Steve Klc

West Ox Road near Fair Oaks Mall was the first, no? Followed by Pentagon City.

Ditto the Wegmans Woodbridge, NJ store--no wine. And as we've said before, remember that IKEA and the Price Club/Costco once were as far away as Sterling--on West Ox Road and in Potomac Mills--and now we have an IKEA easily accessible on the Beltway in College Park and a Costco smack dab in Pentagon City, 2 whole minutes from downtown DC. It can be done.

Just so you know, I did my part yesterday and asked for tasso, bacon not pre-sliced, Greek yogurt like Total and lebne out at Wegmans.

"There is also no question but that Wegmans is going to take a fair/large amount of business away from smaller specialty stores as well as other markets. Essentially it is the ultimate category killer. But a by product of Wegmans introduction into our market is that it causes a number of other stores to upgrade to be competitive." I'm not so sure about this statement Joe. Let me try to explain what I mean: The business has already been taken away from smaller specialty stores and it's not like we had them to begin with. Going back to the days of Dieter Schorner and Cafe/Patisserie Didier and up through Ann Amernick & Mark Furstenburg they've been fighting an uphill battle and mostly losing or going wholesale/commercial well before the arrival of Wegmans. It is not like our area, our consumers, ever encouraged smaller artisans in significant numbers to pursue high quality to begin with--we have not fostered a lot of smaller successful specialists, and unlike other cities didn't inherit much in terms of ethnic traditional specialists in this area to begin with. We don't have the depth of high quality independent or artisanal cheese shops, bakeries, boulangeries, charcuteries, patisseries, fish, butchers, chocolatiers etc. you find in other cities, neighborhoods or on the net. Most of the small specialty stores we do have underperform and/or are underappreciated. That's why so many affluent residents tolerated the absurdly high pricing and supposed cachet of D&D and Sutton even after they started to decline. I don't think the wine department and pricing at Wegmans will impact wine sales anywhere else either--no one is going to drive to Wegmans Sterling JUST to buy wine and their pricing and selection is not special. Local residents will still buy wine at Costco and Total and I don't think either will take an appreciable hit. No one living in McLean or Foxhall or Springfield will be buying wine in Sterling. But back to the small shops--we have so few of these smaller specialty stores that Wegmans out in Sterling really won't be taking anything away from them--their clientele is mostly from their own neighborhood anyway (Amernick, Poupon) depends heavily on weekday lunch business (Breadline) or has wholesale clientele which Wegmans isn't marketing to. You know the Sterling/Chantilly/Reston/Ashburn area better than I do--but who are the high-quality threatened small shops--the bakeries, sausage makers, barbecue joints, cheesemongers etc out that way--that Wegmans will take business away from? I want to know so I can support them. As far as taking business away from other markets--and by that I suspect you mean the Suttons, Dean & Deluca, Marvelous, perhaps even Whole Foods--this is likely false as well, at least in the short term. Why? Because most shopping is local and frankly, our populace doesn't care enough to make the drive, and our work days are extending, our free time continues to compress and there's one thing no one has been talking about in any great depth--traffic and construction on that stretch of 28 sucks. That part of the county is exploding and will soon be "one big interconnected office park strip mall chain restaurant big box high tech edge city" soon. It really doesn't matter when you try to go out there--even if you're willing to make the drive, say, from Old Town or Arlington--this area is going to be a traffic nightmare for quite some time, won't matter whether you're coming from 7 or the toll road. It's even awful weekday mid-morning and early afternoon--and it has gotten worse since the store opened. Eventually this will play out but really, Whole Foods and Sutton probably feel no incentive to rush to compete with Wegmans because once the novelty wears off, there's just one Wegmans in Sterling--privately I bet you they're overconfident they can retain their local price-gouged cachet-seeking customer base because they have consumer apathy and logistical impediments on their side. Peopl want to spend less time in their cars and in traffic, not more. And do you really think the sad sack Safeways and Giants of our area, locked into restrictive union contracts and with unimaginative management feel the need to upgrade in any serious fashion besides mere cosmetics and advertising spin? This is after they supposedly upgraded to compete with the likes of Fresh Fields and Whole Foods 10-15 years ago? If anything, doesn't this eG thread demonstrate how unwilling they've been to upgrade and that the majority of their consumers seem perfectly happy to settle for what they're given locally because it just isn't that high a priority? If anything, our area, when it comes to food and food appreciation, is conservative and un-competitive. Yes we have excellence here but not depth within categories: you don't actually have to be competitive, to continue to strive for excellence and grow, you can coast, get bored, remodel after 5 or 10 years, and continue to stay in business too easily. I praise Wegmans like no other, but I've lived here too long and become too cynical about the level of awareness and appreciation of this metropolitan area to think the arrival of Wegmans will make much real difference--positive or negative--on anyone other than those of us who actually go to the store. Whole Foods philosophy, pricing, product selection, prepared foods, breads, whatever will not improve; the Safeways and Teeters will maintain the mediocre even keel they have maintained; we'll still grumble about not being able to find truly superior bread like one can find all over New York City. Though the Wegmans Herme chocolate and pastry lines are superior, wonderful products, priced fairly--no one doing good work locally will be impacted in any way because these products are out in Sterling. And too many of us just will not go. Sorry if I rambled.

