LeftBank

[JennyUptown]

From today's Weekly Dish:

LOUNGE ACT It's a breakfast joint! It's a sushi bar! It's a restaurant with a French accent! The forthcoming Leftbank (2424 18th St. NW) in Adams Morgan is leaving no yupscale whim behind in an effort to draw customers to what co-owner Sahir Erozan paints as a lounge for 2004. The space formerly known as Cities, with its changing array of cuisines, is giving way April 30 to concrete floors, orange leather booths, bamboo tables and a blizzard of talking points: Erozan plans to have high-speed Internet connections at every table, music and lighting that change course as the day wears on, and roaming carts from which cooks can prepare egg dishes and bartenders can shake cocktails for tableside entertainment. The standing menu will be broken into "garden," "ocean" and "farm" themes and run to main-course salads, lobster BLTs and a minute steak with herbed french fries -- with nothing priced higher than $15, promises the restaurateur. Erozan says the name of his latest endeavor refers to the restaurant's location on "the left side of the Potomac." Is he making a political statement in his Bohemian neighborhood, too, we wondered? He responded only with a hearty laugh.

I wasn't interested until I heard the entree price cap (sorry danzig - I'm among the budget-conscious too) and I'm still not sold overall.

I don't go to Adams Morgan to spend $50+ on dinner, to be frank.

[hillvalley]

The name is stupid. How many people go "east of the river" to dine.

Frankly, it sounds like it is trying to be a more modern, hip Tryst.

Might be worth a trip on a Sunday afternoon, but who wants to surf the Internet while dining? Cell phones are bad enough

[JPW]

I personally like the quip made by someone in Tom's chat today "Were they looking at the map upside down? It's not even on the left bank of Rock Creek, much less the Potomac".

I guess that they could claim to be on the Left Bank of the Anacostia.

Concrete floor? "Talking Points" (whatever the hell those are)? For all the noise that is likely to occur it sounds like you'd be better off dining next to the left inside engine of a 747.

[DonRocks]

I don't go to Adams Morgan to spend $50+ on dinner, to be frank.

Enjoy your water

To be really "Frank," I hope to start out this evening at that place where everything is only nine dollars.

Yet to escape under fifty,

Rocks.

[John W.]

I don't go to Adams Morgan to spend $50+ on dinner, to be frank.

Enjoy your water

To be really "Frank," I hope to start out this evening at that place where everything is only nine dollars.

Yet to escape under fifty,

Rocks.

4 9's plus a lot of 70's is how I spent last Monday.

Rocks, you've yet to escape under 3 fifty.

[Al_Dente]

I don't go to Adams Morgan to spend $50+ on dinner, to be frank.

Enjoy your water

To be really "Frank," I hope to start out this evening at that place where everything is only nine dollars.

Yet to escape under fifty,

Rocks.

Hey Frank-- what place are you referring to?

[JPW]

I don't go to Adams Morgan to spend $50+ on dinner, to be frank.

Enjoy your water

To be really "Frank," I hope to start out this evening at that place where everything is only nine dollars.

Yet to escape under fifty,

Rocks.

Hey Frank-- what place are you referring to?

Now, I get it!

DonRocks is REALLY Tiger Wood's driver cover.

But Don, who's your date?

Clicky here

[Turtleboy]

This sounds like the type of place where they try to do 100 different things at once, and they all turn out crap.

High speed internet connections at every table? Why not just install wifi?

[John W.]

This sounds like the type of place where they try to do 100 different things at once, and they all turn out crap.

High speed internet connections at every table? Why not just install wifi?

A wise man once told me, when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.

[Rake Yohn]

This sounds like the type of place where they try to do 100 different things at once, and they all turn out crap.

High speed internet connections at every table? Why not just install wifi?

Didn't harbor club have internet connections at every table when they were open? I don't think that turned out so well...

[Mark Sommelier]

This sounds like the type of place where they try to do 100 different things at once, and they all turn out crap.

High speed internet connections at every table? Why not just install wifi?

Who needs internet connections? I had a family of regular customers in the other night. Dad and mom were talking to me about wine while the kids were text messaging their girlfriends on their cell phones under the table.

[dcfoodie]

That's too bad. I kind of liked Cities.

[JennyUptown]

I have no choice but to have dinner here on Saturday. Yikes. The menu (and web site, for that matter) is odd.

Has anyone been? If so, please tell me what really must be avoided.

[eunny jang]

For what it's worth, it looked kind of empty at just-past-midnight last Saturday, with a pack of large, imposing fellows standing out front glaring at passerby and shouting nonsense at each other into miniscule cell phones. That time period's not really reflective of the dinner scene tho, I guess.

[morela]

Frank worked for the right, not the left. Drink a sidecar for me.

[JennyUptown]

For what it's worth, it looked kind of empty at just-past-midnight last Saturday, with a pack of large, imposing fellows standing out front glaring at passerby and shouting nonsense at each other into miniscule cell phones. That time period's not really reflective of the dinner scene tho, I guess.

Oh dear.

I guess I'll focus on the excellent company, as well as copious amounts of alcohol. It's a "no boys allowed" night out for the birthday of a good friend.

[fero style]

that is still the same owner as cities , Sahir Erozan ,Turkish guy , he is changing name only I guess cities was not making enough money as it used to. I used to wait tables there but for some reason business started to go down.the food was not that good but he had great , very rare wines . Im sure he still has got some of them.

does anyone know what happened to `prive` night club upstairs ?

