Kavita Singh

In New Delhi - tea at the imperial hotel -wander the streets of Hauz Khas village -Humayuns tomb -sound and light show at the Red Fort -dinner at Bhukara -Delhi Hut if you are interested in the crafts bazaar -a walk in Lodhi Gardens -my favorite restaurant is at the manor hotel called the Indian Accent

To DonRocks- If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. --- Walk away, my flower.

DC's two gin monuments, New Heights' Gin Joint with an inventory of over 65 different brands of gin, and Green Hat Gin, DC's brand gin, collaborate to host an exclusive field trip, distilling seminar and bottling spree at the Green Hat Gin distillery. Date: Saturday, November 17, 2012 Schedule: 11:30 AM - Meet at New Heights Restaurant for finger food snacks and a Green Hat Gin cocktail or a beverage of choice. 12:30 PM - Climb onto the Gin Joint Gin Van to be driven to the distillery, New Columbia Distillers, 1832 Fenwick NE, Washington, DC. 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM - Tour, distillation seminar and Green Hat Gin tasting with distillers Michael Lewes and John Uselton. 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM - Bottling and Labeling - Join Michael and John in bottling and labeling the current batch of Green Hat Gin. 5:00 or 5:30 PM - Take the Gin Van back to the Gin Joint at New Heights Restaurant. By that time, the bar and restaurant will be open for those who want to carry on. Perks: o Purchase 750ml bottle of Green Hat Gin direct from the distillery: $39.60 (includes tax) o Green Hat Gin T-shirt compliments of Green Hat Gin and the Gin Joint at New Heights Restaurant. o Bragging rights: You can now say, "Yeah, I bottle gin!" Package Charge: All-inclusive: $55 per person Reserve Now and Payment: Reservations taken on a "first come" basis with limited capacity of 25 (and a "wait list" to cover cancellations) o By phone: New Heights Restaurant: 202-234-4110 o By e-mail: newheightsrestaurant@comcast.net o Over the bar: Reserve over a Green Hat Gin cocktail at New Heights' Gin Joint.

Here's extreme advance notice about NH's regional foods Chesapeake Bay “Crab Boil.” We're passing up Restaurant Week this year to give you this Blue Crab Special. A three-course dinner: Chilled Gazpacho followed by three steamed Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs, Virginia Little Neck Clams, sausage by a local charcuterie, poached shrimp, farm-fresh corn on the cob and bliss potatoes. Not crazy about crabs? Substitute Louisiana-style BBQ ribs, slow-cooked meaty baby backs. For dessert, you choose: Market Peach Cobbler with homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream or Angel Food Cake with macerated berries. Beverages are also locally sourced. A “bucket o' beer” with brews from local breweries. Horton Viognier and Chatham Vineyard's unoaked Church Creek Chardonnay by the bottle and the glass, both highly touted Virginia wines. There's a perfect Crab gin in West Virginia's Smooth Ambler. For a long time, NH has had its eye on a summer food event showcasing Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs. It's here! Monday, August 13 through Sunday the 19th. The price for the three-course dinner is $38.00 per person; all beverages charged separately.

Months ago, the Gin Joint at New Heights Restaurant got wind of a start-up, indie gin distiller in Brooklyn and, ever since, has been looking for a chance to visit and taste. By coincidence, over the weekend the Gin Joint received an email from the distillers, Breuckelen Distilling Company, asking if they could bring their “Glorious Gin” in early this week for sampling. One thing led to another and soon the two parties had agreed to an impromptu public tasting event this Tuesday, February 28, at 6:00 PM. Short notice but a momentous event for both parties since Tuesday's tasting at the Gin Joint signals Breuckelen Distilling's entry to the DC market. Breuckelen's non-London-dry-style “Glorious Gin” is produced entirely from scratch, starting with organic wheat grown on a small farm in upstate New York. The grain is distilled once, then separately with each gin botanical (juniper, lemon, grapefruit and ginger) then again as a blend with the botanical enhanced spirits. The result is a spirit similar in character to a genever-style gin but different too in that “Glorious Gin” contains no malt. For the event, the Gin Joint will sell a customized gin cocktail based on Breuckelen's “Glorious Gin” (featuring rosemary and lime infused ice cubes and the Gin Joint's own ginger tonic) and will offer gin lollipops. Chef Ron Tanaka's kitchen will also serve complimentary hors d'oeuvres. The Breuckelen Distillery “Glorious Gin” tasting takes place Tuesday, February 28, 2012, starting at 6:00 PM. Breuckelen's distillers will lead the tasting and talk shop with the Gin Joint's devoted giniacs. For additional information, please contact Kavita Singh at 202.234.4110.

