lekkerwijn

FWIW: According to the Washington Post article, Joe Spinelli is one of the co-owners. He is the president of pretty big local restaurant consulting company. I think it is hard to say that he and his team have no experience. That of course is neither necessary nor specific to cooking a halfway decent burger.

As one of the Van Ness neighbors he hopes to engage with, I can only speak for myself when I say that I am very much looking forward to the opening of this bakery. I After spending a week in San Francisco and enjoying daily Blue Bottle cappuccinos in the morning coupled with a goodie from Acme Bread Company, I really hope he invests in a strong coffee program. He'd have the market for upper NW totally cornered.

Today, Ripple was reviewed by a poster on the notorious and often provocative Cleveland Park Listserv. I have cut and paste it here for your bemusement and comment. ----Original Message----- From: Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 2:32pm To: cleveland-park@yahoogroups.com Cc: Subject: [Cleveland-Park] A visit to Ripple I'm glad that there seems to be unanimous agreement that it is a good thing to support our neighborhood restaurants, and I frequently do so. By the same token, occasional criticisms should be tolerated. After hearing a lot of good things about Ripple, we gave it a try yesterday and were frankly disappointed. It was early, and the bar was already nearly full but the small tables on the left wall were empty and to us appeared squeezed-in and uninviting. The menu was in several separate sections and not reader-friendly. We noticed that the cheapest 6 oz offerings of domestic chardonnays were $19 and $20, respectively. Other restaurants offer decent US chardonnay for half that, why not Ripple? The food menu appeared undistinguished and pricey for what was offered; we had the pasta for $14 which was tasty but served lukewarm. Our bill for two dishes of pasta and two draft beers came to $55 including tax and tip. Service was spotty, and the decor along the bar was unappealing. We do wish Ripple well, and urge the management to do more to match food value with the prices, to instill more responsive service, and add good quality/good value wines to the wine list in addition to the pages of pricey wines in the $80-100 and up for a bottle. Overall, we were disappointed in this initial foray and hope there will be improvements.

Larry's is an institution. It is the ice cream shop version of Seinfeld's infamous Soup Nazi. Or at least, it was. I think Larry has retired and his son now runs the place. But when I first started going there circa 2001 Larry was still around and if you asked for two many samples or took too long to order- he'd tell you to get out. Maybe the best part about the place is that the flavor selection never seems to evolve. Tequila sunrise (dark chocolate orange with chocolate chips) has been my favorite for over ten years.

Though guilty of this myself, I am totally over the notion that Le Diplomate is THE place in town to feel like you are in Paris while in DC. Dinner at Terasol is a similarly transporting experience except perhaps to a more far a flung arrondissemt with a more subdued, less hip crowd. No question, this is a neighborhood place but that is a good thing. Service is friendly and efficient. The food is very approachable. Prices are reasonable. Friday night at 8:30 the place was packed with locals and they had live music. We started the meal with a French Onion Soup and an endive salad off the list of specials. The endive salad came with blue cheeses and walnuts in a light sesame seed vinaigrette. Both were delicious. Warm french bread comes out of the kitchen at regular clip. For entrees we had a salmon over risotto and the roast chicken. That salmon was pretty damn good. Salmon was perfectly cooked with a super crisp skin over a creamy risotto with hints of saffron. The quarter chicken had crispy skin, a nice thyme-y brown sauce and Parisian style turned and roasted potatoes. If I had to find something to complain about, I wish I had gotten more dark meat instead of breast which was could have been a little moister. To drink, two glasses of red wine. We were too stuffed for dessert. With tax and tip $100 even. All in all it was a lovely, quiet dinner in a lovely neighborhood restaurant. Not much else you can ask for really.

