fuzzy510

Not sure that anybody cares, but for the sake of completeness: Shuttered a couple of months ago - rent check bounced.

And considering they were doing much more of their business from an out of control nightclub scene that often involved fights requiring police intervention, we're all better off.

Hi all,

Lately I have been feeling sluggish, brain fog, achy joints and abnormal fatigue--to me, all signs of toxin build up. I started reading 21 pounds in 21 days that talks about the author's detox methods, but I am not quite ready for that. I am wondering if any of you all have detoxed your body through juicing, diet changes, colonic cleansings, etc. and was wondering if you'd share?

Thanks.

Please let me save you the time: Your body does not store up toxins. Any of these "detoxification" methods, whether they be diets, drinks, colon cleanses, foot pads, or whatever, are bunk. At best, they're misguided attempts at alternative medicine. At worst, they're scams perpetrated by folks looking to prey off of your fatigue in order to make a buck.

Montgomery County has a monopoly on the distribution of beer/wine and spirits (with minor exceptions for brew pubs and small wine producers which are allowed to sell directly to the restaurant or retailer all over Maryland). Every beer/wine/spirit has to be sold to the Montgomery County Department of Liquor Control (DLC). The wholesaler of the beer/wine/spirit delivers the product to the DLC in Gaithersburg. The DLC buys the beer/wine/spirit at wholesale. The DLC then does a 25% mark up on their cost and sells the beer/wine/spirit to the restaurant/retailer. Simple example - a bottle of wine that wholesales in DC for $10 gets sold to the DLC for $10. The DLC then has to pay $.08 state excise tax on the bottle. The bottle therefore costs the DLC $10.08. This is marked up by 25% which works out to be $12.61 - but the DLC rounds up the .61 to .65. So a $10.00 bottle in DC costs the restaurant/retailer 26% more in Montgomery County. Couple this with the high rent at the Mussel bar and you get some pretty expensive beer even if it weren't Belgian beer which can be fairly expensive anywhere it is sold.

I still don't think that excuses the issue, though. It still means that the beer list is not terribly accessible for a lot of individuals, and that defeats the purpose. Building a great beer list doesn't matter if you've put yourself in a situation where, because of whatever reason, you have to mark it up to the point where it's not really affordable for most people - you start to get to the point where it's almost more of a conversation piece to show off what's available than it is a functional list of beer options. And if you argue that such a list is vital to the concept, that's fine - I'll start to argue that the concept, at least in some part, is a mistake.

Unfortunately, there's not a whole heck of a lot that's great in the area anyway, and the options become even less palatable when talking about the other listed restrictions. If, however, you're at least just looking for options in that area that deliver, here's a directory of different places in the College Park area that offer delivery. The site is targeted at college students, but it's not as if one needs to be enrolled in order to use it.

http://www.campusfood.com/campus.asp?campusid=133

Most of the options aren't terribly inspiring, but it's a jumping off point if nothing else.

The only positive to mi Rancho is the huge covered outdoor patio.

I think the food is better than some people give it credit for, but I've also been going there for a long time with my family, so my feelings are more than slightly skewed.

Also, I second (third?) Samantha's.

Details from the Washington Post here.

Personally, I'm a little disappointed to hear that it's going to be, in part, ANOTHER pizza place; I realize that's not the entire focus of the place, but I don't think we're exactly lacking for good pizza places in DC.

We stopped by Volt during In The Street for lunch. While there, we tried to get reservations fro Table 21 for a date in the future. We were told that they were no longer taking reservations as they were fully booked through 2011 (yes, 11)

Darn.

Does anybody know if they keep a waiting list?

Jameson Redbreast 12 year

Astute readers will have no doubt ignored everything I've ever said noticed that the "next week" claim has since come and gone, and DC-3 is still a hella long way away from opening. Not sure who told the Post it would be this month, but that ain't happening. I'm hearing "sometime in 2010" now.