" I thought we would meet only in death" To the man I love and adore- Don rocks

New Heights, a comtemporary American restaurant, has a need for both full-time and part-time servers. The restaurant is (usually) closed on Sundays, and is dinner-only, Monday through Saturday. You won't have to wake up early to work breakfast or lunch! Our business is picking up, and we anticipate only getting busier in the upcoming weeks and months. We have many polite, well-heeled clients, some of whom are upscale visitors staying in one of two major hotels located only a block from the restaurant. Given that we're in a relatively expensive area (Woodley Park, right on the Metro), we are a moderately expensive, fine-dining restaurant, and you'll have good check averages. Please send me a PM on this website, or email me at newheightsrestaurant@comcast.net Immediate availability! Contact me today, and you can be working tonight. Thanks, and we look forward to having you on our team, Kavita Singh Co-owner New Heights

I began taking spinning classes with Kim Teri eleven years ago. She currently teaches at Equinox in Bethesda. Because of the high intensity of her spin classes, Kim turned me into a competitive cyclist and I'm now able to ride with DC Velo. These are as tough as any spinning classes you'll find in the DC area, and my pulse regularly gets over 170 and stays there for an extended period. Needless to say, these classes aren't for beginners although you can sit in the back and do them at your own pace - and many do, including Don. I've recently started working with Kim taking TRX suspension training (using bands and cords) at Iron Fitness in Bethesda where no membership is required. With TRX, you work with your own body weight instead of with barbells or machines - it was designed for marines who don't always have the luxury of equipment where they may be stationed. TRX looks like this. Kim has been named Best Personal Trainer in Bethesda. Both she and her husband Robert (a competitive cyclist) teach classes, and their website can be found here. Kavita Singh

Last year, it was a gastronomical collaboration with his Italian mentor, Master Chef Lorenzo Polegri. This year, hosting the second in his series of Master/Protégé Reunion Dinners, New Heights’ Executive Chef Logan Cox invites another former mentor and preeminent culinary influence into his kitchen for a collaboration, Tarver King. Chef Cox, credits Tarver King with inspiring in him the courage to “experiment with what the diner experiences sensually.” King, who became a celebrity chef as the Grand Chef Relais & Chateaux at the Woodlands Resort and Inn, now commandeers the kitchen at The Ashby Inn and Restaurant, Paris, Virginia. This years’ King/Cox Reunion Dinner pays homage to “winter preservation,” a culinary tradition of Virginia and other agrarian communities where seasonal foods are cured or preserved to last throughout the infertile winter. These old curing techniques will be used in a modern way. The objective is to show that agrarian traditions like winter preservation can be sourced today to create delicious meals. Almost every ingredient on every dish has been preserved, by pickling, salt, curing, canning, conserving, from confit to preserves. For the event, New Heights invites Neal Wavra, Innkeeper and Sommelier at the Ashby Inn and Restaurant, to create the wine pairings. In keeping with the regional, agrarian theme for the dinner, Wavra chooses wines from Virginia’s notable vintners. The meal opens with two hors d’oeuvres, Crispy Rabbit-Bacon Rillette with preserved grapefruit, and Buffalo Wings with Stilton Dust, accompanied by a glass of Thibaut-Janisson, “Fizz,” NV. A first course follows, Preserved Quail with split pea espuma, pine needle jus and smoked ham, served with a Linden, Hardscrabble, 2006. The second course, a Smoked Confit of Rockfish with black walnuts, sweet potato juice and faro, and Nebbiolo, Breaux, 2005. Hay Smoked Venison with cornbread and caramelized cucumber relish makes up the main course served with a Glen Manor, Hodder Hill, 2008. For dessert, New Height’s Pastry Chef Donald Smith offers Heirloom Carrot and Parsnip Torte with dried plum ice cream and spiced apple gastrique, served with a glass of Rockbridge, "V d'Or", Late Harvest Vidal, Traminette, Vignols, Riesling, 2008. The Tarver King and Logan Cox Reunion Dinner at New Heights Restaurant takes place on Tuesday, February 22, 2011, at 6 pm. Seating is limited to 40 diners. Reservations are strongly recommended. Reserve by phone at 202.234.4110 or online at www.newheightsrestaurant.com. The price for the four-course dinner with hors d’oeuvres and wine pairings: $105. For additional information, please contact Kavita Singh at 202.234.4110

