dinwiddie
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Everything posted by dinwiddie
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Yesterday evening, not wanting to cook, my wife, son, and I decided to try Ev and Maddy's in Rockville Town Square. Opened by a husband and wife team, and named after their children, chef Patrick Pak comes from stints in Blue Duck Tavern, Palena, and Komi. Dinner was excellent. While the menu is not large, it is very much in keeping with the French bistro style. Appetizers range in the $7-10 range (cheese plate or Charcuterie $1-3 more) and the entrees $16 - 23. We started with three appetizers, assorted roasted mushrooms over a kale pesto, housemade pate de Campagne, and duck confit. All were very enjoyable and not to large or too small. Very nice crusty bread and crackers were served with the meal. Entrees for the evening were a roasted half-chicken with ratatouille,Garam Masala Duck Breast, and Boeuf Bourguignon. Desserts were a ginger creme broulle and bread pudding. Both very good. The wine list is small, inexpensive, and well thought out to go with the food. On Tuesday night the first bottle is half price, so $17 for a very nice Cote du Rhone was a treat. All in all, a very enjoyable evening and a new addition to the rotation.
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Dawson's Market in Rockville has a pretty decent selection.
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Corkage laws vary from in the DMV. In DC any restaurant with an alcohol license may offer corkage if they wish. If they do not have a license they may not. This is because the District believes, probably rightly so, that there should be a trained liquor manager on site. In Maryland, the state changed the law to permit corkage. Any restaurant that wants one may apply for one as part of their ABC license. Again, they have to have a license. Of course, if they have a tavern license, they may not permit corkage. The corkage permit is part of the annual license after this year. Montgomery County has a list of corkage permits granted on their website, but it is difficult to find. I am not sure of the laws in VA, but again corkage is permitted. This is very different that states like PA, NJ, RI etc that permit BYOBs. There you may only allow BYOB if you do not serve alcohol. This comes from the days when alcohol licenses were very tightly controlled (and limited) and extremely expensive.
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My wife and I went back after not having been there in years. The server told us that the place had changed hands about a month ago but the menu was pretty much the same. However, the same cannot be said for the food. Let me start by saying that the service was very good. And the cornbread muffins that come to the table are still wonderful. However, the ribs were blah to "just OK" at best. The BBQ beans that came as a side were thin and without much flavor at all. The coleslaw was good, and the shoestring fries good too. My wife's steak salad on the other hand was not as good as we remembered, and we had to ask for the horseradish dressing and it has been toned down so much as to make it unrecognizable. Not going to add it back into the rotation.
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Greek Islands Grill in Cloverly Maryland
dinwiddie replied to MC Horoscope's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
We eat at Greek Islands Grill fairly frequently, not because it is great, but it is convenient. No the gyro is not as good as some, but it is not bad. The appetizers are pretty good, especially the spreads and the octopus, the desserts range from great to OK. I usually get a gyro platter or the pork souvlaki or sometimes the lamb shanks. Bottom line, nice folks, decent and fairly authentic Greek food, and not badly priced- 2 replies
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- Greek Islands Grill
- Cloverly
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Sorry folks, but I've always found the food at Mamma Lucia to be ordinary at best. Huge portions for sure, and often very well priced, but still ordinary.
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While I am far from being a vegan, or a vegetarian, you didn't mention Great Sage. I've been there several times and found it to be enjoyable. If you buy into the concept, plant-based organic food, it can be quite tasty. Definitely do vegan food better than most places that specialize in such. It is our go to when a couple of my militant vegan relatives visit.
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Probably too dear for the Cru, but when will we be getting together?
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What Pool Boy said is what most of us do. When the wine is first poured, I inform the server that I will be doing the pouring from then on and to leave the bottle on the table. I have never had any issue raised with me doing so.
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Thanks for the detailed report TJ. I will have to find a reason to go now. Corkage is much better than paying the $40 at Proof. Although it sounds like it would be unwise to try to dine there and make a late show at Blue's Alley, I might be too stuffed to make it to the music, even if I finished the meal in time.
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Dinner last night was fantastic. I took the Kosta Browne Chardonney One Sixteen Vineyard and the 2009 Black Kite Pinot Noir Angel Hawk Reserve. We started with the Chef's charcuterie board, which was fantastic. I had the duck confit and the lamb chops. Jake had the wagyu carpachio and the duck breast. Karen started with the baby Kale salad and had the ahi tuna tartare as her entree. Erin (Jake's friend) had the Crispy Pig's head and the pork chop. We shared some of the califlower too. All of it was excellent and the cheese board, sorbets, rubarb and strawberry torte and sticky toffee pudding with espresso and port topped the evening.
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Good to know. I checked and what I plan to bring is not on the list.
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While my cellar is not quite a large as Marks, I do have a lot of wine that I really want to drink with friends and family when I am dining out. I still plan to go to Proof in a couple of days to celebrate my birthday (there will be four of us) and will be taking wine with me. On the same token, I might decide to buy something from the list if it really strikes my fancy. TJ - any special recommendations. Since the wife doesn't particularly like Cabs, I'm not taking a Match or KL, but will definitely take one of her favorite PNs or Syrahs. The Chard is for me. I wish I could look at their wine list on line, but it would be impossible to keep it updated. I will have to call to make sure I'm not bringing anything they have. I will say this for their list, it has some things on it that I have not seen on any other list in DC that I certainly want to try.
