Joe H

On 9/30/2007 at 3:17 PM, pupatella said:

Team,

We have been reading this forum for a long time and found it very helpful in enhancing our dining experience.

Now, me and my partner Enzo Algarme have opened our own food establishment and want to invite you guys to check it out.
Enzo, who is from Naples, Italy, worked in the kitchen of the renown "Il Pizzaiolo del Presidente" (certified by Verace Pizza Napoletana) in Naples, where he learned how to make authentic Neapolitan specialties, which we are now making here, in Arlington, Virginia. Some things, like the Neapolitan Fried Calzone, you can't find anywhere else in this area.
We also make Palle di Riso (crunchy rice balls stuffed with peas, veggie crumble and cheese), Panzarotti - potato croquettes stuffed with mozzarella, Neapolitan-style pizza (we do not have a wood-burning oven, but use the same recipe and the ingredients as pizzerias in Naples).

The food we serve is the authentic Neapolitan STREET food, just like you find on the streets of Naples.
Our food establishment is a STREET CART, not a restaurant, so the prices are more than reasonable.

We have been open for about 1 week in the neighbourhood of Ballston, in Arlington, VA just outside the Metro station, at the corner of Stuart and 9th streets. We are only open Mon-Fri for breakfast and lunch right now, from 8 to 3:30, but soon will be open until 8pm.

Come to give us a shot!

Anastasiya and Enzo

pupatella.com
myspace.com/pupatella1pizza

Are you actively involved in overseeing the pizzas that come out of the new Reston location’s ovens?

I must add an addendum:  look closely at the photograph of the open kitchen above in reedm’s expressive post.  Enlarge it.  All of the woodwork was done by hand by the owners.  From the ten inch beams to the carving-this is a hand built two hundred year old exquisitely restored Inn in the Alps.  Note the soft lighting and candles throughout the photos. Character, romance and quiet comfort.    I know of no other restaurant in America like this.  It is an extraordinary escape for this side of the Atlantic.  

And worth the journey on the other side.

This is the most difficult reservation in America and worth the effort.  We have been twice since they opened (including two weeks ago) and have two more upcoming reservations-one night next month and one in January of next year.

This is my favorite restaurant in the U.S. in part because of the extraordinary ambience, incredible presentation of John and Diane and having now sampled 15+ dishes the honest belief that the overall experience rivals The Inn which is only five miles away.  But we prefer Three Blacksmiths.

On the website you will see instructions for how to make your on line reservation.  Generally they open up 205 days in advance and after you log in at exactly 10:00 AM you will have two, perhaps three minutes to reserve.  At 10:02 or 10:03 the 16 seats will be gone.

Sixteen seats three nights a week.  Occasionally they may add an additional two or four seats but the reservations assume 16.

Again, it is worth the effort and extraordinary wait.

https://www.restonnow.com/2017/02/09/boston-properties-impact-of-town-center-paid-parking-far-less-than-claimed/

above is a post with Boston Properties response.

17 minutes ago, DanielK said:

I'm not saying that they way they implemented it isn't colossally stupid, but there's certainly a trend in dense suburban locations that charge for parking. In MoCo, Bethesda, Rockville, and Silver Spring all have paid parking.

This is different.  Bethesda involves meters and perhaps a credit card.  If Reston had done this, probably this thread wouldn't exist.  They have an "app" which involves a number of steps to use along with several minutes each time it is used.  At Reston Town Center you need a smartphone.to park on the street (although not in a garage where you can use a kiosk although not every garage has one). As I noted above there are "terms and conditions" which you have to agree to if you use it.    There are also other complications such as $3.00 an hour to park on the street including Saturday while a garage is $2.00 an hour and Saturdays are free.  Please read the "terms and conditions."  They are breathtaking.  There may be more than 1,000 posts on Reston Town Center's Facebook page with virtually every one negative. https://www.facebook.com/RestonTownCenter/?fref=hovercard

There are no meters, no gates, no tickets.  Nothing traditional.  This is parking for the 22nd Century.  Except we're in the 21st.

This is a huge issue locally and will probably go national: Boston Properties (BXP) is a publicly traded company which reported after 4:00 on Tuesday and had their conference call on Weds. morning.  There was no mention of any problems at Town Center.  

There are also 1,600 or so apartments and condos at Town Center who must be having similar problems.  

The result of both is that this afternoon @3:00PM (when street parking was $3.00 an hour and a complicated app to pay it) there were, perhaps, 35-40 people around the skating rink.  I would guess that a similar day a year ago would have had well over 100, perhaps 200.

