bookluvingbabe

Donut prices may be absurd but they are delicious.  Stopped in on our way to the auto train a few weeks back and the two we tried (vanilla for BL-3rd grader (!!!!) and black and white for me) were excellent. 

They should have kept Clippard back in the day.

Max Scherzer and his no decisions are killing me and my fantasy baseball team.

Sigh...

That is all....

For the past month I have been buying a very good Gruner Veltliner from Hungary at TJ's. $5.99. Can't beat it.

Why did I see this after stocking up on wine for my upcoming vacation???

We ended up with soggy pizza in desperate need of salt on Friday night. And despite my best efforts, I couldn't extract the tomato goat cheese tart Don described from my server but it sure looked like it was there when I walked by the bar at the end of the evening. The apps and cheese were lovely but it felt like an echo of the place we treasured a decade ago.

I think I'm in a dining funk.

Google spent a lot of money hiring folks to go inside establishments to do panoramic photos of them.  In theory, you were supposed to ask permission before doing it.  People made thousands and thousands of dollars doing them.  

My in-laws love the place. Love, love, love it.

In the world of bad Rio Center dining, I'd eat at Potbelly before I'd eat there again willingly.

Thanks! Great ideas all around.

Mary, I hadn't planned to pay the extra.  We can't get into our resort until 3 pm so we're going to take our time and head to Deland and the The Old Spanish Sugar Mill --it has been on my list forever.

Isn't it a little early for local corn?  Wed is Foggy Bottom and while I haven't been this year, I don't recall that any of their vendor usually have corn.  

Let's say that someone who is prone to motion sickness and is traveling with an 8 year old who may or may not have the same tendency was planning a trip on the Auto Train and wanted to have a light lunch before boarding.

(You can turn in your car as early as 11:30 am and they start letting passengers aboard at 2:30 PM, the train doesn't depart until 4 pm.)

It looks like Lorton Station is nearby and that Pane E Vino got warm, if mixed, reviews here previously.  Fireside Grill is not open for lunch on our departure day.

Is there anywhere else I should be considering?

Thanks!

Let's not forget that PnR has arisen out of the ashes of what use to be called "MID Pike Plaza"...this is Rockville, plain and simple.  

They have even created made up street names so nothing is even on "Rockville Pike" anymore.

Closed, and has been for a while.  I think Union Jack is in that space now.

The Comus Inn

Yes.  Lovely food, lovely destination. S-L-O-W service.

1789?

Nope.  Not in DC proper.

This is Mr. BLB's entree.

MOM's is carrying it. I thought it had surprisingly good flavor.

Le Diplomate?

Nope.

Saagar closed in 2014, and is now a Jimmy John's.

Firstfield Shopping Center once also contained Peking Cheers, but now has Einstein Bros. Bagels, Jimmy John's, Jerry's Subs, JDS Shanghai Famous, and Starbucks as its restaurant tenants.

It also, very briefly, had a Rita's.  It was sort of carved out of the Jerry's.   The best thing I can say about the shopping center, having not tried JDS yet, is that it has a drive thru Starbucks.  That was such an important thing when BL-2nd grader was a tiny baby.

Where did I dine?

Per Bethesda Magazine:

"Former Food & Wine Co. Chef Working To Rebrand Kentlands Restaurant" by Andrew Metcalf in bethesdamagazine.com

Michael Harr is taking over the dreadful Largent's in the Kentlands and rebranding it as Kentlands Kitchen.

If he succeeds, it would be a welcome boost to the area.

Are you a Reds fan, blb?

Cardinals, born and bred.  But what Dusty Baker did to pitchers, starting with the Giants and then with the Reds makes me shudder.

(Fantasy baseball gets a lot of knocks for creating fans more interested in individual players than in the outcome of the game see: Dream Teams - but for me, I pay much attention to the game beyond the Cardinals because of my fantasy baseball participation.  And I've developed irrational attachments to all sorts of players.  Like Pedro Martinez whom I had for $1 when he was first an Expo...)

That'll do a number on your self-esteem.

He's a starting pitcher for the Reds now.

Now that manager Dusty Baker is gone, being a pitcher on the Reds isn't always the death knell of your career.

We didn't watch last night's game--past our bedtimes--but Mr. BLB has Josh Collmenter (Arizona Diamondbacks) on his fantasy team and I have Max Scherzer on mine.  Only one of us was happy this morning.  (I could have warned him.  I had Collmenter two years ago and didn't keep him but that would have been collusion...)

I'm from St. Louis--to say that NY Pizza and the obsession with it bewilders me is the understatement of the year. But Mr. BLB is a NYer and I have done more detours through various parts of Manhattan in search of that perfect slice for him than any nice girl from the midwest should...

I know I've mentioned that Wiseguy is afew blocks from his office but I don't know if he's tried it. I will have to nudge him to go.

The kid is ordering off the adult menu but yes, it definitely appeals more to him. I think the adults would have prefered a Matchbox.

(Proud mom moment--we walked into Matchbox a few weeks ago and he immediately asks if it is owned by the people who own Ted's.)

Someone (Darkstar?) asked me to elaborate on my Ted's post in Where Did I Dine?

Since it the Gaithersburg branch opened mid-January, I've been twice, Mr. BLB has been twice and BL-2nd grader has been 3 times.

I have ZERO need to go back.  I had the club sandwich the first time and the chicken fried steak the second.  Both times I felt terrible after and the food was generally flavorless.  I also do not get their "pop-tarts" which just seem sad and doughy.

Mr. BLB had a burger on his first visit and the cedar planked salmon on his second.  He was not impressed with his particular burger on his first visit but thought the salmon was quite good on his second.  The allure of the pop-tarts escapes him as well.

And that leads us to BL-2nd grader, who really and truly loves everything about the place.  (Though he likes the food at Coastal Flats better.)  He likes the chairs in the bar area, he likes the pop-tarts, he loves the tv in the middle of the room running cartoons.  (I did speak to a manager on our first visit--A Streetcar Named Desire was playing at lunch time on a snow day.  It didn't seem like a good choice!)  The first two visits he had a club sandwich and then he had the TV Dinner special and truly loved most of it.

I don't know if there was a difference between lunch (my two visits) and dinner (the last, which I missed) but dinner seemed to be a bigger hit.

If it were up to me, and I didn't want to go to Coastal Flats again, I'd be at least trying Paladar and Pour House.

Hmmm, I know Green Pig does meals on trays, but there's are a different color.  I think Ted's Bulletin also does that, so I am going to guess Ted's Bulletin.

Winner, winner, TV Dinner.

(Thursday special at Ted's Bulletin, Gaithersburg-- salisbury steak, mushroom sauce, 3 berry cobbler, creamed corn, green beans and mashed potatoes.  BL-2nd grader ordered it and reportedly liked everything but the green beans and corn.)

This is a great one and I have NO idea what the answer is but am very much intrigued. The mashed potatoes and stewed green beans look atrocious, but I am guessing tasted good. The creamed corn and the shortbread with berries look too damn good to be someplace shabby. And that looks like meatloaf with mushroom gravy, not a combo you would find at a dump.

Also, that looks like a decent wood table underneath. Can you just PM me the answer?

Not meatloaf.  The green beans were reviled by both Mr. BLB and BL-2nd grader.