brendanc

Circle Bistro is currently looking for a lead line cook with management potential. Candidate must have passion and a positive attitude. Good taste in music a plus. Chronically late, lazy, disaffected need not apply. Good Pay, Flexible schedule

Yeah, homemade can go, to. If something is made at home, it's not served in a restaurant. If something is made in a restaurant kitchen, it is by definition not homemade. Although I know many people consider their restaurant 'home'. And why is everyone's Grandmother such a great cook? I mean, my grandmother was too busy fleeing Cossacks to cook anything.

Considering I spend equal or more time at the restaurant as I do at home, I consider it to be my "home" as well. So homemade or housemade is perfectly acceptable as an adjective modifying all the different things we make at the restaurant as opposed to those that are purchased from an outside vendor.

PS- My grandmothers were badass cooks.

Add Koji Terano to Chef Leeds. It is a sad statement about "the great Washington dining scene" that more don't pop to mind.

Koji is on the cover

Kid Friendly, Cheap, Hand Cut Fries, Great Hamburgers ( chicken, veggie burgers, shakes, wings, and other things also available)

I am sure a few of us have checked out Foster's (now with 17 locations in the US). I have been to the loacation in Vienna (in the Magruders shopping Center) a dozen times when I want a great burger and fries with a beer. Now we can stack them up against 5 guys and depending on your tastes, you might like them better or not, but certainly it is still a great burger. The fries are hot, fresh and hand cut. Sodas are serve yourself and you check off what condiments you want with your burger. In addition every burger comes with fries and a soft drink. The Kids portion at 4 oz is plenty for me, but my brother always ops for the 5 pounder.

http://www.fostersgrille.com/

During my exile in Virginia Horse Country we dined at Fosters at least once a week, in Marshall, the definition of out of the way. Catie(daughter #1) liked it there and the burgers were good and the pricing great for families but not in the class of the original 5 guys and its old town sibling.

When you open a restaurant, any restaurant, to the public you will find yourself challenged by a myriad of issues, not the least of which being that your work and the work of those around you will be scrutinized in the public domain. TS, TK, the CP, here, and innumerable blogs that choose to post their experiences are going to publish their opinions. I cannot comment on PS7 directly as I have never been, but I know the Pastry Chef a little and have a tremendous respect for her, I also have a tremendous respect for Peter himself and the work he's done here in DC so when I do visit I'll formulate my own opinions of the restaurant. This being said you have to know going in that the time between opening and the first "official" review are going to be directly proportional to the anticipation the public has for the opening of the restaurant. The bigger the splash, the sooner the review, watch how quickly BLT Steak gets theirs or Eric Ripert when he arrives in town, or Michel's new place, or Robert Wiedemeir's for that matter, they'll get written up as fast as legitamately possible. When you open a restaurant, you have to know this is coming.

In regards to the belief that any reviewer would actively enjoy "spanking" a restaurant is ludicrous. These people are professionals and enter into each new restaurant wanting it to be good and successful and to add something to DC dining. How depressing of a life would someone have if their only pleasure came in the form of schadenfreude at the expense of individuals in the very industry that creates a market for their job. We will never always agree with the reviewers of record, but how often is it that a professional in DC or NY, SF, LA or other places really "misses the boat" in regards to a restaurant.

Tony at Notte Bianchi and I are currently puting together the plan for an eight course black and white truffle dinner for early December, I'll let you know when I know more.

Just like dinners in the past, the menu will be a surprise until the night unfolds. The recommendations are what Chef thinks will go with courses #1-4 and #5. I encourage people to use the thread to find others who would like to share bottles. Based on previous dinners, as long as people are willing to share I don't think any bottle will be left unemptied (is that a word ).

And again, I think we will be able to buy wine off of the menu, but until I have confirmation from Chef I do not want to make any promises. I will let you know as soon as I hear from Chef.

I just PM'd hillvalley that the entire wine list is available for those inclined to order form it, also there is a nice wine shop a block away called The Wine Specialist if you feel like having a broader selection than the 90 or so wines we carry.

Too early to talk BYOB? Specifically: is it ok for me to bring beer, as I'm not much of a wine person? I can bring a couple of 750ml bottles if that will make it less of a faux pas. Or is corkage strictly a wine privilege?

It's not that big a deal if I can't, but I had to ask

A meal without beer would be a lesser one indeed

The Bistro Bis Menu looks pretty sad! This is no way to win new customers.

http://www.bistrobis.com/bis_restaurant_week.asp

Last time I checked customers were "won" with the quality of the food not by the menu choices presented online, at a discount, for one week. Chez Panisse stood at the fore of American dining for years by offering a prix fixe with no choices at all. I know I am probably alone in this, but when did it become a requirement to offer the full menu for restaurant week, it's a deal, a very generous deal for restaurant guests to be offered a menu at such a bargain price.

