laniloa

I haven't been in DC long enough to form attachments to restaurants here but I have many of these attachments to restaurants in other places I have lived. Gallery Four pizza in NY. Fantastic pizza by DC standards but not by NY standards. I could go 2 minutes in any direction and get a better slice. But the family who runs this place is wonderful. This old lady who doesn't speak English will devine what meal is right for you. And I could walk there in high school for a slice and a cookie. I haven't lived there in 14 years but they still remember me. L&L Drive In, Honolulu. For plate lunch, the place is pretty good. By objective food standards, the place is crap. But give me a teri chicken plate lunch extra rice, no mac salad and I'm in heaven.

If you don't think price or availability for Minibar would work, how about the rest of Cafe Atlantico? What about drinks at Reef or Local 16 on either rooftop and then on to someplace like Mantis or Cashion's for dinner?

My compliments to John for the wine happy hours. Last night they introduced me to Kelham Cellars sauvignon blanc. I usually prefer the grassier New Zealand SBs but this was a wonderfully refreshing for a summers eve. My dining companion typically heads straight for the red but a taste of this convinced him we needed to stick with this for our meal.

Wine and appetizers at Grapeseed have been enjoyable in the past. I've also liked the basic Italian at Olazzo.

Having enjoyed the gazpacho at Breadline at lunch today, I can strongly recommend it. It is chunky style with lots of kick. I'm not sure my co-workers appreciate all the red onion as much as I did but that's just too bad.

I'm in.

OK- so what should I be drinking and then what should I pair it with?

Pork. ditto

If you were to open a kitchen accessories store, what would you call it????

I agree that this doesn't need to be and shouldn't be a blanket policy. There are many instances where it really won't matter that much to either our group or the restaurant. In this case, where we are taking over a restaurant on a night they are normally closed, I think it is our responsibility to live up to our end of things. Coupled with a better contact system and we've got a good carrot and stick that will help encourage people to make the call to pull someone off the waitlist and minimize the no-shows for less-then-emergency reasons. That said, we want to make it as easy as possible for people-- wait until a day or so before to lock people in so we don't have to deal with the numerous inevitable changes to plans that will happen over the next few weeks. My problem with the 14th is the same as yours -- I'll already be out of town for the holiday.

I think this is critical if they are going to come in on their day off to make us a special meal. Perhaps we need to get a cell phone number of the organizer (via PM) so that last minute dropouts can be filled from the sure to develop wait list? Another idea would be to pre-pay the base cost via credit card so that if someone drops off last minute and that spot is not filled from the wait list Chef Gillian and Robin do not bear the cost. If this is a hassle for them at CK, maybe we could set up a PayPal account so that one of us is responsible for getting the pre-pays????

I'm in if it is the 7th but can't make the 14th.

I have to agree with what some of the others have said about the level cordiality in this discussion. I have also had your restaurant on my radar screen but I am a ridiculously picky eater and just didn't want to deal with what had come across as (what now seems as overstated) rudeness. It is both a fault and a charming quality of mine. But I promise that I never put salt on things without tasting them. I think some of the earlier comments about your reactions to substitutions or deletions came across more as prima donna then as belief in your well-tested recipes and desire for your customers to have a fantastic flavor combination. I think you have clarified many things for us in this chat and reinforced your commitment to service. I'll be in to give it a whirl soon. My question is about daSto. Can you give us a better idea of what you'll be stocking?

I had a fab tomato soup at Cafe Atlantico last Friday. The bowl came with halved charry tomatos and chunks of watermelon with a drip of balsamic vinegar on top looking all faux-pit. The waiter then poured the chilled soup table side. Yum.

I like Stewart's diet root beer much better then IBC. I think it has less of an aftertaste and tastes truer to the original.

This was a fabulous evening from start to finish. Who knew that the sound of meat cleavers slamming away making devilishly good eggs was the perfect sound track to enjoy a glass of wine to? Especially when you are drinking subversive, stick it to the man wine from a family who has reclaimed their ancestral land after having it taken from them by the government. I'm just sorry we couldn't fill the extra two seats. More people should taste these eggs. Hmmm...is it too early to eat my leftover steak lunch?

Go to Corduroy (had a great RW meal there last year) next week. Go to Tosca for the pre-theater menu the following week and pretend RW has been extended again. I think it has become Restaurant Month in NY to counter the August slump.

