babka

does matchbox have good bar specials?? that could be a fantastic idea--closer to the metro, too--only rationale for Corduroy was that they had actual happy hour specials on food and drink for the budgetarily-challenged.

I'm confirmed plus two others now, with hopefully more to come.

I'm there. Monica, will the menu be veg-friendly?

and I normally hate creme brulee. he kindly explained the technique and I still don't get it...but wow. try this.

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yesy es yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

not sure what the lunch menu is, to be honest. The dinner prix-fixe is drawn from the regular dinner menu--e.g., all the food on the prix-fixe is on the regular menu. Not all the regular menu dishes are on the prix-fixe. the brunch and the minibar is an interesting experience--many of the brunch dishes appear, in a slightly different individual form and, most importantly, combined with other dishes, on the minibar. (no foie gras cotton candy though ) . Brunch is a fantastic, long, drawn-out affair--meant to post a separate thread on this--but I took a dearly beloved visiting Bulgarian friend there on Sunday afternoon, because I needed the full year's worth of stories and she was catching a plane back to Sofia Sunday evening. If you're not able to sit for a couple of hours and just bask in the neverending play of dishes, and the staff's clear delight in the food, it's not a good choice. If you are--none better. It's like the minibar is the symphony, while brunch lets you untangle the individual melodies. No reservations needed for brunch, in my experience--it's always been pathetically empty when I went. And the service is much better for brunch than for regular dinner, because, as at the minibar, the wait staff has the time to share their enthusiasm with you.

I posted this round-up in an earlier thread, but can't figure out how to effectively link to just it, so: Cafe Atlantico: $22 for the early 3-course menu. (note: I've actually done the minibar followed, within a week, by real dinner at Atlantico and vastly enjoyed it--the menus are separate, your foods and waiters are different, but it gives you a solid introduction to the kitchen's skills.) Time-limited Drinks and Dishes at Andale, Chef Geoff, Corduroy, David Greggory, or M-Street bar and Grill. Andale and Corduroy, at least, are within walking distance of MCI. Washington Post on high-end happy hour meal options and Les Halles (where I've never been and clearly has mixed reviews) offers 3 courses for $17.89 until 7 pm.

update--asked the nice folks at Lee's tonight (where else in the city can you get Woodford Reserve for $27 AND good nicaraguan rum???) about the word that they were closing, and the guy said no. "We wouldn't leave you guys." also--I adore Tonic. I've got a habit of taking final drafts into noisy bars, squirreling myself away at a back table, and editing by candlelight. that joint's the perfect tonic for the working brain....good and cheap beer/food, attentative staff who don't drive you bonkers.

last I heard, that was still in dispute. Lee's on Irving and Mt. Pleasant is closing (sniff) and Starbwars is a contender for the spot--was reported at one point in time that they had it, but that was retracted.

ya know, given the magic ya'all work with lentils, I half suspect you could pull this off and it would be damn good.

just to make this clear to visitors: Our intrepid local reviewer hosts a weekly on-line chat which sometimes reveals more than you really wanted to know about the inner angst of this august town. DCMark captured a lovely example of a chatterer posting a satirical query about said angst. He himself, as I recall, eats frogs. He is NOT the author of said request. http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/z...tsema042804.htmsietsema today

c'mon, it's the easiest thing in the world! Just hop on any one of those seven corners, drive in a straight line, and you'll find youself out of 'em! then you just have to figure out where the hell you are and how to navigate back to where you wanted to be without passing through that bermuda triangle ever, ever, ever again.

Eden Center!! or not-so-little Saigon--slurp a bowl of pho at the stinky shop with books creaking along the wall, grab a pork sandwich, mango bubble tea and vietnamese treats from the kitty-corner cafe for the road, amuse your eyes in the jewelry and food markets, then get back in your car and drive away. Take 495 towards Route 50 East, exit 10 A (Arlington Blvd towards Arlington) Go straight on Route 50 East until Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) Take right unto Route 7 ramp up to light into Seven Corners Bear left onto Wilson Blvd and Make the first Left into Eden Center Eden Center oh, and please note--you'll not be so foolish as to attempt to drive around D.C. near rush hour, correct?

Does anyone in the region carry Cowgirl Creamery cheeses? Mr. Jared is responsible for a horrific long-term craving, and I can't find them.

welcome alex! you've either got cousins with good taste or have done some substantial research on the morass we call the d.c. thread--good picks! I'm otherwise committed on the first, but you should do well wherever you go.

