Miguelito

Rubber o-ring design is not so simple trivial where a very tight seal is required (think space shuttle Challenger). They do not always provide a secure seal across load and temp conditions; one might wonder how stable they are over time. For all I know, though, they might work just fine under the conditions in a typical cellar. The glass part of device sounds pretty cool and the whole contraption can't possibly be worse to deal with than the compressed foam fake corks -- I was a bit surprised to see that Behrens & Hitchcock used those for some recent vintages. Bring on the thumb envy, says I.

A couple more steak places in addition to CP and Caucus Room: Back when it was good, Nick & Stef's waived their corkage fee for me on more than one occasion -- nice bottles for special occasions where a taste was offered to the staff. Since it has gone downhill, it is no longer in the running for the special occasions in my life anymore, unfortunately. Ruth's Chris allows corkage for $15 or $20. (I am of two minds on whether the melted butter amounts to cheating, but that has nothing to do with corkage.) Since I find it difficult to predict in advance what wine I would want when dining at non-steak places, I generally do not bringmy own to other types of establishments.

Wine Spectator reports that in a Massachusetts sting operation, underage buyers were shipped liquor, wine and beer, and it was usually delivered without proof of age: http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Daily/Ne...45,2501,00.html The timing strikes me as suspicious.

Lobel's steaks absolutely rock, but you better have a Brink's truck handy when the bill comes!

In no particular order: Newcastle Fuller's London Pride Bohemia Guinness (but not in the baby-poop labeled bottles) Coor's Light (just kidding) Boddington's

Beer glasses? Aren't those the magic spectacles that make the opposite sex look lots more attractive after the odd pint or two??? I never had any trouble finding THOSE when I was in college!

I might go with Nobu Matsuhisa. My first meal at Matsuhisa in LA -- eight or nine years ago now -- was transformative, the first time I ever thought of food as art.

Interesting story on the front page of today's WSJ. The gist of it is that the feuding between Robert's sons Michael and Tim's results psychologically from Robert's tense relationship with his own brother Peter. A contrast is drawn between the Robert/Peter feud, which led to Robert's founding of the Mondavi empire, and the Michael/Tim feud, which may be imperiling it. It is noted that both Michael and Tim have sold off some of their Mondavi stock, and it is suggested that the corporation may need to sell off some of the lesser labels (or perhaps even break up entirely) as a result of its poor cash position.

The Washington Inn in Cape May, New Jersey get props from me for a nice list and nice prices. Been a year since I was up there, but I remember an interesting and extensive list representing all major areas with a quite a few interesting selections. We had (among other things) a '97 Lokoya Howell Mtn. cab for $139. I'm lucky to see it going for that at retail down here in DC.

I can't resist -- would these by any chance be VENTWORM NUT crackers???

Ah, echoes of youthful prank-calls involving Prince Albert tobacco: (Phone liquor store) "Do you have Sofia in a can?" "Yes." "Well, you'd better let her out!" (Hang up.) (Giggle like 10-year-old.)

Maybe off topic slightly but I must vent my spleen. Why, oh why, does the cracker selection at Whole Foods suck so massively? Every cracker they sell tastes like cardboard. Are Carr's and Bremner's insufficiently politically correct or something? Vent closed; spleen intact.

Now that we have crossed the sauv blanc threshold, I'll throw in Mulderbosch, a nice S. African offering chock full of citrusy "flavah".

My top two choices: Tosca or Tosca. Chef's table if you like the "behind the scenes" view; dining room if you like the quiet, tradational service. It's a great place and you will be happy you went. My wife took me to the Chef's table for my birthday: great food (too long ago to give you a specific rundown, unfortunately); great presentation; and nice interaction with the chef, sous chef, sommelier and a very nice and helpful waiter. I've also done the dining room several times and never been disappointed.

Catena is a large and well-known brand, perhaps somewhat akin to an Argentine version of Mondavi. Nicolas Catena is the progenitor; his daughter has spun off a separate operation called Luca, which makes nice reds. I find the regular Catena chardonnay (current release is '02) pretty appealing -- relatively light in body, with tropical fruits dominating the palate (which I gather suggests stainless steel fermentation and brief, if any, oaking) -- and serve it as my house chard. I second the comment on the price/value ratio. I've got a few bottles of Catena Zapata '99 cab layed down in the cellar; those will age for a while. Just had a '99 Luca cab last night and found it nice -- ripe red fruits right up front -- but maybe just a little bit flabby.

Great minds...

That place from Seattle with the green lettering, round logo and pricey beverages -- what's it called? Starbrocks or something??? -- may fit many of your criteria. Kind of hard to find them, but I thinks there's one or two of them around DC.

Quantity of toppings, esp. sauce, is the culprit. (At least I have identified it as such in my home-made 'za.) This would seem to leave the chef in a bind -- prepare a nice, crisp pie and be accused of skimping on the toppings, or pile on the toppings and create the soggy center.

May be heresy, but I find shaved dark or bittersweet chocolate to be an appealing partner to big, highly tannic (i.e. young) cabs. The bitterness of the chocolate seems to cut the tannin, leaving more of the fruit on the palate.

Not sure, but this may be Cafe Phillips, which actually at 12th and E in the old Wall Street Deli space (beware the temptation to slide into Ollie's Trollie by "mistake"). Although I cannot vouch for the quality of the bubble tea at Cafe Phillips, I am fairly certain they offer it and I do know that they make a darn good sandwich. (Oven-roasted meats carved right before your eyes.)

I'm more of a red drinker, but the butteriest (is that a word?) chard I can recall tasting is probably the Frog's Leap Napa. I always thought buttery flavor in a chard resulted from malo, but some of the prior posts suggest other potential causes. Was I wrong?

An observation: unless "Ms. Two Doughnuts and Change Back from a Twenty" happens to be on this forum, we are getting only one side of a story that might well be disputed. I wouldn't take it for granted that Ms. Two Doughnuts took the "wax, buff and kiss my ass after I humiliate your staff" approach, nor that she acted like a "self-centered, self-important, abusive 'The Customer Is Always Right' type." Now, I don't dispute that if she did, then she had some payback coming. I just don't know that I am willing to accept at face value one participant's account of what sounds like a pretty tense exchange. For the same reasons, I take much of the negative feedback about Amernick, Colo. Kitchen, etc., that appears in the WP Online forums -- and occasionally here -- with several grains of NaCl.

Gotta wonder why anyone who doesn't care about walk-in biz would rent a primo storefront in the middle of Cleveland Park. But it's her money and her business, so I'm fine with whatever level of service she wants to provide. That's the beauty of a market economy -- I don't have to like her and she don't have to like me. As long as I like her donuts well enough and she likes money well enough, we're gonna find a way for me to get her donuts and her to get my money -- even if that means we have to ignore certain things about each other that we might like to change.

I'll second the recommendation of Colorado Kitchen. They have always had eggs benedict on the menu when I have brunched there. The menu changes frequently, but EB seems to be a stalwart. Based on my last two or three visits, they seem to have improved their previously spotty service. Price is right, too. Don't skip the donuts, as that would be a monumental error.

It's easy enough to get the cork out with them, but there is a much greater risk of mangling an old or otherwise fragile cork than with a screwpull-type device. The vertical shear force applied to the sides of the cork during insertion followed by the tangential shear force applied during extraction is a recipe for weakening the surface of the cork at the contact points, and in my experience, even new corks often will tear or crumble a bit.