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Choirgirl21

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  1. Choirgirl21
    I grabbed lunch to go from the Laurel location. Based on Hunter's review, I ordered the "moist" brisket as part of my 2 meat combo. I enjoy cooking brisket at home, but don't tend to order it out anymore because it's rarely anything but boring and bland. This meat was delicious however. I will happily order it again. My experience pretty much lined up with Hunter's experiences. Pulled pork was good, but probably nothing to write home about - heavily seasoned, a little on the dry side. I remember having potato salad (that I really liked) as a side when I had it at the catered event - they seem to have replaced it (seasonally) with what they call baked cheesy potatoes. Good, especially with a touch of salt, but I missed the advertised golden brown crust. Cole slaw was good. Corn bread is meh, very soft and crumbly with dried out pieces of corn. They had 6 sauces available, none particularly traditional in my inexperienced opinion. I found a good number, including the spicy one had a touch of sweetness that I could do without. I ended up using the KC Classic the most, and adding some of the smoky sauce (one that had a touch of sweetness) mixed with the classic to the pulled pork. Staff was very friendly, my food was prepared efficiently and the place was rocking for a brand new location. I will definitely be back - I support what they're doing and I liked everything I had enough to want to try more.
  2. Choirgirl21
    Hurray!!!!!!!
  3. Choirgirl21
    That menu sounds fantastic. I can't wait for Monday!
  4. Choirgirl21
    I've only had the opportunity to try their food once, at a catered event so I don't feel like I can judge the quality of the food yet. But I wanted to mention that the Laurel location opens today and in keeping with their mission, they are serving all veterans and active-duty military free lunch (sandwich & cake) tomorrow for Veteran's day. I'm excited to have this addition to my neighborhood. When your choices are this or Famous Dave's, I think it's a pretty easy one.
  5. Choirgirl21
    Gotta' love DR. I wouldn't have known about this new venture otherwise. 4 of us are now booked for just under 2 weeks from now. I'm really looking forward to it!
  6. Choirgirl21
    Curious if anyone has been recently?
  7. Choirgirl21
    I was incredibly disappointed to see Chef George go first, especially as I had enjoyed a fantastic meal at Kapnos just a few nights before. Although my disappointment is ameliorated a bit by the fact that I think he let his ego get in the way. I get it, but there were so many "worse" chefs that he could have chosen to go up against that I believe would have kept him in the game. And seeing Joy go soon after was another disappointment. Less surprising perhaps, but I did have one opportunity to enjoy a lovely brunch at her restaurant and would have liked to see her do well. Leaves me much less invested, especially since a few of the presumably better chefs turn me off with their attitudes. And yet, I will keep watching. Can't stop myself.
  8. Choirgirl21
    The timing of this and RJ's post in the Rogue 24 thread mentioning the 4x4 deal again got me wondering - is there a schedule for when Bryan is in once place or another? Some friends and I have decided we need to make a better effort to get to some restaurants that have been on our list for a while and Gypsy Soul is included. I'd love to plan our visit for a time when we know Bryan will be there.
  9. Choirgirl21
    So what you're saying is that a ton of people read my petty sounding little snippet about the trio of dips, but didn't see my glowing lengthy review because of your mistake. Great. My twitter debut ruined.
  10. Choirgirl21
    I just noticed this comment and have to say that I don't understand the pricing on this and wouldn't recommend ordering the trio. We had a couple at our table order the trio and had quite a few people order full size portions of a couple of the dips. I would say the portions on the trio were about half the normal portion (or 2/3 at the absolute most) so in essence, you are getting about 1 1/2 - 2 portions for $22. Individual portions are all $8 with the exception of the tarmosalata, which is $12. Unless you really feel you must try 3, I think it makes more sense to just order 1 or 2 full portions. The smoky eggplant spread won't disappoint.
