iamthestretch

I'm sad to say the catfish sandwich has departed the Colorado Kitchen Friday lunch menu. I'm happy to say it has been replaced with a fried shrimp po' boy that, well, I strongly urge you to eat for yourself. Aarrgghh. The remoulade alone is right up there with the notorious narcotic tartar sauce.

Having nothing to add to the substance of the thread, I would just like it minuted that this is without doubt the single funniest thing I have ever read on eGullet.

On the minus side, I notice they've carefully selected one of the few possible alternate locations where it will be just as hard to park as it is in Georgetown. At least this one will be Metro-accessible, which should be good for wine sales.

Is that an homage to anyone in particular?

We had a little fun with their advertising a while back, but haven't heard anything since. Go take one for the team.

This is morphing into a topic on its own, but just two more cents from me. Almost all major businesses spend large amounts of money collecting and sifting data so that they can do exactly that: identify their best customers and give them preferential treatment. It's called customer segmentation, and it makes eminently sound business sense. Airlines and banks spring to mind as the most obvious cases, but just about any time you talk to any customer service representative at any call center these days, her CRM software will tell her whether, from the perspective of that particular business, your patronage is worthwhile and that will, in large measure, determine the kind of treatment you receive. So I see no reason why restaurants should not either reward regulars or otherwise try extra hard to win over customers who, for one reason or another, may be in a position to help out the house -- say by subsequently evangelizing for it in some unnamed public forum or other. Seems like common sense to me.

No good deed EVER goes unpunished. What about memememememememeeeeeee? Wankers.

From Tom Sietsema's Dec 1999 Washington Post article about the best seats in the house at various Washington standbys.

Battling extreme cabin fever, me, the missus and the 12-day-old loaded up the wagon and headed over to Bangkok 54 for lunch on the theory that the clientele would be pretty sparse on a snowy Monday, thus minimizing the probability of someone sneezing all over the car seat and its cargo. Plus, it seemed like a good day to bring a little heat. I thought the food was very good, again, though I couldn't resist going, again, for the chili-basil pork belly which has already been praised here. A great dish and, if you eat all the chilis mixed in, a solid kick in the goolies. My wife had the soft noodles with Chinese broccoli and egg and liked it; we shall have to see how the broccoli/spice combo is received on the secondary market, though. I also found room for a side of salt and pepper calamari, which I thought was exemplary. The squid is thick, meaty and tender and the coating crackling crisp without any hint of oiliness. Never got to the yum pla duk fuk, so I'm staying out of that particular argument. Not a bad restaurant debut for the little guy, either, who slept through the entire proceeding.

More than that. This, and the sous vide thread you've informed so usefully, are absolutely fascinating and I suspect that you may just have sparked a mini-boom in sales of second-hand laboratory circulators. If that is the case, and you have the time and the inclination, might I suggest another project that could be worthy of your attention -- an expansion of the food safety advice you give in the main thread? An Idiots Guide to Safe Sous Vide would be indispensible for home cooks who might be tempted to pick up a used water bath.

Then fall off the damn thing. There's no carbs in decent scotch. Well known fact.

Yeah, the other day traffic was so bad in the Rosslyn area that I could have cooked and eaten a 31-oz. steak while sitting in gridlock. ← If only VDOT could guarantee no traffic tie-ups would last longer than 90 minutes...

I think the key question left unanswered here is whether Mr. Landrum's 90 minute steaks are, in fact, 90 times better than the average minute steak. Expect to see a snippy letter to Mr. Sietsema should my investigation turn up any evidence to the contrary.

Richman, Rockwell, Kliman and Sietsema. Good company. Sounds like a white-shoe law firm.

Would it make you feel any better if I told you it was a cracking episode? We laughed at the hapless head chef applicants. We cried for the sweet, shy Italian sous chef who got squeezed out. We cheered for the harried owner who might not lose his restaurant, house and dream all in one go after all. I'm all emotionally cleansed inside!

I agree and, after actually reading it, I'd say she got the latter mostly right too. That said, I stand by my impulsive, obnoxious and mostly unsupported earlier assertions of bias and chicanery because, well, never apologizing for anything is a well-loved and, clearly, winning strategy in this our fine hometown.

Has the NYT said anything much nice about the DC dining scene, ever? My impression is that even when they occasionally profile a DC chef who is doing great things, they make it abundantly clear that his sterling efforts are a rare exception amid a veritable sea of mediocrity and, anyway, can't really be directly compared to the efforts of compatriots in New York, who are after all cooking for far more more sophisticated folk. I know their DC and NY news bureaus have always hated each other's guts -- maybe that's got something to do with the dripping condescension?

Lunch service is surely going to make a big difference to the feel of the new place, too. Less of a 'labor of love' vibe probably, but also more chance for more people to try something a cut above the chain pablum that's otherwise prevalent in the area. Just don't douse the Diablo too much for the food court palates, pretty please. (PS: Do three significant openings in the course of half a year or so -- Jackies, Mandalay and Ray's Classics -- make Silver Spring a bona fide new restaurant hotspot? All we need now is a Jose Andres joint.)

Yeah, baby! Living just down the road from what should surely rather have been called "Ray's The Steaks: Double Or Nothing," I'm going to have my nose pressed up against the glass waiting for this to open and fully intend on bringing my own screaming offspring in many a night after it does. How's the kids' menu coming along, Michael? PS: That link is crook. This ought to work.

My wife went completely off red meat and fish for much of her recent pregnancy, so I ended up cooking a lot of chicken in various forms. Her taste for spices also picked up a lot, so we went through a ton of Indian, Thai and Burmese food. The only real oddity (some might dispute that characterization) was her appetite for whole bananas spread with a quarter-inch layer of peanut butter.

Someone must have tried 21P by now, surely? So?

The new menu items are very good. The Alsatian onion tart is a simple but satisfying blend of creamy, caramelized onions and thick, oniony cream and the duck confit is as unctuous as it should be and nicely set off by tart dried cherries. I can also recommend the jerk chicken wings, which some claim are potent enough to bring on labor. I haven't had the "Fish is Chips" yet -- slivers of crunchy fried skate wing -- but plan to get to it as soon as opportunity presents itself. Ditto the chicken-fried steak. Because if at first you don't succeed -- fry, fry again.

That's a whole new take on the old Playboy line. "But Honey, I only buy the beer for the articles!"

OK. I've cooked up a bunch of stuff ahead of a new arrival and now have a freezer full of carefully portioned out good things that are going to be drawn down starting from next week. So what is the best way to go from a solid chunk of bourguignon or ragu in a ziplock bag to two quick, steaming plates of meaty goodness? Pot? Microwave? If the latter, defrost then reheat? Reheat repeatedly? Full nuke ahead? I've never frozen leftovers before, so I honestly don't know the answer, but I do know I didn't much like my dinner tonight of scalding hot gravy with crunchy meatsicles. Help! PS: Can I post this, too? First one, indulge me...

Just curious, but why does it have to be two years old? Do you prefer them experienced?