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JBag57

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Everything posted by JBag57

  1. I never had the Monte Cristo, but Bennigan's was head and shoulders above TGI Friday's back in the early to mid 80's, if not the early 90's. At some point thereafter, Bennigan's plummeted to below-grade fare. I was served a burger that, in order to make it seem like it was grilled on some sort of grate, had remnants of some sort of paper strip that was supposed to impart grill marks to the beef. Even way back then, I vowed "never again". Is it possible that the relatively new Tyson's outpost has reverted to the origins?
  2. It has been closed for quite some time, as in, maybe a year or so. And, yes, it is apparently available for private parties, according to something I saw or heard (other than the website) shortly after the closing.
  3. So, Chef Will, who this past weekend reached the pinnacle of his rededication to his health by completing the Maryland IronMan event, recently announced via Facebook that he would be leaving Neyla for an opportunity in D.C. that he could not pass up. Said something to the effect that it was a perfect fit for him. If it did not look like The Dabney was already set with its cooking team, I would have guessed there. Will had upped Neyla's game in terms of flatbreads/pizzas, and had put out a couple of pretty good specials when we went there. Hopefully there will be a good and continuing legacy.
  4. I bought it when it became available on Kindle. Like bookluvingbabe, I first read this when I was 12 or 13, but unlike her, it was when the book was first released. I had a hardback copy, and read it at least four times cover to cover. Quite the eye-opening book for an early-teen baseball fan! When I read it again recently, it lacked some of the mystique about adults that happened to be playing professional baseball, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. As others have noted, it is a pretty fast read. I might just go "crack the cover" of my Kindle copy tonight, now that I have been reminded about it and we are in the best part of the baseball season!
  5. ScotteeM, the info on the burger at Brine is very helpful. My wife and daughter, one or both of whom might accompany me to a journey to Mosaic/Merrifield and Brine, will be encouraged that I can have something to really enjoy were we to go there. I like an occasional oyster, but am long past the days when, for me, a couple of dozen oysters would be a meal that I would look forward to. And, by the way, not gluten-free as a necessity, but the bunless burger and grilled corn instead of fries or whatever else the side would be sounds really good to me!
  6. Those that are conjuring up the movie theaters are indeed typical of the people I knew growing up. I lived about a mile from Mosaic growing up (yes, sort of on the other side of the tracks), and am old enough to remember the drive-in theater that preceded the multiplex cinema (the drive-in was operating until the mid- to late 70s, at least). Although I still like to call it Merrifield for nostalgic purposes, I have reconciled that what is there now could become a great place. I wish I could frequent the place, but I just don't find myself over that way very often during dinner hours. I used to go out of my way on occasion to go to Gypsy Soul (mainly for the burger, but also once or twice for the country fried steak on the brunch menu, as well as a couple of other visits). Not doing that for Matchbox, Ted's, Cava, Taylor Gourmet, the Mexican place, the healthy eating place, and not so far for Brine (seafood is not my thing). B Side and DGS would now be my go-to places (maybe Kapnos if there proves to be value in their offerings). I would guess that there are very few people living within 5 miles of Mosaic that are old enough and have been around long enough to remember the movie theaters, which shut down long before Mosaic was a gleam in Edens' eye.
  7. This is maybe (actually, is) swerving off top topic, but who are we to judge whether people are sinking "too much" of their income into their living quarters and not enough into going out for meals, i.e., "more of their income than they should be to be able to afford meals out and occasional extravagances". Possibly these people don't care about eating out or having whatever "occasional extravagances" that you might be conjuring. The stores in Mosaic should not be "betting on the come", they should be figuring out the real demographic. I actually hope that the one-off restaurants (no love for Ted's, little love for Matchbox) are able to make it, even though I have been and will likely be a relatively infrequent customer. I used to enjoy going to Gypsy Soul and it has been too long since I have been to B Side!
  8. In fact, with the efforts that have gone into, and seemingly are required for, getting a seating at the restaurant, including the use of line waiters, it seems like it is anything but a neighborhood restaurant. If I am coming off as bitter, I am not. I live nowhere close, and, through concerted effort, we were able to do an evening there on the rooftop. Just making an observation.
