Tastee Diner, Bethesda, Md.

We don't always eat "gourmet" and "high end" foods at fancy restaurants. In fact, I actually have a great interest in greasy spoons and diners, but Svet is too much of a snob to eat diner food, Leo doesn't like American food and won't go, Ian doesn't eat red meats, etc., etc., etc., so I never get to go.

Fortunately, dear nephew likes diner food. Must be an Oklahoma thing. One day during his visit, we Metroed all the way up to Bethesda to the Tastee Diner, one of those classic American diners.

Ryan had breakfast, one of the usual and traditional menu offerings of the diner. He ordered a breakfast plate with two eggs over easy, two patties of sausage, fried potatoes, and a biscuit, plus an order of chocolate chip pancakes. He couldn't eat it all.



I had the turkey and dressing blue plate special that included mashed pototoes, gravy, pickled beets, cranberry sauce, and biscuits. Yum. I do like a restaurant that isn't afraid to use a little gravy on the plate.

Bistrot du Coin, Washington, D.C.

For nephew Ryan's last night in D.C. before flying to Oklahoma for Christmas break, he, Robert, and I went to Bistrot du Coin for a light supper. As it turned out, Robert only ate a little and Ryan didn't eat at all. I think it was all that French alcohol.

We started out with a late celebration of beaujolais nouveau night in mid-November with a bottle of Bouchard Aîné & Fils Beaujolais Nouveau 2006. I liked it quite a bit. Much like the Dubouef, it's a fruity wine this year, but the Bouchard had a lot more substance and complexity to it.

Meanwhile, we ordered food. Ryan didn't have anything but the free bread. Robert ordered the escargot à la bourguignonne. These are the classic French snails in garlic butter, but at du Coin they aren't served in shells, they come in a ceramic snail dish.



I had the pâté de campagne maison, a rustic country-style pork pâté accompanied by a tiny salad, cornichons, and delicious black olives, with some slices of grilled bread.



Robert wanted dessert, and they have some nice ones here. He selected the “La Tropezienne”, a very prettily assembled almond-studded brioche filled with orange blossom custard, then served over a mirror of light custard sauce and raspberry coulis.



After dessert, both Robert and Ryan had snifters of some of the more expensive cognacs on the menu. Ryan didn't really like the cognac, so he just chugged it. Alas. I keep trying to tell him how to appreciate fine wines and cognacs, but he persists in the college frat boy approach of just drinking to get drunk.



To wash down the cognac flavor, I guess, Ryan decided to order a glass of a very sweet, syrupy German eiswein that, naturally since it was sweet, he liked a lot. I think it was his first eiswein, since he didn't know why the stuff was so expensive or how it was made (the grapes are allowed to freeze on the vine to concentrate the sugar before they are made into wine).

Annie's Paramount Steakhouse, Washington, D.C.

Our friend Maxwell took nephew Ryan and me to brunch after we visited his church and watched him play altar boy.

He likes to cocktail, so he picked Annie's Paramount Steakhouse, where I've been many, many times for dinner, but never before dark; this was my first brunch there.

Max, an unrepentent southern Virginian from an FFV family, lives just a few blocks from the church, and always drives there. I guess it's an old Southern tradition. That was convenient, though, since he could drive us up to Annie's. The problem, however, is that we had to drive around for nearly fifteen minutes before he found a parking place big enough for his car!

Once we got there, it was clear that the entire staff knew Max and we quickly had a non-stop flow of bloody Marys coming to the table.

Meanwhile, Ryan decided he had to have some barbecued ribs, so he ordered a rib appetizer with three big ribs. As you can tell, he was ravenously hungry. And he didn't share.

Once we got to our main courses, everything was quite good. I always like Annie's; the steaks are good but still inexpensive. Max had steak and eggs with fried potatoes and fresh fruit.



Ryan had French toast with two big links of sausage, fried potatoes, and fresh fruit.



I ordered the country fried steak. What I got was delicious though totally not what I was expecting; they brought me a sirloin steak that had been sliced into fingers, dredged in flour and fried, then doused with gravy. I had country fries with mine.



Nobody did dessert, even Ryan. I think everyone preferred just to have another bloody Mary and call it dessert. After all, tomatoes are fruits, you know.

So, that was brunch at Annie's. Very good, as usual. Now that I realize they are open in the daytime (LOL), I may have to go back. Thanks to Max for his usual Southern hospitality.