genericeric

If this movie hadn't been nominated, I probably would have really enjoyed it. If this movie had a different literal take away toward the end, I may have even loved it. But it was, and it didn't. Not to sound cliche, but they don't make movies like this anymore. I felt it had the right amount of whimsy and fantasy, along with a story line that was engaging and kept moving. Interestingly, my wife felt like Ryan Gosling was a star while Emma Stone was lacking - I thought the exact opposite. But these filmmakers aren't dumb, I will give them that. Take the nostalgia from a well done example of a dying genre, combined with the blatant love note to Hollywood, and you wind up with a best picture nominee in a year when options were light.

E&C had a hard road to walk for me from the beginning. Due to no fault of its own, the 19th St location is where my then-g/f (now wife, thankyouverymuch) and I would meet on neutral ground when we needed to have 'a talk.' But then, it happened. I try not to publicly post things that could malign a business due to the actions of one bad apple. But this was that freaking bad. Sitting at the bar one Friday for lunch, I saw the bartender pour 3/4 of a draft beer, then pickup the plastic overflow tray and remove the cover, and proceed to pour in the contents to top off the pint. After mentioning to the manager without even giving time for a response, I left and have not been back to an E&C since. I don't see that changing.

Per Se kept all three, eh? Would be interesting for Mr. Wells to return. As much as he seems to enjoy a good takedown, his reviews also seem fair (Senor Frogs being among my favorites). We're his issues isolated? Or did PS tighten the ship THAT much after his review? If so, bravo...

I've wandered over to that Applebee's a few times when the Sunday madness at BWW gets to be too much. It is actually a perfectly fine place to sit and have a beer. The food is what you'd expect, though the table service has been sub par at times. I would imagine their daily business is tied somewhat heavily to the occupancy rates at the nearby Westin and Holiday Inn - I've noticed its rare to find an Applebee's more than a few hundred yards from a hotel these days.

Along the happy hour theme, be up front with what is and is not on happy hour. I'm not sure why so many happy hour menus have gotten so complicated (chains seem to be the main culprit here), but if a guest has expressed interest in happy hour, and you then see them fall pray to the fine print, a friendly heads up is appreciated. For ex. - the 16oz beer is on special but the 20oz is not - it can save hard feelings later to flag that. While not expected, bonus points for something along the lines of "That is a nice IPA, though this other IPA is also nice and is on happy hour for $4 right now". Typically the beer costs me the same price, it just depends on whether you get the difference in tip, or the restaurant does in sales.

I find myself at Devil's Backbone a lot. My mother-in-law lives at Wintergreen, so one could call this place my home-away-from-my-home-away-from-my-home (wow that made me sound like an ass). My wife and I headed up to the house for a getaway on our first anniversary of dating, too many years ago. It was late, I was grumpy/tired/hungry/thirsty. We turned the corner from 151 and I saw the giant copper tanks and my mood changed in a hurry. I'm a mug club guy. What I'm saying is I like the place. While I don't know Steve Crandall, I've gotten to know some of the bartenders over the years - all good people from what I can tell. Now, Devil's Backbone is no longer a craft brewer. There are clear definitions of craft brewery, and they no longer meet those definitions. But good God, the reaction... from customers. From the craft brewers association and some of their member breweries. From some in the media. Whenever someone mentions A/B you can see the staff visibly withdraw - having been the subject of so much verbal abuse over the last few months based on a decision they had nothing to do with. All of this against a company that did a great deal of good for their industry. The Backbone always participated in collaboration projects with other breweries - often times breweries that were far less successful and needed DB more than DB needed them. Hosting events at their facility, participating as board members, etc. Even after all that happened this year, someone mentioned that Crandall still hosted the brewers dinner the night before the event. A/B didn't buy them because they liked Nelson County, or because they liked the venue. They bought them because DB brews several specific, quality beers that fit well into A/B's portfolio of offerings. They didn't buy Wild Wolf or Blue Mountain. Devil's Backbone's beer is better (again, in my opinion, but sales and production seem to back this up). So let's take A/B out of the picture for a moment. Two weeks ago I was there on a random Saturday afternoon. I stopped by for an early lunch, then again on my way back up the mountain before dinner. There were easily 500+ people there at any given time throughout the day. There is zero chance they had less than $100,000 in sales that day, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was three times that. They had an offsite production facility brewing large quantities of product for regional distribution. They had moved beyond the days of having supply chain and distribution challenges already. So what has changed? When the truck pulls up to their Lexington production facility, the side of it says Budweiser. They are still brewing a lot of small batch, experimental beers - almost all of which are quite good. They are still employing hundreds of people in an area of the state that needs more jobs. I don't like the fact that they sold to A/B. But local company makes it big, puts out good product, employs a lot of good people, gets bought out, and still offers solid, innovative beers... Would the people at the CBA have turned down the check? It smells a little of sour hops to me (sorry, I couldn't resist). P.s. They are opening a distillery on site at the Basecamp, appears to be branded as Devil's Backbone. I would love to see the contractual gymnastics that had to be performed for A/B to sign off on allowing a distillery into their portfolio, with the same branding as one of their beers P.s.s. The ironic thing is I actually find the Vienna to be one of their least solid offerings. P.s.s.s. If you haven't visited the 151 trail, its beautiful this time of year. Find a chair next to the fire pit at the Basecamp and breathe - craft beer isn't dying, more will come along.