  9. And if I lived within 45 minutes of the restaurant, I would have been sitting right next to you, being something of a night owl. But if you are only a "neighborhood restaurant" for those who keep those hours, then are you really a "neighborhood restaurant"?
  10. tl;dr on the tipping policy. Actually, not really. It seems absurd to have any tip money donated somewhere when the (at least starting) salary is 30K. That is barely living wage in the DC Metro area. Those additional funds should go to the employees. Unless there is some sort of advancement (relatively quickly) to a salary of about 60-80K, those tips should go directly into the servers' pockets. How many service employees are going to hang around long enough to advance past 30K? (p.s., good on them to at least start people at 30K)
  11. There was a Bistro Bistro, possibly the original tenant. Probably not the immediate predecessor to Willow. Gaffney's--some kind of oyster place, maybe?
  12. It has been open since at least 1987, which is probably the last time we dined there prior to our move out to the western hinterlands (Hunter Mill Road) from Fairlington. I am glad to hear it is still a favorite, and need to go back! Thanks also, Kibbee, for the tip on Blue Iguana, another place that I haven't been for quite some time.
  13. They just announced, via at least email, that they are closing for good on September 19. The email said to look for some good closing specials.
  14. Book early if you want to go Monday night. Place was pretty jammed Sunday evening at 8:00, and I was told that they expect a huge turnout tomorrow. Thanks to Joe H. and Lion for the tip that they were basically open tonight!
  15. Joe H., were you able to just walk in? I was planning to just go on Monday, when they officially open, but if they are accepting walk-ins, I may go tonight (Sunday). I could not make it the night that I received the invitation for.
  16. Tonight was a soft opening that I was invited to, but could not make. I am not sure if that means that they will be open this weekend or not, which was the last target I had heard. I will likely be going by either Friday or Saturday night to reconnoiter. MIchelleW, I hear you, and feel your pain. I am largely (so to speak) a burger guy, and will gladly pay $15 for the one at Red's Table (assuming it delivers on grass-fed, dry aging) than what might be less expensive ones at most of the places around. Even at Counter Burger (The Counter?--have never been able to figure out the real name), which I would consider to be pretty casual, I was at $12 or $13 when I included fries with the burger. If Red's Table can match the quality of the burger at Counter Burger, I will be eating there at least once a week.
  17. My wife and I went in and beat the Sunday evening rush this evening (and there was one, almost exactly at 7:00). We looked online for reservations, but the earliest was 8:30. I used their voice-to-text system (leave voice message, get a text back) hoping for a better time, but 8:30 it was. The texting continued, with me asking if they still kept tables aside for walk-ins, and got a text in the affirmative, so we headed over and got there at about 6:45. The regular tables were filled, or else waiting for parties that had reserved them. Walk-in was limited to outdoors, bar, "the pass" (kitchen-side bar) and one community table for 4 in the bar area, where some of our friends happened to be sitting. We took two of four available seats at "the pass", with outdoors being generally available (because it was still kind of steamy at that hour), and the regular bar being basically full. The bar emptied out a little starting at about 7:30--that would not happen on a Friday or Saturday. Having only eaten the burger there previously, I resolved to get something different. I chose the brisket ($19) over the porkstrami sandwich ($17), not being astute enough to think about ordering both. As it was, I finished only a little over half of the brisket, taking the rest home. It was the best I have had in a very long time, maybe ever. And I was hungry. They were putting the plates on the scale to weigh out the meat portion, so initially I thought it might not be a large portion. I think that their scale is broken. The "carrot slaw" had mostly arugula, and very little carrot, so maybe they were running low on certain ingredients. (they also used up all of their wood slabs--the first briskets I saw come out were on those, but there was a switch to plates along the way). It was more like a side salad, but very tasty and tart/sour with I guess a vinaigrette. A great foil for the richness of the brisket. My wife had scallops ($26), four nicely sized ones served on a bed of nicely fresh, sweet corn, garnished with a few strips of bacon. She loved it. I started with, and shared, the yellow tomato gazpacho ($12) which had crab as an ingredient, which I assume is the crab gazpacho Joe H speaks of above. Not much of a crab flavor, but otherwise really nice, tart, and refreshing. Chef Krinn had some friends sitting next to us, so we did not get much interaction, but he did not mind us eavesdropping on the "industry" talk. I did not realize that the porkstrami was a limited time offering. I may have to get back in there this week. If you don't mind sitting at the bar or pass on Sun-Thu, that may be the best way to go at near-prime time, without long range planning. I don't think that would work on Friday or Saturday, unless you go super early or late. Fortunately we are close enough to have been able to pull this off tonight.
