bonaire

Alas, I've been recruited to go to a BRIDAL EXPO. Shoot me now. Emotionally, if not physically taxing....

I'd be up for doing something like this if there are more opportunities. I started the "novice" running program that synaesthesia recommended today. It was actually fun!

I'm in. I'm using Weight Watchers (it's the only thing that keeps me paying attention to what I eat) and I'm going to try the novice running program that synaesthesia recommended. I hope it's okay to do it on a treadmill!

I'll also do the $10 to SOS for any lb below my goal weight loss. Great idea, Scott.

Okay, let's do it. I'm in. Details tomorrow - feel free to post ideas...

I'm in -- the whole wildebeast look is out. I'm hopping on the fish bandwagon -- I love the stuff but routinely shun it for cow. And dessert is dead to me.

Perhaps we could have a contest of some kind -- biggest loser wins a gift certificate, something like that. I'd chip in. Would have to be on the honor system. A little competition helps, sometimes.

I am going on *blush* a BLIND DATE tomorrow. The venue, not picked by me, was Zengo, near MCI. I was wondering if anyone had been and had cocktail, food or wine recommendations.

The only DonRocks stuff on the place is a review of Sandoval's other restaurant in Las Vegas. There's basically no info on Zengo. If you've been and can tell me about it (and maybe suggest some swanky but intimate lounges or venues in the vicinity for post-dinner drinks), I'd really appreciate it!

Cheers,

Doctor No

Lunch was $171 for two, including two appetizers, two entrees, two sides, one ice tea, two coffees, tax, and tip. I find this comparable to the amount typically spent on a lunch of this type for three people. I was not convinced that this was worth the extra money.

One more item -- they have a bunch of tables in the bar area (separated from the regular dining room by a small wall) but I was told that was for dining room customers, not bar patrons. They have very comfortable bar stools, but they're limited. I hate standing in a bar -- I hope they think about opening some of those tables up to bar patrons at some point.

My father got me this book for Christmas, and I read it in two days. Some observations:

1. The author is crazy. How his wife put up with his meanderings is beyond me. However, I fully expect someone to put up with me in the same manner. So there.

2. Batali is even crazier. I'm 31 and incredibly depressed knowing I could never keep up with a man 10(?) years older than me and double my size. The amount of wine he consumes is insane.

3. The butcher guy is the craziest of them all. I'm wondering if there's a food industry theme here.

Great book, easy read, interesting insight into the restaurant scene (found those parts to be my favorites). I agree with another poster though -- I've not got any real desire to try Babbo now -- the mystique is gone (then again, I'm the only person on earth who didn't like Esca). Wish I had been able to try Po, though.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Anne

Went back to BLT with the family today for a quick lunch at the bar. Oddly, we stuck to seafood. One of their specials today was a tuna melt -- diced ahi tuna with a mustard/mayo dressing, topped with gruyere cheese. Was quite good -- not overly sauced, fresh tuna --, although a little difficult to eat -- was kind of hard to cut through the bread. Two of us also had the tuna tartare, which I really am beginning to crave now on occasion. The soy-lime sauce is perfect -- not overly salty and has just enough wasabi in it to give it a kick. The potato crisps (I think they're potato) that the tuna comes with are a little too delicate to hold the tuna, though, so I've been just crushing them up and adding them to the mix.

One item I don't think I'll order again is the parmesan gnocchi. They're a side dish. They come in a small cast iron pan and they are COVERED with parmesan cheese. And when I say covered, I mean there is at least a cup and a half of freshly shaved parmesan cheese on top of this little cast iron pan. I had to scoop the majority of it off, and even then, it was too much -- you had no idea that you were eating gnocchi. Literally, the tower of parmesan was as high as my glass of pop. It felt like the gnocchi had a good texture -- I just couldn't tell under the Mt. Everest of parmesan! My dad and his wife loved their side of hen of the woods -- they were gone before my sister and I could get our hands on any!

The service was excellent -- we had a bartender named Karen who was fantastic about explaining the menu, the wine list, etc. I'll definitely start heading here more often -- a popover and the tuna tartare can be a meal unto itself.

Oh, one last item -- I started with the lump crab cocktail. Maryland crab with a yummy dijon mustard sauce of some kind. Tart without overwhelming the taste of the crab.

Will work my way through the beef next time!

