DaRiv18

I think you are thinking about this more than the bartender would.  No one is going to question you having water at Corduroy's bar, you're thinking of other places.  Treat yourself!

Tono Sushi represents well in this incredibly narrow criteria, but that must be right next door to Umi and she has likely looked at it already.  Hana Japanese Market also sells pre-made sushi in its cases, I imagine it would worth exploring one time.  

eatruneat, I wouldn't feel obligated to pull a rabbit out of a hat, these requests are borderline wishful thinking IMO.  I know a chef who refuses to eat a burger that is less than $10, he feels that there is no way to get beef/roll that meet his minimum standards of quality at that price point.  For $5 more, we all know she could sit at our darling Corduory bar and get the tuna over sushi rice and hijiki, with two other courses.  

Today LRF announced that their daily lunch menu will include the Fancy Grilled Cheese, a Cauliflower and Romesco sandwich, and (drum roll) their Cuban sandwich. Their Cuban is my favorite version I have sampled in this city: juicy meats, crusty bread, Gordy pickles, and just a bit of heat to make it interesting.  

Before, they would serve it on a random weekday and would run out, I was like 3 for 7 in actually ordering it. Maybe that's a factor in why I like it better, since I have invested so much in ordering it (kinda like waiting for hours in line trying to get a seat at a cool restaurant, does that make the food taste better when you actually sit down?)

Thanks for directing credit to whom it is due.  Even though I got the author wrong, I still feel those two dishes embody what I understood MR's style was about.  And, they were always delicious!

On 9/7/2016 at 8:54 AM, Bart said:

Anyone else have any other ideas on the Central menu that scream MICHEL RICHARD?

I'm a bit late to this party, but my go-to dishes here were the beef tartare and the cassoulet.  I think they were very MR, in an understated way.  The beef tartare has some texture to it, and the cassoulet had a playfulness to it that I never tired of.  We haven't been to Central in years, our favorite bartenders either moved out of town or work at other places (Kinship).  

Hangover brunch was excellent as usual. Also, they have abandoned the automatic service charge, diners will now leave a tip. 

I love both places but they are totally opposite.  Seki is simple, more traditional but still original.  Daikaya has broader influences, also original, and also features cocktails.  

Happy hour oysters here are always a no-brainer, but I am pleased to have tried the baked clams here instead of a second round of oysters. 5 for $10, these olde salt clams are stuffed with Thai sausage, a coconut reduction, and a fried basil gremolata.  Wow. Reminds me when my grandma introduced me to Oysters Rockafeller, so it hit a note for me. 

Yesterday lunch here!  This is my new standard for DC soul food, even though I am quite over the fried chicken revival. There is a new menu, with bigger font. 

Shio chintan, of course. Next time I will order without ramen and just enjoy this deliciousness. No more brocolini, it now features dandelion greens and chili threads. A nice bitter and spicy counterpoint to the buttery sweetness of the stock. I now like to order with an extra nitamago. I once got the roasted chicken add-on but a bit awkward. 

On 7/3/2016 at 1:55 PM, Pool Boy said:

What do you all use for bar spoons?

I love my Rosle bar spoon, I hate that they discontinued their barware line.  Maybe on ebay?  

If you have a blender like a Vitamix, a good barspoon with a narrow head can scrape all the leftovers down near the blades.  

7 hours ago, saf said:

Do they have non-kids menu non-seafood meals? I want to try it, but at the same time, I fear having nothing to eat.

No, absolutely nothing. Chicken tenders is on the main menu FWIW, and it is a judgement-free zone.  Pair it with a tomato salad.

Crabs I had were not meager. We had no waits either time, a Sunday afternoon and Tuesday night.  

Uh, I wish Johnny Spero would come to *my* neighborhood for the entire summer and do his thing!  He definitely works the crowd.  Go with your husband and his seafood fiend friend!  They also do carry-out, so you could head to Slims for yourself, meet back at your place, and review that new diner afterwards ?

So this pop-up is lasting thru September sometime.  We've stopped by twice now, I've really enjoyed the Seafood Bucket (3 crabs, and 6 apiece of shrimp, clams, and mussels, corn on the cob, fries/salad) for $23 both times.  The first time I made the mistake of wearing a white t-shirt.  Last night was Tiki Tuesday, enjoyed drinks on the patio.  Very unpretentious spot.  I was about to write that it is the first new restaurant that I can think of that doesn't offer a fried-chicken dish, but I now recall they do offer chicken tenders. Fun summer spot!

I was going to recommend the Baguio Skin (an Old-Fashioned variant by our own Adam Bernbach), and lo and behold it appears on the "Summer Libations" program of Kojo Nnambi several years back:

https://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-06-27/summer-libations

Hemmingway daiquiris.  Jon Harris' Tradewinds Punch (that's a project).  The Maximillian Affair.  Derek Brown's Getaway/Cynar Daiquiri.   