  18. I would have guessed JV's, but it doesn't seem to fit the "given all the construction going on around it" aspect, and it is really not that surprising that it is still open--it actually doubled in size last Fall. Forest Inn was mentioned upthread, although when Don refers to "not on this list", maybe he was referring to the separate list that exists somewhere. If so, I second the Forest Inn. If not, the wheels in my head are still spinning.
  19. Restaurants trying to figure out the "magic" of drawing big crowds might find themselves offering fried chicken skins at $9 per serving for a product whose food cost is possibly (I am not in the business) 25 cents, when faced with the kind of rents that the so-called "land barons" are commanding. That this offering was unique (in my world) at the time made it palatable to pay that kind of money on occasion. In the long term, I am guessing that it is difficult to draw the necessary consistent big crowds with that as a starting point appetizer, in an area like Mosaic. On the other hand, Matchbox has seemed to find the "magic" that works in several diverse areas, including Mosaic. Although some of their offerings are not bad, that is the level of food at that particular price point that works in Merrifield. Not too unlike the chains at Reston Town Center, for example. It just does not seem like the demographics of the frequent diner in the Mosaic area (and Northern Virginia in genera) fits with what the "land barons" at Mosaic are apparently charging for rent, at least in terms of really innovative cooking. I agree with you, though, about Pizzeria Orso apparently doing well in a really obscure setting. Maybe more of the people looking to open new places can take a page out of the Orso book, and open up shop away from the glitter.
  20. Activity is ramping up on their Facebook page, including a rough draft of the menu, and some promo shots of a couple of dishes.. Comments running mostly in favor of the menu price points. It seems that some were hoping that it would be a place they could go to a couple of nights a week, and possibly bring the family along, but the restaurant is shooting a little higher. Does Chef Adam Stein have a good track record in this region? I will take whatever we can get, particularly in view of the anticipated "beer program" (oh, how I hate the use of "program" in describing any of this new stuff).
  21. So, the problem with the $8 tzatziki is that in "reflect[ing] the whole restaurant experience" you happen to still be in Fairfax County, not someplace special. Try as it might, Mosaic is not going to be someplace special, except for possibly the movie theater. That seemed to be the main problem for Gypsy Soul. The cool people went to drink there, but not so much to eat. It appears to me that the young people living near Mosaic/Merrifield (there, I said Merrifield) are somewhat extended on rents and do not have Gypsy Soul or Kapnos-type disposable income. (I do, but am not going to regularly spend it there, for that). For the younger crowd, maybe Blackfinn, Lost Dog, and, in Mosaic itself, Matchbox, Ted's Bulletin and the like, might see their regular patronage. They are paying a premium to live where they do in order to live on top of the Dunn Loring Metro stop. Time will tell. I happened to grow up less than two miles away from this place, and am astounded that the developer was able to mostly fill the retail space in the first place.
  22. At the risk of never being able to get in there again, if Clarity is not currently in your top ten, it is time for you to see if it should be.
