A Chat with John Wabeck

[John W.]

John what are you tasting at this point in the night?

I just polished off the rest of the Palena burger I couldn't finish last night (just stunning cold - really), and am enjoying a glass or two of Rioja, Lan, Crianza 1999.

I vowed to never miss tempranillo blind, but after three in a row missed I need to get my Spanish on.

And you Mssr. Thrasher, what are you sipping on at this instant?

[eatdrinkummm]

For Rocks, here's THE BINGE...

"Burgundy makes you think of silly things, Bordeaux makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them." - Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

1:45 A.M. I arrive at Bistro du Coin. The first taste of beer, I've often found, makes me thirstier. A Leffe Blonde goes down. Wabeck is drinking Burgundy and thus this night seems like so many before, I'm sure. The crowd is afterwork revelers, cooks, waiters, wine people. Be afraid, be very afraid.

2 A.M. Last call, off to Timberlakes. Jarad leads the pack. I'm struck by his saintly post at the head of the swell. He reminds me of an apostle leading the flock. Who said Jarad was evil? He may be the messiah.

Roughly after 2 A.M. Its hard to squeeze into Timberlakes. I barely make it to the bar. I ask for Scotch and Bourbon. Rocks gets the scotch, on the rocks no less. I'm a bourbon fanatic. Any bourbon will do. John and crew toast Julia with Gin & Tonics.

Rocks seems so peaceful in the corner. He keeps declaring his intent to leave. So far peer pressure has worked. He wants up in the morning. Sure we can do that. After all, we were up and at breakfast by 8 A.M. All right, respect (*Ali G snap*). Don leaves.

Possibly around 2:30 A.M. John and I are dragged out of Timberlakes. Off to Shelly's. We leave the crowd behind. The company we were with shall remain anonymous to protect the innocent. We arrive at Shelly's only to run in to more "bad" company. Bubbles. A glass goes down and I ask for whiskey. That goes down too.

Slightly after 3 A.M. Last call. A cab to Wabeck's house. A bottle of Chianti. A bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin. Chess. A bottle of Champagne.

Reaching 6 A.M. The wine and conversation are running out. I'm in no shape to play another game of chess. John and I are tied after I lose the last one. I have already started chasing the cat around the apartment at considerable risk to my life. What's up with all the conversation about Taiwan? Wabeck is playing Sick of it All (Punk Rock). I'm sure his neighbors love him.

Reaching 7 A.M. On the roof the conversation turns toward breakfast. Where can you get good breakfast in D.C.? Four Seasons? We decide to settle for a vintage Champagne. Only after we get there we find out the wine list isn't available until 10 A.M. Which turns out to be a good thing, seeing as those $200 receipts you find in your wallet after a night of drinking suck.

Some time after the last time. We leave. The food doesn't do it for us and no booze. A bottle of Darioush post-breakfast? Yeah. We head back to Wabeck cellars. Bottle up, bottle dry.

First person in our company to pass out passes out. We leave her on the couch. Throwing the cat at her didn't get her up, nothing will (no animals were harmed). Our other companion leaves.

Time folds into the daylight. Sometime after the last last time. Bistro du

Coin. Another two beers. Stumbling out of Bistro for the second time.

Sette. Two shots of black russian and espresso. A bottle of Soave, short one

glass I spill on the counter. Sorry Mia. We order a Quattro Formage. We go for one more bottle. Only we run out of steam.

1:30. 15 minutes shy of 12 hours of drinking. Not quite a record yet. Next time we head up to New York after last call.

A NOTE OF CAUTION: All parties involved were professional drinkers. If you drink like this all the time, seek help.

Edited August 18, 2004 by eatdrinkummm (log)

[John W.]

