Search the Community

Cristina and I spent our 13th anniversary at one of 2018's hot-spots. We arrived a touch early for our reservations, planning on a drink at the bar, but beware that there is really not much room for standing and drinking. Cocktails were great though. The Nancy Cakes (Johnny cakes with whipped butter and trout roe) have gotten a lot of press (and they're definitely good), but the lamb dumplings with crispy garlic were the star of the night for me.

I'm starting a dedicated topic about Zaytinya because it doesn't appear to have one. It's on my mind right now, mostly because a friend is going there tonight and her pronunciation cracked me up. I have zero idea of I myself pronounce it right (Zay-TEE-nyah), however I am completely certain that she wasn't even close. The number of variations I see on the spelling of the name also astounds me. My most recent visit was two weeks ago for lunch. I find lunch to be a pleasant time to visit the place - less crowded, particularly in the bar area. That said, when my friend and I arrived and asked about a table for two, we received blank stares from the two hostesses (in spite of it being after 1 pm, and there being quite a few vacant two-tops scattered here and there). We took matters into our own hands and sat in the bar. Service was prompt (until it was check time) and the food was very, very tasty. Although...as I am sitting here typing, I realize that our carrot fritters never did arrive. Hmm. We had the stewed lamb with eggplant puree, asparagus, chicken with orzo and tomato sauce, and hummus. My new-to-town friend, originally from Wales by way of NYC, was suitably impressed, particularly when the bill amounted to about $30 with tip.

Details from the Washington Post here. Personally, I'm a little disappointed to hear that it's going to be, in part, ANOTHER pizza place; I realize that's not the entire focus of the place, but I don't think we're exactly lacking for good pizza places in DC.

Been to Level in Annapolis 3 times in the past two weekends and my wife and I are convinced this is the best small plates restaurant in the Annapolis area. Large and crowded but we have been able to snag reservations on consecutive Friday nights. Place isn't quiet and adult oriented. I.E. I didn't see any children or really children friendly food. Small but great list of curated cocktails. My wife had a pair of Gimlets with Lime Foam and shaved Lime Rind and I have Moscow Mules with handmade Ginger Beer. Seemed like a good selection of Beer and Wines. We had Finca La Mata on Saturday night, a good wine which I have bought by the case. Annapolis is a drinking town and it doesn't disappoint in this regard. We have had salads, Fried Cuban Rolls, Lamb, Sea Bass, Pork Loin, frites and they were all great. They have 4-5 entrees in groupings such as sea, land, veggie, pasta and appetizers. On West street about a mile away from city dock, which makes for easier parking.

While we wait for our moving truck to arrive, we are staying with family in Memorial, in the Western part of Houston. The whole family, 2 small kids in tow, had dinner at Izaykaya Wa on Memorial Dr. last night. I luckily called ahead and made a reservation, as it was packed to the gills with a boisterous group of drinkers/noshers when we arrived. This is a true Izakaya, being a great place to throw down a few beers and munch on yakitori and kushiage. It reminded Cristina and I of our old NYC haunt, Village Yokocho. We shared a number of things, mainly standards (edamame, vegetable tempura, takoyaki, seaweed salad). All were done well, especially the takoyaki, which were thankfully not drowning in Kewpie mayo. The chirashi and special rolls we shared were fine for a place that is not focussed on sushi. Chicken skin and chicken thigh skewers were nicely grilled, the skin deliciously crispy and salty. A whole grilled squid served alongside grilled slices of jalapeño (we are in TX after all) was mildly flavored and a bit too chewy...the only real miss of the night. Everything was washed down with several rounds of Asahi and Sapporo, and thankfully the exuberance of our fellow diners drowned out any squeals of protestation from our smaller dining companions.

My wife and I were strolling around Bethesda one Saturday evening, free of child and looking for a new experience. We heard that Thelo had recently opened and it looked quaint with a nice patio (they didn't have their liquor license yet, but should have it now). The weather was nice so we thought we would give it a try. The owner very enthusiastically went over the menu with us. It was early so were were the only patrons there. He is certainly proud of the place and the food his chef is creating. We had the feta, a grilled cheese which was soft (not halumi), grilled and chopped eggplant salad, roasted beets, which came with a potato/garlic sauce, and finally an order of tzatziki (more about this later). The owner came over and chatted with us a bit before our food came. He is a Greek restaurant veteran. He told us how everything is made in house (except for the imported feta and yogurt). The chef makes the gyro every day. Grilled chicken is thigh instead of breast. I asked him about the tzatziki, and he enthusiastically told us how the chef starts with cucumbers, seeds them, grates them, then squeezes all liquid from them. He was so proud, while we didn't originally order it, but we had to and we were glad we did. It was thick and tasty. My favorite dish was the eggplant spread which was packed with flavor, but everything really was good. They don't serve the dips with pita here, but rather a crusty bread which gets some char from the grill (our Greek friends told us later that this is common on the islands). Everything was great and I need to get back to try the meat. One warning--as the owner told us, if you are going with a date, you both need to eat because the food is packed with garlic (vampires beware!). This was no joke, as I am pretty sure my pores were oozing it for a while after the meal!

