Spiral Stairs

To follow up on my request for moderately priced options on the Strip, we ended up at Chinois (in the Forum Shops at Caesar's). We were braced to go over budget, but were pleasantly surprised to find that it offers a $29 three-course prix fixe. (Don't know times or days -- this was 7PM on a Monday.) We got out for a little over $60 each, including a single bottle of wine split three ways, tax, and tip. You get two courses for each course. First course was either a beet salad or a soup. (Despite the fact that I had the soup, I can't tell you what it was. A corn chowder-y thing with shrimp.)

Second course was miso black cod or pork chop. I had the black cod and it was excellent. One of my tablemates thought the orange-flavored noodles served with the cod were extremely oversalted. I agreed they were salty, but I chew on salt as a snack.

Third course was passionfruit cheesecake or many-layered red velvet cake. I had the cheesecake, which was an extraordinarily small portion of cheesecake topped with fresh fruit; it was refreshing but I nearly succumbed to the $10 gelato place just outside the restaurant for full satisfaction of my dessert needs. (Ended up with a candy bar instead.)

On the second night, I and one colleague still in town went to craftsteak. I was very impressed; the prices didn't seem as inflated as I feared (especially if you don't order the various wagyu and Kobe options -- they've got American wagyu, Australian wagyu, and Japanese Kobe. Pick your continent!). We did have wagyu tartare as an appetizer. It was very good, but could have used a little more mustardy kick. I had a ribeye as my main (accompanied by a sauce that was undisclosed on the menu, but I'm a sauce guy and was happy to have it). My colleague had the short ribs, which were fricking outstanding. "Fork-tender," as they say. Sides were braised snap peas (awesome) and "hen of the woods" mushrooms (my first experience with them; possibly too gamy and rich for me). Dessert was a mint chocolate chip milkshake. I've never had a mint chocolate chip anything that tasted so much of fresh mint. Good stuff.

I had a dream last night in which I was waiting at Proof for my date. (My date was not my wife, which is why I shall tread lightly when recounting this dream in this household.) I ended up being stood up, and ate my meal alone. Mark Slater, who (inexplicably) was my waiter, was very friendly throughout my sad meal. Toward the end of the evening, he asked me for a favor. He pointed at the bar, where Don Rockwell was courting a young lady. He said that Don had in his hand a slip of paper on which his phone number was written, but he was too shy to give it to the girl. Mark asked me to get up, walk to the bar, grab the paper out of Don's hands, and give it to the girl. I was pretty uncomfortable about the request, but I figured Mark had been very kind to me, so I would go ahead and do it.

I walked toward Don and the young lady, but just as I got there, Don apparently summoned the courage he needed and handed the paper to the girl. She accepted it with a broad smile, and I am sure everything worked out happily ever after. As for me, I nonchalantly walked by as though I was just headed to the bathroom the whole time.

While it is true that neither this dream nor this post has much to do with Proof, I believe it to be sufficiently weird that I had to record it somewhere.

I'm not sure you can get out of either rm seafood or Smith & Wollensky for $50/pp without alcohol, much less with. Burger Bar is better-priced, but it's also less of a restaurant and more akin to 'wichcraft; not sure if Spiral is looking for a "work dinner" sort of place, or if it's a bunch of colleagues who are okay with just going to grab food. If so, then Burger Bar is a good choice....

Spiral's going with work friends who would like to have a reasonably nice dinner and complain about our bosses. It is not a "business" meal in the "business" sense.

Since I have no takers at $50/person, let's try $75/person. Do I hear $75/person? $75? Anyone? Anyone?

P.S. -- Wasn't there a time when eating in Vegas was cheap by design? I.e., they drew people in with $5 steaks so the same people would lose ten times as much at slot machines? The apparently successful change in business model to Vegas being a premium all-purpose entertainment destination is a masterstroke of marketing.

Any recommendations for a moderately priced spot on the south end of the Strip? I and two colleagues will be there for business in a couple weeks; we'll be staying at the Monte Carlo. For various reasons, we'd like to walk to dinner.

I will be unable to sell craftsteak (or, for that matter, either Joel Robuchon) at the MGM across the street, as dinner there would consume the entire paltry per diem sum allotted for the trip. We need to keep dinner capped at about $50/person, including moderate alcohol consumption.

I've got no horse in this dog-and-pony show (or whatever). I don't know who uses precut steaks, or Cry-o-Vac'ed steak, or pre-chewed Soylent Green. But if Michael doesn't have the facts right as to the restaurant to which he's chosen to compare his, then that's not an English lesson. That's an important mistake that should be corrected. Imagine if someone posted something here about Ray's using Cry-o-vac'ed, precut steaks, or using Select meat. The server would crash under the weight of the collective response.