I suppose that depends on the definition of country club that you adhere to - when I think of country club, I think of large facilities, associated with golf courses, in more suburban areas. I have described organizations like the Metropolitan Club and University Club as country clubs without the golf course in the past. The trend I was referencing is a more casual vibe (jackets most definitely not required), almost a 'hang out' more than anything, with fitness and sporting activities being more of a bonus than a requirement.

Having been a member at the University Club for a few years, some aspects were surprising, others not so much. Yes, there is an old guard. And I completely agree that yes, they want more younger members and tend to completely miss the mark on recruiting other demographics, including age groups. That being said, there are a surprising number of members under 35, with dedicated groups and activities for that audience. Don - there may be potential here for a 'private clubs' thread, IF people are willing to post (even as a former member I'm somewhat hesitant to criticize). To bring this back to SB - this seems to be the trend in private clubs these days. People are becoming less interested in pulling out the jacket to go sit in a formal dining room eating country club food to see and be seen. They want a place to go 'hang out' where they feel comfortable and included. Where you can do work, get a drink, maybe work out (though that doesn't seem to be the case here) in a relaxing environment. Mr. Gorsuch's description of their offering in this area is somewhat horrible, but if done well, these 'clubs' can be quite successful and not seem quite as douchey as he makes it sound. P.s. there was a recent article in a major magazine about this trend that, for the life of me, I cannot find. If anyone knows what I'm referring to please post - it's driving me batty.

I don't love Chipotle, but my wife does (even after the aforementioned raw chicken incident up thread), and sometimes it's easier to just shove it in rather than go two places. So I stop in a few weeks back and think 'Huh. Chorizo. Maybe this is my Chipotle jam.' I threw the burrito away. I have never been one to salt food at the table, but as I eat out a majority of my meals, my salt tolerance is not low. But whoa, this was a sodium bomb that I just couldn't get down - and couldn't believe this passed what I'm sure is extensive market testing by a company of this size before launching a new offering. Back to my standard kids meal - they aren't bad and are perfectly sized for lunch.

I do like the tempura green beans here - makes me feel more virtuous than my typical side order of fries though they're probably just as bad. I like the concept of the grilled tuna, but in the 4-5 times I've ordered it at the Ashburn location, it is consistently cooked below the requested temp. A decent sear is fine, but I find the completely (or nearly so) raw doesn't work as well on the sandwich.

Which Wich is the closest food offering to my office, which sits in a bit of a food desert. Most of us will occasionally visit if its raining and we don't want to walk further or if we don't have much time, but I try to avoid if possible. Toppings tend to be glopped on, and unlike Subway, its hard to say 'a little of this' or 'not too much of that' if they are heavy handed. The cold cuts I've had seems to be pretty low quality, though to be fair I haven't tried the cheesesteak mentioned above. The location on E St NW doesn't have the fun coke machine, but I do like their refillable, large plastic soda cups. Their breakfast sandwiches are actually not bad, but the E St location tends to open at various hours in the morning and often they 'forget' to take down the closed sign, so more often than not I end up with a bagel from Greenberry's next door. P.s. I think the thread title needs a spell check on the second 'wich'

Your point is not lost, but I think to be fair, David Chang is generally known as a talented chef - not that this was necessarily reflected in your ramen, but seems to be in its associated price. Fieri's 'talent' is not as widely recognized... It's a bit hard to compare prices internationally between Japan and America, but this is a celebrity chef-driven restaurant in one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the city. I'm not meaning to argue that the ramen was or was not 'worth' it - but it's going to be hard to pay that rent and other overhead costs with a $12 lunch.

