fuzzy510

Stopped in for dinner tonight before the Nats game, my first trip since the remodel and Anthony's departure. The pizza is still as great as I remember it - honestly, if I didn't know Anthony had left, I wouldn't have thought anything had changed with the staffing.

One crucial change: the addition of a Happy Hour from 5 to 6:30 on weekdays (as well as 4:30-6:30 on weekends I believe, but don't quote me on that). $5 8" Garfield Park cheese pizzas and $3.50 draft Yuenglings. And yes, they will let you add toppings to the discounted pie - I had wanted the basic neapolitan (the Capitol Hill), but was encouraged to instead order the happy hour pie and add basil for an extra $1.

I'd have gone back anyways, but the happy hour probably means that Seventh Hill will become a regular stop on game days for me.

They must have changed vendors; there was a "Hatfield" logo on the sign at the Senators Sausages stand I patronized last night. The sausage was also slightly smaller than I remember it from last time (shorter than the bun).

Hatfield and Nick's Sausage are both brands under the same company, so unless the Nats dropping Kayem for Hatfield for their hot dog contract (which I doubt), it's probably the same brand of sausage, with different branding made more prominent.

That's what I'd hope, at least - Nick's is the "premium" sausage option in the Clemens line, so to switch off Nick's to Hatfield would be fairly counterintuitive.

I agree that Flippin is a chain from outside the DC area, but I think there IS a huge quality difference between them and Papa John's.

But again, I'm conparing the retail stores in MoCo, not the ballpark stands. I've not had Flippin in the park, but the PJ's goes from bad (retail) to inedible (RFK) IMO.

I can't speak to the quality in the park this year, because I rarely eat pizza at a game, but the couple of times I had Flippin' at the park, it was truly awful. They had no concept of how to take the process from the store and translate it to the ballpark.

For that reason, I would assume Papa John's would end up being better. Even if you don't like their product as much (I think it's fine for what it is), they have more experience in getting their product served in a mass setting like a ballpark.

I really liked Shawafel when I tried them on opening day (posted elsewhere). $13 for the combo, which includes a huge sandwich and really good fries. Not cheap, but a relative value at the stadium.

Maybe they changed things? I had the shawarma during the exhibition game, and it was pretty awful. The whole sandwich was pulled from a heated box, so everything, including the cold elements, was warm, and the sandwich had an oddly sour quality to it. I didn't eat more than a third of it. And I wouldn't have called it large, either: definitely long, but it was roughly the size of a thick churro.

The Shawafel stand is right by my seats for the season, so I'll probably give it another shot, but it was not a positive first experience.

I don't doubt that there's plenty that's exaggerated and/or made up about the show, but I don't buy much of what's posted there, especially when the ownership clearly has an axe to grind against the show. Everything is and was going fine for the restaurant? Great! Then why did you go on the show? Even if they thought that they could have a chance to simply improve, not overhaul, the business, it's on ownership for not realizing that a show called "Bar Rescue" might take more drastic measures. And that's assuming they didn't exaggerate the business' troubles for the audition process.

One thing that definitely wasn't exaggerated by the Bar Rescue crew? That Piratz consistently puts out some of the worst food, worst drinks and worst service in Silver Spring. If they're not drowning in debt, and aren't as operationally inept as the show made them out to seem, good for them. It just makes it that much more inexcusable that they're so completely awful in every other aspect.

This one will be too easy, but here goes:

Joe's Noodle House?

BUT>>>>>

This is a two-way street. There seem to be plenty of places that offer favorable treatment - to known critics, to celebrities, etc. This card is a kind of lame attempt to join that crowd. So is it the card (holder)'s fault? or the places that offer lavish treatment for VIPs?

I'd say it's completely the cardholder's fault for trying to strong-arm their way into VIP status on the basis of "I write lots of internet reviews!"

All this does is water down the value of an already questionably valuable service. Anybody who uses these cards falls into one of two camps:

-Those who would accurately assess a business regardless of any preferential treatment, and are just using the card as a way to leverage extras from said business, or

-Those who will only give top reviews to businesses who offer preferential treatment, and will dock stars from an otherwise worthy establishment when they don't get it.

The people in the first group strike me as being exceptionally cheap and petty. The people in the second group are worse, because they are doing a disservice to everyone involved: the business who doesn't get the credit they deserve because they won't play ball, the review service that's suddenly rating businesses on other criteria that are totally secondary to how good of a business they are, and the customers who skip out on quality establishments simply because they don't hand out bribes.

I'm not sure that there's ANYBODY who wants this to catch on.

