DrXmus

I don't think "coming in the next 20 minutes" means what you think it means.

Yours for Good Fermentables Blog For those, including me, griping about a lack of high quality beer at Public House No. 7, they'll be tapping a cask of Heavy Seas Loose Cannon tomorrow night. It ain't cheap, but you get a glass (and maybe all you can drink?). See the fine print on the blog post above.

Ooof...rough night tonight at Orso. We arrived about 7:30 and the place was hopping, but not totally full. The meal started off poorly by having to wait for way too long for anyone from the waitstaff to approach us. Mrs. DrXmus flagged down a waiter, Tim, who said that he was responsible for the parallel area but that he'd take care of us. Things got a little better when we learned the guest tap was Southern Tier IPA, which was delicious. We had the bruschetta special, which was also very good. We love the bread at Orso and the char from the grill is really tasty. The special this weekend featured a couple of thick slices of bread covered with warm ricotta infused with lemon zest and topped with fried artichokes. Good stuff. We've always gotten the Suppli de Telephono and tonight was no different. Unfortunately, it was not the quality that we've grown accustomed to. Where the rice used to be cooked with tomato water to give it a hint of tomato, it's now cooked with either tomato sauce or pureed tomatoes, so the entire dish tastes more like tomato than rice and mozzarella. We couldn't even finish them. We each had one and took the other three home for the compost pile. The Diavolo pizze was great. The crust seemed a little thicker than before, but well-charred and the texture was just right. I'm sure we'll be back because it's relatively close and mostly good, but I'd hate to see our favorite suppli dish be off our menu. I keep hoping for the service to get more consistent, but I've given up on that.

I don't know if these things are stocked here, but Pure Pasty in Vienna sells hard to find British specialties. I'm sure you can call non-lunch rush and ask. It's closed on Monday, BTW.

My back is sore and my legs and hands are tired after 2.5 hours of straining over 50 gallons of cooked raspberries, but my heart feels warm. Mrs. DrXmus and I are happy that we went and thanks to DanielK for organizing. We're definitely in for most Thursday volunteer nights. Thanks, too, to ChaoFun for helping knock out the last of the raspberries, and for the tip to wear a hat so I don't have to wear a hair net next time. Good to know. Great time tonight.

What these people need is a web site to go to or a person to call who knows the restaurants around here, who understands the dining scene and the region, who can offer restaurants to visit based on location/price/cuisine/chef/etc. Maybe this person could run a well-respected web forum, perhaps even call it something eponymous. O, where could someone go for something like that!?

Cold Water in the Bathrooms Tom, I eat out a lot and I am running into a problem. It seems about half the restaurants I go to don't have hot water in their bathrooms. And it's all types of restaurants too, fast food to high end. Is this sanitary? The employees use those same bathrooms and wash their hands in them. We won't even go into missing soap dispensers and other issues. What's the likelihood that these restaurants *really* don't have hot water in the bathroom? Aren't restaurants shut down for not having hot water? I admit that I wash my hands in cold water often in restaurant bathrooms, but I assume it's not hot because I'm not running a gallon of hot water to warm the pipes like I have to do at home. I do hate the fancy motion-sensor faucets because of this reason. The water's always freezing because hot water never actually makes it to the faucet. I just try really, really hard not to pee on myself.

A group of us dined here last night. I have to say it was a rough start, but overall the general consensus was that it was a good meal. Our reservation was for 7:30 and we were seated promptly. The place is very small, but it was full and the 2 waiters and Joey were in the weeds. We sat for way too long before Joey took our drink orders and told us about the specials, but service got much better as the meal went on. The room is very loud when all tables are full and it hard to even hear the person sitting next to you. The beer selection is great with a range of beers from gluten-free, to wheat, to hoppy, to Singaporean and several in between. With their focus on local producers, I hope they'll get more local brews like Blue Mountain and Port City and DC Brau (once the last 2 start bottling and distributing). They had Starr Hill and Heavy Seas in stock locally last night. One of the specials was a salsify soup which was thick, smoky and delicious. The beet salad with local chevre was very good with a bright vinaigrette that raised the dish. I heard that the chicken sandwich and the pulled port BBQ sandwich were fantastic. My Moroccan chicken dish was very good - boneless thighs (menu said "leg") with a crust of interesting spices plus a soup and cucumber/onion/cherry tomato salad. No complaints here. I'd get it again. One tablemate had the sous vide duck leg confit with fingerling potatoes. While the meat was a little salty, the texture and flavor were phenomenal and the salt wasn't enough to keep one from enjoying it. If I were to complain, I'd say I got a lot more food than she did. The funnel cake, as always is good and is a great conversation piece because it never fails to bring up stories of carnivals and fairs and street festivals from everyone's childhood. The peanut butter brownie was warm and very good. Personally, I prefer a fudgier brownie, but I enjoyed it very much. I'll agree with others that it's a good place to go, but nothing about it drives us back. All of us agreed it was better than Bazin's on Church, which we've given several tries. Price-wise it's probably about the same.

