stickmoon

For $5 in the lounge, you'll get the meatiest, juiciest five Buffalo-style chicken wings around. These puppies are really big, and are grilled rather than deep fried...nice grill marks and a bit of char on the skin. The Buffalo sauce has a lot of heat, which I like, and the blue cheese dipping sauce is more pungent and blue-cheesy than the usual stuff. They are a bit messy though, I felt a tad out of place eating them in the upscale lounge with live jazz. The complementary snacks (smoked paprika almonds, corn nuts, and another spicy-salty mix of nuts and stuff) were a nice touch. And the rice balls were terrific, as others upthread have mentioned. The contrast of texture between the crust on the outside and the cheesy rice on the inside was just delicious, I could have eaten a dozen! The downside was the service, unfortunately. For 3/4ths of our time in the lounge we thought our runner/buswoman was our server. She gave us menus, took our orders, and brought our drinks. Only when I had to flag her down for another round of drinks did she tell us that she wasn't our server - who eventually showed up to give us the bill. It wasn't a big deal though...

Willow has had a stand at the farmers market this year...I guess each week they use ingredients from the vendors, create a dish, give it away (for free!) and have recipe cards in case you want to make it yourself. Pretty cool! This morning it was a fresh corn and zucchini torte with a sweet orange cherry tomato sauce. It tasted great, and the recipe looks pretty easy. The ingredient list features products from 4 different stands at the market.

Don, how come Invision did all this for Michael Landrum but not for me??!?!?!?! Is there some sort of caste system I'm unaware of? I mean, I know he owns great restaurants and all, but can't you make Invision work for me the way it worked for him? This belongs on your to do list post-haste!

Thanks Don! I agree that it's important to make the site look nicer. The "upgraded" style looks a bit messy and cluttered...the earlier version had a nice, retro feel to it. Now it's like a cross between a forum and facebook...kinda weird. Hopefully you can find some apps that will help.

The problem with this "Lets say..." hypothetical is that Katie is neither fantastic on camera, nor does she seem to know tons about cooking. Knowing when turkey and lamb is raw does not show much talent. I'm surprised they're keeping her around.

The kosher stand was better prepared last night. They still had sausages ($8) and knishes ($5) into the 7th inning. The sausage is a dollar more than at the other stands...to my taste it had more flavor, more spice, less moisture, and less snap. The peppers and onion added sweetness, but there weren't enough of them on mine. They were also pre-made, wrapped in aluminum foil, and held in a hot box. Overall it was tasty, but I prefer the other stands' sausages. But the knish was really good. The potato filling was soft and well-seasoned, and it had a nice crust.

I stopped by the kosher stand in the 4th inning and it was already out of sausage. EvilKim got a falafal, which she said was alright, but the pita was flimsy.

Seriously...I'm ready for Teddy to go home.

Hi Nick, Any word on an opening date yet? My emergency rations of murky coffee are running low!

It's not of topic at all; the same principal applies. Dinner at Citronelle is vastly different experience from dinner at, say, Tackle Box. Most people dress up at one place, and dress down at the other. Going to the theater is a vastly different experience from going to the movies. There are (or were) different standards of dress for each.

At a restaurant that sets a more formal tone, wearing appropriate attire shows respect for the establishment, it's employees and it's patrons. Others have said this upthread, and I'm unsure why it's such a controversial point. When someone walks into a fancy place in flip-flops, a t-shirt and shorts, it undermines that for everyone. Dining out is a social experience. Although perhaps I need to get less boring dining companions, because I do look at others around me, and at times I even comment (gasp!) on how under-dressed that guy who just walked into Proof wearing a Nike t-shirt and Old Navy sandals looks.

I'd second Me Jana...lots of small plates and probably 10-15 tables outside. Liberty Tavern's bar menu has mostly pizzas, which are very good, but the atmosphere would, I think, be way too loud for a rare evening out and a child in tow. Tallula is good and has a small selection of small plates, the "amuse yourself" section of their menu...but Me Jana is probably your best bet.

First episode starts tonight! I love Top Chef!

Yes. No. I hope the DC guy wins, even though he served a raw potato gratin.

My +1 is a veggie. And lately I've been playing around with Mark Bittman's VB6 (vegan before 6pm) thing, but I've adapted it to my own needs. VB6EAP: vegan before 6pm except at picnics.