From where I interpret it: bad post, Charles. You took a potentially contentious thread, that had turned positive, and turned it back into something negative.

Sorry, I'm not seeing that at all - if anything, I think it's the most thought-provoking thing that's been said thus far. Count me in as one who absolutely LOATHES painting restaurants with the broad brushes that this community has been using recently.

To say that a place like Chef Geoff's has no culinary merit means to abandon hope, all ye who enter. That if I happen to find myself there for a meal, I'm better off pocketing the cash and skipping eating. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see that actually being the case at Chef Geoff's. (Honestly, I can't tell you with any level of certainty, because I've never eaten at any of the man's restaurants, but with as much cash as he's printing, he has to be doing SOMETHING right.)

But instead of offering up any sort of actual critique on what Chef Geoff's, Good Stuff, et al, do wrong, we just write the whole operation off in one pass. What does that add to the discussion? This is the more civilized and verbose version of the 1-star Yelp review that says "This place sucks!" and its less evil twin, the 5-star "Awesome!" review. It's lazy, and offers nothing to the reader except a feeling of judgement if they happen to hold a differing opinion.

Restaurant discussion is incredibly helpful when we're talking about facts; quality of food, quality of service, etc. It's provocative when we compare how different kitchens treat similar ingredients, or how certain staffs treat the guest experience. But something like value is so wildly subjective between people and so limited in scope, I'm not sure it's even worth talking about. What's a valuable restaurant? What does that even mean? Your definition will differ from my definition, and will differ from four other peoples' definitions. And at least when we call a restaurant good or bad, there's shades of gray in between.

To talk about restaurants as either having or not having merit is the worst kind of dichotomous classification that I feel should never be used for something as varied and as personal as restaurants. It offers very little room for discussion, and smacks of laziness. And maybe Charles was a bit sarcastic when he said it, but the point stands: if Chef Geoff's has no culinary merit, why are we here talking about it at all? Why are we talking about any of these restaurants that have no merit? You're not just calling into question the people who dine at these worthless establishments - you're calling into question the people who want to talk about them, even if it's to discuss something negative that they maybe should have seen coming.

What kind of discussion does that leave us with?

Matchbox on 14th Street is open. I have nothing else to add.

Coming to downtown Silver Spring. Signs are up on Wayne Avenue, near the corner of Georgia Avenue.

A third location has popped up on Wayne Avenue in downtown Silver Spring, across from the Wayne Avenue Garage (in the old Skew Works space, for anybody familiar with the area). Might have just opened this week.

And for my money, unless I'm missing anything while I type this at nearly 7 in the morning, this then becomes the best counter-service restaurant in downtown Silver Spring. Terribly excited to have this as an option for lunch before work.

Would be nice if their menu board made it clear that their hamburger is actually a cheeseburger.

Their hamburger isn't. The ShackBurger is, and also comes with LT and Shack Sauce.

I can't speak for the Burke location, but the Silver Spring location has been closed for a while because of a fire, and it was clear walking by tonight after work that the spot has been totally gutted. Not that it's a surprise given the length of time, but I highly doubt they're coming back.

I agree that it is not a legitimate gripe unless of course you have elderly, pregnant, or disabled person in your party.

Oh, certainly. If you're telling grandma that she's got to wait because her party's incomplete, you have a skewed sense of priorities.

I think that you have a legitimate gripe here. Even if you had a party of three, they would seat you at a four-top, so as long as you have three people there, they should seat you. Same with a party of two, with one person there, or a party of six, with five people there.

This happened to me most recently at Circa in Clarendon, maybe a year or so ago, and I argued with the hostess about it for maybe ten minutes or so. In the end, she agreed with me and sat us, but she was very unpleasant about it.

Table size doesn't have anything to do with it; it's the fact that the party that's complete can be sat and begin their meal immediately, while the incomplete party most likely won't get started until they're complete. Even if they do, the straggler will effectively cause the meal to start over in terms of turn time.

And you'd be surprised (or maybe not) to see the number of people who come in to ask for a table incomplete, say their extra is just parking the car, and sit for 45 minutes as they wait for their friend to show up.

Now, the discussion of whether or not RW is worth the trouble is a different animal entirely. For every "hooked for life" food lover they gain, the restaurants have to put up with at least dozens of peevish, couponers with outlandish expectations. Similarly, for every great RW meal, the diner has to cope with certainty of crowds and the uncertainty of restaurant performance. Given the burgeoning popularity of the promotion, it seems that it is still considered worthwhile by both sides, but at some point, like Groupons, the costs of participation may begin to outweigh the benefits.

