Gadarene

6 hours ago, Tweaked said:

What kind of restaurants would you like in that area?

I work close by and the area is primarily office workers during the week and lost tourist during the weekend, all in a high rent district.  The owners of Bad Saint or Izakaya Seki or Red Hen or any other small indepedent chef driven restaurant aren't going to be opening anytime soon.

how do the restaurants in DC's, lets call it central business district, stack up to say NYC's Wall Street or Philadelphia's business district?  (I'm not famaliar with either area so I don't know).

But within walking distance to 18th and I there is Kaz, Bombay Club, Taberna del Alabardero, Bindaas will open next year, Soi 38 is a short stroll, as is Woodward Table and Firefly.  but that's about all I could come up with :-)

I'll bow out of this thread and this discussion; I just find it depressing.

8 hours ago, DaveO said:

Trying to get some perspective on this.  In the earlier 1980's I leased the first Ruth's Chris in DC on Connecticut Ave. and the first Morton's in Georgetown.  Several of the DC institutional steakhouses have closed,but overall there are more steakhouses now in downtown than there were in 80's,and 90's (at which point I lost track).  There are also substantially more people working downtown, including more lawyers and lobbyists.  OTOH there appear to be fewer established steakhouses in Tysons than were there say in the mid to late 90's stretching into the mid 2000's.  During those decades I also dined/took clients out at quite a bit at those type restaurants (more lunches than dinners)  and try as I did, I couldn't seriously distinguish the quality of one over the other.

In fact that they are still around at the same locations for over 30 years and those corporations have opened more of the same in the city and area since then says something about their popularity as a food type...and there are customers then and now who will continue to visit them

Anyway its a big "steak city" but so are many other cities, and they are all part of a corporate dining phenomena that is and always has been simply different than fine dining or cutting edge dining, etc.  It is what it is.  But yeah, to quote Tweaked from the Opening Post...."I'd yawn but I can't work up the energy"   I don't believe these places detract from the rest of the dining scene.  They simply fill a need that really isn't addressed in this forum. 

At least that is my $0.02 on the matter.

Good post.

Though I'm not talking about them detracting from the dining scene; I'm literally talking about leaving work at 18th and I and not being able to find a place I'd like to have dinner within easy walking distance for love or money.  Hyperbole, but only just.

DC will never be a great food city until there are more than a scant handful of interesting and thoughtful dining choices in the long stretch downtown from Foggy Bottom to Metro Center (and, say, from M Street down to the Mall)

20 hours ago, Rextopher said:

Wonder what that portends for Chef Kwame & co. Has anyone tried dining at the Bijou's bar?

I saw Kwame doing a TV commercial for Patron tequila during this week's episode of Top Chef, so I'm pretty sure he'll be fine regardless.

How much are cocktails?

I've eaten here twice, and it's really great.  Looking forward to going back.

Sigh.

Another place more concerned with expansion than quality.

Par for the course.

28 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Seafood smokebox was really lackluster today.  Overcooked lobster, mealy shrimps, and stringy crab leg.  The oysters, clams, mussels, and calamari rings were still good though.

The sweet breads were still very good.

Say hi next time!

(We were part of the private party in the bar area)

5 hours ago, Jonathan said:

I hear they lost their chef

Man, that marinara pizza when you were there is still one of my all-time DC dishes. So freaking good.

Laura Hayes shares Sietsema's opinion about the portion sizes.

And the service issues she mentions are pretty inexcusable at that price point.

franch, out of curiosity: were the cocktails included?  If not, how much did they cost?

I'm going to need to go here soon.

Trying to figure out whether they're open on Sundays.  Their bare-bones website suggests no, but the Washington Post article from two days ago suggests yes.  Does anyone happen to know?

Glad you liked it.  It doesn't sound like it's for me.

1 hour ago, notquiteanonymous said:

Make it Nong's Khao Man Gai food cart and my fiance and I will join you!

Gotta go to the brick and mortar location on SE Ankeny!  Longer hours, and then you can go to the Rum Club afterwards for amazing cocktails.

9 hours ago, mtureck said:

The problem with these price points is that if every bite that enters your mouth isn't fabulous, you're going to leave disappointed, and that's almost an impossible bar to hit.

Among the places that have hit that bar for me are Dill in Reykjavik, Ko before it changed locations, Disfrutar in Barcelona, Central in Lima, Volt in its heyday, and Sushi Taro's omakase counter, as well as many other, much cheaper destinations.  If you can't hit that bar, you shouldn't be charging $185 before tax, tip, and beverages.

9 hours ago, Jonathan said:

But clubs that offer bottle service don't have the overhead of a Shaw Bijou. Shaw Bijou has a very slim margin for error, and most likely needs to be very near capacity every night to stay open (I would imagine).

Gotta keep up the maintenance on those waterproof Icelandic sheepskin chairs.

