Paolo's Ristorante, Georgetown, D.C.

After the symphony concert last night, we wandered over to Georgetown to find something to eat. After Ian vetoed several restaurants because they reminded him of something or because he had a tradition of only going there with specific people or because he wasn't in the mood for certain ethnicities, we finally found a place he hadn't been that was marginally acceptable to him, Paolo's Ristorante.

For a Thursday night at 10 p.m., Paolo's was pretty packed and loud. They fairly quickly got us a table, though it was a small round five top and a little awkward for conversation what with all the background noise.

Laurent got the pizza marquez, featuring lamb sausage and pine nuts. The hand-tossed crust was covered with cheeses and fresh snipped herbs



I got the cayenne and espresso steak salad. Hot, medium-rare slices of steak previously marinated in espresso and cayenne pepper, halves of fingerling potatoes, and crumbles of gorgonzola cheese sat on the plate with mixed European salad greens on top and caramelized onions on top of the greens. The dressing included portabello mushrooms and what they called dragon honey. I liked my salad, but I would have preferred a dressing that wasn't so sweet.



Ian started off with a plain pizza margherita. It turned out to be quite large, certainly enough for two to share. It had a very, very thin crust topped with mozzarella cheese, basil leaves, and diced tomatoes (instead of the usual tomato sauce). The waiter actually cut the pizza on the table for Ian.



Even though Ian was already complaining about how big the pizza was, he was in a soup mood, so he ordered the tortellini in brodo, a huge bowl of chicken broth with gorgonzola cheese-stuffed tortellini. The soup looked really really good to me. Ian only ate half of it, though, and half of the pizza. He took the remaining half of the pizza home in a doggie box, but I think I'd have taken the soup, not the pizza.



Laurent and I split a great big piece of tiramisu for dessert. I was a bit more blasé about it, but Laurent thought it was the best tiramisu he'd ever had. Ian abstained, since he hadn't finished his soup and pizza.



We got out just in time to get Laurent to the subway stop to catch the last train home.

Tastee Diner, Bethesda, Md.

Last night late, Ian took me to Tastee Diner up in Bethesda. We had the same waitress we had when he and I were there last September.

Ian started with a bowl of chicken rice soup. I say it was canned; Ian argues that it was made there. His main course was a grilled cheese sandwich with french fries. It was the same food he had last time (except I think maybe the soup was chicken noodle).




I started off ordering the baked pork chops and stuffing daily special, but they were out, as it was late. The waitress suggested a turkey blue plate, so I ordered that. Then, she came back to report they were out of stuffing. So, I switched to the chicken-fried steak blue plate, with mashed potatoes and gravy and a side of sliced beets. It was goooooooooood.



For dessert, I had the bread pudding, and Ian got one, too. The bread pudding is very custardy and puffy; it was served with a big dose of whipped cream on top.

Dupont Italian Kitchen, Washington, D.C.

My friends must think I look hungry. Two of them took me out to eat yesterday.

As I was home early from church, Kevin decided to drive down from College Park, and he took me to Dupont Italian Kitchen for brunch. Surprisingly with the daylight savings time change, lots and lots of people were up and about, and the restaurants along 17th Street all seemed to be bustling.

Kevin had the pancake brunch special, a short stack of large pancakes with scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit. He thought the pancakes were unexpectedly good.



I had the eggs Benedict, which came with fried new potatoes and a little piece of honeydew melon. They were good, though they managed to find some of the smallest English muffins I've ever seen! LOL

Thai Tanic, Washington, D.C.

My friend Graham is one of the original volunteers for Food & Friends here in D.C. ever since the charity was founded in 1988. Naturally, he is a big supporter of last night's Dining Out for Life event, and nearly two weeks ago, he called and booked me to go to dinner with him—"just us," he said, as usually when we're out to eat, it's with a crowd.

