DannyNoonan

The white wine you referenced is falerio - a mixture up Trebbiano, passerina and peccorino grapes, along with a smaller percentage of mixing grapes. It's a deliciously mineral food wine!

Yes, that's it. Completely awesome. Great wine with seafood.

Tried the Dragon Creek Diver scallops entree here last Friday and was quite pleased. Nice combination of sauteed chard, Polyface egg with runny yolk, potato chunks, and nicely seared scallps. Sounds odd but it wasnt, it was quite good. My wife had the Amish chicken, as usual, and savored every bite. I still really like the fact that they serve Fever Tree tonic here as well. It makes for such a nice, refreshing summertime elixir with none of cloying syrupy mouth-feel of standard tonic water. Also, I am spacing on the name, but they are serving a fantastic Italian white wine here now - it's a blend of three grapes - and is very nice. It will soon be added to their regular wine list I believe and I would suggest trying it while the weather is warm.

One last thing - I think we paid $6 for the mozzarella & tomato pizza from the kid's menu for our daughter. It's a total deal. The pizza is big enough for an adult so there will always be leftovers. And it's not a crappy microwave pizza - it's their normal high quality offering. This kind of small detail makes me happy returning here.

Considering our inaugural visit to Pupatella tonight or tomorrow evening and am wondering about logistics since we'll have two small kids in tow. In the 6-6:30 timeframe, is there usually a large crowd? Is a long wait for a table likely? Just wondering so we can plan accordingly.

Looking forward to trying this place out tonight, though find the Yelp reviews really disconcerting. This thread led me to believe things started out rocky but smoothed out over the past two months, but the negatives run right up through the most recent reviews. Bummer.

Without having seen the specials I'm planning to order the eggplant parm, a cured meat of some sort, maybe some burrata, and the funghi pie. Seem like pretty safe choices, so hoping for the best here. Any more tips on sure winners appreciated! Will report back..

Hard to go wrong with a combo of fennel salad, Margherita DOC and Grotta del Sole gragnano, in my opinion (and as stated ad nauseam above)

I believe one of the articles floating about them stated that they originally were going to open up shop in DC, hence the name. But by the time they found out that things weren't going to work in the district, they had already registered their name as a business.

A new Korean taco truck was milling around 11th and F I think, today, so a sort of half wish answered?

Correct. The original intention was to get into the DC market but that proved waaaaaay more difficult than imagined. The process for starting in Arlington was quite easy so they decided to set up there, develop a following, and work on DC in the meantime. It's a work in progress because the folks in DC don't make this an easy thing to accomplish. Rest assured that folks are working actively on the issue though. A growing groundswell of popular opinion would make it easier to convince the authorities in DC to issue more vendor licenses and make available a greater variety of street food options there. So, if you have an opinion, make it heard.

n.b. - District Taco WILL BE IN DC this Saturday Aug 28th at the Columbia Heights Day festival from 10am-6pm. Harriet Tubman Elementary (11th & Kenyon St NW).

This month's Flavor Magazine has a wonderful article written by our own zoramargolis, PLUS this bone marrow starter recipe (I believe) from BDT.

I can't find the article online, but you can find some complimentary issues at your local WF, Northside Social or other local markets; right now they are running a deal for a $19.95 year subscription.

I got a free copy unexpectedly at the Red, White, & Bleu wine boutique in Falls Church last weekend.

And yes, the article was nicely done.

Dinner at Dino this past Saturday made me wonder why it has taken me so long to dine here. First glance at the menu revealed a separate section devoted to several iterations of one of my favorite cocktails, the negroni. I tried two of them, though I am not recalling the names or ingredients. Rest assured, they were fantastic and perfect for a summer evening. Caprese salad was the embodiment of August, with the creamy mozzarella, perfect tomatoes, and judiciously applied basil, olive oil, salt. Entree of pesto sauced pasta with zucchini and potatoes was equally enticing. Just fantastic. Finished up with a dessert comprised of a scoop of vanilla ice cream, peaches, and a crumbly topping. Outstanding. I also availed myself of the extensive after dinner drink menu, trying a blackberry infused grappa and then a more traditional rocket fuel type.

