DrXmus

Two bottles of Campari and a small sweet M&R vermouth were my only Black Friday purchases.

Pomodoro needs to be on your list. We used to like Cantina D'Italia in FairLakes. Not great, but good. Oh, and 100 Degree for (apparently) good Chinese food. I haven't been, but there are many raves on DR --- 100 Degree Chinese Cuisine (Bob Wells)

I dont remember eating off campus that much, so Nicks wasn't on my list of commonly-visited joints. I feel like I've missed a huge opportunity, but I can't say I recall having the fried mushrooms at Nick's. Yet another thing I should've done in college, but didn't. (Had a girlfriend back home all through college...stupid, stupid)

They have one of the best chicken cheese steaks in the area, IMHO. We go at least monthly, on average.

Wow, awesome catered lunch from ABC Canteen today!! Tamales, salad, dressing, tortilla chips with queso, selection of sauces, radish, jalapeí±o, pico, cilantro. The few fried fish pieces didn't last long, but they were great. I was most impressed with how well the tacos traveled. The tortillas were warm and supple long after sitting around for a bit. I LOVED the way the taco fillings were sent. Each meat (chorizo, chicken, barbacoa) were in little single-serving plastic containers, so you grabbed a tortilla, added some sauce, a little pico de gallo, a hit of cilantro and jalapeí±o and a cup of meat to put together later. Great system! Don't hesitate to use ABC Canteen for a catered event. They pulled it off with aplomb!

Don't most of those types of liquors form a louche? They contains oils which aren't miscible with water, so the solution turns cloudy. Surprisingly, not all absinthes are high enough quality to generate the louche.

Awesome!! If she didn't order hushpuppies and you think they'll travel, please add three orders!

Wes, my practice manager is going to call to ask if you can give us food to pick up for a group of about 15-20 on Monday. Can you do such a thing? I'd love a good lunch on a work day!!

I can't ever imagine a time McD's will be in its "final days". It's guess everything comes to an end, but I don't think it's any time soon. I can see they're struggling, though..."breakfast all day"?

I've smoked some pretty fine ex-frozen turkeys and breasts. I'm curious what your concern is? Is the skin better?

The issues isn't whether the condo retains value, it's that the people buying are possibly using more of their income than they should be to be able to afford meals out and occasional extravagances, which seem to be what most stores in Mosaic are selling.

Posts at 1:29a tend to be like this. I wasn't sure where to post this, but I guess I'll put it in this here, rather than the Dining in Merrifield thread. Last Thursday, I checked open Table for reservations nearby on Saturday at 7. It's prime time, I'm thinking, and I didn't expect many options. To my surprise, almost every restaurant in Merrifield and Vienna (including Maple Ave) had openings if not at 7, then 15 minutes before or after. We ended up eating at DGS Delicatessen (meh) and there were open tables through our entire meal.

My concern, exactly! As the owner of a business in the general area, I've been concerned about this issue since Mosaic opened.

Walked by on Monday night at 6:45 and there were 10 diners in the whole place.

http://bluestar.mwrc.net/en/category.php?product_category_id=6968 If the problem is just the igniters, they're really easy to replace.

I forgot to mention the Vent-A-Hood, also found through this thread. It's the quietest and most efficient hood I could find. The lights are fantastic!

They break? Thankfully, In the almost 2 years I've had the cooktop, it hasn't needed any repairs. From what I understand, though, there's not much that needs professional care. The igniters you can replace yourself. What else is there? (Knocking wood to undo the jinx I just brought on myself). We bought ours from ABW in Rockville and they said they back their equipment. Hopefully, this isn't who you used!

If/when we ever remodel a kitchen again, the Blue Star cooktop I now have (thanks to this very thread!!) will be the most important appliance around which I'll design.

Surprised no one's posted this, but Taco Bamba will be opening two new sit-down versions in Vienna and Springfield (I think). I believe the Vienna location will be in one of the storefronts where McGruder's was and will be 2000 square feet. Both new places will have alcohol - beers and cocktails - but not be "cocktail driven", meaning they'll be oldies but goodies, I think. There was mention of margaritas, polomas, etc. They're sticking with commercial tortillas. I posted this in ABC Canteen's thread a little while ago, but I finally ate at Taco Bamba for the first time a few weeks ago and think that ABC Canteen's tortillas and tamales are better. I'm looking forward to going through more of Taco Bamba's menu, though, when the Vienna outpost opens.

Hmm, thanks for the heads up.

Why change what's perfect? OK, I guess I'll try it, but why? Had takeout from Taco Bamba for the first time 2 weeks ago. I can very confidently say that ABC Canteen's tortillas and tamales are much better.

