jayandstacey

It is open now but I haven't tried it. It seems the owner has the resources to make this decent if he chooses; I look forward to trying it. Of course there's a lot of competition right down the road in Gaithersburg. When I first moved in, I counted 12 places that sold pizza - all within a mile of me. I hope there's enough business out Rte 28 to support the effort.

Well that's pretty easy. I mean, c'mon and dim the lights. Switch on the strobe.

Exactly. Trite. I see another one and consider entering. But then I have to ask myself...should I stay, or should I go?

Note to my own post: The link isn't kept up, so be sure to search on any choice you make and see if it still exists. For this reason alone, the Crab Decks and Tiki Bars link above is probably a better resource despite having to buy the book to get the whole picture.

So following my own advice from above, I recently tried the Cheshire Crab House at the Pleasure Cove Marina in Pasadena MD. I had kind of a mixed experience. This is a big restaurant - it could probably seat 300 or more if they added more tables. It has a large deck (3 tables deep) that hovers over a parking lot but gives a nice view of the tight cove. Lots of boats. The restaurant sits next to a hulking indoor boat storage shed. When you park out back, you park under the boats that are racked up above. That's kind of cool. Inside is the open bar / auditorium area with a wood floor, high wood ceiling and picnic table seating. Then there's a cozier indoor area with a lower ceiling and more traditional booths. It's clear that they close the big area in the winter months and just use the smaller area. OK, the food - my young son and I got a package deal: 6 MD crabs, 2 snow crab legs and 1 pound of steamed spiced shrimp for...I dunno, maybe $35 IIRC. This was perfect for us as my son wanted to pick a few MD crabs but isn't yet old enough to sit there for a long time. Unfortunately the crabs were VERY small. In fairness, we were told this, but at 7pm on a Sunday night with the place 3/4 empty...maybe they'd toss us a bone. These looked barely legal; the big claws weren't even worth cracking. They were cooked OK though and all 6 were heavy. The shrimp were overcooked but not horribly so. Its hard to say what to expect from such a place. Part of me wants the crowd, the energy from a full place. Is there something wrong if on a wonderful summer Sunday evening the place isn't packed? I'm going to chalk it up to a combination of factors: it isn't some special deal - it isn't great cooking or some special find. It also isn't on a highway or in a tourist area. It also is cavernously big - maybe too much so for a neighborhood-draw kind of place. So I'll try it again sometime and order some Meds or Lgs. And maybe go on a Saturday. The location makes it one of my closest options.

BTW, for you Virginia types (you know who you are) - Baugher's is a little like the Brookside Restaurant near Luray and the entrance to Skyline Drive - less all the tourist trappings and with better... everything.

OK, not that anyone cares, but I'm going to let out one of my secrets... and it's this place. For me, it is destination place. We get in the (Gaithersburg based) car and drive an hour up route 27 to get to Baugher's. We go for the whole package and food quality is really only a small part. As said above, this is your basic family/country restaurant. The upside is that they do enough business that fresh things are always very fresh. They run a substantial orchard about 2 miles away and most everything with apples is excellent, as are offering wih shorter-seasonal items like strawberries. The downside is that some things are pretty much right out of the can - like greenbeans. Luckily, there aren't too many of these. So what to order? The fried chicken is, IMHO, second only to Family Meal in the state of MD. The open-faced turkey sandwhich ("do you want the gravy on your fries too?") is good in a down-home way - on plain old white-bread, as it should be - and I believe may be their most popular item. The fries are really good. I always get the apple fritters as one of my two side dishes - they are little fried desserts that have a light, crisp batter (though sometimes a little oily) and a tangy apple middle. I also try to get ice cream or pie if I have room. Sadly, the desserts may be some of the best of their menu but its hard to order when you're full. So what to avoid? I'm not a fan of the burgers; I think they are those frozen kind. And any nuggets-like things are probably frozen too. It's worth looking at other's plates as you walk back to your table. The prices are in-line with the distance (is there a $1 reduction for every 10 miles out rule?) and are thus very good. Four piece fried chicken with two sides - $12 as I recall. BLTs for $7ish. Entrees are $8 to $12 and everything else falls below that. Service is competent and friendly. The place probably holds 150 or so and most times I've been (maybe 15 trips) it has been nearly full. So if a wait person is new they don't stay that way for long... and there's too much work to mess around. It can be slow at times and the fried chicken takes extra time. But...that's the whole point of heading there - to lean back and talk and just slow down a bit. So why go an hour out to eat at Baugher's? Because you can. The trip up 27 is relaxing, especially when the sun is setting. Once there, it is like walking into a friend's house and their mom is just about to serve supper. Once done eating, you can step outside to the farmer's market for some fresh fruits and pies, or maybe grab an ice cream cone and go sit in the playgound while the kids play on the swings. Name one place in DC that has a swingset. My grandparents all died many years ago, so I can't go back to see them, or their house, or enjoy their cooking. But I can go to Baugher's and take my kids and laugh out loud and have milk come up out of my nose. I'll take it.