It isn't the crabs - it's everything else. I lived less than 50 feet away from this restaurant for 4 years and ate there twice. And as a person who enjoys a good dive bar, I may have had a beer here another two times. Of course, it IS a crab shack, and I would venture to say that Cantlers isn't worth going out of your way for in January either. But man, everything else there is pretty bad, and I would say far worse than Piola (which gets no love from me, see my rant against the frozen broccoli in that thread). Compared to the now closed Cappys, which was putting out some really solid Nashville fried chicken last week, not to mention the hushpuppies - I'd gladly drive to NE DC over the walk to QD. Perhaps waking up to the smell of hot, rotting crab trash every summer morning for so long caused a bias. Some of column a, some of column b....

The tricky part about the one way rental in this situation is the return strategy. If you're able to drop off what you need to in the city and drop the rental back at Newark Airport, then grab the Amtrak from there, this isn't as much of an issue. But if you have to drop the car somewhere else and then cab... that adds a significant cost to the equation. Is there a reason you couldn't rent round trip and just drive back? This is also an area that, especially if just for one day, I'd take the full coverage from the car company in case you get dinged, scratched or a love tap. Have you driven from here to there before? And, are you going into Manhattan or somewhere else? If Manhattan and you're flexible, timing the tunnel entry correctly can save you an hour+. People roll their eyes at us all the time when we say we're driving to the city. If its just two of us for a weekend and we're traveling light back when we lived in DC or Arlington, sure Amtrak was fine. Ohhh the Sunday morning hangovers on the NE regional through Jersey. But now there are strollers, car seats, pack-and-plays, etc plus an hour drive to Union Station. Flying into the Marine Air Terminal at LGA was always a breeze, but the last few years it has gotten ridiculously expensive and there is still the luggage factor. The car gives you control and cargo space that's hard to beat, just be careful with timing and traffic.

I would definitely give Southern Efficiency another go - if Paul is there is he a guy who is really excited about cocktails, and is also a genuinely nice person. Another way to go is a hotel bar. I know, a bit odd, but hear me out. When my wife and I were shopping for where to get married a few years back, we hit almost every nicer hotel in town, and generally wound up at the bar after meeting the event staff. Hotel bartenders are used to customers who are fresh faces and more likely to be alone than many places, and they are generally very conversant. Yeah, I'd stay away from the Holiday Inn, but a lot of the nicer hotels have pretty decent cocktail programs these days as well. I've generally found that anyone who is good at their job is also excited about their job and will be excited to talk about it. And talented bartenders are generally very good at small talk and making guests feel comfortable even when they have a full bar (if you walk into a place that has 10 slips on the counter and no service bartender, this isn't your bar). Hell, just look at Ebbitt - those bars are consistently slammed, but they hire a really solid staff and they never seem that underwater. Happy hunting

I'm honestly not sure how they cook it - the carts and stores all have a flat top grill, but I'm not 100% that's where the chicken is cooked. But yes, since the carts almost always have a line that appears to be based on the amount of food the cart can cook, not the check out process etc. so the food is always fresh. B-a-M locations (at least the one on 14th) have a higher capacity and few customers, so it can sit for longer.

The satellite location that I have visited (14th St in NYC) is pretty solid compared to the original carts. I'm not sure there is a lot you can do to screw up shredded chicken, but they do ok carrying over. One drawback is that the original carts are always busy - the food is always extremely fresh. If you hit a storefront location outside of busy hours... not as fresh. Still good, but not quite there. But at least you don't have to shovel halal in your face while walking down 6th Avenue.