So, he drove over and picked me up at 8:30, thinking that if we went a little later in the evening, it would be easier to get a table at his restaurant of choice, and off we went. And went, and went, and went.....there was absolutely no place to park! After spending considerable time (and gasoline) in quest of a parking spot, we happened to have a momentary stop in front of the restaurant due to traffic, and he got a good look at the packed tables and the line crammed in the bar and doorway. We decided to move to a different part of town, since we'd seen lines at several other restaurants in that area, too.

Then we drove to the 14th and P area. It still required a search, but at last we found a legal, on-street parking spot. Then, the first four restaurants we went to had 30-45 minute waits for a table.....and it was already approaching 9:30! We ended up at Thai Tanic, a place both of us frequent and like a lot, but, for some reason, a place that wasn't participating in Dining Out this year as they have in years past. Oh, well, we didn't spend that much on food, so the charity wouldn't have made that much from us...and we can always just mail them a small check. I'm really really happy, though, that all the participating restaurants had such excellent business!

Thai Tanic's food was excellent as always. The dining room was about the emptiest I'd ever seen it and we were able to have immediate seating, getting the booth that's right in the window where we could watch passers-by on the street.

We started with Singha beers and appetitzers. Graham got the por pea shrimp spring rolls with sweet chile sauce (you can't tell in the over-exposed photo, but the spring rolls are each cut in half lengthwise on the diagnonal).



I had the tom ka gai soup, a delicious, delicate chicken soup with mushrooms, tomatoes, and basil and a surprisingly large amount of sliced chicken breast in a slightly hot-sour coconut milk broth.



For our main courses, I got the pork and ginger, a mix of pork slices, mushrooms, vegetables, and fresh ginger in a light brown sauce served with steamed white rice.



Graham got one of the daily specials, and it was quite the pièce de résistance! He ordered goong lava—"goong" being the Thai word for shrimp—and got a wonderfully creative food volcano. Large shrimp were battered, dipped in coconut, and deep fried. They took what looked like thick phyllo dough and baked it into an edible bowl. The bowl was filled with an interesting mixture of ground pork, ground peanuts, finely minced vegetables and mushrooms, and a bit of spicy brown sauce, just like a volcano filled with lava. The fried shrimp then were arranged around the edge of the crater and presented.



The only problem with the goong lava was that we weren't quite sure how to eat it! Graham tried dipping the shrimp, spooning "lava" onto the shrimp, eating the lava with a spoon, and then just eating the shrimp separately and the lava with the accompanying white rice. However he was supposed to eat it, he said it was good, though.

We passed on dessert, as it was getting late, and he drove me home. It was quite a lovely evening, even if it didn't turn out to be quite as charitable as we had planned.

IHOP, Arlington, Va.

Ian and I had to go to Ballston Common Mall, so, naturally, we had to stop in at IHOP for a meal.

Ian got the strawberry fruit "shortbread" pancakes special with the egg combo plate.




There's a Dr. Seuss movie opening soon (this summer??), and IHOP is helping promote it with special foods from Whoville. I ate some. I got the Mayor's Breakfast, featuring green eggs and ham (the eggs weren't really green, just scrambled with chopped spinach), plus hash browns, and a side plate of Who-Cakes.



The Who-Cakes were made from the shortbread-flavored pancake batter they are featuring this month, with the cakes stacked like a ziggurat, colorful syrups poured across them to look like ribbons, and sprinkles liberally strewn over the top; a Dum-Dum sucker skewered the stack to hold them together.



You do not like them.
So you say.
Try them! Try them!
And you may.
Try them and you may, I say.

Alero Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

After a brief round of happy hour cocktailing at James Hoban's, we walked to the opposite side of Dupont Circle to have dinner last night at Alero Restaurant, since Ian was strongly in the mood for Mexican food and nobody else really cared.

Once there, Ian and Matt both got frozen strawberry daquiris. For dinner, they also both got burritos. Robert had the beef enchilada. I just nibbled chips and salsa. Long story. My taco salad never arrived, and I never confronted the waiter about it. Blame Ian.





For dessert, Ian had the cheesecake chimichanga and Matt had the tres leches cake, and they split and shared those. Robert had the sopapillas. Interesting how they used the same plate garnish for most of the desserts.