WaPo is guessing August/September. Anyone hearing any differently? I bet they do a whopping business there. 24 hours in a universe that closes by 9pm? Plus their reputation? Plus (I think) the only close Korean competition will be down in South Rockville, in a place that's not 1/10th as hip. Looking forward to this.

I got 1/2 price oysters last Sunday at about 3pm at Old Ebbitt. I'm admittedly confused by the thread here. Is there question about Old Ebbit's happy hour offering? Or Clyde's Gallery Place? Whatever - doesn't matter. Cheap oysters are my cup of tea. Of course, having my 2 top so close to another 2 top that our conversations were always on the same track because we could overhear each other....that meant their cup of tea was mine too. And I should have ordered even more tea because the burger ordered medium well was cooked to a grey dryness. It was edible...with tea. Next time order medium or medium-rare. Also next time I want to sit nearest the door where the oysters come out. Wherever that is.

Excellent meal. The menu seems to change often as not all things mentioned above were available...of course, that's a good thing. I like that the oysters come with a few pieces of flatbread. This is something I haven't seen before - and as I'm a sucker for cocktail sauce, it allows me to keep eating the cocktail sauce long after the oysters are gone. My fish came with a bean ragout that was really nice. It had a strong flavor but not any bite of heat, so the fish continued to stand out. Others had pea puree and salads and such. Others can write about the meal better than I can. Oddly, the meal started with a declaration from the waiter: "Welcome to Blacksalt, some consider us one of the top 5 restaurants in DC" or something like that. True? Is that a normal script or just an ad lib that seemed to fit the table? I don't care that it was said per se, just seemed curious.

Believe it or not, it is pretty expensive to go to Buca. I have one a block from my house and while I don't go often, i admit that I do go. As an example, for 4 of us (2 adults, 2 tweens) - 4 sodas, 1 appetizer, 1 main, 1 dessert = about $70 as I recall. Yes, these are bird-bath scaled portions....but a trip to Buca should not be made with the notion of saving money.

I don't think so. It seems to trigger itself. "pho frederick" triggers it. "dumplings frederick" does not. Funny how Google is now selling horizontally and vertically. Before, a company could push their way up the search results for a fee (right?) - now, they can push their way to the left of the black bar. Faintly interestingly, the bar results don't match the vertical page results. Time and money should fix that so the resturaunt with the largest marketing budget is first in both lists.

It's got a good beat and you can dance to it. I give it a 79 on a scale of 35 to 98.