Actually, this might be the first misstep throughout the whole series of columns: "It didn’t take long for the restaurant to establish its reputation as not just the best of its kind in the city, but one of the best restaurants in the city, period." If Heritage India was one of the best restaurants in the city, we really do live in a second tier food town. I lived in Glover Park for over a decade, would have eaten at Heritage as often as I ate at Rocklands or Faccia Luna, which was often, except it remained too inconsistent for too long. Sudhir's very traditional cooking for an unadventurous clientele at Bombay Club was now more solid and delicious here. When others in NYC were pushing Indian boundaries in interesting directions because even great cuisines evolve, he remained traditional, but his cooking was the only very good thing about the place. As a "restaurant," the front of the house brought indifference to new heights, it had a poorly chosen wine list full of oaky chardonnays like Trefethen, and an even more poorly-trained wait staff. Perhaps it matured late and I just didn't stick around long enough. Otherwise, this was another interesting read and Todd is still da man. And I'm excited about Sudhir's proposed menu concept change in Bethesda.

Natasha--would you describe a bit what you like there and why?

Let's not talk at cross purposes here Bill--take for instance the fact that you know the tasting menu at say Obelisk is $58 but you've never eaten there. You're perfectly free to comment on your perception of that price especially versus other tasting menus or fixed price meals you've had at other local restaurants. Frankly, you're free to comment on anything, it's just not necessarily going to be "meaningful" or informed comment. There's the distinction. You're passing along impressions you've gotten from what you've read or heard elsewhere--and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm saying until you go there yourself you aren't in a position to comment meaningfully about the quality of the food or the ingredients or the value that $58 meal represents in relation to other tasting menus you've had or place all that into a context--you'd agree with that, right? You'd probably also agree it is unwise to try to pronounce anything definitive about any restaurant after just one visit--because restaurants and chefs are not fixed, but mutable, and each experience actually is likely to be different. Hopefully the better restaurants develop some consistency over time and that's also the great value of an eG and of Tom's chats: more timely first-hand information from perspectives you have grown to trust. That's why Joe asked ok, who has eaten there recently and been disappointed? He wanted to know who, what had disappointed and what exactly people had experienced rather than heard. And I think that's a valid question. I also think Don answered it.

"Well that kind of rumor and innuendo is very prevelant on any food-based messageboard. We all rely on the experience of others to form opinions of restaurants we have not (recently) visited." Not on eG, Mark. There are enough of us here in and outside the industry who aren't afraid to ask the tough questions, give credit where credit is due and challenge assumptions or context--and wait for you to decide for yourself after direct experience. Taste may be subjective but take a current fav eG topic which many seem to have an opinion of, say, El Bulli or the minibar or Trio, just to throw out some examples of what might be called avant-garde cooking which we've discussed on this "food-based messageboard" in depth. Whether you've actually eaten and experienced these is directly relevant to the value of what you have to say about that experience and your ability to comprehend that experience. Worse is relying on other possibly agenda-driven opinions or some dumbed-down media-filtered version of the real thing. What you're left with is "I heard" and it "seems" and it "sounds like" rather than it is! Without having experienced any of these first hand one is in no position to comment meaningfully about the taste, quality or techniques employed because they haven't put any of it in their mouth! It's that way with an Obelisk or Palena or Maestro or any other restaurant as well--when you are forthcoming about what you know firsthand and qualify what you don't know, it is better for everyone. And that's also, I think, the best way to build up trust and respect in other people's opinions.