Mssr. Wabeck,

All right, I sent some softballs last time but its go-time now. I understand you were a music major and, obviosuly, a punk rock affecianado. So I want to know a little more about the intersection of these worlds... I'm on a philosophical bent so follow me... Greil Marcus, one of punk's foremost historian's wrote the following (check out Lipstick Traces for a great book on punk):

Rock 'n Roll is a combination of good ideas dried up by fads, terrible junk, hideous failings in taste and judgment, gullibility and manipulation, moments of unbelievable clarity and invention, pleasure, fun, vulgarity, excess, novelty and utter enervation. 

It strikes me that you could simple replace the phrase "Rock $ Roll" with "Modern Cooking in America" and it would ring somewhat true. (Not that I'm really qualified to make this statement anyway) With that said, do you think Culinary America is reaching a point of enervation, where copy follows copy and the whole thing looks like a cookbook from the late 80's? Young chefs feel confident borrowing other Chef's recipes ingredient for ingredient with little if any varation. Is the proliferation of restaurants in D.C. anymore than a second coming of already established scenes from New York and San Fransisco? Green Day vs. Stiff Little Fingers, to borrow from High Fidelity? Y'know what I mean?

Also, to what extent do you think chefs need to adhere to classics, French tradition, etc? Punk was founded on a reversal of predominate aesthetics. Where is the same movement in cooking? Is there any connection. Where are the surreal, the dada cooks? Chefs with

mohawks and saftey pins through their noses, jamming out Angry Sams?

This isn't prescriptive, just a question to provoke thought.

Your's truly,

Derek

Booooyaaaahhh!

Incredibly tough question which I feel I am not qualified to answer. But duty calls.

I took two things from my brief music education. Know the rules before you break them, and 2) nothing's original because Bach already did it. That said, I feel you have to follow classics to some extent.

If you write a song that doesn't follow the rules, you will most likely end up with noise that someone will be into. If you make shitty veal stock, you are left with shitty veal stock. I am certain that Grant and Ferran (first two off the top of my head) can make proper veal stock. They void lesson #2 from above. I am not much of a food historian but I can't place what they do anywhere. Unfortunately, I think that for every Achatz and Adria, there are 20 (or more) monkeys running around with foamers that have no idea how to make the simple, basic things. As an example, on the home front, Jose Andres, (who we all know worked for Ferran, because of which has the license for his foamer), demonstrates daily a grasp of the simple stuff done well to great knowledge of cutting edge technique. And for that has my deep respect.

As far as chefs copying one another? I once sat in on a tasting where it was readily apparent that it was TK, CT, TK, CT and on and on. Verbatim. But, he still had to prepare the food, it was good and the technique was there. He worked for both chefs, should he discount his experience? Anybody armed with a set of cookbooks can bust a lot of chefs as to where stuff came from. Hell, I can go down the list and tell you where 90% of my Firefly stuff comes from. "How original?" Read E-Man, maybe you'll get it sorted out.

If you reverse Bad Company, you might get some quality music out of it. If you reverse classical cooking technique, you more than likely will get crap.

As much as I'd like to write a book about this subject, at the end of the day, how punk rock is it talking about really expensive bottles of wine?

Edited August 18, 2004 by John W. (log)

[garnish]

As much as I'd like to write a book about this subject, at the end of the day, how punk rock is it talking about really expensive bottles of wine?

Okay, here goes:

Until you write that punk rock book on expensive bottles of wine for the rest of us, what books or other resources (websites, etc.) do you rely on?

For wine, or food, I mean.

[John W.]

As much as I'd like to write a book about this subject, at the end of the day, how punk rock is it talking about really expensive bottles of wine?

Okay, here goes:

Until you write that punk rock book on expensive bottles of wine for the rest of us, what books or other resources (websites, etc.) do you rely on?

For wine, or food, I mean.

And let me be the first to welcome you to e-gullet, garnish. I do so love the librarian-esque questions.

Food books are tough. For the basics, unfortunately, lenghty thomes are the way to go. The Professional Chef from the CIA is great for almost everything, as is The Way to Cook by Julia. (I hope everyone has had their gin toast by now).

For a bit advanced, I think the Cafe Boulud Cookbook is great (the shortrib recipe is killer).