What's jose andres doing saturday night? and many thanks again for the stupendous organizing skill, verve, and wit--I had a fantastic time, and am smacking myself upside the head for missing the oyster dish on previous visits. not, however, smacking or otherwise berating myself for missing the froggies.

but bring Todd in to meet his fan club and we might be able to talk...

sweet tea-based drink, often with milk, flavoring, and/or fruit mixed in, poured atop tapioca pearls and served with a straw big enough to launch 'em at your table-mate. or eat them. mmmmm....tapioca

sorry--have been on deadlines and not tracking this well. I'm not sure I can get a Chinese-speaker actually _there_ on Thursday night--my friend's mother is visiting from Germany, leaving the next day, and he seems to think she'd be rather upset if he ditched her for dinner. I called the restaurant and gave them a heads-up on the number of people and ran into the same issue as Busboy when I tried to ask about dishes that Chinese customers would order. I've just called another Chinese-speaker and asked her if she'd be willing to either go with us or handle discussions with Full Kee on our behalf ahead of time--will let you know when she gets back to me. edited to say: on a completely separate note, I just googled the place and found a raging discussion on chowhound about their dishes. chow hound on full kee leaving aside the wegman's issue Everything on the chinese-language menu is now listed in English. Dishes that folks singled out for praise include: chicken and eggplant casserole, tofu stuffed with shrimp and the oyster casserole. shrimp dumpling soup clams in black bean sauce oyster casserole, snow pea leaves, Hong Kong dumpling soup and this simplified gem of advice: "avoid americanized anything, stick to casseroles, congee, hong kong soups, and vegetable stir fries."

Many, many thanks! Dutifully noted everything in my little cheat sheet, set merrily off at 10 am for a leisurely day in the Bay... 'cept you have to drive by ben's chili bowl on the way out of town, and my mom had never been there, and it's amazing how hotcakes, grits, eggs, and sausage will devour your gustatory intentions for the day. We had a lovely walk around historic St. Mary's, then on to Solomon's Island (where we inadvertently coincided with the opening of the Tiki Bar, a quick descent into hell which will never be repeated), and didn't get hungry for lunch until 7 pm. Annapolis was only an hour away then, so grabbed a stick of cheese and headed up to Jimmy Cantler's on Riverside Creek. wow. Every table seemed to know--or at least holler greetings and queries--to at least one other table, and the hails between the outdoor tables and approaching boats seemed to extend the restaurant to the middle of the creek. We got off to a slightly awkward start after my mother assured the nice people sitting around us that she was visiting from Iowa but _I_ lived in D.C. and therefore was a native. I politely but very very quickly clarified I lived in D.C. and was not a native at all, which set heads to nodding. "We--most of us live here," said my neighbor, waving around the crowded restaurant. "But we're glad you came up to visit." They walked us through a show-and-tell with the steamed mollusks and then provided crustacean directions, in between involuntary hoots at our ineptitude, anyway. (One guy told us to dig inside the corners of the crab back for the soft starting new shell and eat it, saying he'd learned that from a watermen years ago--we did it, but never quite figured out whether we were being played for newbies or not. tasted good, though.) The food was _good_ Sweet hot crabs with old bay; steamed cherrystone osyters, and a crunchy fresh soft-shell crab that would put a roll of spiders to shame.

hey! greek deli, cf folks, malaysia kopitiam, burrito whomever from the CF folks folks, Naan and Beyond, Firehook, and National Geographic all serve decent lunches within 2 blocks, while Vidalia, Malaysia Kopitiam, and, er, vidalia....malaysia kopitiam....vidalia....so dinner could use some work.

er--- preferences between about ordering individually at the restaurant versus asking ahead for a $15-$20 a head assortment of interesting stuff?

I'm taking my visiting mother on a daytrip Saturday through southern Maryland. Our tentative plan is to meander through Calvert and St. Mary's, with the historic whatchamagic in St. Mary's as the turnaround. Past trips have been centered around _staying_ someplace, and past food (crabs. and more crabs.) has been found by asking whomever was hosting. Since we don't have that luxury of time and place--does anyone here have any suggestions? (and, er, any non-food suggestions would also be appreciated....I love this part of the Bay, but that's based on many, many hours of sitting on porches and talking to the watermen next door....not sure how to encapsulate that in 12 hours.)

looks like 22nd works after all.

unfortunately, I'm not sure that either of us can make it to the event itself, but I'd be glad to help--if we have a rough headcount, I can send my friend there either later this week or early next to try to describe what we'd like. He likes food, especially good food, and is very good at begging non-menu items from chefs (Veggie Survival Skills 101). that said, if there's no official banquet menu and we want a fun non-menu dinner, I suspect we'll get the best results if people are willing to submit to the wretched tyranny of pre-ordering. I can see sending him in ahead of time to ask for the most interesting dishes the kitchen can cook for, say $15 to $30 a head, leaving room on the financial end for individuals with more conservative tastes to order a dish they know that they would like. I'm not sure that asking for individual cool stuff while we're sitting and squabbling would be quite as productive.