We lost our wonderful bartender, Chris, on short notice awhile back, and we've all been so busy that we simply haven't had time to interview people (that's what happens when you're thrust into working six nights a week). New Heights is looking for the following qualities in our new bar manager: young in spirit, customer friendly, experience in mixology AND bartending (mixology = developing original drinks and executing classic ones; bartending = the skill of making those drinks while interacting with our treasured customers from around the country and world). It will be your job, with lots of responsibility and potential to become one of the great, famous bartenders this city has to offer. Everything will be up to you and your talents, dedication and ambitions. Salary, with tips and commissions, has the potential to be well above industry average and even surprisingly high considering the size of the bar, but that's going to take work on your part. Expect to work hard at our small bar; perhaps less so now that our patio is shutting down for the wintertime. At times, you may need to assume the role of runner, bringing down Logan Cox's fantastic food from upstairs, and you'll also learn an incredible amount about this ultra-talented chef who has gone inexplicably unappreciated by the mainstream DC dining press. You can work with him to design wine and cocktail pairings around his superb, complex dishes. New Heights is celebrating its 25-year anniversary next year and it's entirely because of our dedication to discovering lesser-known chefs and bartenders who we feel deserve recognition and elevation onto a higher stage. With the nearby hotel business, pay may be inconsistent night-to-night, but it's quite consistent over the long term. Our whole downstairs will be your bar to develop, and with time, your name will be strongly on it. You'll have every opportunity to develop a following. Please send your resume to me directly, Kavita, at newheightsrestaurant@comcast.net - include as much detail as possible along with a phone number. We're looking forward to discovering the next, young superstar. Do you have what it takes? Write us and let us know. HEALTH INSURANCE STARTING THE FIRST DAY OF WORK, AND WILL BE FULLY (RETROACTIVELY) REIMBURSED IF YOU STAY THREE MONTHS! We care about our employees and it shows. Example: two of our dishwashers have been here for over sixteen years. Write me personally, and let us at New Heights give you the venue to reach your full potential. I look forward to hearing from you. Kavita Singh, Owner, New Heights

New Heights is seeking to fill some big shoes behind our bar - our outstanding bartender, Jason Robey, is moving for California in mid-August. We're looking for someone who can develop and execute innovative, high-level cocktails, specifically to pair with the food of our great chef, Logan Cox. We're also hiring servers (part-time or full-time) to work upstairs in our restaurant. Please apply in person at New Heights (with a resume, please) between 4:30 and 5:30 PM. Or, if those times aren't convenient, just email us at NewHeightsRestaurant@comcast.net, or call us at (202) 234-4110. Kavita Singh

Pigs Gone Wild. A Class Act. No, this is not the latest sex-crazed, slapstick comedy from National Lampoon! This is New Heights’ “Pigs Gone Wild Swine and Wine Dinner,” Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Following on the heels of the rollicking sell out Polegri/Cox Gastronomic Reunion Fete last month, the four-course Pigs Gone Wild Swine and Wine Dinner is the second in New Heights’ winter line up of unique epicurean special event dinners and wine pairings. As the theme suggests, this event celebrates the savory virtues of succulent pig and kin. Executive Chef Logan Cox goes whole hog with the theme. He even based the hors d’oeuvres on the delectable foods wild pig like to forage on. Hors d’oeuvres include poached quail egg with black truffles and cabbage, a walnut custard with fried sage and pickled grapes, and “cornmeal mash,” a crispy cornmeal, chive fritter topped by radish greens. The four courses that follow each display a different way to exploit the bountiful flavors of pork. The Turnip Green Veloute is warm, silky soup of turnip greens garnished with crispy brawn, braised tails, and prunes. Next, the white wine, coriander and ginger braised Pork Cheeks 2 Ways spooned over a ragu of guanciale, spaghetti squash and celery leaves. The last of the main course samples is nothing short of sublime: Bacon wrapped Pork Loin with pickled wild boar, cerignola olives, preserved lemon, rutabaga, and fennel pollen. The pickled boar side here is unique to New Heights because it comes from the ancestral recipe box belonging to my grandmother. Pastry Chef Yasmine Sandhu answers Chef Cox’s sumptuous spread with an adaptation of the classic French dessert: Bacon Napoleon with Roasted Peanut Butter Mousse, Bacon Phyllo Crisps, Smoked Chocolate Caramel, "Millionaire's Bacon." New Heights’ Pigs Gone Wild Swine and Wine Dinner, Wednesday, March 10, 6:30 PM, at $85 per person (excluding tax and gratuity). Reservations suggested. Reserve by phone at 202.234.4110 or online at www.newheightsrestaurant.com

