LoganCircle

Oh c'mon...they're not real.

Bonsai kittens are an old, urban legend.

We had dinner at Hank's on Friday night.  Thanks to the call ahead option we were seated almost instantly.  All of our items were very good, love the collard greens there, but the portions seem amazingly small.  The sablefish portion that I had was about 6 bites for $18.  Realize also that the mains do not come with any sides, although the fish is served on some wilted greens.  Is seafood that expensive?  Has anyone else noticed this?

I had dinner at Hank's on Thursday night, the night before your meal, and also ordered the sablefish. The fish was great but the portion was indeed small. I'd guess it was no more than four ounces; in fact, I'd say mine was actually smaller than a deck of playing cards (which is a good way to approximate 3.5 - 4 ounce portions of protein).

I mentioned my disappointment over the lilliputian serving to two people over the weekend. Thank goodness for the popcorn shrimp appetizer and the mac-n-cheesy.

Somewhat off-topic question:  did the owners of Kuna/Opera ever resurface?

On-topic question:  does Al Crostino take reservations?  I just called and no one answered.  The restaurant is not on OpenTable.com.  AlCrostino.com reveals no such information.

I dined at CityZen for the first time last Friday night. I went with four friends, two of whom are regulars and two of whom were also first-timers. From our arrival at seven o’clock to our departure at midnight, there is little that could have improved upon our evening. The service delivered by Matt (bartender), Mark (Maitre D’), Chris (Sommelier), and Allen (waiter) was graceful and fun and Chef Ziebold delivered winning, creative dishes. Every course was a delight, but the sweet carrot soup, parmesan chiboust, and striped bass could end wars.

Chris paired each course with a different bottle of wine. We began as an enlivened table, but after consuming eight bottles of wine were edging ever-too-close to rowdy. The staff indulged us and appeared to enjoy themselves too. The non-food-related highlight of the evening was sending a glass of wine over to a middle-aged woman dining alone who would later come over and introduce herself as Frances Mayes (author of Under the Tuscan Sun). She was quite nice and wondered how we had recognized her. We, of course, had not.

My friends go regularly enough to have cultivated relationships with the staff. At our server’s recommendation, we chose not to order from the menu, but instead to have Chef cook for us whatever he wanted. What was delivered overlapped some with the tasting menu. We had:

Mushroom Fritter with White Truffle Emulsion

Clam Chowder Salad – Atlantic Razor Clam Tempura, New Crop Potato Salad, Celery Branch Gelée and Applewood-smoked bacon vinaigrette

I Tattoli Extra Virgin Olive Oil Custard with Espelette Butter

-paired with a 1996 Pol Roger Rose, Epernay, Champagne

Sweet Carrot Soup with Quatre Epices and Moulard Duck Foie Gras Confit

-paired with 2003 Michel-Schlumberger Pinot Blanc, Sonoma, Dry Creek Ridge

Warm Parmigiano Reggiano Chiboust with Herb Roasted Hen-of-the-Woods Mushrooms, Arugula and Parmigiano Oil

-paired with 2003 Martinnelli Vineyards Gewürztraminer, Russian River Valley

Sauteed filet of Mediterranean Rouget – Globe artichockes, Haricots Verts, preserved Quail eggs and Italian Parsley Broth

-paired with 2002 Littorai Mays Canyon Chardonnay, Russian River Valley

Herb crusted Filet of Wild Striped Bass with sweet carrot, caramelized parsnip, Black Trumpet mushrooms and Lobster Bordelaise sauce

-paired with a 2004 Belle Gros Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands

Crepinette of Elysian Fields Farm Lamb Saddle with Sweet Garlic and Arrowleaf Spinach Mousse, Dijon Mustard Bread Pudding, and a ragout of Rancho Gordo Flageolets

-paired with a 2002 Huber Zweigelt, Transetal, Austria

Eight assorted artisanal cheeses from the trolley

-paired with 2001 Lewis Cellars Alec’s Blend Syrah, Napa Valley

Passionfruit sorbet with Tahitian Vanilla Apertif

Torchon of Valrhona Chocolate with Dried Cherry Marmalade and Cinnamon Sugar Brioche

-paired with a Port I don’t remember

The bill was $1500 for five people.