13 hours ago, Jonathan said:

There are tables available tonight if anyone is interested...personally, I'd rather take my wife to Portland, Oregon ($673 for two, round trip) and go out to 3 or 4 restaurants and food carts before dropping $1,000 in Shaw at the Bijou and then heading over to Ben's or Jumbo Slice for pizza.

Let me know if you want recommendations for Portland; I can provide a ton.  :-)

11 hours ago, TedE said:

But there is a target audience for whom the price difference *is* trivial, and in this town that target audience is not insignificant.  You don't need to capture all of them, just give some of them a reason to darken your door once in a while.  I stand by my notion that at this price point the actual quality of the food becomes less and less of the story.

As someone in that target audience, the actual quality of the food damn sure doesn't become less and less of the story for me.

40 minutes ago, Pool Boy said:

You mention price to value ratio (more or less) in your two recent posts. While I do not discount that is always on everyone's radar whether we ourselves realize it or not, it seems to make an impression on you possibly more than the food itself. Not putting words in your mouth at all, but is that changing your perspective? Meaning, if someone treated you there at Convivial for dinner, gratis, would your perception change? Maybe, maybe not. Just fascinating to think about no?

I don't think so.  Good food is good food. But I'm going to expect more out of a $25 entree from a well-regarded restaurant than if I got that same dish for $14 at a random hole in the wall.

And I really, really did not like the coq au vin fried chicken when I had it; it would have been gloppy and mediocre at half the price.  But the fact that it cost what it cost is sort of extra-galling.

On 8/22/2016 at 10:31 AM, Simon said:

So, how's the food in the "Spirits Library"?

Not cheap, but really, really good.  I felt Chef Spero's influence was evident.

I had the best ankimo I can remember, and I'm not usually a monkfish liver kind of guy.

35 minutes ago, Waitman said:

Married couple.  Or, two people whose last names start with "O" and who sepnd time in Wexler, PA and who coincidentally ate at the same restaurant last night.  She gave Jerry's Subs four stars, so there's your benchmark for her reviews (his only other review was a 5-star Chiropracter). 

This why I only trust DonRockwell.com for my on-line reviews!

I note that there are tables for tonight and I don't feel like cooking....hmmmm.

But if you book your reservation same-day, then however will the sommelier have time to cater to your wine preferences?

15 minutes ago, dz50 said:

Seems like that could fit my diet!  now i'm intrigued 

It looks approximately like this!  (Only a lot more of it; the portions are really big here.)

On 9/7/2016 at 7:32 AM, Jonathan said:

You can add to frogprince's list of very good/great dishes (and like frogprince, I love the Szechuan Eggplant and Ma Po Tofu):

-Ma La Pork Chop (General Tso's on crack)

-Dan Dan Noodles

-Shredded Beef

-Twice Cooked Pork (which is the pork belly, but I've had some great batches)

-Boiled Fish with Mustard Greens (though I have never had it, people have told me it's fantastic)

The only reason I don't go here often is because it is a bit unhealthy compared to home-cooking or even Baan Thai. But it is a very good option to have for delivery.

I'm eating the Boiled Fish with Mustard Greens literally right now, and I can confirm that it's fantastic.  Not oily glop at all, but super-flavorful with that lovely sharp sourness from the mustard greens cutting through.  I could eat a ton of this.

9 minutes ago, franch said:

o I don't disagree that Shaw Bijou is more expensive than P&P. it's just my continued rage at the idea that the shaw bijou has a floor of nearly $1k for a couple.

Shaw Bijou has a floor of $442 for a couple if they drink only water (and if the restaurant does not charge for water).

That's...still not great.  And maybe I'm cynical, but I would be surprised if cocktails at Shaw Bijou cost less than $15 and if there isn't a higher-than-usual markup on all bottles of wine.  Like, it's not like you're going to be able to get an $8 glass of garnaxta blanca probably, right?  Or a $30 bottle of Tikves Vranec.

4 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

An honest (not a rhetorical) question: Why not simply let the free market run its course and see what happens?

An honest (not a smart-ass) answer: there's no such thing as the free market.

Franch, I never said there was a mandatory wine pairing. I wondered whether it was possible to order just a single glass, considering their focus on having the sommelier call you several days beforehand to arrange a custom pairing based on your price point.

Shaw Bijou is $170 for food, before tax and tip (you got me!  I said "tip" instead of "tax" in my post!)

P&P at the bar is &150 for food, tax, and tip all together.

Food at Shaw Bijou costs significantly more than it does at two-star P&P.

What part of that is misinformation?

Pineapple and Pearls is actually one of the best damn bargains in the city, especially if you sit at the bar.

$150 inclusive of tax and tips, plus whatever a la carte drinks you want.  That comes to around $115 for the food (+$11 tax and $24 tip) for a guy who has more than established himself.

Compare that with Shaw Bijou, which is $170 for the food alone, not counting the 20 percent mandatory gratuity and the 10 percent tip (and the mandatory wine pairing, for all I know; who knows if you can order just one glass).

P&P is so much cheaper than Shaw Bijou, it's silly.