pras

6 hours ago, ElGuapo said:

Oriental East is closing September 30:

https://www.sourceofthespring.com/oriental-east-restaurant-will-close-sept-30/

It is with a heavy heart that I read this.  This is my original growing up hood.  Spent many a meal there, takeout or eating there.  That is my original Giant in the parking lot.  Oh the memories.

On 8/15/2017 at 1:56 PM, Simul Parikh said:

Truth to that... lot of silly business, and that's just because they can. People forgetting to stick to the roots, and just making great versions of great products. But, a low ABV sour IPA .. it tastes kinda refreshing in the backyard on a hot DC day, right?

I think the new big trend is the Hazy IPA, that's soft and dank. It's a trend I can get behind. Veil in Richmond and Dancing Gnome in Pittsburgh have great versions. Wonder who will mainstream it first. 

Hazy IPA is tough to mainstream because freshness is very important for the style.

13 hours ago, lion said:

Ah thanks for the info! I think years ago when I first started drinking 120, a couple of the Dogfish locations said they only got a couple of kegs and they went fast. 

According to their production schedule, they are making it twice a year now--April-May and November-December.  They have also dramatically increased production, so it is likely much more available.

On 8/9/2017 at 6:46 PM, lion said:

My current favorite beer. At the moment have three in the fridge for special occasions. Would love to be able to try it on tap some place, if you ever see a place locally TedE please post!

I do think it's taste does change after three years, optimal drinking time ~1-2 years.

It's regularly available at the local Dogfish Head Ale House locations.

Earlier this month, Flying Dog Brewery withdrew their membership in the Brewers Association.  This is on the heels of the Brewers Association recent prohibition/suggestions that breweries refrain from issuing marketing that is “sexually explicit, lewd, or demeaning brand names, language, text, graphics, photos, video, or other images.”

It will be interesting to see if anyone else follows suit.  Prior to Flying Dog's withdrawal, I had the opportunity to ask Jim Caruso, FD's CEO what he thought about the change.  He totally went off and became animated.  I certainly struck a cord with my question.  Jim and Flying Dog sued the Michigan Alcohol Board (and ultimately won) when Raging Bitch, their very good Belgian style IPA was banned from sale in the state.

On 7/22/2017 at 9:01 AM, DaRiv18 said:

[The first 9 posts in this thread were originally responses to this Little Serow post, but the topic has become expansive and interesting enough where it merits its own thread. Cheers, DR]

Lol, a bit of a random question.  Which I welcome!  I would be shocked if there isn't a nearby liquor store in Dupont Circle, for cryin' out loud.  That said, I would be also somewhat shocked if they also sold "single serves" of beers, which many ANCs pushed to restrict, since it often leads to unregulated "outside bars" of people just loitering and drinking them on the street.  Of course, now if they are craft fancy beers, they seem to find a way.  So, good luck on "a can or bottle."  I would love to hear about your motivation.

My most expensive (volume wise) beer purchase was a single bottle of Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Calvados Edition, sourced from Connecticut Avenue Wine and Spirits.  A stout brewed with Kopi Luwak (civet coffee) and aged in calvados barrels.  

Exciting news to report.  They have opened their second location which is located in Rockville--804 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, MD 20850 (former Banner Glass location, which is slightly offset from the road), 301-417-8628.  Thy Rockville location has a much larger capacity which will produce bread and pastries to be sold on premises and also service their growing commercial business.  Items sold in Bethesda will still be made on site at the Bethesda location.  Are third location in Georgetown is in the works also.

At the end of a day trip to Philly to visit the Please Touch Museum, we stopped by the Art Museum to do our best Rocky impersonations.  We asked our daughter what she wanted for dinner and her response was "hamburger".  After a quick search, I found Spot Gourmet Burgers, which is located at 2821 W Girard Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19130, phone: (267) 930-7370.  It was highly rated online so not knowing any better, after a slight detour for what we thought was a Mister Softie truck, which turned out to be Mr. Softie's evil twin brother Mr. Frostie, we plugged the address in to the navigation and headed to our destination.

This place is a definite dive, with almost zero ambiance, and broken or non-existent ac.  We had low expectations.  We were pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  My daughter had three mini burgers, which were made from fresh ground beef served on potato rolls and were very tasty.  My wife had some sort of veggie burger combination which looked amazing.  She loved it, the provolone was high quality and I am guessing aged, because it actually tasted like provolone.  She dispatched the entire thing at a rapid rate.  I had a chicken cheeseteak (please don't judge) with provolone and grilled onions.  The chicken was chopped breast meat, and not of the steakum variety.  Again, the cheese had great flavor.  All in all, it was a very pleasant experience, which we did not expect based upon first impressions.

Mazel Tov!

