is a primary way I stay connected to DC, and I enjoy it very much.

For a cold night, the leg of lamb dish here listed under the entrees (not listed on the website menu) was pure comfort food. Fall-apart tender lamb, a lot of it, in a rich stew with stock, carrots, pearl onions and wine, I believe. It was delicious. +1 had the pureed lentil soup and a hanger steak. The soup was wonderfully seasoned with a deep lentil flavor. Between the lamb and the soup, I think one would do very well here ordering anything slow cooked in one pot...this place puts out some very fine rustic dishes. So go while the weather is cold and wet.

Last night: A Manhattan on the rocks Chicken cacciatore on penne Romaine and apple salad A Barossa Shiraz Chocolate cookies

This sounds a lot like chicken a la grande at Mosca's, an institution outside (way outside) New Orleans. Delicious. I believe they have the recipe available on their web site. It used to be a mafia hangout, and I grew up not far from there. The urban legend i heard as a child was that because there was so much mafia activity they didn't have a telephone on premises. When there was a traffic accident on the dark, desolate road in front, no one could call the police from Mosca's. You didn't want to have a wreck near there, although it was a frequent event when I was a small child. I've been recently. The building is a dump. The food was delicious, and they have a phone now, and computers. My mother was actually crushed to learn that they had so thoroughly embraced connectivity, technology and marketing.

I forgot to mention during the discussion of our Corduroy experience that before the bar became crowded, the bartender got snippy with us when we said we'd like to refill our own wine glasses. I forget her exact statement, but it was something like, "I know the best way to take care of guests." Which was funny, of course, as her ability to take care of her guests rapidly deteriorated as the evening progressed.

William Davidson, one of the earliest marketing academics and a real inspiration to those of us who teach and study marketing. Bill died last week, at the age of 93. Because he was emeritis on the OSU Marketing faculty, I met him several times. His last visit to his former home department, just a few months ago, was to guilt us all into donating to some retailing library collection that none of us had ever known. He was a passionate, elegant man, and the field grew up because of him and great scholars like him.

I am sure this has something to do with the fact that Paula Deen now is the spokesmodel/cobrand for Smithfield.

Now that El Chucho serves lunch during the lunch hour, we visited Saturday. The chips are not at all greasy and the salsa casera is very good. I believe it might be a cooked salsa. It's nice and thick, with with a good balance of sweet, salty, tangy and smoky. The carne asada tacos were fine. I didn't find them to be dry, as qwertyy did, but that onion on them was impossible. I couldn't bite through it. If I lived in the neighborhood I would visit often for drinks, chips and salsa/guacamole. It's a fun place and as we watched food being prepped (we could see into the kitchen) it seems like a place that cares about quality and details. I cringe at paying so much for tacos, though. In Columbus, the taco trucks near my house and our favorite taqueria charge $1.50 each. DC rents, DC wages, DC food prices = DC restaurant prices. I know.

Finally got to experience Toki last night. Put in our names at 5:20, and were seated around 7:15. I know nothing about ramen, except for the horrible packaged stuff I ate as a poor grad student. But if this is real, authentic ramen, I am hooked. I had the kim chee bowl, and sweetie had the curry chicken. We also had steamed pork dumplings and the night's special of marinated cucumbers. I ordered the cucumbers because I wanted something crunchy. The were surprisingly delicious. Sesame seeds, sesame oil, rice vinegar + ??? other "stuff," made for a really delicious foil for the rich ramen broth. I loved the bowl of goodies I had. The pulled pork in it was smoky and meaty, not all washed out like meat can be in soups. The kim chee had retained some crunch, the noodles had a nice firmness, the soft egg added melted in nicely...and this is a huge portion for $11 or $12, forget which. I could eat this very, very often. On a side note, the place is laid out an unusual way for a restaurant. Almost all seats, except those at the actual bar, face a wall. What I realized is that being side by side, with nothing to distract us from the food or each other, we had a very intimate experience, even though every seat was taken and I assume the kitchen is a madhouse. It felt very serene, even though it's really not. Good service added to the overall experience. This was a definite winner!

OK, so we went last night, just after 5:30. At first, we were alone in the bar, and the young female bar tender was still setting up. She left the bar for long periods, which is kind of annoying if you have questions or want to order. It was a portend of things to come... The food was rocking delicious, and the $30 bar menu is a bargain. Seriously, my pork tenderloin entree was $28 on the dinner menu, so for $2 more I had a velvety kabocha squash soup to start and two kinds of ice cream for dessert. The pork was juicy, tender and cooked as ordered, just a bit past medium. Served with very fresh and garlicky kale, this was a great late fall dish. Sweetie had the spring rolls, which are huge. I tasted a bite.,They were good, but my soup was so much better. She then had salmon, which I did not taste, but she loved it. Flourless chocolate cake for her dessert was pretty delicious, and I am not a huge chocolate fan. The service was lame for a restaurant of this caliber. Shortly after we settled in, a big private party arrived upstairs and a large group comandeered the entire cocktail chairs/tables area opposite the bar. Drink orders were coming in large numbers. The bartender had no help, and as she worked her butt off preparing drinks, she had almost no time or attention for those of us at the bar. It took forever to order. The first wine we wanted was not available, which is OK, except that she left the bar to check, said it was available, and then came back and said it was not after we had ordered. The couple sitting by us had to practically beg to order wine, and finally flagged down a server who was not working the bar to get it for them. The bar tender was calling menu descriptions over her shoulder as she filled orders for the servers. We were just ignored for most of the experience. There was a lag of about 35 minutes between appetizers and entrees. I like a relaxed pace, but that is too long. We finally flagged down someone who seemed to be more in charge to say that the bartender was really overwhelmed, but he just dismissed it saying they were "very busy" and that it was unusual for them. OK, really? You know you have reserved a large party in a private room. It's a lovely Friday night during holiday season. You know how many dinner reservations you have on the books. So, being "very busy" shouldn't be a crisis. I would gladly return for the food at the bar, but I'm going to go on a random Tuesday when service might be better.