James Hoban's Irish Restaurant and Bar, Washington, D.C.

Last night Robert, Matt, Ian, and I met up after work at James Hoban's Irish Restaurant and Bar for their happy hour. They had $5 martinis (including weird things like cosmos and appletinis) plus $3 off their bar food menu items, so we got something to drink and had three kinds of hummus with pita bread wedges as an appetizer. St. Patrick was standing behind the bar wearing a plain mitre with a deep emerald green chasuble. While I usually drink Bushmill's, that's the "Protestant" Irish whiskey, so I decided to have some "Catholic" whiskey what with the bishop standing behind the bar. Ian wouldn't let me order the Jameson's, so I tried Red Breast. It was nice, very smooth, good flavor and all, but it was so sweet it reminded me an awfully lot of Canadian whiskeys. Meanwhile, Matt was drinking Blue Moon beers out of a Guinness mug.

Spaghetti Garden, Washington, D.C.

It was another "First Tuesday" of the month in Adams-Morgan this week, so Ian and I journeyed up to find a new restaurant experience with their useful "food and drink for two for $25" program. We went by about a dozen restaurants before finding one Ian didn't reject, finally entering Spaghetti Garden for some simple Italian-American food. Oh, there was one place we went into planning to eat, but, even though we both were just clad casually in blazers, khaki trousers, and striped ties, we were clearly very overdressed for the place, judging from those seated at the bar; after waiting over five minutes by the door to be seated, greeted, or whatever, all to no avail, we left.

The Spaghetti Garden is a rather older, run-down sort of place (though I hear they recently spruced up the place) that really is more bar than restaurant. Only a few low dinner tables are in the front of the restaurant. A large bar dominates most of the dining room, with tall bar tables near the bar and in the back of the room. I discovered later on a trip to the men's room that the entire basement is a full room with a big bar, so this place is probably jam-packed with people on the weekends. Ian chose a bar table opposite the center of the bar because there was a large flat panel TV over the back of the bar playing CNN and the primary election returns.

The bartender, a t-shirt clad, straight jock type, was clueless when it came to the First Tuesday promotion. I would have moved on to a more cooperative establishment, but Ian was already glued to the television, so I acquiesced in staying, since the menu was on the very inexpensive side.

Ian started with an order of bruschetta and gleefully continued to mispronounce it all night long just to annoy me (it's "bruce-KAY-tah," not "brew-SHEHT-uh"). It was a hearty dish featuring two full-sized slices of garlic bread instead of the usual thin toasts and topped with a mound of coarsely chopped tomato, basil, and mozzarella cheese tossed in olive oil.



I had calimari fritti, another dish that was served in pieces larger than the norm. The squid actually wasn't bad, and was surprisingly tender for such large rings (squid is very easy to overcook, rendering it tough and chewy). The large serving of marinara was ordinary, but I don't use much sauce, so that didn't bother me. We also split a carafe of the house red wine, a wine with the virtues of being both drinkable and cheap.



The bartender/waiter recommended three things on the menu, and we got two of them (the third was the assortment of parmeggiana sandwiches). Ian ordered the saffron linguine with grilled chicken. Red and green bell peppers had been cut into strips, cooked, and mixed in with the diced chicken, and enrobed in a cream sauce around the linguine. I expected the dish to be bright saffron yellow, but it looked to me like plain cream sauce; Ian didn't really know what saffron was, so he couldn't tell me if it tasted of saffron or not, and I never got around to sampling it myself.



I got the pasta primavera with cream sauce instead of red sauce. I had chicken added to mine, as well, and I really enjoyed the little moments of bitterness and intense flavor that you get when you grill meats and get little spots of char. The "primavera" was broccoli and bell peppers. I thought the dish tasty and filling, though clearly this restaurant focuses on quantity and satiety values, not gourmet subtlety or presentation.



We wanted dessert, but the bartender said they didn't have any. Apparently, that was an unusually busy Tuesday night—there were four tables plus one man eating alone at the bar—and they ordinarily don't do desserts except on weekends.