  11. Choirgirl21
    I had an outstanding meal on Monday night. A large group of us (11) went to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had a large table just in front of the open kitchen, which was a nice touch. Food, beverages and service were all outstanding throughout. The trade off is that you pay for it here, but I am eager to go back. With such a large table everyone sort of ordered what they wanted within couples or individuals and then a lot of things got passed for others to at least have a bite so I got to taste a good bit of the food that way. Two of the three dishes I ordered individually were standouts to me, the roasted duck phyllo pie and the charred octopus, both of which have been highlighted in previous reviews. The smoky beets, with yogurt, green peppercorn, and citrus were also impressive. I wanted to round out my meal with another vegetable dish so against my better judgement (I was so full) I ordered the briam, a medley of roasted tomato, squash, onion, and purple potato served over a tomato sauce with fresh rosemary. Delicious, just not the star of the evening compared to some of the protein dishes. Highlights from some of the other dishes ordered by our group, the melitzanosalata (eggplant) spread with fresh made pita, the gigandes, giant beans in a creamy yellow pepper sauce which were highlighted by some perfectly roasted cippolini onions, and the classic that night, the moussaka. I'm not sure that the latter would be considered entirely traditional, but it was so delicious that I stuffed several more bites in my mouth at the end of the meal when frankly there just wasn't room left. The spiced baby goat was also very nice, with a lot of heat from the harissa, and the tuna tartare was enhanced by what I believe was a harissa oil on the bottom of the plate. For dessert we shared the toukoumades, crispy fritters with pistachio and spiced honey, which were to my surprise and delight not particularly sweet and the pistachio cake with brown butter ice cream, which I enjoyed but was frankly too full to appreciate fully I think. All of the food was beautifully plated and worked well despite the larger number of components on many of the dishes. I also enjoyed my kegged lemonade (I opted for the one with gin, grilled lemon, honey and thyme) and was happy to see the Fingerlakes cabernet franc that I've enjoyed at Graffiato on tap here. I finished with a glass of the Kapnos red, a blend of syrah, merlot, and xinomavro and it was exactly what I had hoped, medium bodied with a nice amount of acidity. I have eaten at Graffiato quite a few times and always enjoy it, but I feel like the food at Kapnos is on another level. The service was as well - perfect from the moment we sat down until we paid our bill. I wish I had caught our server's name so I could mention it here as she really was outstanding. I am eager to go back and am certainly eager to root for Chef George on Top Chef having had such a great experience at Kapnos.
  12. Choirgirl21
    Going to edit my response - don't go to Facci. We went last night, confirmed for me that Italian in the MD suburbs isn't a great idea for you. Unless you're just going for pizza, their pizza is good.
  13. Choirgirl21
    If price isn't an option, I'd go to Iron Bridge. Or if they're not open, Ranazul in Maple Lawn. Or sit outside at Facci if the noise is a concern (have you been lately? They've expanded so I don't know if the noise would still be an issue, I can't remember either way from my last visit). If it's beer you want, both Victoria's and The Ale House have good beer programs (I prefer Ale House based solely on beer, but both are very good). Food at both can be imo somewhat inconsistent - Victoria's is more of a "chef-y" place while Ale House is more corporate, but I've had very good meals and not so great meals in both places. However, at both you can't really go wrong with the burgers. There's also Aida's, but I haven't been there in a long time. Or for something totally different, go to Azul 17 for fresh made gaucamole (they make it in front of you) and an amazing selection of tequilas. I have no idea, which if any of these places are open on Mondays, sorry. ETA: LOL, I just realized you were turned off by the music on Facci's website, not in the restaurant. I think you're doing yourself a tiny bit of a disservice skipping the restaurant for that reason alone. Although given that it's Italian cuisine, you may be underwhelmed. I think the food there is very good, but not outstanding or w/o flaws - but for how close it is to me, I'm happy to go there. FWIW.
  14. Choirgirl21
    I've made that chicken gravy recipe. Have some of the leftover gravy in my freezer in fact. It's definitely tasty. I haven't really found a Nom Nom recipe that I don't love. Her cheaper pork stew has been made so many times in my house I couldn't even count - I constantly vary it a bit, whether it's the protein, veg, or spice mix - and it is always delicious and so easy. Yep. Sadly, I found I rarely use it. Although his crispy brussels sprouts recipe is one of my absolute favorite recipes of all time and I do use that one a lot. I haven't cooked a lot of what's in there, but have had mixed feelings on the things I have.
  15. Choirgirl21
    So I should not tell you that I am enjoying some avocado on my brisket & butternut squash chili right now? Is the XO sauce recipe in the Momofuku cookbook (the main one)? I have it and may be able to transcribe if you'd like.
