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The Shaw Bijou - Chef Kwame Onwuachi and GM Greg Vakiner's $95 Seven-Course Menu in Shaw - Closed


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36 minutes ago, Keithstg said:

Better than I was expecting, honestly.

About what I was expecting.  Pretty good scores on food overall, but the pricing will be a sword of Damocles hanging over every review.

And maybe the real news here is that Tom must have gone on either opening night (!) or the night after to file this for Friday.  He *never* would have done that even 5 years ago, even for a First Bite column, even for a place with this much buzz/controversy, and would have defended the decision to give a new place at least a couple of weeks before writing about it.  My how the times have changed. 

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Laura Hayes (WCP) is going tonight.

rereading the Sietsema piece, it's not as awful as on first read. he seemed to like the food for the most part, disliking the foie course and a course that features something he doesn't like of the savory courses. I do think tasting menus across the US neglect dessert as sort of a throw away a lot of times (notable exceptions including Alinea and Jean-Georges), which is a pity.

I think TedE is right. every review will not only be "is this food excellent?" but "is this food as good as the food at [Eleven Madison Park/Momofuku Ko/Pineapple and Pearls/Metier]" and the answer MUST be yes for Shaw Bijou to thrive.

still excited for tonight!

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36 minutes ago, TedE said:

About what I was expecting.  Pretty good scores on food overall, but the pricing will be a sword of Damocles hanging over every review.

And maybe the real news here is that Tom must have gone on either opening night (!) or the night after to file this for Friday.  He *never* would have done that even 5 years ago, even for a First Bite column, even for a place with this much buzz/controversy, and would have defended the decision to give a new place at least a couple of weeks before writing about it.  My how the times have changed. 

Maybe times have changed or maybe it's just the price that made him review it early.  In his chats over the years he's often said if a place is charging premium prices, they should be functioning perfectly and review-ready on day one.  He often follows that up with, they're not offering reduced prices early on, so they are fair game for a review. 

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30 minutes ago, TedE said:

About what I was expecting.  Pretty good scores on food overall, but the pricing will be a sword of Damocles hanging over every review.

The problem is that the pricing at Shaw Bijou makes "Pretty Good" an unacceptable score. With all the other highly rated and more 'affordable' prix-fixe destinations in the city, why would any sane person with the kind of disposable income that allows them to even consider dining here do so? To brag they were present at the train wreck?

TSchaad

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58 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Regardless, with Prix Fixe menus in upscale restaurants in France, you leave as full as you want - if you want to leave absolutely *stuffed*, you will - there's no requirement to finish your plates if you're a light eater, but to involuntarily leave hungry would *never* happen - or, at least, not anywhere I can think of at the moment.

+1.  Every prix-fixe menu I had in Spain this fall -- Alkimia, Disfrutar, El Celler de Can Roca, DiverXo -- left me more than sated.  You can't let people go hungry for $400+pp, or whatever the tariff is here.

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23 minutes ago, franch said:

Laura Hayes (WCP) is going tonight.

rereading the Sietsema piece, it's not as awful as on first read. he seemed to like the food for the most part, disliking the foie course and a course that features something he doesn't like of the savory courses. I do think tasting menus across the US neglect dessert as sort of a throw away a lot of times (notable exceptions including Alinea and Jean-Georges), which is a pity.

I think TedE is right. every review will not only be "is this food excellent?" but "is this food as good as the food at [Eleven Madison Park/Momofuku Ko/Pineapple and Pearls/Metier]" and the answer MUST be yes for Shaw Bijou to thrive.

still excited for tonight!

21 minutes ago, Bart said:

Maybe times have changed or maybe it's just the price that made him review it early.  In his chats over the years he's often said if a place is charging premium prices, they should be functioning perfectly and review-ready on day one.  He often follows that up with, they're not offering reduced prices early on, so they are fair game for a review. 

First off, Tom, and reviewers in general, go to restaurants so much earlier these days because they don't want to be scooped by each other or bloggers or yelpers and the myriad of other food journalists that didn't exist even 5-10 years ago.

secondly, while Tom didn't hate the food per se (and I don't think many people thought he would hate the food) the tiny portions (a tasting menu should not just be an array of hors d'oeurves) and the huge price point create a huge problem for Shaw Bijou. A restaurant is not just the food in a vacuum, it's the sum total of all the parts. And the perceived value has to be there. Early indications are that this is not the case for Shaw Bijou.