On the one hand, you have EMP rising to the number 3 overall spot on the SP top worldwide list this year. On the other hand, you have Tom Sietsema saying he was 'bored'. Having dined here this weekend, I'm going to side with Pellegrino. To be fair to Mr. Sietsema, EMP changed their format - reportedly in January after his visit. It used to be 20+ courses lasting more than four hours. Our experience on Saturday was eleven courses, and clocked in a few minutes shy of the three hour mark. Booking the reservation is like many of the other top restaurants - 28 days in advance, phone lines open at 9am sharp. Call at 9:30 and get offered a 5:30 table. 5:45? Lunch. Well, it just so happens that my four month old decided to throw an epic tantrum at 8:55, so lunch it is! I was hesitant - after all, it is the same price, supposedly the same menu, but having this meal be a lunch felt like it may lessen the experience. But it also seemed like it may lessen the wine bill, so lunch it was. Side note- the restaurant does offer a limited number of reservations from Open Table - released also at 9am each day and snapped up immediately. Courses (some of these weren't full courses, but for the sake of simplicity...): 1. Black and White - savory cookie with Apple and Cheddar. 2. Cucumber with cream cheese and rye, melon variations with tomato and goat cheese, cucumber with honeydew and mint, cantaloupe with smoked watermelon 3. Foie Gras marinated with strawberry and black pepper. This course had several options, my wife chose crab covered with tiny zucchini. The foie also had an option of a sauteed lobe or the terrine, as you can see below, I chose the terrine. 4. Caviar picnic with pickled mackerel and ratatouille. So a server drops off a picnic basket at your table and asks you to unpack it, then stops by a few minutes later to explain. Within the basket were small jars of ratatouille topped with caviar, the pickled mackerel, two jars of osteria over creme fraiche toasts, and a jar of tomato water champagne. It was a relatively straightforward caviar course made a little more fun with the picnic theme. And I want to know where to buy that tomato champagne. 5. Sunflower with green tomato and sunflower crumble. This was also a choice course - my wife chose the creamed sweet corn with clams. This course, for both options, was as close as a miss as there was for me. The braised sunflower was fine, but was served over the green tomato coulis and a dollop of what tasted similar to mayonnaise. Too many tart flavor profiles which the crumble couldn't offset. My wife's creamed corn was much more delicious, but the presentation was sloppy and the clams weren't needed. I'm splitting hairs, but probably our least favorite course. 6. Lobster Boil. Another choice between the lobster boil and a smoked fish. The lobster boil was exactly what you would expect - lobster, clams, shrimp, sausage, beans etc cooked in a minestrone sauce, the drained out over paper on the table. Completely unexpected for the type of restaurant, and delicious. Saw a few other tables get the smoked fish and were very glad with our choice (which had to be agreed upon) 7. Duck - honey and lavender glazed with cherry and onion. Other choices were steak and something vegetarian. Just a wonderful piece of duck. 8. Corn custard with garlic and lime and roasted tomato with compressed bread. 9. Hudson Valley Camembert with plum and basil. Basically small muffins with a camembert filling. At first I was disappointed in this as the cheese course, but these were very well done - it was almost more of a crusted cheese than a cheese muffin. Inhaled. 10. Apricot that was grilled at the table, served with lemon thyme ice cream and honey 11. Chocolate 'Name that milk' game and pretzel with sea salt. Four chocolate bars were set on the table with a small game card - challenge was to guess which was made with cow, goat, sheep and buffalo milk. The wine pairings here felt a little ridiculous. Full pairing for $245 comes in as being more expensive than the cost of the food if you remove the inclusive service charge (225 -> 295) with the 'esoteric pairing' I believe at 170. We split a bottle of sparkling rose to start the meal, then my wife had two glasses of chardonnay and I had a pilsner and a manhattan from the manhattan cart (which I got far more entertainment out of than I maybe should have), along with the gratis brandy at the end. Total booze bill was still less than one wine pairing would have been, and we were pleasantly day drunk on the way out. There was very little gastronomy. There wasn't a lot of flash. But there certainly was not boredom. It never felt like the lag between courses was excessive, and I'm a guy who likes to keep things moving. The little interactive touches like the picnic basket, grilling the apricot at the table, the lobster boil, the chocolate game kept things interesting. Sure, if I went every week they might become trite, but I doubt that frequency is a problem for many diners. This was also a menu that had heavily seasonal accents - lots of fresh corn and late summer tomatoes. The one curiosity I did have was the difference between lunch and dinner. They say its the same menu, the same price, etc. But did the evening meal have the asparagus cooked in pig's bladder that I'd heard so much about? Or the caviar benedict instead of the picnic? Who knows - but I volunteer to go back to investigate next time someone else is paying! For those wondering, the total bill was $818. 295 base price including tip, plus $70ish worth of tax and the alcohol.