A joint venture between Cava and Mama Lucias in Park Potomac. Was at a preview party tonight.... 800 degree oven,good pizza's.- not quite orso or pupatello...but much better thah matchbox. And no corporate board driving the food. Had some spicy pork sliders, among other tastes. Should do great and a welcome addition to the wasteland of food in Potomac!

After a couple "meh" experiences at other sushi spots around town, I have seen the truth, and it is Hori-san's sushi rice. I absolutely cannot bring myself to get excited about eating sushi anywhere else. Yes, yes, the fish is superb, impeccably prepared, and seasoned such that your soy sauce and freshly grated wasabi stare on longingly as you neglect them throughout the meal. But that rice. So perfectly seasoned, juuuuust sweet enough, and never overpacked or structurally unsound. I honestly think you do yourself a disservice by ordering sashimi at Kata. As far as I can tell, the play is to get an appetizer or two (chicken skewers 3 ways, miso eggplant, and the ceviche wouldn't be a bad way to go), and then ask for an omakase sushi from the chef with as few or many pieces as you feel like. We've done this both from the sushi bar and the tables.

Edan Macquaid, long-time pizzaiolo at 2 Amys, is partnering with the owners of 2941 to open a pizzeria in downtown Falls Church. The name is to be determined, and the location is best kept off-the-record for now. This has been in the works for some time, and, at least on paper, has the potential to be one of the most exciting restaurants to open in 2008. Look for Macquaid back in action as a full partner, serving up wood-fired Neopolitan pizza - possibly with DOC status - antipasti, a full selection of beer and wine, possibly a liquor license, an exhibition kitchen, and seating at the bar. Not all details have been resolved, and I don't wish to overstep my bounds, so this is all I feel comfortable saying for now. Congratulations to everyone involved, and we'll see you soon. Cheers! Rocks.

I'm attending a birthday party here in a couple of weeks. Looks pretty trendy. Any reports?

First time at Fox's Den on Main Street in Annapolis. solid gastropub from same folks as Level and Vida Taco. Shared salad, meatballs and pizza. All were solid. Will go back as there as no wait and the food was solid.

Chef RJ Cooper will open his first independent project, Rogue 24, in the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood of Washington, DC. Projecting a winter, 2011 opening, Rogue 24 will be located in Blagden Alley at 1234 9th St., NW. Executive chef/ owner RJ Cooper, a seasoned veteran chef and James Beard Award winner, is thrilled to bring this landmark restaurant to the developing neighborhood of Mount Vernon Square in Northwest Washington, DC. The 2,600 square- foot restaurant will be tucked away in one of the vacant buildings in Blagden Alley, currently a trendy alley that houses experimental art exhibits. Blagden Alley, located directly west of the Washington, DC Convention Center, is in engaging new epicenter of revitalization. The project leadership of Norman Jamal of Douglas Development has lead a wave of recent development, from multi-million dollar condominiums to established art galleries, as well as a burgeoning social scene of coffee houses, bars and restaurants. This recent rehabilitation makes the neighborhood an excellent locale for the first fine dining restaurant in Blagden Alley. "The space is a perfect fit for the intimate, yet edgy experience of Rogue 24," says Cooper of the Blagden Alley location. "I look forward to joining the current and future independent retailers, artists and residents alike in developing this section of Mount Vernon Square as a distinct destination neighborhood." Celebrating Cooper's stylized urban fine-dining cuisine, Rogue 24 will exclusively offer an interactive 24-course tasting menu. Guests will be served a progression of small dishes that excite the senses, tantalize the palate, and awaken curiosity. The multi-course meal will offer a place at the table where guests can dig deep into a culinary team's philosophy: exploring their suppliers, cooking techniques and sources of inspiration. Rogue 24 will provide an effortless space for the diner to enjoy the imagination of Cooper's menu. The avant-garde beverage program will house a beverage director that will serve as both sommelier and mixologist and will prepare all beverages at a tableside cart, providing innovative pairings that will stimulate the entire experience. 8 beverage (a combination of wine, cocktails and beer) pairings will be offered throughout the 24- course meal. "It is my vision that Rogue 24 will provide an emotional experience. That is what creates memorable meals"”more than the food, the wine, and the service, the overall culture of the restaurant must evoke emotions in its guests." Working alongside Cooper, Harper McClure will serve as chef de cuisine. McClure hails from Atlanta's renowned Bacchanalia restaurant and previously worked with Cooper at Vidalia as his sous chef for nearly five years. The two chefs look forward to reuniting for this groundbreaking new project. ### Situated in the center of the 52-seat dining room, the state-of-the-art kitchen will showcase Cooper's creativity and desire to interact with guests. This architectural design will allow every guest to have an individual chef's table experience. Cooper has enlisted architects Brian Miller of edit and Lauren Winter of Winter Architecture, the famed duo behind Washington, DC's most creative and functional spaces including The Gibson, U Street Music Hall and Dickson Wine Bar, to execute this vision. Rogue 24 will be open for one dinner seating Tuesday-Thursday two dinner seatings Friday and Saturday evenings. The fixed menu price is $130, $140 for non-alcoholic beverage pairings and $170 for alcoholic beverage pairings. About Chef RJ Cooper and The Kid Can Cook, LLC Chef RJ Cooper's Rogue 24 will be the first of several restaurants as part of his and wife Judy Cooper's umbrella restaurant group, The Kid Can Cook, LLC. Rogue 24 will be followed by a variety of projects, including a more casual concept, Pigtails, to open in Washington, DC. Cooper is a seasoned veteran chef who has worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in the nation, and has served as an integral part of the development in Washington, DC's fine-dining culture. Notable accolades include the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in 2007, as well as recognition from starchefs.com, as the 2006 Rising Star Chef. Cooper also works with the national non-profit organization Share Our Strength®, as a longtime advocate in the fight against childhood hunger. Cooper is the Chair of Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation's® National Culinary Council, is the founder of Share Our Strength's Chefs on Bikes program and in 2008 was recognized with Share Our Strength's Leadership Award for Chef of the Year. Chef Cooper also serves on the Advisory Board of the startup, DC-based non-profit organization Chefs as Parents that is working to transform DC-public school nutrition programs.