Bottom line to everyhting is that Clarity, Red's Table, One Loudoun and Tysons are among the beneficiaries of Boston Properties decision.

One of the advantages of Early Mountain is that they also carry wine from a number of other wineries.  On a stop a year or so ago there was Friends and Family which is RDV's third label (and well worth the $35 or so dollars it costs) along with Ankida Ridge pinot noir.  Ankida Ridge is especially interesting since the winery is only open to the public for five hours on Saturday afternoons  (one day a month in January and February),  It is also an experience to visit- both the setting and also the trip there.  This is one of those handful of wineries (Stone Mountain, Moss Vineyards also) that are truly interesting once you turn off of the main road (i.e. one lane gravel road on steep mountainside).  They are considered by some to have a legitimately good pinot noir.

And, all three (Ankida Ridge, Stone Mountain and Moss) are well worth the sometimes heartstopping adventure of getting there.  

We just returned from our annual January O. C. visit (New Year's Eve four out of the last six years).  Sello's in West Ocean City is now O. C.'s best Italian restaurant-it would do justice to the best in Little Italy and I am serious in saying this.  It's also enormously popular with locals and is full on most weeknights-even in the middle of January.  Liquid Assets and Hooked continue with their similar popularity and excellence.  We also included the Henlopen Oyster House in Rehoboth which I believe is so good that we build our trip around when it is open.

Both Ocean City and Rehoboth are interesting in early January:  there are a handful of restaurants which have loyal, long standing followings.  Coincidentally, they are among the best of all whether open seasonally or year round.

I should also mention the Narrows on Kent Island which we always stop at on our way home.  I believe it continues as Maryland's best overall seafood restaurant.  In fact it is interesting to be able to eat at Black Salt, Henlopen and the Narrows several days apart.  The Narrows sits on an inlet of the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland's best cream of crab soup, best crab cakes) while Henlopen is in a factory like room with brick walls, a 20' pressed tin ceiling and Comcast's Blues channel piped in-great character especially in the evening.  Phenominal oyster stew along with fried oysters where there is art in the frying and homemade mayonnaise in the tartar sauce.  Black Salt now has a back room to challenge for the best seafood dining experience in the D. C. area.  Incredible New England clam chowder.  I believe that Jeff Black continues as D. C.'s Maestro for seafood.

Having said all of this I understand that Rappahannock River Oyster Company has an all season, outside oyster and seafood bar which may challenge anything in America.  I am told it is not only legendary but worth sitting in chairs, at tables with portable heaters and the more snow falls around you the better.  The name is Merrior and it is in Topping, VA.  For several friends of ours they insist it has achieved legend status.

We will find out soon.

Forgive me but I will make the serious and respectful argument that any tasting that is free is not the wine that you would judge a Virginia winery by.  Linden's '13 Hardscrabble Red is perhaps the best young red that Jim Law has made.  It's $50.00 a bottle but you can also buy it by the glass.  '14 Delaplane Williams Gap and  Petit Manseng are outstanding.  Williams Gap is $50 or so but you can also buy it by the glass. (the view out the floor to ceiling plate glass windows of the mountain side tasting room is breathtaking.) Glen Manor's '13 and '14 Hodder Hill, Petit Manseng, Petit Verdot (one of the best PV's anywhere) -all are well worth the price.  Their cabernet franc may also be Virginia's best.  In warmer months it is like an Austrian mountainside that the tables in the rear overlook.  Hangliders from near Skyline Drive float down the hillside which has vines climbing to 1,500 feet or more of elevation.

A number of Virginia wineries are making seriously good wine these days.  Perhaps, appropriately, it is more expensive.  

FWIW earlier vintages of all of the reds above are delicious right now.  '10 was a landmark vintage and is drinking beauitfully.  I'd add RDV Lost Mountain, Muse Clio, Barboursville Octagon and King Family's best red (forgot it's name)  to the above.  

There are also several new Virginia wineries which have beautiful settings:  Stone Tower near Leesburg and Blue Valley in Delaplane which is literally next to Barrel Oak and far superior with a gorgeous top of a mountain setting.  Early Mountain (now four or five years old) also has a beautiful setting off of route 29 between Culpeper and Charlottesville and further south of C'Ville is the excellent Pippen Hill which is really a "winery themed" restaurant.

Maryland also an excellent new winery, Big Cork (open several years) which along with Black Ankle may be the state's best.