I'll definitely return soon, and look forward to trying both the vegetarian tasting menu and the lounge special Rocks has touted. I cannot overstate the contribution of the staff to our enjoyment of the evening; they were absolutely fantastic.

Several years ago, when I worked at the McCormick & Schmick's on K Street, our policy was to tip out 3% of your overall sales. The bussers got 2%, the bar 1%. Smart servers tipped the bar 2% as well. If you worked a private party whose reservation had been scheduled through our private dining coordinator, she got another 2% and the house took 1% off the top. Because the restaurant has a single-server philosophy, the portion of overall sales tipped out is relatively low. At fine dining establishments, which have more people attending to a table, the proportion of sales tipped out is assuredly greater.

So, on an evening's sales of $1400 worth of food and alcohol, the breakdown might have looked like this:

Gross tips: $1400 x 17% (because everyone doesn't leave 20%) = $238

Bar's portion: $1400 x 2% = $28

Busser's portion: $1400 x 2% = $28

Take-home, taxable pay: $182

Let's say that $1000 of those sales came from a private party (10 people in a private room with a minimum of $1000, they leave a $200 tip, and you have a few other tables on the side). In addition to the above, the private dining coordinator gets tipped out $20 and the house gets $10, bringing the total earned for the evening down to $152.

Like crazeegirl, I always tip on the post-tax bill. I get annoyed with friends who tip smaller percentages or on pre-tax (or worse, pre-wine) sales.

ETA: "Take-home pay" has yet to be taxed by the federal, state, and city governments. Subtract another 25 percent for income taxes and you have the amount the server realizes.

Five of my friends and I are having dinner tonight at Corduroy as part of Dining Out for Life. To my knowledge, only one of them has dined there before. Over drinks last night, one of the members of tonight's party remarked that he had looked at Corduroy's website and found the wines to be pricey. I disagreed, and countered that I thought Corduroy's markup on wine was unusually low for the area.

I had read the anecdotes here, and had seen examples made of a few specific selections. This morning, to make sure that I had not misled my friend, I decided to compare Corduroy's list to retail prices. The results, as expected, were most favorable for the restaurant. You can get good bottles of wine there at prices much lower than would be charged by other restaurants in town.

Although a small sample, here's what I found.

Corduroy's price is listed first. The retail price identified at http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-select.lml is listed next.

Pinot Noir

Morey St. Denis, Dominique Laurent, Monts Luisants, 1er Cru, 98 $48, $35, markup = 37% over retail

Clos de la Roche, Domaine Ponsot, "Vieilles Vignes", Grand Cru, 97 $201, $132, markup = 53% over retail

Volnay, J.M. Boillot, 99 $53, $35, markup = 51% over retail

Stephen Ross, Bien Nacido, Santa Maria Valley, 01 $52, $29, markup = 79% over retail

ZD, Carneros, 01 $44, $33, markup = 33% over retail

Cabernet Sauvignon

Heitz Cellars, "Bella Oaks", Napa, 97 $94, $65, markup = 45% over retail

Robert Mondavi, Napa, 96 $44, $33, markup = 33% over retail

Chateau Montelena, Calistoga Cuvee, Napa, 99 $53, $40, markup = 33% over retail

Liparita, Napa, 97 $65, $60, markup = 8% over retail

Majella, Coonawarra, Australia, 99 $54, $30 ,markup = 80% over retail

Shafer, Hillside Select, Napa, 96 $210, 250+, markup = 16% BELOW retail

I think this is remarkable.

