mrbigjas

i have, as i mentioned above. they're grrreat. available at trader joe's, last i checked. or at least that's where i saw them.

wait didn't i read that they've parted ways?

altoids also has a licorice flavored mint. i have to admit i don't know how well it freshens breath, but it's licorice-y and spicy and altogether great. those eclipse mints that come in a rectangular tin are my latest candidate for most effective thing i've used to date (except for copious amounts of green tea, which trump every breath freshening candy).

duck wings. got it.

excelente--630ish is exactly when i plan on arriving in town, leaving plenty of time for holiday traffic between here and there. and if we have the option we generally prefer to eat at a bar when there are just the two of us. so it sounds like a plan! thanks y'all.

quick question: i'll be driving into d.c. tonight to visit the in-laws; is it impossible to get a table in the cafe/bar area without a reservation or on this short a notice? there are just two of us. or do you think it's pointless to bother?

so after my yapping about this, we went over there tonight. report: the frisee salad: nice, but real light on greens and real heavy on bacon and potatoes. the steak frites: the onglet is good, and is in a shallot sauce that has a good stock or demi as its base. excellent stuff. the problem i have here is the fries, which are definitely battered in order to be crisp. the skate wing: great, fresh fish. the mrs didn't like the beans that came with it, and said they tasted mayonnaise-y to her. to me they tasted creamy. i liked them; she didn't... eh, what are you gonna do? nice if unremarkabe cotes du rhone by the glass. no dessert/coffee. it was nice. nothing remarkable. nothing bad.

i'm sorry for being kind of off-topic, but this thread is cracking me up, because every time you guys are going, i'm floored by this, and that and i'm floored by the other thing, i imagine you doing one of those 'flip-takes' (as coined by lileks.com) that they used to have in old comic strips when the one character would say the punch line and the other one would kinda flop backwards onto the floor... here's what i'm talking about at lileks.com. (to keep this marginally food-related, that site is also the home of the gallery of regrettable food, which we've discussed on here many times before--but if you haven't seen it, check it out). anyway i have this mental image of sitting in a restaurant and someone saying something ignorant and several CRASHes happen as egulleteers in earshot are bowled over by what they just heard. or going to someone's house for dinner and someone says they won't eat vegetables and the hostess, carrying the turkey in from the kitchen, crashes to the floor from the shock of it all. or just in general being in public and people just thudding over, knocking into dish racks, bars, etc as they are repeatedly floored by everything they hear. someone should put up a sign: WATCH FOR FLOORING EGULLET PEOPLE.

lager was $3 when ten stone opened; they soon realized they could charge $3.75 like everyone else, and now it's not cheap anymore. still have great burgers and fries, though, and it's not expensive per se, just not cheap. south street blues is closed. that bar at 26th & south is one of the few bars i've ever been in where i've nearly gotten my ass kicked just for being there. but that was like 10 years ago. peter, doobies is a dirty smoky bar, with cheap beer, wobbly tables, and the same people working there for at least 10 years, and one guy more like 15. they don't have a fryer, so a lot of the usual bar food isn't available, but the food is OK and everything is cheap. and they allow dogs in the bar. it's a wonderful place that should be patronized at all costs. one recommendation: leave time for a shower when you get home. your hair will smell like someone dumped a full ashtray on a griddle after an evening at doobies--it's enough to wake you up in the middle of the night if you're not hammered. tritone has good food and is ridiculously cheap, but if you go too late, there's a band playing and a cover, which some people might object to.

brigids is still around; my coworkers and i go there for lunch all the time. it's not really belgian, though, anymore. great beer selection though, and the lunches are reasonably priced and good.

