TedE

Rodman's and Chevy Chase are the two biggies, but there are several smaller places in the city that have nice selections (Cairo on 17th, d'Vines/d'Vinos). For the two brands you specifically mention: Whole Foods on P St actually carries almost the entire line up from each brewery to my recollection

I thought we had a thread on Shaw's, but I guess not ... According to the City Paper, the stillborn Shaw's Tavern has been bought by the owner of the late Axis on U St. He is bringing along the chef from Leopold's to head up the kitchen. I always liked Axis, it was low key for a U St place, if a bit overpriced. Always a nice beer selection, though, which goes a long way in my book. As a nearby resident of Bloomingdale I have high hopes for another worthwhile neighborhood sit down joint.

I was just being an ass I wish nothing but the best for Boundary Stone and am thrilled that they are pulling in great business night after night. We were sitting outside last week and marveled at several cabs stopping to drop off passengers in our little corner of the city at 6:00. Even a couple years ago that was pretty uncommon. As long as I can hop off the G8 and grab a post-work beer without drama I'm happy. The food here is a pleasant surprise. It took them a couple weeks to get their legs under them, but they've come on strong. Soups in particular have been a high point. Joe - I think it's pretty common for neighborhoods that have undergone a "revival" (now that's a loaded word!) to take on the monikers they once sported. When people start developing a sense of community they naturally want to put a name to it. What better than to dig into history to find one?

Ssssssshhhhhhhhh!!

From the dc-beer listserv, via a re-posted Belgian beer link: For anybody not in the know, Westvleteren is a trappist brewery that has not been previously available in on the these shores by above-the-table means (I believe it's the only trappist beer with that distinction due to limited production capabilities). It's a bit of a beer geek holy grail. I found a dusty bottle of the 8 at Cairo Liquors several years ago, but had no way of knowing it's provenance other than to know that it was not supposed to be there. It was sadly skunked and may have been years old for all I knew. Glad to see we'll get fresh samples at non-exorbitant prices in the near future.

If my random sightings of (mostly inedible) giants around the city is any indication there should be a bumper crop of wild mushrooms right about now. I tend to keep my eye to the ground, and I've never seen such a variety or number of 'shrooms coming out of the soil around here. We had two gigantic (but sadly inedible) puffballs in our yard a couple of weeks ago. Last year they were maybe half the size of this year's. Running on Beach Drive a couple weekends ago I thought I saw some lobsters by the hundreds along the side of the road. Sadly, they were not on closer inspection. I need to find the time to go out there and forage!

Somebody just gifted us with a bag of Thomas Keller's gluten free flour mix. We've been pretty happy with the Jules product I posted above for the occasional baking that happens in our house, so we'll see if this (shockingly expensive) substitute is the real deal.

They had the brewery open for tours and growler fills from 1-2 today for the first time. I was about 12th in line at 12:55; by the time I left with two growlers at 1:40 there were at least 30 people in line. With only a couple kegs available I would be surprised if everybody got beer. While they were switching out kegs head brewer Brandon gave the line a tour of the facility; not a big operation! I can see why they are having a hard time meeting demand. Of interest were some casks from Catoctin Creek that they are soaking to re-introduce to later batches of a Belgian beer (the current one, Citizen, is the best they offer IMHO). Also several casks from the remnants of Kluge winery that they are encouraging brett to grow in. Very interested to see what comes out of here in the near future. Tasting room will be open for growler fills on Saturdays from now on, but I didn't hear a clear schedule. Note: if you plan to bring your own they are not filling swingtops. The recently passed DC tasting room regs require that they seal the growlers with shrink wrapped plastic rings thatwill only work on standard screwtops. All fills are $10,DC Brau branded growlers are $6. Go early!

^^^ this. We don't use jarred sauces all that much, but we do buy Stefano's occasionally and love them. Sure, it's a splurge but unlike Rao's and the like we actually see a large difference from the mass market varieties.

No, but as a local operation I would hope they would at least try. If you are having supplier problems then Gulf or Carolina crabs. I fully understand the cost issues surrounding fresh blue crabs, but the novelty of buying a crabcake out of a truck will not induce me to buy if the product is inferior.

Interested in this as well. It makes a difference to lots of people around here ...

