smithhemb

For the first summer in memory, I'm not teaching. My 10 year old daughter, the household's lone vegetarian, wants me to teach her to cook. (Hmm, on second thought, I guess I will be teaching after all -- just not history and not for pay!!) Our immediate goal, inspired by an asparagus, grape tomato, pecorino salad on Sunday, is to develop a repertoire of simple appetizers on the 2Amys model. We figure we're hit the Penn Quarter farmers market and maybe Cowgirl Creamery for ingredients. Any advice re where else to look for inspiration -- e.g. cookbooks that are particularly good with this niche?

Today is supposed to be Free Yogurt Friday (according to the owner's mom, who posted on one of the neighborhood listservs).

Ambiance/location? I'm addicted to their coffee macarons, rustic apple tarts, and lemon cookies. And the cakes I've bought there (black forest and opera come to mind) have all been good. But when I eat there, I keep wishing I were somewhere else (e.g. Patisserie Poupon). Still haven't had a real meal -- just coffee and pastry or the occasional sandwich downstairs. That said, I don't like their croissants. They seem undercooked to me -- limp rather than flaky.

Are you sure it's actually open today? Their website says their grand opening is on Friday and sometimes Daily Candy jumps the gun. (I'm asking because I can work a stop there into today's afternoon commute!)

Hi -- I'm Sue. I live in DC near the Friendship Heights metro. Started cooking for my family when I was 8 or 9 years old -- now I'm about to start teaching my own 10 year old. She's a vegetarian (as the result of a traumatic lobster incident in Maine a few years back, and perhaps of a tendency to think things through to logical conclusions, LOL!); my husband and I are omnivorous. Grew up in Cleveland and California. Non-food passions include politics, education, and somewhat esoteric boardgames. Current restaurant defaults includes Palena, Dino, David Craig, Poste, Rosa Mexicano, Oyamel, Red Tomato, Arucola, Black Market (for brunch) and Pain Quotidien (ditto). Current guilty vice: Praline. Just got back from a trip to NYC and was amazed at how much better/easier we ate thanks to Chowhound and Opentable!

Anybody eaten anything there yet?

Yeah, I got the P&P update. If you read carefully, you'll see that the application they're describing was made years ago, with a different agency, for a different thing (certificate of occupancy vs. public space permit), and involved a different location. It's not what they've done or would have to do to get a permit for the bench. As for Winstead's louder voice, I think that's an artifact of the scapegoating (fueled, perhaps, by his penchant for youtubing). Another commissioner (Karen Perry) made the same argument about the ping-pong table, but Fisher didn't take her on in the same way, so P&P doesn't blame her, and her name isn't splattered around cyberspace. He's an easy target but not a real threat. RE helping local business -- the ANC voted not to oppose Comet's application for a sidewalk cafe. The sidewalk cafe dooms the ping-pong table anyway. The ANC doesn't seem to find any of the other existing uses objectionable -- so apply for the permits, already. They'll be granted. I don't think anyone's on a vendetta against streetlife in upper Northwest.

Winstead didn't drop the dime on Politics & Prose. And Alefantis told the ANC that the ping-pong table would be going anyway if he got the sidewalk cafe permit. This hasn't been a personal campaign of some local Savonarola, as Fisher and P&P portray it, but a chain reaction unintentionally set in motion by Comet's application for the new cafe. These cycles of a lengthy period of non-enforcement followed by a period of zealous over-enforcement are typical of DC government. It's just not unreasonable to require permits for the use of public space. And while many discussions about the use of public space in neighborhoods start in the ANCs, the ANC has no power -- it's up to agencies to decide when/whether permits get issued. The inspector who issued the ultimatum to P&P worked for DDOT -- not the ANC. Look, what's involved at P&P is a one-page application and a one-time $19 fee for a permit that lasts for the life of the bench. If it's a bureaucratic nightmare to acquire such a thing (and I'm willing to believe -- hell, it can be a bureaucratic nightmare to pay taxes in DC), again, blame DDOT not the ANC. I agree that DC government creates a really small-business-unfriendly environment, but focus on the Council and the Mayor if you want to see that change. Scapegoating an ANC Commissioner's not going to get you anywhere. At this point I should probably add the disclaimer that I am not, have never been, and will never be an ANC Commissioner, LOL!!