Also recently opened in Sterling

Seems like it's been done, right? I mean the show is 30 years old. Phenom in its time, now almost the joke of Broadway (a very lucrative one at that). But, it had been 15 years since the last time I saw it. There wasn't a lot playing this week and my wife hadn't seen it in longer, so we figured, why not. Now, I DID see this quite a few times back in its day. New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, even Des Moines (yes). To be honest, the Broadway production was the least impressive of the bunch. This was still at a time when talent would flock to any production of this musical, as it did to Rent and I'm sure it will to Hamilton. But let me say, here and now, that era is over. To begin with, this 'new' production, this re-imagining, doesn't really work. They managed to remove many of the little touches that brought emotion into the show, be that emotion fear or empathy or anything else. They also removed a few lines that help explain some of the plot. There were characters who had died in the previous version, suddenly given a new lease on life? The masquerade stairway set piece? Gone, among others. Ok, I don't like change, I get it. Perhaps others find this slightly less engaging version more in tune with the times (no pun intended). But for fucks sake (sorry Don), the next time I pay $100 for a ticket to what amounted to a community theatre performance I'm going to request a refund. It is great that you were a runner up on The Voice a few years ago, but if your sole qualification for playing the lead role, the namesake character, was to appear (I say appear because he didn't win) on a reality tv music show - that doesn't cut it. I was trying really hard not to loudly mutter 'FLAT' throughout the performance, but whoa. There were some other cast members who were talented, some less so, but in reading through the playbill, it was common to have the only previous theatre experience be regional. Everyone needs to start somewhere, but they needed some more experienced/talented actors to anchor the performance. I get that this play is 30 years old, and everyone has seen it. But its a $100 ticket at the Kennedy Center. I expected better. P.s. Kudos to the Kennedy Center for immediately dealing with a young woman next to me who was texting during the performance P.s.s. The Kennedy Center has to be losing out on a huge revenue stream by not allowing drinks in the Opera House (I believe they do in some of the other venues there). I understand the drawbacks about spills and disorderly patrons, but every other theatre has managed to work through these. P.s.s.s. I'll be in NYC this weekend and I'm half tempted to buy a TKTS to Phantom there and compare talent pools. Or maybe I'll just pick up a playbill and hit the bar across the street for 3 hours. Hmmmm, yyyesssss.

7pm start times for shows at the Kennedy Center are convenient for getting home at a decent time on a weeknight, but less convenient for figuring out dinner. I'm usually not in the mood for dinner at 5, so end up having a few cocktails prior and napping towards the end of the first act (and last night's show was nap-worthy, but that's off topic). Fiola Mare met the requisite criteria for us last night (parking, location, open at 445, etc) so we wandered into the bar shortly before 5, not knowing they have a happy hour from 4-5:30. Daily beer selection (Peroni last night) is $4, wines by the glass (one daily red and white) and select cocktails are $10, with 'nibbles' for $8. We selected the happy hour cheese 'plate' which was a single selection of cheese but was a good portion, and then split an order of the lobster ravioli from the main menu (this is one of a selection of items available all day at the bar). I'd not had this ravioli before, but splitting it was perfect - I have a pretty healthy appetite but not sure I could have taken an entire order of this on my own. It was also a nice touch that they split this for us in the kitchen, which you don't often see when ordering from the bar. Only quibble was that they didn't seem to crank up the a/c in the rest of the restaurant until they fully opened at 5. I can see why, but with the glass ceiling and large windows in the bar area, it was very warm in there when we arrived. Will definitely be adding this to the very short list for pre-theatre in the future.

Learn from my embarrassment - when biting into the b-hole, watch out for the hole in the b-hole where they insert the cream cheese. Otherwise the b-hole can squirt warm, white cream cheese all the way down the front of your shirt when you don't have a change of clothes. You end up looking like you had a lot more exciting morning than you did. (I tried to re-write a few times to remove the many double entendre's here but eventually realized it was a lost cause.)

Two employees involved in denying the officer service have been fired, according to WUSA. Something tells me they won't just be shifted to a different location like the recent Peter Chang incident.

Looks like Voltaggio is re-concepting his space in One Loudoun to be Aggio. I couldn't tell you why Family Meal didn't work in the space - there were some inconsistencies but there are certainly worse restaurants at One Loudoun. The last two times I was there to get takeout, there were never more than 2 or 3 tables seated. The food remained ok until the end, but you would run into the type of problems you would expect with such little kitchen turnover (lengthy wait times for certain dishes, biscuits that weren't as fresh as they could have been, etc). We could really use a good Italian restaurant - hope this is more of a commercial success.

Popped in here last week to grab a drink and check out the 'scene' while waiting to have dinner elsewhere. Interior is what one would expect from this sort of thing - 'corporate upscale' with sporty memorabilia around, but not too kitschy. A serious number of TVs that can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the restaurant, friendly staff that seemed responsive, etc. But none of that is post-worthy. What may be are the bar stools, which are the most comfortable bar stools my ass has ever sat upon, and I've tried out a lot of bar stools. These go a long way toward making this a very attractive option for camping out for most of a day on Sundays during football season. What was odd, though, was the bartender's response when I commented on how nice they were. "Watch out for staples" he says, "some customers have been getting poked from the staples." There is a joke here about Dan Snyder spending too much money on something that is supposed to be really nice but ends up not living up to expectations...