ctay122

Going to Paris in Dec to enjoy the Christmas markets, holiday lights and store displays and, OF COURSE, the food.

Want to surprise my best friend with an afternoon high tea. This will be my 7th trip to Paris and not once have I been

to high tea.  Been to Angelina, Laduree, Fauchon etc,  but want a formal afternoon tea experience. Any suggestions appreciated.

Price no object, as this is gift to my wonderful best friend.

A la carte or buffet....does not matter.

Fiola Mare does sound like it might be it.

Celebrating our 16th anniversary Sunday and want to do brunch. We live in Woodbridge and will consider DC, NoVA, and Loudon, Culpepper and Fauquier counties.  Price and travel time not an object, just looking for the best brunch found. Won't  hurt also if they have an amazing Bloody Mary.

Has anyone here read The Runcible Spoon food zine? I accidently ran across it when I was googling scrapbooking stores in DC (You can read about it online on the Wash Post website, June 11, 2013). I acquired a few issues from the Etsy shop and I am still trying to decide whether I like it or not. It kind of reminds me of a mini Lucky Peach magazine. Just wondering if anyone as an opinion of it. This is one of 5 issues I bought.

I have the Tartine Bread book. I think alot of the recipes are very tedious and complicated. Maybe that's just me. I do love Bernard Clayton's The Breads of France.

This is the best bread making book in my library -  The Fundamental Techniques of Classic bread baking by the French Culinary Institute.

Has anyone recently traveled to the DR? Headed out for a 5 day trip with an old college friend and we will want to get away from the all inclusive for a nice dinner probably near Playa Bavaro, recommendations appreciated, price no obstacle!

Bobby Flay will have another Burger Palace at Potomac Mills opening in Nov. I'm looking forward to it!

Yes, thank you Dean Gold for hosting our small group and providing all the treats! The duck liver pate was amazing, as well as the crispy duck fat. And Rick the bartender was friendly and made amazing bellinis and other libations for us. Unfortunately my better half was ill and could not attend but I stayed with the others and had dinner (meatballs and mussels with pasta). It was nice to get out again (my first HH in years) and reconnect with some DR members. Hoping HH will revive itself!

I'll be there...looking forward to seeing everybody. It's been too long since Michael and I have been to a DR HH!

Do you mean Founding Farmers in DC? Or Founding Fathers, up in New York?

(fun synchronicity)

(not finding)

(something entitled founding)

Yep, your right! Founding Farmers! No wonder I couldn't find anything about it lol! Thank you! (Must be having a "blonde" day!)

****Just checked the reviews here, doesn't really look like what I am looking for an anniversary dinner.

I tried to find a thread about this restaurant but couldn't. Has anyone ate here? It has good reviews on Open Table, but interested if anyone here has a dining experience there they can share. Looking for someplace different for an anniversary dinner. We always go to Marcel's for birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions and have never been disappointed by the food or service. But I am finding the need to go somewhere else since we don't get into the city that often and I think it's time for a change. Other places we like to give an idea of the food we like are 1789, Circle Bistro, Corduroy, Brasserie Beck, Firefly, Tosca, iRicci, Caucus Room, Dino, Restaurant Eve, Ebbittt, to name a few. Looking for something American this time. I got this restaurant off Open Table's most booked list. Granted, most booked isn't necessarily the best food. Am wondering if Founding fathers is worth a try. We want to stay in DC and eat somewhere within a few blocks from the metro since we will be sans car.

I'm hoping this is still a go for next Wed's HH! Anyone interested in staying for dinner with Michael and I?

I've arranged for us to have a midweek HH on Wed March 7th from 5-7 pm at Dino (Cleveland Park Metro). We will have the table in the grotto behind the bar as well as free space at the bar. The Happy hour deals will include $5.00 drinks, a $5 wine, $18 bottles etc. Antipasti are $3 off. I'll remind everyone as the time gets closer!

If anyone is interested in staying for dinner, perhaps we could get a table going....

Can't go, I'm out of town with the girls. Bummer. But I'll arrange the first mid week one if people will come....

Okay, I'll take the lead on this, give me a day or two, I'll start it off!

We could. But no one else has suggested another time for mid week HH so perhaps there is not enough interest. Figured it was worth a try.

Would like to suggest a celebration of Leap Year and a DR HH revisted celebration on Feb 29 with Dean Gold's blessing at Dino at Cleveland Park.

We would have the table in the grotto behind the bar as well as free space at the bar. Happy hour deals include $5.00 drinks, a $5 wine, $18 bottles etc. Antipasti are $3 off. The HH would end at 7pm but could be extended at the table thru 7.30 with no problem. Could also seat folk for dinner after.

Please reply here if there is enough interest as Dean would like some advance notice. Perhaps we could do an RSVP like before of who is attending (and a +1 if applicable)

Rocks, I hope this is ok, Dean contacted me and said he would be happy to host a mid week HH. And I thought since Leap Year falls on a Wed it would be a good excuse for a get together. Would love to see you all again!

Note: Revision 1:12 am ...just realized that the Duck Dinner at Dino is on the 29th so probably this is not going to fly (pardon the pun). Any suggestions for another mid-week date?

Because of the holiday weekend and DR lunch planned for the 17th, that I am hoping to make, it isn't the optimal day for me, but I can try to make it. I am completely open February 24, or another day of the week.

I think there are lots of good options. New Heights and Eventide are both good thoughts, Fiola would be, as well. I could think of tons of others if need be.

I feel bad for opening this thread as I wouldn't be able to attend the holiday weekend or on the 24th being that we will be out of town, but I will make arrangements for any other time. I still think midweek might be an option if anyone is up to it...

