JBag57
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Everything posted by JBag57
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I am now turning this into a total thread highjack, but I have to chime in on Ninfa's in Houston in the early 80's. Never went to Navigation Boulevard (at least I don't think so), but a downtown location (maybe McKinney?) was cranking it out in 1981-82--Tacos al Carbon like I will never have them again. Within about a year of that, a slight decline that probably has never been completely corrected. The branching out nearly always seems to bring about a dilution of the original. Joe, congrats on losing that 142 pounds...that could not have been easy while trying to wine and dine your customers! -
Neighborhood Restaurant Group
JBag57 replied to Escoffier's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
The only truly offsetting loss, IMO, would be Greg Engert leaving as beer director. It would be surprising if this were to happen, given that he has new toys to play with over there at Bluejacket... -
I have heard they are opening on November 4th, but I have no details other than that.
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A sign out front has the Open Road Grill opening on September 3, and it is possible that Trio is already open. I have driven past there a couple of times this week in the early evening, and there were a large number of vehicles in the parking lot--so either some big soft openings or already open.
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Caboose Café in Parker-Gray is no more. I drove past yesterday, and a large banner announcing that a "Hunan Café" or something like that would be opening soon was draped in front. This is not too surprising, as there was almost never anyone in there the many times I drove by. I suppose I could have stopped in, but I was nearly always on my way to some other destination on the drive-bys.
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I do not profess that I have a sophisticated palate, but all I got out of this was raspberry soda without the added sweetness of high fructose corn syrup. I was not tasting/feeling the maltiness so much. Not terrible, just not what I was hoping for. At the price point (I paid $14 for one four pack, and $12.50 for another), I think I will pass next time around.
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Also appearing this week at my local WFM: Tumbler, Sierra Nevada's fall seasonal brown ale, and Sam Adams Oktoberfest. If I didn't know better, I would suspect them of rolling out some outdated 2012 inventory...
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I am a little bit surprised that Sam C. had not heard about this before. The DogfishHead AleHouse in Falls Church was serving this blend last Summer in draft form. (I know they are not actually part of Sam's company, only a licensee of the name--but you would think word might get around) I forget what they were calling it, but don't think it had anything to do with Arnold Palmer(s), or I probably would have remembered it. It was pretty good--a lot better than I thought it would be, as I am not a big fan of the 90-minute.
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I have no idea what the commercial real estate market is like currently in Glover Park, but it seems there is possibly a chance that, if the root cause is a substantial proposed increase in rent, the landlord was, at this point, emboldened to make such a demand based on Rocklands' statement that, "for 20 years, at least twice per year, I've written a letter to our landlord saying that if space became available we would love to be able to expand". Not throwing stones, but the thought crossed my mind, and I would guess that I am not the first to have thought that. If this is the case, to the landlord's credit, twenty years is a long time to have resisted the siren song.
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As long as you are invoking childrens' songs here when discussing the French language, you should check out the small book titled Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames. Not really food related, so please feel free to delete.
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Mike is already ensconced in Del Ray, so he surely knows exactly what he is gettng into with this policy. In terms of community reaction, a friend of mine who lives in Del Ray mentioned that there was some online forum (I don't remember what it was) whose posters likened this to apartheid. Really?
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Eating at Nationals Park
JBag57 replied to Joe Riley's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
Well, when I was a "little guy" the "experience" was the actual game, at RFK Stadium, nee (can not figure out how to get the accent aigu) DC Stadium (not quite old enough to claim to have been at Griffith Stadium). We would maybe get a hot dog, or peanuts, or, heaven forbid, something resembling fresh-spun cotton candy, from the vendors that would come down the aisles. Your desire to stand in a line at Shake Shack or whereever while missing potentially significant action, along with 25,000 others like you (and, believe it or not, this is not a personal attack on you) makes me wonder if this will ever (or ever again) be a real baseball town. I guess I am officially an old curmudgeon for raising this issue. At least you are a Cards' fan, which gives me hope for Nats' fans everywhere. I also guess that I am very thankful that my college-aged son appreciates the game like I do, and is not in it for the "experience" that you infer. I realize, of course, that he may have to veer in that direction if he is ever to get a real date. Oh, the irony...(Don, non-food rant, please delete if you find in inappropriate.) -
With my wife being out of town, I found myself last night in need of a late evening meal, and "took the plunge" on the Willow burger (the special described above, sans egg). I have not tried the others that people have mentioned as being among the best in the city, and thus do not have those points of comparison, but this burger was excellent. Two patties, juicy, medium rare to medium, and while I am not usually a big fan of potato buns/rolls, their housemade one was very good as well. The fries were also good, if not a bit saltier that I would normally like. Even though I arrived there just short of being ravenous, I was not able to finish the entire burger--I guess my appetite is declining with my advancing age!