I am fearful that the Don Pablo four courses for 10.99 will become de riguer in the coming years as people choose perceived value over true value. I'd rather go to Citronelle and pay 200.00 a head than go to Don Pablo's. Sure I'll cook at home more than go out to eat(it's cheaper/better) but that 200.00 once is worth much more than 16 meals @ 10.99.

Circle Bistro is looking for a sous chef, line cook and pastry chef. We are expanding our kitchen staff and need to fill these positions. Ideallly all candidates will have fine dining experience and a passion for their metier. Chronicallly late or disenchanted need not apply.

Now we need line cooks for evening and some daytime shifts see previous

description.

While not having purchased "An Omnivore's Dilemma", waiting for a loaner, I have but one interesting point. Americans spend less as a percentage of income on food than any other nation on Earth, roughly 7%. Other "First World" countries spend closer to 17% on food. Conversely we spend 19-26% on Health care, versus 8-9% in Europe. This is based on GDP figures, so the socialized medicine argument is invalid.

Nothing is more difficult than finding healthy options for a family to eat. It takes time and effort to shop well, and more time to cook and prepare meals. Everyone can get sucked into the fast and easy solutions especially with kids in the house and the long hours of work and the emphasis placed on workplace success(interesting byproduct of the free market and protestant work ethic). Look at the skyrocketing percentage of obese children, it is a terrible almost criminal problem. I know my girls love McDonald's fries, I love McDonalds fries, but the faster we wean ourselves off the agribusiness teat the better off we are going to be.

Buying local and organic is not a universal panacea, the social pressures that shape the trends are myriad and span, regional, social, economic and especially political divisions, but as Cathal suggested, starting from zero a step in the right direction is infinitely better than no attempt at all.

I know it's expensive to buy local/organic/sustainable we struggle with it from a business standpoint like a lot of chefs and like a lot of families do, but an attempt should be made by all who can. I recently had a discussion with my wife about focusing on what we buy and where we buy it and how we can make a couple of sacrifices to cover the increased cost of buying the foodstuffs that are best for us and our girls, difficult but attainable. We'll see how it shakes out for us.

I know I've rambled a bit, but the last thing I'll mention is what a philosophy prof. mentioned to me some years back, that Western philosophy was shaped by the question why, whereas Chinese philosophy has been shaped by the question, "How do feed all the people"

I had dinner at Circle Bistro this week, and came away more convinced than ever of one thing: If you go there for happy hour, and order just from the bar menu, you're cheating yourself.

I sat at the bar, but ordered off the regular dinner menu: For a starter, I got the refreshing and elegant Sweet corn and yellow pepper soup, with Chesapeake crabmeat and basil oil ($7). For my main, I had what was simply one of the great dishes I've had this year: Line-caught Alaskan halibut, with glazed baby corn, Path Valley beets, and arugula pistou ($26). We justifiably revere the famous chefs in this town - Richard, Trabocchi, Ziebold, and a whole host of others are worthy of all the respect and awe we can heap upon them - however, I'd like to propose that nobody, but nobody, can possibly put together a fish dish that was any better than this. It was great! Is it always? Barry came out afterwards and basically said, 'if you come here on a slow night, we have the time to make it perfect.' All I know is this: it WAS perfect.

Thank you Brendan for doing this chat! It's really nice to see your kitchen firing on all cylinders right now.

Cheers!

Rocks.

Thank you Don for the kind words. That dish in particular is one I'm proud of for its simplicity, we have a saying in our kitchen, when its fall and winter we work French, when its spring and summer we work Italian, that fish stems directly from the quality of the ingredients, nothing else. Thank you to all the members for your support and your questions and comments, it was a pleasure to have this opportunity.

Ciao,

Brendan

So, what's the best way to eat it? Plain, with syrup, or what? I've lived in this area for 33 years ( ) and have never tasted scrapple, although I knew about it from someone in California who grew up in Baltimore. She rather sheepishly confessed to loving the stuff.

Cox family method....Cut thick blocks, flour, fry in one of those old school electric fry pans, do not forget to season liberally with salt and pepper. Also acceptable, the aforementioned wonder bread-kraft cheese-scrapple sandwich. My dad used to make these mojo potato things like the ones at the old Shakey's buffet, excellent partner. Did I mention that we're both a little heavy into fried stuff?

