Bob Wells

3 hours ago, DPop said:

Great pics.  I feel like these two have really fallen off since basically a year after Top Chef.  I had one really good meal at VOLT, one solid meal at Range, and a great meal at Ink back many years now but everything since has been absolutely middling.  I'll wait to read more reviews before shelling out for this place, the Voltaggios need to earn my trust back..... 😏

They spread themselves way too thin. We tried Family Meal at One Loudoun and it was completely MEH.

25 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

This is an easily avoidable mistake that really is the responsibility of the person placing the order, not the server.  Why try to pin the blame on someone else?  And did Tom more or less tell the poster that the server was at fault too?

I would agree. If there was only one pinot on the list, why would the server even say "The Hirsch"? He'd just say, "The pinot, very good sir." As soon as he said "The Hirsch," the diner should have thought, wait, there's more than one pinot? I better check this out.

Took the fam to John's a little over a year ago. They got cheesesteaks (and I think chicken parm). I got the roast pork. Really good but I'm not sure if the sauteed spinach is as good an ingredient as is broccoli rabe. Hitting DiNic's at RTM next weekend so that will be a good comparison since I expect the pork to be comparably excellent.

I will just throw out some recommended spots from our last visit to Philly (12/17):

Wm. Mulherin's Sons (Fishtown)

Parc (Rittenhouse Sq)

Dim Sum House (UPenn area)

Bakeshop on 20th (Rittenhouse Sq)

Cleavers (Center City)

John's Roast Pork (E. Snyder Ave, funky industrial area)

Dutch Eating Place (RTM)

We are going back next weekend for a family meetup (my brothers are also trenchermen of some repute) and will post some more names (good and bad but hopefully none of the latter).

1 hour ago, Peachyboy1 said:

I've also noticed some toughness of bottom crust recently.  But not all the time.  Couldn't discern a pattern, but eventually decided that life is too short to be eating tough pie crust.  It's a shame, because until then I considered their pies among the best I'd had.  (Randolph's tarts, etc. are excellent, but pies are not their main focus.)  (I got some great pie in Leesburg at Mom's Apple Pie, but I don't get out that way much.)

Mom's is really good. We got a couple for Thanksgiving. You can order in advance or line up until they run out of pies (they bake a ton of pies). 

For the tart variation, hard to beat Arno's.

3 hours ago, DaveO said:

Current article about a local restaurant being on the receiving end of a slew of "faked" facebook reviews that crushed its numerical score:  

Facebook wouldn't do anything.

I've learned that getting help from Facebook on anything is well nigh impossible. I think they made the right move in creating a new FB page and disabling reviews.

5 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

I didn't see - today, I got a large Lemon Chess Pie and a Chicken Pot Pie ($32 each, and worth it). There were a lot of people in there, rolling dough - this place is for real.

---

ETA - They have a Salted Caramel Chocolate Chess Pie. If that sounds evil, they have individual-sizes (which still look fairly ample).

keerist, I just checked the website. Not a huge fan of salted caramel anything, but they also have a "Brown Butter Coconut Chess Pie," which to me has "last meal for a condemned man" potential.

1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

Are others prepared to say these are the best pies in the DC area? I know of none better.

The lemon chess pie may be the best I've ever had.

Ok, you had me at lemon chess. I learned about chess pie from a guy from the Mississippi delta who used to make them for me. Dare I ask if they also have chocolate chess, coconut chess, plain ol chess....?

On 3/2/2019 at 8:52 PM, DonRocks said:

And now you know why this website may not be around a year from now.

Hope that's not the case. DR.com is one of the first sites I go to when I turn on my laptop in the morning. Not sure how I've missed the excellent Takumi thread.

Regarding Yelp, the key is that it's an app. When I am on the go and on my phone, I used mostly apps to conduct business. Yelp to find a restaurant (and it got me to the right place in this case; you don't see people mocking Yelp much these days); Fooducate to find out deets on a new food at Costco; MyFitnessPal to find out the calorie hit for something I'm thinking about ordering, Amazon to get reviews and prices on something like an unusual chocolate bar that I'm considering, etc etc. That's how my world works now.

Since I rarely get to FC these days, I had not heard of Takumi until it came up in a Yelp search this very afternoon.

Lately I've been going mainly for sashimi instead of sushi to minimize my carb intake, so the fish had better be good. Takumi's is excellent. I got scallops, sweet shrimp, enoki mushrooms, a yellowtail, maybe an amberjack, one other delicious fish, and a roe. (See pic) Also got the tuna tartare napoleon app, which turns out to be four canapes instead of a single napoleon. Not exactly what you'd expect but it was quite tasty. (See pic)

Takumi is not cheap, but the fish is top-notch and the vibe is really good.

1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

Hmm, I've seen this quite often (everytime you order an omakase, for example).

Don with all due respect, I think that is different. With omakase, you're trusting the chef to give you his best stuff, but you know generally what the dishes will look like. With a menu like this, you're trusting that the named ingredients, some rather unusual, are put together in a way that you will enjoy, and you have really no idea what you will be getting. There is trust in both situations but in the former it seem to require less of a leap of faith. JMHO.

2 minutes ago, mtureck said:

It's a shame that Spero writes his menus in a way where you really can't tell what you'll be getting...

Agree, for those prices it should not be a matter of entering the Circle of Trust.