I'm not so sure of that JPW--can't asking for stocking or slotting fees be seen as one method of extortion as very hard price negotiations on the part of a Walmart could be seen as another--and the difference is merely the matter of degree of extortion and strongarming you're going to accept to get your product into a market and onto a shelf? More alike than dislike? I think in the case of WF, politically it makes sense for them not to slot since that fits with what they're trying to sell their shoppers on--organic is better because it is organic, private label stuff, organic crunchy-granola-type social awareness--as worth paying more for? How would it look if WF extorted its supposedly higher quality and socially-responsible suppliers?

Mark--I think Joe might be referring specifically to NYC--and several on this thread have also remarked that DC supermarkets and grocery stores are better than those in NYC. Our urban supermarkets are better than their urban supermarkets generally and many who have posted on this thread agree with Joe. That living, density, shopping and culture is completely different in "the City"--NYC--versus here in DC is another matter. Even in terms of the NY and NJ metropolitan area I think Joe might ultimately get the Sterling Wegmans wrong--yes it is the newest, the largest square-footage-wise and perhaps so far even the highest grossing store within the Wegmans chain--as Joe mentions often, but that doesn't make it the best in the chain. Volume and square footage hardly determine quality. It's just the "best" in our area because our area has been underserved--we haven't had a Central Market, a Wegmans, a Draegers, or even a superior national-class Whole Foods, etc. (But then that's not surprising--anyone ever been to a Trader Joes in southern California? They rock compared to our Trader Joes, which are feeble imitations.) In some categories key to Joe--like finding more specialty items--a truly great Wegmans store like Princeton, NJ surpasses Sterling and clearly, to me, has deeper selections and more shelf space devoted to those products. I was surprised at the lack of depth of the specialty and ethnic grocery items at Sterling given what we locals can find elsewhere and what can be found elsewhere within the chain. I think Sterling also has to work just a little harder to pick up its prepared, steam table and takeout food performance--something which Princeton does better and I have eaten at these stores multiple times since I'm in NJ a lot. But then the management, chefs and staff of the Princeton kitchens have had a longer time to get their quality control down. If enough customers at Sterling comment to management there, and then we give them a chance to effect change, then we might end up with an even better Wegmans performing above the level of Princeton in terms of quality as well as gross. I suspect we all agree with Joe's point #1--there's tremendous variability between stores within practically all of the chains--whether those chains are union like Giant and Safeway or non-union "Best Companies to Work For" like Wegmans and Whole Foods. Point #2 I can't address because I just haven't food shopped enough in those states. I think where Joe missteps also is in linking Harris Teeter with Wegmans in terms of quality or value or depth of selection, frankly there's no comparison except in ambience--and I join with the others on this thread who slot Teeter barely above a decent area Safeway or Giant. One store that hasn't been mentioned by anyone else--a superb small chain of stores in Northern California--is: http://www.draegers.com/ In my mind Draegers (there) surpasses Whole Food (here, in this area), even the supposedly superior Vienna Whole Foods. Anyone ever been? In-house cooking theater, in house restaurant and cafe, very deep selection of specialty products, very deep wine, etc. Which brings me naturally to the Whole Foods in San Francisco--has anyone ever been? Once I set foot in that store--amazing, well-managed, customer-oriented--it became clear to me that Mid-Atlantic Whole Foods were a differently managed and run entity entirely. I've written about this before but take but one example: WF SF sells all the best artisan breads of the region--not just the house-made crap as "our" WF does. The problem for me is once you realize these local places could be doing much better--because they ARE doing much better elsewhere--it is harder to swallow the mediocrity, indifference and high prices Whole Foods throws our way here. "And for those of us who live in the city, the Wegmans in Sterling might just as well be in the moon"--believe me, I know the feeling, when I was at Georgetown I thought going across the Key Bridge might as well have been to a foreign country. It all depends on your frame of reference. But what I think gives weight to this assessment that grocery stores in DC suck is that now there is a deep, stunning and good Wegmans relatively nearby--teasing and taunting everyone who shops at a Whole Foods or Giant or Safeway, with or without a nickname.