Saturday was my brother-in-law's birthday and Peking Gourmet Inn is his favorite restaurant. My husband insists that I have been there before with him and his family- usually I disagree and then acquiesce that it may be true. I am now 100% confident that before Saturday night I had never been there before. The place is a nightmarish circus of kitsch and I would have remembered being there. Peking Gourmet Inn represents everything that I hate about mediocre yet inexplicably popular restaurants that are past their prime. I still haven't found anyone who can explain what Peking Celery is. For starters at 7:30 pm the place was packed and there was a line of people waiting out the door. The menu is a totally unironic throwback to the Chinese food and tropical tiki drinks of the 1970s. If executed well it could be endearing. But it wasn't. We got a massive eye roll from our waitress when she saw we had brought our own bottle of wine- a 2010 Herman Weimer HJW Dry Riesling that was the lone bright spot in a meal that was otherwise a total waste of calories- and told us we'd have to wait to open it since they had (no joke) run out of wine glasses. We obviously got the Peking Duck and it was a middle of the road version. Aside from being able to observe what is clearly expert carving skills, the best part were the fatty leg bits from the carcass that the server left on the table. They really loved consolidating our serving plates during the very rushed service- there is something really welcoming and appetizing about watching your server dump food from one plate on your table onto another. I will say that I did enjoy the cold, pickled Sezchuan cabbage- there was no spice to speak of, just sweetness and acid. It reminded me of something my Yiddish speaking grandmother made from a recipe her mother had brought to the US from the Shtetl. Everything else we ordered was utterly unremarkable except for the Peking Gourmet Chicken which was greasy and virtually inedible unless dipped in their special secret garlic sauce- basically some kind of cornstarch thickened sugary garlic glop. I never need to go back. When I am forced to I will stick to a liquid meal of the flaming volcano or the drink that comes in a parrot shaped vessel topped with pineapple.

No, we did the only thing worse. We leveraged our Zone 3 parking privileges. Instead of walking the short 1 mile to the restaurant we drove and parked along Newark street.

I've been to Num Pang- the location in the Nomad hotel. It was good but I had a salad. My coworkers in NYC go there alot. They have fresh watermelon juice in the summer which is one of my favorite things ever.

I do the Penn Station commute between Park & 26th and Penn Station a couple times per month. I have developed a set of favorites for train eating: 1. Hale and Hearty (multiple locations) 2. Spreads (30th and Park) 3. Stumptown (29th and Broadway) 4. Korean bakery cafes along 32nd between Broadway and 5th 5. Second Avenue Deli (33rd between Lex and 3rd) but given your coordinates Carnegie Deli or Sarge's would be options as well. If you want really random, I love Kyotofu. Their chocolate fudge cupcakes were at one point ranked by the NewYorker as the best in New York. They can be purchased at a couple different places around the city but their shop in Hell's Kitchen is worth the trip. The other amazing thing about New York is that you can get just about anything delivered- even to a street corner by Penn Station.

According to the Best Bites Blog this location will be a new Jose Andres Chifa concept.

Yes, the service lane... perhaps the only thing more controversial in Cleveland Park right now are leaf blowers. But all was neighborly Friday night around 8:30 at a bustling Dino. After a week of multi-city travel, I was in the mood for a really good meal and a cocktail. We tried some new menu items- Tuscan ratatouille, chanterelle pasta, and asian pears and pork belly along. Loved the homemade shrub cocktails- particularly the strawberry balsamic. Yum. As always. Thank you.

We had a lovely dinner at Red Hen on Saturday night. The atmosphere is pretty unique for DC- maybe it is the neighborhood, it feels almost Brooklyn-esque. Very different from the years I commuted through there on my way to Children's National Medical Center and there was nothing but a gas station Dunkin Donuts. I echo others' comments that the food is superlative. High quality ingredients prepared with care and without pretense. We enjoyed the beet salad, squash soup, grouper with heirloom beans, and the rigatoni with sausage ragu. We were too stuffed to order dessert but what was coming out of the kitchen looked great. Only a minor quibble- there was a fairly long lag time between our appetizers and entrees. During that time we also finished our drinks- an orange wine and a beer. I think we might have liked another of each but no one stopped by to ask.

