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No kidding. Also no alcohol sales before 5pm on election day or within a certain radius of schools. Cruel and draconian. --Former Hoosier

I ate here a couple of months ago--didn't post because it was really a zero-sum dinner that didn't inspire prose*--but I just picked up a roll from the bread guy at the Reagan Building farmers' market** that propelled me back to the Fiola bread service. Those rolls are freaking incredible. Hot and flaky and salty and buttery. It is one of few places where I think you absolutely should load up on bread. And bless the server for noting my near-constant raving to my dinner companion and wrapping up two for me to go, gratis. Neither survived the night. *Chestnut cappuccino soup: phenomenal, but $18 for a teacup of it? Wow! Lasagna: delicious, but outrageously salty. And I like salt. (I know folks always say that, but I mean it; I am HAPPY to have low blood pressure, that's how much I like salt.) **Similar style of roll, but a mere shadow of the quality.

I think the suggestion that whether or not you dress up is based on whether you're rich or poor is a pretty condescending view of matters. I agree with Sheldman--DC has changed. But I think this might have been spurred more by the change in Administration than the gradual erosion of fanciness. I work for a USG agency, and the change in the manner of dress between the extremely conservative, dull, suit-and-low-heels-and-stockings wearing Bush appointees and the tattooed, short-skirt-and-tank-top wearing Obama appointees gave me whiplash. (I fall somewhere in the middle, thankyouverymuch.)

I wish people would dress up more because dressing up is nice. It makes an everyday excursion into a special occasion. People seem to act more politely when they're decked out, and yes, I think it shows respect to the host. I almost wept when I saw my first (and sadly not last) track suit at the opera. Put in a little effort, people. But at the same time, I understand the business imperative that might make restaurants reticent to enforce a code. Especially around Penn Quarter where tourists make up an enormous proportion of patrons, they're probably not looking too fancy after walking the Mall all day. I'm not proud of it, but I've done it myself: if I've spent a day at the museums and my options are #1 going straight to a Penn Quarter restaurant, #2 going all the way home to change and then coming back to Penn Quarter, or #3 going home to change and going out in my neighborhood... well, #1 or #3 are going to win every time. And I'm guessing that restaurants prefer #1 to #3. Incidentally, "smart casual" is a bullshit designation. It doesn't mean anything AT ALL. You want to tell the guy in leather pants and a motorcycle shirt that he isn't dressed "smart casual"? I'm guessing he'd laugh his ass off--I know I would.

It pisses me off and, frankly, surprises the hell out of me. Which restaurant was it recently--Little Serow?--where staff attractiveness was noted pointedly? While it would be relevant to note if the staff were stinky or dirty or ungroomed, what possible point does it make to note that they're hot except to bring in diners who value appearance over food? These are folks who I really wouldn't want flocking to my store, for my employees' sake. Incidentally, it also annoys the crap out of me that the man at my table is always handed the wine list and the check, while the woman orders first and is served first--even if the woman is the one hosting (as I often am). This kind of stuff just really sticks in my craw because there seems to be a anachronistic and persistent undercurrent of (possibly unrelated) gender... issues that ladies who dine must deal with on a regular basis. I haven't served for a decade now, so I can't speak to your side of the experience, but from my side, it's boggling.

In Cowen's words in The Atlantic: So beautiful women don't necessarily have bad taste in food, but they might as well because they will by their very existence attract men and thus cause the quality of the food to plummet. Listen, I get what he's going for here (or at least what I hope he's going for here): the more stylish a restaurant, the more likely it is to rest on popularity and not keep up the quality of the food. But I'm really put off by him singling out women (why not "beautiful people"? Or beautiful men attracting beautiful women?) and then literally blaming them for putting in motion the nefarious forces that ruin a restaurant. Maybe I'm being nitpicky. But this stuff is starting to get on my nerves.

No, they're not happy about becoming a part of the everyday lexicon. Just as with parmesan, tequila, and the others, applying a brand name to a generic usage or product devalues the entire brand. Xerox would not want itself associated with the piece of shit off-brand machine in my office; additionally, Xerox produces far, far more than just duplicators, and trust me that they're not pleased to be known by 99% of the world as the creators of just one product. Now, for Xerox, Coke, and Kleenex, the dye is case and there's no going back. But newer companies, notably Google, are working overtime to ensure that doesn't happen to them.