A new menu is now available at RtC, as of last Wed. I'm going from memory here - smokehouse chili, a variety of burgers, new steak cuts (porterhouse and t-bone), pulled pork sandwiches, smoked ribs, and lots of new sides (including fries, sweet potato fries, and onion rings). I'm sure there's a lot more but three nights in a row at the 9:30 Club has addled my brain. The dessert is gone from the bistro special (not a great loss, IMO, as we rarely ate it). IIRC, much of the new stuff has come over from the East River menu. We're very happy to see some of these new additions at our local. RtC just keeps on getting better and better.

The most notable negative change, as I remembered from my brief look at the menu tonight, is that I believe potatoes and creamed spinach are no longer provided free of charge. Doesn't really break me up too much, since I don't enjoy creamed spinach, and can live without the mashed potatoes, but I can see where some would be disappointed.

There are also a couple of cuts missing, I think - the onglet is the only one I remember for a fact was gone from this iteration of the RtC menu. There's also a chateaubriand for two that I don't remember being on there before, but I'm willing to chalk that up to my not paying close attention to the full restaurant menu very often, since I'm guilty of going almost exclusively for the Hell-Burger.

The only other items that I remember as being added that xcanuck didn't mention were a crab cake sandwich and a grilled portabella mushroom sandwich. There are also two "Bistro-sized" cuts of steak that are served with (I think) a baked potato and broccoli, with the option to add salad or crab bisque at a discounted price. Probably a couple other things too, but I only looked for a few minutes. I'm honestly intrigued enough to go back tomorrow night for dinner, and if I do, I'll make a point to look closer.

The biggest thing that jumps out at me is that the bistro at RtC is almost its own restaurant now - many of these additions (including the sandwiches and some of the smaller steak cuts) are bistro-only. There's a lot more than just the RtC menu plus a good special and the Hell-Burger.

I know Dean posted his experiences from the business side, but do you guys usually use these types of deals at a place you go frequently because you can, to try out new things, or extend the budget and go nicer than you normally could? I find myself rotating through these strategies but I've definitely found some places that I'd like to add to the rotation. Plus I plan on moving in the next year and restaurant.com will help me find new places once I get into the city.

I definitely use it much more as a way to finally get to a place I've been meaning to try.

And I'm not sure about other cities, but the last time I looked, there seemed to be no place that was worthwhile on Restaurant.com.

That makes no sense. Dean's right, you don't tip on the 2 bottles to take home but you do tip on the comped bottle. What the restaurant has to report to the IRS in terms of sales has nothing to do with the server's actual service. If the server is required to report income based on $200 of sales but didn't get shit for tip, that's his problem, not anyone else's. The opposite is true, if the server served $200 of food but the restaurant comped some food for whatever reason, the server shouldn't be punished.

When did I ever argue to the contrary? If your service sucked, tip as such, but don't not tip on something you ordered from your server such as unopened bottles of wine or food that's specifically to-go on the basis that it's zero work and it'll work itself out in the end, because while it is minimal work, I'll end up paying a small percentage of what you ordered. That's completely independent of what you're tipping me on the rest of the bill - if you're tipping me 50% because you're hitting on me, or 5% because you thought I was terrible and need to be fired but couldn't bring yourself to stiff me, I'm still tipping out on the cost of the wine/takeout. The amount of tip you left me doesn't matter except to figure out how much I have leftover.

And it's certainly no travesty to not factor that in, since it's tough to justify leaving a whole lot for essentially handing you a bottle of wine or a bag with your food. However, if you want to make it a truly neutral transaction for the server, something in the ballpark of 5% of the cost of the wine or to-go order accomplishes that.

We went out last night and I noticed there was a somewhat hard to find bottle of wine on the menu at an exceptional price even for a restaurant. I inquired about quantities and we ended up buying the last two in their cellar to take home. When the bill came the bottle we drank with the meal did not show up on the bill but the other two did. When I pointed out the mistake I was told the one we consumed was 'on the house'!

So when figuring out the tip - I added the cost of our food plus included the price of the bottle left off the bill for the calculation. Was that the right starting base?

