dmwine

I have a sorta first date with a beautiful women on Saturday night (yeah me!).  I am picking her up in Centerville and driving to a party in Springfield. Any suggestions for a moderate price place at either one or those places or somewhere in between?

Searching the site I only came up with a new site of local chain San Vito Restorante Italian and Dixie Bones in Springfield.

I don't think San Vito qualifies as a "chain" for this thread - there are three, and they are all local. And good. You will have above-average to excellent food at a moderate price and fun ambience; appropriate for a "sorta first date". Not that I've had one of those in a few decades.

I highly recommend San Vito Ristorante Italiano, in Herndon, Ashburn and now apparently Springfield (in my old stomping grounds of Kings Park). Gian Piero Mazzi worked in several haute Italian restaurants before launching this local effort. They also do wine dinners.

Web site here.

My article about them here.

Buon appetito!

Wednesday's NYT Dining section had an essay by Frank Bruni on restaurants slyly luring customers to spend more - and not just on bottled water. Things like supplemental charges to selections on a prix fixe menu, astronomical wine-by-the-glass prices, or menus broken into additional "courses" to suggest one should order more than appetizer-entree-dessert. Anyone see this happening in DC?

You don't think the recent changes are any better?  What do you think is wrong?

I didn't say that. I'm reserving judgment actually, until Todd's had time to get used to the vicissitudes of magazine publishing and editing, something very new to him and not nearly as easy as it sometimes seems to people who live on the boundless cyberfrontier of the Internet and can "publish" with the click of a Send button. He was thrown right into an unforgiving publication cycle that was probably well underway when he arrived. In his chats he alluded to the difficulty in putting together the Best 100 list, difficulty now confirmed by today's Reliable Source item. To make as many changes as he did, not just to the format but to the list, obviously required a lot of work.

My comment was more to the defensiveness of his defense, as it were. Todd was the one who took his disagreements with Tom Head public, not the other way around.

The resentment may have been magnified by Todd's rather savage comments in his recent chats, when he defended the changes to the Best 100 by slamming the previous lists rather nastily - even though two of the writers now work for him. A more magnanimous and tactful defense from Todd could have been, "Well, I'm in charge now, and this year's lists reflects my palate and my view of the DC restaurant scene." Instead, he's "I'm right, you're wrong," like Dan Aykroyd's "Jane, you ignorant slut!" in the old days when SNL was funny.

I agree that Tom Head's stewardship of the WashedOnion's dining pages was neither inspired nor inspiring, but he didn't deserve the humiliation (some of which he suffered willingly by staying). Todd's not making me hungry, either.

Todd Kliman: They can get back on it by cooking great food and by taking care of their customers as though they were family and loved ones. That's how.

Again, a lot of places have been coasting for years, and my predecessors, to be honest with you, were inclined to coddle them, to apologize for their deficiencies, to rationalize their weaknesses.

Interesting, though - as some of his "predecessors" are now working for him, this doesn't seem a good way to boost staff morale. There must have been some pretty contentious discussions there, which he merely hints at ...

There was a hilarious episode of Northern Exposure when one of the characters dropped the bottle of well-aged Ducru-Beaucaillou that Maurice was going to serve at his banquet. Eve, the wife of the hermit chef Adam, concocted an ersatz bordeaux out of various ingredients according to the taste profile. At one point she sticks her finger in, tastes, and says something like, "Needs more peat moss!"

Naturally, Maurice waxed poetic about how it was the best bottle of his favorite wine that he'd ever had.

This is from my wine blog (at dmwineline.com) on my recent visit to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. You'll dine well even if you don't meet the chef. And if you don't believe me, there's a photo here.

My Chance Encounter with Joel Robuchon

Some people gush over movie stars, rock musicians or, here in DC, powerful politicians. Me, I’m a sucker for anyone in a chef’s jacket. I’m proud to count a few of DC’s finest as friends and more as acquaintances, and if you get me in my cups I’ll be happy to tell you about the time I interviewed Alain Ducasse for The Washington Post. Well add a few more Michelin stars to my firmament – I met Joël Robuchon.

I arrived in Las Vegas for my day job and headed for the MGM Grand, hoping to spend my free evening at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, the first US outpost of the man heralded by his publicists as “the best chef in the world.” The place was closed for a media event. Food writers from around the world were to be feted for two nights to celebrate the restaurant’s grand opening. I whipped out my business card, self-printed with Microsoft Publisher on medium-grade card stock from Office Depot, and explained to the pretty young thang at the hostess stand that she was in luck, for I had arrived by happenstance and would be quite content to squeeze into a corner and enjoy the meal and I really wouldn’t get in anyone's way, thank you very much.

She wasn’t buying. The irony, the irony.

So I returned 48 hours later, dusty from tromping around the desert all day and hoping to score a decent meal before hitting the redeye home, when I see the man himself standing in front of his restaurant with a suit and a younger chef. I drooled for a few minutes, then threw modesty to the wind and introduced myself. Monsieur Robuchon complimented me on my pathetic French and then introduced me to his copains (who turned out to be the VP of food and beverage for the hotel and Philippe Braun, the chef in charge of L’Atelier) as if I was a long-lost buddy from his days in the resistance. I said I was there to dine at L’Atelier as soon as the doors opened and let him go on his merry way.