---

Early Mountain Vineyards (dracisk)

Dooky Chase had serious fried chicken in the '80's but this is like Kansas City's "Chicken Betty" who Calvin Trillin made famous in an early '90's New Yorker piece.  She cooked at auto auctions sometime in the '80's and was legendary for her skillet fried chicken.  I read about her on, I believe, Roadfood and tried to track her down at this auction on an '80's trip.   She wasn't there that day but everyone I talked to told me how good her chicken was.

Sorely disappointed I reluctantly went to the original Stroud's which was my first visit there.  I knew Stroud's was suppose to be good but it was Chicken Betty whose legend I was chasing.

Stroud's (original was closed many years ago) was incredible.  I forgot all about Chicken Betty.  In fact the original Stroud's became something of a semi annual pilgramage for me until they closed their original in the early 2000's.  I never did find Chicken Betty but for me Stroud's and another place called Boots and Coates became the stuff of dreams.  And that converted chicken coop and its 50+ year 0ld crusty skillet just west of Wichita.

Buster Holmes in New Orleans was sort of like this:  on a visit in '80 or '81 I fell in love with it.  Plus the place had a lot of character.  But overtime I found other places to visit in NOLA substituting stops at Buster Holmes for stops at the line which backed up for a block on Chartres street for K Paul's in its first few years of operation.

7 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I'll take you seriously when you confess to finding yourself unconsciously swirling your water glass.

#guilty

I actually thought about this last night at Clarity, too.  After two hours or so the wine bottle directly in front of me was almost empty.  The glass of water poured when I sat down was still full.

One more comment:  I like to swish wine in the glass.  Perhaps because I quit smoking 28 years ago I need something to occasionally do with my hand (i.e. lifting a cigarette to my lips).  Last night sitting at Clarity I noticed that from time to time I would touch the stem of the glass and lightly swirl the wine inside.  This was not a conscious effort to help the wine open; rather, it was an act similar to "taking a drag."

It is easier to do this in a larger glass.

I almost always ask for the largest available glass regardless of what its shape is intended for.  

Again I note the the Schott Zweisel Tritan (dishwasher safe with a frame that allows it to hang) Diva Burgundy glass is supurb.  I have used them for perhaps 15 years or more.  I do not use these for white or a dessert wine but for red they are perfect. 

On 4/29/2016 at 2:32 PM, dinwiddie said:

I can only address wine for the most part. 

Specific glasses deposit the wine on a different part of your tongue when you take a sip, and thus have an effect on how you taste them.  That said, any glass will do in a pinch, but for the most part you need a glass like Don said.  However, I would also add that the size of the glass is also a factor.  Not saying that bigger is better, but too small of a glass means that the wine fills up too much of the bowl and you cannot get full effect of the nose and flavor.

I'm sorry but "any glass will (not) do in a pinch."  I could not disagree more passionately with this statement.  There was a time when I traveled and I would bring a bottle of wine or two.  Now, I pack a glass before I even think about the wine.  For red this is my "everyday" wineglass and excepting Reidel Sommeliers @ $100 a glass this is the equal of any. 

Also, it is not just "the shape."  It is also the thickness of the crystal which influences the texture and perception.

Then, we can have the discussion of what to decant it in and for how long and at what temperature.

Of course there is also bottle variation of the particular wine which might render all of this obsolete...  Then, I should also mention barrel variation at the winery...  And last, having two bottles of wine from the same barrel.  One is hand carried on an airplane to the U. S. (when we could do this onboard) and another spent several weeks at sea as part of a large container.

Difference was night and day.

Point is that some wine, truly, is a once in a lifetime experience that cannot be duplicated. And sipped in a thin fishbowl on a skinny stem.

13 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Pollo Campero is the pride of Guatemala.  Nevertheless, people claim the chicken is better from the motherland.  Thus people are apt to bring buckets of chicken on their way back to the U.S. from Guatemala.  I personally enjoyed their chicken here and there, and I would eat them anywhere.  But I don't know whether they have THE best fried chicken.  I've never had any fried chicken so amazing that it was THE best fried chicken (and I suspect I never will).

Before I retired I spent decades literally driving around the U. S. for business; some trips were 4-5,000 miles or more and would take two weeks.  I used to reward myself for the many nights away from home by eating certain food on successive nights.  One year I did bbq, another frozen custard, another pizza, etc.

