DaveO

I'm curious how the managers and owners feel about this with regard to front of the house staff.

We received a call from an old grad. I would unequivocally say he had one of the most outstanding engaging personalities of any graduate we have had over the last several decades. Truly engaging, fun, and sort of charismatic. He had a full time job in the IT industry for years and predominantly bartended for special events and catering over the last decade. He also bartended at a sports bar for a fair period.

He has an extremely honest work ethic and could easily be one of the more engaging personality strong bartenders I have run into over many years. He is now in his forties and would be best suited for a more upscale environment with an older crowd.

I'm putting this out there on his behalf. If there are GM's, managers, who would value a person who could develop a tremendous loyal following, this individual could fill your bill.

If you are interested in interviewing him, you could contact me, Dave, at the Professional Bartending School 703 841 9700 or DM me through this forum.

We don't normally do this, but after several decades this person truly stood out.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Here's a solution:

Use a credit card that gives you hotel points. When you've accumulated enough, book a night in a hotel with a free continental breakfast. Meanwhile, take a coat with side pockets and line them both with wax paper. Also, clear a large shelf in your refrigerator at home.

When you go stay at the hotel, wear the coat with the wax paper pockets. Get dressed in the morning and put on the coat, and go to the continental breakfast area/shelf. Take two knifefuls of cream cheese and slide them into the pockets, pressing against your side to remove the cream cheese from the knife and deposit in the pocket. Do this discreetly and look at the knife like it is defective before putting it down for the last time.

Now go home and take off your coat. Carefully ball it up and put it on the shelf in your fridge that you cleared. Ideally, you've chosen a low shelf so the interior light isn't blocked too much.

When you want a two bagels with cream cheese, put on a fleece shirt and then pull your jacket out of the fridge. Now, go to your favorite bagel place and order two PLAIN bagels (the plain part is the key to the success of this operation). Upon receipt of your order, casually sit down and put one bagel into your left pocket, holding it carefully in a "gobble" position, like it is a pac-man going in to eat the dots. Use it to grab and scrape the lucious cream cheese from the inside of the waxpaper-lined jacket pocket. Now take the second bagel and repeat on the right side, carefully closing the bagel around the cream cheese. Put both back on the table and enjoy.

To really maximize this method, use your hotel-room-points credit card to pay for the bagels and the circle will be unbroken.

That is a splendid idea. I'm going for it. I appreciate the careful attention to detail with specific reference to balling the clothes on a lower shelf so as not to block too much light. Truly a carefully thought out plan!!!

Do you have other similar ideas for exquisite fine dining experiences?

Are there no exceptions to the "personal attacks are frowned on rule"? I'd make an exception for this one.

Stopped by today for lunch and had a large gumbo. yummmm. spicy, creamy, the rice on top is a nice touch. I only wish it were twice as big. Nice soup for a cold day.

Il Pizzico not only has a shake, barn style roof, but a curb to prevent you from driving through the front of the building. Pasta Plus has no such amenities. And before Pasta Plus purchased the adjacent space, that space was boarded up, hurricane style

touche

plus I haven't eaten at Pasta Plus so I can't add anything relative to the "best" part of your terrific sentence.

I thought to myself, "this [Pasta Plus] could be the greatest restaurant in the shittiest location in the shittiest building within a 250 mile radius."

hmmm....I always thought Il Pizzico in Rockville offered absolutely great food in a particularly ratty looking dumpy shopping center...albeit on Rockville Pike, which is, I suppose a "better location"

I have had dozens of meals here, and can never recall a bad one. The last time I was there, maybe for lunch in 2004, I thought to myself, "this could be the greatest restaurant in the shittiest location in the shittiest building within a 250 mile radius."

Glad to hear they are still cranking out great food, and I need to figure out a way to get up there again.

I think I'll head up to Laurel. tx

That is a tremendous detailed review. Congrats on the wedding and such a successful event.

