DrXmus

Is it still true that a homebrewer who wants to make sour beers must have separate fermentation and racking equipment for sour and clean?

Let us know what you think of the Brew Jacket. I need something to keep my carboy temps in the mid-60's during a VA summer.

I've found that a fair number of the people moving into these huge houses are house-poor, unfortunately. I'm constantly amazed that the original houses (full disclosure: I live in one) are sold at full price, which is around $550K, then knocked down and sold at a profit for $1.3 million. Incredible. Back to the subject at hand, I'm looking forward to Clarity. I hope they also include "normal" food so I can go with my lovely bride.

As a service business owner of the non-restaurant type, I can understand chef's response to a terrible, shouldn't-have-happened kind of review. Some people leave my business not because I'm not good at what I do, but because they weren't cared for in the manner they feel was appropriate for the money they spent. We have more clients leave because of a receptionist's attitude than because of something I've done (and that receptionist is re-trained extensively or let go). Chef Cooper and his staff can be the most amazing chefs, but poor service will lose them money just as fast as if they sucked at their job, as evidenced in JBag57's walking out after a glass of water.

Later this week, I'm going to post the most important thing I've had to say in a long time (I haven't written a word of it yet, but I already know what needs to be said - it's just a matter of putting pen to paper).

Essentially, I'm going nuclear, but I'm not going to do it tonight. And it won't be the next thing I write - I have two other (unrelated) posts that I want to get done beforehand, and this will come afterwards. You'll know when it arrives.

Well? I've been waiting with bated breath!

I've been a fan of the San Pellegrino Pompelo soda for Palomas.  The Ting is a little sweet for me.  The Pellegrino has a nice balance of sweet and bitter. 

I should try Pompelo with alcohol. I love the San Pellegrino fruit sodas, but I detested the flavor of Pompelo when I tried my first.

As others have said, I liked Taylor a lot at the beginning, but found the quality dropping off the last few visits. Sandwiches seemed drier than they should be and just not that great. In terms of the dryness, these two sandwiches didn't have that problem.

Are they reading this forum? I was on the "too dry" bus, also, but both sandwiches we tried today didn't have that fault. Mrs DrX had the aforementioned Catherine St but she asked for it without the apricot jam. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and, unfortunately, we didn't notice until we got home. She's not a fan on sweet items on her sammie, so she wasn't a fan. I had a new menu item, too, called the Passyunk Ave, which was pastrami with a "cherry pepper dijonaise". I definitely wasn't dry, so I was happy with that, but it was very salty which I guess is a hallmark of heated pastrami sandwiches as Red Apron's porkstrami sandwich is also a salt bomb. Overall, both sandwiches were good and would probably be ordered again.

On another note, though, we were two of 3 customers in the Mosaic store at 12:10 on Sunday. Cava Mezze was busy and the new Good Food (or something like that) was packed. Is competition in the area confirming what the trend here seems to be hinting at - that Taylor is on a downward trend?

Bethany

I'll second the recommendation for 14Global. The cocktails were very good and occasionally original. I enjoyed The Dragon, which was essentially a rocks margarita with habenero-infused tequila, and it lasted me the entire meal. Others in my group got different cocktails and were mostly impressed. If I were to knock the cocktail service, I'd say the fact that each drink came out about 2-3 minutes after the previous one seemed off-putting. Do you wait to taste yours until everyone gets theirs? Do you drink yours while everyone stares at you wishing they had a drink, too?

We ordered a couple of apps to share. The crab dip was enjoyed by all, but to be honest it doesn't stand out in my memory (from 4 days ago, admittedly). I have to comment on the "Corn Pone Bread- Aged white cheddar & bacon infused pone, with agave & cinnamon lime butter." Now, maybe I don't know what corn pone is, but when I grew up in SC it essentially meant "cornbread." 14Global's corn pone is a rectangle of fried, thick corn mush which is soaked in sweet butter. I ate it and I liked it, but it was really more of a dessert. I expected cornbread with a side of sweet compound butter. Not so much.