Yeah, I forgot to mention the awesome Moroccan chickpea soup that was a highlight, even on a warm summer day. We chose the place as my wife really likes to keep as vegan as possible while my mother likes her burgers on the rare side. This place pleased them both without being .limiting to either. When I met my wife....I dunno, about 15 years ago....our first date included dinner right across the street at a place that has changed hands a few times. My wife was vegetarian at the time and we've been back to frederick 100 times. How did I miss this place? I swear, I never even knew it existed until I couldn't get a Saturday ressie at Alexander's in Buckeystown. I'll never have the culinary vocabulary that some of you have, so I'll never be able to write specific reviews about how a particular soup compares to a similar one served across the street or around the world. That's not me. I can easily tell, however, when and how a place is focused. What standards they have and how they survive. This seems one of the few places that isn't a chain, does things really well in all areas and thus has survived 25 years on a fair deal that isn't just more Sysco french fries. This is the kind of place that will do a person very well on a tuesday and not break the bank. Those, to me, are the real rarities, and worth a mention.

For me, the trifecta is interesting food, good service and fair pricing. Add in some scenery for bonus points. The Orchard in the middle of downtown Frederick hit the trifecta and then some. The Orchard is Vegetarian and Vegan friendly while offering a pretty wide selection of fish, shrip and chicken dishes. What's neat is that they aren't really tied to a particular food genre like Italian, rather they build their menu generally around fresh vegetables, then around the preparation type. So for instance, you have a few main groups, including Entrees, Salads, Stir-Fries, Sandwiches and Pita Melts. Within the Stir-Fry group you have Indonesian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, etc. The onion ring appetizer was nicely done with thin rings and light batter. It suffered from being not enough for my hungry group of 5. The Monkfish over quinoa special had some spiciness to it and was excellent. We tried 2 Stir-Frys: The Polynesian was blessedly NOT that jarringly sweet; it allowed the vegies to shine through. The Indonesian was very good, maybe I could have added some more of the lime to my taste. My daughter got a chicken dish over brown rice that was also excellent. In all the dishes, the veggies were cooked but not to death. There are times when I understand that lightly cooked vegetables are the ideal; ones with snap. Other times, like here, I like a balance - our brains evolved in part so (and because) we can cook things - and The Orchard does. Service was spot-on, as good as I would expect at the very best restaurants. Nothing missed and an enhancement to the experience. The prices were very nice. We had an 1 app, 2 wines, 3 sodas, 4 meals, 1 soup, 1 salad, 1 kids meal - all for $20 a head pre-tip. Given the level of service and overall food quality, this was a very nice surprise. As for scenery, the inside of the place is just sort of average. The entrance is right in the middle of downdown, across from the tasting room and near Volt. On a late afternoon like we had Saturday, it makes for a really nice walk and downtown experience. The Orchard has been around for 25 years (how did I miss this place until now?!?!) and it shows. They really know their stuff and I look forward to returning.

I have a split personality. No I don't.

OK, thanks. Maybe I didn't see "China Bistro" on the plates at East Dumpling House. Have you been back recently?

BTW - I think there's some connection to "China Bistro" at 755 hungerford drive. Is this an outpost? Has China Bistro closed? I'd swear the plates said China Bistro. Does this have anything to do with Bob's noodles and that bit of confusion?

Chaos best describes a Friday evening meal here. They have seats for about 27 in a space that holds about 20. I wasn't able to move my chair back; i had to slide out sideways to get up from the table. You order at a counter, pay (including tip) then sit and wait for the food to come to the table. My table of 4 was given 4 soy bowls, 3 forks, two chopsticks. The food came out randomly with my bubble tea coming after a few dishes came and went. The dumplings are a good deal on a price/ounce basis - 12 dumplings, two bites each for $7.95 +/-. I can't really comment on the quality, they seemed OK to me but a little more doughy than others I've enjoyed. Sauces for all dumplings are soy and a chili-pepper flake paste. These are the kinds of things that should get better with time, and part of their issue is their popularity (at least as we saw it, with people waiting for tables.) Chaos was the theme - it reminded me of eating in a pizza place on a summer Saturday night on the boardwalk - the staff is scrambling and doing their best. I'd think that take-out might be the better choice, however I saw a guy come in when I did to pick up an order he called in. He left about the same time we wrapped up our sit-down meal, roughly 30 minutes later. I'd like to try them at a less busy period.