  16. Choirgirl21
    Just to add to your starting the thread off right comments, I just want to clarify that a paleo diet and even the whole 30 are not low carb. You can certainly choose to make it such, and many paleo folks do, but root vegetables, pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes and now even white potatoes are part of a paleo diet and the whole 30 (not to mention fruits and vegetables). I clarify only because it's a common misconception that the two are tied together and they're actually not although there is often a lot of overlap. Now back to the good stuff. I will definitely be posting in here in the near future, but I have a pork chop that is done resting that I must go eat (with a paleo rhubarb cherry sauce, a marinated kale & green bean salad, some fresh cut up heirloom tomato and as a treat, an ear of local bread & butter corn ). In the meantime, if you haven't already, I highly recommend Nom Nom Paleo's blog for lots Whole 30 friendly, and more importantly delicious recipes.
  17. Choirgirl21
    Thank you for your response Alex, and yes, I am definitely interested in any tasting you would put together. What are you looking for in terms of a venue to host this? Maybe that would help garner some suggestions. Speaking of this, I am very interested in doing a wine pairing and tasting with all of you. If any of you have any interest in being part of such an evening, please let me know so we can begin to plan something. Any suggestions of venues are also welcome. We are getting the wines in more and more locations (see the web site), and, fingers crossed, we will be the VA Whole Foods locations soon. The wine buyer for the mid-Atlantic recently asked to taste the wines for the mid-Atlantic stores. We currently sell in all of the stores in Florida and Atlanta, GA. I feel that Whole Foods is a good large chain store for my brand - just a little gratuitous promotion. Or even right here in MD. Black Ankle lost about 1/3 of it's white crop to frost alone last year.
  18. Choirgirl21
    For anyone who is interested, the Whole Foods in Columbia, MD recently opened. I'm hoping to visit this week and can report back on anything exciting or new at this location. I have to say, I'm beyond thrilled to have this here as I've been to Wegman's for prepared foods far too frequently lately just out of convenience.
  19. Choirgirl21
    So when are you opening a Gypsy Soul in MD?
  20. Choirgirl21
    Did this second round ever happen? I'd be interested as well. I was totally oblivious up until now that any of this had happened/might happen again.
  21. Choirgirl21
    This is a very general question, but could you talk about the various faults/flaws you can encounter in wine and how you detect them? Perhaps this is a two part question. I was originally thinking about TCA, reduced wines, etc., but I know you consider oak to have no place in wine so perhaps by your own definition and not the technical definition in the wine world, oaked wine is a flawed wine. Are there other things that you would loosely consider flaws (maybe we need a separate word for what I'm getting at here) and how do you detect those - perhaps a high alcohol content, unbalanced in some way (too much fruit, too little fruit, the wrong kind of fruit, lol). I don't know, maybe this is to broad of a question. Feel free to stick to the original, straightforward one.
  22. Choirgirl21
    Thank you so much for sharing your thoughtful, detailed review. I seriously applaud you as I would never get around to posting as much as you have. Your review, especially your summary here took me right back to my experience, now years ago, and why I loved it so much. I agree, with this number of dishes, you're not going to love every one and it was the certainly the case for my group of 4 that some that were loved by some were disliked by others (for instance, I know, the horror, but I didn't like the sea urchin dish that everyone else loved, tastes too much like the sea for me!), but there were also dishes that got consistent raves. But here a lot of the fun is just in trying interesting, exciting, unusual combinations and preparations. Interestingly, I did the alcohol pairing when we went and my only complaint really was that I was too drunk by the end of the meal so that the desserts remain only a fuzzy (but delicious) memory, but we also had drinks before we ever started dinner. I think when I return I may take what was my Minibar approach - bottle of bubbly - since bubbles go with virtually everything and are very palate cleansing. Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to post this.
  23. Choirgirl21
  24. Choirgirl21
    Damn the menu looks good. I'd be happy with a full sampling of the pantry dishes alone.
  25. Choirgirl21
    Which location? My last time at the Inner Harbor location (albeit last year, not this year like you asked) wasn't great. Wasn't horrible, but wasn't great. I've never been disappointed at the original Roland Park location though.
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