DonRocks

You have an hour until your flight leaves, and you see it. "Oh, man! Finally! REAL beer in an airport!" Seeing that homey picture of Samuel Adams in his little wig just conjures up notions of colonial purity, of farm-fresh eggs, of a guy "hand-crafting" his own beer back before the days of mass production. Microbrew! And now I'd like you to get a stock quote on ticker symbol SAM, and you'll see that the Boston Beer Company has a market cap of over $300 million. The last flight I took from Dulles Airport I made the mistake of spending some time at the Samuel Adams Whorehouse there. The first beer I had came from the tap, and it was so clearly damaged that I apologetically sent it back. Ever left a beer out in an open glass for two days and then taken a whiff only to detect rotting and fecal aromas? That's what this smelled like - round two was a Summer Ale from the bottle, which was also amazingly bad, not just bad, but really really bad. I finished it like I would have finished a pan of dishwater, but then looked down at the "best drunk by" date and it had expired by several months - several months! The food at this place? Don't even go there... let's just say TGIF is a much better dining option, and I'm not kidding. It's simply not edible. Samuel Adams has gone the way of Starbucks: it sold out long ago, and much of it tastes like mass-produced swill, and that's when it hasn't been damaged by improper handling. Don't be fooled by marketing, Rocks.

I remember years ago when I was going to Europe for the first time, and knowing Sergio Toni was from Rome, I asked him what his favorite town was in Europe. "Roma," he said. "And where should I visit when I'm in Italy?" "Roma." "Really?" "Yes." "Is there anywhere else worth visiting?" He smiled and shook his head. "No." I haven't been to Sergio's in several years now, but it used to be my favorite restaurant in Silver Spring - the pastas were handmade, his son Luigi worked there (when he wasn't playing in a punk-rock band!), and his daughter-in-law Nadia made what I still insist is the best tiramisu I've ever had.

Ashley! I'd like to ask you about the deconstructed nicoise salad that you made the last time I was in. It blew me away - I have fantasies in another lifetime of making a pan bagnat with really good fresh tuna, olives with pits, first cold pressed olive oil from the south of France, artisanal bread, and yet with your brilliant work on this salad, there is no need for me to do so. How did you think of such a thing? Was it that easy? What made you leave out the anchovies? See you on October 3rd!

Oops! Sorry - I meant Pentagon City, not Crystal City. If you walked out the front of Pentagon City mall (the side facing Washington DC), and continued one block down a sidestreet, there was a little trailer called Nell's, and they had pretty good french fries (I think).

You say this because you've never had the bluebucks at Market Lunch, Eastern Market.

Vidalia, L'Auberge Chez Francois and Kinkead's mentioned in the same thread: three of the numerous reasons why Washington DC has a national reputation as a second-rate restaurant town. Tourists come to these-and-other nationally publicized "landmark" restaurants and expect something glorious. They often get an over-salted, ill-seasoned, gummily-sauced ham-fisted yahoo-assed meal, then walk out of the restaurant wondering what they don't understand, and then they remember that simple little teahouse in Greenwich Village that they enjoyed so much more. This is not to say you can't find good or even great items on the menus at these establishments - you sometimes can - but world-class restaurants they ain't, and it's amazing how many people think they are. Maybe about time someone called a spade a spade? Rocks.

My network of spies has informed me that a preview meal last night was "superb." Welcome to Washington, Eric.