I'd agree with that, certainly. But it doesn't change the fact that painting all diners who partake in RW with the same brush as being moronic sheep who simply follow the herd is a wholly close-minded and ignorant opinion. Fact: if it weren't for RW lunches in college, there's a number of restaurants I never would have tried, and who knows if I ever end up loving food as much as I do now?

How cool would it be to have best-of-breed local vendors at Nats Park? Qualia or Peregrine coffee? Birch & Barley beers? Stachowski sausages? Two Amy's pizza? Rays' burgers...or hellburgers...or too burgers...or whatever they're called this week? I know, I know, logistics, unattractive economics, approval hoops, quality control challenges, not worth the pain, etc, etc. One can dream.

How about a fan driven contest? Create a list of some of our favorite local providers whose product line fits the Ballpark model (District Taco, anyone?), and then have fans at the park vote on who will get a concession the following year at the park!

TSchaad

Because it wouldn't matter - the terms of being able to have a space in the park are restrictive to the point where nobody wants in. You're paying about $50,000 per year to have your food cooked and served by employees you don't hire, and you get none of the alcohol sales. There aren't very businesses where that model makes any sense.

the business failed, get over it. No explanation needed. Simply put, we have no idea why or what happened and no one should have to explain.

Although I'm sure the piles of mediocre to bad reviews, as well as the tenuous value proposition, had more than a little to do with it.

I'm not really one to bury a place so close to their opening, so we'll call my meal here......discouraging? Does that work?

Medium-well burger on an unremarkable bun that was pretty much just a vehicle for OK toppings, and the most absolutely flavorless hush puppies I've ever had in my life - seriously, there's no chance that any seasoning came close to being in or on them. Wait was pretty long (20 minutes) for the couple of customers that they had at the time, but I expect that while still ironing out the kinks.

Like I said, I can't write off the place after just one visit (especially when said visit was less than 48 hours after their opening) and will return, but I'm not really excited to go back.

Three months later, and some things have improved. The wait is down to what you would expect, and my burger was cooked to temperature.

With that said, those are the ONLY things that have improved. The meat has a strange, mush-like consistency to it, almost as if it arrives frozen. (And I don't know that it does, but if I'm wrong and Stage is using fresh ground beef, they've GOT to look at how they're prepping their patties). The hushpuppies are still totally flavorless. There might be other sides that are worthwhile, but the burger itself is bad enough for me to say that you should steer clear.

When are the "owners" going to fess up to this miserable failure?

What exactly are you hoping to hear? The place is shuttered - what more do you need to know?

The slideshow here makes it seem as if the aforementioned suckling pig tacos are $13 per taco. That's not accurate, is it? Because that's ludicrous if it is.

Has anyone eaten at the CP location?

Yes.

Don't.

(OK, because just saying that seems a bit unfair - the burgers have generally been fairly bland and lacking in flavor, and I've had a textural issue more than once. Had a less-than-fresh feel to it. The sides are fine, but largely overpriced for the portions. There are certainly worse bangs for your buck in the burger world, but I really wouldn't go out of my way)

Well, I can document it further by saying I heard a very credible rumor that Piratz Tavern may soon be walking the plank.

Which is none too shocking if the preview clip is accurate in saying the ownership was $900,000 in the hole BEFORE all of this mess.

I was thinking what kind of blithering idiot would assume that I would want a beer that she forgot on the counter for 15 minutes and bring to me when I was asking for the check.

The kind who has a customer who accepts a beer they don't want? If you didn't want it, or don't think you should have paid for it, you should have said something about it.

And for the record? Your server screwed something up, either in not running your drink, or by not communicating that there'd be a delay in getting it out to you, but to assume she's a "blithering idiot" is totally out of line. You ordered the damn drink, and never said otherwise that you didn't want it. Should it have been comped? Absolutely. But you're REALLY going to chastise a server for bringing you something that you ordered? She's a server, not a mind-reader, and she's not a blithering idiot because she doesn't know that you don't want your beer anymore.

For the love of God, folks: if you get crap service, say something, because it's the only way the point gets across. Yes, you can leave a smaller tip (and in plenty of cases, should), but I don't know if you're tipping me 15% because you always tip 15%, or because I screwed something up. The only way anything can get fixed is to say something, and as long as your concern isn't frivolous (which the one mentioned in the OP certainly would not be), only good things can come out of it.

Last year my friends liked that sandwich (I did not.) This year they find it inedible.

Also, don't get the chicken and waffles.

I can't speak for last year, but I agree wholeheartedly for this year!

And I think the chicken and waffles has been 86'd.