The first in a winter line up of New Heights' special events has met with great success. The January 28th MASTER & PROTÉGÉ REUNION FESTA (Master Italian Chef Lorenzo Polegri cooking side-by-side with his American protégé New Heights' Executive Chef Logan Cox) sold out in less than a week and now paves the way for other equally sensational gastronomic events on the New Heights' calendar. With two special events being considered for February and others later, don't miss out again! Please send us your e-mail address so that you can be among the first to know about these upcoming, popular dinners.

MASTER & PROTÉGÉ REUNION FESTA AT NEW HEIGHTS One night only, Thursday, 1/28/2010, Master Chef Lorenzo Polegri, the Mentor and Inspiration to New Heights’ Executive Chef Logan Cox, travels from his legendary Ristorante Zeppelin in Orvieto, Italy to reunite with his heralded American protégé in New Heights’ kitchen. 1/28/2010, the two chefs cook side-by-side dishing up an original 4 course Italian-inspired feast with cutting-edge hors d’oeuvres and appetizers you’d otherwise find only at Lorenzo’s ristorante in Orvieto. For example, a crusty chestnut and raisin bread crostini with duck liver pate. Or a piquant Lamb ragout Pasticcio with arugola and hazelnut winter pesto, braised radicchio and orange zest. ABOUT MASTER CHEF LORENZO POLEGRI Lorenzo Polegri, besides being an acclaimed Italian Master Chef, is a larger-than-life, epicure and bon vivant from Orvieto, Italy, famous for his booming, infectious “Ciao!” (For a “Ciao” sample, see this video on YouTube). Lorenzo is the chef/owner of Zeppelin and the Instituto di Arte Culinaria Marchesa Adele Viti. A self-taught chef, Lorenzo first managed his family’s farm and vineyard. Growing up in an environment richly infused with the historical cuisine and agricultural traditions of Italy inspired Lorenzo to trade in his white dress shirt for a Chef’s Coat with natty black piping. Chef Polegri took Logan Cox under wing when the young American traveled to Orvieto looking to study provincial Italian cooking. Chef Cox and New Height’s Pastry Chef Yasmine Sandhu plan equally ingenious, savory dishes. Cox plates up the entrée, a rich, lemon-scented Escolar with smooth, textured cauliflower custard. And Sandhu answers with a nutty, seasonal frozen Chestnut Mousse Bombe with Glaceed Fruit for dessert. The celebration of this rare collaborazione between the Italian mentor and his American prodigy culminates in a 4 course dinner with wine pairings beginning at 6:30 PM. The cost for this event is $85 per person. Make your reservations now for the Polegri/Cox gastronomic reunion festa. Reserve by phone at 202-234-4110 or online at www.newheightsrestaurant.com Ciao!