Went to Stoney's on Thursday night w/ my Dad, who's here for the holidays. My Dad and his friend David were regulars at the old Stoney's -- in fact, they introduced me to the place. Nothing better than a night of hookers/trannies/cops and Secret Service agents, they'd say. For both David and my Dad, this was their first time to the new Stoney's. I can't tell you how many emails went back and forth as they anticipated the date.

Their initial thoughts:

1. They desperately wanted to pour food/beer on the floor to make it like the old place.

2. They liked the new waitstaff (particularly the good-looking girls), although they did ask to be abused a bit more.

3. They miss the potato skins and marveled at the calamari.

We had a long talk with Tony, who seemed pleased about the crowd the new place was commanding. He didn't seem as enthused as my Dad was about dirtying up the place, though.

For my Dad and David, both of who are getting a tad bit "older", they struggled with the noise of the new place. They say they'll be back, but maybe not at peak hours (they used to sit at the old Stoneys for hours and hours and hours, coming home whenever finally kicked out).

I still love the grilled cheese and am always happy to have it. Thrilled they take credit cards now, too.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Stoney's will be open Christmas Day. Thank god -- I won't be stuck at Harry's again getting hammered with the self-professed "mini-burger king of DC".

Happy Holidays to all!

Washingtonian came out in the December issue with the "top 100 restaurants". Michael gets two mentions, RJ Cooper (along with Cathal and a slew of others is on the cover). My favorite Korean restaurant made the list at #100...Gom Ba Woo. Lots of interesting reading. You might want to pick it up just to see if you agree or disagree with the selections.

Congrats Michael, WELL deserved!

At the risk of turning this into the "Let's give Michael L. a pat on the back" thread...Congratulations Michael. A well deserved award...and to RJ Cooper, congratulations as well.

I'm back to having to log-in each time again. Using IE 6.0 (I know, I know). Not a terribly huge problem, but wanted you to be aware of it.

How do you know what FOH is if you are not in the biz?

Went to BLT last night. I was part of a group dinner, so I didn't get the full experience (service, etc), but wanted to comment on a few menu items. Our group dinner was family style (for those who may do a group dinner in the future) and it was a good way to get to taste a lot of items.

First, the bread they served was huge asiago cheese popovers. They were fantastic. Highlight of my night, in fact. I assume they're part of the regular menu as I think I saw a few people with them in the main dining room. The cheese flavor was very light, and the inside of the popover was a great warm, slightly chewy bread. The crusty outside was great too -- still very tasty, and not too hard or tasteless.

For appetizers, I tasted the caesar salad (not too overloaded with dressing but nothing that truly wowed me) and the tuna tartare (absolutely delicious, high grade tuna and some wasabi-infused soy sauce).

For dinner, they offered steak, lamb and swordfish. I barely touched these, as I was so stuffed from the popover and appetizers and I knew I had to prepare for dessert. I'll check it out next time, though.

Dessert was a blueberry lemon meringue, a peanut butter mousse with chocolate top and carrot cake. Each had an ice cream associated with it with a complementary flavor (lemon, banana and ginger, I believe).

The peanut butter was my favorite but it is SERIOUSLY rich and I'm not sure I could finish a whole dessert there. The ice cream is a necessity just to cut the richness a bit. The blueberry lemon meringue was great, very tart, and had homemade marshmallows on top. It might need a touch of sweetness just so as to not overwhelm you with pucker. I didn't try the carrot cake, but it looked fantastic and was not your typical carrot cake -- no heavy icing and it was sitting in a puddle of some sort of sauce.

Overall, very good food. I'd go just for the popovers and tuna tartare. I'll need to try to steak next time (duh).

One more thing -- the front of the house was in a flurry because Sietsema was apparently there last night. One of the FOH folks pointed him out to me (I'm not in the biz so I have no clue). Totally NOT what I expected.

Seared scallops at Gerard's Place (before Gerard departed)

The individual apple pies at Blue Duck Tavern

And, thank god, the resurrected grilled cheese at Stoneys!

I may be in if the visiting parents have plans that day. Will keep you posted. Just keep me away from the grappa...Great choice for a location!

I'll echo the Weight Watchers comments -- it's great for portion control, which I'm miserable at.

I also hate hate hate going to the gym. So I'm better with a workout partner, and I love classes (and same goes for running). I belong to both Vida and WSC. Sometimes having someone to go with you forces you to show up. If any DR.com members ever want to join up, just PM me!

