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Pool Boy

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About Pool Boy

  • Birthday 08/01/1967

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    tjaehnigen

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    Laurel, MD

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  1. Pool Boy
    I've been to the one in Ballston as well as the one in Bethesda. I prefer the Bethesda one. I have some folks in my office that do not like the place - maybe they prefer mpre non seafood options on the menu?
  2. Pool Boy
    I still work in Arlington (Ballston) and so, with RTO I am in the office twice a week. We get lunch delivered in so I often don't get down to the Pupatella there in person. But, sometimes if there are 6 or less in the office, we'll order Pupatella delivered. Not the same thing but still very tasty.
  3. Pool Boy
    This news makes me so sad. (It also reminds me I need to get back on the DR.com wagon more regularly to stay up to date.) I don't remember which one of our wino group recommended that we try Corduroy (in the old location) back in the day (like 2002-2004 range), but we went back there with the group probably 5 times total - toting in loads of wine and eating great food with great service. What fun memories. We knew Tom was getting ready to move to the 'new' location, and that meant there were some serious deals on the wine list - I am embarrassed to admit I can't remember the exact bottle or winery, but it was a steal at $130, a 1995 I r=do remember. It was great. We ordered a number of great bottles that night between the 3 or 4 of us that went. In the new location, my wife and I probably went probably 10-12 times over the years. Just us. With family, With friends. Such consistently great food and service every time. And, pre-pandemic, as long as you didn't do a reservation before 6:30pm, there was pretty easy parking (now, not so much). One of the things I love how Tom cooks is where the real star of the dish is not the obvious thing, the protein or what have you. No, just like Frank Ruta, the contributing elements on the plate nderpinning the whole dish - those, thooooose were often the stars of the dish. My wife and I had gotten used to having such great dining in such a small snippet of land in that area of DC - Corduroy, Convivial, Kinship & Metier and the various incarnations of places in Blagden Alley. We all were so lucky. But in all of those great dining choices in that sliver of real estate, the two places we'd gravitate to the most were Corduroy and Kinship. What a great run!
  4. Pool Boy
    I recently got a gift certificate for here from work. We'd always wanted to try it out pre-pandemic and just never made it there yet. Anyway, if anyone has dined there recently, I'd love a quick update on what to expect. Looks like it is Tasting Menu only at the moment (except at the bar). Does anyone know if they allow corkage and what the cost might be? Their wine prices by the bottle are kind of nuts. Thanks in advance!
  5. Pool Boy
    We dined here this past October with friends and were able to sample a lot of the menu. We enjoyed it, but I found it overpriced for the whole experience. I am not saying I would not go back, I'd give it another go for sure, but I'm not in a rush to do so.
  6. Pool Boy
    Went to the Ellicott City, MD loctaion back in November and it was a lot of fun and tasty )pork rib meat FTW!!). A bit noisy and crowded, but delicious and fun.
  7. Pool Boy
    Was here in November for a wine-o group dinner - always fun and delicious and reasonable corkage. Lots of champagne and pinot noir were enjoyed with all of the delicious food from Kaz's menu. Still recommended and I'll be back for sure. We got to Kaz as well when we were seeing something at Kennedy Center too - that was just my wife and I and also enjoyable and delicious. PS: We also ordered carryout from here twice I think during the dar days of the pandemic. The food traveled the best of all of the DC carryout we got (we live in Laurel, so a bit of a drive).
  8. Pool Boy
    I was here this past November for a meet-up with friends and sat at ine of the bar booths. Food was good (enough choices for everyone including our resident vegetarian), but I have to say the service was quite slow. We were not in a rush or anything, but it was just slow service from the bar staff - and we ordered not just food but a number of beverages over 3 hours - it was just so odd. It wasn't like the bar was super busy, maybe 3-4 other parties always during out time in there (It was a lunch think like 1pm to 4pm). Anyway, it's a spot in Bethesda proper that is the agreed upon general area to meet due to us all living in different directions from there so it's centrally location acceptable. I'd still go back, but maybe next time we get seated in the dining room instead.
  9. Pool Boy
    We have been back a few times (I think maybe 6 or 7) during and post pandemic. We dined outside a couple of times, went for Thanksgiving in 2021 and agaian in 2022 and dined there inside a few otyher times just because. I call out both the 2021 and 2022 Thanksgiving experiences because they were the same but different. It's hard to please everyone for a Thanksgiving dinner out, but when I think of the two dinners, the mains and so on were very, very food, but the sides in 2021 were far more interesting and creative and delicious. In 2022, remembing the 2021 sides experience, well it was the main reason we were back, but in the 2022 dinner, the sides were just, ok. Not bad, but nothing like the 2021 experience. Anyway, I'm still a fan, I still love the food when we go there for non-holiday related times and have great service and do on. So I still recommend it and will continue to dine there with some frequency - maybe I'll remember to take pictures next time.