13 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Wow. Most people have probably forgotten that there was a Fortune in Reston that closed in 2007 - it was really very good back in the day. Thanks for the info, Jessica!

We liked the Reston Fortune a lot -- the space was just way too big for the non-dim sum hours. Haven't been to the 7Corners one in a while, HKP sort of became our dim-sum go to, not that it was that much better. Oh well, they had a good run.

Interesting thread. The downtown DC area is particularly bereft of interesting b'fast joints. Maybe people just want to get to the office?

Contrast this situation with Maine, which is breakfast heaven (like NM apparently). Not just the foodie city of Portland, but all over the state.

11 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

No, my in laws live in Charlottesville, so we make the trek up and back a lot, and we like to be adventurous and scope things out along the way.  Really it is mostly me saying things like- Why is that weird seafood place always packed, or why would someone eat pizza from a place with spit in it's name.  And then my Hubby says something like, "Let's find out, call for take out," and it's on.  This trip was my Mom and I being hungry, not having the pups, and me saying, "Are you up for an adventure? It may not be good, but it just might be." 

So have you tried Spitony's Pizza yet too? Or what I always refer to as Spit On Me Pizza. 😂

We hit BRS a few years back. Pretty sure the consensus was "better than it should be, but really nothing special."

14 hours ago, Count Bobulescu said:

I read last year that Silver Diner was attempting to move up market, whatever that means in the diner world.

Well in the real world Laurel to Columbia is definitely an up-market move (as is Jessup to Columbia, of course). 😂

Having said that, some of my favorite diners -- the Modern Diner in Pawtucket RI, the Palace Diner in Biddeford ME -- are in far-from-upmarket locales, but the food is outstanding, and with the internet, up-market people will go anywhere for up-market food. 😂

Had lunch at Founding Farmers in Tysons (1800 Tysons Blvd) last week with a friend from Kelly's Bootcamp. We both got simple, protein-heavy dishes -- I got a poke bowl and he got shrimp Louie. The server heard us talking about needing lots of protein so he asked if we wanted extra protein and we both went for it (it's about $6 extra).

My poke bowl was very good and companion loved his shrimp louie. In fact, I plan to go back to try the crab louie (with the extra protein).

It's not what you'd call a cheap lunch -- with the add-on our meals were each about $26 but what the heck, I don't need to eat leftovers every single day.

Not sure how far I'd venture into the massive menu but was more than pleased with the poke bowl (seems to be a popular choice as I noticed several others coming out too)

25 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Just wondering about the Tempura Fried Brussels Sprouts. 🤔

Both the Chef and GM came from Co Co Sala, which was really quite good - the former owner sold his (software) company and became a gazillionaire. Putting a bit of chocolate in each dish is just as feasible as having, for example, a truffle dinner (which always includes truffles, even in desserts), so I suspect Chef Tiptur has the ability to pull this off. The chocolate itself should be subtle, and the true test is in the actual execution of dishes aside from chocolate - I've never been here, but now I'm curious.

Thanks Don -- I never ate at Co Co Sala but loved their chocolates and miss having them downtown. There are enough reviews on Yelp to make me think the place is the real deal.

This place is moving up in the Date Night queue. Anyone been? I've heard nothing but good things.

Got a Date Night reservation at Trummer's for March 8. Anyone been recently and can offer some insight?

3 hours ago, Tweaked said:

New Yorker:  The Family Business That Put Nashville Hot Chicken on the Map

A good read about Prince's in Nashville.

I'll say it's a good read. Sample: "Activities that may not pair well with Nashville hot chicken include a road trip, a long flight, a first date, work, sleep, and your wedding. First-timers have been advised to prepare for hot chicken by putting a roll of toilet paper in the freezer at home."

34 minutes ago, ktmoomau said:

Is this pronounced "Whoa, boy?" Just wondering.  Too bad they don't have banana pudding.

I think it's a great name. It looks Korean (like the proprietor) and could be the sound you make after your first bite.

4 hours ago, buzzy said:

I'm told this is located where The Weiner's Circle used to be in Herndon. 

Heard about this "Hot Chicken" place through friends. Stopped by before work and got 3 Hot Chicken Sandwiches for my coworkers and myself. We all agreed it was the best chicken sandwich we had ever had.

The chicken is at 5 levels. If you order it at a 4 or 5 you have to sign a release. Don't know if that's real or theatre, but I can tell you that a level 2 heat was pretty damn hot. One of my coworkers was sweating. 

The sandwiches are chicken breast, toasted buns, vinegar based slaw and unbelievably tasty pickles. 

If I read correctly, they have Hot Chicken pieces with an emphasis on wings. They also have fried Okra that I'm going to try next time. 

Open weekdays 11am to 7pm. 

So this is Nashville Hot Chicken? Got to try it. On my one and only visit to Nashville, I drove straight from the airport to Prince's Hot Chicken (the inventor). Got there right at opening time, noon on Saturday. A huge crowd formed but the place never opened. No reason given. Closed on Sundays and we left early Monday so I never got to try it. But supposedly you should not order anything above medium hot.

I go back a long way with Warren, or Cookie as I call him. Great guy and great writer!

What a great thread, thanks Don. When I started following baseball in 66-67, the National League was in the middle of a decades-long dominance of All-Star games. And anyone who doesn't think that had to do with the leagues' different levels of acceptance of minority ballplayers is kidding themselves.