This place is an awesome place to eat, drink, and hang out. It's the unusual combination of fantastic, uncomplicated food in a relaxed neighborhood setting. i love the approach the owners take to running this place as well. We'll be back soon.

I went back for lunch today, intending to try the roasted tofu sandwich but, alas, they were out of the tofu. I tried the roasted vegetable pita with garlic sauce that was on special for $6.50 instead and was not disappointed.

Generous (and I mean generous) portion of roasted eggplant, carrots, onions topped with cucumber, Romaine, sprouts, shredded carrots and, at my request, Havarti cheese. Huge sandwich much too big to pick up but tasted great nonetheless. The sauce was pleasantly garlicky, vegetables roasted nicely so they still had some texture and weren't mush, and all the flavors melded nicely. Another hit.

I'll be back at a later date for the tofu sandwich.

News here on District Taco's new storefront

I just lunched here for the first time today. I ordered the sprouted lentil burger on a hoagie roll. It came with shredded carrots, red onion, romaine, and cucumber, and a mildly flavored dressing (maybe something like tzatziki). The whole sandwich reminded me of a falafel, only less strongly flavored. I liked it overall, though the patty and the dressing could have used more oomph.

I like the feel of this place though and plan to return to try the numerous other menu items that appealed to me. It's only 2 miles from my work so i'll definitely be back.

Went to Orso again tonight. Ordered the same (fennel salad and margherita pizza for me; mixed greens and marinara for my wife; bambino for my daughter). As before, it was all completely awesome so I won't bother to re-hash except to comment on how the addition of a small amount of salt to the edge of the pizza crust completely elevates an already transcendent dish. The salt and the char make the crust a treat in itself. The cheese makes it heavenly.

The big news tonight was that they are now offering cannoli for dessert. We tried a chocolate chip version. I am not a regular cannoli eater so I don't have much to compare to but it was good. And I haven't mentioned it in previous posts but the gelatos they offer are great as well. THey are Dolcezza I believe.

Carryout from BGR for dinner tonight. It was our first try and we liked it. Not perfect but it deserves a return trip.

It was Fri evening so I think they were a bit busy and thus placing my order over the phone was a bit more frenetic than it probably needed to be. Picking up the order was a bit harried as well. I think they had just dealt with a big rush, to be fair, but the whole ordering/pickup process could be better organized. Some simple signage would help alot.

Onto the food: my wife and I both ordered veggie burgers and my daughter got regular burger sliders. Sides of fries, sweet potato fries, and grilled asparagus. Overall, the veggie burgers were quite good. Made with black beans, oats, molasses and other stuff, they have great texture. They get a nice char on the outside, maybe from the molasses caramelizing, and that makes it different and better than any other veggie burger I have ever tried. The burger did fall apart a bit when eating it but that's pretty typical and not a big deal. The bun was fresh and flavorful, pickles were crisp, and the mojo sauce was great - kinda like barbecue sauce with a little kick of heat at the end. Sweet potato fries and Yukon Gold fries were good as well. The YG fries were crispier but they usually are. The sweet potato fries were well seasoned and tasted sweet potato-y. My daughter's sliders were served with cheese on mini potato rolls and got a good reception.

Overall, the food made this a good experience. Service could be a bit better but I think that's explained away for the reasons stated above and because this place is still pretty young. We'll be back.

Drinks and dinner at Eventide last night reaffirmed in my mind that this place does it right. Across the board, the drinks, bar service, dining room service and, above all, the food were all top notch.

I started with a Corpse Reviver #2 in the downstairs bar. Gin, Lillet blank, Cointreau, lemon juice served up in an absinthe rinsed martini glass. A nice concontion overall, though I tend to like my cocktails a bit more bracing and a little less lemony. It was quite refreshing on a hot evening though. It went down a bit too easily though, so lucky for me that our table was ready before I could order a third. I continue to be impressed with the cocktail offerings at the bar here. I haven't found a bad one yet.

