LauraB

If you walk over to 7th Street, you've got Jaleo, Oyamel and China Chilcano all between D & E, NW.  They'd all be open at that time.

Fiola has a private room that would hold 14 people.

There is another thread on DR that discusses Greenberg Smoked Turkeys.  After reading that I ordered their smallest bird -- 6 lbs-- and it was delivered pretty quickly.  It arrives fully cooked, so all you have to do is slice it.  I can't tell you how delicious this was.  In fact, I just made turkey broth using the carcass and it was incredible.  Might be something you want to consider.

I had such bad experiences with Uber that I deleted the App from my phone after about 6 months -- this was 3 years ago.  My very first Uber ride I was picked up at Wisconsin & N St with a destination of Logan Circle.  Now, when I drive myself on that route I take P Street, NW all the way to Logan Circle -- it is by far the fastest and most efficient way to get there.  This driver, however, went down to M St, then Pennsylvania Avenue.  I finally asked him, are you following a route that you're required to take?  He said No, he could take any route.  He asked me if he was taking a good route.  I said, "No, not at all."  I had to direct him the rest of the way.  At one point he told me that he was not familiar with this part of town.  I asked him where he lived, assuming he must live in the exurbs.  He told me he lived in Adams Morgan!  In the end, the drive took about 3x as long as it should have and cost me 3x as much as it should have.  I complained to Uber and they did refund me a significant amount.  And, while that experience was not good, my worst experiences with Uber were multiple experiences of having Uber drivers pass right by me on the street -- I'd ordered an Uber and was standing directly in front of the address I had indicated as the pick up location but they were so clueless that they drove right by, never to return.  

Since I lived in a part of DC where finding a regular DC cab was very easy, I abandoned Uber and went back to using DC cabs and the experience is vastly superior, IMO.  

I haven't been to Ghibellina since Jonathan left, but when he was there we were regulars and the pizza was fantastic!

In case this is of interest to anyone besides me, I just received a flyer in the mail from H Mart announcing that the new H Mart in Burke will open next Wednesday, Nov 9th.  I'm hoping they have a good produce section - I would really like to have a reliable source of Thai basil nearby, among many other things! 

On 10/31/2016 at 0:38 PM, TheGut said:

2. Kumamoto Oysters: ginger mignonette, ghost pepper jam, opal basil.

We had the Kumamoto Oysters there about 10 days ago and we really enjoyed them.  I was concerned that the ghost pepper jam might be too overwhelming for the oysters, but it turned out to be a good accompaniment.  The oysters were plump and buttery.  I'd certainly order them again.

EWR

Is anyone familiar with Terminal B (the international terminal) at the Newark Airport?  Any recommendations for a sit-down restaurant there?  

Field & Main, the relatively new restaurant in Marshall, VA, is serving Thanksgiving dinner.  The restaurant is owned and operated by Neal and Star Wavra, formerly the managers of the Ashby Inn.  We had Thanksgiving dinner 3 years in a row at the Ashby while the Wavras were managing and Tarver King was the chef.  Each year it was a pretty magical experience.  Of course, Tarver is not at F&M, but I have to think that the Wavras will provide a special Thanksgiving experience.  

I haven't seen anyone mention the sandwich shop that Neal and Star have opened next to their restaurant, Field & Main, in Marshall.  It's called Riccordino's and is open Thursday through Monday, closed Tuesday and Wednesday.  This may be of interest to dracisk, or frankly, anyone!

1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

There was something specifically mentioned about Mexico and Canada in my Global Entry instruction package, but I don't remember what it was - I only skimmed it. Is this all the special information you need to know about Mexico and Canada relating to Global Entry?

If you travel to Mexico or Canada you need to take your GE card with you in order to return through the GE lane.  You don't need to take your GE card with you to travel anywhere else because your passport has all the GE information.

17 hours ago, robyn said:

That is a very helpful framing, thank you. It's a mixed bag. Some guests are sufficiently gourmand but others decidedly less so. 

In that case, I'd go with Corduroy.  It will be appreciated by the more culinarily sophisticated, while not challenging the less so beyond their limits.  My opinion.

6 minutes ago, robyn said:

Thank you! Unfortunately Kinship can't do it but Métier is an option. Worth the $200?

Who's your target audience?  Are they sufficiently gourmand that they'll appreciate Metier?  Or, will it be lost on them?

