DaveO

For the fifth time in 4 years I've joined groups of out of towners for dinner while they attended a set of meetings at the DC Convention Center. In all cases one of the out of towners chose the restaurant, or did so with a different person's assistance. In all cases restaurants were chosen more or less convenient to hotels ranging from around 16th and K on the West to about 7th Street to the East. The dining groups have ranged in size from as small as 5 to as large as 14 (I believe). To date we have been to Carmine's (twice), McCormick and Schmicks, Old Ebbitt, and this year Legal SeaFoods. They are all okay. None are great. Of the five experiences I think Old Ebbitt was the worst imho. Carmine's in both cases ended up being relatively inexpensive, completely unforgettable from a food perspective, but tremendously accommodating for a large group. Compared to current sea food choices, McCormick and Schmicks was passable and I'd rate Legal SeaFoods as a little better. BTW: Legal SeaFoods on 7th Street, across from the Verizon Center was like Times Square--Packed on the street and inside (as was Old Ebbitt inside.) Some of the visitors have been repeat. Some are "major foodies" or at least "minor foodies". Frankly all of the visitors can afford better meals. In the last experience the bill was paid with one person's card, and somebody from each couple kept surreptitiously giving him probably between $150 to more for each couple. Nobody winced. Some of these folks will be back to the Convention Center again with some of their professional cohorts. Even if they don't ask me early on for suggestions I'd like to at least forward to them a set of better choices. Any better suggestions???

Ben's in Arlington opening this Thursday, 3/6/14. yummmmmmmmmmm

I wish I had seen that game. He described it as his best game ever. In the zone. How else does one explain that? Don: The verbose Bill Walton, who announced that high school game was one of my favorite players ever. During a pro career in which he was injured far too much, he had a brief 1.5 years while playing for Portland, during which they were the best team in the NBA. They won one championship and had the league's best record in the next year before Walton suffered one more devastating injury. After Walton got hurt that team's record became instantly mediocre. He transformed a so so team into the best in the NBA. In that regard Walton was somewhat like the legendary Bill Russell, the best winning pro athlete ever. I enjoyed watching Magic, and Bird during their careers. Neither was as athletically talented as Lebron or MJ or Kobe. Both were great winners and made the teammates better. Likewise there have been other players with that incredible magical talent to improve teammates. Jason Kidd at his best comes to mind. In terms of astonishing athletic skills...MJ, Kobe, Lebron all stick out with some others. MJ had a ferocious competitive spirit, was a winner and engaged in team play. I think there is a lot of controversy about Kobe as a team player. Lebron is truly a magnificent athlete and in playing with Miami he has lifted his game, combined his individual talents with better team players and won some championships. More power to him. I hope he has some more games like the above referenced one and keeps winning them.

This story takes the cake...or pizza....... "Man Says Domino's Pizza Burns Him When He Had Sex With It: Company Responds" on huffingtonpost.com

John Thompson played on one of the first high school basketball teams that was nationally publicized for its record and dominance. It was Archbishop Carroll back I believe in 1958-1960. A number of those players achieved tremendous success and fame in various careers besides basketball. At one point in the early 1980's I worked with a colleague who was either a starter or possibly 6th man on the 1960 team that finished the year undefeated. He was one or two years younger than John Thompson. We worked on some real estate deals together. We were "suits" As we traveled together through DC and met with various people I was astounded at his fame, recognition and local "cred". He was not one of the stars of those teams but he was still well recognized. He may well have played a lot of street ball in DC during those years in the early early 60's and later. That connection did wonders for him over the years.

Was at BlackSalt for happy hour. I must admit to getting "happy" on the house IPA. Many dishes and apps were ordered. We started with the dozen oysters and 1 or 2 more of those. Just delightful. And then I got "happy" and the array of dishes were hazy. But it was excellent.

When I was a commercial real estate broker I used to "work with these numbers" all the time. But ultimately its the buildings and the tenants who pay for increases; like Nick Freshman (comments above). Landlords do contest increases in assessments. In one context the astonishing explosion in increased rental rates on commercial properties, especially retail in the last decade or so is the underlying reason for these increases. The abrupt level of increases in this past year is the very astonishing element of this. Nick's comments,and from the ARLNOW article pointing out that the Whole Foods building saw no increases is telling. The Whole Foods building is way way way way more valuable than the Spider Kelly's Property. An untrained eye can see that. I'd go public on that one and raise eyebrows. But I'd look for an attorney with a winning record in arguing assessment cases in front of jurisdictions. I appreciated Nick's comments. He is the one dealing with these many issues, day to day.