Seated upstairs by a pleasant hostess, I was once again impressed by the dining room. The high ceilings, nicely spaced tables, and exposed brick make it a unique space. I ordered the mixed green salad to start. Nothing to bowl you over but fresh greens, lightly dressed with vinaigrette, with some morsels of (slightly overcooked) beets were a nice, light starter. Goat cheese agnolotti as an entree was impressively delicious. Nothing complicated about pillows of goat cheese and perfectly cooked peas and beans all tossed with a subtle but flavorful sauce and topped with pea shoots. I am always impressed with a chef can make such a pleasant dish out of simply prepared simple ingredients. There was no pork belly or Kobe beef or (I don't think) egregious amounts of butter to serve as a crutch for this dish to lean on and it speaks to the skill of the chef that a dish can be so good without any of that stuff. The ingredients spoke for themselves and that was plenty.

Finished up with a generous pour of moscato to cap off another fantastic evening at Eventide.

I recently stopped in Mexicali for lunch with my wife and, unfortunately, I will have to echo the comments upthread about the mediocre food. The fish in my fish tacos tasted fishy, the tortillas weren't fresh, and the rice was bland. My wife's dish of rice and shrimp was better but still not noteworthy. We used to dine here regularly and enjoyed it quite a bit but they seem to have made a decision to prioritize drinks over food, as evidenced by almost the entire expanded area being devoted to bar space. I used to love the rice here - it was salty and not sticky - but they dont even do that well anymore. Service was decidedly indifferent and the place didn't seem very clean. I guess if i want a pre-mixed, Day-Glo frozen margarita I know where to come but I won't stay for the food and that's unfortunate.

We have eaten here a few times in the last month or so and like what we have eaten so far. We ordered standard vegetarian fare each time - samosas, vegetable pakoras, chana masala, aloo gobi, saag aloo, chana dal, and naan. The dishes are consistently tasty, the portions are huge and they are well spiced - enough to be flavorful but not so much that it offends my very western palate. I always wish the dining room was more busy when i go pick up my order because everyone there is very nice. No doubt this place suffers from its location in a rundown strip mall. I will continue to patronize Saran as the food is good and it is quite close to home. I wish more people would.

Second visit to Orso with the family last Friday and we had a similarly fantastic visit as our inaugural trip.

I won't detail our exact order as it was almost exactly the same as we ordered last time (I know, I know but we like to stick with a good thing when we find it). The only exception was the fennel, olive, and orange salad that I ordered. Nicely sized portion; good contrast in textures with crunchy fennel and tender oranges; nice juxtaposition of flavors with the briny olives and slightly creamy dressing. A very nice, refreshing starter for a sweltering day.

The pizzas were fantastic again as well. And the gragnano too. As for service, it was friendly like last time but there were a couple really big tables for the servers to contend with so things weren't quite as smooth. They did a nice job under the circumstances though and we, with both kids in tow, we really appreciated our waiter slipping our orders in just before the 12 top's orders.

This place is good.

We packed up both kids and stopped in for our inaugural visit to Orso this evening. Arriving shortly after 6pm (courtesy of our two small kids), we found the place not as empty as I expected. That's probably a good sign for Orso's future prospects.

We each started with a glass of gragnano. I had a long week a work and would have loved a cocktail but the gragnano was a nice start on a warm evening. My wife started with the mixed green salad and I started with one of the special apps - crostini topped with burrata, tomato confit, basil and olive oil. The salad was perfect - fresh greens dressed lightly with lemony vinaigrette. The crostini was excellent as well. Nicely toasted crostini, creamy burrata, fruity olive oil. The tomato didnt do much for me but overall the dish was a hit. I was bummed that my daughter made me share half of it with her.

Margherita pizza for me, marinara for my wife, and a bambino topped with arugula for our daughter. Each pizza was fantastic. The crust was nicely charred, pleasantly chewy but not dense, and full of flavor. Sauce was simple - tomatoes crushed with salt I bet. Mozzarella was fantastic on my margherita. The grana on the bambino was nutty and added a distinctive flavor to the pizza.