Couldn't agree more. We had a superb meal tonight from start-to-finish. Dining al fresco on this beautiful evening certainly helped. The standout dish was the Abalone "three-minute ceviche" ($14). Thinly sliced abalone, buttery avocado, tangy citrus, and some crunchy bits on top for texture made for an incredible dish that I will remember for quite some time. I savored every bite. Seasonal ingredients such as ramps, asparagus, spring onion, wild mushrooms, and soft-shell crab are all over the menu. Every time we're here we order the gnocchi, which are among the best I've ever had. Service wonderful as always. Our server suggested a Sancerre, Roger Champault, Le Pieris, 2006 ($45) which was crisp, citrusy, had some minerality to it, and was just what we were looking for. Proof is currently my favorite restaurant.

Restaurant 3 is trying to distinguish itself from the other restaurants in the neighborhood. They now boast a 70 bottle beer list organized by region, and their dinner menu has some new items, including chicken and waffles ($16), pulled duck sandwich ($9) and nine different salads. I've only been once, over a year ago...sat at the bar and had a completely ordinary fried calamari and a Lagunitas Uncensored Ale... I should probably give this place another shot...

Hi everyone- We'll be coming too, me (Jason) and Evilkim (aka: Kim)...look forward to meeting everyone. We'll bring a veggie dish, probably a Mediterranean orzo salad.

Radish, orange, and mint salad.

Went to Vegas last week... First night, dinner at Bouchon. Overall the meal was very good, service was great...nice bistro atmosphere. I tried their version of a trout almondine ($28)...whole fish, head on, filleted open. Haricot verts were atop the fish, and sliced almonds atop the haricot vert. It was a great, clean presentation, especially because I got some of each component on every forkful. EvilKim had the gnocchi with "fricassee" of veggies...she enjoyed it very much...the gnocchi were pan fried and had more of a crispy outside than typical gnocchi... Second night, dinner at Circo, in the Bellagio...i guess this is the kid sister of Le Cirque, right next door. As much as we enjoyed Bouchon, we enjoyed Circo even more. The colors in the restaurant are red and yellow, and the ceiling looks tent-like...overall a playful, circus-like and upscale decor. It helped that we had a great table - in a corner, and right next to windows which opened up to the Bellagio fountains. For appetizer we shared a plate of fried calamari, shrimp, artichoke (quartered hearts and stems, yum!) and asparagus...served with a lemony-basil aioli and a red pepper coulis. They were perfectly fried, the shrimp in particular were tender and flavorful...overall enjoyed the dish. My entree was a pan roasted king salmon, sitting atop a pool of lemon-caper veloute, and a side of broccoli raab. I think it cost $32. It was good, very good, but definitely not great. I'd recommend this restaurant in a heartbeat, but not my entree, which was pretty ho-hum. There are more interesting dishes on the menu. The service was gracious...everybody was so friendly to us, even though one of my dinner companions wore an unfortunately casual outfit (shorts and sandals...ouch!). Thinking about it, the service and ambiance may have outshined the actual food, but still, we had a lovely meal. Third night, dinner with Mom at Rao's. It was fine...nothing special...I'm certain there's better Italian places in Vegas. Pretty standard Italian-American menu. We had lunch twice at the bar at Spago, in the Caesar's forum shops. Everything we had was terrific. The buffalo wing "lollipops" were great...each piece was a drumstick, and the joint end was frenched so you can hold the wing without getting your hands all buffaloey while eating. The chopped salad was truly delicious...probably about 10 different vegetables, peas, green beans, carrots, celery, corn, radicchio and I forget what else. I have been wary of Puck's culinary empire...but now, I've been to Spago, Postrio and the Source...and I have to say, the experience at all 3 restaurants has been nothing less than terrific.

They had freezer bags this morning.

Murky Coffee closed yesterday. Farewell message from Nick:

About two weeks ago a food cart called "Ali Baba Falafal" began service in Bethesda...it's on 7155 Wisconsin Ave (right next to the Women's Co-op and across the street from a Starbucks). I thought their falafal was better than nearby Moby Dick's...spicy and moist rather than dry and crumbly. They also have philly-style cheese steaks, polish sausages, and a few other lunch items. Just did a google search and found this recent link (click) from Washington City Paper

You aren't kidding...wow, the pork belly is indeed crazy delicious. We also had the yukon gold potato gnocchi with fresh morels and ramps...the gnocchi were light as air, the earthy morels were plentiful, and the ramps gave the whole dish such fragrance...loved it! Sitting at the bar was fun - the cocktails are made with such skill and precision, watching the bartenders work was a bit mesmerizing.

I will remember the two extraordinary spoonfuls of artichoke soup I had here last night for a very long time. My attempt at description would surely not do it justice...There was simply a clarity of artichoke flavor that I have never tasted before.