[Nadya]

Left Bank, Left Bank - lemme tell ya...

I've been there three times for brunch, and for what that's worth, my experience has been weird and underwhelming. I need to say outright I"ve never been there for dinner, so I don't quite know what the scene is like in the evening.

The place wins on the "unusual ambience" - boothes and cafeteria-like tables for six or four. Don't think I saw a deuce in the entire joint. Sushi bar in the back, smoking bar in the middle - weird, no?? Large and light, has a loungy feel about it.

Now to the underwhelming part. Whoever is in charge of training or supervising staff needs to be taken to the back and shot. It is obvious to me after three visits that there is no procedure in place for handling patrons at all (as in, you meet, you greet, you show to the table, someone comes by to take orders, etc.) The hostess looked baffled by our request for a table. After we sat down, at least three different people came by to ask if they can get us anything.

When our waitress finally got there, I needed coffee and a mimosa in my system pronto - you know, the way your body asks for stuff on a Sunday morning after the night before...After about 15 minutes it got there, at which point she took our order - pancakes and an omelette. Twenty more minutes went by with multiple coffee refills - fine by me. Then - she comes back and greets us with a sunny "hi, how are you?? are you ready to order??" Gaaaa.

While I can appreciate that being cheerful and perky on a Sunday morning is Hard Work...please...how hard can it be to pass the order to the kitcnen?? Not good.

By the way, omelettes are dished out from a cart that is being wheeled around the room. An interesting concept, but I wonder how efficient it is.

When my pancakes arrived - and I was looking forward to them because I enjoyed them on my last two visits - they were done, let's say, on the rare side. Pale as my face! That upset me. It's not like one needs laser-guided precision tools to evaluate the doneness of pancakes! A simple visual assessment will work. Brown - good! Pale - needs a minute more on the griddle! I should have sent them back. Oh well.

So, my verdict would be: don't go to Left BAnk for the food or service. Go to enjoy a light-filled room with a nice atmosphere if you want to lounge your Sunday morning away with a paper when you are in a mellow mood and not in a hurry. If that's not your sort of thing, I wouldn't bother.

[Chef Shogun]

It's not like one needs laser-guided precision tools to evaluate the doneness of pancakes!

Um, but it doesn't hurt, right? I'm a sucker for pancakes and lasers.

This place sounds bizzare. So....field trip?

--C.S.

"Celebrating His 100th Post"

[Nadya]

It's not like one needs laser-guided precision tools to evaluate the doneness of pancakes!

Um, but it doesn't hurt, right? I'm a sucker for pancakes and lasers.

This place sounds bizzare. So....field trip?

--C.S.

"Celebrating His 100th Post"

It shouldn't hurt, and even if it does, you know what they say - if you didn't get bruises, you didn't have fun! I'm a sucker for blueberry pancakes on a Sunday morning myself, so it hurts my feelings when someone toys with my dream by screwing them up.

A field trip sounds like a grand idea, but we will need a notebook to discreetly make notes about various acts of weirdness occuring around us. Anyone up for that?

To be fair, I had a scrambled egg sandwich there once and it was fine.

[Chef Shogun]

A field trip sounds like a grand idea, but we will need a notebook to discreetly make notes about various acts of weirdness occuring around us. Anyone up for that?

To be fair, I had a scrambled egg sandwich there once and it was fine.

Discretion is for private detectives and the tennis instructor! They have ethernet jacks, just have somebody bring a laptop! It's the perfect crime. Woe is the restaurant that gives a critic the means to write his review at the table with impunity, for the haze of time shall not be their ally. Also with network connectivity they can post to eGullet, which is at least as bad.

I'm in!

[eunny jang]

Jenny,

How was it?

[Nadya]

Are y'all serious about a field trip? Brunch or dinner? We could probably arrange it with little hassle.

By the way, I took a look at the website, and although the owner looks like a very accomplished individual, I was a bit at the "brand new concept of the hospitality industry" - wiredbistrolounge, aka WiBiLo.

WiBiLo?

It would be fun to have a contest at the most descriptive version of what WiBiLo can stand for...Wistful, Bitter, Lonesome?

[buttercup]

I ate some dinner at the bar shortly after they opened. Hopefully, they have been able to improve. The calamari resembled something from TGI Fridays- very little dried out squid hiding in a whole lot of breadding that tasted stale. But they kindly took it off the bill without my requesting when I remarked on how truly bad it was. Crab cakes edible, but not much more than that. Have not been back.

Hopefully, a more current review will be more favorable.

Edited August 11, 2004 by buttercup (log)

[dcfoodie]

I've been to LeftBank a couple times now. I find that most of the food we have ordered is pretty good. Not everything is wonderful, especially the entrees. I would recommend that if you go here, you just order a bunch of appetizers. The melon and prosciutto was excellent. Also I liked the fried calamari as well. The drinks are rather on the pricey side. If you order the "specialty" tea-infused matrinis, they cost $10 a piece and really aren't all that good. They made me a mighty-nice Manhattan, but that was still $8.

So far I have not been able to get away with anything less than a $90 bill between my wife and I. I always feel pretty good about the meal right up until the point I get the check. Then I tend to and wonder how the bill got to be as expensive as that.

Service has been mixed. The first time I was there, I had a very disinterested waiter who barely knew the menu. The second time, I had a very perky waitress that really made the experience there much better.