We are so pleased to have Orso open in this location. We live not far away in Arlington and couldnt be happier that what seems to be a 2 Amys equivalent opened so close to home. We will certainly be back on a regular basis. We didn't run into any of the aforementioned service issues - we found service to be prompt and courteous and the dishes paced appropriately. We even managed to re-connect with the nice blond lady we use to see regularly at 2 Amys. This place is off to a great start. Great location, great food, friendly service.

Just back from Corolla, NC and can again reiterate my assertion that Bad Bean Taqueria and Fin & Claw (both in Tim Buck 2 shopping center) are worth a visit.

Bad Bean does simple, Cali-Mex (as they call it) food but executes it very well. My go-to orders are black beans & rice, guacamole, fish tacos, and shrimp tacos. The beans & rice are great. Tons of flavor in the beans. The guac is creamy, punched up with lime and salt, and addictive. The fish and shrimp tacos both have a nice mix of textures (crunch via jicama slaw with nice fluffy tortillas) and tons of flavor. They just opened a second location in Kill Devil Hills so they must be doing something right.

Fin & Claw also does a nice job as the only white tablecloth restaurant in this area worth the trip. Fried calamari with peppers and spinach as a starter. I had fantastic grouper with morels, gnocchi, wax beans, and a peppery arugula & fennel salad. My wife's scallops were equally good. Super friendly service, welcoming owner. Entrees in the mid $20 range which is probably higher than average for most places down there but the quality of the food and the preparations make it one of the few places worth the price down there.

We have plans to eat at Pupatella and Pizzeria Orso in the near future so we thought that we'd hit 2 Amy's to set a proper baseline for comparison. Of course, we were not disappointed. Started with their version of a negroni at the bar, which was a nice tonic on a warm evening and didn't fill me up too much so as to detract from my eating enjoyment. Dinner started with the potato frittata and the sheep's milk ricotta. Both showed how simple things, done properly, can be fantastic. In particular, the salt and the olive oil served with the ricotta elevate the dish to a whole new level. Margherita pizza and marinara pizza to follow. Both with nicely charred, chewy but not dense crust. Again, fantastic. Washed down with Grotta del Sole gragnano. Nicely paced meal with good service despite it being a crowded Friday evening.

If the competition can achieve anything close to this level of execution, we will all be fortunate. We're lucky to have this place in DC>

Unusual set of circumstances had me in Georgetown at lunch time today and I happened by SweetGreen as my stomach was grumbling so I stopped in and was more than pleased with my lunch.

I ordered a Chic P in a whole wheat wrap. Spinach and other greens, chickpeas, cukes, roasted peppers, garlic pita chips, and falafel topped with hummus-tahini dressing. The chickpeas and falafel offer a pleasant crunch while the peppers add zip. The dressing's flavor is subtle, could be a bit more assertive, but the hummus does add heft to the meal. Overall, I liked it alot and would gladly return if I happened by again.

It had been way too long since we had been back to Guajillo but having a second kid will do that. We went back Sat night and enjoyed our meals like we always have. The guacamole had the zip of jalapeno and lime with the crunch of red onion. One of the better guacamole offerings in the area. Their chips were quite tasty as well - salty, crunchy, but not greasy. The salsa had a nce amount of heat as well as the usual smoky tomato flavor that I have come to expect. My usual order - fish tacos - offered three nicely fried breaded fish filets, warm and soft flour tortillas, and crunchy cabbage. I usually throw in a spoonful of guacamole and find that provides the optimal combination of flavors and textures. I found the accompanying refried beans and rice a bit on the salty side, which was unusual, but otherwise a fine meal. My wife enjoyed her shrimp fajitas, as usual, as did my older daughter and her cheese quesadilla. Sangria to wash the whole thing down made it an enjoyable evening and made me remember why this place was in our regular rotation before.