Did a search here and on google but did not find anything. My wife just informed me that we are meeting friends here on Saturday night - anyone been? Suggestions or should I use my power of veto.

This is a few weeks late, but we visited Dickson Wine Bar at 9th & U, across from Nellie's a couple weeks ago for their soft opening. The wines are all organic, from around the world. There were a couple reds that the 3 of us liked, but alas its been 10+ days since our visit & I don't recall them. The menu's a mix of charcuterie, bahn mi sandwiches, flat breads and other small dishes. (I'm linking to Metrocurean's pic of the sandwich, which she posted on Twitter.) Since the food was free during the soft opening, I'll wait to return as a paying customer to give a review. But, the lardo is worth commenting on now. It was great, and reminded me of a Parisian restaurant last year. Thin slices, served with costini, sides of pickles & nuts. The space is split into 3 levels. You enter on the 2nd floor thru a door beneath the old Dickson Building sign, which they wisely kept & took as the name. Inside, the 3 small levels are dark, with candles & a wall of backlit empty wine bottles. Downstairs still awaits its bottles, but I bet the customers can drink their way thru a wall's worth pretty quickly if the foods as good as it all sounds on the menu. From some of the seats, you can even watch Nellie's big screens across the street... so while enjoying the chill vibe of Dickson, you can sneak a peak at the Final Four next week.

I don't know, but it definitely isn't limited to The Dabney - somehow, within the last five years or so, restaurants began co-mingling "small plates" and "shareable items," and they've done so rather successfully, I will add. I get the "pass around the small plates" thing, but when I see "To Share" on a menu, I expect a portion size that's too large for one diner to reasonably consume, and all too often, I get served a plain old shrimp cocktail (or equivalent) with six medium-sized shrimp. I've never read this before, anywhere, but I think it's time to call a spade a spade: The restaurant industry has been taken over by suits, just like the medical profession has (HMOs, third parties, etc.) - they've got their grubby hands in the till, and are squeezing customers. It's not always the case, of course, but we're starting to see it more-and-more. "Hospitality" is leaving the industry, and one day will be about as common as finding a full-service gasoline station or a pay phone.

