Gadarene
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Everything posted by Gadarene
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So Hogo and Passenger aren't true Scotsmen. Got it. Same with all the other ones I mentioned, I'm sure. The bottom line as well is that the more business a place that charges $14 to $20 for cocktails gets, the more likely it is that charging $14 to $20 for cocktails will become the norm, no matter the quality of the cocktails (or the cost of the couch!). Which, personally, I think would be a shame, because it isn't the norm now. (And thanks, Rocks, for merging my quadruple post earlier into a coherent whole. That's what I get for posting by phone while walking to work.) -
It's about relative value. To me, there are many great cocktail places that have drinks for less -- oftentimes much less -- than the price point set by barmini, so their approach to pricing rankles me. Also, see my posts about Booker and Dax and Dead Rabbit. Both in extremely high-overhead locations, both doing CRAZY and amazing and innovative things in pursuit of cocktail deliciousness, and yet their drinks are only $14, no more. Maybe it's because they don't have a consarn couch that costs as much as a car. (I find the reservations-only model for a cocktail place personally annoying as well, as a guy who loves to be able to drop in somewhere after work or on a whim to have a great drink.) This last sentence simply isn't true. Take Hogo, for instance. There is no way the cocktails in most DC cocktail places average $14 to $16. No way. Room 11 is another example. Society Fair. Passenger. Graffiato. I could keep going once I took a look at menus; probably Proof and Estadio and etc. Dino, Ripple. Hanks, Buffalo and Bergen.
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Just ordered the beef ka pao for takeout. Very good flavors, but the portion is super, super, super small for $11. Like, the whole thing fit easily into a regular size bowl after I put about half of the rice on the bottom of the bowl. How are the takeout portion sizes at the Shaw location?
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Their delivery service really is excellent; I concur.
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To be clear, I've never had the kind of bad meal at Pho 14 Columbia Heights that DanielK described in post #17. But I've never had a great meal there either, that I can recall. In my experience, the pho is generally fairly serviceable and not-bad, and I don't really get anything else from there.
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I live in Mt. Pleasant, and the few extra blocks between Pho 14 and Pho Viet definitely make a difference when we decide to go out for Vietnamese (which is fairly seldom). If Pho Viet delivered, though, I would order from there all the time -- I still remember the bun vermicelli bowl I had from them the one time we made the trek up 14th; absolutely delicious. As it is, I order from Pho 14 occasionally and have found that it's a decent delivery option. I'm also a sucker for the spicy beef hue at Nam-Viet in Cleveland Park, and if they delivered I don't think I would order from Pho 14 at all.
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Heh, I was there for brunch yesterday as well. Sat at the bar. The steak and eggs was on balance very good; the steak was great and the anchovy salsa verde added a perfect hit of flavor. The breakfast potatoes that came with it were also really tasty. I ordered the three eggs over easy and found that the whites were too runny for my taste and a hair underseasoned, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't cure by sopping them up with delicious bread. Dean, I ordered the bottomless bloody mary and the first glass I had was really watery and bland; it severely lacked any sort of kick (whether from horseradish, hot sauce, lime juice, or anything else) and just didn't have much flavor. To his credit, the bartender saw that I hadn't done much damage to it, knew immediately why, and took it upon himself to toss out my drink and give me another with some sriracha/Tabasco/lime mixed in to punch it up. The second one was much, much better. Kudos to him.
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I think it was the first time I've seen a vermicelli bowl where the julienned carrots weren't pickled; they basically had no taste. Everything just seemed bland, overpriced, and not particularly thoughtfully executed when I was there. I think they came up with the concept because Vietnamese was "hot" and then didn't worry about having someone who actually knew how to, y'know, prepare tasty Vietnamese food. Maybe they figured that they would get crowds because of the location regardless what the food tasted like. Maybe they're right.
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Ate there last night as well. Overall, it was mostly positive and I'm sure they'll find their feet as they go. Pork belly appetizer comes in a smallish portion, but it's good. Hot and spicy noodles weren't particularly spicy but were tasty. I'd like to see an expanded cocktail menu in the future; the housemade ginger beer (Singha with ginger-lime puree) was an interesting idea, but it needed more lime and a bit more of a kick, and I spent the dinner chewing on bits of ginger every time I took a drink. My girlfriend got the duck noodle bowl; I only had a small taste but I thought the broth was overly sweet. Later on we ended up getting an order of beef drunken noodles for takeout, and I agree with Rieux that that was extremely worthwhile.
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I had an awful-to-mediocre meal here a couple of months ago and haven't been back.