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I am not sure if you mean that if Curry Mantra is not the turnaround, then it or the shopping center will be closed in 1-2 years. Either way, I am not convinced. While Curry Mantra might turn out to be a positive influence on the Cedar Park Shopping Center, it is unlikely to be a make-or-break influence on the fate of the shopping center. Don, you may take this down or figure out where else to put it based on what follows... I agree with you that there is an unnecessary amount of loitering, and there have been a couple of incidents at hispanic-themed restaurants that give cause for concern. On the positive front: Neighbors has its "local" cigarette-smoking clientele in a separate bar area, but has become something of a community meeting place (Vienna Youth Inc. Football, Vienna Little League baseball, other groups) for league-wide events such as meetings and player drafts. The menu, reflective of what I believe to be new ownership, includes a couple of pretty decent kabob platters. Cedar PC is a very respectable family-owned computer repair facility. I would go, and have gone, there, gladly over visiting the Geek Squad at Best Buy, or equivalent. Awardstore Sports (think trophies, etc.) is a family owned business that has been there for probably over 20 years. They could probably do well elsewhere, as they do not rely so much on walkup business, but possibly the rents there are helping them stay viable as a brick and mortar operation. Pizza Boli's is probably getting a run for their money from Donato's up on Maple Ave., as they both serve and deliver thin crust pizza, but they have been pretty viable for a good number of years. The food places obviously do not rise up to the expectations of where you prefer to eat, but there is a market for them. All said, Curry Mantra may add to these relative "positives", which I hope it will, or it may come and go without otherwise affecting the fate of this shopping center as much as the generally prevailing demographics do. If it is good enough, it will survive as has Neighbors, and may possibly thrive. The negative vibe coming from the immediately surrounding populace is not as bad as you make it out to be. If you want to discuss how much of a mecca the shopping center could be, absent the current "negatives" and what might be done about it, that is another topic entirely.
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Dining in Reston Town Center
JBag57 replied to Joe H's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
lion wrote: "With weekend revenue, it is clear Mosaic District is for adults without kids where as RTC is for families. The intended demographics support the developers intentions." Two visits to the Angelika theater and one to the grand opening today of Red Apron Butchery, as contrasted with many years of going to RTC, I think this is exactly what differentiates the two, and why RJ Cooper, Cava, Black's and Neighborhood Restaurant Group have chosen to open in Mosaic. The younger generations seem to have an appreciation for some of the things chains don't offer. I went to college in Boston, and spent my non-study evenings swilling whatever macrobeer (Bud, Naragansett, whatever) was on special at whatever bar that night. I went back many years later, at the inception of microbrews, and that is what the college kids (now referred to as hipsters) were seeking out! (I did wonder where they got the money to drink the significantly more expensive brews!). In addition, Mosaic seems to be hitting the nail on the head in terms of turning a suburban Metro station area into something close to urban. Having grown up about two miles away from there, that appears to be pretty miraculous. Merrifield is not exactly Clarendon or even Ballston. I have kids who are now in college, and my wife and I are on the other side of "adults without kids", compared to the 23-30 year old throng in Red Apron today. Even though we will be looked upon as "old fogies" at Mosaic, we will likely spend more time and money there in the coming years than at RTC. We no longer need the "family oriented" places. By the way, and not making an attempt to hijack this thread, more than a "few" years ago, I was irked when a wine bar by the name of "Tallula" opened up at Whitey's after it was forced to close due to a fire! -
Rustico in Alexandria had this on draft for a couple of days (probably only a sixtel) a couple of weeks ago, and it was quite good. My palate is not vey astute, but this was definitely a very smooth, balanced blend of coffee and chocolate/cocoa. One of the better "flavored" dark beers I have had recently. It did not seem to be as assertive on the roast front as the one or two "Baltic Porters" that I have had a chance to try (Dominion bottle being one I recall), but that was a good thing for me. I realize that this may be something of a "tease" post, because I have not seen the 3Beans in the Sixpoint retail offerings in Virginia, either. If it does reach all of DC/MD/VA on the shelves, I think it would be highly worthy of a thread here. As an aside, I have not been very impressed with most of the Sixpoint offerings that have hit the shelves in NoVa, prior to this.
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As luck would have it, I picked up a 6-pack from McLean Total Beverage Saturday night, and had a couple tonight. I had no idea that this VBT thing was going on, I usually just look at the restaurant threads. I am never afraid of pouring to get a good head on the beer, but the fact that it was "nitro" caused me to pour the first too carefully, and no head was realized. (when a beer is on nitro at a bar, or, for something like Young's Double Chocolate Stout, canned with a nitro "gadget", the poured beer looks like 75-90% head, and then the nitrogen comes out of solution with the beer to form a normal head--I though I might end up with nothing but head). On beer #2, I "poured hard", which I see Don recommended above, and the result was a 1/4 inch head--still need to improve on the pour, but adequate. I got more chocolate than coffee in the taste, but not quite as sweet as the non-nitro version. Probably not surprisingly, the nitro version had a little more body, that I can only describe as a (non-sweet) creaminess. Both have a lot going for them, and would recommend them, or other milk stouts (Duck Rabbit, for one) as a "gateway" beer to the "dark side", instead of the dry stouts like Guinness (and the much better, but less well known, domestic dry stouts). I intend to try this next to the aforementioned Young's to try to gauge how pronounced the chocolate is.