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I am all in with the concept that corkage is a privilege and not a right, but if you are going to permit corkage don't complain when someone takes advantage of it. As we have noted in numerous posts on the topic, there is an etiquette to corkage (call ahead, don't take anything from their list, etc.) however . . . while $40 is not usury, it is higher than the norm for DC. (and in fact until the law was changed a couple of years ago, higher than was legal) The norm in DC for corkage is $15-25 per bottle. I don't necessarily refuse to patronize restaurants that don't permit corkage, but I do refuse to patronize restaurants that have high markups and don't permit corkage. There are too many other places to go. I chose Proof because I wanted to eat there, I asked about the corkage because I have dined there with wine groups in the past, as well as just with my wife, and paid less than $40 for corkage. Proof is a wine bar, and they are justifiably proud of their wine list, but it can be high priced. Yes there are some gems available, and there are wines on the list that most folks never see except on a really good list. But if you are like me, and have some very small production, highly sought after wines, and want to drink them while dining on a special occasion at a very nice restaurant, you will pick one that has a reasonable corkage fee. I've eaten at many very fine restaurants, including Per Se, but I won't buy from their list and won't pay $100 to be able to drink my wine. I am still going to go there this weekend, and I think I will bring a either a 2012 Radio-Coteau Chardonnay Savoy or a 2012 Kosta-Browne Chardonnay One Sixteen Vineyard and a 2009 Black Kite Pinot Noir Angel Hawk Reserve.
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Unfortunately it has been my experience that the wine list at Proof can be somewhat overpriced, especially when they have to source something on the secondary market. For example, I was there for lunch one day and saw a 2006 Kosta-Browne Sonoma Coast PN for $300. Considering that I bought it from the winery for $48, and can find it on the secondary market for $90-100 right now, I thought that was a bit high. I am going there on Saturday to celebrate a birthday and called about the corkage fee. $40 per bottle, again, high, but since they mark things up so much, and I'm bringing things that they can't get, I'd rather spend the $40 than pay an extra $250 to buy something comparable from their list. Of course, I have to admit, there are some very good deals on the list too once in a while.
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I'm looking forward to TJ's (Pool Boy) experience on his next visit. As a result of reading what has been said here about the service, i decided not to make a reservation for my birthday in May and will be going to Proof instead (Couldn't get in to Komi).
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Thomas, er Pool Boy, what was the corkage fee?
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Keithstg, I'm not Mark or even a sommelier, but most wine shops don't get better prices than restaurants. Wine shops have a great range of wines, but don't normally buy any more of any one specific wine than a good restaurant does unless you are talking about the plonk that we normally think of as "jug" wines, the Woodbridges, Concha y Toros, Vina Santa Rita, Fetzer, etc. that they buy by the pallet load. But wine shops don't handle the wines as carefully, don't have to worry about stemware, long time storage, etc. They generally have much more storage space, at much less cost too. For a restaurant to have a very good wine list, the costs involved are nor normally seen by the customer, but can be substantial.
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Yep.
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Just before my senior year in high school, my family moved to Dinwiddie, VA, population 200 (we raised the population 4 percent by moving there) when my father took over the Episcopal parish there. When I went to college in Los Angeles California, people started calling me dinwiddie and the nickname stuck. So . . . . when I started on different food and wine boardsin the late 80's where pseudonames were common, I became dinwiddie and I've used it ever since. Of course it lends itself to some variations that I am not particularly fond of (Yes, I'm referring to you DR among others) but I'm used to it.
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I have to agree with some of the folks here, Guy didn't destroy the Food Network, it was the way the Food Network got away from what made it good in the first place. Too many competitions, too few teaching shows. And of course it was cable networks like The Food Network that killed some of PBS' shows like the Great Chefs of series. Regardless of his other unsavory behavior, chefs like Jeff Smith at least taught you about cooking and how to do it. Most of the shows today could be sporting events for the non sporting crowd.
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Already happens. There is a thriving business in selling reservations at hot restaurants in NY. You get a reservation, especially for a Friday or Saturday night, and put it up for sale. I saw a reservation for Per Se for a Saturday night offered for $200.
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I think I remember that dinner.
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If you have an OpenTable reservation and don't show up without cancelling it, you get an e-mail from them. Do it often enough and they will cancel your account. Of course, the two times I got the e-mail, I had honored my reservation, the restaurant just didn't bother to indicate that I had done so. Of course, I never had that problem with Dean. Failing to call to cancel, and just not showing up is immature behavior of the highest degree. Of course there are too many folks that make a reservation at two or three places then decide which one to go to at the last moment. (again, not something you can do on OpenTable) If you ever wondered why some restaurants require you to give them a credit card to secure a reservation now you know why.
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I visit the area fairly regularly because my wife grew up in Willow Grove and her parents live there. We normally look for a place for the two of us to eat out by ourselves once during a visit. Several visits ago we happened on Bistro Albertino because it is on OpenTable.com. and is close to the hotel we normally stay at. This bistro does not have an alcohol license so they encourage you to bring your own wine or beer. No corkage fee (something you folks in PA might be used to but in DC something that is rarer than hen's teeth) so I normally take a bottle of wine with me. I have taken my in-laws, who can be picky eaters here, and all of us have enjoyed the food very much. The grilled squid appetizer was fantastic and my father in law loved the mussels. Pastas are house made and very good. We have never tried a pizza (in fact I don't know if they even serve such) but have enjoyed the food we did order.The Bistecca Albetino, beef and spiral pasta in a creamy mushroom sauce, was excellent and my only problem was that there was just too much of it. The salmon my wife ordered the last time we were there was superb and the warm Mediterranean salad it was served on was delightful. The linguini alla Pescatore was excellent (I ordered it with white wine and garlic, but you can get it with fresh tomato sauce) and my mother in law really enjoyed the Grilled Romaine salad she had as her meal. There are not a lot of places to eat well in Willow Grove so Bistro Altertino is a very welcome addition.
