jdl

From Tom's chat yesterday:

"La Colline was purchased by A Well-Known Restaurateur in late January and is poised to become --- I type, fingers crossed -- a destination dining room in the near future. Stay tuned for more details, once my source is able to share more news about the deal."

Destination dining room, eh?

I never realized how much I look like Star Jones before. 

Actually, you look more like Jenny Jones. But who's counting?

Has this place settled into any kind of a groove yet? It seemed very uneven the first and only time I dined there, in June. But there was definitely upside.

We ordered a bottle of Littorai 2001 Chardonnay Theierot Vineyard (Ted Lemon is the only American EVER to have been a winemaker in Burgundy

Now you're talking. I love me some Littorai ... particularly the Pinots. Had my second-to-last bottle of the 97 One Acre last year, and it was just marvelous. (Turns out, by the way, that Eric Ziebold at CityZen is a huge Littorai PN fan, too.)

I'm sure more people would become Littorai devotees if the wines were offered in more restaurants outside of California. Gotta love that Corduroy list!

New Big Wong in Chinatown does 'em.

I really dig that place. I've never actually ordered hot pot there (always too busy getting live fish and Dungeness out of the tank), but they do have them on the menu. And the Washingtonian approves, for what it's worth:

After a three-page listing of dishes intended for its non-Chinese clientele, New Big Wong's dinner menu offers five pages of authentic Hong Kong dishes. Among the specialties unique to this kitchen are a pair of preparations cooked and served in Chinese covered casseroles, called "hot pots." At the lower end of the price scale, the Chur Chur Chicken in a chafing dish is a delight of wings cut into bite-size pieces, whole shallots, slices of Chinese sausage, dried shiitake mushrooms, ginger, and scallions, all bound in a spare amount of oyster sauce. The bone-in pieces of wings make for tricky eating, but the splendid flavor of meat cooked on the bone makes up for the inconvenience. Prices for the hot pots range from $9.95 for the Chur Chur Chicken to $24.95 for the exquisite lobster with bean thread in pot, a Chinese casserole brimming with segments of unshelled lobster, sliced ginger root, scallion shreds, and julienne carrots, all in a tangle of cellophane noodles imbued with lobster flavor.

Where do they get their veal?

Just a quick note to rave about the beef cheeks. 

Jacques,

This is a new menu item I take it? Anything else that's been added over the past 6 or so weeks? (The last new thing I noticed was the chicken ballotine.)

Josh

We had a very nice meal tonight at 1789.

Daniel,

We were there last night, as well. And I also had that bacon-crusted rockfish, which was delightful. Nice piece of fish, well-prepared, with a streak of smokiness in the crust and the French green lentils that I just loved. Those elements, combined with the earthiness of the black trumpet mushrooms and the pinot reduction sauce, made for an excellent pairing with the Williams Selyem PN we were drinking. I was so enamored with the dish that I didn't even bother to take anybody up on their offer to taste their mains.

I was less impressed with the onion tart that I ordered to start. There were anchovies in the dish that overpowered every other element, so I could barely taste the onions themselves. The scallop margarita was much more successful. I thought the lobster risotto, which I also sampled, was just OK.

How was your service, by the way? Ours was outstanding. (And I'm not just saying that because the server waived corkage.) I really lucked out in getting great service on back to back nights at RW, first in the Galileo Laboratorio, and then upstairs at 1789.

Had a great experience tonight at Galileo, with both the food and the service hitting on all cylinders.

Since the restaurant normally allows BYO, I didn't bother to call ahead to see if it applied during RW, too. Alas, the matire'd informed us upon our arrival that they'd suspended BYO for the week. No worries, I said; we'll order off the list.

We'd already put in an order for champagne and I was studying the Barolo offerings when our server in the Laboratorio said that he'd talked his boss into letting us open a bottle. We were very pleasantly surprised.

Our server, as it turned out, was probably the best I've had in DC, at any restaurant - during RW, no less, and with BYO. He was attentive, helpful, personable, professional, generous and none too intrusive. He made great recommendations on both the food and beverage fronts, and he really pampered us. The meal itself hit all the right notes, save for a veal chop, which was ordered medium rare but was served just to the wrong side of medium medium. Still, it exceeded all reasonable RW expectations.

Our group is planning to return for a meal in the Labortorio, and I hope our friend is there when we do, as we have a bottle of Barolo with his name on it. (Well, with Bruno Giacosa's name on it. But close enough.)

Age discrimination is a serious issue in the news biz.

Plenty of examples, from Ron Fimrite, who was rehired by Sports Illustrated after filing an age discrimination lawsuit against the magazine, to Christine Craft, who lost her case.

At this early stage, I'm not as much of a fan of Viridian as some people here, but I surely should have named another restaurant that would have been more appropriate for this topic.

That's the thing that tripped me up: Of all the things one might accuse Viridian of being (or trying to be), "glitzy" wouldn't seem to rate. Nor would the notion that they're all about making money. No quibbles if you don't care for the proffer. But the place really doesn't strike me as crass cash-cow kinda restaurant.

Rocks, would you kindly expound on your comment about Viridian that appeared in today's Express?

"A lot of multimillion-dollar restaurants opened (in 2005) and they're all glitz. ... Zengo and Viridian, they were opened to make money. It's not a chef doing it out of a labor of love."

I think I've written this before, in other threads, but once again I'm stunned that DC has talent like this and yet people are still writing that it's a second-tier food city.  They're nuts.

Sounds like a lovely meal, even if I am a white-truffle kinda guy.