I took a seat, my bartender replaced my silverware, and I said, "I'd love that glass of Bulleitt when you get a moment." He put the glass down on the rubber matrix thing behind the bar, alongside a second glass with two ice cubes, and tilted the bottle to pour my drink. As he was pouring, I said to myself, "Your tip's on the line. Your tip's on the line. Your tip's on the line." After an unbelievably miserly pour, he stopped, and my heart sank. Then, he pulled the oldest bartending trick in the book: he "decided" to top it off with a second pour, and just as my heart began to rise again, he stopped, the second pour amounting to only a dribble. It was a cheap, crummy pour, and I was his only customer of the night. Yeah, you know, I hate to sound petty, but that pissed me off. My bill, before tax and tip, was $69 for two drinks, an appetizer, and an entree. My bartender got a $13 tip, as opposed to the $14 I'd normally leave. It was a subtle swipe, but a swipe nonetheless. He could have, and certainly should have, been more attentive to his only customer of the evening. The food at Smith and Wollensky on this evening was pretty good; the service left much to be desired. Let me make myself clear here: my bartender seemed like a decent fellow; he just wasn't a very good bartender.

If you want a stiff drink go to Stan's on Vermont Avenue. That place has maintained a reputation for stiff drinks for at least 30 years. (I can personally attest to the first ten of those last 30-- and have heard the same thing on an off for the last 20 years.

Now that is consistency.

Thanks, weezy - it's even written on their sign that they've been open since 1972. I inserted it in the list, and also corrected Booeymonger (I had it listed as 1975; their own site says 1976 for the Jennifer Street outlet.

Oh man. one of their original sandwiches, the gurubin was named after a friend of the owners, a guy I knew, a sort of guru himself named rubin. What a memory.

Had a french dip at Earl's today along with the sweet potato fries. Absolutely great sandwich with a lot of terrific flavors and side dish....and filling.

Ouch! Such a friendly quality place going down. I read the City Paper article. Oh those comments by readers at the end were depressing.

I thought I recognized the father's name. Didn't know him but I used to know some of his peers pretty well in the RE business. Some of his peers have as much long term experience and smarts as any people in commercial RE in the region.

What a lesson. The RE people know the $ and cents of RE and retail real estate but they don't know the insides of what makes a restaurant /f&b place work. Ultimately only the owners really get to know it....and know it well...after seeing the daily and weekly revenues and all those danged expenses.

Always sad when someone's passion, brilliant idea, and quality product gets screwed by the hard reality of $$ and cents.

I'm so happy the former version of Wilson Tavern closed. I think the property owner screwed the former tenant, Kitty's and got away w/ murder on the deal: a somewhat unprecedented breaking of a lease on a very wierd technicality.

Never went to the former version of Wilson Tavern. I stopped by tonight, having heard from one of the crowd that used to hang at Kitty's that it has totally changed. Now I like wonderful crafted food, but I also like comfortable dives. Dives are for comfort, relaxation, and fun conversation...and having fit in w/ the older folks who hung at the old kitty's I'm glad one dive in Arlington continues to exist.

Here here for the $1 dollar millers, the $2 fish tacos, and similar inexpensive fare that does have a place. Cripes Clarendon and even Ballston is a plethora of ever fancier places, some of which do have exciting menus and sparkling tasty cocktails. Its exciting to find new different specialties....but I still love a dive.

Takes me back to watching a championship boxing match at Milly and Al's sometimes in the '80's. Some American gringo champ was fighting some Latin champ. The place was packed with Hispanics and gringos like myself. Cheap beer was flowing. Men and women rooting and cheering. My crowd broke the place up with a rousing rendition of the theme song from Rocky.

Damned if I can recall who was fighting let alone who won. but it was a helluva good time.

To all those employers: The Professional Bartending School is an excellent source for employers. Our employment services are free to employers.

I just noticed that Ridgewells/Purple Tie hired at least 15 graduates for the Holiday Season, plus additional events. We did a blast for them in mid August. I think they are pretty well staffed up now for the holidays.

Our placement services do not charge for accessing our grads. We don't "do contracts" We do have a current data base of about 1300 graduates who are looking for employment, from parties and special events to part-time and full-time employment. We are expanding that.

Employers of all sorts throughout the DC metro region (and beyond) use our services ranging from looking for part-time to full time bartenders. The grads range from new to some with over a decade of experience. They received a 40 hour hands on program, TAM alcohol management training, and customer service training.

We don't claim they are the best bartenders in the world. We know that. But they are great for training. We are fulfilling a request now for an "artisan" bartender/manager who will uptrain a grad or two.

Best way to contact us is through our job placement services: email at: pbsplacement@gmail.com or call for our job placement manager, Fatima at 703-841-9757. We also direct staff special events, catering, parties, etc.

