Bistrot du Coin

[John W.]

Rocks, that was beautiful.

Maybe I'll try the 4 times in 48 hours technique.

[hjshorter]

All better?

Edited December 10, 2004 by hjshorter (log)

[eunny jang]

This is ridiculous. How does it matter at all in real life? Who cares if you don't love every restaurant in the world? Who cares if other people do like them? Who cares, really, if you don't think the restaurant deserves it? Though, I suppose that if one's sense of personal outrage is so easily squandered on something as piddly as some not-even-trying-to-provoke-ANYTHING restaurant, I suppose it's not much surprise that one would be self-righteous enough to think people do.

Edited December 10, 2004 by eunny jang (log)

[John W.]

I heart Bistrot du Coin.

[morela]

Look at it this way:

Do married people hang out where strippers (that just put on a great show for those married people) go after their shifts of hard work? I don't know.

The married people need to go home and act married and the strippers need to go have fun.

That's right. There is no right answer to the BdC question.

Onward my friends...

[Mark Sommelier]

I heart Bistrot du Coin. 

←

Ditto. I just got back from a most satisfying lunch there. An excellent cassoulet on a cold rainy day was the perfect antidote.

[VenerableBede]

i kind of like the small glasses. . .that's how i recall being served wine whilst i was in france.

i've been to BDC several times over the years, and other than having to re-fill our own wine glasses, i have not had problems with it.

[eunny jang]

I heart Bistrot du Coin. 

←

So do I, but because I have my own set of good times associated with it, not because I'm some "Industry" type. Civilians can have a good time wherever they feel like it too! Sacre bleu! It's a Christmas miracle!

[iamthestretch]

I heart strippers. 

←

Well said, that man!

[Chef Shogun]

Yeah, late-night drinkers with decent food are fine in my book!

[DonRocks]

[And here's an announcement as Forum Host: everyone here should feel free to chime in and say whatever they see fit. As long as it's relating to Bistrot du Coin, it's fair game. Go ahead and disagree, argue and fight it out, but please do NOT take this to a personal level or stray from the topic at hand. Thank you!]

[Nadya]

You don't have to be a late-shift restaurant insider to have an itch that BdC scratches so well. This is my method of enjoying it (one of the many):

Go practice ice-skating for two hours on a cold hard ice. Fall, get up, fall, get up, get frustrated. Drive back to the city cursing yourself and the day you decided to pick up this ridiculous, money-draining hobby. Walk your sore, chilly, bruised, desperate bum through BdC's door at, like, half hour before midnight. Get a warm plate of foie gras with potatoes and apples. Get a glass of riesling or two. Feel loads better, warmer, and more hopeful that next time, you'll do much better. Go home and sleep like a baby.

Where else can I get this?

Edited December 10, 2004 by Nadya (log)

[Gastro888]

Y'all are making me want to stop in on my way downtown tonight. I've only been there once for a late night snack. Can you order the menu at the bar? (Don't want to be a single taking up a multi-top table)

[Al_Dente]

Y'all are making me want to stop in on my way downtown tonight.  I've only been there once for a late night snack.  Can you order the menu at the bar?  (Don't want to be a single taking up a multi-top table)

←

Yes you can.

[HOOLIGAN]

I was at BDC for their first service and it was a huge cluster fuck. Choas, 20 mins to flag someone, 50 mins to order, 1:45mins to see the first course...I know how first nights go and I was happy to be there. Though not everyone with me felt that way. One such fellow began loudly screaming and yelling and generally acting like a complete (see avatar at left). Since then I've been well over 100 times. Half the damn time I get announced over the PA as I enter. Do they know who I am? Eh, yeah probably. Do I get treated differently? I'm pretty sure. I'm there without fail every Sat. night from midnight to close with the other insiders and the Dons of well-known restaurants. I would invite the nah-sayers to join us, but we're there to have a good time, not coddle and change minds. Funny, we were all there when Fero Style had his sub par experience. I even waved to him to sit with us. I can't help but think that if he did, he would have seen it in a different view.

I can't disagree with his points, they're valid and I've seen it happen myself. Perhaps me and the boys have a rare culinary form of Battered Wife Syndrom that forces us back to some self-fullfilling group therapy. It could be worse it could be AA. Brice are you out there.

[fero style]

I feel really bad right now I trashed this place , but based on my experience it well deserved to be trashed. I have great respect for restaurant business ,chefs,employee , employer and for the patrons. and its really hard for me to think negative for a restaurant. when I usually go out to dine I do not tell Im in the business and Im very easy , mellow type of customer . Im not saying anything to the owner , Michel , and to the kitchen. but that idiot waiter sucks. I couldnt see the good face of BDC because of that idiot. for this reason Im not returning back , at least for a long time.

[Gastro888]

Y'all are making me want to stop in on my way downtown tonight.  I've only been there once for a late night snack.  Can you order the menu at the bar?  (Don't want to be a single taking up a multi-top table)

←

Yes you can.

←

Rock on, thanks alot. Will report back latah!

[jmc8y]

I went in a few months ago on a date and had a good time. the service was a bit brusque, but that's not really so important to me. i'm usually just happy to get served alcohol, given i have the kind of face where i look 15.

[rosebud]

Well, OK. The LAST time I went into that space when it was still "Food for Thought" was because Timberlake's was closed due to a renovation (BTW, this week's New Yorker has a story which winds up at Timberlake's!!!) I was just looking for a nice beer, but the smell of FfT drove me right out the door. BdC advertised itself on a sign (before it opened for business) as "French Food Without the Attitude."