Not to start a food-fight here, but one great chef (and Michel Richard is certainly that) does not a great gastronomic scene make. Yes, there is a lot more talent here beyond Chef Richard. But DC isn't a top-tier food city. I hope it becomes one eventually. But it ain't there yet.

Just to play Devil's Advocate (get it? Parker? Advocate? I crack myself up)... anyway, here's one upside to buying "Parker-approved" wines: If you don't like 'em, and you happened to have bought multiples rather than doing the get-a-bottle-to-taste-before-I-make-a-decision-about-a-larger-purchase thing (which, frankly, a lot of folks do, because there's just not enough time in a given week to keep going shopping for wine), they're pretty easy to flip. Whereas unreviewed wines that Merchant X recommends but that don't quite speak to your sensibilities are often harder to sell or trade.

Also (and this really doesn't have anything to do with Parker vs Retailers - it's more about my own recommendation fatigue), given that I'm only opening a couple of bottles every week, if that, I don't particularly like experimenting with The Unknown anymore. When I open something, I want there to be a pretty high probability that I'm really going to like it. And I've been disappointed too many times by "highly recommended" wines.

(Maybe I should drink nothing but Krug, Ridge Montebello and Donnhoff from here on out. )

Speaking of the scallops at Corduroy - where do those come from? (And please, spare me answers like "the ocean" and "a shell." )

DC Hospital Week: Tummy tuck and chin-lift for only $3006.00! 

Where'd you see that listed? OperatingTable.com?

$330.66 not including drinks, tax, and tip.  You should seek a sponsorship from OpenTable to offset the expense!

Just think of all the meals you could have at Per Se for that kind of cash! (Oh, wait.)

Some of the appetizers are vegeterian and  as the main course we serve a great combination of mixed seasonal vegetables. But be careful because other people in your party might try to steal those from your plate.

Or, they might try to swipe your rice. I know I would. Man, that stuff is good.

Oh, the gluttony...

Mon, lunch, David Greggory. Dinner, Corduroy.

Tues, lunch, Rasika. Dinner, Galileo.

Weds, dinner, Vidalia.

Thu, lunch, Kinkead's. Dinner, Notti Bianche.

Fri, lunch, Atlantico. Dinner, Galileo.

Sat, dinner, 1789.

Sun, dinner, IndeBleu.

Sad to report that the 89 Beaucastel is now off the list.

Happy to report, however, that the last bottle was fantastic.

As was the Niman Ranch pork belly (no surprise there) and the leg portion of tonight's Muscovy duck special. I love, by the way, that the cabbage that accompanies the pork belly is cooked with, among other things, little bits of bacon. No such thing as too much swine!

OK, well it really can end now thanks to Sietsema.  Add the "parsnips" comment to Tom's "waitress on a low-carb diet" = now that's two people who have had a similarly wonky experience.

From today's chat:

"Mixed Grille, Va.: Tom, have you tried the newish Essential Grille near Tyson's? Any impressions?

Also, any idea why restaurants around here often add an "e" to the end of "Grill"? Does it make the food taste better? Mendocino GrillE, Dupont GrillE, Capital GrillE, Oakville GrillE and, of course, The GrillE. (I'd like to buy a vowel - and some parsnips.)

Tom Sietsema: I was eager to try the Essential, based on its menu and glowing releases. But WHAT a disappointment!

First, there's this really nutty service: Our waitress kept telling everyone in her section she couldn't recommend any dish that featured a starch because "I'm on a low carb diet. Too much information, I know." Our main courses came within two minutes of our appetizers, and when we asked the staff to take the entrees back, they were later returned to us having been thoroughly overcooked in the warming ovens or wherever. The food was a mess. And the place looks like a fast food chain. Ugh.

Yep, that's the place. Now it can be told. Or, I guess, now it has been told.

Easy: The new German chocolate cupcake at Love Cafe.

(Damn, I crack myself up sometimes.)

On the other hand, I loved the breads and thought the spreads (two to choose from: white bean and pumpkin) were really good.

When I went there, a week after Viridian had opened, the pumpkin spread was kinda flavorless vis-a-vis the white-bean spread. Did it actually make an impression when you tried it?

I really liked that salt-crust bread they served.

The two men who got into it with me begin to walk along the windows giving me the bird.

Good golly. Too bad you didn't have a camera handy. Would've been kinda funny if you'd taken their picture and then emailed it or posted it where other area restaurateurs could see it!

The current Washingtonian, which I was just flipping through at a bookstore, has a blind comparison between Vidalia's mac and cheese and Oohs and Aahs'.  (They purchased both dishes, replated them identically, and then had various people taste and compare them.)  O&A won handily.

I was there tonight before catching a show at the Black Cat, and the mac and cheese was a big topic of conversation at the counter. They'd just pulled a fresh batch out of the oven, which prompted my friend to, quite literally, oohh and aahh. To which a guy sitting next to us at said, "Best mac and cheese in DC, according to Washingtonian." At which point, the woman sitting next to that guy said to forget DC - that it's the best mac and cheese an-y-where. And she'd called her mom to tell her as much, even though she LOVES mom's mac and cheese. But she loves O&A's more. Which got some folks who were lined up along the wall, waiting for orders, to chime in. And the whole thing started to feel like a scene out of "Barbershop." Totally great. (As were the beef ribs, greens and yams, finished off with a peach cobbler that must've weighed about three pounds - even if Oji insisted it was 16 ounces. Did I really get out of there for $20? Ridiculous!!)