youngfood

Mussels with Saffron and Mustard (Thomas Keller Bouchon recipe) Roasted Brussels Sprouts 2006 Cuatro Rayas Verdejo The mussels recipe was surprisingly easy, though I may have gone a touch heavy on the saffron flavor.

Where'd you find that?

We had this last night as well and were similarly pleased. Maybe Porcupine's came slightly more browned than ours? I liked em that way and the large quantity of rabbit was great. The pumpkin bread pudding was the other highlight, though my fiancee thought it was a touch heavy on the all spice. I liked the bar area here, which is more comfortable than most. The bartender was friendly and knowlegeable about the wine list. It was our first visit and I'm going to look forward to returning when it's not RW.

I definitely hear what you are saying (indeed my RW participation, which was once huge, is now de minimis), but didn't Dean say earlier that Fri & Sat nights are about the same volume as usual? Why is RW SO much harder than an average weekend night? Slammed restaurants are rarely at their best, but aren't a lot of the better spots in town pretty well full on Fri/Sat nights as is? A quick opentable search for next Friday suggests that Central, Proof, Westend and the Source are all already unable to take a party of 4 after 6pm. Again, not defending RW as perfect or suggesting that things should be perfect during it, but some of the talk about how impossible it is to perform well seems a little overdone. At minimum, I think the same criticisms apply with equal force to the other "amateur nights" such as NYE and VDay, when restaurants charge more and not less.

Tom says Ricky Moore has left already.

I got a decanter for Christmas and now that I have it, it occurs to me that I'm not really sure about how and when to use it. So, when and how do you use yours? Are older wines or younger wines more in need of decanting? Does region or varietal play a role? Do you use it when you have guests or time, but not otherwise? Do you ever bother to use yours on inexpensive or moderately priced wines?

What is it that makes those who don't care for Restaurant Week feel they need to denigrate those who do? Maybe we should put a cautionary note in the heading of this thread warning folks who dislike RW that they should only enter with caution? Seriously, folks with wallets so big that they need not ever consider their budget when engaging in fine dining need to calm down about the rest of the world that does.

Have you tried Bell's? They tend to have fairly balanced hops.

How does pricing compare to Whole Foods?

Me too. I could view the board index, but couldn't access any actual posts. No problems today.

Ka-bam! Don't hold back, Heather! Nice to hear some dissenting opinions around here, even if they wont deter me from heading back here soon. I think your point about the richness of almost the entire menu is a good one.

Metrocurean notes that Vincent is going to open up the wine cellar from Maestro to host monthly wine classes beginning later this month. I attended a class Vincent did 2-3 years ago, which was great. I'm not sure if he's using the same format for these ones or not, but for the last one he did they set up seating for everyone in the front of Maestro and he presented to us from in front of the kitchen. We had generous tastes from five bottles at least a few of which were pretty high end IIRC.

Funny you ask, I was on the phone with them about this yesterday. Good news for you, they can host up to 25 in their "semiprivate" area. Bad news for me as I've got 30...

If you don't mind walking 5-6 blocks, you should go to Taqueria Nacionale in the back of Johnny's. If you do, there's not much there. Rasika is out of your time/price range. Closest & easiest is a bagel & coffee / breakfast/lunch buffet spot at 3rd & C, called Jack's, which does pretty decent egg bagels and has tons of Seattle's Best coffee options. Pretty close and edible is to walk East on C to New Jersey Ave to Billy Goat tavern where you can get pretty decent cheap burgers, grilled cheese, etc. Georgetown Law cafeteria is right there as well.

Dropped down here for a bite after some early cocktails upstairs on Saturday evening. I'm with DPop on the ray, it just didn't measure up to the cod for me. The texture didn't seem right, almost like it was overcooked leaving it a little bit heavy. The cod on the other hand remains otherworldly. It probably takes a unique crowd who'll want to drop in here in sportcoats before or after the best drinks in town at arguably the most elegant cocktail lounge there is in PX, but it's easier to justify a big cocktail bill upstairs when you have a delicious meal downstairs for such so little.

Like this one? Anyone else have any tips on good non-blade grinders or what to look for in them?

Hard to believe, right? She said yes, although I had to ask her to repeat it to confirm! Inaudible smiling and kissing is not the same as saying "yes!" And, rather amazingly, that part of the evening was even more important and better than all the delicious food and drink! Good advice from jpschust, but I wasn't too nervous to eat. Actually, once the ring was out of my pocket, I was entirely thrilled to be distracted by various delicious plates, glasses, and stories about what we were being served. And after she said yes, she couldn't eat, but I thought eating was the perfect way to celebrate and so I devoured both desserts on my own!

Yeah, this is pretty awesome. His name is Ramon Viera and he's been with Schramsberg for ages. He turns 30,000 bottles per day and has done as many as 50,000. Our tour guide in May said he was unrivaled in the US and barely matched by anyone in Champagne. Link

Patak's Chicken Tikka Masala. Sautee chicken, add sauce, can of tomatoes, chopped onion. Super easy and pretty damn good.

Unless something has changed, Pepe's uses fresh clams and, I believe, stops serving the clam pie when they run out of fresh clams.