While sitting on the fence in terms of reviews and critics and not spouting off about the propensity of blogging and posting and how they can or can't affect a restaurant I can say this: When a restaurant opens the ideal would be to open with everything perfect, guess what, it has never happened. When Agraria opened to the public it needed to open; rent, salaries, health insurance and people who count on the bsiness as their livelihood needed to be paid. By walking into the space you can see that the restaurant was not an under-capitalized venture but you cannot live "on the dole" indefinitely, ownership and the operators have a responsibility to provide service to the public to generate income to keep the restaurant moving and fulfill the promise to their investors. Foreasmuch as we wish that everything go perfectly, often it will not.

I think David's issue(forgive my speculation) hinged solely on the endorsement of not returning and advising others to do the same, I tend to agree with David. The limitations of individual's budgets preclude them from returning to a restaurant multiple times before "reviewing" it, but an individual's "review" should be read with that in mind, it is not law or fact, merely an impression of one individual.

An old chef/mentor of mine once told me that a review however large or small, positive or negative is only given as much credence as you the chef/server/manager allow.

In David's dsefense, although strongly worded, he did present legitimate and logical challenges to someone's post, insert heat/kitchen cliche here.

The kitchen at Notti Bianche was only part of the equation that made it such a nice restaurant. The front of the house, under Danny's leadership, played as much, or perhaps even more of a role in making it a pleasureable destination.

I know that Tony and Heather will be able to keep Notti Bianche at the forefront of Italian dining in DC.

Chef Cox,

A while back, I attended a cooking demo you did at CB (it was great). Do you enjoy doing that type of thing? Do you plan to do more in the future?

Chris

Cooking classes have been put on hold for awhile. I'm planning on doing them this coming fall.

Chef Cox:

I'm sorry to say that I've never eaten at Circle Bistro before (it has been high on my list of place to go but the plans never seemed to gel), but want to come in and give it a try. What would you suggest a first-time diner order if he wanted to experience the kitchen in its full splendor? I assume it's not a burger and fries (although I have it on good authority that you make a mean burger and fries)?

I have to say that the menu changes pretty often. The aforementioned tartare, mushroom salad and trout are pretty stable, but the new rockfish with english pea salpicon and pancetta vinaigrette, the roast duck with peaches and turnips, the softshell crab and then duck confit are personal favorites. We really work hard to stay uber-seasonal so anything that has a short or limited season is also a good place to start.

Chef - you mentioned that you were a picky eater as a child. What were the major turning points that took you from Point A to Point B (or wherever you are now as a Chef)? Also, are there any foods now that you still won't eat?

When I became a vegetarian, I had to sort of fend for myself, mom wasn't about to cook special when I was around. I joined a vegetarian health food co-op in college to escape the food plan and that was the major turning point for me. A lot of different ethnic backgrounds contributed to a really cool group of people cooking together. We all put money in at the beginning of the semester and then took turns making grocery trips. If I didn't eat what was available, then I went hungry. When I started cooking professionally I made a commitment to myself that I would try anything that was around or served to me, it was a matter of training my palate. I can honestly say the only thing I absolutely will not eat are eggs. Can't stand them, don't know how it happened, but that's the way it is. I like hollandaise/bernaise/custards, but no straight up eggs. Although I wolfed down the deviled quail egg with caviar at my anniversary dinner at Eve back in May, I guess caviar makes one hell of a condiment.

Scrapple is an amalgam of pig leftovers, ground with flour, cornmeal and spices and pressed into a block. On the way to the beach you will pass the original Rapa Scrapple factory, it smells a bit. You can get Rapa at local Giant stores and maybe Safeway. This is my Father's Day breakfast every year and I am not afraid to eat it more often than that. In college the scrapple and american cheese sandwich on wheat toast was a go to hangover cure at Linda's Cafe in Lexington Park. MD

Hello,

I'm new to the DC Metro area food scene...well, who am I kidding I'm just new to the food scene and I need some advice. I've been trying to get into the Dupont Circle Sunday farmers market. At my first attempt, when FreshFarm was accepting applications, I was told that the market had enough bakers and were not accepting any new applicants. Some of you may know ShoeBox Oven is not the typical bakery, as we offer a very different fare of pastries. Lately an increasing number of people are asking me why I am not at the Dupont market. I'd like to try to get into the market again, hopefully with better success. If anyone has any ideas, any leads, any contacts that can help ShoeBox Oven with this effort, please let me know.

FreshFarm runs a market on Wednesdays in Foggy Bottom and Arlington and Alexandria have Saturday Markets, perhaps building the business at these alternatives would be better.