Dining Out for Life

Tonight is the annual "Dining Out for Life" event here in Washington. Other cities have their events on different days, but this is the day for the D.C. metropolitan area. On March 11 it's in Dallas, April 23 Atlanta, April 24 Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tulsa, May 1 Philadelphia, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches, and September 18 Baltimore. Quite a number of other cities will have events, as well, throughout the year.

What is Dining Out for Life? It's a charity fund raiser that is one of the easiest things you can do. By eating at a participating restaurant, you'll pay normal restaurant prices for your meal, and the restaurant will donate between 25 and 100% of their gross revenues tonight to charity. In Washington, the charity will be Food & Friends, a non-profit group that provides daily, home-delivered, specialized meals, groceries and nutrition counseling to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses.

Dining Out for Life and Food & Friends are both great charities, and I encourage everyone in the D.C. area to eat out tonight—even if only for an appetizer or a dessert—at one of the participating restaurants. Remember: this doesn't cost you anything extra for a normal restaurant meal.

Participating restaurants giving 100% of their gross tonight are Blacksalt Tasting Room, Carlyle, Freddie's Beach Bar and Restaurant, and Ristorante Tosca. Luigino will give 75%. Giving 50% are Annie's Paramount Steakhouse, Cafe La Ruche, Georgia Brown's, Hank's Oyster Bar (D.C. and Old Town), Jack's, Little Fountain Cafe, Mehak Indian Restaurant, Neyla, Santa Fe Cafe, Skewers, and The Old Siam. Argia's, Arucola Osteria, Bistrot du Coin, Bombay Curry Company, Busboys & Poets (D.C. and Va.), Delhi Club, Fusion Grill, Il Radicchio, Lounge 201, Luna Grill and Diner (D.C. and Va.), Mr. Henry's, Radius, and Sake Club are all giving 35% of their take. Think especially about going to these places tonight.

Here's a list of the other participating restaurants that are each contributing 25% of their gross receipts tonight: 15 Squares American Bistro, 18th & U Duplex Diner, Alero (U Street), American Grill, Aroma Indian Cuisine, Asia Bistro/Zen Bistro, Banana Café, Bangkok Garden Restaurant, bd's Mongolian Barbeque, Beacon Bar & Grill, Black Market Bistro, Black's Bar and Kitchen, Bourbon, Cactus Cantina, Café Berlin, Cafe Ole, Cashion's Eat Place, Cee Fine Thai Dining, Chadwicks, Clarendon Grill, Colorado Kitchen, Coppi's Restaurant, The Diner, Dino, Dos Gringos Café, Dupont Italian Kitchen, Ella's Wood Fired Pizza, Floriana Mercury Grill, Foxfire Grill, Geppetto Restaurant, The Grille, Grillfish, Guapo's Restaurant (Shirlington and Bethesda), Hard Times Café, The Heights, indebleu, J. Paul's (Georgetown), Komi, La Ferme Restaurant, La Fourchette, La Plaza, La Tomate, Las Placitas, Lauriol Plaza, Logan Tavern, Lotus Lounge, M Street Bar & Grill, Mark's Kitchen, Marshall's Restaurant, Medaterra, The Melting Pot (D.C., Arlington, Gaithersburg), Merkado Kitchen, Meze, Mosaic Cuisine and Café, Mourayo, Nage Restaurant, Oakville Grille & Wine Bar, Old Glory BBQ, Panache Restaurant, Paolo's Georgetown, Paya Thai, Perry's, Persimmon Restaurant, Pesce, Pizzeria Paradiso (Dupont & Georgetown), Raku-Asian Dining, Sushi & Sake (D.C. & Bethesda), Restaurant K, Ristorante Piccolo, Rosemary's Thyme Bistro, Saigon Saigon, Sala Thai (Arlington, Bethesda, Dupont, U Street, Uptown, Ashburn), Sesto Senso, Starfish Café, Straits of Malaya, Sushi-Ko Restaurant, Tabaq Bistro, Tabard Inn, Tempo Restaurant, Thaiphoon (Dupont & Pentagon Row), Trattoria Alberto, Tuscana West, U-topia Art & Eat, Urbana Restaurant and Wine Bar, Vegetate, Vicino Ristorante Italiano, Zed's Ethiopian Cuisine, and zPizza (Alexandria, Arlington, Columbia, Fairfax, Falls Church, Herndon, Leesburg, Lorton, Manassas, Merrifield, Rockville, Silver Spring, South Riding, Springfield).