The gluten-free eater in the group was very happy with the number of options she had and enjoyed the scallops she ordered. I had the "Pan Seared Halibut- Alaskan halibut, served with a sweet peach and spicy habanero compote, with a puree of celery root and Yukon potato accompanied by pan roasted purple cauliflower". I don't say this often, but the fish was oversalted! I love salt, but this was too much. The "compote" had a nice bite to it, but it was very, very sweet and when combined with the very salty fish, the components didn't complement each other well at all. Mrs DrX had the "Black Garlic Crab Ravioli- Black Garlic infused pasta filled with lump crab, shallot, ricotta, and mascarpone cheese, with asparagus & lemon-dill cream sauce" which she didn't stop raving about until the next day. The flavors were terrific and the pasta was cooked perfectly.

Mike & Eric, who formerly ran the now shuttered Bay Hundred in Tilghman Island, have resurfaced with a new restaurant in St. Michael's: Mike & Eric's.  My impression of what the place offers is excellent skillfully prepared food at moderate prices, served in a casual setting by a very friendly hospitable staff at a great location. 

Because of the above review, Mrs DrX and I enjoyed lunch there this afternoon. We passed the Bistro, the Crab Claw, Marcoritaville, etc. and we're generally happy we did. I felt bad for the owners because we were the only diners in the place at 12:20 on a Monday afternoon. As we were finishing up, more people appeared and by the time we left there were about 8 other diners in the house. Admittedly, tourist season is over but I hope they're busier other days. I can see how it'd be difficult to have a restaurant like this and have to deal with such swings in business through the year.

The small beer list is unexciting, but they did have brewed-just-down-the-street amber ale made by St. Michaels Brewing which went well with the meal. The crab and corn fritters were nothing like I expected but were delicious. I figured they'd be hushpuppy-like but they were more similar to a soft, bready fried crab cake. I used the dipping sauce sparingly because the fritters were great by themselves, but it was very tasty, too and complimented the fritters well. The crab bisque was out of this world, also. The crab flavor was very strong, but there weren't many pieces of crab. it's not like the crab was missed. I enjoyed the strong sherry flavor that permeated the creamy bisque. Both dishes were apps, but they were large appetizers. I wish we had more people to share them with, but we finished them both without too many worries.

I had a lamb burger with feta on a kaiser roll. Unfortunately, it was cooked past my requested medium doneness and I feel the seasonings were missing. It didn't have much flavor to me and I couldn't pick up the rosemary or garlic mentioned on the menu. I added a fair bit of the tzatziki sauce which was served on the side. Because of the size of the apps, Mrs DrX just got another app of Chili Garlic Shrimp for her entree. It was a bit of a dud, too. I didn't try it but her take was that the flavor was lacking, the shrimp were small and the avocado relish wasn't something she'd eat.

There were several specials offered in addition to the full one-page menu and they sounded good, too. A couple of dessert options were offered, but we were stuffed, of course. The lunch was pricey, but each of us just HAD to have those apps, so I blame myself for 1/3 of the bill.

Question though: what's so cumbersome about "homing the cursor" (do they still say this?) and typing in site:donrockwell.com ventworm?

It's not hard,and I do it thanks to a lesson you gave years ago, but why should I have to leave the forum to find info about a restaurant or to post to a thread on which know I want to comment? It's doable and it's not quality of life threatening, but shouldn't it be easier?

[snip] and I'd be happy to pay them to install a more user-friendly interface, so if people have requests, by all means put them in now.

Make a search function that works! It's crazy to have to use Google to find a thread inside the donrockwell forum. Even if I know the name of a thread, it won't come up in the search results inside the forum. I don't know from writing code, but this doesn't seem that difficult to fix.

I have been drinking my way through my Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 12 pack, and finally made it to the Sierra/Ninkasi Double Latte Stout.  [snip] One of the best beers I have had in a very long time.