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They are opening tomorrow (Wednesday, 11/28) at 5:00 for dinner. Menu here: http://www.pazzopomo...doro.com/#!menu. I hope to go sometime in the near future, but I know that there are others who post here that are in the vicinity of Vienna, so hopefully someone will post a review soon.
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The BBQ place closed a while ago. I am not sure what "sweet couple" you are referring to, but I think it had been sold to a new owner a year or two before it closed. A new Italian place, Pazzo Pomodoro, is being built out in that space (it is the subject of another thread on here), and should be open before the end of the year. They have a wood burning oven for making Neapolitan-style pizza.
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So, now it is me who does not get out much, at least not to Sweetwater Tavern! Interesting that you say the quality plummeted starting about 5 years ago, as I have probably only been into the Merrifield and Sterling locations once or twice since 5 or so years ago, before which I was a more regular customer. While on those visits, I did enjoy what I drank, as I recall, I was ordering dark, roasty beers like stouts or porters (I don't remember exactly which ones I had). As my buddy who is a former homebrewer has always told me, it is a lot easier to hide mistakes in those styles of beer... Baying Hound Aleworks sounds like a great idea for a road trip for today, BTW!
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Don, I hope I don't sound too much like Yogi Berra, but for someone who gets out a lot, you don't seem to get out much! (at least not in the beer world) So I am putting part of this "shock" on your apparent inexperience. Even the prices that Port City charges at their brewery are at least slightly above the "per ounce" cost of buying their product in bottles at retail,. and they might possibly even have the benefit of no distributor (middle man) adding "value"/cost. You should take your growler to your nearest Whole Foods (maybe Idylwood for you--but I am not sure they have growler fills--take a trek out to the one at Fair Lakes) and start pricing fills. They might not hit the $38 dollar mark for something like 90 Minute, but there are plenty in the range that you paid for the pumpkin ale, and there will be some up in that $38 range. While most of the Whole Foods also sell beer by the pint for on-site consumption, they don't really have the same excuse that B.A.R. mentioned above, along the lines of, "we have to charge a premium, otherwise you will start complaining about what we are charging you to drink in house as a patron". Bottom line, you should expect to pay a significant premium to retail for anything you might buy in a growler. For me, growlers have a useful purpose for obtaining beers that I generally cannot get in the retail market. Example: Port City Revival Stout, which was not bottled this time around--I paid 9.00 for a half growler (32 oz.) a couple of times at Whole Foods (probably cheaper at the brewery, but there is a convenience factor), whereas a six-pack, had it been bottled, would have probably been $11 or $12 bucks, for over twice as much beer (72 oz.). I haven't bought a growler from Sweetwater Tavern in quite a while (and their beers are not pathetic compared to Dogfish Head--you sound like you might be part of the "cult" that you claim not to be), but they, and the old "Old Dominion Brewpub" are the only places I can think of, other than the breweries themselves, that somewhat fairly price(d) their growlers relative to real or hypothetical retail prices. But still not below retail.
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I believe I owe Mr. Rockwell an apology. I had not been to Reston Kabob in a couple of months, but visited tonight for my standard chicken kabob. They used to have a green sauce, yogurt based and with some kick, in addition to the sweet white sauce, but different from a hotter, brown sauce. Based on what I was served tonight, it appears that the brown sauce (not sure what made it brown) has evolved into a green sauce, not yogurt based, but tasting heavily of jalapeno or some similar pepper. Still very good, but not as complex/hearty as the two generations of the brown sauce. It is very likely what Mr. Rockwell had on his recent visit, and he was kind enough to not call me out on the sauce issue when he was probably wondering what the H*ck I was talking about. A great kabob place for those of us out in the vicinity of Reston Parkway and Sunrise Valley Drive!
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Don, if you only had the green and white sauces, then you missed the brown sauce, which is one of the main reasons I go to Reston Kabob over other places more often than not. It used to be incendiary, but is now simply hot. My palate is not sophisiticated enough to discern what is in the brown sauce, so I can only say that it is "really good". A teenage male used to be at the counter most nights, but now is there less frequently. I believe that he is from the family that owns the place, but I was unable to determine his heritage/nationality.
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Stopped in last night for a carry out pie. They have the expanded space up and running now--looks pretty nice. They do not yet have full table service, you still order at the register and the food is brought out to you. There is an area at the back of the new space that might eventually be a small bar, where they have added six tap lines. Last night, those were Port City Downright Pilsner (good stuff), the DC Brau IPA (I forget the name), Heineken, Blue Moon, a fairly mainstream British beer (might have been Newcastle Brown, I don't remember), and another that I can't remember at all. The entire place was pretty much full at 8:00, which meant that parking was worse than usual. I parked across the street in the Safeway parking lot, unsure if Safeway might have a tow truck contractor looking for "customers" of its own. I kept an eye out, and did not see any, but I am not sure I would have been comfortable eating at a table not knowing whether my car would be there when I was done.
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You missed out on the Plaka gyro, which, when they are on, are pretty darn good. Instead of the pressed meat, it is thinly sliced pork stacked on the spit, which is then sliced off just like the pressed meat. The pita has the same fillings, plus French fries. As you said, probably not worth going out of the way for, but definitely worth a stop if you are nearby.
