rosebud

As far as the food went, I will simply ditto what everyone else has written. I loved, loved, loved both the salad and the crabcake. It didn't dawn on me until I read the reviews that the deviled eggs represented "Green Eggs and Ham!" The green part was AVOCADO! Who knew? There were about twice as many courses as I was expecting and this was clearly a "gimmee" on the part of Gillian and Robin. There is no way they could put on that spread for $30 a plate. If this restaurant was in our neighborhood, we wouldn't bother going anywhere else to eat. Good ingredients treated very well. I don't know another definition of good cooking. And the price is right. This was my first outing with egulleteers and I couldn't have been made to feel more welcome. Thanks Nadya for providing transportation for my husband and me and two others. And the guys at Firefly for also welcoming us. Quite a few of us were new to this group and I think we all had a good time. Certainly, nobody went away hungry. Thanks Hillvalley and Babka for organizing this. And special thanks to Gillian and Robin and their wonderful staff. May you thrive and prosper for a very long time. Rosebud P.S. The only fly in the ointment (and it was a small one) is that the table we were supposed to gather at in FIREFLY for happy hour was already occupied when we got there. I was even more confused because one of the usurpers was the guy who lives across the hall from me. Go figure.

Well, are YOU in for a surprise, vis-a-vis how young the new folks will look. If you see a middle-aged couple--her with red hair and glasses, he gray hair and glasses--looking perplexed, THAT'S US!! Rosebud

Where will we be meeting at Firefly and how will new people recognize the old folks? Rosebud

We save restaurants on the scale of Kinkead's for special occasions. We went there last year for my birthday. The atmosphere was perfectly pleasant, the service welcoming and professional, but the food was disappointing. I had some halibut that was perfectly cooked, but had a bunch of fussy little details around it. But the the thing that ruined the dish was the sauce. It didn't tasted of anything that was supposed to be in it and was just plain weird. The waitress offered to take it away and bring me something else, but I passed. I've forgotten what my husband had, but he was under-whelmed. We live for those "Oh, My" moments, when you first take a bite of something very, very good. There were none of those at Kinkeads.

There is a reason restaurant reviewers go to a particular place more than once. Back in 1989, for my mother-in-law's 75th birthday, she wanted to go to L'Auberge. After driving almost an hour and a half to get there through late rush-hour traffic we had a meal I considered pretty bad. There was a veal stew listed in the fixed-price menu that the waitress steered us away from. The lobster bisque was so extremely salty, there must have been a mistake in the kitchen and shouldn't have been served. The much-vaunted plum tart was inedible, in my estimation. My husband was just as disappointed and we have never even considered going back. We have had some disappointing meals in other much-praised restaurants, but they have been in town and didn't require grabbing our passports before heading out to Virginia. And none were as disappointing as this experience. I realize all restaurants have bad days--the chef is sick or on vacation, or who knows what has happened to make the staff jittery. But, at those prices, it doesn't help, particularly when you have to make reservations so far in advance. The following year, we treated my parents-in-law and my aunt, all of whom had birthdays in the same month, to dinner at La Colline. Everyone loved the food and we had a great time.

Mr. Nadeau made a factaul error in his "tribute." Julia was already 34 when she and Paul married in 1946. I mean, if you are going to nitpick on the death of an icon, expect to be nitpicked in return.

I can only ditto what everyone on this site has said. At least I have had to opportunity to visit her kitchen at the Smithsonian. It's just about the only thing I have ever envied of anyone. It is homey and unpretentious and SOOO inviting. Her authorized biography, "Appetite for Life," was rather mercilessly panned by many reviewers; however, I found it fascinating and a very good read. One reviewer complained because it didn't have enough recipes!!! Like her cookbooks aren't all in print. I made her French Onion Soup from "Mastering Vol.1" for a frenchman who had just moved to DC. He was THRILLED! While we are all giving thanks for her life, I would like to remind everyone that one of her early crusades was to get supermarkets to quit chilling their tomatoes. I can remember buying those hard, pink, rubberball-like, plastic-wrapped horrors in the refrigerated produce section. Every Saturday when I shop at the local farmers' market, and when I visit the fresh produce section of any supermarket, I give thanks to Julia for making this possible for all of us. Because she insisted on it, so did we. How do you thank someone for giving us a lifetime of good food shared with good wine and good friends?

Hillvalley, I have just now been "admitted" to respond to EG's forums. My husband and I would love to join everyone at Colorado Kitchen. Please let me know if this is possible. I have some extra wine glasses in boxes (they are clean) I can bring.