Open for lunch!  The Shio Chintan is boss.  I prefer the stock here to the Daikaya (or any other ramen spot, really) pork-based stock.  The actual noodles, I prefer Daikaya's more.  The eggs are also both really good, I recommend adding them on.  

Yep.  In Houston, he was the opening chef for Kubo's, and has worked at several other places in the city.  He is well-known by the Japanese community there, and I imagine still held in high esteem.  He always preferred making sushi over sashimi, his rice is a bit sweet, and he slices large cuts for nigiri.  

4 hours ago, JoshNE said:

 The whole family, 2 small kids in tow, had dinner at Izaykaya Wa on Memorial Dr. last night.  

So, this is the one restaurant in the entire nation I want to hit up right now, as I used to work at a restaurant that Chef Kubokawa-san ran in Indiana.  I understand he is there now, and it has been almost 20 years.  I literally just located him on the Internets like 3 days ago.  I am so jealous of you right now.  He is a sushi master, hopefully he is in good health.  

The bathroom is in the lower level down stairs.  There is seating on the main level and more seating upstairs.  

" Some shady outfits try to load the dice by buying favorable reviews, but Botto went in the other direction. It asks people to trash it. When we left, the co-owner and chef, Davide Cerretini, gave me a sticker that said, “I gave Botto one star on Yelp.” If I did that, my next pizza would be half price. "

I just think DGS is very dignified, certainly more lean, and business appropriate.  Stachowski is a dinosaur portion of excess, and can be really messy.  Both of them, always delicious.

On 11/13/2013 at 4:01 PM, KeithA said:

I really enjoyed the roast beef french dip sandwich today. It is a pretty large sandwich  . . . A nice lightly crusty roll filled with a generous portion of rare warm roast beef topped with a few sweet and bunch of rather spicy peppers (I told them to hold the cheese). The dipping juice was piping hot and so flavorful you could tell this was the real deal cooking liquid from the meats with added aromatics - not some reheated beef stock that you often get with a dip sandwich. 

This Butcher Shop Dip sandwich is now my favorite, the beef is great and the peppers are really interesting. The pastrami is still strong, but I prefer the prissy version at DGS more.  The meatball sandwich here is a big miss for me, I much prefer A. Litteri's version.  

I feel these are all great options, just breaking them down by atmosphere:

Super casual:  Baby Wale

Casual to Hipster:  Daikaya Izakaya

Fancy but comfortable:  Kinship bar

Let's give Dear Friend some DC bragging rights:  barmini or Columbia Room

My perspective from a once-enthusiast.  I haven't consistently made cocktails in about a year or two, but for awhile I was churning thru the Savoy or other cocktail books at a rate of two, usually three, or more per night.  

Pours:  I free poured my spirits, by removing the cap and pouring without any sort of regulator.  Sometimes I pour fast, sometime I pour slow.  For the first year, I poured directly into an oXo slanted jigger.  Now, I can pour 1.5 or 2 ounces by feel, blindfolded.  I don't count, but can judge how much has left the bottle.  Surprisingly accurate, but to my tastes, you really don't need to be accurate for a base spirit.  I feel the same about apertifs.  That said, I do feel strongly that ratios of the recipe ingredients need to be observed as outlined as closely as possible.  

For modifiers, like orange curacao, or especially for provocative ones like Pimento Dram or absinthe, you need to use a barspoon or a jigger.  Whereas I can tolerate a 33% variance for a base spirit pour, for these ingredients my tolerance is closer to 5-7%.  

Rocks vs. Straight up:  I am a pretty fast drinker, and a cocktail straight up won't live to see its eleventh minute in front of me.  Rocks glasses though I will sip slower.  I am fine with warm cocktails and neat spirits, so I am a poor data point on this.  Sadly, cleanliness is oftentimes a more pressing issue that I see at bars than issues of pours, shake vs. stir, or chill issues.  

Daikaya's sister chicken ramen shop, whose name escapes me now, opens next week I understand too. 

The menu online now looks the same as what I've seen.  And I have really enjoyed everything else (all vegetable dishes, sweetbreads, lobster on toast, the seafood).  Admittedly I haven't really dived into the $80+ Indulgence stuff.  

I've known that I don't enjoy some chickens for that precise texture reason, we talked about whether chickens are worth it or not in another thread, so this is a very very narrow criticism of the restaurant based on my preferences.  I've been to another bolded restaurant where I had the same experience with the chicken, so I am beginning to think this is closer to a cilantro preference issue than it is an ingredient sourcing issue.  I think Matt will have a great time at Kinship, I don't think you can go wrong here!