There wasn't always advance preparation, and when there was it was a business decision by the chef or manager. These days, restauranteurs have more internet outlets at their disposal to drum up business, and they are hiring publicists to arrange their Yelp happy hours or blogger dinners. It was the same back in 2005, except on a more primitive level.

Pick a place and a day, and see who can make it. Thanks for reviving interest.

Has it been that long? Yikes!

I think close to a metro is a must, at least for us. We don't want to have to navigate city streets or seek parking also, especially during Fri rush hours. Could it be done during the week after work also? Like a Wed hump day or something. Gosh,I miss those days!. I was thinking about Dino's, close to the metro and he is wanting some business during the week.....

I'm sorry I've been absent for so long....

But I was wondering and thinking about the good times that my husband and I used to have when we would meet DR members at Notti Bianche and PS1 for happy hours.....

Do you all do this anymore?

I haven't eaten dinner at the Goodstone Inn since Tarver King left, but a group of friends and I rent the manor house at Goodstone for a couple long weekends a year. The Goodstone is the best hotel / inn / b&b in the Middleburg area - by a mile. What you could do is stay at the Goodstone, and have dinner at the Ashby Inn, where Chef King is currently working (and seems to be doing great - see recent comments by DanCole42). I'd secure a ride to / from though.

EDIT: I should add that accomodation prices at Goodstone will range from slightly below to far above the Middleton Inn's rate, depending on room preference.

One of my good friends out in the Shenandoah area where we have our vacation home suggested The Inn at Vaucluse Spring in Stephen's City. It is actually a Bed and Breakfast, but they have a special dinner on Fri and Sat nights. The Fri dinner is 3 courses ($39. 50) and the Sat dinner is 5 courses ($64.50) plus tax and 18% gratuity. The Sat night dinner also includes a social hour with sangria or mulled wine at which the Chef announces the evening's dinner. When you reserve they will ask if there's any dietary restrictions, allergies and/or dislikes. The dinner changes every week according to whatever is fresh and in season. My friend says the food rivals The Inn at Little Washington, so I am intrigued and we reserved dinner for Dec 3rd. The chef is Adam Policinski and looking at all the reviews on line, he has gotten nothing but great accolades and has a pretty good following. Will post more after we dine there. If anyone is interested, here is a link to the website: http://www.vauclusespring.com/

P.S. Check out the recent Saturday dinner

Intresting. We have not been to the Goodstone Inn but we have been to the IALW three times and have not had the same experience. I note the following as a possible alternative. What I wrote on here (on the Philadelphia thread) will speak for itself. I absolutely love Middleburg and if you visit the Goodstone Inn we may be just behind you. But, in the meantime, I found a place in Chester county, PA, two and a half hours from Reston that I would put one on one with anywhere in America. This is my post:

It was the eighth or ninth one lane bridge that we drove over when I began to think that all of the hyperbole of how difficult this place was to find wasn't hyperbole. One lane wide roads that passed for two with stone walls and split rail wooden fences lining each, this was a trip through two and three hundred year old structures in countryside sporting wealth and established tradition far from central city Philadelphia. When we finally found our crossroads I didn't think there would be enough room for a horse drawn carriage in either direction let alone for one of the great country restaurants in all of America to sit on a corner.

And it does.

And about as difficult to find, as obscure, as off the beaten path as anywhere I have ever been. I noted above that most of the light is from candlelight in the dining room. I exaggerated: there are nine lightbulbs in track lighting framing the room along with perhaps sixty or seventy candles. Nine tables total with pairs of diners at most. A historic building that dates back two or even three centuries. It's not that there are no white table cloths; rather that the wooden tables that diners sit at are handcarved and framed by a real craftsman as is everything else in this truly individual and singular room of historic character.

We went for our fifteenth anniversary. One hundred and fifty five miles miles in each direction from Reston to the obscure Chester county countryside-it was worth every foot of the drive.

Without a mention of the food, without a mention of the national Beard talent of the chef and his obsessive sourcing of ingredients (we're talking heads on 11-15 count fresh shrimp a half hundred miles from water...) this is a Great restaurant. Intense stock reductions along with deeply flavored broths and sauces we were ecstatic to find the quality of an immensely talented chef in a number of the dishes on our plates. With several thousand corks and a singular bottle of Petrus in the window, restrooms in the adjacent post office which shares a roof as well as a Rubenesque tuxedo neighborhood cat we loved this place .Given the character of the setting of the room as well as what we tasted we hope to return at least once a year as long as we are able.

There must be a setting as well as a table in the D. C. area that compares to the Birchrunville Store Cafe. Unfortunately we haven't found it.

_______________

Additional notes: this is BYOB. It has a Zagat rating of 28 for food which is the highest in metro Philadelphia (same as Vetri). Our dinner, with tax and tip (no corkage and, again, our wine) was $175-we had three first courses, a salad, two entrees and three desserts). But the price is totally irrelevant: I am directly comparing the experience to the Inn at Little Washington. As idyllic as the setting of Washington, VA is, Birchrunville, PA is even more so. Middleburg, however, is really special: one of the great escapes on Earth that we are indeed fortunate to live so close to. Still, the Birchrunville crossroads is unlike any other I've found on this side of the Atlantic. I should also note that the Birchrunville Store Cafe is well known in the Philadelphia market: so much so that for a Friday or Saturday night you must reserve at least two months in advance. It is worth the wait and the drive.

Joe,

Did you do this drive all in the same day? I would be absolutely miserable, after a big dinner I am ready for a nap. Thank you for reposting this. I will check out the menu and perhaps some lodging close by and keep it in mind for a special occasion. I'm still trying to figure out why lodging in Middleburg is so outrageous. The place Michael and I stayed at 2 years ago is now going for $425 for a Thursday night. Ridiculous!