If you're sitting at my table and have something comped, at the end of the night I'll be required to tip out to my support staff (and at the end of the year required to pay taxes) based on a percentage of my sales. If you had something comped, my sales amount to the amount of your final total, NOT the pre-comp total. In terms of making sure your server doesn't get short-changed, tipping on the post-discount total is perfectly fair.

Here's where it becomes sticky, though: Let's say you go out to eat at a restaurant where you're a regular, and $30 of food disappear from the bill, giving you a $90 tab instead of the $120 you should have been paying. For tax and tip-out purposes, you only need to tip on the $90. However, even though you're only paying $90, your server did the work commensurate with a $120 bill. To tip on the lesser amount doesn't screw over your server, but it kinda sucks.

With that said, since you're also tipping on two bottles of wine that you're just taking home, and since I assume the amount of the comp was less than the two bottles you purchased, I think you would've been completely justified in tipping on the amount after the discount.

Hopefully I made some sense here; it makes sense in my mind, but I'm not sure how well I worded that.

Cafe Atlantico does a tasty high-end riff on a Cubano.

The one time I had it, the bread was dried out to the point that I never wanted to order it again.

Also, the Cuban at 8407 is, as Don suspected, rather good (and it comes with duck fat fries!).

I've been to Good Stuff once and haven't bothered returning despite the fact that I work a block and a half away, but We the Pizza is worth a return trip.

This basically sums up my thoughts. We, The Pizza does NY-style street pizza better than Good Stuff does burgers, and while it's not as good of a product as a place like Orso, 2Amys or even Paradiso, there are some times when I just want a simple slice of cheese NY-style pizza, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think We, The Pizza did a pretty good job of it.

The sodas, however, haven't knocked my socks off the couple times I've been there. For my money, the best pairing of entree and non-fountain-soda beverage of Spike's two joints is almost certainly a slice from We, The Pizza and a Good Stuff milkshake.

I had a frustrating service experience at dinner on Thursday. Our waiter gave the specials, including a roast chicken, which I ordered. He didn't mention the accompaniments. A few minutes after I ordered, he came over and said "you do know that it's a whole chicken?" and I replied no, I hadn't, but that it was fine.

I made the assumption that the special was priced and portioned for one person, perhaps a young chicken.

When a quartered roaster came out on a large platter, with a big salad and a side of four ears of corn, I was pissed. The server could have mentioned (as he did when we inquired after the chicken was served), that the entree was intended for 2 or 3 people, that it came with four ears of corn, and that it cost $42.

Delicious chicken, though. Even the breast meat moist and flavorful, the skin not quite crispy but certainly not flabby/flaccid, and everyone at the table got some... in addition to their entrees.

Alex

I'm a firm believer that not mentioning the price straight away, even if not prompted, is a dirty trick, but what you experienced is at best clueless, more likely ill-intentioned, and at worst downright malicious.

This place will be moving into the Fire House Cafe space, serving up primarily hot dogs in a counter service setting.

Oh, and it opens next week.

Considering the dearth of good hot dogs in this area, I'm terribly excited to see if DC-3 can potentially get it right.

Just a quick reminder: If, on a busy night, you stay for an extended period of time at a table after your meal is over (something in the realm of an hour after you've gotten the check), it'd be nice if you left extra for your server. No, they likely did not do anything for you during that time. Yes, you did effectively reduce the size of their section for that hour (or more) while keeping them from turning your table, costing them money in the process.

Frankly, I don't even chalk that up to the opening of the new location; that's just general incompetence. TGI Friday's manages to crank out better service than that, and how many thousands of locations do they operate?

Awesome: Eric Ripert outright calls Angelo's assisting Amanda in tonight's episode a "conspiracy."

Can anybody help a guy out and give an idea of how early I'd need to arrive Monday night to make sure I can grab a seat for myself and another?

$20 Tuesday? Maybe a couple of weeks after Pizzeria Orso?

And I'll be first in line.

I could definitely use a lift from Metro.

I've put in for the 31st off, so I'm definitely in.

Did they serve it on pay per plates?

*groan*