I heard complaints that because of the way production was timed for these various beers in the Beer Camp pack, some were old, stale and unappealing. Did you get that sense from the other beers you tried?

On the Peruvian theme, you could make causa, the mashed potato dish.  It uses aji amarillo pepper paste.  Here's a link to my description of how I made the causa I brought to one of the dr.com picnics.

It's often used as an ingredient in ceviche.  Another possibility is as an ingredient in deviled eggs, if that floats your boat.

Omigosh.  Papa a la Huancaí­na.  Wonderful.  Get a recipe off YouTube, or a Peruvian website, or combine a few.  Here's just one to try.  It will be unlike any potato dish you have ever eaten, unless, of course, you've eaten it before.   Now I need some! 

You guys are awesome!! Thanks for the help. I'll try the potato dishes and the deviled eggs. I love ceviche but I've never made it.

I made a batch of the ubiquitous green sauce found at Peruvian chicken joints and now I have a jar of Aji Amarillo paste I don't know what to do with. Thoughts?

The metal skeleton is erected. Sideways strip mall. Four equal-sized (that I can tell) subdivisions. Parking probably between the building and Maple and the building and Bonaroti's.

ORSO has an insane RW special for $35 bucks you get 2 apps, 2 pizzas and 2 desserts. The deal at lunch is great as well. I know I am biased, but if you have not tried ORSO yet, this is a good week to come in.

Agreed. The RW deal truly is insane. We did it last year and took a whole pizza home (and we usually eat an app and 2 pizzas when we go other times). We were both stuffed.

What worries me the most is that the mini strip mall at the intersection of Park and Maple is already a goddamned *menace*

Agreed 100%. When they built that mess they told us there were enough parking spaces to accommodate the shops, but I think everyone in Vienna called bullshit and we were proven correct. It's a nightmare, plus if you add the douchebags who use it as a cut through from Park to Maple to avoid sitting at the light for 60 seconds and you've got even more of a problem. Getting back to Wu's, I agree that there will likely be too few spaces to supply the 4 shops, especially if two of them are restaurants.

Next time please send them back to me during service.

Interesting point, Chef, and thanks for the offer. Sending a dish back seems like something that makes sense when the dish is poorly made (rotten things, burned items, funky smells) however to send back a dish just because you don't like the flavors is beyond our comfort level. How is the diner to know the dish isn't up to your standards? For all we know, it's what you want on the plate and for us to send that back seems presumptuous to me. Not only that, but if my wife had sent the dish back, then the meal ballet would've been disrupted. The three of us would either stop eating and wait for her to get her meal, or we'd eat (because she'd insist) and then sit while she eats her dish alone.

Thanks, Don. I also found this little gem:

Auto follow topics I reply to. Notification frequency: (None)
You are automatically following all topics you reply to with no notification frequency selected. This will cause the topics to show in your followed content area, but you will not receive notifications for these topics.

I selected it and set notification frequency to "none" which seems to mean I won't get e-mails on topics I'm "following".

Thanks for your help, too.

Four of us went to GS Saturday night. As excited as I was that it was finally open, I think it'll be a rarity that we go back. Partly because the menu is so "interesting" that it makes it difficult to find a meal for my lovely bride. She's a conservative eater and after the crab cake fiasco (see below) the mac and cheese is probably the only item on the current menu she can eat. Poultry? Yes. Quail? Oh, hell, no! The menu isn't as complete as the one on the web site, as chef stated above, so maybe that makes some difference, but even then, there's not much there for a non-adventurous eater.

-The beer list is extensive and impressive! Prices seem reasonable. The glassware is lovely, although as thin as it is, I see many of those being broken over time. Maybe they're a tougher hybrid glass of some sort. On our second drink round, I got the same beer my wife did but we got different glasses. The beer tasted right, but it made me wonder if there was a mis-order issue. Maybe the full inventory of glasses aren't in place, yet.

-The deviled eggs were very good. The whites were tender and the filling was very tasty. My first thought, though, was "these are small eggs." I guess I'm a Grade A Large kinda guy.