After making and cancelling at least two different reservations at Kapnos, we finally got there for dinner Saturday night.They say that you never get a second chance to make a first impression and Kapnos nearly lost us at hello. Allow me to set the scene... Perhaps you recall that it rained basically all of last week. Arriving a few minutes before our 8:30 reservation and feeling frugal we drove around the block a few times looking for a parking spot and finding none, we decided to suck it up and just valet. So, we follow the instructions in our City Eats reservation and pull up in front of the W Street entrance where they allegedly have valet parking nightly after 5:30 pm for $15. But after sitting there like fools for a few minutes it is increasingly clear no valet was there. Perhaps Kapnos' valet was furloughed in the shutdown? I run inside and it is confirmed, "no valet tonight". We should park across the street in the pay lot and tell them that we were going to Kapnos, they would give us a discount. This is highly irritating, probably also a violation of their ABRA agreement. So we debate if we should bag the reservation and just get a chivito at Fast Gourmet. But at this point it is nearly 8:45 so we pull into the lot across the street. Perplexed and nonplussed would best describe the look on the guys face when we told him we were going to Kapnos and asked for a discount. Needless to say, no discount. So now it is 8:45 and we are told that people are lingering and our table isn't ready. They suggest we wait in the bar. Except the bar is totally packed. Waiters are trying to deliver food to tables. LOTS of people are waiting for tables. So we push our way in to the far end of the bar by the 14th street door and order two cocktails- a kegged lemonade with gin and a mustachio. They were both enjoyable and this helps to take the edge of annoyance off. But now it is after 9 pm and we still haven't heard from them. So drinks in hand we shove our way back towards the host stand and ask about our table. Still not ready, but soon. There are a number of manager looking dudes walking around looking stressed. Right about 9:15 we are seated. They seat us in the back of the restaurant and luckily it is both cooler and quieter. Our waitress is friendly and efficient. Someone else swings by the table with water and comments that we must have been waiting in the bar since we already had drinks. My menu is different from my husband's. We realize this as we are discussing what to order. Is it arctic char on the menu or halibut? This creates conditions that causes one to question the Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives. We ask the waitress and learn that somehow I got an old copy of the menu with halibut on it. No harm done and the food and cocktail that comes out of the kitchen was all very enjoyable if not outright excellent. In particular the taramasalata, smokey arctic char and suckling pig. We were too stuffed for desert. So here's the thing. At no point did they actually do more than shrug and actually apologize to us for the fact that we had to wait almost 45 minutes for our table or that they didn't actually have valet when they said they would. We debated this point the whole way home- should they have comped us a round of drinks or offered a free dessert? By no means do we feel it was required, but it certainly would have been a nice gesture. All in all, despite the enjoyable food and drink we're in no rush to return.

karaoke nights with the Bush twins... Memories...

When I worked as a pediatric dietitian we always recommended this book to parents concerned about picky eating, it is an oldie but a goodie with a research driven methodology. Child of Mine, Ellyn Satter In this book, a food PR pro claims she can market octopus to children and get them to eat anything. I haven't read it nor can I endorse the methodology. My Two Year Old Eats Octopus, Nancy Tringale Piho Perhaps my favorite discussion of the intricacies of making your own baby food appeared in Food and Wine magazine. Raising a Baby with a Four Star Palate, Pete Wells

Today in an effort to live dangerously, I switched it up from my normal salad and tried one of the soups. The squash soup came with pepitas and sour cream, onions, and cheddar cheese on the side. The pint of soup was a generous portion for $6.50. The soup was complex and savory (I hate sweet squash soup), with a nice texture that wasn't reliant on cream to be creamy. Enough about the soup. The real surprise- the soup came with two perfect, little, warm and buttery Parker House rolls. WTF!?!?, WTF! How have you been keeping these from us for so long?

I think this is a great thing. It is easy to get caught up in foodie altruism and lose sight of the fact that fundamentally we are talking about businesses in which there is a need to at least break even in order to be a sustainable business and over the longer term make money. Think of all of the great places that didn't have a sustainable business model and have since closed. There is much to be learned from someone who can successfully take a concept from ideation to execution.

Dinner last night at Baby Wale. Came with big expectations and left with a more mixed, if not underwhelmed impression. The space is big and open but without anything to absorb sound it was incredibly loud even when not near capacity. As noted by others service still has some kinks to work through. The soups alone are worth repeat visits. Whatever issues there were, the soup rights all wrongs. We also ordered the duck pupusas and the hot dog. The pupusas were dry and flavorless. The hot dog was better but the standout were the fries that came with it. I think we should have made smarter choices when ordering and gone for the soft shell sandwich, Caesar salad or the lobster roll. They were out of the grilled cheese sandwich which would have been a good pairing with the tomato soup.

Yes, a proper ventilation system will be key. So I can smell fresh baked bread from my home two blocks away!