It's a real work of art. HUGE thanks to everyone at Eve and everyone here who helped turn me on to them. I had one of the most memorable nights of my life and one of the best meals on Friday. Overall, the evening was a great success. I knew I would be in good hands here, but somehow the folks at Eve exceeded my lofty expectations for this momentous occasion. A number of people from the Restaurant called and emailed to discuss my vision for the evening and a number of other folks played a hand in executing it perfectly. The only thing that was important to me was that the engagement come as a total surprise. This was easier said than done, but she didn't know what was coming until Evan popped the top off the ring box and I quickly grabbed the ring and dropped to one knee. I had a lot of help building up to that moment. I was left alone when she ran to the bathroom early in the meal and our server (Chrissy?) made a b-line for me to ask if I had something to give her. I couldn't have been more relieved to get the ring out of my pocket! Turns out she too is a native of the Cleveland area (East side!) and she had all the Midwestern charm that only someone who's as proud to be from that part of the country as I am would ever expect. At every chance, she was checking in on me to make sure that I was at ease and not hyperventilating. And the delicious food and wine provided for the perfect distraction to keep me calm. The ring box itself was perfect in that it was totally gorgeous and designed such that one could (and did) mistake it for just another "gift from the kitchen). All in all, I couldn't be more pleased with the how the evening transpired. And the food highlights were many. Newfoodie described some of the dishes we had in detail, so I'll try to limit my gushing to some new and as yet unposted about details from our evening. Everything we had was great, but the most interesting parts are below. Newfoodie detailed the Yellow Fin Tuna "Sashimi" above. I believe ours was a 1+ which is second highest rating for Tuna and very difficult to obtain. As mentioned above, this stuff is caught in Hawaii one day and on your plate in the Tasting Room the next. This was without a doubt the best Tuna I've tasted in years. The presentation is very simple, so the extraordinary quality of the fish really shines through. I usually prefer more intricate presentations, but this fish was something akin to the Japanese Wagyu we tasted recently and warranted some room to shine. The texture was much firmer texture than I even remembered possible. I'd recently resigned myself to having an occasional tuna dish where the mealy texture and empty flavor of the mediocre tuna that most places are serving is masked by some heavy flavors and other textures, but I may scrap that plan and keep my fingers crossed that this source remains available indefinitely. Simply awesome. The new Lobster preparation ("Butter Poached Main Lobster Tail with Sunchokes and Wild Winter Oyster Mushrooms") was outstanding. The heirloom carrots & ginger lobster was one for the ages, but I was excited to see something new on the menu. I'm told the mushroom were foraged by one of the chef's mushroom hunting lawyer friends. They were some special mushrooms. Verdejo and lobster seemed like an odd pairing, but here as throughout the meal, Evan produced an interesting wine in an seemingly unusual context that worked beautifully. The other real food highlight was the Veal Sweetbreads we ordered off the 9 course tasting menu. It was a super earthy, but not too rich dish with Smoke Ham Hock, Turnips and Rosemary. It was paired with a super earthy Oregon Pinot, Panther Creek (2003). As I mentioned, Evan was providing us with some really outstanding and interesting wines. I mentioned the delicious and complex Verdejo above, but other highlights (and firsts for me) included: -a Tempranillo from Portugal (Vertente Douro Tempranillo, Niepoort, Portugal 2001). Apparently the Portugese do a much more subdued style of this grape and at least this one was fabulous; -a Gran Vinum Albariño from the Rias Biaxas, Spain 2006 was one of the most interesting tasting white wines I've ever had and is going to cause to me to rethink my spanish whites are great for cheap white wine nights only strategy; and -the Domaine de la Rectorié Grenache, Banyuls, France 2005, which I thought tasted something akin to a delicious, subtler, well oaked port. Evan knew these bottles and everything else he poured us inside and out, so it was a really fun tasting and educational experience for us in that everything he poured was new to us. I'd thought twice about whether to shell out for the wine pairing, but having done so I can say that I'd highly recommend it to someone who enjoys good wine and enjoys trying new bottles and talking about them with someone who really knows their stuff. All in all, what was sure to be one of the most special nights of my life proved to be one of the most delicious and well executed meals as well. I couldn't be more grateful to everyone at Eve who helped make things perfect.

You should. I hate sweetness in beer, but tried this just last week and was pleasantly surprised it wasn't sweeter.

I thought there were a few surprises in here. Rankings of some the new restaurants were probably the most interesting: Central (10), Source (14), WestEnd (15), Proof (83?!?). I haven't tried either level of the Source (ew, I don't even like saying that name, almost like thelistareyouonit?!) in part because about a month ago Todd said not to. I definitely would have guessed Proof would have landed higher and WestEnd lower. Maybe Proof suffered because of its wine-centric nature and relatively limited menu? Whatever, I'm still a fan. I liked the insider tips and best dishes components of the piece. Nice work, Washingtonian! ETA: Sorry, looks like I repeated some of the post above which appeared while I was typing.

Also from the google and from upthread as well, IT'S FREE.

What everyone else said! Seriously, thanks so much to all the aforementioned and unmentioned folks who made this possible. I doubt I'll ever have/take the opportunity to try a piece of beef like that again, so this will remain a really memorable experience. And thanks to everyone for allowing a no talent ass clown like myself to attend. We very much enjoyed it!