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9 minutes ago, TSchaad said:

With all the other highly rated and more 'affordable' prix-fixe destinations in the city, why would any sane person with the kind of disposable income that allows them to even consider dining here do so?

Variety.  The "experience".  Seriously, and I can be a cynical bastard, but I'm more and more convinced that the trend in multi-course tasting menus has become less and less about the food on the plate and more about the "journey" or whatever the term du jour is.  From what I can gather the wandering dinner aspect of Shaw Bijou is unique to DC.  There you go.  If you won't bat an eye at a $300 for two for dinner at P&P, etc., what's $500?  $600?

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11 hours ago, Jonathan said:

First off, Tom, and reviewers in general, go to restaurants so much earlier these days because they don't want to be scooped by each other or bloggers or yelpers and the myriad of other food journalists that didn't exist even 5-10 years ago.

Well, that's exactly what I was getting at :).  The dining world has succumbed to Twitter/Yelp/whatever, and there is no turning back from an audience that expects instant judgment.

I would have to dig back ten or so years in the archives, but I'm almost certain he defended giving new places some breathing room in the past.  Then the reach of online reviews became harder and harder to ignore (including this here website), and he amended that to "If they are charging full price they should be ready for a review" in order to justify earlier and earlier visits.  A review on opening night still took me aback.

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3 minutes ago, TedE said:

If you won't bat an eye at a $300 for two for dinner at P&P, etc., what's $500?  $600?

As someone who spends the vast majority of my (government salary) disposable income on food, that's not a trivial difference.  I think a lot of diners do bat an eye at P&P's or Komi's or minibar's pricing, but decide it's worth the splurge.  I haven't left P&P hungry, and $250 for everything seems like an excellent "value" for what feels like a special experience.  If Silverman charged twice as much, I'd be a lot more hesitant about recommending P&P to a friend.  I left my sole dinner at minibar's new location still snacky and annoyed by how expensive it was compared to the old location, which has kept me from rushing back in the two years since, even though the food was very good (and some of it great).  Overall experience isn't determined by the quality of the food in a vacuum; cost matters.  

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1 hour ago, franch said:

I agree with this. this is the true crime. my wife and I could have hit up Ben's/Jumbo Slice after our dinner at Minibar as well, which was disappointing. (anecdotally, I've heard that about P&P too)

Not sure who remembers this, but the first time I ever went to Minibar, back in the summer of 2003, I had *two Wendy's spicy chicken filets* on the way home after the 34-course meal. I ask people to re-read that post, and to evaluate its correctness, 13 years into the future.

I think at this point, it would do people very well to re-read the entire Rogue 24 thread - just five years ago, people were positively up-in-arms about spending $135 for the 24-course Journey Menu.

Journey$135.jpg I'm not making any points here; just trying to add some historical perspective at a time when it's very much needed.

Shaw Bijou costs $50 more than what the most expensive menu at Rogue 24 cost ($185 vs. $135), and the Rogue 24 meal was prepared by a James Beard Award-winning chef with over twenty years of experience in kitchens, including having been Chef de Cuisine at Vidalia under Jeff Buben.

I also remind everyone that Rogue 24 was retired in BOLD, and deservedly so (I ignored its last two weeks of existence after RJ left - that was just a technicality). One thing's for sure: Rogue 24 was a groundbreaking restaurant.

In 1963, the Yankees gave Mickey Mantle a $100,000 contract. Two days later, the Giants gave Willie Mays a $105,000 contract, about which Mantle was openly jealous:

Aug 28, 2013 - "Parallel Lives of Mickey and Willie Examined in Book" by Lindsay Berra on m.mlb.com

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16 minutes ago, jca76 said:

As someone who spends the vast majority of my (government salary) disposable income on food, that's not a trivial difference.

But there is a target audience for whom the price difference *is* trivial, and in this town that target audience is not insignificant.  You don't need to capture all of them, just give some of them a reason to darken your door once in a while.  I stand by my notion that at this price point the actual quality of the food becomes less and less of the story.

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1 hour ago, TedE said:

But there is a target audience for whom the price difference *is* trivial, and in this town that target audience is not insignificant. 

In NYC, there are enough people who can afford this type of thing within a 5-mile radius - plus the tourists that come - where it's potentially viable if it's good enough; in DC, nobody is going to be able to afford this (I mean, they "can," but will they want to?), and how many tourists do you know that go to Shaw? Some, of course, and more-and-more people are hearing about the restaurants there, but will be it enough? I know what I think, but that's not going to change anything, so I'm just going to wish them all the best of luck and keep my nose to the grindstone, as my mom used to say.