There's a really simple solution, just bust out one of these bad boys.

I don't know the answer and my perspective will be as an outsider... Mr. Comfort's example of when to expect a gesture seems to be when a fellow insider appears in another's restaurant without particular reason. In the case of the soft opening, a specific solicitation was sent. Presumably, everybody that night was special in some way, hand picked at the minimum and maybe all insiders of a sort. To that end - I doubt there would be a special consideration for an individual guest on that night. I'd imagine (expect) there would be special consideration for all guests that night, as this is somewhat of the beta launch AND I would presume there's an expection of some suggestions coming back from the guests that would help the restaurant. I've never been to a soft (or hard for that matter opening.) But yes, I'd expect the following: - The possibility of a not-quite-polished experience but a high degree of effort and learning - To see the menu at full prices but be provided a lower price - That I would provide feedback on the experience - I'd expect to be asked and pried for specifics. - That the goal for the restauarant that night isn't profit as much as practice. Maybe it doesn't work that way. That's what I'd do. I would not expect these after offical opening. After that, I'd assume normal industry courtesy customs resume. EDIT: To specifically answer the facebook question "Should I expect to receive a bill?" - yes, BUT - the details of the bill should have been spelled out in the invitation to begin with. (like, "we will provide every menu item at 1/2 price except alcohol..")

My vote for "trite for decades": Giving a restaurant a random name, one not associated with any owner or even a local person, then making the name possesive. Like Applebee's. Note of course that many, many restaurants do this. I dislike the practice and think that in 50 years our successors will thing it was ridiculous...though of course a small cadre of nostalgic offerings will continue the trite trend.

I didn't understand or finish the poem. But I did buy and eat a pineapple* this morning. * the tasty edible parts.

My wife and I had our rehearsal dinner out on that deck about 13 years ago. It was a bit low-brow for a rehearsal dinner and hot as bauls that night - yet I wouldn't do a thing differently. We've been back a few times since; the last trip was on an evening that was in the mid 70s and featured a fabulous sunset over the water. Very memorable and the crabs were up to the scenery. I've been to almost all the houses mentioned in this thread and Waterman's wins for me. BUT...I haven't tried them all. Check out this list: http://www.bluecrab.info/crabhouses.htm It probably overlaps the "crab decks and tiki bars" info above...I just know that the people who run the bluecrab site (and presumably make the recommendations) are crabbers. I like that they give waterfront and dockage info...I wish they had links. Happy picking.

Thoughts: I might disagree with the part where you would ask patrons for emails. (it seems) The owner wanted goodwill and visiblity. Asking for an email suddenly puts a price tag on what was advertised for free...and might wipe away the goodwill for some. Those that attended now know where the restaurant is and they know at least one path to get to the deals (a friend who told them, the chalkboard, facebook connection...whatever) and if they enjoyed their free meal, the liklihood is that they will keep a keen eye for future specials. They'll do so in a way comfortable to them, either passively or actively, through old media or new. I get that asking for emails isn't really a 'cost' to the patrons and that it would be nice to have...but I wouldn't do it. Allow them to leave feeling that the evening was perfect and benevolent. As for it going viral - yeah, social media helps that, but free is free and the real viral are the people that are reached off socal media - the husband that comes along, the coworker that got the tip in the breakroom, etc. I'm not convinced that social media itself is the key to making money - rather it is having an offer that is able to escape social media and reach people once removed. With this kind of deal, are we even sure that the social media helped much? And is 'viral' the right word? I'd expect a decent handful of people to show up to any free deal, and I wonder if the TV media wasn't contacted directly. By having a crowd and having mainstream media report on the crowd, the owner is projecting the image of being "in demand" and thus appealing in a whole different way than just for being free or of high quality. "This is the hotspot in town" is the message, worthy of remembering for your next meal, since you know your neghbors are doing the same thing. I sense that social media was just a small piece of a larger puzzle (great offer, mainstream media presence, worth waiting in line for, super friendly place, come back soon) that all fits together nicely.