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saf

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Everything posted by saf

  1. saf
    I like the beer, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the onion things. I like some of the pizzas and some of the salads. I dislike the noise level (Chinatown and 8th St). I dislike the waits. I HATE the reservation policy. Oh, and we have not been to 14th Street, despite it being not too far from us, because of the noise levels and the inability to make reservations. We would go a lot more often if it were a bit quieter, and if we could make reservations.
  2. saf
    Wow, that's sad. I hope that both sides have over-reacted. However, I bet that he overstepped and is now reacting out of shame. (GW alum, 198um, depends on how you count it. Let's count when I finished, not when I walked, and make it 1987.)
  3. saf
    Yeah, I have that "meat I'm willing to eat" issue too. Maybe we need a "Eating down the pantry" recipe exchange. When I go into eating down the stockpile mode, I worry that my husband will get tired of enchiladas and tamales and soup. He would never get tired of roasted chicken, but I don't actually have any chickens to roast right now.
  4. saf
    We made our usual run (ok, walk. I don't run with bags of food. Really, I don't run much at all.) to the Columbia Heights farm market. I find their prices as good or better than the grocery store.
  5. saf
    That made me so mad that I sent nastygrams to both ABC and NBC for covering it as a feel-good story. The very folks who have taken away my funding, who are about to furlough my husband, who have furloughed my best friend, my favorite college bud, both of my next door neighbors, and so many other friends walk out there and talk about how "the government" can't deny "the greatest generation." GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
  6. saf
    I'm unemployed at the moment. The boy works for an agency that has some no-year money, so he hasn't been furloughed yet. 3 weeks they think. We're trying to spend as little as possible. Sure, we have savings, but who knows how long this will go. And who knows how long until I am employed again. My job is quite dependent on grant money. Ah, the joys of working in arts and culture in this economy. And we both have health issues that we can't really ignore, but that do cost money. We haven't given up eating decently. We haven't given up drinking decently. But we are being a lot more economical than we were 6 months ago. And we are working through the freezer and the wine rack and the beer stockpile...
  7. saf
    I tip in cash, and write "cash" on the slip, because when I used to wait tables, I had a manager who would hold credit card tips for WEEKS, and would take a large cut from them for himself. Sometimes when I do this, people assume it is so the server doesn't need to declare it. No, I always declared my tips, and I assume that waitstaff will do what they believe is right. I think they should declare them, but I am not trying to control that. I'm just trying to make sure they actually get the tip!
  8. saf
    And that is why it annoyed us so much. That is exactly what it looked like. We tip well - really quite well. We are polite, reasonable people who like to eat and drink well. Servers who do their job well have earned a good tip, as our system currently works. Thinking you won't get a good enough tip and trying to pad that tip is not doing your job well. It's trying to take advantage of your customer.
  9. saf
    I see what you're saying, but I have no way to know if it's the one server or the whole place when this happens the first time we go somewhere, and I don't really have a reason to give them a second chance. If that were to happen someplace I am a regular, I would speak to the manager, and expect a decent explanation, an apology, and they would stay on my list. Although, we gave up going to another place that had known us for years. We eat a lot, we drink a decent amount, no we aren't rowdy - we're polite and not too loud really. Anyhow, this other place - we went in with 9 people. Ordered a ton of food and were enjoying dinner. A table in the other part of the room had an infant that screamed non-stop from about the time our apps arrived until we left. The staff did nothing to mitigate the noise, despite being asked. And they put an auto-grat on the tab. It was disclosed on the menu that they would do that to groups of 6 or more. I would have expected them not to do that to longstanding regulars who they KNEW tipped very well. But they did, and it was on the menu, so it was legit. Still, that night the service was sub-par, and they added an auto-grat without making it obvious that they had added it. The check was not well itemized, and we spent a LONG time figuring out, ok, that's food, that's bar, that's tax, what's that. It was NOT clearly labeled. That one we argued, because they fell down on the service between not assisting with the noise and tacking on the auto-grat. And that one, I think, shows a problem with the whole place, because the server was one we had had before, and we spoke to the manager at one point during the night, and there were still problems.
  10. saf
    It bothers me because I have known FAR too many servers (I was a bartender and a waitress for a number of years, long ago) who would do that, hoping that the customer would not notice, so that she/he might get a double tip. It bothers me because I have known far too many servers who would do that if a table was primarily women, or black, or foreign, because they were profiling the customers. I am willing to bet that she thought we had drunk enough (or should that be, she thought we were drunk enough) not to notice, and that she hoped to get a double tip. With no evidence of that, we didn't cut the tip, because the service was fine. But it's pretty annoying.
