8Track

Had a very, very nice dinner there last night. This should be a busier restaurant! Service was terrific. Food was stellar. Even Chef Enzo came to chat with us a few times.

This is particularly amusing for me, as I am Dyson's outside legal counsel and worked extensively on the Airblade launch -- and in particular, getting FDA to approve it under the Model Food Code as safe for use in food establishments! I'll make sure to relay the positive feedback to the Dyson team in Chicago, who will be pleased to hear it! When I first tried the airblade in the UK, I loved it. 8Track

We are SO excited for this on the Hill. Welcome! Will you guys do takeout?

Thanks for the tip! Do you think the leaves are essential for this, or is foil fine. I have heard different theories.

Sorry to create a whole new forum for this, but does anyone know where to buy banana leaves in the DC area? I am going to cook some slow roast pork shoulder with achiote paste, and the leaves are essential. thanks!

You will scoff, but I really like Legal's chowder. Oceanaire's is good too.

That's the one. Imagine a chef's table inside the vault. Cool! Seriously though, it's crazy that they allow the place to sit empty and deteriorating for 15 years because of restrictions. It can't be that sacred, given the crummy former shoe store built at street level. Somehow, someone got approval for that.

I've always thought that the historic bank building on southeast corner of 14th and G would be terrific. That's right across from Butterfield 9. It has been dormant for at least 15 years. I have no idea why. But it could be a monumentally great looking restaurant for investors with deep pockets.

Sadly, Port of Piraeus at 12th and E, just up from Barnes & Noble, appears to have changed hands. New management has installed corporate looking menu signs, even as they blare Frank Sinatra tunes (hoping I guess that it sounds Greek?). I walked in and was greeted by a wall of blankly staring ladies who, quite obviously, are being paid minimum wage to slap sandwiches together. Others must have found out before me, because the place was empty at 12:30, even though in the old days, the lines would snake back to the door. Gone is the crusty bread, the feta-stuffed chicken breasts. Gone too are the jovial, knife-wielding gents behind the counter who'd make you a Greek Salad and toast your sub roll. I tried a Ciro's Hero, hoping for the best. In the old days, it was a great mess of proscuitto, tomato and mozarella on a crusty roll, slathered with pesto. Today, I got a wonderbread roll, and meat that came off in six inch lengths of fat that I had to pull from my teeth. I could have use them as shoelaces. It's all gone now. The place has been destroyed overnight! Why oh why would a new owner want to ruin the good will the place had by instantly removing the quality parts of the menu?

I do think you all are being too hard on the place. I ate there on Memorial Day evening, when the kitchen by all accounts should have been at its worst. We had a perfectly fine meal. I opted for the frogmore stew, which has a nice smokey, gumboey tang. Then I went with the "duck bog," which turned out to be a nicely crisped breast of duck on some al dente red rice with bits of bacon fat. Very homey and tasty. Service was laughably amateurish, even if they tried hard (I think they had a few of the owners' kids chipping in). Knives and forks were taken and never replaced. Fodo took forever to come. And the air conditioning was on "freezer locker". Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves and loved the view. The wine list was nothing special. A fairly pedestrian selection with a few interesting bottles sprinkled in, although reasonably priced. You could do a lot worse in D.C. (or Alexandria). Give the place a chance. I think it means well.

Had a great dinner at Belga last Saturday night. An updated summer menu is available, with 3 new mussel preparations. We had the mussels with leeks and vanilla essence, which were really tasty. The place was packed until 10:30, and the chef himself was playing host. Do yourself a favor and go. It's great fun and excellent food.

Sorry to rain on your rant, but I know at least one fellow -- who's about 60, who uses a Segway instead of a wheelchair because he's handicapped. I have been to restaurants with him and he rides it inside. It is not a toy for him, but rather the only way he gets around.

What's amusing about the music is that it is the Gypsy Kings singing. They are a French band that sings Flamenco songs, not Mexican! An unintentional message about the authenticity of the experience, isn't it.

While I have had numerous bad meals and terrible service at crummy joints, nothing quite compares with with the disappointment of a terible meal at a place widely reported to be great. Years ago, I went with my wife on our 5th anniversary to a highly regarded little "boutique" Italian place in town. I won't say the name here, because it may not be fair to it so long after the fact to vent publicly about my one time experience. Nevertheless, I had heard the numerous raves about the place before going, so at the time, I was really excited about it. While none of the meal stands out in my memory at this stage, which is bad enough in itself, what galled me to no end was the absolutely horrific service. We sat in that little place in the middle of the row and we could not get the attention of the wait staff to save our lives. Indeed, they would serve our neighbors to each side and were chatting away with each other behind some half-opened curtain (we could see a couple of open glasses of wine). I mean, we sat there for a good 20 minutes before anyone evn took our first drink order. As the meal progressed, a waiter would occasionally circle the dining room, and I'd flag one down periodically, but most of the time they studiously avoided eye contact with us. It was almost laughable, like they made a point of not serving us. (We had never met any of them, mind you.) I recall spending 2/3 of the meal absolutely seething and unable to enjoy anything. I have never been so pissed at a restaurant as that night.

OMG. Please open it on Capitol Hill! Seriously, you could put it on Pennsylvania Avenue and you'd be inundated. Of course, the safe bet would be Bethesda for all the ladies in their BMW's