Wine, How to taste by Jancis Robinson (as discussed above), and the Windows on the World Complete Wine Course is also helpful.

In a pinch for recipes (which does sometimes happen), I typically refer to epicurious.com.

[T.Thrasher]

John what are you tasting at this point in the night?

I just polished off the rest of the Palena burger I couldn't finish last night (just stunning cold - really), and am enjoying a glass or two of Rioja, Lan, Crianza 1999.

I vowed to never miss tempranillo blind, but after three in a row missed I need to get my Spanish on.

And you Mssr. Thrasher, what are you sipping on at this instant?

At this moment a day later I am starting a "G" from Dehesa Gago, vintage 2000. A wine from Toro Maria brought it home and it is Bery Bery Nice !

[John W.]

Rocks;

Let's call this one a day. Thanks for having me, thanks for all the questions and the support.

It's been wonderful warming the boards up for the next guest...

[mnebergall]

I look forward to visiting your restaurant and sampling more than just your Champagne. Thank for giving us your valuable time.

[DonRocks]

Thanks for having me, thanks for all the questions and the support.

Thank you, John, not only for being such a valuable member of this forum, but also for all the great things you've done at Firefly.

We'll be tracking you closely...

[DonRocks]

John, one thing I've gleaned from you is how important you think it is to pay your respects to other chefs and restaurants in town - you seem to view it as a matter of honor as much as anything.  Would you expand on this?

It's really tough to explain. It's just how I am. And I wasn't always like this. I can't put my finger on an event that changed my behavior.

The answer could be as simple as I treat people how I'd like to be treated. Or it could be that the chef community in this city is pretty tight.

Well John may not like me posting this, but I'll do it anyway: Saturday evening was the first night after the Post article came out and dropped the bomb on Galileo. John knew I was going, and took time off at the beginning of Firefly's service to go pay respect to Roberto Donna, having a drink and a small plate of food there before rushing back to his own restaurant despite serious peer pressure from me to stay longer.

He didn't even send word back to the kitchen that he made an appearance; he just showed up, paid Roberto his respects, and hustled out of there.

This is precisely the type of thing I was referring to in this question, and is one of the reasons why John is so well-liked in this community.

[John W.]

I wouldn't call that hustling.

I was too busy eating the Ham Sandwich on the bread tray.

[liamdc]

Hi John,

Is Happy Hour on again this week? If so, what wines are you pouring? I may try to stop in, perhaps tonight.

[Chef Shogun]

Yeah, one of these days I'm going to get over there, too...it sounds great!

[John W.]

To avoid shilling this event, we are (hopefully) going to start sending out monthly e-mail blasts starting this evening, with the schedule included. I plan on changing it monthly. Tomorrow should be fun; A crazy Italian white (Trebbiano, Pecorino, Passerna and Chard blend) and Altamura's fine CA Sangiovese from '98 that I sampled today and deemed it a tasty beverage. Anything else I'm happy to deal with via PM.

[tanabutler]

I have enjoyed the writing in this thread--its realness, and its lack of attitude--quite a lot.

Thanks, John Wabeck. Thanks for being so forthcoming, and thanks for being game. (If not downright gamey, at least after 12 hours of par-tay.)

I've never been to your neck of the woods, but I intend to look in on you should that occasion arise. Meanwhile, I'll pass the recommendation along to smart family members in the area.

Ciao and thanks.

[fimbul]

I have enjoyed the writing in this thread--its realness, and its lack of attitude--quite a lot.

Thanks, John Wabeck. Thanks for being so forthcoming, and thanks for being game. (If not downright gamey, at least after 12 hours of par-tay.)

I've never been to your neck of the woods, but I intend to look in on you should that occasion arise. Meanwhile, I'll pass the recommendation along to smart family members in the area.

Ciao and thanks.

I'm with you there. Might be the first time I've wanted to try a restaurant based on the chef's ability to use a sentence.