Rissa mentioned at the DR.com dinner that the Corduroy website was near completion. Dunno if it's finalized, but at long last..

www.corduroydc.com

Rissa mentioned at the DR.com dinner that the Corduroy website was near completion. Dunno if it's finalized, but at long last..

www.corduroydc.com

Adamstein & Demetriou Projects and

A & D do Zengo (which is not on their projects page)

Umm, is #13 a trick question?

Zaytinya is misspelled, but otherwise, aren't they all A&D-designed restaurants?

I'll be vacationing in Cape Town for a few weeks during February and am looking for dining recommendations in and around the city.

I'll be staying in the hills above de Waterkaant and will have a car. I made a similar trip in 2005 and tried a lot of the places that are listed in the guidebooks. I'm wondering what else is out there.

Thanks!

Anyone want an 8pm reservation for two at Rasika?

My lawyer dinner date just got handed some unexpected work and I'm going to have to cancel.

Count me among those who consider the presence of an infant, not the act of breastfeeding said infant, to be the offense. Infants and young children are inherently uncontrollable. To include them in a night of upscale dining (and to determine what is upscale one could use the requirement of a reservation as an imperfect litmus test) dramatically increases the liklihood of difficulty or disruption. I think it's best to leave the young ones at home until you are confident in their ability to behave in a manner that meets contextual expectations. Should one choose to take children to a restaurant, problems should be dealt with, and they should be done so in prviate (e.g., in the bathroom or outside).

Few upscale restaurants are likely to explicitly bar children and newborns. That doesn't mean more subtle messages should be ignored. If you're wondering whether or not your child is welcome, see if you're presented with a special menu for them. Odds are that if you're not, you're children shouldn't be there.

And on an unrelated note, from personal experience, serving a table with children can be very challenging. Everything from managing cutlery to timing courses to delivering food to cleaning up afterward (have you ever seen what young children can do with bread and bread products) adds up. That said, well behaved and precocious children can be a joy.

The Rasika site is stylish, current, and highly navigable. But for the letter I's introductory feminine dance sequence, I think it's terrific. You guys are nuts.

Mon: IndeBleu

Tues: 1789

Weds: Rasika

Thur: The Occidental

Fri: Zengo

Sat: Willow

Opening to the public tomorrow, December 8th, at 5pm.

Call for reservations, no plans to utilize Opentable.

Viridian's packing them in.

I made my third unscheduled trip to the restaurant last night and still haven't scored a table. There was one unoccupied position at the bar, but it was the seat farthest to the right and the two patrons sitting beside it had left little space for another diner.

They are now on Opentable and I figured this morning that I would be able to make a reservation for a two-top sometime between 6:30 and 9:30 tonight. Wrong again. Nothing available between 5:30 and 10:15.

I hope they're busy because they're good, not just because they're new. The clientele definitely seemed older and straighter than at the other places in the neighborhood.

The current Washingtonian (can't find a link online) has a little sidebar in which Cathal Armstrong breaks down the price and cost of an average dinner for two in the tasting room.

Average bill: $250.

Average profit: $13.

Wow!  I'm no accountant, but I'm pretty shocked that the numbers come out that way.  (Or, at least, can be made to come out that way.)  The sidebar itself itemizes the costs specifically, and is good for a quick read next time you pass a newsstand.

A Night at Restaurant Eve

What are you paying for, exactly, when you foot the bill for a really nice dinner at a really nice restaurant? We asked Cathal Armstrong, chef/owner of Restaurant Eve--where dinner for two in the Tasting Room averages $250--to open his books and break down the check for a typical night at the restaurant.

Food cost: $52.35

Wine cost: $20.40

Labor cost: $81.50

Payroll tax: $7.50

Employee benefits: $13

Rent and Real Estate Tax: $16.75

Utilities: $4.25

Repairs and maintenance: $6

Promotions and discounts: $4.25

Advertising: $3.25

General supplies: $2

Credit-card fees: $7

Decorations: $1

Linens and uniforms: $4.25

Tableware: $1.25

Equipment: $1

Menus and licenses: $2.75

Accounting: $2

Liability insurance: $2.25

Bank-loan interest: $4

Total: $236.75

Restaurant's net profit: $13.25

Are they open for lunch? I cant seem to open the link to their website.