It was jammed from the git-go, and we are not the sort of people looking for "atmosphere" late at night.

The upshot is that we have spent three Thanksgivings at BdC. I love mussels, but my husband doesn't. So, instead of eating dried turkey, I have been able to indulge in a boatload of mussels, while by DH has been able to find to find other things to eat.

Am I glad this place is where it is (within walking distance from our home)? Yes. Do I expect 3 star food? No.

Have we experienced horribly rude service? No. But then, we've only eaten there on Thanksgiving. For which I have given a great deal of thanks.

Your Mileage May Vary.

Edited December 11, 2004 by rosebud (log)

[LittleWing]

I am one of those late night industry people (a server) and agreed with fero. Although, I don't usually go late saturday nights to hang out with the other industry folks, and no one there knows i;m industry.

I don't mind the service - I find it brusque and attitude-laden, but I don't mind it in a bistro atmosphere. If it happened at a fine dining place, i'd find it more offensive. At BdC, I don't care. I'm not there to be fawned over. I even find it, sometimes, charmant. I don't think French people are rude, or anything close to that. During the time that I spent in France, the people were very kind -- they would even deign to converse with me in French -- but in the cafes and bistros I definitely found the servers to be.. well... brusque. So BdC does remind me of a true French bistro.

And while I don't mind the service, the only food I like there are the mussels and occasionally the escargot. I'm not so fond of everything else. I think it's rather weak. I was there once with Mr Starr and they made three attempts to bring him the right food, and each time it was wrong. He eventually ate the third thing he was brought ( a tartine, I believe) even though it was still wrong, and that was pretty weak as well.

I have many friends and colleagues who go late night, and they all have a great time. Actually, one of my restaurant coworkers and I were discussing the BdC phenomenon before service tonight - he loves it there. He usually goes on Saturday nights (Le Bureau), and he goes there because it's nearby, open late, and he can light up as soon as he walks in the door. not for the food or atmosphere. and that's cool. For me, I usually go to a restaurant for the food first and the atmosphere second, so I just don't go to BdC that often.

It just depends what you;re looknig for.

[kriscolby]

I used to be a big fan of this place. Great fun, including the schtick and the Stella on tap. When we first moved to DC, this was a regular place for us.

However, it's really dropped off in the last year or two. Seems like they just don't care very much anymore. Fries can be cold, deserts are mediocre. Sad, really. If anything, it should open up the door for somebody new.

[pastramionrye]

deserts are mediocre.  Sad, really.  If anything, it should open up the door for somebody new.

←

first off....i have never been to a desert i liked.

second off, bdc, whether you like it or not, does excellent business. i don't think a new restaurant will be moving into that space anytime soon.

[DCMark]

I can't disagree with his points, they're valid and I've seen it happen myself. Perhaps me and the boys have a rare culinary form of Battered Wife Syndrom that forces us back to some self-fullfilling group therapy. It could be worse it could be AA. Brice are you out there.

←

I am chuckling here. I think your comment above boils down one of the reasons you restaurant folks are falling over yourselves to defend BdC. The staff there (OCCASIONALLY, OK!) treats customers they way they deserve...like fucking pretentious and annoying assholes. You guys want to do it sometimes yourself, but dammit you just can't and won't. But when Michel bans some prick from the premises, inside you cheer?

Am I even close to being right?

PS: Its not those people I care about, its the regular joe who I have seen abused there that saddens me, as most of them leave there cursing the 'french' in general, which is unfortunate.

Edited December 13, 2004 by DCMark (log)

[HOOLIGAN]

I am chuckling here.  I think your comment above boils down one of the reasons you restaurant folks are falling over yourselves to defend BdC.  The staff there (OCCASIONALLY, OK!) treats customers they way they deserve...like fucking pretentious and annoying assholes.  You guys want to do it sometimes yourself, but dammit you just can't and won't.  But when Michel bans some prick from the premises, inside you cheer?

Am I even close to being right?

←

I've never seen Michel launch someone out the front door.

Though I've tossed several wankers from Nectar. I'm not one for "killing them with kindness. You get back what you give out. If you're a big enough prick that the cons out weigh the pros you get the shoe. Just ask Arlen Specter.

A friend just opened a restaurant in Middleburg. On opening night, a guy not 10 mins into sitting, before any food arrives launches into how they'll never make it. The chairs are ugly, the uniforms suck, the art is all wrong. I don't care if he was a middleburg big-wig I would have handed him his ass. It should be known the customer is not always right.

[John W.]

To add to this...If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. Michel needs to please about 400 people a day, and he does that with ease.

Our little band of criminals have been going to BdC on Saturday nights for well over two years, I've missed maybe three episodes. We all drink the same things almost without fail. When they see me, the hoes flow. When they see Mark, the Cap'n flows. If you go anywhere with that type of frequency, then perhaps you'd receive the treatment as well. Does being a restaurant 'insider" or VIP help? Of course it does. But I think it's not as weighted in that direction as you'd think. We still pay the same as the rest of the joes, we still wait for tables, we just get our drinks faster.

For the record, I know of one person that has been banned from there. I've been told to get fucked (had to match the profanity) when asking for big wine glasses. I've had not 3 star Michelin correct service there too. And I sit up right (and not falling over to defend BdC, or Falling Down, which is a documentary) as I type this. If you count the restaurant types, my unofficial tally was three dissenting and 4 in favor. Not quite unanimous.

It is what it is.

Edited December 13, 2004 by John W. (log)