Please join us for Dining Out for Life!

The Capital Grille, Washington, D.C.

We had a lovely lunch today at The Capital Grille, one of the better steakhouses in town, as a bribe from my friend Robert for accompanying him to some business at the nearby federal courthouse. It was delicious, as always.

Robert had a ribeye steak sandwich with caramelized onions and Havarti cheese on a grilled demi-baguette of French bread, accompanied by house cut and fried potato chips, plus a side order of French fries (he didn't read the top of the menu that said the sandwiches came with a choice of fries, chips, or slaw, so he ended up with double potatoes). I had a grilled sirloin steak salad and an iced tea, as I almost always get, and it was just enough, as expected.

While I was happy with iced tea, Robert decided to splurge on a great big Tanqueray martini, up, with a twist.

Aria Trattoria, Washington, D.C.

What a beautiful day it was today! The sun was out, it was warm, twas a harbinger of the spring to come. Not a day to be cooped up inside!

Had a very good business lunch downtown with my friend Mike at Aria Trattoria in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. We started to eat outside on the patio, but they'd reserved a nice table for us inside, and we ended up there.

Mike had the wild mushroom risotto, which he reported was very good. It was simply presented in a large soup plate with a tiny garnish of fresh chopped parsley. I had the pulled chicken salad, and, while it was very good, I was a little bit surprised at the presentation. They started with a bed of mixed European-style baby greens tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette and in the center was a mound of pulled chicken moistened with a mayonnaise or mild aioli in a traditional "chicken salad" way; two long, thin parmesan crostini sat criss-crossed atop the chicken. I think I'd expected the pieces to be tossed lightly amongst the greens instead of being formed into a chicken salad. With our food, Mike drank a Melini Borghi d'Elsa chianti and I had a Kris pinot grigio.

For dessert, we split a tropical mousse torte and a pot of French press coffee. They used a round mold with coconut ladyfingers in the bottom and then filled it with a mousse of banana, mango and passionfruit. A little whipped cream and a squirt of tangerine coulis went atop the torte that then was scattered with a mango dice (the mangos, unfortunately, were not ripe). Ripe, fan-sliced strawberries and dollops of whipped cream garnished the plate. I thought the dessert had a very pleasant flavor and was a nice ending to the meal. The coffee was surprisingly filled with sediment; perhaps they over-ground the coffee beans before brewing the pot. While we had our dessert, our waiter brought us a tray of glasses of beers and ales with half-ounce pours to introduce us to the new beers on tap in their bar.

One of the other perks of dining at Aria is that by having a late lunch, I was able to get a 1,000 point Open Table bonus for booking between 1:30 and 3:00.

IHOP, Takoma Park, Md.

A few months ago, the company that owns the IHOP (International House of Pancakes) restaurant chain bought the Applebee's restaurant chain. We've now seen an unexpected benefit from that merger.

Robert and I were out and about in Takoma Park the other night and stopped in at their IHOP. We both ordered new menu items, Robert getting the sirloin tips and eggs (they looked really tasty) and me getting the barbecued ribs. Our waiter informed us that the ribs were the same ribs that are used at Applebee's. And, they were surprisingly good! They were smaller ribs, but they had all the expected flavor and they used a similar not-too-sweet sauce. Even better, they cost only a dollar more than the entree salad I'd originally planned to order.

Town Danceboutique, Washington, D.C.

