DCMark

Duvall owns the place. I slept in his bed once, but thats another story (he was not there!)

Man, do you read my dreams? Agree with you on most of it. The wine section with a monthly panel is ridiculous. Who cares what the intelligence/diplomatic/Redskins, etc. think about wine. I have gotten some great recs from the wine writers (and some duds), so why give up 25% of their reviews to some random group. Why did Franz go?

The last night is Oct 22, a blockbuster. Were you there the night it was announced. Heartbreaking!

Try working the guest list at Red or ESL and you will see this 1000x worse!

Nah, despite my best efforts neither would help me finish my wine, calvados or pastis.

Jael: You will soon learn that calling a cab in DC is pretty much a fruitless effort. DC has a great cab system (lots of them) but few have radios. Your best bet would have been to walk over one block to Georgia Ave and hail a cab. You can call a Virginia cab to pick you up in the District if, and only if, your destination is Virginia.

Had a wonderful liquid lunch as BdC yesterday. I could not face DC, having returned yesterday AM from Saint Martin. So I enjoyed a wonderful bottle of Cornas with the tartare. A pleasure to see both Messieurs Slater and Wabeck.

What the does this mean? <<The new owners won't say what their plan is for Pepper's, but there are already white table clothes on the tables in the 100-seat restaurant -- and a little bit of French attitude. "It's better for us to speak to the neighborhood first," says Barigault. "I'm doing this to get a French touch on 17th Street. But I don't want to rush things." >> Its a bad 'attitude' to speak with the neighbors before announcing to the public? Can anyone explain the need for French bashing from this so-called journalist?

My wife went and was rushed and hassled. I will try to get more details but I sense a trend. $4mil is alot to pay for with unhappy locals.

Great article on this place and its involvement in the peace movement in DC: Busyboy and Poets Hope to see many of you out there with us this Satuday...

You will have to ask about the reservations. Closest metro I think is Columbia Heights. Taxi may be a safer option.

This is a remarkable place. Very nice inside and a unique menu. Still has a neighborhood feel. Fairly relaxed. If this place was located in Dupont it would be packed and ubertrendy. The decor is lovely with exposed brick and a mismatch of tables and couches. WiFi. Very nice and large bar. Lax smoking rules. Back room with a large (8 people?) raised table, pool and darts. Drinks: The beer list is reasonable with extra large Eastern Euro beers at $6 each. Speciality martinis are in the $10 range. It would be nice if Petworth could resist the $10 martini for a while. My wife had one with Russian vodka, honey liqour and apple juice called a Warsaw Uprising. I had a nice ginger aquavit as well. Food: Out of gravlax....so I had the mussels with tarragon and aquavit. Excellent, best I have had in a long time. The carrot and ginger soup was also a very large bowl and a good summer/fall soup. My main course was the kielbasa with sauerkraut. Absolutely fantastic. The kielbasa was cooked (grilled) perfectly and the kraut had a delicous sweet frangrant taste. The pierogi with bacon were not my wife's favorite but this may be more because of our lack of familiarity with this dish than anything else. Dessert was decidedly non-slavic brownie with ice cream Prices: A bit on the high side but the place was quite full. Service: I am not going to being overly harsh in considering service in a relatively new place which is trying very hard to be creative in a neighborhood needs places like this. Suffice to say service could use some work. Overall, I place I will return to...probably at breakfast since the menu sounds interesting (Eggs benedict w/gravlax, Norwegian pancakes...)

Been 'gone' for more than a decade. Damm, this town used to be fun. Maybe not as many great restaurants but we had some culture then... DC Space/9:30FST vets:

In general, waiters have to 'tip out' to those that help them on the floor/bar. This means a portion of the tip goes to the service bartender, busboys and runners (if they exist). This can take up to 25%-45% of the total tips received by that waiter. Some restaurants determine the tip out amound based on what the server sells. Others just trust the server to be fair, based on the tips they really earned. I always perferred the latter (as a busboy years ago) since I could expect a higher tip out if I worked really hard for my servers. I have never heard of a tip out to the kitchen staff.

The DJ at Asylum plays death metal so I would not really call it a DJ bar. Still a dive bar with some of the best breakfast in Adams Morgan. Stetson's remains a dive. Royal Place is a dive bar with entertainment. In Alexandria the Bayou Room (under 219) was my high school dive bar. Not sure if its been spruced up.

Thats got to be it. I wonder if he can change the culture there. A BIG task for Mr. Kilman.

Do you think $1 is expensive? I know margins are low in the food service industry but $1 customer aquisition cost seems very reasonable. Compare that to the telecom industry where aquisition costs are $500+ for a new broadband customer.