One year I focused on fried chicken sourcing a lot of places from Roadfood and from local magazines which had "best of" lists.  I don't remember the order but one year, in one week, I had Nashville's Prince's, Stroud's in Kansas City, the Brookville Hotel in Kansas, a converted chicken coop (serious) just west of Wichita whose name I can't remember,Sleep Hollow in Oklahoma City and two or three more places whose names escape me too but had legendary (or such) reputations (Oklahoma City, Dallas and Little Rock).  After a week of fried chicken I was sick of it.

I remember at the time thinking that the best fried chicken was that which was freshly made.  Grease made a difference, too.  Popeye's was better on days when the grease was freshly changed.  An especially crusty and aged cast iron skillet made a difference, too.  The chicken coop west of Wichita fried in cast iron skillets and one of these was suppose to be more than fifty years old and had never seen soap.  I went there four or five times and I swear that the chicken was better on some nights than others.

I also used to believe that Fluffo was better than Crisco.

FWIW when my mom passed away I inherited her black cast iron skillet.  This dates to sometime literally in the early 20th century from a relative of her's (and me).  It has never seen soap and has a crust.  Once she and I cooked pork chops in her skillet and one that I had which was several years old.

There was no comparison.  

Of course she didn't use Fluffo but that's another story.

1 hour ago, lion said:

Go outside the city to L'Auberge Chez Francois. 

Totally agree but I would be very surprised if you could get a reservation at a prime time on Saturday with such short notice.  This board rarely mentions L'auberge but it continues as an extremely popular restaurant.  For someone older (as I) this is an enormously comfortable restaurant with a great deal of character.

I really would try to get in.  They will love it.  Alternatively, in D. C. I would go to Marcel's.

Thanks, Don.  I paid this morning-we are going!

That's a different dining experience than the one pictured with a white tablecloth table and candlelight.  The drumstick was literally an outdoor barbeque (labelled Octoberfest) at the farm-not the CD $300 (per person + tip and BYOB) that is the indoor two night a week for twelve experience.  The photographs can be misleading since they represent several different experiences at the farm.

While this is 19 years old and dates to 1997 it is R. W. Apple writing about Michael Stadtländer and Eiginsinn Farm.  I am guessing that because he is now 69 years old he has really scaled back the number of diners and the nights he serves.  This is an excellent description of the experience from one of the best food writers I have ever read. 

11/12/97 - "The Chef Who Got Away" by R.W. Apple, Jr. on nytimes.com

There is a 60 minute documentary entitled "The Singhamton Project," where Michael Stadtlander and a French artist "designed and planted a total of seven edible gardens. Chef Stadtländer then installed a kitchen at each of these gardens and created dishes to match the artistic concept of each garden. From August 10 until August 26, 3:00pm till approximately 7:00pm daily, lucky attendees were treated to a gastronomic feast as they strolled from garden to garden, tasting the bounty of this art over seven courses."  Included in the above link are two trailers and several photographs of the experience they created.

The value of Trip Adviser for this are the photographs.  

There is also a literal mountain of wine bottles somewhere on the property.  Apparently for almost twenty years the chef has assembled thousands of them as a kind of artistic expression.  This leads to my curiosity of what wine do you bring to one of the best restaurants in the world when it is BYOB?  This is not a place for Kirkland brand or Charles Shaw.  

I look forward to taking a few minutes to study "bottle mountain."  It will be interesting to see what wine others have brought over the years.

For myself I'm taking a 2006 Leonetti Reserve and a 2013 Linden Chardonnay (have to include a VA wine in this).

On 4/23/2016 at 10:26 PM, Joe H said:

Has anyone been?  Rated as high as the fourth best restaurant in the world, $300 CD per person (food only) and books six month in advance for the dinner in a farm house by candlelight. Everything is grown onsite or sourced nearby. Twelve people total.

http://www.stadtlanderseigensinnfarm.com/

Eigensinn Farm on Trip Advisor

We're going for our twenty year anniversary in July.  We have been extremely fortunate to secure a reservation for it-I've wanted to go for a long time.  It's actually a "bucket list" experience for me of anywhere on earth. Interestingly, it is BYOB. I must also note the photo linked above of the candle lit dining room which has extraordinary character.

I believe it is open two nights a week with a total of 24 covers weekly. 

Has anyone been to Eigensinn Farm, two hours north of Toronto?  Rated as high as the fourth best restaurant in the world, $300 CD per person (food only) and books six month in advance for the dinner in a farm house by candlelight. Everything is grown onsite or sourced nearby. Twelve people total.

