DaveO

I finally got around to Pasta Plus. Good restaurant, good Italian food, gracious helpful service. Max was very nice...and I was able to convey a complement/joke he appreciated. It is no doubt in one of the ugliest "strip centers imaginable, and oldish with a vacant space to the side housing now unused auto bays. yep that is not appetizing. Yep, this is uglier than my Md suburban fave, Il Pizzico. Now for the extremely worthwhile good. First, while its housed in an ugly property its extremely accessable at Rte 1 and 198 and close to 95. That makes this wonderful restaurant accessable to everyone in the Baltimore DC corridor. Plenty of parking. Inside is upgraded and made more intimae breaking up the dining area inside a routine reail space with attractive walls, and setting. Max was there and accomodating, checking on all the patrons. We spoke briefly, and he asked if I was Italian...sadly no but grew up so many wanna be mafioso's in Soprano country that I sometimes feel like it. And now the important part the food. This is good Italian. Two main courses and two appetizers is not enough to give great kudos. We had a pasta dish with white sauce and a chicken dish with red sauce plus pasta on the side. Delicious fresh pasta. That is such a gift. It is so incredibly superior to what is out there in most places. Eat it early and feast on it. Its a rare and absolute bonus one doesn't see in most restaurants and virtually never at these affordable price points. The sauces were good, maybe very good. Again extraordinarily good in this region and at these price points. Linguini in brocoli Excellent garlic and oil. Simple....very very tasty. We added pollo cacciatore, oh someting I've eaten for ages. Nice...not my favorite...but a very nice sauce if not as hearty thick as I enjoy it. Two appetizers..asparagus baked in parmigian and a very very fresh mozzerlla capreze. And then salads on top...and very wonderful bread...ah very tasty fresh breads... Two beers...I'm sorry we couldn't comment on the large wine inventory. Had I lived closer this would have been certainly a go to restaurant. Charming, tasty, Incredible values and terrific service to boot. What was interesting was to see so many patrons embrace Max upon leaving. This is deservedly a very popular restaurant.

They had yelp reviews as late as last August. Seems like a quiet close done in the midst of so many competing restaurants, let alone the number of steak houses in Tysons.

I was at Ray's to the 3 last week, for the first time. I've been to Ray's and across the street. The joint was busy. Packed. Early dinner. The burger side was busy but not crazy. We could secure a table. You ground them...we ate em. Scrumptious.

Here is to the security process and people involved. One thinks back to the bomber at the Atlanta Olympics, Eric Rudolf. He set off bombs at the 1996 Olympics set off bombs before and after, was responsible for killing two and injuring over 100. He was captured in 2003. The people involved and the processes today are far better. .....and we need them. It was exciting to watch people cheer when the remaining bomber was captured.

I had the turkey reuben today. Ate in at Earl's (Clarendon) alone, reading the newspaper. When I finished I stood up and said loud enough for the staff to hear...."THAT WAS A GOOD SANDWICH" From Earl's menu: Today's fresh roasted turkey was simply scrumptious!!! Juicy, thick...simply special. So many places to get a sandwich...so few places put the special care into them as does Earl's!!! Fresh turkey!!!! I never do that at home...okay maybe once a year after Thanksgiving or possibly if for some special event with a lot of guests wherein we would serve turkey. Other than that I'd never have it. What a treat!!!!

Congratulations Zora. As a newcomer to this forum your expertise is one of the treasures of this forum. Good luck with writing to an expanded audience.

Landry's sent a follow up letter questioning Ark's move and claiming that the board is self serving working to preserve the interests of management (highly paid of course)..http://markets.on.nytimes.com/research/stocks/news/press_release.asp?docTag=201303072127PR_NEWS_USPRX____DA73616&feedID=600&press_symbol=47986 Interestingly the comments within the Prince of Petworth article spoke well of one of Ark's other restaurants in Union Station. On a wholly separate item, for years and years, Sequoia on the Georgetown waterfront was the best place to bartend on the east coast (during the warm weather) Regular bartenders would come up from Key West and often make $1k/night during good weather at that flourishing restaurant meat market

Somehow this description made me think of the earthquake of 2011 when Northern Va was in the HAND of something bigger than all of us. In Rosslyn at the point of the head people exploded out of their high rise buildings and swam around in relief that once again all was well. I'm hungry and could use a smoke

Methinks we have a potential candidate for governor of Virginia lurking on this board.

....and to think I never ordered a grill cheese sandwich at any restaurant ever in my memory for myself, my family, friends, ANYONE. Did my parents do so when I was a kid??? Can't remember. Of all the sandwiches in all the restaurants in the world...somehow I have this concept that paying someone to make what should be one of the simplest, most common, potentially diverse sandwiches even a lazy guy like me can make ....somehow it just doesn't feel right. (goes home to cook up some neat variation on grilled cheese)

Ignoring the specific areas, if I were looking for a primer on locations.....thar she is ...up atop the list.

Stopped by in Clarendon today. First of all perfect AC and temp. Perfect. comfortable, relaxed, nice music. Oh...and btw: they sell burgers. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......the juciest burger around. and even more btw.....the ingenious 127 flavor coke machine. Coke and burger heaven. Now if only there was a live Nats game going on. @mbucher can you fix that last part???