Some people have a soft spot for the GAR chain. I personally find them appalling. First, they are uniformly too noisy for a pleasant meal with conversation. Second, I swear there's a trained monkey in the kitchen of each one of them, with one hand in a bucket of sun-dried cranberries and the other hand in a bucket of salt, making sure that each dish that comes out of the kitchen gets one or both flung at it to excess. Third, the creativity of menus are cringe-worthy -- must I have short-smoked salmon on every menu and all over it, and must I have those vapid garlic mashed potatoes as my side for every entree? Fourth, the quality of most ingredients conjures up the Sysco truck, at best. I could go on, but why bother? This is a religious war around here, and I am decidedly anti-GAR. And getting back to the heart of this topic, I have had better meals at M&S Grill than I've had at Mike's or Sweetwater or Silverado.

I understand both sides of this argument. Agreed that it is a religious war, but here's my two cents. There is value in simplicity and consistency and i understand that but what is on the GAR plates smacks of mass produced dishes fashioned from ingredients bought by the pallet. GAR places are a step above the Applebee's/Ruby Tuesdays fare but it depends on what your benchmark is and what your expectations are going in. For me, I would rather buy the ingredients myself and make something at home than eat at a GAR.

They're out of business.

Vero was a nice idea and had the potential to offer something great for their neighborhood but, in my experience, the food was just never consistently good enough to justify the restaurant entering our regular rotation. Hard to put a finger on what exactly was lacking but we never left there with any feeling other than "eh". Will be interesting to see if some other brave soul gives it a whirl in this space.

On Saturday evening, the only beer they were offering was Heineken, but I was told they'd be expanding the offerings in the coming weeks. As for wine, there were three bottles sitting on display. I didn't pay attention to what they all were though, because I locked in on the first one I saw-- Grotta del Sole Gragnano, that perfect pizza wine. Fizzy, red, chilled.

As for the food, the pizzas and arugula salad were excellent.

Ah, my favorite wine from the 2 Amy's list. Now another reason to try this place.

Fantastic dinner Saturday night at Eventide. Start to finish, one of the better experiences we have had dining recently.

We started at the bar for my favorite Cooper Bros. Cocktail for me and a "very dirty" Hendricks martini for myself. The bartender was very kind in concocting a palatable martini for my wife who is admittedly not a huge martini fan but found this drink quite enjoyable.

Ushered upstairs, we were seated on the left side of the restaurant against the wall with a good view of the dining room. To start, I ordered the asparagus & egg duxelle and my wife ordered the cucumber white gazpacho. We were both blown away. My dish was comprised of a hard cooked egg with the yolk removed and replaced with duxelle, accompanied by lightly dressed mixed greens and thin stalks of perfectly charred but still crisp asparagus. Simply fantastic. The egg and mushroom combination should not be missed. My wife's gazpacho received an equally enthusiastic reception. White gazpacho, redolent mostly of cucumbers, but kicked up nicely by the addition of smoked mussels and a swirl of chili oil. Perfect springtime appetizer.

Entrees, again, were top notch. I opted for the spring vegetable farrotto and was more than pleased. A risotto of farro mixed with fava beans, asparagus tips, peas, and spring onions as well as a generous helping of pecorino romano. The flavor was fantastic, the farro was cooked to the point where it still had a bit of texture without being mushy, and, most impressively, was that each vegetable component was cooked perfectly despite obviously having different cooking times required. Very impressive. My wife ordered the halibut served over fregola pasta with peas and pickled ramps. The fish was perfectly seared and its mild flavor was perfect for combining with the other springtime flavors on the plate. Nicely executed, simple dish.

We paired the meal with a Fess Parker viognier which was also quite enjoyable. We skipped dessert, instead opting for a liquid dessert at a table on the rooftop deck. It was a beautiful evening to sit outside and we enjoyed it very much up there. There was a crowd at the bar on the roof but our service was prompt and courteous. I didn't love drinking a campari & soda out of a plastic cup but that's a small gripe in what was otherwise a fantastic evening. Eventide is raising the bar for neighborhood dining in this area.