We can screen graduates for you. We can blast out emails to a large volume of grads. We will shortly be able to screen by geography. We are expanding the contact list as our total graduate list is well over 10,000 in the last decade, although we have no idea how many are currently or would be willing to bartend.

Any questions or comments? I'll be happy to respond.

Dave

I was at Hudson a few months ago. It reeked of mediocrity in every way. It depressed me, especially in that all 3 of the bartenders on staff at the time were recent graduates of our bartending school. But they were all newish and just weren't good with what must have been terrible direction from any experienced staff. and btw: I too thought it was an attractive bar area.

IMHO there is an opportunity for a place to stay open to 5 AM. There is this largish after bar crowd that will go to a place with decent food/ and drinks into the wee hours of the evening when sane people have gone home. Its often a bar business crowd and they spend well while not being too demanding. But in any city there is only so much opportunity, so IMHO you have to be better than anyone else.

Its really a great happy hour and light dining location in my opinion. Good luck to the new guys.

Sorry, I lost track of this site for a bit. Don, the official name is "The Rock and Raw Bar at Sobe's". Long name, I know. We'll probably drop the "at Sobe's" down the road. I hope. Genevieve, other than the fish tacos, my favorites are the Lobster Rolls, Firecracker Oysters (fried oysters drizzled in a spicy mambo sauce) and our Crabcake.

Oh good. I love lobster rolls too and I'm nearby. I'll be there. Good luck!!

I'd like to update to just say that Toscana continues to put out terrific NJ/NY style pastas and pizza that beat the pants off of most places in the region. Very very true and consistent to the style and flavors of "classic" Italian food from the NY metro region at reasonable prices.

My favorite is the Chicken Franchaise Pizza; a white/lemon and garlic sauce with a healthy dose of chicken across the top. The Portobello pie has a similar sauce with a healthy spread of mushrooms.

Sauces and pastas are more true to the flavors of the NY metro area than you will find most anywhere in this region. The red sauces are thick, tasty, and hearty. The pastas maintain firmness.

NO....I don't work there. Just a big fan.

They are running a lot of specials. Tremendous prices. They have a new catering menu. As referenced above the owner, Joe, is tremendously friendly, interactive and fun.

The place deserves a trial. Its hidden inside the courthouse courtyard behind Velocity Grill.

On top of that they have a new catering menu.

damn. I stopped by there not too long ago one evening....after not having been there for years. It was so similar. I too liked their refried beans....

sad..l'd say their new mexican style cooking was a tad better or considerably better than other places in the region for a long time. and above all very comfy place.

ugh. after reading the arlnow article, as a former retail broker...that is simply a miserably tough space to rent and keep occupied; on a hill that cuts active foot traffic, slightly below ground. That location turns off foot traffic ....and customers will only make it work, if the place has a deserved reputation.

That landlord is going to have a tough time keeping a tenant in there over any stretch.

Bad decision on an above value if understated restaurant, IMHO.

Although I don't know this for a fact, I would suspect Carmine's could do that.

I was reading this...and it struck me later....Howl/ Allan Ginsburg. oh my been years.

The other day I published a rave review (in a different venue) abt the Starbucks at Courthouse in Arlington. It was all about staffing. Some great customer service. Today, while in line, I witnessed another terrific example in front of me. Really outstanding. I've experienced more than one other similar example at that Starbucks. Frankly I don't go there "that much". Today I asked to speak to the manager and we discussed it. I asked what they were doing....and he attributed as much of the positive staffing to hiring and looking for certain attributes.

Now...I actually go far more often to independent coffee shops than starbucks; some enough to be a "regular" and know the staff. But frankly great customer service is "infrequent" and more infrequent at independent's than at the couple of starbucks I might go to more often.

Now we also run independent small businesses (not restaurants) and it is very tough to get or develop great staffing. The terrific restaurant operators here know that..as do regular customers as do the FOH staff that are truly terrific.

Unfortunately my experience with the independents is that they have all lagged somewhat from what I've experienced at Starbucks.

Its a truly difficult task to upgrade staffing and when one achieves it....it simply adds millions to the dining experience.

I basically optimize business websites for local businesses. Web Reviews are a fact of life. They make me terribly uncomfortable. If the restaurant operators here are to speak to this issue it will unveil all the incredible impactful elements of reviews.