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6 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

in DC, nobody is going to be able to afford this, and how many tourists do you know that go to Shaw?

Don, you honestly don't believe this, do you?!?  This town does not want for high (and *very* high) income earners, that's for sure, and they certainly eat out a lot What is it, 4 or 5 of the top HHI zip codes in the US are close-in suburbs?  Hell, the HHI of the top 10-15% of households in the Shaw census tract is likely way more than you think (median HHI is $90K, just looked that up.  It surprised me!).   People who come into DC for a high-end meal will go wherever their Uber will drop them off these days. "Tourists" won't come here, but "foodie tourists" (gack) certainly might.

I see places like Shaw Bijou akin to clubs that offer bottle service.  You aren't getting your money's worth, but that is beyond the point.

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3 hours ago, franch said:

I agree with this. this is the true crime. my wife and I could have hit up Ben's/Jumbo Slice after our dinner at Minibar as well, which was disappointing. (anecdotally, I've heard that about P&P too)

The problem with these price points is that if every bite that enters your mouth isn't fabulous, you're going to leave disappointed, and that's almost an impossible bar to hit.

 

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4 minutes ago, TedE said:

I see places like Shaw Bijou akin to clubs that offer bottle service.  You aren't getting your money's worth, but that is beyond the point.

But clubs that offer bottle service don't have the overhead of a Shaw Bijou. Shaw Bijou has a very slim margin for error, and most likely needs to be very near capacity every night to stay open (I would imagine).

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51 minutes ago, TedE said:

Don, you honestly don't believe this, do you?!?  This town does not want for high (and *very* high) income earners, that's for sure, and they certainly eat out a lot What is it, 4 or 5 of the top HHI zip codes in the US are close-in suburbs?  Hell, the HHI of the top 10-15% of households in the Shaw census tract is likely way more than you think (median HHI is $90K, just looked that up.  It surprised me!).   People who come into DC for a high-end meal will go wherever their Uber will drop them off these days. "Tourists" won't come here, but "foodie tourists" (gack) certainly might.

I see places like Shaw Bijou akin to clubs that offer bottle service.  You aren't getting your money's worth, but that is beyond the point.

That's why I said "5-mile radius" (I had originally typed "3-mile radius") - in NYC, you just walk, or hop a cab, and you're there in a few minutes - there are always plenty of people within a mile or two that are worth over $10 million; in DC, it's quite an event to drive and park, and "affording" is a matter of priorities: $90K isn't going to support very many $700 meals. I can see people going once, but I can't see a lot of return visits, and I don't see this being a tourist magnet - perhaps there's a "Part Two" of this business strategy that has yet to be revealed. You can't compare this to Minibar, because Minibar is supported by many thousands of other covers at various ThinkFoodGroup restaurants, and is really more for publicity than for making money - it's like Peet's Coffee opening on Wisconsin and M Street. So, yes, I honestly do believe this.

Separate issue: I am often shocked at the *absolute lack of knowledge* of supposed "foodies" I speak with - it's stunning how little they know. And I mean people who I assume are going to know a *lot* about the culinary arts know amazingly little. Maybe that's why "scene" restaurants do so well. I've always, in the back of my head, been a little scared if I ever got into a debate situation, but honestly, I don't think I have much of anything to worry about based on what I've seen on display by supposed "experts." The lack of knowledge is to the point where it's disturbing, and bluster seems to dominate - truly, the people on this website know *so much more* than the average self-proclaimed "foodie" you meet in a DC restaurant, it would be funny if it wasn't so widespread. It also makes me realize that we'll always have a relatively small membership, and in some sense, that makes me sad, but I'd rather be small and substantive, than large and vacuous.

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32 minutes ago, TedE said:

This town does not want for high (and *very* high) income earners, that's for sure, and they certainly eat out a lot

. . .

People who come into DC for a high-end meal will go wherever their Uber will drop them off these days. "Tourists" won't come here, but "foodie tourists" (gack) certainly might.

I see places like Shaw Bijou akin to clubs that offer bottle service.  You aren't getting your money's worth, but that is beyond the point.