Those increases are huge jumps. They are property tax assessments. I'd bet in every case or almost every case the lease reads that the tenant (the restaurants or retail tenants) pay their proportionate share (however proportionate share is defined) of the increase. Those could be big big add ons to the tenants, the restaurants. Meanwhile the rents have skyrocketed especially this last decade. It means the building values have skyrocketed. That means the assessments have skyrocketed. By example if Spider Kelly's has to absorb all that cost increase from the article it means over $2,000/month in extra new costs. And that is a lot of beer. Life aint easy...

LOL. Peaches can do that to you. Eat a peach one day. See the world the next day. What a revelation. but pizza every day,...day after day, week after week, month after month. I can do repetitive diets...but ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I think I'll have a peach.

From a real estate perspective: 1. I liked seeing what the mayor wrote. He is not part of the he said/she said in which third parties debate the facts 2. A store manager would not know if the owner is sending in rental checks on a timely basis. 3. I assume there is no automatic right to renew. maybe they are at the tail end of old lease(s) wherein they had exercised previous renewal clauses. 4. Many times despite the language of a lease which often gives a landlord strong rights to evict for non payment or late payment or repeated late payments of rent, or partial payments...landlords do at times try and work these things out with tenants. On the other hand if there was strong demand for space in the center and there was one weak tenant...the landlord might exercise the eviction notice for violating pretty strict covenants about payment and then get a new tenant in there. 5. I think the business owner was clever to try and get public support. The business owner's piece though didn't reference financial status. 6. The smell test leads me to believe the tenant repeatedly violated the payment clauses. But that is just my opinion without knowing facts.

yummmmmmmmmm finally got to urban bumpkin as they were in Couthouse. Ooooohhhh the wait was chilly. Can't wait for warm weather. The nice lady who hails from Russia told me they had cut out Courthouse but tweets and FB contacts drove them back. .....lucky for me. First meal was the bbq chicken on frye bread/American taco. I'd like to meet the brave person who actually tries to eat this as a taco rather than w/ knife and fork. Very tasty. Nice sized chicken reasonably cooked and tender. Very nice bbq sauce sweetish...but not overly. topped with slaw...I added the rice. All over the frye bread. Excellent. I'm looking forward to more of their menu. (tips hat to KeithA, who spoke well of them). had to follow them on twitter to get their schedule (which is also on FB, btw). I'll add one additional thing about them. They are on their toes. After finishing the meal I tweeted about them, and commented on their fb page. The tweet was retweeted and favorited and they responded on the fb page. Great responsiveness....and an excellent way to get real social commentary on every interaction. Smart on their part.

hmmmm I guess blueberry's aren't in season and local now. what a visual shame.

@Tralayne: Since you started posting here I've been to your blog. the photos are extraordinary...as they are here. ( I must admit to dozing off on other stuff)...but oh those photos. K.U.D.O.S. Really wonderful. Thanks. Get some blueberry's in there...my faves'...blues are wonderful.

Just wanted to say thank you. Fascinating thread. Rich questions. Interesting responses. and the ying and yang of some of the tags are right on specifically: Fulbright Senior Specialist/Former Smithsonian Fellow and then the somewhat more pedestrian Knows her shit

I was about to write a response with some hypotheticals just as I saw the note from the landlord: In any case: 1. As outsiders we don't know the rent history of the tenant. 2. I don't know about the current legality of this issue, but certain types of larger tenants in a shopping center were able to get agreements from the landlord as to limiting or curtailing competition with its merchandise. Those kinds of agreements may be still in force or might have been disallowed. I'm not current on that. 3. Its possible, if those type clauses are still in effect the new high end supermarket might have wanted to restrict competition in the mall for certain types of items they sell, (ie possibly baked goods, bagels, a sitdown bagelry etc.). 4. If those types of clauses are still in effect, and if the bagelry had a history of poor rent payment it could have expedited the move by the landlord to evict the tenant. Generally a landlord doesn't terminate a lease without cause. That would be an easy situation to overturn. A lease is a strong written contractural agreement.