After our dinner at Jack's last night, instead of going to some of the nightclubs in the immediate vicinity, my friend Mark wanted to try the new place at 8th and U called Town Danceboutique. So, off we went, abandoning the hard-found parking place we'd gotten over near 17th Street. And, of course, there's little on-street parking around Town and the neighborhood there is a little, um, "transitional," so we had to park in one of their overflow "secure" parking lots for a $15 fee.

Town appears to be in an old warehouse, and looks rather unprepossessing on the outside. It's been thoroughly gutted and redone on the inside into a nice, modern club. Before getting in, though, one must pay a $12 cover. And, if one wore a winter coat in, coat check is $3 per article (and there's a tip jar on the counter).

Inside, the main dance floor is high ceilinged with a stage on one side. On the far walls is a large L-shaped bar. The bars do not accept credit cards; there are, however, a number of ATMs owned by the club (meaning they get to charge a fee!) scattered around for ones "convenience." Behind the bars are large, full-wall projection screens that last night were displaying a computer screen for "Valentine" messages from one patron to another (the club was celebrating "Valentine's Weekend).

As we entered, a drag show was going on on the stage. The hostess of the show had a rather disconcertingly gruff voice that sounded more like a sports arena announcer than a drag hostess. We didn't really watch much of the show, but I did get some glimpses of a couple of "girls" who had choreographed backup dancers helping with the song.

There was a $5 Absolute vodka drink special going on til 11 p.m. With just one minute left to go, Mark had an Absolute Citron vodka Collins. I wasn't in a vodka mood and ordered a Scotch and water. Oddly, they didn't have a rail Scotch, and everything was call. I asked for the cheapest, and the drink ended up costing $7. On top of that, the drinks were served in rather short rocks glasses, and, the bars were using crushed ice instead of ice cubes (crushed ice fills up more of the volume of the glass, so the drink liquid content isn't as great).

About midnight, they opened the upstairs floor. Upstairs was rather nicer than downstairs. Again, there was a large L-shaped bar with projection screens, and a smaller dance floor with a raised end platform. What made the upstairs more interesting, though, was a long, narrow room to the side of the dance floor with comfortable banquettes along one wall, giving people a (relatively) quiet place to sit, relax, and actually carry on a conversation.

As I wandered around the dance floor, I was rather surprised that with as much money as the owners had spent remodeling and crafting this new dance club, there was a rather pedestrian lighting system on the dance floors. Perhaps they weren't using it or something, but there seemed to be little else special other than a mirror ball. At some of the New York clubs I've visited, the lighting has been so elaborate and spectacular, it's sometimes entertaining just to sit and watch the light show, but not here.

I found the crowd to be interestingly mixed. The expected twink barflies were there, but there was also an assortment of more mature patrons, and I definitely was not the oldest person in the bar by far. The downstairs dance floor seemed to attract the t-shirt and blue jeans set (removing t-shirts is encouraged, but I did not see that happening last night) and the upstairs dance floor had more people in nicer club clothes. There was also a surprising number of females there, and, given how they were dressed, I think most of them were straight girls.

We left probably about 1 a.m., and there was a long, long line outside on the street with people trying to get in. Since I did not perceive a sense of crowdedness inside (remember dancing at Nation when it was so packed on the dance floor that one could not move ones feet to dance?), either the fire marshall is holding them to an unusually strict occupancy capacity or they are trying to create a strong sense of demand by making people stand in line. Everyone seemed happy, though.

Well, at least now I can say I've been to Town.

Jack's Restaurant and Bar, Washington, D.C.

Last night my friend Mark called out of the blue and said he was in the mood to drive in to town and go to dinner. That's kind of unusual, since he lives on the Virginia outer fringes of the metropolitan area, and it's quite a trek to and from his place. I was in the middle of stewing a chicken for dinner, but that was easily enough put aside for other creations using cold chicken instead of hot, and I got cleaned up and dressed to join him.

Well, D.C. being D.C., we drove and drove and circled and circled to find a parking place, ending up about half a mile from our intended destination (for those of you readers not in the city, that is considered "good"). Our plan for sushi fell through, though, since we found a line at the restaurant running all the way down the stairs; I checked with the maitre d' and he said the wait for a table for two was at least an hour.