Mmm, that's true that Philly pizza-- at least the good stuff-- is thin crust. So if you don't like that style, you're outta luck: try Chicago, I guess. Or maybe the bakery pizzas (Sarcone's tomato pie, for instance), which have a thicker crust. ← capaneus, what do you mean by 'usw?' also, i agree with andrew: try sarcone's on 9th below fitzwater, or cacia's at 15th & ritner. i don't know if you'll like it or not, or if it's what you're looking for, but it's not thin crust (and you might like the stuff anyway, even if it's not what you're looking for, because it's good).

chaucer's is nice. no cheap beer on tap, by which i mean: no lager. flying fish abbey dubbel is $4.75, which ain't cheap, but during happy hour (which is till 7) it's a buck off, so it's $3.75, which is reasonable. we didn't have food, because we were there before dinnertime (for me, anyway). there was a little issue where dude was polishing the tap thingy with brasso for about the first 45 minutes we were there, but it's really not important enough to worry about--it just gave the beer a little note of... well, brasso. not real crowded; not real empty. basically, about what i remember it being after work on a tuesday. there was a different feel to it, though. maybe the different crew of employees was the difference. that guy who used to stand in there at happy hour and drink like 15 ponies of rock and stare at everyone wasn't there, though.

that's kind of a bummer. going for cheap drinks tonight in the neighborhood and we've been to doobies like the last five times. i guess grace could work, although the beer isn't exactly cheap there; same with ten stone. hm....... maybe we'll check out chaucer's anyway and i'll report back.

since the old owner died, what's up with chaucer's? is the food still decent? do they have vegetarian options on the menu? is it still relatively inexpensive? who owns it now, again? t.i.a.

oops, accidentally posted without saying anything. anyway, what happened there? what's screwed up? have i completely missed some local restaurant gossip? ← Sure did. The owner apparently was put off by the "too fancy" menu, or some such, so there was a parting of the ways - the chef and some of the crew departing, and the owner (who also runs La Boheme) taking over the skillets. The menu has apparently been dumbed down, though I haven't seen any specifics. ← d'oh. i like la boheme, though. i've eaten there twice and enjoyed it both times. anyway, to answer andrew's question: i would happily give up not one, not two, but the next three new stephen starr restaurants, whatever they are, in order to have a decent french bistro* and/or a south indian place. *i haven't been back to caribou in probably five years and wasn't that impressed that time; i suspect my opinion might change if i went back now, for the sole reason that i'm a lot more familiar with the cuisine, and like it.

thanks rich; sounds good. maybe one of these days when an expense-account type of friend who only likes steakhouse-type places comes to town and treats me.... oh wait i don't have one of those kinds of friends. i'll pick up the magazine.

oops, accidentally posted without saying anything. anyway, what happened there? what's screwed up? have i completely missed some local restaurant gossip?

ok so people have discussed the $100 cheesesteak to death. and generally speaking i'm not that interested in going to yet another overpriced stephen starr joint. but maxine keyser's review in the citypaper this week (here until thursday) made me consider a visit for the actual steaks, gimmicks aside, even if i can't afford a drink. so has anyone been? are they really the same steaks as served at peter luger? is it worth it to get a kobe hanger steak? anyone? anyone?

south indian vegetarian cuisine is missing. like they serve at madras cafe in new york.

didn't monks used to have lapin a gueuze? they used to have some sort of beer-braised rabbit on the menu.... actually i just looked it up and it is still on the menu on their website.

i was in the liquor store today and i had a thought about this: what's the difference between the black and green label jack daniels now? i was always under the impression that the green label was the 80 proof, and the black was the 86, but now that the black is 80 proof too..... (of course their website doesn't give any information about the actual whiskey; only about the lifestyle you should have and the flash-based games you should play while drinking it)

last time i had people in from out of town and we went to tony luke's, one of the guys wanted both, so we split the roast pork and a cheesesteak. the cheesesteak was great, actually.

that was paradigm.

you know, i was just thinking about this the other day, because i'd turned on food tv and her show was on. i hadn't really seen anything but bits and pieces of it before, but this time i sat through most of it. and i've realized that the reason it is unwatchable is totally not her fault. she is pretty, pleasant, makes good looking recipes, gives clear instructions, etc. it's the goddamn fisheye lens they use combined with the extreme macro closeups of everything that make the show gratingly annoying, and even a little nauseating. why the hell would anyone think that's a good idea? the poor thing already has a fivehead; why would you accentuate it with a fisheye lens?

that venison carpaccio can be really great. i've had it a couple of times now; the first time, the carpaccio was completely overshadowed by the accompaniment, to the point where you couldn't really taste it. but this past time, when we had the dish you describe above, it was really super.