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Went to Dead Rabbit in NYC this week. Absolutely amazing. They don't take reservations; they have a list of 75 incredibly cool classic cocktails (see here: http://www.deadrabbitnyc.com/menus/drinks/parlor/mixed-drinks/) that goes waaaaaaaaaay beyond the standards but still has its feet firmly planted in history (with all cocktails tied to a particular provenance, being it Jerry Thomas in 1862 or William Boothby in 1891), utilizing really interesting ingredients like sherbets. Everything I had there was delicious and pleasingly proportioned, and they were each all $14. All $14! They were easily worth it. I'm still not going to Barmini.
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Yeah, I don't know how anyone could think of Graffiato as pricey. It's one of the most reasonable places in the city for the quality of the food you get, right up there with Dino. In my opinion.
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When my girlfriend and I did the Gem Menu on Monday the 11th, Mike Isabella was at the bar with a glass of wine getting ready to leave the restaurant with some friends. So that's one data point. The Gem meal itself appears to be largely Brick's baby (he's spent time at Momofuku Ssam Bar, among others), with some consulting input from Chef Isabella. When we went, it was just after the big snowstorm in the Northeast, so several of Brick's planned menu ingredients weren't available and he had to improvise. Among the dishes he substituted in was one that he'll be showcasing at Cochon 555 this year; I can't say what it is, but it was absolutely delicious and involved Ossabaw pork. Also, I should mention: I said the Gem tasting menu was 12 courses for $85, and while that's technically true, Chef Brick threw in a couple of additional courses as surprises (and those ended up being among my favorites). So let's call it fourteen courses and an even better bargain.
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The Gem Tasting Menu on Sunday and Monday nights is very, very worthwhile; sous chef Adam Brick does a great job. More information is here: http://graffiatodc.com/gem-tasting-menu/ $85 for twelve courses felt like a bargain.
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Painkiller on the Lower East Side is an excellent, excellent, tiki dive bar.
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Let me add Graffiato and Dino to the list of places with extremely good cocktails for extremely reasonable prices (nothing on Dino's menu is more than $11, and Graffiato's sixteen listed cocktails are almost exclusively $11). In fact, I think I'll head over to Dino after work today to partake of their wonderful happy hour, where all cocktails are $3 off at the bar and there are delicious and complimentary pickled things to boot!
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Oh, and as an incidental aside: you'd be amazed at how many cocktails (of the -tini, -jito, and -rita variety!) are $15 at the Lucky Strike in Gallery Place. The answer is more than four. It's pretty unconscionable.
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I think the prices are too high at the Gibson as well, and I've never been to the Columbia Room precisely because I can't help but compare its price to the late, lamented "seven cocktails and seven food pairings for $77" thing that Gina used to do at PS 7. Though D.C. can always use more thoughtful cocktail spots, there are plenty of places serving good to great cocktails largely in the $10 to $13 range, including Passenger and Hogo. And talking about molecular gastronomy, my recollection is that even Booker and Dax in NYC (Dave Chang and Dave Arnold's place) prices its cocktails at $14 pretty much across the board, and those are molecular-intensive in an extremely high-overhead neighborhood. (To say nothing of all of the amazing cocktail places in other cities -- hi, Portland; hi, Sable in Chicago -- where the price point for their cocktails is more like $9 to $12; I recognize that's comparing apples to sidecars.) Bottom line: if the cheapest cocktail on your menu is $14 and you're bragging about a couch that cost more than a car, I'm going to hazard a guess that you're not pricing your drinks commensurate with what they're "worth" to me, and I won't be patronizing that establishment because I will, personally, feel ripped off. Everyone else's mileage might certainly vary, and I have no doubt that Barmini will be packed to the gills.
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Should've tried that beef heart salad.
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Well, I spend faaaaaaar more money on cocktails than I probably should, and I highly doubt I'll ever set foot in Barmini, so I'm doing my part to vote with my pocketbook. Which is too bad, because D.C. could use more good cocktail places. Just not cocktail places with this level of pretension and pricepoint.
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Couldn't agree more.
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I got some takeout there a couple of weeks ago. Both their Kokang Chicken (chicken, sesame, soy, cilantro, ginger, garlic, onions, lemon juice) and their Sour Mustard Greens with Pork are absolutely delicious, the chicken particularly. On the other hand, we got a couple of noodle dishes as well (the Kauswe Thoke and the See-Jay Kauswe), which I found somewhat dry. Next time I go, I'll have to try the ginger salad.
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Closing the loop on this, both the Mai Tai and the Zombie that the bartender was gracious enough to make for me last night were absolutely delicious.
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An update regarding this dish: It is now $14 rather than $12, and it is no longer entree-sized. Both of which are unfortunate. It's still extremely tasty, but I wouldn't go all the way across town for it any longer.