So Table takes reservations now and at 8:45 last night despite DC generally feeling like a ghost town the place was packed and it was really difficult to find a parking spot. I can see why the place is getting good reviews and how it made the semi-finals for Bon Apetit's list of Best New Restaurants. I can also see why it didn't make the final cut. They took us right up to the roof which is a lovely outdoor space. Service was attentive and helpful. They were out of a few things on the menu- Macedonian wine, Halibut, and the Guinea Hen. But our waiter offered thoughtful alternatives. All the food coming out of the kitchen was gorgeous. But the pacing was off- we waited 30 minutes for our first course and then another 45 for our entrees. By then the place was nearly empty and when we ordered dessert it came out really quickly. The waitstaff was apologetic and kept our wine glasses full (on the house), brought out bread while we waited for the first course, and then between the first course and main a lovely piece of cheese and accompaniments. That said, when we finally got the food it was pretty great. First course husband had the green gazpacho with soft shell crab. I had the scallop ceviche. Both were good, the ceviche was a little better in my opinion. Green gazpacho was a little bland. Main course he had the arctic char- came out impeccably cooked, really crispy skin. Delicious. I had the escargot ravioli. If you didn't know what a snail tasted like you might thing the earthiness and texture is from mushrooms. We both loved it. Dessert we got the ricotta donuts at the recommendation of our waiter- he said of all the desserts it was the best for two people to share. He was right- you get a plate of about 6 of them piping hot out of the fryer. Not super sweet or doughy. No question, we'll go back.

yes. And arguably that restaurant has a better reputation. Hence, my confusion.

Ok. I can't be the only person who read this and was like, huh? Hopsing, was this meal at the H street location or Tenleytown?

I have a client who likes to be wined and dined. He likes expensive and he likes old school. He likes steaks and big Cabs. If there is a burger on the dinner menu he won't go. He likes attentive overly formal service. He loves 1789 almost as much as he loves Blue Duck Tavern. But Blue Duck Tavern was totally booked tonight and so at 6 pm I found myself having dinner with my client, a co-worker, and my husband (a good sport who can be lured into situations like this with the promise of expensive wine) in the Middleburg room. I won't bury the lead. Dinner tonight was actually pretty damn good. This restaurant is totally underrated and frequently overlooked for newer, trendy options. I won't roll my eyes next time he says that is where he wants us to take him for dinner. The menu has evolved and is now broken down into cold and hot appetizers, pasta (half and full portions), fish and meat that are described in a "know your farmer, know your food" style with a focus on seasonal ingredients. Dinner comes with a basket of freshly made bread- Parker House rolls, sour dough, and whole grain all served warm with Amish butter two ways- salted and honey whipped. I'm a sucker for honey butter on warm bread. This was a lovely version. Next out was an amuse that was a spoonful of summer melon and cucumber salad with onions and two tiny cubes of feta cheese. Very tasty. My coworker and I both started our meals with the Chilled Tomato Soup burrata, basil cake croutons and hazelnuts. The basil cake croutons were very much like a sweet cake in a pleasantly sour, intensely tomato flavored broth. The burrata once cut into oozed into the cold soup making it almost like a creamy tomato soup. Client had the Summer Squash Soup charred baby eggplant purée and purple potato chips. He didn't comment that it was good or bad (that meant he liked it). He did comment that he thought it was interesting that it was half the size of the tomato soup. My husband had an appetizer portion of the Lasagnette squid ink pasta, fried oysters, Florida white shrimp, Manila clams and Prosecco cream sauce. He declared it to be delicious and all shellfish properly cooked. Entrees were equally successful. They were also very pretty. I had the Wild King Salmon (Colombia River, WA) potato crusted; house made fregula, charred corn,lump crab meat, favetta, fennel and corn consommé. The salmon itself was mild and gorgeous cooked just past medium rare. I wasn't as much of a fan of the jumble of stuff underneath it. The flavors were good, but the fregula was a little chewy. The rest of the table ordered meat. One lamb leg, one lamb shoulder, and one teres major with horseradish sauce. Again, all expertly cooked and everyone was very happ Dessert was by far the low point of the meal. Client and I both had the seasonal fruit sorbet ("stone fruit"), sparkling rosé, blackberry jam and fruit brittle. It was unremarkable. A drizzle of blackberry jam over three melon ball sized scoops of a bright red fruity sorbet. They poured sparkling wine over it at the table. I guess that crispy translucent thing on top was fruit brittle. My husband had the Ice Cream Valhrona chocolate ice cream, bourbon vanilla ice cream, brownie blondie swirl, peanut butter cookie, chocolate éclair bon bon and chocolate sauce. On paper it sounded great. In practice it was a sloppy mess and he said it tasted so overwhelmingly of bourbon that it was almost inedible. Client ordered two bottles of Pinot Noir, LaRue, Sonoma Coast, CA 2009 which we all really enjoyed. The Pimms cups that he and the coworker had to kick-off the meal were described as just ok. Along with an espresso and a latte with tax and tip it was a $600+ meal. I can't decide if I love or hate the fact that the decor of the restaurant hasn't changed in like 50 years. It is tired, fussy and shabby; a throwback to a more genteel time when you wanted to dine by candle light in a quiet, dark nook of a damp, cramped wood paneled room. 1789 attracts a clientele that would appreciate this decor and atmosphere in a not ironic kind of way. FWIW- they still run their summer special. The price has inflated over the years (I remember going in my pre-expense account days when it was 3 courses for $35 all summer, any day of the week). Now it is four courses for $50 Monday through Friday. Info is on their website. Given the regular menu prices and overall quality of the food it is a pretty solid deal. You'll have no trouble getting a table making it a great alternative to restaurant week which has long since jumped the shark.