I'd rather see the list made public, or linked to, rather than exchanged via pm Suzanne. I couldn't find a list of the judges on the IACP site, only this vague mention: "The submissions are judged by an independent panel of 33 food and beverage professionals. Through a strict, two-tier system of judging and balloting, the entries were narrowed to three nominees in each category." http://www.iacp.com/awards/iacpAwards/cookBook.html Do you know if IACP members themselves get to vote during any stage of the process?

I wouldn't add the cocoa butter for this application, Tom, and you probably shouldn't be trying to use tempered chocolate anyway, as several of us have suggested. It's just not used in a "glazing" situation, added cocoa butter can make it harder to temper, you're likely to get more bloom and such a thin "glaze" that it will show every little crack, crinkle and crevice making your end product look shitty. You actually don't seem to want tempered chocolate as shiny as glass, you don't want to temper chocolate at all, for this. I'd go with the glazing recommendation earlier of adding a little vegetable oil if what you're really after is to replicate those little fondant covered petit fours, but with chocolate and brownies instead. There are also many other shiny chocolate glazes--in fact, much of French patisserie/entremet is all about the glaze. It will still be a problem if you have to refrigerate it after you glaze it. And Colleen's suggestion of the little tempered chocolate cutout placed on top of the brownie square would make one fine elegant and unglazed petit four--and I bet Neil you were taught this with Jacquy, no?

Was the composition of that committee made public?

Just an fyi--don't try to swing by for a late lunch, early dinner, like I tried to do today--they're closed real-food-wise between 3 and 5PM. Open for espresso, juice, muffins and the like only. Remember not to be spontaneous when you find yourself at IKEA, to read the website more closely next time or call ahead for hours of operation.

I wonder how long it will be until someone trademarks "robosteak" and it shows up on late night infomercials?

"it implies that the online world is some sort of undifferentiated place where you can get ideas and credit them to "online." Unfortunately, that's how too many "real" writers like the Lees presumably view the internet, Steve; they either 1) aren't that intellectually and ethically honest, 2) are lazy, 3) are poorly edited--or some combination of all three. I'm thankful for the editors and writers of the other two leading Food sections of note, the Washington Post and the LA Times: when they've seen or read something of interest on eGullet--they credit eGullet and credit its writers specifically. To them, it's no big deal--be it the Bayless imbroglio, the Adria book/CD-ROM, pioneering online cooking instruction like the eGCI, et al--eGullet and its members are just another valuable source of information, expertise, stories and ideas. It's typical that that dish was just discovered by the Times. Two years ago, in one of our casual on-the-curve eG discussions of Adria, I happened to write this: "Adria's effect and impact is more liberating and universal than Bras and all the other geniuses, though he doesn't go so far as to state it. (I don't want to put words in his mouth.) Ferran can conceive and execute a revelatory dish out of canned, creamed corn that "works" or "translates" anywhere. He nods politely when other elite chefs wax poetic about the absolute fundamental importance of the best possible ingredients at all times to reveal their art. When Jose Andres serves a refined, pristine, intellectually stimulating deconstructed clam chowder on a flat plate as he did for a Beard dinner or an FCI demonstration in NYC or as a guest of Rick and Gale in Chicago--and it is so lick-your-plate-clean delicious as well as "interesting"--those in attendance are given a glimpse of Adria's universal and eminently translatable significance which is slowly being felt, slowly being realized." I think Jose and I gave that demo at FCI 3, maybe 4 years ago. The Washington Post Food section wrote about that dish in 1999, I think. Too bad the Lee brothers don't get out, or online, more often. Otherwise, this is a very nice article: it draws attention to an incredibly significant chef in Andres, my friend who has already won a Beard best chef award, someone those "in the know" have known about for years; it will likely accelerate supposed "trends" we at eG are already up to speed on; and it will attract younger readers because it will seem topical to them, with just the right mix of apparent sophistication, wit and buzz. More on these "food centric dudes," who seem like nice guys but who should have known better as far as crediting eG: http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsoni...peoplefile.html

Dignan--I think it was purposeful, very well-done satire and very knowing, by a regular reader of the chats to poke fun at Tom and at the typical questions asked but maybe I'm guilty of reading too much into it.