It is Kaz. There is a partially complete websiteup with some more information. It's a "build your own" futomaki place, I guess the natural progression of Chipotle/Chop't/etc. choose-your-own-adventure lunch joints. You choose a fish + fillings + sauce, chefs build rolls to order. Prices are a little higher than I expected (~$9 per maki), but I suppose they could be really big rolls. I bet they do great business, though. There really are no good options for quick sushi takeout in the immediate area.

And you'll get to pay $0.30-0.35 per transaction on top of the parking fees. But, hey, they have an app for that!

I remember my mom using a house charge account at the local grocery store near our house. The same store (Eddie's up in Baltimore) opened a huge, brand new store a couple miles away, it was kind of like a local WF/Harris Teeter mash-up (including adjacent liquor store). I was surprised that they still do house accounts. It's the kind of thing that I imagine only local mom-and-pop's can do these days, but it was nice to see it on an operation of that scale. Locally, and going in the opposite direction, FieldToCity (nee Timor Bodega) in Bloomingdale stopped taking credit cards and only accepts checks and cash now. You can also get a house account there.

It's been like this for at least a year, possibly closer to two. They had placards at the check out counters for several months prior to the switch. I doesn't affect me since I'm one of those people who leaves the check book in a drawer at home these days, but I was surprised to see them making that step

I have some Monumental at home right now, and I would agree: this and their Pale are just OK. Same complaints I have with DC Brau: just too damn aggressively hopped. I was hoping they would both come in with a session ale and then bring out the big guns, but I guess market trends had them jumping in with both feet from the get go. Here is a tiny voice from that market: Give me a locally produced session ale! Optimal Wit, on the other hand, continues to impress and grow on me with each tasting. This is looking to be my beer of Summer '11. They just nailed it, not too in-your-face estery, not cloying, quite crisp and they left room for some hop characteristics to show through. For me this is approaching Celis White territory, a previously untouchable benchmark for American wit beers. I just wish it was still around for an A/B comparison; taste memory on that one is fading

From all indications it will be available widely in the future. It sounds like this was a single barrel run on the full production equipment to test everything out and they sent kegs to the places who helped them launch. I would expect that they will start pushing more volume out as production expands and they bring it online in the regular brew rotation. I wasn't able to get a taste during it's short run on tap, anybody have comparisons to be made to other porters? If it's as good as Port City we've got a couple local winners on our hands!

BFM starts up again for the summer this Sunday, 5/15

I'm much further towards the Bloomingdale side of this area, so I haven't been here yet but friends who live close by rave about it. Thanks for the reminder to stop in one day after work next week. Now that they actually have an awning announcing that there is food inside that building they'll hopefully get more business. Other friends who lived not a half block from this place didn't even know it existed.

Finally had a chance to try DC Brau (on tap) last night; $8 at Vinoteca, which I agree is steep. Holy hops! I would love to see the stats on this, because it drinks nothing like a pale ale. If the IBUs aren't well into IPA territory they are overpowering the malt character to a degree that your palate perceives it that way. Don't get me wrong, it was a good beer, just not at all what I was expecting. Where oh where are my sessionable American pale ales? Of the "local" brews Oliver's does it best (but they are explicitly trying to emulate British ales)

No doubt shelf prices have been rising steadily, but my point is that there are plenty of good-to-great micros to be had in the $7-9 range (on sale maybe, but I can usually find a tried-and-true beer in that range). It will be interesting to see what price point DC Brau hits when they come to shelves next month.

I've had the wit from bottle so far and thought it was very clean, I usually find them to be too cloying in the wrong hands. That said, what are people paying for 6-packs around town? I've only seen them at the P St. WF and I believe they were $10.99. That is steep, even factoring in the overhead of a small operation just starting up. Buy local, small independent business, blah blah blah. They're going to have to be competitive on price to find a niche.

I am confident that this is the pet peeve of people who complain the loudest about cell phone talkers in public places. It grates on them that they can't eavesdrop. No kidding.

I hear this a lot, mostly related to people finding staples or metal in their hamburgers. While obviously dangerous and to be taken seriously, the one common reaction is an incredulous "How in the hell did a staple get there if they weren't trying to deliberately injure me?!?!" Some people have never seen fat tubes of service pack ground beef before. Without knowing how they are packaged I can easily see somebody inferring intent where only sloppy prep work is to blame.

Or seeing a baby one struggling to emerge from the depths of the hollandaise covering your benedict - AFTER you'd taken the first bite! (Note: from a long time ago, and a place far from the DC area that was shut down not long after this event for other reasons more than just tangentially related to this. It still haunts me.)