I'm a big, big fan of the Ray's places. But the fact that they are excellent restaurants serving excellent food at excellent prices doesn't give the owner carte blanche to get the facts wrong as to the competitors. (If that is what happened. Again, I disavow any knowledge of anything.)

Lunch on Saturday at Tortilla Cafe in Capitol Hill. So pleased with the pork pupusas!

Mother's Day brunch/lunch/whateverjustgivememyfood at Tiffin in Langley Park. Typical toddler tantrums forced us to tear through our tandoori chicken while taking turns tending to the tiny terrorist. We wanted to go to Woodlands but it was way too crowded and we wouldn't wait. Woodlands is worlds better.

(Also, Town Hall on Saturday night. Dinner was decent; portions were prodigious!)

Saturday dinner: Morton's, Atlantic City, NJ. (Last bachelor party I'll probably ever go to, since I have no more bachelor friends.)

This was my first time at any Morton's. What the hell is with the song-and-dance routine the waiter gives at the beginning of the meal? My lord, I thought I was going to pass out from the combined effects of boredom, astonishment, and simple aging. He actually held up a tomato so we knew what he was talking about when he mentioned a "tomato." He also held up a potato and an onion at the appropriate moments in his script. Wow.

I ordered a cajun ribeye medium-rare. The waiter acted as though I had ordered an armed hand grenade: "Now that's going to be red throughout, warm in the center. Is that okay?" Yes. Then it came and it was medium (or even, perhaps, medium-well). I'm glad it had the cajun seasoning, as that made it taste fine anyway.

Decent food, but crazy-overpriced and clownish service.

They post nutritional information now. I added up my usual order: just shy of 1,500 calories. Each one more heart-cloggingly delicious than the last.

I'm clocking in at 1,536. They've been crafty with their chart: Break the burger down into its constituent parts, so the abominable total appears nowhere. (In my case, the burger totals 916 calories.) (This assumes one piece of cheese. I can't recall if they use two.) Then they cut the order of fries in half. A regular human being might eat only half. Not me. Give me all 620 calories worth, please.

Hamburger? It's HamMURDER!

(At least I take mustard on my burger -- zero calories -- and hold the mayo.)

This tidbit is a week and a half old, but I missed it. Apparently, every tenant under consideration to fill the Murky space "plans to open an independent coffee shop."

Woo hoo! I had great feelings of dread about what might go there.

After several very mediocre Five Guys' burgers, I started wondering what all the fuss was about. And comparisons to my home state's In-N-Out? Hah! Ok, so the first two were from the location at National Airport, so I knew I had to cut the chain some slack. I still haven't had a great Five Guys burger in VA (but my experience there is slight). However, my last three burgers at the Chinatown location have been terrific. After the first, I thought "wow, I finally get it." I'm still not a huge fan of the well-done burger, but the flavorful toppings and good bun more than make it a good bite. That said, I nearly always have to remove a patty (or two! - last time it came stacked three high!) in order to really appreciate the burger.

The "Little" burger at 5Gs has only one patty.

At the risk of being excommunicated from DR...the Brooklyn style pizza from Dominos is not terribly offensive. Plus, I get mesmerized by the Pizza Tracker while I wait for it to arrive at my door.

Your last paycheck is in the mail. Good luck with your future endeavors.

I just had my first Amy's frozen pizza the other day. Pretty decent, I thought. (Then again, it shared freezer space with a bag of pizza rolls. I'll be waiting for my pink slip as well...)

Also, the difference between "molding" and "moulding," the former being something you definitely don't want to find at a restaurant (unless the steaks are dry aged).

Man, you guys are harsh. I have no clue what that website is or who writes it, but just in case that poor soul stumbles through here: (i) Surely "dinning" is a typo, given that the rest of the writing doesn't betray general illiteracy; and (ii) "molding" is how I've always spelled the word that refers to decorative wood, and "define:molding" on Google bears me out.

ETA: I wrote this message after only a quick glance at this site. I have since noticed that "dinning" appears no fewer than three times. I retract my assertion that the author must have made a typographical error and reopen the question of general illiteracy. However, my point about the spelling of "molding" stands.

Proof does indeed offer a lovely experience in evacuation.

Zengo, if I recall correctly, has private stall-rooms. So you can go in there for hours.

Here is the website.

That's quite the quote from the Post on the front page too. Wonder where it comes from...