I have a six pack of each of the '10 RDV's and until a week ago I had been successful in resisting the opening of a bottle.  Finally, having tasted a '10 Octagon and a '10 Muse Clio (Governor's Cup Winner) earlier in the week-I had to try the RDV.  Out of a Eurocave, opened about two hours and served in a Reidel Sommelier.   Sloshed unmercifully around the glass to help it open up, then finally lifting and slowly sipping.

Nothing like Rutger's '09's.  Unctuous, mouth coating, voluptuous smoothness that coated the inside of my mouth with silk.  A remarkable wine which I followed up over the next hour with a half dozen sips, each one more rounded, more powerful than the previous.

The best red Virginia wine that I have ever tasted.  Well worth  $100 a bottle-the $75 was a very real bargain.

Where I had been critical of the '08's and '09's the '10 Roundezvous was a milestone wine for Virginia.

The next day I opened a bottle of my previous choice for Virginia's best red:  Glen Manor's '10 Petit Verdot and let it sit for two hours then pouring into a Sommelier.  I should note here that the GM PV is the real VA cult wine-there are only two barrels of it and it typically sells out in two or three weeks in mid December at the winery.

This was the first bottle that I had opened in a year or more.  Similar to the RDV it was jammy, mouth coating and unctuously smooth.  A different flavor (different fruit) but in its own way actually quite the equal of the RDV.  I let both half empty bottles sit for a night and then poured a glass of each, RDV open two days and Glen Manor PV open one:  both were superb.

'10 was an extraordinary year for VA wine.  Now with several bottle years some of the state's best is beginning to mature.  Both the RDV Roundezvous and the Glen Manor PV along with '10 LInden Boisseau and '10 Delaplane Williams Gap make the emphatic statement that Virginia can present a red wine that I would be proud to serve anywhere in the world.

I honestly believe both the PV and the RDV would merit 95's from Parker or the WS if tasted.  I can only imagine what they will taste like in another year...

Got a Kale Caesar, Hubby got the Chic-P in Ballston on Sunday.  I like some of their salads, am always amazed at some of their calorie counts, which is nice to have.  The whole point of eating a salad is to not eat a ton of calories.  Anyway as I have been eating kale all week, it might have put me over the kale edge for a few weeks.  But I do really like that salad.  I also love their spicy broccoli still, I am not crazy about their chicken though it reminds me a bit of the grilled chicken you can buy in packs in the grocery.  It isn't awful, it's just not my favorite.

I have been eating at SweetGreen and Chopt an average of 10+ times a month for at least the last year.  Ktoomau's comments about calories is interesting.  I believe that all of the calorie counts listed for each individual salad do NOT include the calories of the salad dressing that is on it.  Both SweetGreen and Chopt list the calorie counts of their salad dressings but, again I believe, they are for two tablespoons of dressing and should be added to the individual salad counts.

There is also the consideration of how many tablespoons of dressing are actually on a salad?

Then, there is bread which can add another 100 calories or so.

The Santa Fe salad at Chopt is around 550 calories.  Either of the suggested dressings add at least 150 calories, perhaps more depending on how much is used.  If you add chicken to this, then there is another 100+ calories.  Then, bread.

Somehow the 550 calorie ends up with three tablespoons of dressing, chicken and bread at close to 1000 calories.

Regardless, I passionately love SweetGreen and Chopt.  Thousand calories or not I will spend them there rather than McDonald's.

Takoma Park, eh? I grew up near Piney Branch and Flower, had a paper route down Flower (from Domer) to Carroll Avenue and remember cruising the 'Hampshire Mo at New Hampshire and East West.

In 1964.

Goldie Hawn lived on Piney Branch near Takoma Jr. High, Connie Chung and Ben Stein weren't too far away.

I haven't been back in thirty years.

In part because when I was in high school at Blair I once hit a ball about 400 feet from the jungle gym on Garland Avenue (near Domer) and broke the third floor window in an apartment at the far end of the field. Sort of a legendary achievment for the time but it took three weeks of my paper route to pay for the damned window which I proudly admitted breaking!

Then, we would go to Ledo's (still there) for pizza, Crisfield's (for crab stuffed flounder, Norfolk style and Chincoteaque oysters ((still there)) ((Crisfield was a "cheap" alternative to O'Donnell's in downtown which had just opened an outpost in Bethesda; of course both are long gone)), Gifford's (closed but the exact same ice cream is in Montgomery Hills at the Caribbean outpost whose owner once made ALL of Gifford's ice cream. Ask for a Swiss sundae-it's the exact same!) and, today, Mr. Landrum's outpost in Silver Spring.

