DaveO

hm....the bar length at Ben's Next Door is Manute Bolish in length. I wonder how many mini attractive, intimate, tiny Muggsy Bogues bars there are.

$650 K that is nuts. Its worth about 13 different elevators for your car in a 2 story garage. cripes Or you could find a company like this one and rent when you need it. http://www.funflicks.com/washington-outdoor-cinema-rental.html or you could go to outdoor movies at Strathmore or on the mall.

...and I'd say you did a great job at Ben's next door. Walk in there...and i just wanted to belly up to the bar and order a drink. very attractive

The Hawk and Dove is reopening this evening at 5:00PM. Very pretty pictures: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2013/01/15/a-look-inside-the-new-hawk-dove-reopening-thursday/ This new version is mighty chic...not the old hawk and dove by a long shot.

I tend to go to Java Shack a lot. These days they have a knowledgable and informative barista in George during the mornings. George has brown hair, a beard and mustache. George takes his baristing seriously. He entered a barista contest in Atlanta last summer/fall, and considering it was his first and he was competing against people with a lot of experience he finished quite well. George is choosing roasts for the expresso and is willing to explain the various specialty coffee's at Java Shack with any customer. George is a terrific addition to a long line of "friendly java shack employees" though few if any had his expertise.

I too thought the bar setting at Hudson's was attractive, though with some dingy basic building/ ceiling tile elements that took away from a very attractive setting. Now the bar at Ben's Next Door just knocks me out: supposedly 53 feet long. from google pics: https://www.google.com/maps?layer=c&z=17&sll=38.917148999999995,-77.028694&cid=-1715429103915042113&panoid=eNB6KOjrSTUaUyaTtLkrDQ&cbp=13,161.6239514946999,,0,0&q=bens+next+door&sa=X&ei=tFr4ULXLA8e30gGmsoH4DA&ved=0CKIBEKAf I was contemplating that bar and considering if I started at one end with a cocktail and would have a 2nd cocktail at the next seat and so on...just how many seats down before I fell on my ass and passed out. Very serious bar, IMHO

true, Don. The issues are between them and I certainly know nothing about the issues, nor do I want to. My experience, and I suspect Michael is savvy about this, is that he uses a great RE attorney.

The arlnow story went national on huffington post...copying the arlnow info: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/rays-hell-burger-closes-arlington_n_2487649.html Leases are brutal. I used to negotiate them as a commercial RE broker. Invariably the landlord has the advantage and leverage. But the details are between the tenant and the landlord...so who knows. Good luck, Michael. the restaurants are an amenity in the area and your restaurants are probably the single tenant in that center that brings customers from a wide geography beyond immediate and local, at least off the top of my head and IMHO. (not that that means much in an LL/tenant dispute)

Toscana Grill, Courthouse in Arlington; located in the courtyard of the Courthouse Office Complex offers wifi AND great italian food at moderate prices with the tastes of the NY/NJ region...on top of having one of the friendliest, chattiest, make you feel good, wanna be his buddy owner/pizza guy--> Joe. Use wifi, try the chicken francesca pizza. yum Give it a try. (I am not affiliated with these guys--> I just like them)

Important update: per the manager at the 5 guys in Clarendon: 5 guys making these mandatory at all new 5 Guys!!!! His store will get one soon. Folks from out of town stop in ask where the machine is. Its the rage.

With so many threads about bagel stores, a bagel thread, and a proposed blind bagel taste test, there really should be a thread about the cousins of bagels-- bialy's -- and specifically about bialy's in DC. So I checked on Google. Admittedly Google is not DR.com and has none of the expertise one can find here. Regardless google has a surprising suggestion with regard to the best place for bialy's in DC: https://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=bialys+in+washington+dc&oq=bialys+in+washington+dc&gs_l=hp.3...8551.13505.0.13705.23.21.0.2.2.0.260.2812.0j20j1.21.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.i0LuNo_llqs&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1357700187,d.dmQ&fp=78fdfab22e03668c&biw=1600&bih=775 I never knew I could get a good bialy at that place. I wonder if I can also get a bagel and a smear or a nice kugel there.

I've used them at Noodles & Company also. Incredible variety. I was not aware of how it worked. Want lime in your soda? Once you've chosen the brand you then have subsequent options with the many flavors/syrups. The lime flavor adds a nice strong lime flavor and the appropriate green color. Holy crow. this could be a bigger invention than the wheel.

Boy I'd love to hear from a restaurateur who has a bottom line perspective on this. Do deli sandwiches end up having significantly lower margins....and really don't do justice to the bottom line? Don't know. Meanwhile, Mel Krupin's up in Tenleytown back in the 90's had a chicken in the pot dish that was the equivalent I had anywhere, and incidentally had the equivalent medicinal/recovery impact of a two week stay at Hopkins Hospital. One time I brought that soup to a friend who was Peruvian and severely under the weather. He called it "grandmother's soup". It seemed to help him. Maybe chicken soup is a universal folk medicinal cure that transcends ethnicity and national borders.

I opened my big web mouth about "best bagels" in the area, and had referenced bethesda bagels, tysons bagel shop, georgetown bages. I had forgotten about Goldberg's. I thought they were in the same category. Not familiar w/ bagel city or Ize's.