So, we went down the street, and found a place neither of us had previously been, at least in this year's declension, a place that once was Pepper's and then Le Pigalle and now it is known as Jack's Restaurant and Bar. The new name is deceptive. "Jack's" evokes a casual, diner-type establishment in my mind, but this new place would be suited to a much more pretentious name, as it's more bistro than diner.

The place was bustling. While the patrons included typical 17th Street denizens, there were also tables full of families with children. Some people were casually attired. Some people were dressed up. Some people were in club clothes. The waiters were all in black trousers and tight black t-shirts, giving the place a little cosmopolitan flair.

We started with cocktails. Mark had some big martini called a "double espresso" that included Van Gogh double espresso vodka, vanilla, Kahlua, and white chocolate Godiva liqueur. That drink cost more than my entrée!

They had rye in the bar, so I had a manhattan. The manhattan felt a little "thin" on the tongue, so I suspect that the bartender fixed a perfect manhattan (with half sweet vermouth and half dry vermouth) instead of a classic manhattan (just sweet vermouth). That wasn't necessarily a problem; he just went to more trouble to add the third ingredient, though I probably would have preferred the classic recipe.

When it came time to eat, Mark picked the roasted free range chicken breast topped with prosciutto ham and mozzarella cheese served on a bed of mashed potatoes and covered with a ruby red marsala wine sauce. I have to confess that when it came out, both of us looked a little shocked. It looked somewhat less than appetizing. I was thinking bloody, uncooked chicken and he was thinking other unmentionable things. Between the color of the wine sauce and the little bits of wine-colored shallot that resembled blood clots, we weren't really sure what to think. But, once he finally brought himself to sample it, he reported that it tasted much much better than it looked.


My meal was safer. I had a steak and Pommery salad with nice slices of medium rare steak tossed in a light, mild Pommery mustard sauce on a bed of European-style assorted bitter greens. It was very good, and my only suggestion would have been to add just a bit more of the greens to the plate. And, I'm not sure if it was an oversight, but we never got any bread or crackers with our meal, and those would have been a nice balance to the salad (plus, there were bottles of olive oil on the table, presumptively as a bread dip).


Mark wasn't really in a dessert mood (with that big, sweet cocktail, I wouldn't have been, either!), but I was intrigued by a couple of things on the dessert menu. I ordered the "sweet potatoes and cheese," not really knowing exactly what it was I would get. When it arrived, it was a beautiful, narrow, rectangular dish with thin strips of candied sweet potato on one end, strips of quince jelly on the other, slices of fontina cheese by sliced fresh strawberries in middle, and all the fruits drizzled with a bit of chocolate syrup and dusted with confectioner's sugar. Not only was it different, it was actually all quite good!


Jack's seems to be a hit on 17th Street. I hope it has better luck than did its predecessors. Service was good, food tasted good, and the menu has quite a number of things I'd like to try, so I'm looking forward to a return visit.

Comings and goings

We noticed the other night a big "for lease" sign across the dark windows of Dakota Cowgirl (f/k/a Hamburger Mary's), so they've apparently gone out of business.
____________________
Also, Titan Bar (a/k/a Ramrod) upstairs over Dakota Cowgirl was dark, too. Guess they're out of business as well. Where ever will the bears go for their Friday evening happy hours now?
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And, out at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City (a/k/a the mall), the Ruby Tuesday near the mall's Metro entrance is closed, and signs foretell the advent of a Harry's Tap Room. Don't know when Harry's will open. I suppose it's a good thing to have a Harry's there, though they are several notches more expensive than Ruby Tuesday. Budget diners will just have to use the food court.
____________________
Have you ever tried to eat at a Mexican restuarant on a Friday during Lent? Talk about a challenge! About all there is are some cheese enchiladas (sometimes) or fish tacos (sometimes—and the thought of fish tacos is totally unappetizing to me). Eh.