Tom's call screener hadn't had his morning espresso yet. A lot of inside jokes and agendas within that question which regular chatters can appreciate. Very well-done.

Not challenging the techniques Mark (or the role aging, slower cooking and resting the meat might play) and undoubtedly you're also working with a superior product tailored to your chef's method--but I believe Don was speaking citywide: isn't it also a matter of awareness and customer apathy? But let me put it to you a more personal way--do you ever wonder how someone who had enjoyed excellent steak experiences, transcendent even, at Citronelle can do steak elsewhere around town, not as high up the food chain and not as refined technique-wise a la Richard or Ducasse, and not be painfully aware of the distinction? Or do you wonder sometimes if those distinctions are lost on them?

Taking this full circle, Wendy, now you see some of what I've been saying on other threads about French-influenced competitions, about media like Pastry Art & Design, etc. It isn't a problem that anyone chooses to work in a certain style or influence or promote a certain style or inlfuence at the expense of any other--that is their right. It's also our right to point that out. Everyone gains when we try to see things for what they are, to revel in their diversity: rediscovering traditions long forgotten and approaching new or different things--all with an open mind. Taste is subjective, and is perhaps the biggest hinderance for these European judges, especially the French-leaning ones, coming here to the States--but in terms of say a technical assessment of the work, well that's actually quite easy--if you know the best examples of a media or skill and/or are capable of executing them yourself. Assessing artistry/creativity and originality is another area where as a judge--you have to fight your natural instinct and bias to a certain extent. It isn't inherently or necessarily more artistic/creative/innovative to do a tall, sweeping curvilinear French sugar showpiece. That attempt still has to be assessed on its terms and on what it presents just like an ACF-style low, flat, air-brushed pastillage scene, perhaps with "hokey" colorful balloons, kids toys and clown faces--even though the latter breaks ALL the supposed French rules for showpieces. That's part of the judge's responsibility, to see past personal bias. The take home point, I guess, as a judge or critic or customer is new/French/Spanish/traditional/American--whatever--isn't necessarily better or inherently better--they're just labels. And you can do good work within a label and you can do good work which transcends label. It all depends how moved, motivated and talented you are--and who your audience is. The Portuguese do have to pick up the level of their skills in terms of what we might term the more serious international standard of pastrywork--but for them, I think, it is merely a matter of exposure, exposure they haven't had yet, and of wanting to improve and to push themselves. (The traditional pastry thing--what might be termed "patisserie de main" in French--they have down, with a rich full tradition of interesting delicious specialties, innovative doughs, creams and regional variations which we know nothing about.) And, by the way, cake decorators have a lot to teach pastry chefs, too. Even French ones. The smart pastry chefs have been learning and absorbing from the "cake decorators" for a long time, 15-20 years at least.

I wish I could join in your lament Don. When I need a steak fix I go to Rays in Arlington, that guy Michael gets it and you get your cut the way you want it, even if it is an entrecote or hangar. You want it bright pink in the center, you get it bright pink in the center. I feel for all of you who eat steak all over town and are dissatisfied. But for me there are too many other more interesting food options than the power steak place. And Rays is in my 'hood. "I'm a sucker for not sending it back because overcooked meat cannot be undone, and it means the house loses the entire dish. Ordering a medium-rare steak is like playing Russian Roulette, except that the gun goes off most of the time. It's pointless to name the restaurant because this problem is widespread and doubtlessly hammered into the minds of weary corporate chefs due to snippy customers and damnable legal fear." However, how do you expect the situation to improve if a knowledgeable, experienced, reasonable diner like yourself doesn't say anything as Bourdain advocates and as Shaw has indicated he's done as well? I appreciate the losing the entire dish angle but otherwise, where's the incentive to apply the technique or attentiveness or fix the broken links in the chain--either in the front of the house or in the back? Why shouldn't the customer--if not the server--ask what "medium rare" means to you? I wonder if this isn't just another way the lack of awareness and lack of appreciation on the part of the general DC dining populace holds our area back--wouldn't you think that with so many chain, bistro and higher end steak places, and so many conservative diners ordering steak, that chefs would have figured out by now how to serve them reliably? Could it be that "most" diners are getting their steaks exactly as they want them--somewhat overdone?