On 10/11/2016 at 11:33 AM, robyn said:

Piggybacking on this - I'm looking for something similar for 20 with just a couple of week's notice. Any suggestions? Not too concerned about price point.

Thank you! 

Corduroy.  You can't go wrong with Corduroy.  My husband's company held a private event there a couple of weeks ago and it was perfect in every way.

5 minutes ago, Bob Wells said:

Was totally planning on dinner at IALW, but saw that FHH offers an intimate prix-fixe dinner (one seating at 7 pm, maximum 10 diners) for $89 or $129 with paired wines (pp). That seemed too good to pass up given how spectacular the breakfasts apparently are, so I booked dinner in addition to the room.

I know you're not going til December, but please do let us know how your dinner was.

I third this.  We stayed there in October of 2014 when we went to Staunton to have dinner at The Shack -- it could not have been more convenient for that purpose.  I had low-to-zero expectations going in and they were exceeded substantially.  It turned out to be quite a nice hotel and, I agree with Nola, the breakfast was better than expected and the restaurant was a fairly nice room.  I wouldn't hesitate to stay there again, should I find myself in Staunton.

Yes, we stayed there for one night when we went to Little Washington for dinner at the IALW.  It was quite a number of years ago, so I can't vouch for what it's like today.  I can say that we LOVED everything about the Foster-Harris House.  Our room was lovely and the breakfast we were served was the BEST breakfast we've ever had anywhere!  The couple, John and Diane, who owned and ran the inn were delightful, as was their yellow Lab, Stella. 

Edited to add: I just went to look at their website for the sake of nostalgia and see that they are now serving dinner -- something they were not doing when we stayed there.  If the quality of their dinner is anything like their breakfast, I'd absolutely make it a point to dine there for dinner.

MrB and I made our first visit to Afghan Bistro for lunch today and as we left we were kicking ourselves for not having paid any attention to this place previously -- we live 15 minutes from here!  After seeing so much love for this place, I took the precaution of making a 12:30 reservation and that was a good idea -- when we arrived at 12:20 there were only 2 tables free, one of which was ours.  All tables stayed filled during our time there and there was a steady stream of people coming through the door.  The warmth and friendliness of the owner, Omar, and the rest of the staff made dining here a very pleasant experience.

The food was almost all heavenly.  I will say that I agree with Sietsema's description of the bread: "a cottony baguette, run over by a cement truck."  However, it's worth eating, simply as a vehicle to transport one of the four tasty sauces that are served with it.  We ate 3 of the 4 and each one was delicious and spicy.  The favorite was the light green sauce that resembled the cilantro sauce served at most Indian restaurants, but thicker and spicier.  As an appetizer we ordered the Hot Mazza Assortment and that was a great choice, as it allowed us to sample 4 of their appetizers.  It consisted of: Leek and Scallion Dumplings: this dish was ethereal.  The dumpling itself was so delicate and it was topped with a beef and lentil korma and dressed with a mint and yogurt puree.  This dish is also served as an entree and I would not hesitate to order that on a subsequent visit.  Mantu: Spicy Beef Dumplings: our second favorite on the plate. Topped with carrot and chickpeas korma and dressed with a yogurt garlic sauce, topped with mint and cayenne.  Roasted Eggplant Bouraanee: another great-tasting dish.  My only quibble would be that the eggplant was not peeled and the skin was a bit tougher than I prefer.  Roasted Butternut Squash Bouraanee: this was fine, but not as interesting as the other dishes.  

For entrees, MrB ordered Chicken Luwaan from the specials menu and he loved it -- the sauce was complex with subtle flavor undertones that he found very enjoyable.  It was also a very attractive dish, as evidenced by lonewolfcub's photo of this dish upthread.  My entree was the Qabuli Palou and it was the one major disappointment of the meal.  The dish is described as 'beef shank slowly braised, then baked with basmati rice, topped off with raisins and julienned carrots.'  I found the beef to be quite dry and without much flavor; the rice and carrots were too heavily-flavored with cardamom -- I like cardamom, but there was just too much of it.  Next time, I'd choose an entree from the specials board, or make a meal of several of their fabulous appetizers.  

Afghan Bistro does carryout, but frankly, dining-in at this restaurant is such a pleasant experience that I wouldn't want to shortchange myself on that.  We are so glad to have finally found this gem and we'll be making up for lost time by frequent visits.  