Its been about 3 decades since I visited Crete and a decade since Busboy was there and wrote about it. His article brought back strong memories. I too was encouraged by natives to visit the Island. I also toured, via a motorbike, and was thoroughly enraptured by its beauty. A worthwhile visit, well described by Busboy, above, especially if it has maintained those charms as it evidently did between the mid 80's and 2004 when busboy wrote about it and took wonderful pictures.

As noted elsewhere Rosslyn is a wasteland for dining. Along with another thread about a hidden better higher value lunch alternative there is Ahra Cafe located at 1100 Wilson Boulevard in the Twin Towers Building with Channel 8 on the ground level off the lobby. Ahra is only open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays and has no outdoor signage. Their breakfasts and lunches are hearty and offer good value for the price. Ahra's specialties are slow roasted turkey, ham, roast beef and brisket sandwiches. They are hearty, large, and accompanied by a wide variety of extras. They offer great value for the price and a cut above the world of chains that proliferate in that wasteland.

As an area develops and if sees continued demand big high rise buildings will continue to go up. This report of a possible new development in Ballston reflects the efforts to sell a car dealership site. That site has been selling cars for decades and high rise development started in Ballston in the early 1980's....so the demand to build on this site has been around for a long time...but the economics and timing probably weren't there. I guess the landholders feel its there now. I suspect the same process will occur in Tysons. Buildings will go up on land that is less well developed or less economically productive. I assume all the auto dealerships in Tysons are very productive...but at some point big high rises might create more value. I suppose down the line on land where you can now evaluate and purchase cars, at some point in the future will be land where you can live, work, stay in a hotel, or dine in a restaurant.......if you can get there without sitting in traffic for a few hours

The dedicated people in the Food and Beverage Industry have many more skills than frying an egg, slicing and dicing, or recommending an excellent wine with your meal. Some are skilled athletes. In fact they might be World Class or even Olympic Quality Medal Class. Jessica Lutz, a barista from this area, scored a goal to help Switzerland's women's team win the bronze medal in this years Olympics. More on Jessica here and here If she returns to her barista position you'll find her at the Coffee Bar on S Street, near 14th.

As spring is around the corner, I wanted to add a little "plug" and an update along with some fairly recent actions. The Professional Bartending School can be an excellent source for staffing. Yesterday the bar school, and I heard from Justin, who had started a thread for staffing for a PT retail position at his beer and wine store in Bethesda. We spoke yesterday. Per his request we blasted his job request out to our grads who are interested in PT, FT work. Today we heard from him. He got about 10 leads. His phone was busy. We are recontacting grads and sending a new message. Just contact the potential employer by email. Also yesterday we blasted a message out to grads about another position. This one was in SW DC Later in the day we blasted to our grads another message. I'm including the email while erasing the name of the business, and the contact: We had to let grads know to STOP calling. Our ability to generate job candidates is quite strong:..... Grads, PLEASE stop calling NAME OF CONTACT, the owner of NAME OF EMPLOYER from the lead I sent earlier. His phone is blowing up for people wanting to apply. It's best to either COME IN for the OPEN INTERVIEWS 2/27/14 or APPLY ONLINE. In both cases the employer will do the ultimate hiring. The Professional Bartending School, though is very capable of delivering employee candidates to your Food and Beverage Place of Business. Naturally our grads want to be bartenders, but many are looking for PT other work. We cover the entire DC region with grads. We are a GREAT source for caterers. We are an excellent source for experienced and/or new bartenders. Feel free to contact us. http://bartending-school.com You can also call us on our Employment line 703 841 9751 or email our Placement director, Heather at pbsplacement@gmail.com All services for employers are free as they have been for the last 25 years or so. You can dm me for additional information.

...A little news in the world of pizza, mall pizza, food court pizza, etc: S'barro's just announced the closing of a big number of food court pizza/pasta places: http://nrn.com/corporate/sbarro-closes-155-company-owned-units Over the last three years there has been a remarkable drop in foot traffic visits to malls across the country: Shopping patterns are changing. In lieu of taking a shopping trip to a mall wherein one wanders around visiting a variety of stores, customers are searching for deals on the web and their mobiles, choosing good price deals, and either buying items on line, or when they visit a mall they are aimed at one store with one or more items in mind. Overall foot traffic to malls has dropped at precipitous rates as described in this article in the WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304419104579325100372435802 If foot traffic drops the tenants in the food courts will be the ones that suffer.