Joe H said:

Leaving Coldstone I would exhibit tears and worthlessness from the wasted calories I sacrificed on plebian ice cream. Leaving my house and my hand cranked machine I would also have tears-from the bliss and delirious, yes the glorious satisfaction of a frozen dessert that someone addicted to Coldstone will never know in their lifetime....

Hey -- I'm sure this may be a "food fight" in the making, but I just want to say, to each his own, right? Just because someone enjoys one flavor/texture/etc more than another doesn't make them wrong. Your post is awfully absolutist and maybe a little mean. Everyone has their guilty pleasures -- for some people it's probably Velveeta or Spam or Marshmallow Fluff (in fact, isn't there a topic on this somewhere?). Crabbing on someone for having what you consider less sophisticated taste kind of defeats the purpose of the board, IMHO. Isn't it supposed to be about all food, not who has the best taste in it?!

Full Disclosure -- I love Coldstone Cake Batter ice cream. And yes, it's better than some of the super fancy-dancy desserts you can get in some restaurants in town. And not as good as others. It's always just a matter of what I feel like that night!

Looks like we're close to opening day. Walked by (twice) this evening. The paper's down off of the windows and the interior looks finished. Stoney's is green! Tables are set up and the bar seems fully stocked. Although there were people inside, it didn't look open when a young guy tried to open the door.

I think this new location has dive potential. Yes, it's across from Whole Foods, and it's a bit brightly lit now for my taste, but a few good months of spilled beer and built up grease should give it the "charm" it needs.

I'm going by again tomorrow to see if they'll let me in. Will post back!

Closed?!?! Where will I get more ceramic parrots/monkeys/tiki women to decorate my home? What a deal -- a $13 drink full of sugar AND a ceramic animal! I'm not sure I'll be the same now....

I used to eat at Marathon when I went to school in CP. It was a nice break from dining hall food and the Cluck U I'd order at 4 am. Plus, when most of your $$ are spent on booze, it was relatively cheap for a gyro meal.

I don't know how their restaurant review system works. They list a place called "Harry's" (which I initially thought might be part of the Sam & Harry's regime) which is in the Hotel Harrington. They give it 4 1/2 stars out of five.

Just had lunch at the Blue Duck Tavern -- my first time there. I won't go into too many details because many of them echo what's above. I will say that the scallops were fabulous, and the glazed carrots we got with them were wonderful -- still some crispness to them and not overwhelmed with sugary sweet.

Also loved the desserts -- the way the ice cream is presented is pretty neat and we had a gingerbread ice cream that was yummy. Very gingerbready with a touch of something else I couldn't quite put my finger on. We also split the individually sized apple pie -- this was the highlight of the meal. The crust is flaky without tasting stale and it has delicious bits of caramel and cinnamon on top. I loved it.

Service was wonderful. We had Zack (I believe) and he was great -- had good suggestions, was very pleasant and put up with our discussion about whether the Wahlberg brothers have matured into serious actors.

Definitely try the apple pie if you go....

Wow. Just.....wow.

I am going on *blush* a BLIND DATE tomorrow. The venue, not picked by me, was Zengo, near MCI. I was wondering if anyone had been and had cocktail, food or wine recommendations.

The only DonRocks stuff on the place is a review of Sandoval's other restaurant in Las Vegas. There's basically no info on Zengo. If you've been and can tell me about it (and maybe suggest some swanky but intimate lounges or venues in the vicinity for post-dinner drinks), I'd really appreciate it!

Cheers,

Doctor No

I've eaten at Zengo a few times -- it's close to my office. While I'm not so keen on the explanation of the concept given by the waitstaff at the beginning of the meal (it's just weird), there are some items I like.

-- Angry Zengo Roll - dumb name, decent sushi

-- Edammame XO style -- I like the spices on this stuff

-- Won Ton tacos -- pretty yummy, been too long for me to have any real commentary

-- Empanadas -- a little mushy, but tasty

I've always just stuck with the appetizer type foods -- good for sharing, none of the larger plates really sounded great to me. Have fun on your date!!

ETA -- If it's not cold out and you can walk down to Rasika, I'm partial to their bar for drinks. It's not pretentious but has some great neat drinks and cozy vibe.