Drift?

MrB and I had lunch on the lovely patio at Chez Billy Sud today and it was very satisfying. I had been there once before for lunch with a friend, in Nov 2014.  At the time, I liked it so much I vowed to return for dinner with MrB.  Well, that never happened.  Fast forward to today.  The whole experience was a little bit of perfection.  Our server, Ahgee (I'm *sure* that's not how her name is spelled, but that's how it's pronounced), was great.  MrB had the Foie de Volaille and the Omelet and found both of them to be perfect.  I had the Cesar Salad which was good, and the Truite Grenoboloise which was perfectly cooked -- a real treat.  If you ever want to pretend that you're in France, this is not a bad place to do it.

The highlight of the meal for me was the white wine I ordered.  I asked our server what was the difference between the two Sauvignon Blancs on the menu (there was a $5 difference in price per glass).  She offered to bring me a taste of both and returned with 3 different tastes -- she included the Chenin Blanc as well.  Well, as it turns out I liked the least expensive of the 3 the most (that never happens).  Actually, I loved it!  It's a French wine: a 2014 Chateau Guirauton Graves sauvignon blanc and it was $10/glass.  Is anyone familiar with this wine?  Do you know if it's locally available?  Thanks for any information you can share.

Finally, this restaurant should be removed from the Multiple Locations directory as the original Chez Billy has closed.

Interestingly, it seems that the Chase Sapphire Reserve card considers travel on Metro and parking in Metro garages to be 'travel'-qualified expenditures and awards 3x the points.  Could be a bonus for people who commute on Metro daily.  (There's got to be some compensation for enduring the misery that is Metro.)

Sadly, it did not count my recent purchase of relatively expensive luggage as worthy of 3x the points.

Also, they have hooks for your handbag under the bar -- always the sign of a class operation, in my mind!

We had a dinner reservation last Saturday for 6:00.  We over-estimated how long it would take to drive in from the burbs, so arrived at 5:30.  We were the first patrons to sit down at the bar and remained the only ones until shortly before 6:00, when 2 others arrived.  As we were leaving, shortly before 8:00, I noticed that there were very few people at the bar -- plenty of open seats.  I can't say what the situation was between 6:00-8:00, but I suspect it was not much different.  Not sure what it would be like on a weeknight, but I don't think they have happy hour, so you're probably likely to get two seats together.

2 hours ago, Genevieve said:

Great, thank you everyone who responded about length of dinner. 

Question: does anyone know how easy it is to get seats at the bar, especially 2 seats together? (I know date and time would factor into that - something came up where tonight might work, and it's too late for a reservation, but we could try for the bar. I'm assuming that early would be better in that case.)

14 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Laura, I might have some bad news for you: It's only the Chase Sapphire RESERVE Visa that awards the 100,000 points for exceeding $4,000. That is actually a step above the "regular" Chase Sapphire Visa, and wasn't even available to apply for until August 22nd. Are you sure *that* is the card you have? I applied on the 22nd, and got my card on the 29th, so it's possible - but I just wanted to make sure.

Sorry, Don.  Yes, we have the RESERVE.  I've edited my post above to reflect this.

5 hours ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

Not sure what's happening here. Across the street is Casa Tequila, a second outpost of Casa Tequila in Purcellville.

Taquila is trending in Springfield-Lorton....Viva Tequila is opening in the Concord Center on Backlick Road across from Mike's, and about 25 feet from Eleni's. There are two or three other Viva Tequila restaurants in the area, but I don't know if they're a national chain, a local chain, or separate mom-and-pops that like the name Viva Tequila.

Springfield already has plenty of mediocre Tex-Mex, from Chuy's at the Mall, to El Paso and La Hacienda in the Backlick corridor, to the deplorable Austin Grill in the Whole Foods plaza at Old Keene Mill and Rolling Rds. 

Back to the topic, I'm sorry to see Fireside Grill close. It was dependable, if unspectacular. Its cousin is Hopsfrog Grill in Burke, which is similarly unspectacular. 

If Viva Tequila is related to Casa Tequila in Lorton, that is not good news.  MrB and I went there for dinner several months ago and it was beyond TERRIBLE.  I no longer remember the details, but I can warn you to just stay away.