Want to see how Google interprets where the best bialy's can be found in DC. Click on this link: https://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=bialys+in+washington+dc&oq=bialys+in+washington+dc&gs_l=hp.3...15747.18105.1.18519.14.12.0.0.0.6.894.4551.5-2j4.6.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.g-fTDC1gkfQ&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1357700187,d.dmQ&fp=70f902665fe3d8c&biw=1517&bih=714 or do a search in google for bialy's in Washington DC

I'd like to think I grew up as a bagel maven. My paternal grandmother, born in Poland/Belarus territory near Bialystock was supposedly a legendary baker, although she passed away when I was too young to recall her meals. My fathers family had a business on the lower east side of manhattan for decades and we were adjacent and within blocks of legendary Jewish, Italian, and Chinese food. From youth to young adulthood I ate there with many older family members and their friends who seemed to be "experts" on these various ethnic cuisines. We lived in Northern NJ with some spectacular delis and Jewish bakeries. Having said that...I'm ignorant about the various cooking methods. I'll paraphrase a SC Justice: I know a good bagel when I've had it. Zora is far more the expert, describing the difference between softer and harder/crunchier bagels. Having grown up around NYC I'm definitely more oriented to the crunchier bagels than the softer egg bagels (as she described). I guess that is all taste. I've liked Bethesda bagel, georgetown bagel, and the tysons bagel shop. In fact I liked the tysons bagel place after the Jewish owner sold it to Asian operators. Same recipe. Ha ha..you don't have to be Jewish to cook a great bagel. I've had a lot of bagels from Brooklyn bagel in courthouse because of convenience. I know the operators somewhat. very nice guys. I like tysons bagels better, but I think brooklyn's bagels are pretty good. I suspect I'm holding to the NYC style,cooked without eggs.(as I understand it) Give me a really thick crunchy well crusted pumpernickel bagel toasted with a heap of cream cheese. For this area, I'd give bethesda bagel a slight edge but this is all taste.

sorta feel like bookluvingbabe. I haven't been to Tragara in ages, but when I lived in North Bethesda I dined there occasionally. It was always enjoyable, somewhat formal, always spectacular meals, tremendous FOH service, impeccable, polite, totally enjoyable...and always expensive. I also attended one event there. A terrific place for a party, small wedding or event, though probably quite expensive. Wonder why it never got coverage...it was so good. Sad to hear its moved on.

Had the 4 way texas chili mac at hard times, for the first time in ages. It reminded me why I preferred the tastes of HT's Cincinnati which is more tomatoish. gotta admit I do like chili on spaghetti in general. the texas is dryer and grittier with a reasonable but not overbearing level of spices.

I had the pork and fries at Earl's the other day. What a wonderful sandwich. After devouring it I was scraping around for extra itty bitty fries. A staffer, who might be a manager responded to a question saying the pork and fries is their #1 seller. Might be...its a worthy sandwich as are so many others at Earl's. Then today I walked the other direction to Bayou Bakery...so NOT Clarendon and so Courthouse..ish. Spicy gumbo with delicious sausage...and a creole pilgrim sandwich--> turkey, arugula, dijon mustard, gouda on a wonderful crusty roll. Damn that area is sandwich heaven.

yeah...but Willow is sooooooooooo Ballston...not Clarendon...and has a lot more office space around for potential lunch business

I stopped in at the Black Rooster last night following a nearby Meet UP in the evening. Oooooooh nostalgia hit me over the head like a hammer. I was grateful to learn that Jody Taylor was the owner. I recall Jody from the 80's/90's when he was Blackie Auger's GM on that bar and a number of others around DC. I had lost contact with all that, and it was nice to see that the Auger's sold him the place for $1 and that a real community effort including a lot of F & B people worked to keep it in his hands as of late 2009. So all I had was a single beer while around me folks had various burgers, and the comments seemed to reflect a lot of satisfaction. The Black Rooster, a remnant from some decades ago, operated by a very experienced person. The reviews seem acceptable. Probably a great place to stop by for a beer and some burgers. A real DC pub. I'll be back.

Aha.

All of which brings to mind my favorite description of an area of DC going back to the early to mid 1980's. Sort of downtown 14th street....now all offices. I relished the description of it back in that half decade when some called the area where the well heeled met the high heeled and the porn shop sites became office buildings.

I'm not familiar with "14 UP" but Rosslyn, Ballston, Crystal City, Bethesda, and Courthouse all have substantially more office space and lunch time office workers, and Clarendon has this surfeit of retail space, most of it dedicated to food, meaning that so many places have to compete for dinner and late night food and drinks, all combined with some enormously high rents. That is a tough place to do business for anyone in the F&B business. Just looking at it makes me think you have to do something special, unique, be damn good at it and consistent because that is a tough market with virtually all of the revenues falling in limited hours. Just my $0.02.

From a business perspective its interesting to see quite a number of places in Clarendon not opening on weekdays till 4 PM. These aren't straight out high end restaurants. They are restaurants, bars with medium priced fare (and up). There is simply too little day business to go around, evidently with too many places that are there, and relatively little office driven lunch time business to support all these establishments during the lunch hours and merit staffing up. Ballston has fewer places that don't open till 4, as its office market is simply larger and supports more lunch business. Man....its gotta be tough to make it in Clarendon with a lot of very high rents, a lot of competition, and limited hours to take advantage of it all.