Shortly after 5:30 another cute young thang tried to shunt me into a corner, but my new friend Philippe guided me to the center seat around the U-shaped bar that is L’Atelier’s signature. This format was considered quite revolutionary in Paris and Tokyo when Robuchon came out of retirement a few years ago to offer “casual” cuisine, but the idea of diners watching their food being cooked and even interacting with the wait staff is not new to Americans. I felt like I was sitting at an expensive diner counter. Small plates are not new here either, though the wait staff kept explaining them as if they were.

That said, I’ve never eaten so well at a diner or tapas bar. It was perhaps the best, and most expensive, meal of my life.

I splurged on the menu degustation, a multicourse offering of small plates for $85, and gave Pascal Bolduc, the Quebec-born sommelier, carte blanche to match me some wines. (For some reason, the restaurant does not offer flights of wines matched to the tasting menu.) For the sautéed foie gras with a citrus and apple sauce, he offered an “ice cider” from Quebec called “Neige,” made from apples frozen on the tree like grapes on the vine for ice wine. I may go to my grave believing this was the ultimate food-wine pairing.

I’ll spare you a blow-by-blow, bite-by-bite account of my meal, except to say foie gras made three appearances overall and I may be spoiled forever for salmon. One can eat less expensively at L’Atelier by picking and choosing among the small plates (full entrées are quite expensive) and showing restraint with the wines. And while the “casual” concept may seem old-hat to American diners, the cuisine Robuchon is not to be missed.

(L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nev. There is also Joël Robuchon at The Mansion, which is really expensive and aims to recreate or reinvent Robuchon’s three-star cuisine. For more information, see www.mgmgrand.com .)

all that being said, a few months ago i was driving to harpers ferry using the backroads (route 7 to route 9 and over the mountain), and where they used to be just 2 vineyards, there's now 8 vineyards.  i shudder to think what the wine at the new vineyards tastes like (suffice it to say, one vineyard sign i saw was advertising something like strawberry zinfandel).

Breaux Vineyards is up that way along Rt 9 and is also one of Virginia's best. Excellent Viognier, Seyval Blanc and an unoaked Chardonnay (though winemaker Dave Collins prefers the oaked version). Reds are improving all the time, too - best are the Lafayette Cab Franc and the Merlot. There's a nice tasting room and good views of the foothills.

Is this Pho Real?

Oh sorry, that's in Burtonsville ...

over the weekend we ended up with the thousands of other last minute shoppers at Tysons and on the way home stopped by the Total Wine in McLean. they always seem to have a great selection but we just aren't that familiar with them. anyone have thoughts or suggestions on who to talk to there?

If you're in this neighborhood again, try to stop by The Vineyard. It's an easy-to-miss tiny storefront right at the intersection of Chain Bridge Rd and Old Dominion. Emphasis is on quality wines from small producers, and while this usually means pricey, they have some good value wines, too. Jim Arsenault is an excellent and knowledgable tourguide through the labels.

Your husband's a lucky man.

An excellent Chilean Cabernet is the Cousino-Macul Antiguas Reservas. 2003 is the current vintage and is very good. It should run you $12-15, depending on where you get it, and there are very few California Cabs that will compete in that price range.

For Syrah, MacArthur's should have some of Bobby Kacher's inexpensive varietal Syrahs from southern France. Though as you like Spanish reds (assuming Garnacha), you may want to explore southern Rhone blends that feature Grenache and Syrah. There are any number of good ones. Chapoutier has one from the Cote de Roussillon called Bila-Haut. It's $10 at Wide World of Wines.

The link on the Post web site gives me a recipe for Creamy Carrot Soup. Ugh.

If you go to the "Print Edition" of the Food section, it has the article, but no link to the tasting notes. More disconnect b/w print and the online version.

The print version also mentions Kathy's job shift.

We could get Mark and Michael buttons that say "I'm Not Mark Slater " and "I'm Not Michael Flynn"

Try Wide World of Wines on Wisconsin Ave.

...should my little bottles sleep?

Almost all of my wine is still in California. I'm probably going to keep some of it there - maybe the majority of it - but I'd like to keep at least a dozen cases out this way. The last time I talked to the guy at The Wine Rack, he said the place was full. (And never mind that rate is a multiple of what I'm paying out West. Damn D.C. property values!)

Are there any other options out this way?

I guess I might have to break down and get a mid-sized VinoTemp or something. (Where's the best place to get one locally? Or would I be better off ordering online?)

I also find that the quick pour inevitably leads to over pours. I have had waiters refill my glass, and then add the same amount to my wife's untouched glass.

that is crap. i cringe everytime i see a guest pouring thier own wine in my restaurant or any other for that matter. that to me reflects inattentive service. if one does not wish for wine to be poured, then open your piehole and say so. to presume that a restaurant or server is simply trying to push another bottle (yes i know that it happens in some places) is unfair and cynical. most good restauranteurs and servers know that guest experience is far more important than how high the check can get.

The rumor about the Indian place at White Oak Shopping Center is true - Bombay is excellent quality and value. The ambiance is casual, but you may not look too out of place.

The Greek place mentioned is Chef Theo's - decidedly mediocre.

I can also second Cuba de Ayer in Burtonsville.

Re dissing Bethesda:

Nobody does it better than Eve Zibart in her review of Le Vieux Logis from August:

You don't go to Bethesda to dine at Le Vieux Logis: You go to Le Vieux Logis to escape Bethesda.

The post-Metro Bethesda, that is, that gold-rush restaurant town with its colored drinks, its BlackBerry dinks and its X-treme garage sports.

'Nuff said!

Any comments on the Post Food section's new wine coverage?