I'm just trying to be funny (poorly, admittedly). I actually buy my Hendrick's and Plymouth at ABC stores. I just bought Bluecoat, an American Dry Gin made in Philly, at a Fairfax ABC store. Pretty bottle but it's not a gin I need to keep on hand. When I feel like rum-running, I'll head into DC to Ace and bring liquor back across state lines. Hopefully, the feds can't trace my avatar here.

DC, hell, go to VA to hit an ABC store. There, within those hallowed walls, you can get Gilbey's AND...wait for it...Beefeater's!!! I know, right!? Amazing!!!

SWMBO and I would like to join the group for the first time this month. Please count us in. Should we eat first (especially if Mrs. DrX is a picky eater)?

If you're looking for something less upscale than Villa Mozart (which is excellent) and you're in the mood for Indian, I recommend Bombay Garden in Fairfax City on University Drive.

Absolutely no doubt about that, Don. Unfortunately, we'll only get to hear the one side that's allowed to talk. The "winner" gets to write history, right? I'm sure MacQuaid will pop up somewhere soon, I just hope it's as close to my house as Orso.

Thanks for the note. I was kinda wondering whether the press release was restaurant-speak for "you weren't doing the job we wanted to you do as well as we thought you'd be able to do it."

I'd agree with "Carlito" if the name were "Chuckie E. Cheese". I'm going to stick with Carlo for "Chuck". I can't be swayed!

I'm not trying to start a war, here, but I'm simply curious...how did you see "this" coming? The split was due to management differences, if we can believe the press release, not quality of pizze, soupy or not, etc. I certainly didn't see it coming, I won't lie. I'm disappointed to say the least. The place is already a kid-fest and if it becomes a Neapolitan Carlo E. Formaggio, I'll be avoiding it like the plague. I won't boycott Orso because I like the food, but I'll be weary of changes being made.

Boston Cream Pie - from Cook's Illustrated. It was a fair bit of work, but mostly in the planning. You have to let the pastry cream sit for 2-24 hours and the pie, once made, needs to be refrigerated for at least 3 hours before cutting. It was a definite success, though. Scrumptious. Interesting pastry cream...different than typical, but great for the pie.

Agreed. In my humble opinion, it's their best beer, by far. I like some of their other offerings, but the Two-hearted is "pure gold."

I accidentally made a cocktail I'm calling "The Penultimate Word". My plan was to make a Last Word but grabbed the yellow chartreuse instead of the green. It was actually very good, but not exactly what I wanted. It's a good drink for a person who likes some herbal funk, but not too much. The yellow chartreuse made the drink sweeter than I wanted, but it was very drinkable. It'll be a good starter cocktail for some. Equal parts of gin (I used Plymouth), yellow chartreuse, lime juice and maraschino liqueur. Please credit me if you make it a new "classic" :-)

We make an annual trip to DiBaggio's to pick up herbs and veggies. Tom hasn't been there for years, but his son's doing well keeping the quality consistent. My heart goes out to the DiBaggio family, although I know Tom's been sick for many years. Perhaps it's a blessing.

Last summer we found that Simple Green was an amazing anti-ant treatment. They die within seconds and the scent trails are ruined for a while (more than just a couple of days). Of course, eventually they come back, but the Simple Green isn't far away. I kinda like the smell, too, so I'm happy to clean the kitchen with it. Please note I don't recommend using Soylent Green...it's people, y'know.

Our oven has been out of service for over a month. Pizza was the inaugural baked dish...and it was scrumptious.

Apparently, we made the mistake of trying to take a group of 6 of us to Public House No. 7 on Sat. night when the Beatles cover band was scheduled. The pub area was packed with people, including a middle aged lady trying to reserve the only sofa and associated tables for her group for over 45 minutes while we waited for our table. She got upset that we were crowding her and using the nearby empty chairs (which she thought were hers) for a couple of coats and the empty tables nearby (which she also thought were hers) for our beers . The food was just "meh". The fish and chips were OK but the fish was much more batter than fish. The chips were flavorful and "potato-y", but got dinged by some in our group for not being crispy. As a table we got the gamut from the menu - fish and chips, chicken curry, fish sandwich, chicken voule a vent, roast beef, bangers and mash - but no one from the table raved about their meal. As a whole, I can see going back for the pub area, but not for the restaurant. They had a couple of dart lanes, which I appreciate. The beer list has gotten better since they opened and the Fullers ESB was excellent. Their British bottled selection is reasonable, too. There are a few large HD TVs tuned into futbol and English Premier League highlights. If they're open for early AM Championship League games, I can see going for the atmosphere. I can also see going for happy hour, but scramming before the dinner rush/wait hits. Addendum: Apparently, I enjoyed too many Fuller's ESBs and I left my credit card at the restaurant. I realized it this AM and called after their brunch rush (hopefully). They have it and are holding it for me. Extra credit for taking good care of a stupid customer.

Don't keep it to yourself!

In Vienna, Cenan's Bakery is a Mom and Pop (well, really just "Pop") bakery that makes a pretty good baguette.