  23. I just saw this, so if the game you went to was this past weekend, this will be useless information to you. If by "loiter"ing, you mean just hanging around and grabbing a beer, the closest places, i.e., the Cask 'n Flagon, and Boston Beer Works, and anything that is open on Lansdowne Street, will generally be mobbed. A half-block down Brookline Ave. away from Kenmore Square is a pretty immense Yard House-I don't know how crowded that gets after games. Sort of across the street from Yard House is a Residence Inn by Marriott that has a rooftop bar that is open before games, and may be open after games. You could possibly check at the desk to see if it will be open postgame. It is on the 7th floor, and looks back toward Fenway Park with the Pru in the background. If you walk back toward Kenmore Square, bearing right you will see Eastern Standard, which is a restaurant/bar that will undoubtedly be packed, but if not, it is worth stopping in. Past that is the Island Creek Oyster House, which may also be packed, but also if not, is a decent place to grab a beer and maybe some clam chowder (it is actually very highly rated as a raw bar, so if it is not packed and you are inclined to eat, maybe this will work). Another half-block or so past ICOH is Lower Depths, a cash-only beer bar that usually has a nice selection of beers on tap, including locals, and it is just far enough away (maybe a 10 minute walk) from Fenway, and past the Kenmore T stop, that while it may be crowded, probably will not be jammed. If you can escape the traffic sort of to the west, and get to an Uber car, I would recommend you head to Deep Ellum out in Allston for a really nice beer selection and some reasonably innovative bar food. It is very popular regardless of whether there is a game, so if you are at a Friday or Saturday night game, all bets are off. In that case, Lower Depths may be your best bet. ETA: I meant to mention that Sweet Cheeks, noted in the above post, is on the back, less popular side of Fenway Park. It is close enough that it might be jammed, or might be just enough out of the way to not be. I have generally not ventured over to that side after games.
  24. Shhh, Joe! Clarity is clearly drawing clientele from well beyond Vienna already. My wife and I enjoyed it when we could call (using their text-based call ahead seating system) just before leaving the house, and be seated 15-20 minutes later (mostly non-prime time), basically the length of our drive. We tried that last Thursday, and did not even get a return text. Everything that we have had there has been stellar. I think that maybe one of the differences between what they are doing now and what was going on with 2941, and possibly Inox (which I never went to), is that you can certainly splurge and make it a fairly expensive evening, but you can also treat it like a restaurant you can go to weekly without fretting too much about how much you are spending to eat out. As I think Tom S. mentioned, those nightly meat specials might use what the finest restaurants would consider to be lesser cuts, but they pull them off with aplomb. I, too, was impressed by the level of staffing, both in the kitchen, and in the FOH. Hopefully that is sustainable. Expectedly, service was a little spotty at first, but has improved considerably. I have not been there in almost two weeks, and had not seen the crab gazpacho on the menu. I will definitely order it the next time around.
  25. On the BYOB front, my wife and I brought in six half-liter bottles of water this past Sunday in one of those small nylon backpacks, knowing what a scorcher it was going to be. Four of them had been in the freezer for a day, and two in the freezer for a few hours before we left for the game. At the bag check, there was only a cursory look to see that it was only water. The four were solid bricks of ice, and I warned my wife that they might not allow those in, but they did. I think it is going to be standard practice for us to do this--a minor inconvenience at a considerable savings (~$30) over having to buy bottled water at the park. In Sunday's heat, the four bricks were pretty drinkable by mid-game. On a food note, my wife got the same chicken confit sandwich at the Pepe food truck that she got on Friday night, and pronounced it even better than the one from Friday night. I decided that it was high time to try the Italian cold cut sub from G, even though they had previously refused to make one to order sans onions. They balked (pun intended) at my request again, but luck was with me, in that they had run out of onions and had made some w/o onions, so I was happy. A very good Italian sub, but they make them with mayo in addition to oil and vinegar. Way too much mayo, particularly in that heat. They do, as I came to find out, premake some of these without mayo, due to persistent customer requests, so I recommend that if you are going to get one, get it without the mayo. ETA-Don, I notice that I have now reached "Lawrencium" status (103 posts-103 being the atomic number for said element). I don't know how many numbers you have done this with, and I don't know the level of effort involved, but would you entertain suggestions from members for other significant numbers for those of us climbing the ranks?
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