Not yet.

Still:  app, main, two beers, tax, tip, $50.  Going rate I suppose, but not cheap.

Doesn't that pairing reflect the most expensive appetizer and the most expensive entree on the menu? I think one would find few sit-down places in the area--outside of a handful of wonderful ethnic options--where one could order the highest priced appetizer and entree and a few beers and get out for $50.

Rocks and I shared the same inaugural meal. I liked the crabcake (and have ordered it again) but have not revisited the shrimp and grits. My grits were more like a polenta cake than the creamy concoction I expected and the garlic overwhelmed the flavors of the other ingredients. When told of the grits cake, my server apologized and said they shouldn't be that way.

The burger's good but they often have limited quantities on hand.

In my five or six visits to Creme I have sampled at least half the dishes on the menu. My food has alwas been average or better and has, on a couple of occasions, been terrific. Service and ticket times have been inconsistent, and once my Surf 'n Turf was served barely warm. Those issues notwithstanding, I am of similar mind to Mr. Landrum: Creme knows what it wants to be--a solid neighborhood restaurant--and is not too far off the mark.

Value is one characteristic that often receives short shrift here, and it's part of Creme's strong suit. Entrees range from $9-$18. For respectable, sit-down dining in this city, that's solidly mid-range, and it's rare. It's wonderful to have in the neighborhood a comfortable, inviting space where the food is hearty and the staff (everyone, from Chef T on down) is friendly. It's not Palena, Komi, or Cashion's. But thankfully, it doesn't aspire to be.

Menu likes: El's Mushroom Surprise, the No-breadcrumb crabcake, Surf 'n Turf, Chicken Soup, and the Little Lemon Bundt Cake

Menu dislikes: Ceasar salad with Anchovie Mousse, all of the other desserts

I had a really pleasant experience at Oya last night with the Sunset menu.

So much so that I'm going back tonight. Anyone want to join?

6:30pm

Sunset Menu

(3 courses for $30, wine + cocktail pairings available for $27, $38, or $40, depending on your choice of light, medium, or heavy)

A full report will follow tonight's meal, but some initial reactions: breathtaking space and soothing atmosphere, among the best speciality cocktails in DC (and I don't typically go for fru-fru drinks), attentive service, and food in the B+/B range. My portions weren't nearly as small as others have made them sound.

I'll be coming from a preview party at Rosa Mexicano for the Yale Lofts, so if anyone else is attending, lemme know.

For what restaurant is that menu?

I've eaten there once, in 1996, and it was grand. That was three chefs ago. It gets rave reviews and is one of the very few 5-star, 5-diamond restaurants in the country (for what that's worth).

What do you think of this menu? I'll be in Georgia and am taking the family out to dinner. The restaurant at which I currently have a reservation just announced the following menu. There are seven of us total (two teenagers), including one other junior-varsity foodie. I have looked forward to the occasion for a while now and was excited about the prospect of impressing mom with a stress-free Thanksgiving dinner (she usually cooks for about a week beforehand). Now that I actually see the menu I'm wondering if the expense is justifiable.

Thanksgiving Prix Fixe Menu

$125 per person, $62 optional wine pairing

First course:

Ginger and nutmeg scented butternut squash soup

or

Seared foie gras with quince foie gras broth

Second Course:

Lightly steamed balik salmon, chickpea pancake, cauliflower, and Acquitaine caviar

or

Squash risotto with melon and bacon, bay scallops kebob

Third Course:

Young turkey dodine, roast jus, chestnut ravioli, jerusalem artichokes

or

Venison loin poached in glue wine, roasted pear grand veneur sauce, wild apple shaving

Complimentary pre-dessert course

Dessert:

Kenyan coffee tart, tahitian vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate gelee

or

Roasted pear, pear financier bergamote ice cream

Petit fours