Brendan, thanks for the chat. This has been great. Here's my question:

I've met extremely smart chefs but I wouldn't draw a line between the word chef and intellectual naturally. That's not intended as an insult. Cooking is a craft, an art, but not necessarily a course in the humanities. You don't have to be familiar with L'Être et le Néant to make a souffle. With that said, you're clearly an intellectual. (Sorry to out you but you used two -isms and a French literary quote in your last reply.)

So what is it about cooking that feeds your intellect? Do you draw your intellectual interests in to the kitchen?

Thanks again.

Thank you for calling attention to my pseudo intellectual -isms, embarrasing really. This business is populated by dropouts(me), persons of moral ambiguities and unmitigated reprobates for whom the "normal" schoolcraft was not attractive in one way or another. We're not a group of mensa-types, but the best chefs are also adept businesspersons and astute observers who display a vocational acuity in favor of bookish snarkiness.(take that Goldman Sachs)

I have a resevior of useless knowlege and have been recently losing the movie quotes in favor of food combos I perused in books.

Food is just food and cooking is craft, but I really believe that for a dish to be successful you have to know where it came from and why the flavors will work before you even begin to cook it. I think my staff is probably weary of references that I make, so I'll probably leave the quotable Oscar Wilde at home, forever.

Bullshit aside, I probably miss a bit of the scholarship of university that I was to busy partying to really benfit from and so I overcompensate. I am the son of educators and don't want to be seen as uneducated.

By the way you can not read or understand Sartre and become President, of the US, really I've seen it happen....

We're not letting you off the hook just yet, mister!

Every chef has their strengths and weaknesses. I see one of your huge strengths being fish - you could be poisonnier anywhere in town, as far as I'm concerned. Your love of fish, in my diner's perspective, surpasses your love of meat, and is only rivaled by your respect for vegetables and mushrooms. Is there a pecking order here with you? Your ability with fish seems to be a huge strength because hardly anyone else in town can cook a decent one, much less a great one. But you can. Thoughts? Do you know of other great poisonniers in the area?

What would you say Roberto Donna's and Todd Gray's big strengths were, both in terms of cooking, and in terms of mentoring you as a sous chef? What one thing would you like to say about these two chefs who perhaps influenced you the most?

Cheers,

Rocks.

The sheer variety of fish and their attendant preparation styles really allow a chef to showcase flavors. Meat is awesome, but often has few options in terms of accoutrements. So fish becomes that "protein platform" that allows us to be the most creative. I think the best poissonnier in town is Barry Koslow our chef de cuisine and his efforts to refine techniques and bring new ones to our kitchen can never be fully repaid. A Black Bass at Eve on my anniversary three weeks ago was a testament to quality and precision of technique.

The dynamic of our kitchen where we are not really locked into a certain style, but develop one through different influences allows for more divere fish preparations. We even went through a long period of using a bamboo steamer, something I hadn't tried before.

Each ingredient is inherently satisfying but fish and vegetables offer the greatest variety for technical exploration.

To clarify, I never was sous at Galileo, merely a line cook. From Roberto's kitchen which was as much Todd's at the time I worked there, I definitely came to appreciate pastas and risottos. Unfettered by radical interpretations, simple, honest these are the hallmarks of great noodles and raviolis, it is about the pasta, not the sauce.

Having worked for Todd for so many years there really would be a list too long to elucidate the ways he influenced me. He never yelled(much, and usually at me) and kept thins intense but still laid back enough that people were comfortable approaching him. Radical seasonality and a push to do the best for our guests, I don't think he ever said no to a customer with a reasonable request, are probably the most lasting hallmarks. That being said, if Todd had never given me a job at the big "G" I'd probably be working at an Olive Garden somewhere.

The other thing about Roberto's cooking, which is fantastic, I think he reallly pushed the idea in chef's minds about regionalism, at least the chef's in DC. Todd follows his lead by being "Mid-Atlantic" regional as opposed to Piemontese

I take it you aren't an Adria disciple. Have you cooked in the Alinea/Minibar style in any of your previous gigs?

I've done fifteen courses for people before, not in the avant garde style but more of a classic degu style. I respect what Adria, Blumenthal and the rest do, it is just not something I wish to pursue for myself. I feel like the molecular gastronomy crowd has lost some of the organic feel to food in the name of "art" or futurism.imapct pour l'impact. Then again maybe I don't "get" it, my wife and kids would never describe me as hip....

In the end I think we will all look back on this movement as one that a chef can mine for ideas or techniques and that it will stand on its own like abstract expressionism does in the art world, outside the "norm"

Along those lines, can you discuss some of the challenges of being located in a hotel restaurant. Obviously several of the places that are DR.com favorites are located in hotels, a situation that must provide some security and stability, but at the same time limit in some ways the opportunity to be creative, as well as, to a certain extent, dictate the structure of menus.

