Psinderbrand

The bacon date scones are a little bit of heaven.  Perfect balance between the savory bacon and the sweet dates, with just the right amount of sugar sprinkled on top.  Couple that with iced coffee served with coffee iced cubes, and it was a perfect afternoon snack.

Agreed! Been serving on a jury for the past month, so have been trying some new places for lunch (my office being in the West End, I normally don't get to lunch around the Verizon Center). Was looking forward to Luke's opening, since it seemed ideal for my limited lunch hour. When the best thing that can be said is that the sodas are great, you know Luke's has a problem. I tried the lobster roll and the shrimp roll -- both were small and relatively tasteless. The bun, at least , was nicely toasted and buttered. More proof, I'm afraid, that New York hype is not necessarily going to translate into DC success.

My friends in Miami have been completely underwhelmed by the Shake Shack on Lincoln Road. It's doing well with the tourists, though. Maybe DC will be better.

Looks like DC is going to follow suit. Went this evening, and those in line were mostly tourists. Burger was fine, a step up from 5 Guys, but not in the same league as Ray's or even BGR. Fries were forgettable, as was the chocolate shake. Didn't get a chance to sample the concrete, so may come back some hot and humid DC afternoon, but doubt I'll be back for burgers. Too many other options to fall for the hype more than once.

Very much a chain restaurant -- move em in, move em out and separate em from their cash quickly. The drinks started the meal on a down note. The classic mojito was overly-sweet and had almost no alcohol. My wife's pomogranite mojito tasted good, but also suffered from a lack of rum. You can picture hoards of 20-somethings downing three of these over a 90 minutes meal at $10-12 a pop. The food itself was not terrible, but very bland -- Cuban food for suburban American tastes. Ropa vieja had no bite at all -- a good sized portion but tasteless. My wife's "suntanned salmon" was better, but nothing to write home about. Still looking for a worthy successor to Omega.

150K. Shameful... Roberto won't be getting any of my future business, if he does end up opening some new place.

Not surprising to see Murky Coffee high up on the list.

Have to disagree with you there. Waitstaff is supposed to be clairvoyant, or at least try to anticipate a diner's needs. Do you really think that at a restaurant with Inox's aspirations I need to ask for a second slice of bread when the first is done? Or a refill of my coffee?

Sorry to say my first experience with Inox this evening was a disappointment. The room was half-full this mid-August Saturday nite, and it seemed like the staff took this as an excuse to give a half-hearted effort. The food was generally good, but not great. Appetizers were fine, as were the main courses. My wife had halibut, that was okay but not as good as she had a week ago at Agraria (those ND farmers sure can do fish!). I had the duo of beef, ordered medium rare but it turned out to be more gray than pink inside. Like the appetizers, both entrees were good, but not in the first tier to which Inox aspires. The service was the major source of my disappointment. When I diner asks for more time to pour over the wine list because he isn't sure what will go well with the entrees being ordered, that's the time to send over the much-ballyhooed somelier. If you are going to feature papa Krinn's bread, then don't offer one thin slice and never come back to see if the diners want their empty bread plates refreshed. Don't forget to ask diners if they want more coffee. Seems pretty simple, but Inox failed tonight on all three counts. Sorry to say that it will be hard for me to justify dragging myself from DC to Tysons again to dine at Inox.

Walked by this evening, and it is now open.

Spicy chocolate will be hard to beat.

Really dating myself:

Man in the Green Hat

Gandy Dancer

209 1/2

Zagat Buzz is reporting that Todd English is out at Cha, being replaced by Susur Lee, who runs the restaurant Shang in a sister NYC hotel.

http://www.zagat.com/Blog/Detail.aspx?SNP=...amp;BLGID=19916

I didn't have a chance to dine there, but it was opened for business last evening. Looking forward to trying it this week.

I've been there a few times, as it is near my office and we use it as a "nice" place to celebrate birthdays or other special occasions. The food is traditional Italian in a white tablecloth setting -- nothing cutting edge about it. I've always thought the food was pretty good, within the scope of what they are trying to do.