John W.

Hmmm. I knew it was coming and typed in Ceiba into the search engine and it came up. Works here.

Ahhhh. Tom's review

Whoa...do you have proof of this? I thought it was common knowledge that Hoegarders at 2am will kill you. At 9am is just fine though. There are a few people on these boards that can attest that both times haven't killed them...yet.

Whoa...do you have proof of this? I'll wait to hear back from people at the hearing yesterday. Washington Post link

Phil - I opened the bottle, tasted it for flaws and then left it alone for an hour, which was good advice. We drank it over the course of two hours, vastly different wine from beginning to end.

I have calls out to some people who attended (two days notice is not enough for me to do anything). I hope to post something tomorrow.

But wouldn't they be booked anyway? Is it loud in there, John? Probably won't be crazy until next week. It takes a few days for the beatings to commence. I don't think it's that loud. High ceilings, tables are far enough apart. On second thought, nothing sez romance like the BDC.

Why not go to Ceiba before it's too late? Review is out this weekend, I trust it'll be positive. It is a nice space, kind of hip, food is good.

Thanks for the plug, but I always think we're too loud for anniversaries. 1789 (beautiful room, moreso during the holidays) Taberna de Alabardeo Marcel's Of course Palena or Nectar

Links from RAMW website this and this

Timberlake's and Childe Harold? Or am I missing one? Mr. Eagan's, RIP. Fox and Hounds, the LB (Lucky Bar), to name a few. I didn't stop in any of these today, mind you.

Well... how are smoking permissions currently implemented in your business? What percentage of your business would you estimate goes to people who smoke while in your establishment? What percentage of those people do you think you would lose as customers if DC implemented a smoking ban? Do you think you would gain any customers as a result of a DC-wide smoking ban? These are the questions I would think you, as a potentially affected businessman, would want to answer. I get the impression that Firefly is a fairly upscale place, and I also get the impression that upscale places as a group have been the least affected by the bans here. I, for one, would love to see some actual hard data on how and to what extent smoking bans have affected bars and restaurants, plus how and to what extent those effects are distributed across the different types of such businesses. For this exercise: Firefly consists of three distinct sections: A lounge area where smoking is permitted, a bar adjacent to the dining room, and the dining room itself. Smoking is not permitted in the bar and dining room. Most nights the whole place is full, bar, lounge, everything. Luckily, airflow in the restaurant keeps the smoke in the lounge, as to not affect dining patrons. A substantial portion of our revenue is derived from the lounge, especially in (very) profitable liquor sales. My guess would be that we would lose a portion of that revenue due to people not lingering, but I have no evidence of that. I think having read the NY smoking thread and my time spent living in CA, we would lose a little bit of business overall, but not much. As for gaining any customers, at this point that is almost impossible as we are at (knock on wood) or near capacity almost every day of the week. My concern would be for the bars (which I have responsibilty for Topaz, Rouge and Helix lounges in DC), as most restaurants already don't allow smoking. I was made aware of this hearing by a friend of mine at a well-known three star restaurant in DC. The business at his sizeable bar is quite dependent on smoking, especially cigar smoking. He is quite concerned about this passing for obvious financial reasons. To respond to your earlier post slkinsey, about the bars you find yourself in, I generally prefer the crusty old Irish guy pushing drinks as my choice of boozer. Walking home today (after lunch at the smoking capital of America Bistrot du Coin) past the crusty old Irish guy bars in my neighborhood, I wonder how many could survive a ban? Again, I don't smoke, and most nights in these places I am usually the only one not smoking. Again, if such a thing passes, then so be it. I was just very surprised how something so fiercely debated in CA and NYC among other places could have a go at it here and no one knows about it.

My bottom line here is this: If there is possible legislation that could possibly affect my business, I would like to know about it. I was being a bit sarcastic. Apologies to any and all. I'm always a bit skepitcal about special interest groups. There certainly was not much scientific data, although there was plenty of comedy.