Let's all welcome Chef Tom Power of Corduroy to eGullet. Many people who meet Tom are certain he's northern European, probably because of his Scandanavian good looks and Viking accent. It turns out the Viking accent has more to do with his stove than any marauding band of sailing Norsemen: Tom was born in New Jersey, and studied hotel and restaurant management at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. After completing a culinary training program at the Hyatt in Cherry Hill, NJ, he attended Johnson & Wales in Providence, RI. Beginning his career at the Four Seasons in Georgetown, he detoured over to Baltimore where he opened up two restaurants for Classic Catering. It was there where Tom took his first steps on his inevitable path to fame: he became Sous Chef under Michel Richard at the Citronelle in Baltimore, and then opened the Citronelle in Philadelphia as Executive Chef before returning to the Citronelle in Washington, DC and working directly with Michel Richard. After his tenure at Citronelle, Tom left to become Executive Chef at Old Angler's Inn in Potomac, MD from 1997 to 1999. During his time there, the restaurant won critical acclaim and awards: In July of 2000, Tom went out on his own and opened Corduroy. After four years, Corduroy has become widely considered a restaurant for people who love good food, and is being hailed as one of the unknown gems in the area. But one thing people may not realize is that Corduroy isn't just about one man trying to scrape out a living on 12th and K Streets: Without exception, everyone I've talked to says that Tom is one of the good guys, a gentleman with a quiet demeanor and a reassuring smile, quietly delivering great food and amazing wines at his little second-floor hotel restaurant. I suspect we'll all be looking back a few years from now remembering when Corduroy was an undiscovered secret, and we may as well go ahead and enjoy it while we still can. Welcome to eGullet, Tom, and thank you in advance for being a guest in our house.

Lebanese Taverna used to be great many years ago. I used to frequent the original one (on Washington Blvd in Virginia) fairly often, and still remember many a fine kibbeh nayeh there. The carryout at Lee Heights Shopping Center (Arlington) used to be the best place around (well, okay, Crisp & Juicy was pretty good too, in a Satanic sort of way.) I haven't been in several years now (and I've never tried any of the other locations), but some trusted friends have told me they've gone seriously downhill with over-expansion. No big surprise there. To Dilute Beirut for loot, makes quality moot. Perhaps astute, but not terribly cute. Rocks.

Oh my goodness.

Hello Chef, and greetings from the Washington DC area. This menu item caught my eye like Ivan Rodriguez would catch a Kenny Rogers fastball: Nopal Cactus Risotto What is Nopal Cactus, which rice do you use (is it in an Italian style?), and what is it about the cactus that makes the dish? I have to say it sounds intriguing. Thanks in advance for your reply, and thanks for being here.

I can't really vouch for the menu as a whole, but I'm surpremely confident in the pastas and wines. One thing I really wish for this forum is that people here wouldn't hesitate to chime in about restaurants currently going undetected here. How about resurrecting (or creating) a thread on (off the top of my head) Nora, Dish, Buck's, Heritage India, Equinox, Montmartre, Tivoli (on my short list, by the way), Black's, DC Coast, Meiwah, Kaz, Citronelle, Inn at Little Washington, L'Auberge Provcencal, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Clydes, Cafe Mozu, Elysium, Charleston (or for that matter, ANY restaurant in Baltimore), places in Delaware, the Eastern Shore?) There's enough critical mass here to begin/continue a separate thread on all of these places and many more - dozens more - disk space is not that scarce on eGullet's server, so why not let's do it? Yes, I could offer opinions on many if not most of these, but I'm not going to because this is not my forum - it's our forum. Let's make this a welcoming destination for tourists, Google-searchers and anyone wanting to find a specific restaurant in a specific area. Wouldn't it be nice to have this forum both as a fraternity/sorority, and a welcoming, resourceful comprehensive repository of information for the newcomers? It's pretty much there, but it could be even more so, especially in terms of the latter. If I'm to be accused of any long-term vision for this forum, this is the vision I want it to be. Not to mention I want this place to be a comfortable home for industry insiders to lend their valuable perspectives that we can never have - that is utterly essential, and I encourage more restaurant professionals to regsiter here and, if you're comfortable with it, to identify yourselves and post your opinions with reckless abandon. These are my thoughts of the moment: a wealth of information and a virtural tavern, full of the joys of the table and their corresponding comraderie. Cheers, Rocks. P.S. Maybe shouldn't reply to this, as this is more of an editorial rambling, and I'll probably delete this in a day or two.

Oy, a Mel.

You may want to wait a couple of days longer before you decide on location (in a new thread), because our next guest on the DC DelMarVa chat is going to be

Man, I feel like I'm finishing up the last chapter of War and Peace.