6 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

 I had to be at court in the morning, then back at the office to draft some stuff and meet with my mentee in the afternoon, and we had company coming in that evening, and really no time to do much, but the Fairfax Wegman's isn't far from the courthouse, so I picked up a Danny's favorite sub to eat for lunch because I was starving (although I ordered too big a size, but ate the rest later, when they say large, they mean more than a footlong, and they are wider than a subway sub, so it was way bigger than needed), ultimate chocolate cake for a friend's birthday, more cannoli dip (which was again a huge hit), angel food cake for another event we had, strawberries and some feta cheese for the coleslaw I was making.  I got in and out of there in 30 minutes, which is a miracle for me.  

Back in my college days at Syracuse, I used to hit up the Dewitt NY location very frequently.  A large sub would be purchased on every trip and amounted to a full days worth of meals.  The secret to their subs is in the bread, which rumor has it is the result of Danny Wegman purchasing DiBella's sub shop in Rochester solely for the bread recipe. Although the  linked article doesn't fully corroborate this lore, it also doesn't fully discount it either.

5 minutes ago, iolaire said:

Thanks is it part of the seafood road show? Where in the store is it?

Not sure about Pentagon City, but in Gaithersburg, it is with the in-house prepared foods.

3 hours ago, iolaire said:

Has anyone see poke at the close in VA Costco's?  We check when we go to Pentagon City and others but have not seen it.

I think I have seen it at Pentagon City, but is is typically only available on the weekends.

The Brewers Association has released a "independent" certification symbol to be added to beer labels.  IMO, breweries should focus on producing good beer and not symbols, but what do I know?

My childhood summer camp - Camp Ramblewood, located on the Susquehanna River, housed what is reported to be the final stop of the underground railroad before reaching the North.  Ramblewood is no longer a summer camp for children, but is a for rent "rustic" retreat center.

I stopped by over the weekend for a farm tour and really remembered how much I like their ice cream.  The tour was very informative.  It is clear that they are proud of their operation and the level of quality they produce and how they treat their staff and animals.  Of particularly interesting note, they said that the brown cows (which do not produce chocolate milk despite much public belief) are Jersey cows and are known for producing higher butterfat content in their milk.  SMC is increasing their herd to have more Jersey cows for this reason.

1 minute ago, Al Dente said:

Rumors always swirl around these things. I heard donrockwell.com is thinking of buying Yelp.

I heard he is going to buy Amazon.

6 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

Or not.

It's all very interesting.  Another article I read said that Amazon may also be interested in purchasing Costco.

2 hours ago, JBag57 said:

I was there earlier this week getting a carry out order.  I have only ever gotten the Chicken Tandoori kabab, and the one from the other night was as good or better than ever.

I hope you are taking into account that Ramadan does not end until, I believe, Saturday.  I went at 10:30 p.m. (they close at 11:00 during the week), and the place was slammed, with several additional parties waiting to be seated.

I did not take Ramadan into account.  I was going to head there at normal dinner time tonight (7:30).  Is that a mistake?

Walmart may enter into a bidding war with Amazon.

I am planning on heading here tonight.  Has anyone been recently?  Is it still holding up?  I haven't had a chance to read the whole thread, but are there any must-haves, or anything to stay away from?

16 minutes ago, astrid said:

Inferno Pizzeria would fit both bills.  It had arguably the best pizza in DC at this moment and the rest of the menu is just as strong.  Tony Conte uses really great ingredients and treats them very well. 

Plus 1 for inferno.  Plus 1 for Yuraku.

1 hour ago, Simul Parikh said:

Adjacent to Gaithersburg, Yu Zhou Cafe in Germantown is good. Sichuan-ish. 

Yu Zhou is actually in Gaithersburg behind the fair grounds--576 N Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

If you are ever in the area for breakfast or lunch, you must try Gazebo.  The food is good, the staff is very pleasant and they really want to make sure you have a good meal.

More coverage of the two closings as reported by Bethesda Magazine.

I tried the Bethesda location on Friday.  I got a base of noodles and purple rice.  My protein choice was spicy chicken. This was followed by a bunch of toppings, I went with the more traditional choices (I wish I had taken a picture or had some memory of what went in).  After toppings, you choose a dressing.  I went traditional with gochujang (sp?).  Funny thing was that as I watched the bowl move down the line someone came up behind me and told the lady behind the counter to add more corn.  I told him it was my bowl, then when I looked up it was the manager or some sort of corporate guy.  Miso soup is free and self serve.  If you want a side of kimchi, you have to pay, but the bowl by itself was under 8 dollars, which I thought was a good value.

The flavors were all surprisingly really good, it seemed pretty healthy except for the carbs.  I would probably go back, but only if the line for cava is out the door.