I don't have a high horse on this one, but the simple answer is that restaurant employees like money, and this would remove some of that. How? Are the restaurants selling cigarettes? It's not like smokers are going to stop going out as a result of the ban. Look at NYC. You can't smoke ANYWHERE -- restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. (except for outside), and places are still packed to the hilt. People smoke in bars. I just looked at scientific data (ie the NY smoking ban thread). Lots of indie places are either empty or closed according to that thread. Again, I am opposed to it in a business sense. I don't smoke. That's my opinion. If it passes in a fair fight, then so be it. But what really gets me on this is that a whole lot of proponents of the ban know of this hearing and not a whole lot of ban opponents, if any, knew of it. That doesn't sound like a fair fight.

I don't have a high horse on this one, but the simple answer is that restaurant employees like money, and this would remove some of that. My main reason for this post is that I work in a restaurant, as do many of my friends. No one knew of this hearing and that scares me. For or against the ban, I was hoping for some opinions here. I'm sure I'll get 'em too. If it goes into effect, it's something that I could live with, I just want to ensure that it's a fair fight.

There is a hearing this Wednesday, December 3rd at the City Council at 10 AM. Two smoking ban proponents, Breathe (a non profit group made up of bar/restaurant employees against tobacco), and Smoke Free DC, will be in attendance. Apparently there are quite a few ban proponents on the list to attend, and not many who oppose it. I don't smoke, but I can't imagine many people employed in restaurants who would be in favor of this. I certainly am opposed to it. I have no facts to support this but it seems to me that attendance at this hearing has been stacked in favor of these two organizations. I do know for a fact that the RAMW (Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington) does oppose such a ban, and is currently trying to organize support for Wednesday's hearing. Apparently the ban in Montgomery County is causing multiple places a month to close their doors. I would guess ditto in NYC, but without hard facts I will not elaborate. I see this ban spelling instant death for many places, especially the BDC. What's the consensus in e-gulletlandia?

Bill, Just the three four star places. I am in favor of the star system. It might not have as much weight here on forward-thinking e-gullet, but for general consumption I think there has to be one. I get DonRocks' (and Don does in fact rock) point with the champagne reviews, but reviews can be taken the wrong way, the writing style can change ever so subtly from review to review, the choice of words and so on. All that can affect the reader's perception of a place. I think by having a quantatative system the mass market consumer can relate to, (let's face it, I gave up a long time ago trying to change society) is a good thing.

I wonder what disguise he'll be in. He'll probably send Michael Wilbon in his place.

The most intriguing thing for me now, that the "stars" gauntlet has been thrown down, is how quickly Tom will re-review places worthy of promotion/demotion. And, in what format? In the form of another review? Annual dining guides? Another book? I look forward to these changes. And this will certainly add to the conflagration at the weekly shouting matches that always ensue at BDC.

Mark, I had a few glasses before I went to dinner. Does that qualify?

I think the omission of Butterfield 9 and Asia Nora were the first glaring items. That might be the chef change at Butterfield 9 speaking, and I recall Tom not being very high on the food, but do I think it deserves inclusion. Also, I think that Asia Nora not being in it was another big miss. My biggest beef though? Two Amy's getting three stars. Sure the pizzas are good, but so's Alberto's. I had some pretty sketchy items the last time I was there. Without opening the pizza can o' worms again, I think that was generous. But overall, I agreed with most of it. And at the end of the day, at the very least this Dining Guide is creating a bunch of controversy and garnering a lot of attention for DC. Yes the book uses the star system. I can't recall if no-stars are in there. Probably not. In addition to Kinkead's as a two-star, Galileo got two as well. The Inn got three stars. That was the dalmation debate. Big debate. Lots of beer and lots of cursing. There are a few places that I think escaped the "mail it in" two-star beat down. But hey, it's not my book.

Shocking that this is Sunday morning and no one but me has seen Tom's new book. Foodies awake! We flipped through it last night. My voice is still hoarse from yelling about various injustices. And then there was the Dalmation Debate.

Wow.

Mingling in with the Mondavi Private Selection Cab was: Bourgogne Blanc, Borgeot, 2000 Chianti Classico, Fontodi, 1998 Rioja, Senorio de Cuzcurrita, 2000 (actually went best with the bird) Cabernet Sauvignon, Phelps, 1990 Dessert was a bottle of Austrian botrytis (grape unknown) from 1981. It seems as if everyone was hedging their bets on what to bring, I was a little surprised to see the Phelps show up.

Chinon or Cru Beajolais.