Yeah, the young Pacino has a very strong resemblance to the young Frank Serpico. It would be reasonable to mistake them as brothers.

Rich: I sent you and Don a suggestion re using the interns. I think it would work. Don't know if you are going to use it or not. but if you didn't read it, check it out.

hmmm.....and I will never forget in the earlier days of mobile phones visiting an office of some competitors and seeing one of the principals going to the men's room with what would now be described as a big old clunky cell phone. Yikes!!!!! Currently Pinterest is an overwhelmingly popular website completely devoted to pictures. Twitter only recently started highlighting pictures and I happen to see them all the time now. Their popularity exploded in a very short time. More and more new apps feature pictures. They are overwhelmingly popular, common place and the norm. "Selfies" is now a main stream phrase. I can't list the endless variation of new apps that feature photography. Technology has changed dramatically and it changes norms. I've always been a lousy non creative photographer but I appreciate great photography. Its also interesting to see how different people react to different stimuli; some relish creative writing, some videos, some photographs, etc. I find great photographs whet my appetite. Kudo's to the photographers.

@Don: Well I hope you enjoy it. It does have similarity with the Godfather and it should. After all they are both filmed around NY, they both star people of Italian descent with references to that upbringing/culture, they both deal with crime, and the time periods overlap. BTW: that trailer did nothing for me either. On a side note. I grew up in Northern NJ, roughly along the time period that the real Frank Serpico was a cop. We lived in a house right around the corner from a real live Mafia big shot. He was later indicted and found guilty of some crimes. His father had been a big time gangster around the time of Al Capone with this story describing him and his house. I recall around one Christmas a guy from our town who was both a high school classmate of my older brother and the biggest strongest bruiser on the football team, along with being a regional star in that sport, was going around the neighborhood selling Christmas trees. He knocked on the door of that house. The grandfather answered with a shotgun. The big bruiser spun, turned and ran, and he came around the corner, more or less to our house to get my brother. Man, was he scared...and I don't blame him. It was not a gentle environment. Also, the comments on that article referenced above are fascinating. A lot of people connected to the old man, Ritchie the boot, and his estate. As a kid, I too snuck up to that estate, only to view it from afar, never to go inside. Further edit: Now I'm enthused. The above referenced article led me to this fairly recently published book, In the Godfather Garden which was written about the infamous father of our neighbor, Richie, "the boot" Boiardo. From what I've read it seems Richie the boot, had to have been in his 70's visiting his son's house, brandishing a shotgun and scaring the wits out of the biggest strongest high school football player in my little town on and around Christmas one night in the 1960's. It appears that Richie's lavish life style might have been part of the inspiration for the book the Godfather, and might also have been inspiration for the TV series The Soprano's. Ritchie had a huge estate, enjoyed puttering around in his garden like the "GodFather" and reportedly ran the mafia in Newark NJ, covering the territory made famous by The Soprano's. Ritchie escaped capture and the authorities and lived to the ripe old age of 93 free from prison, finally dying of natural causes. I was about 8 years old when my parents moved to a house around the corner from Ritchie's son, Tony Boy. I briefly recall playing with his eldest son, who I believe was a year or two younger than me. Then his situation changed and I never recall seeing or playing with him in the neighborhood. My closest neighborhood friend was both a classmate and lived in a house that backed up to the Boiardo house. I bet I played basketball, some kind of sport in the backyard, or was indoors playing pingpong hundreds of times...and yet I never recall seeing the Boiardo kids. I do recall my father getting in a slight car accident with Tony Boy, who promptly paid for all damages with cash so an insurance or police call never arose. I think my father was grateful for the payment and for not having to pursue this through any further means. Now none of this has anything to do with Serpico although it does touch on that Godfather reference you sensed in the movie, Don. I think I'll have to purchase and read In the Godfather's Garden so as to learn all about my former neighbor. It does appear that Ritchie the boot was a restaurateur back in the 1930's. I'll bet that restaurant had dynamite Italian food.