  10. Pool Boy
    We ended up going here for a small 'Friendsgiving' this past November - We shared nine different dishes and enjoyed them all - so good and we always manage to score one of the window both spaces. If you have never been here before, go. It's a bit out of the way and parking in a bit random (sometimes super easy to find a spot, other times oddly all parked up) - but it is worth the effort to get there and enjoy this food. Still recommended and hell yes I will be back.
  11. Pool Boy
    It had been some time since we'd been to Tosca, so we wanted to get there for Christmas Eve (Feast of the Seven Fishes and all that), but then, after dodging it for almost 3 years, my wife and I got struck with covid (17 days - ugh). Anyway, we vowed to reschedule and went later in January. We took no pictures, and their menu on the website is already different fro what we had. But I do remember enjoying dinner quite a lot and we had some good wine, and it was great to be over covid, out with my wife ad enjoying dinner here in such a nice space. Will I be back and do I recommend Tosca? Yes and hell yes.
  12. Pool Boy
    I've been here a few times over the years, but it'd been a while. When my wife realized one of the couples we dine out with with some regularity (they are fun, smart and will eat anything), had not been to Cafe Berlin, they set up a date and so we went. A lot of fun, lots of beer and we ordered too much and were stuffed. Good service and apparently they will be soon retooling the space and sorting out where hte new front door will be and make the space work better for the folks dining there as well as the staff - not sure when exactly they will be doing that but our server did mention that. If you're looking to scratch the itch for soome good beer and German food, this is a solid choice. Plus, parking was super easy.
  13. Pool Boy
    I have a very good friend that lives in Columbia (I live in Laurel) and I know he's very busy, has a kid, and suggested he propose a date for us to do dinner in Columbia whenever he had time and we'd make it happen. He suggested Stanford Grill, which appears to be on the site of what used to be a Longhorn steak house that must have closed. Well, they gutted the place and it looks very similar to Woodmont Grill in Bethesda. I assume they must be owned by the same company. It's in the middle of a mini office park an nearby retail and is convenient to 95 (like a mile away). The service was OK (it was acceptable all evening, but we had to flag down our server because they forgot to charge us for some stuff - we didn't want anyone to get in trouble). I can't remember the starter I had by I enjoyed the prime rib that my friend talked up - perfect temperature (right between medium rare and rare) and for $27, kind of a steal. Drinks and wine choises were acceptable, but they really should offer more of a list. When we were there, they even had a live 3-piece jazz group playing and it was a recent Wednesday. Nice space, good hum to the room, but not loud (I do not like very loud restaurants). Anyway, would I go back? Sure. Would I seek it out? Probably not, but it is convenient and tasty enough and if I happened to be in the Columbia area nearby it is not a bad option.
  14. Pool Boy
    When casting about, recently, to secure a reservation to a place we had not been to in a while (pre-pandemic for sure) we settled on Corduroy because it had been just too damn long. So we scored a reservation and off we went. Note - the parking situation in that area has gotten pretty bad since they have both converted lanes for bicycles and also for outside seating for a variety of restaurants. It used to be much easier to find street parking there but no more. We gave up and found a garage and walked a bit. We got seated at a table in the front near the windows - a first for us and was amusing to see the comings and goings of people walking by. Great service by our server as well as the sommelier. Plus the spaces is so inviting and with comfortable seating. And the noise level in the restaurant was great (I really do not enjoy very loud, brassy places - Corduroy does it right IMO). Not sure I remember everything we had, but here's what I remember. We started with some oysters (yum), then I had the red snapper bisque and my wife had the tuna taratare. Both were very, very good, but HOLY COW the red snapper bisque is so delicious and is one of the best dishes I have hd in quite some time. Wow. We moved on to the antelope - so great, especially the chestnut puree underpinning it all - so good - and the duck confit (mmm). We finished up the remaining wine (as I recall it was a Turley single vineyard with a bit of age on it) with with some cheese (nice selection). Would I go back? Hell yes. I need to get Corduroy back in to my more regular rotation again. Definitely recommended.
  15. Pool Boy
    My wine-o's group picked here for a recent wine dinner (they allow bringing wine for $35 corkage). It's always great and delicious. The somm/bev manager, Jack, ws very helpful in decanting a number of bottles for us and providing rotating sets of stemware as we moved through all of the wine over dinner. The rest of the staff was also great. Only issue was table space management with all of the food, wine and stemware but a good problem to have! Biscuits, Oysters, bacon, blue crab deviled eggs, salmon collar, ribeye, grilled potato salad, brussel sprouts and more. Ooof. This was the first time I recall having to now pay for parking - they have signs up but no Park Mobile number for specific areas so found one and car didn't get ticketed so assume that's the one for the whole area - just a heads up.
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