Of interest here is a story where a judge upheld a $150,000 penalty for falsified reviews. http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/05/24/appeals-court-upholds-150k-in-punitive-damages-for-3-fake-reviews/

Currently google is filtering reviews on some algo driven basis. Some go up, some don't. Auto dealers have possibly lost in the aggregate millions of reviews (probably all positive) ha haha. The industry is fighting it. We'll see how it plays out.

Yelp....oooof....what more can I say. Yet I'll go here to review restaurants, and I'll read yelp reviews and those of other sources.

I'm pretty sure our little businesses have been hit by 4 malicious attack reviews done or paid for by competitors. I've spent endless time going back and forth with the carriers of those reviews. 1 of the 4 were removed. I can't prove it though, unlike the examples above. Wish I could!!!

I don't like writing bad reviews but if I get beastly service I love writing scathing reviews...then I want the business to see them. hell I'll take them down if the business rights the wrong.

Web Reviews....ugh....its a complex issue

I was half-joking when I said here that ramen is displacing pho - and maybe even cupcakes.

However, I have an observation and a question that I've never before seen a restaurant writer mention, along with a conclusion and a revelation:

Observation: The vermicelli in the best pho house in the DC area is worse than the vermicelli in the worst spaghetti house in the DC area. It is overcooked into mush 100% of the time, and they aren't good noodles to begin with.

Question: If the broth is so special, so long-cooked with beef bones, then why is it so important to get fatty meats with it? The meats served with DC-area pho are among the worst quality of any non-ground beef product you can find at any restaurant in the DC area. The reason to add these frozen, terribly fatty meats (soft tendon, brisket that's 75% fat, etc.) are to add fat to the broth, and the only reason to add fat to the broth is if the broth is made primarily from starter mix and isn't sufficiently fatty to begin with.

Conclusion: Pho, taken as a whole, gets too much of a free pass. You can argue that a synergy (and even some olfactory nuance) is reached with the star anise, basil, a judicious application of sauces, etc., but other than appealing aromas, this is pretty low-quality stuff we're talking about here at the majority of pho houses.

Revelation: I had dinner at Pho Hot tonight, and the first two things I do when prepping my pho are: 1) insert sprouts and as much basil as possible 2) flip the noodles on top so the sprouts are trapped under them and cook, and the noodles stop cooking because they're now on top (although they're already cooked into mush to begin with). Tonight, however, I performed 1) and 2), but held off on the basil until after I sauced it up, picking the basil and adding it on the very top as the last thing. Cooking it along with the noodles was killing its scent. Why I didn't realize this before is beyond me (robotic habit, I guess), but this is what you want to do to keep the basil relevant.

Am I a heretic? If so, then what am I missing? I've had pho probably 100 times in my life (well, it is fast, cheap, and tasty, and my parents loved it), and I don't think I'm missing much. Don't get me started on the nasty "meat"balls and MSG and often-dirty condiments (if you think the condiments aren't dirty, bring them home and try soaking them in a bowl of water sometime - you'll be appalled). The plum sauce, if carelessly squirted, can produce a distressing sound.

Cheers,

Rocks

Oh my. This is a lesson in Phomanship. Now I like Pho....but these are terrific observations, and one's I'll have to take into account and consider. I usually go for pho ga or chicken soup for exactly the reasons you suggest about the meats. Additionally I've had some wonderful thai chicken soups with very superior noodles, as referenced above, a delectable broth, and different flavorings. Unfortunately I've had that at more than one place and I can't recall which ones were particularly good and better than others.

But I must admit these observations are right on target.

I've been to Earl's recently. Its all because of the comments in this thread. Not sure why I've neglected it, as I've eaten there over the years, since I work so close...but simply haven't focused on it.

The monty is excellent. Rare roast beef, a zingy bbq sauce on a soft roll. Very tasty, if not a bit messy...but definitely tasty. The roasted earl was also nice with excellent roasted pork. I'm partial to a a spicier sandwich, so it wouldn't be my first choice...but again the quality of the meat was excellent. On my 2nd visit I ate in toward the latter part of the lunch period. At a period where things were a bit slower one of the staff visited with everyone asked about the meal, and made suggestions and recommendations to one couple with kids. Always a nice move on the part of any f & b place.

I'll keep going back to work my way through the menu.