Can there be a more satisfying meal than enjoying the handmade pastas at the bar at Tosca with some vino? Last week I sauntered into the bar, only to run into the great sommelier Kathy Morgan who recommended some small courses for me to try, and matched them seamlessly with a well-priced bottle of Dolcetto d'Alba. Grilled Mediterranean octopus with sauteed chanterelle mushrooms and a creamy sea urchin sauce was elegantly urchined, with the chanterelles hiding amongst the fork-tender octopus like little chameleons on a leaf. This was a fine dish, but nothing - nothing - could have prepared me for the two pasta courses that came next. A little-known secret is that Tosca offers half-orders of their pastas while sitting at the bar, and this brings the price down to the $8-11 range for what are simply some of the greatest pasta dishes I have ever eaten. Please read the following aloud five times: Pillow-shaped braised duck ravioli with foie gras sauce. Pasta, and food in general, does not get any better than this dish. It was the kind of dish you bite into and you can't believe it's so good, and then you look down at your plate and see that there's an entire order left sitting in front of you, and you feel like a sexless man who just walked into a harem (p.s. here's a great definition of "Expert": a guy who knows 100 ways to make love but doesn't know any women.) And then the next dish, while not as elaborate, was every bit its equal - Kathy told me that they had some papardalle left from midday, and that they could make it in a Bolognese sauce (it was not on the regular menu, but apparently they feature the Bolognese sauce several times a week). You might not think to get something this simple after sloughing all the way to 11th and F Streets, but you should think again. I just can't imagine anything that's any better than this. And the dessert! No way I wasn't going to order the Organic tomato marmalade sweet tart with ricotta-basil gelato and basil syrup (doesn't that "read" really well?) Well, thank goodnesss I did, because it was one of the best desserts I've had in a long, long time. It was a work of art on the plate, looking like a little pizza with the tomato marmalade spread on the tart, topped with the ricotta and basil leaves, surrounded by blueberries (trust me, they worked here) looking like little olives. The tragedy is that it is now September, the chef is back from a brief vacation, and almost surely this dish will be coming off the menu because the tomatoes will soon be gone, but if it's there, order it, order it, and the stars will align and everything will be right with the world. Pasta. Tosca. Think of the two words together, always. Rocks.

AB seedy e-effigy a chai Jay, K? Ella, men no pee. Cue are rest he you VW ex-wise, he.

Gillian will whack you with her rolling pin if you light up in the restaurant.

I'm seriously hoping you're talking about the Langley Park Woodlands here, otherwise that "grocer next door" is ... Dairy Queen (yuck!)

Here's a sample three-day weekend at the Omni Shoreham, assuming no car: Friday night: get in late, Metro up one stop to Cleveland Park for casual sushi at Spices or hip Indian at Indique. If you're there early enough, go to Yes! Organic Market (in the same strip as Spices), or possibly Magruder's supermarket, and buy deli provisions for a Saturday picnic to stick in your backpack. Alternate Cleveland park dining options at Le Lavandou, Bardeo (moderate) or Yanyu, Ardeo (more expensive). Late-night pool (casual) at Atomic Billiards or a movie at the great traditional Uptown theater. If you're desperate not to Metro and must stay local, try Petits Plats in Woodley Park, though it would not be your best option. Saturday day: coffee at Starbucks Woodley Park or wherever you can find it. Metro down to the mall with your backpacks full of goodies purchased the night before. Picnic at either the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden by Constitution Avenue (not the less-welcoming Hirschhorn Sculpture Garden across the mall). If you're west of that, picnic at the Enid Haupt Garden by the Smithsonian Castle. Legitimate alternate picnic option if you didn't buy groceries: Dean & DeLuca carryout for sandwiches and chips (by John Harvard's brewhouse (underrated beers, by the way); can't remember the street) - only a few short blocks back to the mall and no-fuss, no-muss. If you're desperate, you can pick up a decent espresso in the underground area between the East- and West-buildings of the National Galleries of Art. Saturday night: Metro up to Cleveland Park by 6 PM and have dinner at the front room of Palena. Forget pretense - wear jeans if you have to and enjoy the $9 roast chicken, the hamburger, etc.. This is your one casual fine dining experience to be done at all costs, even if it means coming back early to nap and struggling to get up and go. Sunday day: Starbucks or breakfast at the hotel (you can see I don't emphasize great coffee or breakfast in this area). Metro down to the mall and have lunch at Les Halles on 12th and Pennsylvania. Get a steak frites and a glass of vino, then fight through your inevitable post-lunch sleepiness and continue to tour. Alternate lunch options in the area: miniburgers (surprisingly good) at (the clubby) 701, Cafe Atlantico, Bistro d'Oc on 10th Street, Ten Penh if you don't mind spending more money and aren't looking like a rat, perhaps even trailblaze and let us know how the new-and-inevitably-touristy Aria is doing, though I don't think you should roll the dice on that one. Sunday night: Metro to Dupont Circle and grab some pizza and wine at Sette Osteria on Connecticut and R Streets, preferably arriving before 7:30 PM to avoid a potential 30-minute wait. If you happen to find yourself in Dupont Circle mid-day, certainly have lunch in the upstairs room at Teaism (across the street from Sette Osteria), ordering downstairs at the counter and carrying your tray to the cramped quarters upstairs (or even taking it outside if the weather cooperates). If you happen to find yourself in Cleveland Park mid-day, get the goat-cheese focaccia at Amernick bakery, and arm yourselves with enough caramels to get you through the rest of the trip. And yes, do get up there in the mornings (after 11?) and enjoy the (sorry, Ann) doughnuts. How's that? Rocks.