Normally, we are reluctant to respond to an article or a review written by a journalist about a dining experience at New Heights. Yet, given Tim Carman's recent abrasive article published by the City Paper (Eats: Young & Hungry, "Kitchen Remodel," Thursday, 11/20/08), we believe it is our responsibility to reply, a responsibility to New Heights' exceptionally talented executive chef, Logan Cox, to the restaurants and diners of DC, and to New Heights itself. Let us frame our reply by saying we believe that professional journalists and reviewers do have the privilege to call it as they see it; but, we also believe that with this privilege comes an obligation for journalists to know their subjects inside and out, to evaluate their dining experience with sober objectivity and to write with clarity and civility. Tim Carman's flagrant disregard of this obligation -- when writing not only about Logan Cox but also Leonardo Marino (Where does any professional food writer get off calling a chef a "dick?") -- has prompted our response. We'd like to start with Carman's unseemly personal attack on Chef Cox, an attack punctuated by the spurious claim that "At this point in his career, Cox isn't worthy to lick Wabeck's tasting spoon" (John Wabeck being the executive chef Cox replaced). We're not certain what point Carman hopes to make with this inane comparison but, because Carman has just mentioned that Cox comes to New Heights from the Woodlands Resort & Inn in Summerville, S.C., we can only assume that it has something to do with what Carman believes is Chef Cox's short pedigree. More than anything else, pedigree has to do with exposure, talent and a gift. Chef Cox is short on none of these. At the Woodlands Resort & Inn, Cox worked as Sous Chef with Tarver King, a Grand Chef Relais & Chateaux. Before that, he worked with Frank Ruta at Palena and, before Palena, as Sous Chef at Colvin Run Tavern with Bob Kinkead. No doubt, Chef Cox has expertly built himself a credible resume distinguished by great exposure to great mentors. We have to wonder if Carman did his homework before slashing out that Chef Cox, at this point in his career, isn't worthy to lick Wabeck's tasting spoon. As for talent and a gift? We interviewed close to 30 candidates before selecting Chef Cox as Wabeck's replacement, requiring tastings of those on the short list. Cox impressed us with his foundation, technique, creativity, and flair for New American cuisine, all attributes we recognized in other young, gifted executive chefs who launched celebrated careers from New Heights' kitchen (these include Matthew Lake, Gregory Hill, Dean Winning, John Wabeck and R.J. Cooper). Carman, too, is not blind to Chef Cox's talent; he writes "Cox did display a flash of brilliance with a first course of butternut squash soup"; and that "Cox's appetizer of duck confit proved the kitchen could master the dish"; and "Cox clearly has a love for an eye-pleasing plate." It's at this point in his article, after these compliments, that Carman arbitrarily turns on Chef Cox with several vague and snide remarks. We repeat, a reviewer should call it as he sees it; but he has an obligation to write with clarity and civility, and to know what he's writing about. Carman turns on Cox in a way that makes his review suspect, that calls into question whether he can be trusted to write objectively and authoritatively about food and restaurants. Or is he simply using food and restaurant reviews to show off what he thinks to be clever writing? First example, Carman criticizes a sauce saying it tasted as if it "had been deglazed in a pan with 1,000-year-old fond in it. The Pauley Shore of the kitchen...." What is this all about? What does this comparison accomplish? Clever writing perhaps, but, like calling Marino "a dick" or chiding Chef Cox as unworthy "to lick Wabeck's tasting spoon," not the maturity or clarity we expect from a professional writer writing in the best interest of the food community. Second example, Carman complains that eating the grilled pork left him "to worry a round of chewy pork in your mouth.... it was obvious that the kitchen had not sufficiently rendered the thin layer of fat before tossing the loin into the oven." At New Heights, the fat and cap surrounding the loin is removed in house. Yet, the meat closer to the "pork butt" is richer, fattier, and guaranteed to be a moist cut. To fully appreciate Carman's criticism, it would be good to know more about the cut. Insufficient detail here. Too, the dish calls for grilled pork. So why does Carman write "before tossing the loin into the oven?" Does he mean grilled in the salamander or baked in the oven? Or is this just another instance of cute writing? Imprecision and poor details do little to clarify his gripe and little to build the writer's authority. Third example, Carman complains that he "waited and waited and waited for our check. I'm not sure how much more bored we could have looked." Putting aside the petulance of his "bored" posturing, the insinuation here is that Carman did not, would not, ask for the check, but rather expected the waiter to drop the bill once the meal was over, as if dropping the check is a mark of professional service. Not so. Different restaurants have different service standards. New Heights, rather than rush its customers by letting waiters drop the check at will, requires the staff to present the check only when the customer asks for it. Professional food writers know the difference between casual and fine dining service routines and will evaluate a restaurant according to the practices the operators think best for its clientele. Carman's dig about the service "lacking in fundamentals" raises another question: Is he up to speed on the different service procedures and so able to knowledgeably evaluate a restaurant accordingly? There are several other instances in the "Kitchen Remodel" article that test Carman's motive and suitability for writing genuinely about food and restaurants, but we won't belabor the point here. Our intention is to question whether Carman can write knowledgeably and responsibly as a food writer. Given the surliness, imprecision and vanity with which Carman drafted his article, New Heights Restaurant has every right to call him to task. Not something we like or believe in doing, but something we had to do in the best interests of the D.C. restaurant community. Kavita and Umbi Singh Proprietors New Heights Restaurant