I think you may be reading too much into Neil's point Samaki--he wouldn't be saying that to you, to someone who tempers chocolate for a living. We know a "cool" room is important and preferable than going into the fridge. He's saying it this way to someone who he isn't convinced knows how to temper consistently--someone who hasn't gotten over the learning curve, the tempering school of hard knocks--yet is asking more advanced questions, trying to solve problems which may or may not need solving if he hasn't nailed tempering. I'm with you, by the way, on helping along that initial cooling down process--but even that if mishandled--can confuse the issue. So I think that's all that's behind what Neil is saying--and you know putting chocolate into the fridge would still lead to bloom or could shock the chocolate as well--and that magnifies the confusion, the chance of error--for a beginner not sure of "temper" in the first place, no? I said much the same thing early on about not running before you're sure you can walk. Thermometers can be too much of a crutch for beginners. But once you get over that hurdle, I think we'd all agree that using a thermometer is a personal choice--depending on what I'm doing I often have my infared handy--it's fast, but I also have done it enough and used different chocolates enough to know fairly intuitively how the room temp is going to affect my work, cool or warm, how the brand I have melted and tempered will work, what needs to go into the fridge, what doesn't, etc, as you do. But that's tough to explain to someone just starting out, trying to rush ahead and get all the answers quickly.

As a judge, Wendy, you have to react to what you see. But, let me ask you: "usually there's a more consistent style in the shows I've seen highlights of" and that is a good thing? And "where as this show everyone seems to be on a different page" is a bad thing? Not from my perspective. You had restaurant and hotel pastry chefs going head to head with "cake decorators" here and I was prepared to accept anyone's artistic concept and technical skill and taste on its own terms. In fact, on my scorecard for visual and technique I think I scored that yellow rectangular cake with the two flat cutout/runout bride and groom figures second after the sugar piece--because what you can't see well in the picture is the extremely well done filagree, fine piping and embroidery on the surface. It's not as glamorous as a big tall French-style sugar piece but it was the best fine piping, the best cornet work of the event--in fact, it was the only cake to have excellent fine piping. There was also a tiered cake done in a very traditional Italian style (not pictured)--a la the showpiece book by Luigi Biasetto and Iginio Massari--styrofoam columns covered with royal and sprayed--which Colleen and I both scored very well and which also stood apart from the pack. Turns out it was done by the very Italian pastry chef of the hotel we stayed at in Lisbon, the Lapa Palace, which has an excellent Italian chef and restaurant. It had a nice mix of chocolate and sugar work--which isn't easy to do--a pair of blown sugar swans in a nice pastillage cart--and we both had it second or third overall on our cards. The work, overall, could have been cleaner, the taste, overall, could have been more varied, but I found the diversity refreshing. You definitely can find more technically superior work here and abroad--but also more sameness and just as much mediocrity as well. You had the same typical cake mix low cost Wilton commercial crap in this event as well.

JJ--our area does strip malls fairly well in the suburbs and exurbs--perhaps even better than New Jersey. As far as your two specific suggestions--bread and chocolate--for bread and lunch, Breadline is probably your only real option in a "Best of DC" kind of way. It's without peer locally. From where you'll be on 495 slightly "detour" by taking the GW Parkway in toward town, go over the Roosevelt Bridge, then make a left before you get to the Washington monument. Traffic is worse here than you are probably used to. For chocolate, there's nothing worth mentioning locally anywhere near as good as the Pierre Herme line of chocolates at the new large Sterling Wegmans--but that isn't necessarily worth a detour (there are many Wegmans, some doing a better job than this new one) and the Herme chocolates are available mail order anyway. But, and this is a big but, if you've never ever been to a Wegmans--then that "slight" detour might be worth it after all--it's supermarket as Disneyland except better--from 495 take the Dulles Toll Road-267 out to the Rt. 28 exit. When Wegmans first opened its superb Princeton NJ store, those in the know made detours to it when passing by on the Turnpike/95 as well.

Wonderful Monica--now there's a good reason to pick this issue up off the newstand. SOP for the Washingtonian is to promote the current issue--and then put it up on their website once the next issue rolls out. So if form holds, and if Monica signed away first internet rights, it will eventually make it online.