It seems like this is conflating potential audiences, and I'm not sure that Shaw Bijou seems poised to capture either of them particularly well?  If you're a "foodie tourist" coming from out of town, why are you going to go to the second most expensive place in DC unless it's also getting stellar reviews?  People who travel for food do their research.  (The bf and I certainly do.)  If you're a rich/expense account diner -- with so much money that you truly do not care about value or so little taste that you don't care about food -- are you going to go to a place that gives you so little flexibility and forces you to flit around a townhouse from course to course?  (This isn't San Fran with its tech money or NYC with its finance money.  I'm assuming that sort of money in DC means an older diner/more conservative tastes.)  Maybe the trophy-collecting rich diner goes once, but is there really enough of that to keep a place with this sort of overhead in business regardless of food quality?

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13 hours ago, Jonathan said:

There are tables available tonight if anyone is interested...personally, I'd rather take my wife to Portland, Oregon ($673 for two, round trip) and go out to 3 or 4 restaurants and food carts before dropping $1,000 in Shaw at the Bijou and then heading over to Ben's or Jumbo Slice for pizza.

Let me know if you want recommendations for Portland; I can provide a ton.  :-)

11 hours ago, TedE said:

But there is a target audience for whom the price difference *is* trivial, and in this town that target audience is not insignificant.  You don't need to capture all of them, just give some of them a reason to darken your door once in a while.  I stand by my notion that at this price point the actual quality of the food becomes less and less of the story.

As someone in that target audience, the actual quality of the food damn sure doesn't become less and less of the story for me.

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9 hours ago, mtureck said:

The problem with these price points is that if every bite that enters your mouth isn't fabulous, you're going to leave disappointed, and that's almost an impossible bar to hit.

Among the places that have hit that bar for me are Dill in Reykjavik, Ko before it changed locations, Disfrutar in Barcelona, Central in Lima, Volt in its heyday, and Sushi Taro's omakase counter, as well as many other, much cheaper destinations.  If you can't hit that bar, you shouldn't be charging $185 before tax, tip, and beverages.

9 hours ago, Jonathan said:

But clubs that offer bottle service don't have the overhead of a Shaw Bijou. Shaw Bijou has a very slim margin for error, and most likely needs to be very near capacity every night to stay open (I would imagine).

Gotta keep up the maintenance on those waterproof Icelandic sheepskin chairs.

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2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

That's why I said "5-mile radius" (I had originally typed "3-mile radius") - in NYC, you just walk, or hop a cab, and you're there in a few minutes - there are always plenty of people within a mile or two that are worth over $10 million; in DC, it's quite an event to drive and park, and "affording" is a matter of priorities: $90K isn't going to support very many $700 meals. I can see people going once, but I can't see a lot of return visits, and I don't see this being a tourist magnet - perhaps there's a "Part Two" of this business strategy that has yet to be revealed. You can't compare this to Minibar, because Minibar is supported by many thousands of other covers at various ThinkFoodGroup restaurants, and is really more for publicity than for making money - it's like Peet's Coffee opening on Wisconsin and M Street. So, yes, I honestly do believe this.

Separate issue: I am often shocked at the *absolute lack of knowledge* of supposed "foodies" I speak with - it's stunning how little they know. And I mean people who I assume are going to know a *lot* about the culinary arts know amazingly little. Maybe that's why "scene" restaurants do so well. I've always, in the back of my head, been a little scared if I ever got into a debate situation, but honestly, I don't think I have much of anything to worry about based on what I've seen on display by supposed "experts." The lack of knowledge is to the point where it's disturbing, and bluster seems to dominate - truly, the people on this website know *so much more* than the average self-proclaimed "foodie" you meet in a DC restaurant, it would be funny if it wasn't so widespread. It also makes me realize that we'll always have a relatively small membership, and in some sense, that makes me sad, but I'd rather be small and substantive, than large and vacuous.

On your first point:  $90K median income in a tract that includes at least one (maybe two, I think) public housing blocks?  There are some folks with serious money buying those $1M+ rehabbed town homes (dual Big Law, etc.).  Very few people with $90K HHI will go here.  But the audience is there, they don't have to live in McLean or Chevy Chase.

On your second point: We agree! This is what I have been trying to say.  There is a surprising number of people I've run across who consider themselves "foodies" who know very little about food or cooking beyond whatever trends they encounter on the plates of the latest hot spots, or read in the NYT Style section.  And many of them have money.  Lots and lots of money.  That proportion of the foodie world that you lament dwarfs the knowledgeable base you have built here?  This place is for them.  High end dining has become big game hunting for social capital in some circles, and the trophies are Instagram-ready small plates.  A high priced barrier for entry only sweetens the chase.