Don, it was the worst meal. I was with him. Did the price and schlep add insult to injury? No question. I think one of the reasons people are sometimes afraid to say they didn't like a rarified meal like that is because you think, "Experts say this place is close to perfection. Maybe I just don't get it." Based on the looks on the faces of other diners, I think that may easily have been the case that night. We were served one course that was just a bowl of flower petals. Another was fossilized salsify with petrified caviar that was in a single word horrific. When a couple plates went back to the kitchen almost uneaten our waitress started bringing us other items not on the menu and the meal improved drastically. What also might help to put our feelings into context- on that same trip we also ate at Extebarri, El Cellar de Can Rocas, Rafas and El Bulli. So when Mugaritz didn't live up to expectations and those other meals were so incredible, it only made us regret not going to Arzac instead that much more.

In the latest installment of DINKs Who Dine, we were by much looking forward to our dinner Saturday night at Casa Luca. As big fans of Fiola and having read the generally glowing commentary online, we had high hopes for this meal. I won't go so far as to say it was disappointing, but wasn't exactly what we thought it would be. For starters, this place is soo loud. Like headache inducing loud. And with the AC cranking despite a totally packed house it was kind of chilly. Also, we had at least three different waiters, one of whom was the manager, over the course of the meal. I will say that they apologized several times for the consistently inattentive service. Had they not acknowledged this I think we would have been pretty pissed. But it would have been better if it didn't keep repeating itself throughout the meal. I started with the mixed greens which are a hybrid of a green salad and fruit salad. I really enjoyed it, but it is also kind of weird. Add a couple pieces of cheese and it could be dessert. Husband had the heirloom tomatoes and straciatella. Looked good and tasted good. But he commented he should have ordered some bread with it because it was kind of small. For an entree I had the grouper with lemon, dill and artichokes. The grouper arrived whole, head on and is then carved table side. It was perfectly cooked and the sauce was delightful. But the fish was served with the skin still on it. It was sticky and gelatinous and totally not appealing. It was also very difficult to separate from the meat of the fish. My husband had the fusilli which is basically Cacio e Pepe. He didn't dislike it but didn't love it either. I think he was hoping for something more exciting and less comfort food. Dessert was arguably the best part of the meal. I had the cassata semifreddo, which I totally loved. He had the brioche and gelato. The burnt honey gelato was pretty incredible. To thank us for our patience, they brought over shots of limoncello. I liked the strawberry better than the lemon bay leaf. He was of the opposite opinion. Overall, we're not sure what to make of our experience last night. I won't say we won't go back, we just won't rush there. I think you can get a meal of similar quality at Al Dente or Dino minus the noise and the difficulty of getting a reservation.