That's a major loss. Maybe Bread & Chocolate will expand! Or, even better, maybe a Broken Glass Chewing Emporium will open there!

Stop by any time that afternoon, after about 2pm. Give your name, size of party, and desired time, and that's pretty equivalent to a reservation.

If you don't, I'd guess a 90 minute wait is probably about right.

Any chance of making it a visit to RTC in Silver Spring instead, so you can make the reservation now?

Thanks. (And RTC is not an option because my dad has a special thing for RTS.)

... Which got me to thinking, if you get there at 8, and you're looking at an hour-and-a-half wait, why not just go at 9:30 and wait only half an hour? Take a nap, see movie, jog, whatever. ...

Is that what it is likely to be? An hour-and-a-half? In my particular case, we may run into babysitting issues if we push it too late. (Also, we are talking about time with family here. I.e., perhaps I'd like to spend that hour-and-a-half fortifying myself with margaritas.)

Sunday, brunch/lunch/whatever-you-call-Indian-food-at-11:30am at Woodlands in Langley Park. God, I love that place. We hadn't been in a couple months, which made everything taste that much better. Some of faves were on the buffet -- Aloo Bhaaji, mushroom curry, vegetable fritters (whatever they are called).

Can you get there earlier in the day to try and put your name on the list?

I forgot about "the list," which I don't fully understand and which therefore frightens and confuses me. I may be able to do that -- it may depend on what plans develop for the rest of the day. I guess I'm sort of curious about the worst-case scenario here. (I.e., not on list, thrown to the wolves, fisticuffs for prime waiting space.)

My dad's coming to town in a couple weeks and I'll be happily indulging his special request that we dine at RTS. In the past, we've employed the Don Rockwell Blue Hair Dinner Strategy and eaten really early in order to avoid the crowds. However, thanks to a confluence of circumstances, it looks like we'll be a party of four entering the belly of the beast at 8PM on a Saturday.

Any experience with throwing caution to the wind like this? I'm scared. Will we be sloshed on two hours worth of Guajillo margaritas and stuffed with chips and salsa by the time we're seated? (The babysitter has a vested interest in knowing the answer to this question.)

When we ate there last Saturday, our party of four was seated in the farthest-back table in the restaurant. Way in the back, there is an area containing four or five tables that is kind of separated by pillars or similar structural elements (can't recall the details). We were in the back of that area, adjacent to a glass wall behind which was a storage area. It didn't make for picturesque viewing for me, as I faced the storage area and not the rest of the restaurant, but it was actually great in terms of noise level and our ability to converse without anxiety about bothering (or being listened to by) others.

First time at Central last night. I had done a poor job of scouting (or at least discussing with her) the menu in advance; my wife was afraid that she would find little to eat on the menu. (She's doesn't like almost all seafood and would admit to being less than adventurous.) Then she saw the menu. Burger! Fried chicken! Sides of fries, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese!

I looked at the menu and saw short ribs! Lobster burger! Cassoulet!

She ended up with the burger, I ended up with the short ribs. Our friends had the lobster burger and short ribs. (The draw of 72-hour meat was strong.) We over-ordered substantially and took home a big bag of food. I wish our waiter would have told us that our short ribs came with mashed potatoes, as it was not explained on the menu; I would not have ordered the side of fries of which not a single fry was eaten. (Also didn't know that the steak tartare, which was my appetizer, would come with fries, which also would have been a reason not to order them as a side. That said, the fries were hot, crisp, and delicious.)

I'm no wino, but I thought the Penley Estate Hyland shiraz we ordered was absolutely delicious.

My wife has put it on "our" short list for future nights out. (A meaningful designation in our toddler-ruled household.)

Faryab's menu lists several vegetarian options, for what it's worth.

Perhaps my pizza palate is not sophisticated enough for the board. I'll work on it, but I still like my greasy cheesy pizza from Manhattan Deli....

I could write a book on the ways in which my palate is not sophisticated enough for this board.

(Tonight is fish stick night!)

I saw that the Murky on Capitol Hill got shut down -- something about owing over a quarter million dollars in back taxes?

I walk past Murky on the way to work every morning. Usually, I am pushing my son in a stroller, and I can't juggle coffee and a kid in a stroller without putting them both at risk, so I don't stop. This morning, though, I was kidless, so I was really looking forward to some Murky.

I was bummed to find "SEIZED" stickers all over the windows and a note, signed Nick, on the door about the closure. It it includes vague references to tax issues and heavy-handed behavior by the DC government. At Port City Java, which was Plan B, the staff believed that Murky had failed to pay sales tax. I know nuthin else.