SeanMike

Velocity Five has been fairly crowded every time I've gone there.

The wisest thing I've read in this thread so far, and one I'm tempted to change my e-mail sig to quote.

Has anyone experimented with surfing DR.com from a Kindle, or should I be the first to try that?

Yeah I noticed that the other day - nothing like blindly pulling on the door before noticing it.

I'm going to try to make it, and if I do, I'll bring wangs...errr, WINGS, I MEAN WINGS, 'cause that's how I roll. You know. With wings. And stuff.

My brother has fallen in love with Ray's. Any chance or excuse he gets he's dying to go - Tuesday night one of his best friends was in town, so away we went. Michael was at the front when we walked in and so I got a chance to say hi (which I haven't had a chance to do since Hellburger opened, I believe). It was fairly quiet when we came in but it quickly filled up. Small minicups of the crab bisque came out first, which was a pleasant surprise. What was an even bigger surprise was when an order of the Devilishly Good Eggs and the bacon came out! I hadn't had the bacon before but holy crap it was good. I went with the cowboy ribeye and as usual, everything was delicious. In fact, I just remembered that I have leftovers in the fridge... It's a hard knock life being half a block or so from there, I tell you what.

After a long couple of days I wanted to relax so I headed over to PS7's. Marshall met me there in time for us to get filmed by the Washington Post guy doing a bit with Gina; later our buddy Roy showed up. We all got the burgers - Marshall and Roy the chef burgers, and myself the reuben burger. I tried some of the chef burger and it was fantastic. The reuben burger was always great - I almost wish they could do 'em smaller, even slider sized, so you could have both! We hung out with Gina and had a variety of tasty beverages, as always. PS7 I think right now is one of the places I go to when I just want to relax, have a bit, and end up laughing a lot; even if it's because I was having drinking issues with other people's drinks...

Jamie will be at Red, White, and Bleu on Saturday. I'll quote the newsletter but you'll miss out on the big pic of him and his sausage. Too bad I'll be in Charlottesville...

I was so looking forward to this - and just found out I have to go to a show in Orlando the 17th-21st. GGGAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Or rather.... KHHHAAANNNNNNN!!!!

For my brother's birthday we went to Ray's. It's now WAY too close to my house. Having no idea what to order for wine, our waitress asked Mark to come by our table. It was great to finally meet him and it was a pleasure talking to him. He recommended a few bottles and we went with the Consilience, a syrah from Santa Barbara county that we both ended up loving. For appetizers we ordered the devilshy good eggs, and they were quite good, and the bacon wrapped scallops. Unfortunately, we got the cajun spiced scallops delivered instead, and meant to say something - but, to be completely honest, we both got so distracted by our meals we forgot. Other than that, we had the bistro special, so he had the crab bisque and I had the clam chowder. He and his wife had gone to Ruth's Chris recently, thanks to a $100 gift card, and he laughed several times at how he felt the food was as good or better than Ruth's but was so much cheaper. We both had the hangar steak - yummy - and devoured the desserts (I had the milk chocolate and he had the white chocolate mousse). Since it was his birthday, they gave him a piece of cheesecake to take home. All in all a great meal, even with the mistaken appetizer. Guess I just gotta go back and try again on those bacon wrapped scallops...

Consilience Syrah from Santa Barbara county, courtesy of Mark Slater at Ray's the Steaks tonight. Very tasty. And Mark, thanks for the recommendation and conversation! What a great birthday dinner for my brother.

One of my all time favorites.

Captain Richard Phillips

The Original Pancake House in Falls Church was home to one of the worst breakfasts I've had. Bad, cold food, poor service...I feel safe in saying that I will never go back to that one again. I dislike IHOP intensely but I'd take it any time over the "Original Pancake House".

I'd guess Fossett's would be a good choice for dinner more so than lunch but that's just my impression. My brother and sister-in-law stayed at Keswick for their honeymoon and absolutely loved the service and food at Fossett's.

I would say that I'm annoyed that I had to drop out - but the fact that it's because I'm moving the next day means I'm every excited about moving. Y'all have fun!

Yesterday: Hunan No. 1 in Clarendon for cheap big beers, cheap sushi, General Tso's Wings, and dumplings. Not bad for the price.

Ha! I was just talking to one of the distributors of Fentiman's...he was pouring beer at Westover while waiting for someone else to show up.

The Red Porch is centerfield, right? My brother and I typically spend the entire game at the upstairs part of it so I'm cool with that.

90 minute? Not the 60? Weird but cool. And Arrogant Bastard? Woohoo! So they WON'T have drafts of the megabrews?

As for reservations, if you call at at time that they don't take them - they'll tell you when to call back. I *BELIEVE* they start around 5 PM (taking calls).

I've been wondering something about the ESB... I bought the last six pack they had at the Lee Harrison Harris Teeter. The holder for the six pack was wet and the handle had broken but no big deal, I figured. I went home and later that night drank a couple of the Sierra Nevadas. Dear lord, the next day I felt bad. Past anything I've felt in quite a while, sharp stomach pains. Figuring it was something random, I sort of ignored it and slept it off. However, each time I drank beer out of that six pack the exact same thing happened. I'm wondering if it was something with the six pack - the beer didn't smell or taste off - but I'm hesitant to drink anymore (now that the six pack is empty) just in case it IS the beer.

(That would be either Tutto Bene or Pike Grill.) Tutto Bene. Thanks! It was the place that made me say "hey, I want to try more of these..." I've seen the sign for Pike Grill but never made it there. I will soon, though.

Working from home today, I managed to cross another thing off my "easier to do before I move to Courthouse" list - visiting La Caraquena. It was past 1:30 when I got there and I'd forgotten how dumpy the hostage hotel is. I was afraid it was closed but when I got there I was the only person in there. Still, the waiter was extremely friendly and offered lots of advice about the food. He suggested a fruit juice on the menu which I'd planned on trying at the end of the meal and plain forgot about; I was jonesing for some caffeine and stuck with a Diet Coke. I was starving (no breakfast) so I ordered heavily. An order of the sopa de mani ($5.99) is a creamy peanut soup with cubes of tender beef. It was nowhere near as thick as I expected but was quite delicious. I ordered a single saltena ($3.99) which, for whatever reason, was brought out with a spoon. I've had saltenas from a few places - a place over in Ballston whose name I'm blanking on (my first experience, when doing a gig down at the Pentagon) and at Julia's. This one blew them away. I garnished it with some of the spicy green stuff (the name of which I forget) that they'd put on the table and seriously, I would stock up big time on those things. They are wonderful. Still hungry, I ordered the Diputado ($9.49). This is a sandwich of thin sliced sirloin topped with a fried egg and sauteed onions. It was messy and delicious, even if I ended up finishing it off by ignoring the bun and using a fork (because I was dangerously full and couldn't stop eating it). It came with some french fries that weren't bad, about half way between a shoestring and a steak fry, but honestly were not memorable. That was the only thing that wasn't amazing - the french fries. Everything else was great. I spent more money than I expected (before tip it was $23 and change) but that didn't bother me at all 'cause it was great. Now I need to not fall asleep while pondering my afternoon work...

The stout is the Victory Storm King. Very tasty. Had the scotch eggs (of course) and the pork two ways last night. The pork sausage with asparagus and kale...awesome.