  11. saf
    We went last Friday. There were 4 of us. We drank our way through the Oktoberfest beer list, enjoying them all. The service was fine, if a little odd. She checked on us SO often that we couldn't decide if she was bored or we worried her. We also got food to share - pretzel rolls, currywurst, and pork shank. All good. We hoped for a few more options on the menu, but enjoyed everything we had. So, it was fine. Then we got the bill. The menu says that they will auto-grat any parties of 6 or more at 20%. As I said, there were 4 of us. And there was an auto-grat on our bill. We looked at it, wondering why it was quite so high, and saw the auto-grat. So we asked about it. And the waitress was quite flustered. And she said, "I'll check." We did what we always do when this happens - look at the bill, consider if they deserve the tip that has been applied. If so, they get it, but not a penny more. If not, we complain and insist that it be taken off, leaving what we think is appropriate. Either way, it will be a long long time before we go back to a place that does this to us. So, we decided to let it stand, but to make it plain that this bothered us. Note that much of our food and drink was ordered during happy hour, so we probably would have tipped a bit more than the auto-grat. She came back, and told us, "The manager put it on by mistake." This didn't make any sense to us. And there was no apology. She said, "I can take it off." We said, "Fine, but at this point, it makes no difference. This is a problem. It should never have been put on." We paid and left. Some day, I will figure out a good way to handle this. For now, I guess I will stick to being annoyed, pointing out the problem, and avoiding places that do this.
  12. saf
    Is this place not owned by the gentleman that I have trouble spelling (let me go look it up) who used to own Felix? I liked Felix when it first opened, but it was loud and got louder over the years, and the food was good and got weaker over the years, and the same for the service, and the upselling was astounding, and it got dirtier and dirtier as time went on, and.... Yes, it is the same gentleman - Popovsky. So I hesitate to go there, having had such bad experiences with his other places.
  13. saf
    Hm. I met the boy in 1983 and married him in 1988. I am more likely to remember what something used to be than he is, although he generally remembers once I tell him. (Oh yeah, they had the good whatever....) Then again, I lived in Adams Morgan for 2 years before we got married. He was still on campus for one of those years, then in Shaw. And I worked in Adams Morgan (Hazel's, Armand's) for a year of that.
  14. saf
    Pasta Mia I know nothing about except that it is not worth eating at. I still miss what was there before - the New Orleans Cafe (and its elder sibling around the corner, the New Orlenas Emporium.). So, maybe you are thinking of the time between those?
  15. saf
    I don't remember that - and I eat there pretty regularly.
  16. saf
    No cilantro? A guacamole that I didn't make that I can eat? YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! (I remember, before the coming of the obsession with the evil weed that is cilantro, when I could eat guacamole in restaurants. I hope that someday, that will be true again.)
  17. saf
    While digging around for dinner inspiration, I found this thread linked from the dining guide. Sadly, Straits of Malaya closed a while back now.
  18. saf
    In some ways, no. (I hate squash. I would probably have to get over that.) In other way, absolutely. It means you have stepped away from the hardest part of dealing with the concept of factory farming. Yes, there are factory vegetable farms and they are bad for the world. But in my mind, bad meat raising practices are worse because an animal suffers as well as bad farming practices being bad for the world. I feel way less guilty eating out without thinking about food sources when I am eating vegetables then when I am eating meat. Also, while I know you can easily get sick from badly handled vegetables, I don't believe you can get mad broccoli disease.
  19. saf
    You know, I like meat, but... I am reaching the point where I agree with this. I buy meat for cooking at home at the farm market, from people I know and can ask about the source and treatment of the animals. I just can't buy meat other ways any more. I don't trust it to be safe. I have also cut back on where I will eat meat when dining out. I've reached the point where I will order vegetarian food unless the sourcing is clear and I find it acceptable. But I wonder, is it time to just go veg for simplicity's sake? It would be a LOT easier.
  20. saf
    OK, I just got around to reading that article. Hm. It still served sandwiches when I worked there, in the 80s. As a matter of fact, that article made me fairly sad, as it made it obvious that a lot has been forgotten. One of the things that our regulars remembered was Derby Day. Pauline Warren, who owned the place until she died in the early 90s, was this amazing older woman from Kentucky. She would have a party for Derby Day every year. It was the most amazing thing. The old regulars would remember how there used to be a full menu there. But everyone would remember Derby Day, when Pauline would make sure that there was fried chicken, ham, biscuits, deviled eggs, and derby pie. And we would all watch the derby, and toast the picture of Secretariat above the bar. (and recite the Berea College motto, which also hung above the bar.)
  21. saf
    Since I asked, we have been twice. (friends we haven't seen in years have been gigging in town again, at Murphy's, so I've been eating in the neighborhood again. I really need to write up last weekend's visit to New Heights, the first in almost 15 years, and very good.) Anyhow, Afghan Grill food was good, menu was short, service was excellent. Prices were reasonable. We would say that if the online menu appeals to you, it's worth going.
  22. saf
    This makes me so sad. Brian is a longtime friend. I am sorry for him, angry about what happened, and will miss this place so much.
  23. saf
    You can also get them from homebrew shops. That way you don't have to pay shipping.
  24. saf
    I used to wait tables and tend bar. No matter how good the variety on a jukebox is, the staff comes to hate it unless it rotates. Things jukeboxes have made me hate include: Papa's Got a Brand New Bag I Feel Good Touch of Grey And a number of others. For several years, I could not abide "Strokin'," but a few years ago, in a bar in Memphis, the band played it and I enjoyed it again, so I guess I'm over that.
  25. saf
    When I was in grad school, I volunteered with a concert series. The woman who ran the series had perfect pitch, and was an amazing musician. One night, she was in such pain, she had to leave. The band sounded fine to me. Apparently, they had all tuned to the lead, who was half a tone flat. I couldn't hear it - they were in tune. She couldn't not hear it. They were OUT OF TUNE. I finished the night for her.
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