I could be entirely wrong about all of this (that is going to be the fun part, watching how this develops), and I have zero interest in ever dining here, but I can't help being drawn to the reasons behind its existence, and whether or not they read the market correctly.

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10 hours ago, Jonathan said:

There are tables available tonight if anyone is interested...personally, I'd rather take my wife to Portland, Oregon ($673 for two, round trip) and go out to 3 or 4 restaurants and food carts before dropping $1,000 in Shaw at the Bijou and then heading over to Ben's or Jumbo Slice for pizza.

Make it Nong's Khao Man Gai food cart and my fiance and I will join you!

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Not surprisingly, Julien's is among the best posts ever on DR.  Who wouldn't rather have had just one course of Julien's food at Eat the Rich than even a free meal at the Bijou?

21 hours ago, Poivrot Farci said:

I think I’d rather root for success than chuckle at failure but it’s hard when there appears to be a deficiency of humility, practice and worthwhile purchases.

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22 hours ago, franch said:

Wine Pairing:

2013 Albert Boxler, Pinot Blanc, Reserve
2011 Neumayer, Grillenbuhel, Riesling (this was supposed to be a Champagne, but we don't particularly care for champagne and love riesling, so the sommelier offered a substitute)
2012 Fritz Haag, Brauenberger Juffer Sonnenuhr, Spatlese
2006 Domaine Faiveley, Mercurey,Clos du Roy
2012 Moric, Reserve
2010 Giovanni Manzone, Gramolere, Barolo

Really appreciate the detailed review. Just had a client ask me if I'd heard of the Shaw Bijou on Friday (ha ha)!

For $185 x 2, they could have done a lot better than this wine pairing. Forgetting a glass at this price level is inexcusable, imo.

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If you're saying $125 in profit by value, Don, that's not that much of a markup. Am I understanding correctly? You're saying $185 pairing, but true value is $60. Isn't 3:1 fairly standard for wine? Or should it be closer to 2:1? I just assumed 3:1 for wine and beer, or worse. Enough $8 glasses of $15 bottle wine for this guy to not care to get wine when out. 

And, not to be a dick, which obviously means I'm about to be a dick... and though I very much enjoyed the review by Franch, honestly I was predicting a fairly stellar review with a few knocks on it. After all of their support of the restaurant what were they going to say? "You guys were all right, this place sucks?" The review may be accurate, but waiting to hear more reviews. Though a negative review from some that predicted a dismal meal might not be all that useful either, ha. 

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7 minutes ago, Simul Parikh said:

If you're saying $125 in profit by value, Don, that's not that much of a markup. Am I understanding correctly? You're saying $185 pairing, but true value is $60. Isn't 3:1 fairly standard for wine? Or should it be closer to 2:1? I just assumed 3:1 for wine and beer, or worse. Enough $8 glasses of $15 bottle wine for this guy to not care to get wine when out. 

I was conservative in my post, giving them full benefit of all variables. I doubt they were five-ounce pours (but they might have been); I doubt they paid $60 for the wine they poured (but they might have), etc. Keep in mind also that there is some waste when pouring by the glass. I'm waiting for more information about both the price and the wines before concluding anything - and that information may never come.

I agree that we're all waiting for more reviews. Still, I do appreciate both the length x depth of the review, and also the disclosure that they had a special bond to the restaurant - it's *perfectly fine* (encouraged, actually) to post about restaurants you have an affiliation with or an affinity to, as long as that relationship is disclosed.

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2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

*This* wine pairing was *$185* EACH?! That's $31 a glass!

The Pinot Blanc Réserve is a very good Pinot Blanc, coming from 40-year-old vines, but it´s still a Pinot Blanc, and assuming an average price of $31 per wine served, the restaurant paid less for the entire bottle than they charged you for your glass.

Serving the 06 Faiveley Mercurey is very clever because the bottle age, coupled with the relative lightness of it, technically make it a "fully mature Burgundy," but the only reason it's fully mature is because it's a Mercurey from 06 (what's known as "a restaurant vintage"); you wouldn't see too many Chambolle-Musignys from 05 in its place. Faiveley is a fine négociant, but ... Faiveley is a négociant, and Mercurey isn't even in the Côte d'Or.

The Barolo was certainly the most expensive wine you had, and can stand up to the darkest of meats, dark chocolate, cheese, etc. I'd be really impressed if it was a 1990 instead of a 2010 - this wine is too young to drink.

You know, there isn't a single one of these wines that I wouldn't be happy to drink - they're good, honorable wines, and well-chosen...