Sorry, like I said, I hadn't read the article--I don't have an Atlantic at hand. Did the rule actually say, "Beware beautiful laughing women [and men]"?

With the caveat that I haven't read the Atlantic article or the book: Uh, seriously? Only fat, dour women go to good restaurants?

I started taking a new bus route several months ago that drops me off in front of Pret a Manger on 11th and F every morning, so, weak soul that I am, I've gotten to know their breakfast offerings quite well. (Actually, I get off a stop earlier than I need to in order to go to Pret, but I digress...) While I don't think that all restaurants should have to do it, I like being able to see calorie counts that they list on every offering in the cooler. It's frankly smart of Pret and places like it--I'm going to eat there more often knowing that I can get a range of breakfast options that aren't going to break the calorie bank (280? deal!). The breakfast egg sandwiches are made with egg salad rather than an omelet-ish thing, which I prefer. In my mind, the usually dull, uninteresting omelet is a useless addition to a morning sandwich when you're eating it more than once a week, and their egg salad is pretty darn good. Used to be better though; a few months ago it was markedly peppery, but it's gotten bland. The egg and bacon is okay, but I find their bacon to be kind of flabby and chewy; the egg and tomato is terrific, with roasted, acid-y tomatoes playing nicely with the ficelle and eggs. They sell some of their "Pret Slim" sandwiches (half of their normal wholes) in the morning--chicken and bacon, chicken club, chicken balsamic. Preferring savory to sweet in the morning, I really like all these and find that they keep me full well past noon and get those taste buds to wake up much earlier than they would otherwise. Croissant is okay. Probably not worth the calories posted because they certainly don't keep you full, but they scratch the itch and are significantly better than the ones next door at Crumbs. I think their drip coffee is pretty good; I just got my first latte there and really liked it. But most important, and the thing that keeps me getting off the bus one stop early: the service is outstanding. Truly. I cannot say enough for the service. Every day, every single day, each and every employee is a pleasure. They say good morning when they make eye contact but aren't those awful Gap workers who surround you and pelt you with "Hi! Can I help you!" "Hi! Can I help you!""Hi! Can I help you!""Hi! Can I help you!"until you want to scratch your eyes out and run screaming from the premesis. If there's more than one person in line, someone will jump in and open up another register to ring you up and then honestly--honestly-- wish you a good day when you're done. (Note: They did this even before I started coming regularly and they recognized me.) (Also: this is just breakfast; I don't know how this location handles lunch.) One day, I worked from home in the morning and went in just before noon to pick up lunch to bring to the office. It was during the worst of the early pollen, and I was not happy. I grabbed a sandwich (chicken banh mi: if you don't go into it wanting an actual banh mi, it's a decent sandwich) and bag of chips, and went to check out. When the manager rang me up, he asked how I was. I just grunted "allergies" and handed him my money. "Oh, I know. Here," he said, "I hope the day starts to improve." And he dropped a big chocolate espresso cookie into my bag. Now that's just cool. Classy. Smart. If they didn't have good food, I wouldn't go back. But their food is solid. And because they have such exceptional service, I will go back--several times a week. There are few places in the world where I can go and get treated so well for the cost of a cup of coffee and 280-calorie egg sandwich.

I have a friend who's currently WWOOFing through France and Italy, and she's happy as a pig in shit. And often spending much of her time, literally, with pigs in shit. Don't fool yourself: your accommodations are rough and your days are damn difficult--milking, corralling, and doing all sorts of farm-y things I can't begin to comprehend. But if you're like my friend, who eats raw kitfo in rural Ethiopia, makes her own tofu, and doesn't mind eating the lamb she helped birth a few weeks before, this is up your alley. She's dining on cheese she put up from a goat she milked and mussles she and her host picked off rocks on the beach steamed in vinegar made on the farm. If this is your type of thing, WWOOFing is for you.