-The fried chicken skins were out of this world. It was the unanimous hit of the meal. The portion seemed perfect, even for the four of us, although I could've eaten them all myself, too.

-The bread basket didn't last very long. Personally, I enjoyed the cornbread and the fact that the butter was room temp. The biscuit seemed very dry and crumbly to me. I can't be sure there was some other sort of Irish soda bread-type thing that I ate and it wasn't the biscuit, but whatever it was, it was a struggle for me. Thankfully, there was beer nearby.

-I had the fried catfish, chips and cole slaw. The chips were incredibly light - thin but not overcooked, somehow. The seasoning was perfect...in fact, the seasoning was perfect on everything I tasted (save the crab cakes, but that was a flavor issue more than salt/pepper). The cole slaw was good, albeit only a tablespoon of slaw. The single fillet of catfish was well-cooked.

-One of my friends got the quail, greens and grits dish. I didn't get the try the grits, but the greens had a nice texture and a good tang, although I thought they were a bit sweet for my (Southern) taste. I don't know from quail, but I guess it was good. The batter wasn't overpowering and the flavors seemed good to me.

-Another buddy got the short rib(?) and risotto-type dish. He liked the meat, although he thought the portion was small. It looked like about a 1/3 cup scoop size, which did seem on the small size to me, too. He liked the risotto and said the grains seemed very small and different than run of the mill risotto.

-Now comes the miss of the night. My wife crab cakes didn't taste like crab in the least. The lump pieces were of good size and looked beautiful, but their flavor was missing. The only flavor that came through was of lemon zest/lemon oil; not the lovely acidity of lemon juice but the harsh, chemical-y Lemon Pledge-type flavor. It seemed like it was within the crab cake, not a dressing/aioli that could be avoided. For $34 for 2 small crab cakes, it was a huge disappointment.

-We split the rhubarb/strawberry dessert which was very, very, very good. The sour cream ice cream was a huge hit, also. It was amazingly smooth and very tasty. The crumble on top was very crunchy and contained substantial pieces, which I liked a lot. It was a great contrast of textures with the creamy, warm fruit underneath.

-A coffee that was ordered at the same time as dessert never got delivered, but that was the only service issue we had. Our server was very sweet and personable and seemed to have a strong opinion of what dishes we should order when we gave her a few choices. The timing of the meal seemed very appropriate, too.

General thoughts:

I was surprised the restaurant was half empty during our meal in the 8 o'clock time frame.

The music was great. I couldn't hear it well until I was in the bathroom (which was also very cool) but it was great background music.

I didn't think the noise level of the restaurant was obtrusive at all.

The tables are very close together along the windows. It's impossible to scootch off the bench and through the table gap without your ass or crotch intruding on your neighbor's personal space and table full of food.

The restaurant's design is lovely. The colors are muted and understated with the gleaming, stainless kitchen in the center of the restaurant taking the lead.

We're looking forward to the bluegrass and drinks on the roof, but we just can't have meals at GS often.

I don't understand why a few months ago I started getting e-mails when someone commented on a thread in which I've posted something. I've never asked for e-mail notifications. I did find a page where it seemed I could unsubscribe, which worked for a while at, but now I'm getting them again. Is there anything I can do permanently?

Vienna Patch is reporting that Potbelly Subs and Zoe's Kitchen have applied for two of the four(!) permits that will occupy the space were Wu's was.

When the building was sold, the owner of Wu's said it would be retail space.

Among other things tonight I've enjoyed straight up Fidencio Joven Mezcal. I happened on it at Ace Beverage and I'm now IN LOVE with this liquor!! I've tried a few mezcals over the last couple of years and I've never had one with this much flavor and smoky nose as this one. Anyone else tried it? Are my buds off or is this a damn good mezcal?

Barbancourt blanc, Ting, a squeeze of lime, ice.  Thinking Ting might make an excellent Paloma.