Mark Sommelier
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Posts posted by Mark Sommelier
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What kind of person takes a steak off of someone else's plate, even if they already left? Amazing.
What kind of person takes a steak off someone's plate and then COMPLAINS about it? That's amazing!
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Someone on Chowhound reported that the line for the opening day started at 4PM the previous day. They opened at 5:30AM.
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Does anyone know of a reputable place in Washington, D.C. where I can store my wine (6-10 cases, maybe more) for a monthly fee? I have one here in Montreal and in San Francisco and they're quite useful if you buy wines away from home. Let me know if anyone has any experience that could be useful to me.
There is a cellar facility in upper Georgetown, I believe. Contact Wide World of Wines at 202-333-7500. I think they have something to do with it. If not, they will recommend something for you.
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I'm hoping that it will be reasonably (if not completely) quiet given that today is Monday.
Last Monday the entire bar was eG folks, all the table were full, inside and outside.
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How crowded do you think it will be tonight (Monday) at 7:30?
Sit at the bar. No problem.
There will be four of us though.
If you tell all the eGullet people to stay home for a change, there will be plenty of room.
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I saw some fellow eGullet dudes at Palena a week or so ago.
Ditto. 2 nights in a row!
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Just for the sake of pedantry, the style of "new cooking" that arose in France and then America in the early 80's was called Nouvelle Cuisine. I do not know of a single chef cooking today who refers to his/her food as Nouvelle Cuisine anymore.
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True story:
Tonight, two friends show up at my bar. Both of them are bartenders. I said "you're all dressed up, where ya been?"
"At a wake"
"So, you showed up here for a stiff one......"
Sorry
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I'm thinking I'll head over to Le bureau this evening.
Hmmmm....... the Office. That sounds like a good idea. I haven't been there in at least a week.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Aug20.html is the announcement I referred to in my earlier post.
This is old news.
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Great replies here so far. My views on this subject are well documented on the interet, this site included. The question I always want to ask people who obsess on what restaurants charge for things is this: What business are you in? Do you ask your doctor why he charges you $175 for a 20 minute office visit? Do you quiz your dentist about why a 10 minute cleaning costs $90? Ragu spaghetti sauce costs $3.49 at the Safeway, but I prefer the Putanesca sauce from Dean & Deluca that costs me $12.99. To be fair to the original poster, I agree. Wine in a cheap place should be cheap, too. A little bare bones bistro with $8 entrees should have wine in a similar price range. Fine dining places have different costs to assume. The rest should be obvious.
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Killer scoop Donrocks!
So Old Angler's Inn takes the cake.... since old Ebbitt was down for a while...
A few add on discussions:
1. Has the test of time proven these to be among the most tasty restaurants in town. Or simply, since they've been there so long, they don't owe rent, and are more easy to sustain?
2. What's to say of new swank restaurants, the Palena's, Nectar, Citronelle's of DC. Cater to what's hot right now and will be out of business in 10 years guaranteed? Or, have captured the trend and a few of the strong will proliferate?
2. What restaurant has the longest same family legacy in DC?
I helped open Citronelle 11 1/2 years ago. Palena and Nectar are young compared.
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And yet there is massive variation in what similar type restaurants charge for the same wine, even in the same cities. Zagat once did a comparision in NYC and posted it on its website, I don't know if its still there. Restaurants do apply different pricing strategies for successfully selling and profiting from wine, and its not clear that pricing at the max yields the best results. I know that I actually am willing to spend more when I believe that the wine list is well priced. I believe that as diners become more knowledgeable about wine, restaurants will need to price their wines to provide value, in order to sell them.
There has been discussion of this topic on the Wine Forum. I noted that the same bottle of Cristal that I sell $220, ADNY sells for $500. The same bottle of Corton-Charlemagne Domaine Coche-Dury that I sell for $400, Veritas sells for $1300. Go figure.
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Loeb's Perfect New York Deli is 45 years old. In fact, it used to be in the location now occupied by the Old Ebbitt Grill. Which raises a question, was the Old Ebbitt Grill always "old." I seem to recall that it was around the corner from where it is now.
spelling edit
The original Old Ebbitt Grill was indeed around the corner in a creaky (literally) Revolutionary era building. In the early 80's there was a fierce battle between the real estate developers and the historic preservation folks. It is obvious who won. The new Old Ebbitt is in the site once occupied by Keith's theatre, a vaudeville house turned movie theatre from the 20's.
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In a restaurant, wine and food are the two main profit centers. There are certain fixed costs associated with purchasing, storing and serving wine. Without an acceptable profit, the restaurant goes out of business.
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Nora might about 25; it opened when we lived in DC in the late 1970s.
Others that I remember -- mostly inexpensive, since we were young then:
Childe Harold
Mr. Henry's
Trio (near Dupont Circle, on 17th Street. Not a great place; actually a diner + pizza place + bar [Fox & Hounds], but we loved it. Last time we stopped in a year and a half or so, Margo the waitress was still there
)Annie's Paramount (inexpensive steak place on 17th NW; in our day, a bastion of the gay community)
I'd be curious to know if they're still open.
Well, since I just ate lunch there, I can tell you that the Childe Harold (1967) is still alive and ticking.
How could I forget Trio??? Also add AV Ristorante.
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According to the email I got yesterday, this year is L'Auberge Chez Francois' 50th anniversary. Some of that's got to include the time they were open downtown.
Chez François was originally in a building at the space now occupied by the Oval Room.
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Some real oldies:
Billy Martin's Tavern
The Guards
Mrs. K's Toll House
Crisfield's
Reese's
Luigi's Famous
....to name a few
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Classique
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I dropped in on two, shall we say, Very Well Known wine personalities yesterday, and both of them said that Mr. Giliberti is a good person and a nice guy. If people here are going to criticize, it's imperative to criticize the work itself, and not the person behind it.
With that in mind, the antenna coming from these two people are long and far-reaching, and there is apparently near-universal condemnation of both pieces, the second one having hurt the cause made by the first, resulting in a sort of "he still doesn't get it" reaction.
I've known Ben for 20 years and will state categorically that he is a good person and a nice guy.
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Somehow I think he still doesn't get it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Aug17.html
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Zaytinya serves all afternoon. If you come after the lunch rush around 2 o'clock you can linger and savor.
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It's no Eve, but MacFaddens on 24th and Penn has drink specials for restaurant workers on Friday or Saturday nights.
That's a cool place if you are the kind of guy who paints his face the colors of his soccer team.........
Krispy Kreme? Bah! Give me Chick-fil-a.
in D.C. & DelMarVa: Dining
Posted
I wish they would open a Krusty Burger. I want my Twisty Lard®!