Bistrot du Coin.

Dominic's Pizza on New Hampshire Avenue in Colesville, Maryland, formerly Gus's Pizza, formerly Valencia Pizza. Budweiser-swilling, cigarette-smoking, Lotto-playing yahoos - there simply isn't any reason for anyone to go here, and yet I've been getting their carryout pizza since the Mesozoic era - it hasn't changed since then, either, and it isn't all that good. Ah, but I still pine away for the long-forgotten Sammy's Villa in nearby White Oak Shopping Center - now that was good pizza.

I cannot compete with this.

Congratulations, Todd. From today's Tom Sietsema online chat:

eunny jang prompted me to try 2 Amy's again last night - here's a brief report: Wines - still a fine little list at painless prices. The default is to get them served with water glasses, but if you order a bottle and ask for stemware, they'll happily bring it to you. A 1999 Salice Salentino for $24 was a great pizza wine at a fair price. Bread - they'll only bring bread if you ask for it. A bit too oily/rubbery with too much bad-tasting flour on the crust this time around, but certainly homemade and honest. Salad - a mixed green salad (arugula, endive, frisee, etc.) was simple and perfect, with just the right amount of dressing. Pizzas - all pizzas were unevenly cooked, with parts of the crust charred and other parts not. I took a lap around the restaurant and confirmed that this was an ongoing problem last night. A special of "fresh Hawaiian giant prawns" with tomato, grana, etc. was the single worst pizza I've ever had at 2 Amys. The prawns were overcooked and yuckily salty, and the pizza had nothing to like about it at all, right down to the burned crust. Another special of "2 Amy's Sausage" was much better, the sausage being housemade and fabulous, and the crust being cooked properly 80% of the way around the circle, with 20% being charred. A ripieno stuffed with mozzerela, grana and tomato was good as well, although not at the very best level that I've had here. Desserts - the cookies and truffles plate has gone to hell in a handbasket. Dried out, boring, and nothing like it used to be. Pistachio chocolate chip ice cream was fabulous, world-class ice cream that could have used smaller chocolate chunks. Grapefruit sorbet was as good as any I've ever had in my life. Despite the chocolate chunks, nothing has changed my experience that 2 Amys has my favorite ice creams and sorbets in the entire city. Service - a mixture between curt (when we were seated), responsive (when we asked for stemware, polite (when we asked them to delay our pizzas for awhile in order to enjoy some wine and salad), and forgetful (the 2 Amys Sausage pizza was ordered with pepperoni as well, but brought without, and the server told us the ice cream and sorbet would arrive in two separate dishes so as not to mix them together, but they arrived in one). So, there's one night at 2 Amys. As you see, it was a mixed bag, but my overall experience was a bit closer to eunny jang's than I really want to acknowledge. However, I see nothing that couldn't have been prevented with some more attentive supervision over the kitchen and waitstaff, other than the giant-prawn pizza which simply may have been beyond repair. Cheers, Rocks.