Thanks to this post, Darkstar965 is my new donrockwell.com hero!! My wife and I went to Austin (and a day in San Antonio) last week to see the bats at Bracken Cave. We ate and drank our way through the area, saw some bats, sweated a lot, checked out 5 breweries and saw a couple of nice botanical gardens (Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and Zilker Gardens). Before the trip I used this thread, Imbibemagazine.com and Thrillist to compile the places we had to eat and drink in the 4 days we'd be there. Below is what I came up with and my novice thoughts. Ms P's Electric Cock Fried Chicken - Partly due to the amazing name, I chose this food truck because it was south of the river and not far off the path to Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center southwest of Austin. This chicken had great spice and was very juicy. The crust is not what I'm used to, but it wasn't bad. I wanted to check out Gus's and Lucy's chicken places to compare and contrast, but I couldn't fit them in. We got our first taste of the classic "sweet roll" that comes with some Texas meals. Good stuff. The elote was just OK but I didn't like the pre-shredded cheese. It was that non-melting, wax-coated cheese you get in a bag. No bueno. La Condesa - Imbibe drew me there for their margaritas and the tequila and mezcal list. I ended up having a beer and the classic margarita and I thought the beer was better. The food is "chefified" Tex-Mex and once we sat and checked out the menu, we found that it wasn't what we felt like eating. We were there, though, so we stayed. Our server was pretentious which made the meal more unpleasant. Small plates, they come out when they're ready...you know that current, trendy drill. Oh, and the queso was made of chevre and something else and was unmelted yet still incredibly greasy. Not cool. Veracruz All Natural food truck (E. Cesar Chavez) - Thrillist brought us to this awesome breakfast taco truck. Both corn and flour tortillas were great. The chorizo was spicy and delicious. The eggs were perfectly cooked within their tortilla robes. The salsas were homemade and delicious. Coffee was great! In hindsight, I should've had a Migas, but all of our tacos were terrific. Micklethwaite's Craft Meats - holy shit was this great!!! Truth be told, I didn't eat red meat for 25 years and just started eating burgers and pork about a year ago. Because of this, I think I can safely say I ate more beef at Micklethwaite's than I'd eaten in 26 years. Even though I was a Texas brisket virgin, I think I can safely say this was damn good brisket!! I can't imagine Franklin's being better than this. We drove by Franklin's on the way to Micklethwaite's because I wanted to see the line. It was there, for sure. We stood in a line of three people at Micklethwaite's. The jalapeno sausage was divine - snappy, spicy, cheesy, meaty, juicy. Wow. The jalapeno cheese grits were freaking delicious. The lemon poppy slaw was a nice break from meat and fat and seemed to cut through it well. Mrs DrXmus's chicken breast sandwich was very, very good. It was a huge breast on a tasty sub roll-like thing. No mayo, no mustard, nothing but tasty chicken. She loved it! The chicken was incredibly juicy with enough smoke to know it was 'qued but not too much. As if this joint couldn't get any better, they had free (FREE!!!) Austin Beerworks beers in a tub on ice and we could serve ourselves! Seriously, if you go to Austin, don't spend 2-3 hours in line at Franklin's, drive a half mile down the road to Micklethwait's. Takoba - This was an Imbibe recommendation for their mango-habanero margarita. The chips and salsa were good. The queso was very good, none of that chevre stuff, this was a great mixture of delicious melty cheese. Personally, I thought their regular margarita was much better than the mango-habanero version. They had a good selection of Texas beers, too. Old 300 BBQ (Blanco, Texas) - Blanco is essentially on the way from San Antonio to Dripping Springs, a bedroom community northwest of Austin. Because I was a Texas BBQ expert after having eaten brisket and sausage for the first time two days before, I convinced my pasta-eating, minimal meat-eating wife to go to a BBQ place again. She actually loved her turkey sandwich, after dissecting a little fat off and taking off half the meat. I had a brisket sandwich. This brisket was moist and tasty, but the fat cap was a little much for me. The sweet tea was perfect, except they ran out before I finished my second cup.

It's funny that a few days after I posted my note on the 3rd, Carrie Allen had an article in the Post about the resurgence of rye. Thanks to a friend who works in DC a few doors down from a liquor store, I now have a bottle of Rittenhouse. I'm still curious about the lack of availability in VA, though.

Snallygaster does tend to have a good line up of brews, but I'm turned off by the pictures I've seen that make it look like a packed madhouse of hipsters.

What the hell has happened with Rittenhouse Rye in VIrginia? ABC stores can't get it anymore. I'm told I can special order it, but my store has had a standing order for many weeks now, so i'll get it when they do. Is this a Virginia distribution problem or a Rittenhouse problem? Is it something else? I foresee a trip to DC soon (not that I would bring liquor across state lines, just saying I haven't been to DC in a while). What should be my bottled-in-bond replacement for cocktails? I got a bottle of Ri, which is only 92 proof, but IIRC Rittenhouse costs much less.