@hdean: There is another site in Atlanta that covers all that information. It was the original of its kind: http://tonetoatl.com tomorrows news today, Atlanta. The twitter acct is @tonetoatlanta Several years ago I found out about it from an old friend, the father of the author. When I saw your reference, I went to that site, thought it looked exactly like what was originally done by my friends son...but found it under the name of another author. Strange indeed. If you live in Atlanta, live in DC and Atlanta, follow both and decide which information is more accurate and which is more artificially self serving.

$100/ft all over dupont circle. Wow. And that is why food and drink prices keep going up in DC and in various expensive sections of the DC region. I recall getting in a "bread line" at Marvelous Market on Upper Ct Ave in the early 90's. I'd guess that rent was in the $20's/ft. $100/ft around dupont circle. I'd bet those retail rents were around $30 something/foot back when He first opened his first stores. At about 3,000 feet (my guess for a store based on memory) the difference between rents than and now suggest he'd pay an extra $500/day in rent. That is a lot of rent to cover when you are selling breads for several dollars/loaf. Its basically telling the baker that every loaf needs to be priced at about $1 more than in the past. Its no wonder prices for foods like that keep soaring. Its been a long time since I leased retail space. Rents are astoundingly high. I got a feel for current rent quotes on the Wilson Blvd retail center that Michael Landrum's Ray's Burgers departed. All incredibly high. Jeeeeshhhhhhhhh. If you want well priced food...find it in some over retailed low rent places in the outer suburbs or in some areas with relatively depressed retail rents such as Silver Spring.

Harper is on pace for 324 home runs. There is a DR.com special for home run hitting steroids at the A-Rod international website. 30% off. Just today. reference dr.com

But do you think they are good, Zora, seeded or not? My experience is from over a decade ago...but I probably bought ryes from there for a decade before that and was very pleased.

When I lived in Bethesda I used to go to that place. They had good ryes also IMHO.

Was gonna suggest NY/NJ but your thinking inside the Beltway. I think Whole Foods has decent Ryes. (I know...whole foods....eek---haven't been there for a while--but I did like their ryes)

Okay: here is a source for big restaurants with big volumes: http://www.eatinglv.com/2010/04/the-top-100-independent-restaurants-2010/ total it up....and you have a lot of fat, drunk people

I used to know that info pretty well when I was leasing retail and restaurants, but that was a long time ago. There are some industry magazines, probably emags now that publish that info. I forget their names now. I think Old Ebbitt, and possibly another 1 or 2 of the real large Clyde's group were in the very high lists. Some of the Great American Restaurants were in those lists of very high revenue producers. Of course there are non chain restaurants that don't get reported that also kill. I think Cheesecake was noted for humongous sales per foot. On the club side Club Love was one of the largest volume clubs in the country and that was pretty much all liquor. Nobody really wants to tell you that info. Years ago in the early 80's I leased a Mrs Field's Cookies at the corner of Connecticut and K. Only about 1,000 feet. I think it was running at the highest rent in the city at the time. But for the first five years of the lease, I knew from the Mrs. Field's people that it was one of their top 5 in the chain for profits. The store was open either 5 or 5.5 days a week versus 7 days a week as most of the mall stores. The difference in labor costs made it tremendously profitable for them. Of course there are plenty of operators in DR.com. There the ones that know the bottom line. Of course if I were one of them I'd pretty much keep quiet about my results

The cupcakes at Crumbs Bake Shop in Clarendon are so good it might be the most important thing to help Clarendon since first the car and then the Metro.

While SeriousEats had this to say about the Sprite Peach combo: I thought it smelled. oh well...126 flavors to go

I had dinner at The Green Pig for the first time. Excellent, tasty, fun, uplifting. The bar was hopping. Small, crowded, it looked efficient and the vibe was great from the customers. Very happy bar. I went in fairly tired and fairly full, not a great way to have a meal. Everything was simply superb and lifted my spirits. Highlights for me were from the Snacks menu and the appetizers. From the snacks menu fried pimento cheese (balls) with two tasting dips. Encore encore. Delicious. From the appetizer menu I loved the smoked duck risotto. Very tasty, egg on top, beautifully presented, entirely delightful. Service was excellent and friendly. Scott stopped by. He is effervescent. We were in the dining room. I love watching BOH staff work. They were "cooking" efficient, smooth, you could see when orders picked up a bit and when they were slightly slower...but they handled everything well. Wonderful dinner. I'll be back...hungrier next time with more room for more food and variety.

Velocity 5 in Arlington was sold a short while ago and will be converted to Arlington Social Haus The sale took place a short while ago and the new owners have been operating the restaurant as Velocity 5 for a bit. This particular space has gone through operator after operator after operator. Good luck folks. I think that space has bad karma.

Genevieve: Over the years I've tried a lot of dishes at Minh's. Can't speak to a favorite though I've enjoyed many meals there. Our little article on behalf of the school was oriented to our entire groups' experiences, specific dishes, and dishes and places we recommend to our visitors at the school. Staff, students, and I are all big fans of the pho at lunch, especially during winters. Overall I've had wonderful dining experiences at Minh's, and unfortunately I can't pick particular favorites right now. That menu is huge, btw. I usually need a lot of help with it.