Funny - my criticism of the pairing rested primarily on the above three wines. Anyone pouring a 2010 Barolo right now should consider pulling a "Myhrvold" prior to serving it.

Lots of '06 Faiveley's popping up on LastBottle over the past year or so - I'd be willing to wager that's where those came from.

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@DonRocks - Thanks for your informed post. You definitely know more about wine than i do, particularly French wine, long my weak spot. It's just so unapproachable that I don't know where to start, despite really liking many French wines.

Yes, the pairings were $185 each. If it helps, the champagne we passed on was identified by Sietsema as Larmandier-Bernier -- I would hope it would be a like-for-like substitution in price though. The dessert wine identified in the email was 2014 Abbazia di Novacella, Praepositus, Moscato Rosa -- the (included) seventh glass would bring down the price to $26ish a glass. I wouldn't be surprised to know that each glass was 5 ounces or so with the top-ups. The sommelier was very generous with coming around with the bottles (which I know is a psychological thing - I'm more impressed at "top ups" of 3 ounce glasses than I probably would be at a straight pour of 5 ounces).

The Haag was amazing. We *love* Riesling and have had this wine from other vintages, it's truly spectacular. I believe it was paired with the Butter Garlic Crab and Squash Veloute.

The Barolo had been decanting, but to my knowledge wasn't blended. I was also a bit surprised to see a 2010 Barolo poured -- it was delicious, although it presumably would be better in 15 years. 2010 Barolo is an acclaimed enough vintage that those bottles will only appreciate in price and presumably as a wine.

For everyone's information, I responded to the sommelier's email noting the omitted glass. He responded apologetically and invited us to come visit the bar at our convenience so they can make up the mistake to us. Classy move IMO.

@Keithstg - I hadn't heard of LastBottle! What a cool concept. Feel free to shoot me an invite if you want a referral credit. Any other of these sites I should know about?

@Simul Parikh - I like to think I would have been impartial even if the dinner was a total nightmare!

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For comparison, here are Metier's two wine pairings, which I believe are priced at $100 and $185, respectively.  I'll leave it to Don to do a blow by blow, but looking at the second pairing, it seems like a better value (though, it's six, not seven glasses): aside from the entry-level Champagne (for the cocktail) and Riesling, the other four wines are a class or two above what's being poured here.  

Metier's Wine Pairings

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2 hours ago, Simon said:

For comparison, here are Metier's two wine pairings, which I believe are priced at $100 and $185, respectively.  I'll leave it to Don to do a blow by blow, but looking at the second pairing, it seems like a better value (though, it's six, not seven glasses): aside from the entry-level Champagne (for the cocktail) and Riesling, the other four wines are a class or two above what's being poured here.  

Metier's Wine Pairings

Does it disqualify me if I say I've had dinner at Eric Texier's house in Beaujolais, and that he stayed with me when he came to DC?

Yes, douche-level "humble" brag ... busted ... interesting thing is that Eric (Ziebold) has absolutely no knowledge of my friendship with Eric (Texier).

God I really am a douche, but I do have deep back pockets if I ever need to use them.

Urban Bobos

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4 hours ago, Gadarene said:

franch, out of curiosity: were the cocktails included?  If not, how much did they cost?

they are included. no idea what the price would be if we stuck with cocktails during dinner.

1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

Does it disqualify me if I say I've had dinner at Eric Texier's house in Beaujolais, and that he stayed with me when he came to DC?

Yes, douche-level "humble" brag ... busted ... interesting thing is that Eric (Ziebold) has absolutely no knowledge of my friendship with Eric (Texier).

God I really am a douche, but I do have deep back pockets if I ever need to use them.

Urban Bobos

ffs. #humbleBUTNOThumbleATALLbrag :)

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Thank you Franch for the detailed review.

I'm not a wine expert, but I do drink a little bit of the brown.  if a taste of that Col. Taylor Tornado Survivor was included as part of the drink pairing, that was probably the most expensive pour of the night.  It's damn good stuff and goes for pretty obscene prices on the secondary market. 

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[I've thought about this and changed my mind - I thought there was going to be a video made - what we're doing here is wrong. It would be one thing if she was going to attach her name to a public video, but if not, then let's be bigger than this. Yes, she was rude, but let's leave her be. I'm sorry if it appeared I was egging on a mob; I thought the video would be published, (Don't be offended if I remove all public-shaming posts - they aren't actually "deleted"; they're just moved into a separate, holding area.)]

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