I'm also interested in how much of your time is spent on non-restaurant food preparation. Does the hotel meeting/banquet food come out of your kitchen? What size groups do you prepare food for? How does that impact the restaurant?

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and for your always interesting regular participation on the site!

Being in a hotel means we have to cater to a diverse clientele. The scope of the menu needs to reflect some "safe" options for business and international travellers. The main hurdle is one of decision making, were we located in a freestanding space we could make changes and improvements in a more expedient manner. Also the corporate structure dictates what promotional plans are going to be. Budgets need to be adhered to and I have to work in a flexibility to allow me to retain good employees.

About a third of our income comes form banquets and meeting spaces. We have ample refrigeration but only three ovens and twelve burners. When we have a 50 a 30 and a full dining room at the same time it is a stretch and it seems like someone ends up getting the short end of the stick. We really try to make our catering not seem like catering, I don't use crescors or other tools for holding food that has been cooked long before, we strive to make every dinner wherever it is located to be fresh and unique. We also serve a lot of chicken/salmon dinners, if that is what people want. We always try to inform both sides when events are occurring, but as a diner I'm sure it is hard to understand why your entree is taking a long time when the dining room is 1/2 full. They cannot see the 60 other people in a room next door.

The other mitigating factor for us is the Kennnedy Center. We do a prodigous amount of theater diners and they have different expectations in terms of timing and menus.

You're a local boy. Where'd you whine to get taken to when you wer 10? What's the old Washington institution -- or greasepit -- you miss most?

My family didn't eat out too terribly often and I was a reallly picky eater, but I miss O'Donnels in Bethesda for Easter/Mother's Day Brunch and Norfolk-style seafood, Hot Shoppes cafeteria for Salisbury Steak(Ma styles talks about the liver and onions). I was definitely a bit unruly and missed out on the trips to La Ferme and James III. I'll get to La Ferme one day when I am all grown up.

We were the house for Christmas, I have really distinct memories of those days and my Grandmother who just passed away would always bring an extra dozen yeast rolls just for me. These rolls were killer good, but tricky, once my mother tried to make them and we ended up playing softball in the backyard with the less than tender outcome.

The traditional Cox family meal on Saturdays was Pizza from Dino's/Now Theo's Pizza in Seven Locks Plaza followed by Battlestar Galactica on the TV. Sunday mornings were usually Scrapple at home.

We still go to Pope's Creek for crabs and the it place for High School dining was Fritzbee's on the Pike.

I also miss the House of Chinese Gourmet that was where the Hooters is now on Rockville Pike, awesome crispy eggplant and the last place I had rerallly good Steamed Vegetable Buns.

According to Metrocurean, it's Ricky Moore - coming from Parrot Cage in Chicago, but with local experience at Vidalia, Equinox, and Galileo.

Ricky Moore was the Sous Chef at Equinox when we opened, great guy, talented chef, I am eager to see him back in town.

Brendan--

You have been a driving force in some amazing kitchens, your own now included, and the source of such great work everywhere.

When will we get to see the work that is yours and truly yours (not that any feels cheated, what you're doing now is fantastic, it's just that I have the sense that there is something truly great and new bubbling up inside of you just waiting for the chance), and what do you think of your role as a leader of the next generation of rising chefs?

By the way, don't expect me in your restaurant until it is in Charleston and your name is on the door.

--Michael

Wow, heady words form Michael. Thank you. I believe that what we do now is limited in terms of scope based on our guests expectations, not necessarily a bad thing but there are avenues we don't have the forum to explore.

I make no secret of the fact that I want to have a space of my own, when it happens is indeterminate. I am currently feeling daunted by the process of procuring funds to open a place let alone where(that SC thing is not a definite, but my wife and I often muse about heading south to where her roots oand many of our friends live. DC is my home and where I feel the most comfortable, but to truly find a singular voice, I think a bit of trepidation and discomfort are a prerequisite.)

I don't style myself as a leader for/in a generation, if I am included in the discourse, then that is very flattering. I am really excited just to be able to add to the growing dialogue between the "next" generation of chefsand our guests. I think it is a natural evolution for those of us who worked in good restaurants to come to the forefront in due time, I'm not a sous vide guy or a 27 course menu guy, I think the best most lasting work the next group of chefs will be an outgrowth of the foundations we are all defined by, rather than a sort of reactionary radicalism. I look upon my time here as a sort of post-graduate period where I define wht I will work towards in the future rather than a finality.