Not exactly.

Are you seriously equating killing animals for food with killing vegetables for food, or have we moved into the Swiftian portion of the evening?

To use a more relevant gedanken: Is driving a car ethical? But back to the point, I don't know how you can't question the ethics of eating meat. Considering that it's inherently bad for you (or so they now say) and assuming that you're not Jeremiah Johnson, what is the justification behind killing a living thing for food, whether it's lived a wonderful life or a terrible one?

Right now I'm tipping a glass for my incredible colleagues who somehow are able to manage an extraordinary amount of crap from superiors who should treat them better, while simultaneously managing to make them look good AND at the same time manage to save the lives of people in crisis. I'm constantly humbled by the folks I work with. They are amazing.

The Olive Garden gets an outstanding review in the Grand Forks Herald. Poor Grand Forks...

Bazinga! Incidentally, this Sunday thing seems like an unnecessarily limiting business decision. If he hired more Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and atheists, they could work on the Sabbath without divine repercussions. And then everyone could have Sunday chicken, even the Christians!

I've never eaten at Chick-fil-A because every time I've been near one, it's been a Sunday. And they're closed on Sundays. What? God doesn't want us to eat chicken on Sundays?

I would LOVE to do this*, and I'd be more than happy to host**, but I'm traveling soon and won't be available until April. *I dream at night of being adopted by Fishinnards and zoramargolis. I imagine it to be a pretty blissed out life. **My kitchen has a large island that could fit 6-8 people around it and I have a 6-8 person dining table, but the stove would be a little difficult for more than 2-3 close observers. I would also pay for so, so much beer and produce to make this happen. (But my knives suck.)

Really? Exciting! Did you get the name?

Nor is it a public right to know the medical status of public personalities. Health is personal, folks. Neither she nor anyone else is obligated to lay out her private, medical issues and decisions for societal approval. While she could have chosen to step up and use that information to change the world or whatever, that would be a pretty damn courageous and personal choice--and not an obligation. When I was first diagnosed with my health issues, I kept them to myself. As years passed, and I've come to grips with them, and now I'm more open about it all. And you can bet your sweet ass that if someone offered me $X million today to shill for the medication that saved my life, I'd take it in a second, even if I wouldn't have even mentioned it in polite society just a year ago. Let's have a little empathy here. She's just human.

This made me happy. And now I need pie.

Ah. So it's not so much an app (software for a smartphone) as a shortcut to the internet page?

Sorry, but this doesn't work for me. When I access the dining guide through Safari on iPhone 4S, I have a button at the bottom that says, "Get the free IP Board App for iPhone now!" (no + sign). When I click, it takes me to the iTunes store and I get a popup that says, "Your request could not be completed." I'd love for this to be user error--let me know if I'm doing something wrong.

I appreciate what you're going for here. I'm 36. I grew up with a typewriter, then had 15 minutes a week on an Apple 2E in 8th grade, took typing in high school, then got an email account in college when no one knew what email was. I got my first smart phone in October. They are not necessary to live your life. But they do make life DAMN convenient. I don't use DR.com from my smart phone because Sprint makes remote internet access miserable. (To be fair: DR is one of the easiest internet sites to load on my phone, but it can still be a pain because, again, Sprint sucks, and I'm yet an amateur and if I want to see the latest post on a 15-page thread, I have to flip through them all and then scroll way, way down to see new content. But that's a subject for another day....) An app (Joe H: not an acronym, but short for "application," plural "apps") is a way to access information using the cell network--it comes in fast and you don't have to sit around so long to wait for it to load. And while I appreciate--nay, love... LOVE!--the Dining Guide, when I'm out and about, not at my computer, and finding myself remotely needing a place to go, I frankly have to rely on the Yelp app to map options in the neighborhood I happen to be in, and then try to call on my reliably faulty memory of the Dining Guide and what I've read lately on the Dining branch to lead me. I would really, really love to spike Yelp and just rely on DR, but the lack of an app or a mapping function limits its usefulness for me... and for the large and demographically important group of people who rely on their phones for spur-of-the-moment guidance on where to eat and drink.