stickmoon

Sounds great! We'll be sure to stop by...

Had a few beers and tater tots here tonight. This place has a great beer selection...probably 20 taps, all sorts of microbrews. 20 bottles or so too...Troegs, Bells, Founders, a bunch of other stuff I hadn't tried before. Quiet at 5:30, all seats filled by 6:30. Music leans toward indy rock. Tater tots were fried well and a very enjoyable snack with the beers. A dive bar worth a second visit.

Have you been to The Tipsy Pig? We're going to SF next month and are thinking about trying it.

Evilkim and I are in.

+1 for Eventide...it gets busy a little bit later than some of the other places around town...it's usually not difficult to get a table in the lounge before 630ish...

Pasta with garlic, oil, kalamata olives, flat leaf parsley, pine nuts, lemon juice and parmesan. And some chili flakes. I call it Linguini a la Pantry.

The hand pours from Chinatown Coffee Company are consistently the best cup of coffee I've had in...well, maybe ever. The brewing process they use brings out much more flavor and nuance than I can usually taste in coffee. Yes, it's 3 bucks for an 11oz cup of coffee, but I really feel it's worth it.

Stove popped popcorn with evoo and grated parmesan. Mesquite bbq flavor gourmet Virginia peanuts. Ice water.

I just called and Bethesda Co-op has what I'm looking for. Mediterranean Bakery also has spices in bulk, but they are prepackaged. Thanks all!

Proof had HopSlam on tap ($7) last night. My, what a pleasant surprise.

Are there any stores around that sell bulk spices? The Whole Foods where I used to live (Hadley, MA) had about 60 spices in bulk bins, which was great because it was cheaper and you could buy only what you needed. Looking for something like that, preferably in NoVA. Thanks.

Today's groupon deal is $20 for $40 worth of brunch at Eventide. Click

Interesting...maybe then the problem, at least for me, is the wrong kind of moderation...

You know, I've been thinking about this thread lately, and am glad you bumped it up. I've been paying more attention to Chowhound in the last 6 months or so, and even if they get more posts, so many of them are retreads of the same topics and questions...the quality of the posts are, in many cases, not even close to the thoughtfulness and expertise of a typical DR post. The moderation on the other board does not seem active enough either...so new threads are not merged into old ones to create a temporally linear discussion of a restaurant or food-related topic. It reads like a big disorganized jumble. So, even if there is declining participation on DR - and it is clear there is not, if there even was when this thread began - I'll take the quality of DR posts over the quantity of posts on other boards.

Make that 10-20 inches.

The National Weather Service is now predicting 8 or more inches of snow this Tues/Wed.

Liberty Tavern is open.

American Flatbread will be open all weekend. Their email boasted "We are based out of Vermont. We laugh at 3 feet of snow!"

The Clarendon Whole Foods was packed at 8am this morning. No carts or baskets were available, lines stretched towards the back of the store, and luckily I walked there because the parking lot was a mess. Some looked close to panic while others just smiled at the controlled chaos and waited patiently in line. Actually the express line moved faster than anticipated. I'm sure the upcoming Superbowl is surely driving some of the food rush. I'm not sure what I'm cooking this weekend, but now I've got lots of ingredients as I flip through my cookbooks....

The other night my friend had a party at Brasserie Beck (full disclosure: he works there). A cassoulet was offered as a special. I eat mostly vegetables and fish, but I let my friend who knows the menu extremely well order for me. He suggested I order the cassoulet. So I did. When it came out, a warm, rectangular, earthenware dish was set before me, and the server heaped several ladles of cannellini beans cooked with a mirepoix and some bacon into it. On top of the beans, the server set down two slices of pork belly, then next to it a piece of duck confit roulade, and then a link of lamb sausage next to that. The beans were creamy and flavorful, but it was not like a stew, which was what I expected. Each piece of meat was luscious and the lamb sausage was my favorite. Together with the beans, the dish was comforting, rich, and simply gosh darned delicious. This was the first cassoulet I've ever had, so I cannot testify to its "authenticity" or compare it to other iterations. But if you're ever there, I'd encourage you to ask if it's available. I think all the meats are available in separate dishes, so it might be a regular off-menu dish they can make if you request it.

Yeah I see your point...there are many ways WFM could try to create incentives for their employees to be more healthy. I can just imagine the next such policy: "30% employee discount on rice cakes, 10% discount on brie!" What they're trying may not work, and I would be uncomfortable handing over that medical information to my workplace, but I think their motivation is to lower health insurance premiums.

My guess is because they're trying to encourage a more healthy group of employees, something that will likely save WFM money in health care insurance premiums.

My impression is that in addition to some good sandwiches, part of the reason Rocks has Earl's italicized is because it's a small "mom and pop" type of place fighting to stay alive amidst chains like Subway, Quizno's, the Whole Foods across the street, amongst other massive corporations vying for lunch business. I've been a handful of times and can comment on their vegetarian sandwiches...I do not like the "Mona Lisa" ($7)...grilled eggplant, provolone, roasted peppers, garlic and mushrooms were simply too much for ciabatta bread, which became soggy and overwhelmed with grease. Based on the description I thought it might be a quasi-healthy sandwich, but when I opened the bag and saw the translucent paper, I realized I was wrong. It landed in my belly like a brick, and was simply too cheesy, greasy, and messy for me. But I do like the "Whole Wheat Veggie Wrap" ($7). It's a bit different from the standard veggie sandwich...granny smith apples and walnuts, along with field greens, roasted peppers, mushrooms and onions. With the balsamic vinegar and oil, this is a tasty, affordable, healthy sandwich I go back for. The friendly service and free pickles help.

We had a lovely meal at the bar last night...I don't know of a better deal than the $30 for three courses...even with restaurant week coming up soon, this will probably be better food at a better price than almost anywhere else. The first course offered a choice between two soups (kabocha squash or cauliflower), a few salads and something else I don't recall...so, a nice array of choices. I had the cauliflower soup and just loved it. This is the first Chef Power soup I've tried, and all the acclaim is clearly justified. A round wafer-thin parmesan chip with a big hole in the middle came out in the bowl, and the soup was poured through the hole, leaving the chip floating just on top of the soup. The soup itself had a creamy but not thick texture and had a clarity to the cauliflower flavor that was really impressive. Coupled with the parmesan chip, the dish really came together. I tried one spoonful of the squash soup and wowed by its complexity...squash, fois gras, prosciutto together, silky texture...never tasted anything like it before. I had the fish of the day for the second course. It was a pan seared sea bass resting atop sushi rice with a little bit of seaweed in between the two. Toasted sesame oil and black sesame seeds around and on top of everything. Tasted great. The fish was simply prepared, crispy skin, rice had just enough vinegary bite...a nice dish all-around. My dining companion had the mushroom fettuccine, and she enjoyed it very much. The earthy mushroom flavors, fresh pasta properly cooked...what's not to like, really? The portion was bigger than I expected. I was a bit jealous because it looked so hearty and satisfying when it came out. The desserts were good but not great. I had the flourless chocolate cake...it wasn't as rich, dense, chocolatey as I was hoping for. It was a bit too...well...cakey and dry for my taste. The vanilla bean ice cream though was superb. I tasted the pistachio bread pudding, which was also good but I learned that I prefer my bread pudding a little more homestyle. It was also like a cake and not as custardy as I like it. I tasted the sorbets too...they were apple, banana and coconut (separately) and I liked them a lot, especially the banana. The food and the really fantastic, relaxed bar service made this meal such a great value. We walked out talking about how much we enjoyed our meal and when we could come back again.

I'm partial to Old Smuggler...but really just cause the name seems like a perfect fit for cheap scotch.