That sounds like a great idea. I have a nice racelette machine and am trying to aquire an old-style reblochonnade cast iron oven. Although if I can find one I will probably not bring it back to DC. As for the original poster...fondue is very easy to make and lots of fun, which makes it (for me at least) not good restaurant food. They charge you and arm and a leg at Melting Pot and its nothing near what you can make yourself with some nice gruyere, compte and kirshwasser.

I have to say I am amazed at this article. Nothing to do with Joe, but that a major paper would publish what really goes on here (CH, EG and DR) in such detail. I guess its amazing to me that anyone cares about our little world here. In some ways it makes all of us look a bit petty. If anyone wants a copy, email me. Someone was nice enough to share it with me so I will gladly pass it on.

JoeH? This should be good. Why is he not a member here? So he can defend himself....

I can't believe that uptight Peruvian! First of all, with the exception of my stint at Habor Ligths, in Bethany Beach, DL, 90% of dishwashers are immigrants, from South America or Africa. ANd if you read Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain prefers to train them as chefs instead of some CIA grad.

Don, you hit the nail on the head.

Beth: Welcome to DR. Here is what one of the participants (AlexRed) wrote about the wines. I have added comments under my name when available. 4 distinctly different CdPs : 2001 E. Guigal Châteauneuf-du-Pape - definitely the lightest at the table...very pleasent. 2001 Brunel Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Les Cailloux - A little heavier/darker yet, Like dinwiddie menitoned, some beefiness that made it more substantial than the Guigal. 2000 Domaine de Cristia CdP Renaissance - young, dark and thick with flavor, one of those that everyone says will be great with some age on it. I don't doubt it, but I like it now... [Mark] This was the hit of the night. Very powerful, perhaps too much? I think age will really improvove this wine. 1998 Bosquet des Papes CNdP Grenache - 100% grenache, with a little time in the glass (one of the few, if the only bottle that wasn't decanted earlier), complexity emerged. I am used to younger, tighter, spicier grenache wines but this was different, more sublte and very enjoyable. Shows what grenache can do on its own and what some time in bottle can do. [Mark] This was my favorite of the evening. Rhones really change over time and this was one of the few we drank which really had any feel of ageing to it. 1999 Les Reinages Gigondas - I got the mineral taste as well, with plenty of fruit, nice and smooth. [Mark]: This was one of mine and is a family favorite. It went well with the fois gras (I know, should have been drinking a white). Cornas was Domaine Dumien-Serrette Cornas Vieilles Vignes 1999- this was up in the top 3 of the night for me, possibly top 2. Elegant, with sublte complexity... wish i could have spent more time with it. [Mark] I had three bottles of this, only one lelt. I may have to reup since this wine is wonderful and I want to try it again in 5, 10 and 15 years. Available in DC. Most of the wines were double decanted earlier in the day which gave us a good head start on the development of the wine at the table... glad we did that. 98 Guigal Cote-Rotie Brune et Blonde which i confess I enjoyed but by that time my taste buds were not doing quite as good of a job as i would have like them to. [Mark] Me too, my mouth was in a happy revolt by this point. Barbara, I would say we were remiss with the pairings. It was more of a free-for-all. This allowed us to taste any wine with any food. A bit of chaos but fun.

A small group from Vinocellar enjoyed a 'DC Cru' dinner last week at Aquarelle restaurant in the Watergate Hotel. Christopher Porteaux, formerly of Tahoga and DanielsNYC is a fantastic chef. The menu is listed below, with the fois gras an outstanding memory. Although we did not order off the menu, the overall cost was very reasonable. The restaurant had excellent service and did not suffer too much from the problem that some hotel restaurants have--trying to serve both the fine dining and family crowd. DC Cru dinners are special in that each member must bring a bottle of wine from their cellar. Restaurants are chosen based on their ability to accomodate this request. Needless to say, this makes the wine the focus of the dinner! If anyone wants to join us the next time, feel free to PM me or go over to the website referenced above. Appetizers: Seared Semi-Cured Foie-Gras, Roasted Cavaillon Melon, Pistachio, Port Syrup Or Artichoke Poivrades & Goat Cheese Gratin, Baux de Provence Olive Oil, Basil Pesto Second Course: Roasted Atlantic Halibut, Dry Harrissa Rub, Caper Lemon & Olive Oil Emulsion Or Aquarelle Crab Cake, Liquorices Sauce, Zucchini Tagliatelle Third Course: All Natural Free Range Beef Filet Mignon, Chimichurri Crust, Chili Oil Or Australian Free-Range Lamb Chops with Marseillaise Aioli Fourth Course: Cave Aged Pyrenees Sheep’s Milk cheese with roasted tomato jam Dessert: Red and Golden Watermelon Terrine, Strawberries, Pistachios and Spearmint/Basil salad. The chef kindly also offered a chocolate/ice cream plate at the last minute. A few pictures:

And Colorado Kitchen!