Takoma Park, eh? Brings back memories...

Reading this thread only underscores how much faster time accelerates as we age.  Not just that I wrote this almost ten years ago but rather that, then, I was writing about forty years earlier.  I could write about restaurants and carryouts that were there in the '50's and '60's but I have no idea if any of them are still around.

Still, it's been a long time since I drove anywhere near Piney Branch and Flower let alone Carroll and Ethan Allen.  All the more reason for a long overdue visit in the next few days.

You should have said hello!  My wife and I were also there Friday night, celebrating my 60th birthday (arrgghhh!).  Your review is spot on and matches our experience in several ways (except we stayed in the main building and had no problems with the bill).

We've been to the Inn numerous times in the past 30 or so years.  For a while it was near dining perfection (I remember a waitress joking as she adjusted a fork she hadn't placed exactly right, "break a rule, break a finger").  It then had a steep decline around the time of the divorce and we stopped going for a while.  It had picked up on more recent visits, but still was not performing up to past standards.

We thought the food this time was excellent.  I had the Menu of the Moment and my wife had the Classics.  For me, the seabass was one of those wow moments you want in a restaurant like this.  Unlike Cooter and Eddiebosox, my wife thought the lamb had that same wow factor.  We had similar questions about the amount of the brioche toast and a couple of other minor things like that (I'm blanking on specifics now), though, that detracted slightly from the meal.

We didn't do the wine pairings - I have never been to a restaurant at which they are a good or even reasonable value - see Lettie Teague's article in the WSJ a week or two back.  We brought a bottle from our cellar (a '90 Lafite, if anyone cares) and bought a bottle of Champagne off the list.  The Champagne was just over 3x retail, but they knock off the $35 corkage if you buy one of theirs.  The Champagne took way too long to arrive and it was the wrong bottle when it did.  We put off eating the first amuse until we got the wine and had to send back the second until we were ready.  Our waiter, kind of clueless in general, offered to slow down the pacing of the meal and didn't understand the issue even though we had mentioned it to the person who brought the second amuse (who must have spoken to him).  Once we explained it, pacing was fine, although the meal took so long I was very glad I didn't have to drive home that night.  While the glasses were generally kept filled, we had to fill ourselves on a few occasions and they didn't seem to understand why we were switching between the two periodically (pairings were not necessarily best just going white first then red).

We also did not get truffled popcorn but that was minor.  I honestly didn't look at the menus they gave us, so now I have to go home and check to see if I have the right one.

Bottom line, the Inn is still very good but not totally up to the level to which it strives.  We go to enough restaurants at that price/status level to have a frame of reference for comparison, and it is definitely better than some (I'm looking at you, Taillevent) but well below others.  It's unfair to compare it to Komi (my current favorite), because it's a different type of experience, but CityZen had it beat at the same game.

Will we be back?  Probably, but it's not a rush.

Really enjoyed your thoughts.  I wrote this on Chowhound thirteen years ago which was our third and last visit to The Inn. My first visit was in 1980 a couple of weeks apart from Jean Banchet's Le Francais west of Chicago which, at the time, was considered by many to be the best restaurant in America.  I am also deeply appreciative to have had a number of significant dinners elsewhere as I and my business matured.

Patrick O'Connell is capable of incredible food:  there was a James Beard dinner at the old Maestro at Tyson's which then included every James Beard award winning chef for the Mid Atlantic. (I bought Michel Richard's Chef's Jacket at auction which is signed by all of them.) O'Connell had an incredible dish that at the time absolutely starred, eliciting an incredible silence when it was served-everyone in the room was speechless anticipating the first taste.

Our earlier experience at The Inn (where I had to literally move my chair a number of times for the "Cow" cheesecart to pass by in the narrow Siberian like hall we were seated in) was a memory that had nothing in common with what he prepared that night at Maestro.  I know what he is capable of-I have been truly fortunate to taste some of his best dishes over the last thirty five plus years.  However, I unfortunately also remember less than celebratory experiences that marked milestones in our life.

FWIW I believe the world benchmark for service is in Baiersbronn, Germany at either of their three stars, Bareiss or the legendary Schwarzwaldstube which define the experience that the Inn strives for.  For the latter there is a year's wait for a reservation at one of their eight tables. We have built trips around confirming a table.