Can't find a thread on this, but I thought I remember SeanMike posting something. We went here for Valentine's Day. Bless their hearts. This could be a really cool restaurant, but it is just trying to hard. Genuinely, nicely trying too hard, which breaks your heart because it just needs some changes. First off the space- it was really cute, but it got really cold inside the restaurant that night. The service was over the top, but also sloppy in a way. They way over utilized rose petals for Vday (especially as it was mostly friends and families there). They got us water then didn't ask us about other drinks the whole evening. We had two glasses of champagne with the menu, but after we drank that no mention of do we want something else. But they did bring out food frequently, check on how it was and refilled our water after a couple sips had been taken. They had a Valentine's tasting menu, then their normal tasting menu. But one was 6 courses and the other 11. They didn't have a vegetarian or dim sum option. We were kind of struggling to figure out what to order. Hubby wanted the 11 course, we wanted the 6, they said we could do that. Well then the timing was kind of all over the place, which is why we hesitated in the first place on doing that, but we had my cousin who is 17 and from a rural area and just trying new stuff. There was an egg drop soup that was forgettable and just bland (do you have to put dyed rose petals in the food, I don't want to eat a dyed rose petal), the soup dumplings were placed on top of some sort of paper, but it wasn't non-stick enough, so two of mine fell apart with me just trying to not eat the paper attached to the bottom, I think part of this may have been they had congealed a bit. They served mine and my cousins dishes on a shared middle plate, and then we had to ask for small plates, and those weren't always cleared and replaced. I would have prefered just two separate plates as the plate in the middle made it hard to eat. The XO scallops were good, but their XO sauce wasn't quite as addictively good as other versions I have had and the scallops were so big and slippery even I found them really hard to eat with chopsticks, they brought spoons after they saw us struggling. I thought the lamb chops were great, but my cousin found them a bit too spicy and gamey. These came out with foil on the top, we only had chopsticks so we ate these with our fingers, but it would have been nice for them to indicate they were intended to be eaten with fingers, but would bring forks and knives if preferred. The dessert was durian ice cream, which was interesting, but the dish could have been more complex or had some other elements. There must have been another dish, but I can't remember what it was. MK's menu had a few more dumplings, and he really liked some of the items, but others he also thought were bland. I feel like if this restaurant would 1) offer a few more options on the tasting menus so you could tailor it a bit more to one's tastes and dietary restrictions that would be great 2) do more small plates a la carte 3) just taste and tweak some of the items 4) work on service that this place felt like it had so much potential, but was just failing to reach that potential. That is always what I really hate when I go to some restaurants, you can feel that it could be really good, but it isn't there. This is one of those places that needs to hire a consultant just to tweak things.

01/06/16 - "Tar & Roses Restaurant Reopens in Santa Monica after Long Hiatus" by Peter Cheng on latimes.com 01/05/12 - "Counter Intelligence - A Little Crunch with your Chianti at Tar & Roses" by Jonathan Gold on latimes.com

Stumbled across this on the Post's site today: "Raise a Glass to Vinoteca" by Fritz Hahn on voices.washpost.com A very brief blurb on one of the blogs mentions 68 by-the-glass options, cheese and charcuterie We were planning on giving Marvin a go tonight and may just have to drop by here first to see what's what. Edit: click here for a glimpse at their retina-searing website . Nothing much substantive yet, just a link to various press pieces.

I just read about this in Ashburn Today. I'm going to check it out soon. I wonder how many Loudoun/Reston denizens are on this board. There was an aborted attempt to have a gathering out Loudoun way, I wonder if there would be renewed interest? Here is a blog post from the owner: http://thewktable.bl...ng-earnest.html

Has anyone been yet? We went on Friday night on a recommendation from a co-worker. We thought the sushi was a great value (pretty tasty and very cheap). Plus they had half priced wine, with no restrictions, and the wine list was extensive for being a hotel restaurant. Just wanted to see if anyone else had an opinion on this place.

Hi all, my parents are coming to town next weekend and want "small plates". Can I get your go-to top 3 that either would still have a reservation available or not too long of a wait? Any price, any cuisine, SMALL PLATES! Thanks

La Peg at FringeArts is now open. "La Peg Is Officially Open" by Arthur Etchells on phillymag.com "La Peg Takes The Stage" by Michael Klein on articles.philly.com

I didn't see any thread on Annapolis in general, so I thought I would start one since I had a nice meal there this afternoon. Aqua Terra, near the top of the hill on Main St - not the typical "traditional Annapolis" feel on the inside and not the typical "crabcake and burger" menu either. I had a pulled bbq pork taco appetizer - two big fried wonton like shells with a healthy portion of shreeded duck in a smoky, hoisin based sauce with pickled carrots and radishes - and a crab salad - a fairly basic green salad in a good creamy dijon dressing and a heaping pile of jumbo lump crabmeat dressed in the same dressing. Aside from a few wedges of cottonny spring tomatoes this was a nice salad. But the duck was the highlight. Worth a stop if you're walking up and down Main st. some day and don't want a corned beef sandwich and vanilla malt at Chick and Ruth's across the street.

If dark, loud mediocre cocktail bars filled with the not-so-bright and vaguely generic looking citizens of the Upper East Side is your thing, then by all means go to JBird. If it's not, then I just save you a cab ride to East 75th Street (between 1st and 2nd). The bowl of cilantro lime popcorn was pretty good ($7).

The question is: what was Rockwell doing at Teatro Goldini in the first place? We demand answers!