With some trepidation after the posts here, 5 of us went to Tosca last night. Forget what everyone else said, they were fabulous to us and we definitely tried their patience. I'll hit service first. This started as a party of 8 so we went for an earlier reservation (6:30) to avoid being lost in the crush. Yesterday morning two people backed out so I called to change the reservation. At around 4:30 another person had to bow out and I called to change again. They were incredibly polite about the multiple changes and thanked me profusely for calling. When I arrived at the restaurant they thanked me again for calling to tell them of our changes. One of our party was running late. So after 20 minutes we ordered a bottle of wine and began studying the menu. Our waiter did a great job walking us through the menu. We told him it was our first time at the place and they'd lured us in for Restaurant Week. Rather then scoff at needing a bargain to get us to dine there, he proceeded to tell us about the pre-theater dinner menu and that while more limited then the RW menu, it would allow us to enjoy a range of Tosca's offerings at reasonable prices. For those curious, it is offered from 5:30-7. After another 20 minutes with no sign of our 5th, we ordered. They never pushed us and allowed us to have a leisurely dinner. Then, just as we had finished our appetizers, our 5th showed up -- an hour late. No problem for our now waitress (the waiter we started with got sucked into handling a table of about 20 that was quite a handful -- the tradeoff to the new server was effortless). They brought our 5th her appetizer quickly (it helped that she ordered an easily assembled, non-cooked app), delayed our entrees a bit and caught everyone up. During dessert, the original waiter came back to chat with us. So forget your misgivings about service and go. Now, the food. Mostly hits, but a few misses. And they were misses by comparison. The onion foccacia was quickly devoured and our bread basket refilled. A nice touch was the dish of mixed variety cherry, teardrop, and grape tomatos served with our bread. We had a lot of plates being handed around as everyone kept saying you have to try this. Appetizers included melon and prosciutto (with some peppery greens to nicely accent this very generous serving); grilled octopus; radicchio, pear, walnut and blue cheese salad in a nice tangy dressing; and a great twist on a caprese salad. This caprese won for presentation. They scooped out the top of a tomato and used it as a bowl for a ball of housemade mozzarella with basil oil swirled around it. Mains -- a Mediterranean sea bass that I can't comment on since I don't like seafood but others seemed to enjoy. Two of us had raviolini filled with fresh tomato pulp and served with a creamy pesto. I ordered this after much deliberation thanks to bilrus' comment that he'd wished he'd ordered the pasta. This was a fabulous blend of summer flavors. Not over or undersauced and with a nice kick of garlic. The duck was OK. I thought the sauce was underspiced. The dish that, while good, was the biggest let down was the risotto with prosecco and rabbit sausage. This was a generous sized bowl of very good risotto with three tiny pieces of sausage. Not nearly enough sausage to adequately complement the risotto. I would have preferred a small surcharge and had more sausage. Actually, since the prices were listed on the menu there were several dishes that are normally $4-5 more expensive so they should have been able to provide more sausage. Dessert -- I was the disadvantaged diner here. Two people ordered a fabulous chocolate cake with apricot puree and hazelnut gelato (although one came mysteriously without the gelato) and two people ordered the tomato tart with basil gelato (which sparked vigorous debate about how this dish, while great, was not dessert). So there was plenty of each dish to be sampled by all. I ordered the peach and blueberry struedel which was fabulous but since it was about a 6 bite serving once every at the table had their taste I was left with only 2 bites. And it was good. Note to self-- this sharing thing is overrated. Add to this a couple of bottles of barbera, 3 dessert wines, a scotch, an espresso, and a tea and it came out to a meager $72 per person including a generous tip for the fabulous service. This place is near my office and I think I'll be eating pasta at the bar regularly now.

I went with two friends to Vidalia last night. After reading all the limitations to the menu, I had my friends take a look to see if we wanted to shift someplace else. All were happy with the options so we went ahead. The only problem with that is that I spent 2 days looking forward to the chilled melon soup as a great start on a steamy summer day only to arrive at the restaurant to find they were substituting crab soup. I know it is blasphemy in these parts, but I hate crab. I went with the field greens and the spicy pecans were a nice counter to the sweet onion vinaigrette. While whole pecans might make for a better looking salad, I liked that these were crushed and sprinkled throughout so that you tasted them with each chew. Main was the stuffed pork rib eye. The stuffing was braised pork and the difference in flavor and texture between the two preparations was really nice. While the whole thing was pan fried, there wasn't a trace of grease. The chipotle-plum sauce gave it a nice kick without drowning the flavors. I'm not a big bean fan and found the mixed bean side to be just OK and kind of bland. I ordered the lemon chess tart for dessert and was not impressed. I was expecting a tarter tart and this was downright sweet. We shared a bottle of Chehelam Pinot Gris to round things out. Despite my disappointment at not having the melon soup and not loving the tart, it was an enjoyable meal and I'll definitely be going back. The servers were gracious and seemed to be handling Restaurant Week well.

As a marine biologist I can assure you that this can indeed influence cocktail preferences. My colleagues who work in the Caribbean tend to favor rum-based drinks.

I just sent my boss to lunch at Mendocino. He came back with a big smile and gave me the thumbs up. I was on the phone so didn't get to ask what he ate but it seems like he had a better experience with the food then Sara did.

At the last minute I was asked to pick up dessert for a dinner party last Friday. I thought of going to Reeves since it is right near my office, but, since it was still early I headed over to Amernick's. I got a wonderful selection of cookies -- the dark chocolate cookies are my new most favorite food in the world -- and caramels. Added some berries from Brookville and we had a great assortment enjoyed by all. What I was not prepared for was to be greated when I walked in the door with a friendly wave and a kind "please let me know if I can help you with anything" considering all the grouchiness detailed here. Maybe it was because I didn't order donoughts and I had proper change.

OK- now I understand. I think you are on to something with outdoor seating. I mean, you are already sweaty and have been outdoors so you don't really need air conditioning. In addition to Zaytinya, in this area with outdoor seating you've got Jaleo, Austin Grille, Les Halles.

I don't really think any of these places would be up for this... They are when the softball team from my office goes. We've never had a problem. Hill types mingling with the kickball and softball teams. They are oftern from the same offices.

There are a lot of softball games on the mall so I think a lot of places here are used to post-game drinkers. On the House side of Capitol Hill you could easily go to Tune Inn, My Brothers Place, Politiki, or Hawk and Dove. On the Senate side, Cap City or Irish Times. If you are playing closer to the Washington Monument, try the back bar at Old Ebbitt.