But, Chevy's Fresh Mex has a very nice artichoke and mushroom enchilada entree on the menu. I had them Friday night and was both surprised and pleased.

Thai Tanic (and Halo), Washington, D.C.

It's always difficult for those who are not attached to another in some sort of amorous way to dine without being alone and/or depressed on the Feast of Saint Valentine. Showing up at a restaurant by ones self draws pointed fingers and stares and whispers of pity, whilst going out with just a friend—male or female—has people thinking that the two of you are a couple; sharing a home-cooked meal in the privacy of one's home has people gossiping even more and conjecturing as to what must be going on to warrant the need for privacy.

So, Thursday evening, my friend Ian and I braved the storm of once-a-year lovers, first spending some time shopping down town at several shops (we found a lovely cashmere navy blue overcoat for Ian on half-price sale at Jos. A. Bank), then bussing up 14th Street to arrive at Thai Tanic for dinner.

Well, they were jam-packed with lines coming out the door, so we walked around the corner to partake of the end of happy hour at a surprisingly not-busy Halo. Halo always requires a little bit of time, since they have big cocktails and their happy hour is a buy-one-get-one-free arrangement, meaning one has to devote sufficient time to the responsible consumption of two stiff drinks. Ian got a mojito followed by some kind of vodka, Grand Marnier, and cranberry concoction. I just drank a gin martini so I could have the olive garnish for dinner. LOL My second drink was "bartender's choice" and he made me a Rob Roy, and a good one, too.

Eventually we ended back at Thai Tanic where there was still a tiny wait for a table, but we were fourth in line, and it didn't take long. Apparently, the problem there was a large table of 14 or so (it looked sort of like an office party) that took up much of the dining room and had been lingering over their dinner. Anyway, Ian discovered the cocktail list and ordered a ThaiTanic Thunder, a tall fruity drink with red coloring and pineapple juice and who knows what kind of alcohol. I gather it was good, since it wasn't long before he ordered another.

We did have dinner, though. Sorry for the absence of photos, but I really hadn't planned on dining out when we started our shopping expedition, and didn't bring a camera (the photo here is from Ian's cell phone). Whilst Ian imbibed, I had a papaya salad, a very large plateful of finely-shredded green papaya with sun-dried tiny shrimp in a spicy-hot lime dressing.

For his meal, Ian ordered the pad prik king, an unexpectedly large plate of chicken breast strips and thick green beans in red curry. I had the gaeng ped yang, also a red curry, but with sliced roast duck with coconut milk, tomatoes, pineapple, and the Thai-ubiquitious basil leaves. My plate was half the size of Ian's, though I still got an ample serving. Both dishes came with steamed white rice. I also got a Singha, a Thai lager beer, to wash things down.

I wasn't in a dessert mood, but Ian was, ordering the crispy banana, a bowl of vanilla ice cream surrounded by a teepee of deep-fried banana wedges and all drizzled with honey.

After dinner we caught a bus to Georgetown, as it was briskly windy and cold out. I got off at Dupont Circle to catch the Metro home, but for some reason, I ended up walking home. Meanwhile, Ian is in New York City this weekend having a much properer celebration of the Valentine feast.

When to dine and when to just eat?

Eating out in Washington is expensive. There are a lot of places here that cater to the lobbyists and others on an unlimited expense account, and a lot of the so-called "mid-range" places shift their prices up to help fill in the void. My friends, knowing that I'm not a multi-millionaire, sometimes ask me how I manage to eat at so many nice places around town. Well, it's all just a matter of planning, budget, timing, and a sense of "appropriate need."

You'll recall that I usually try to hit the famous and expensive restaurants during the semi-annual Restaurant Weeks, and even then, I prefer to do the lunches rather than the dinners (the food is usually exactly the same, so why pay $30 instead of $20?). I try to take advantage of daily specials and prix fixe menus to maximize my dining dollar. I also note that some things are actually cheaper to order out than to fix at home, especially since our nasty little Safeway grocery store in the Watergate complex has such expensive, poor quality produce and meats. And, then, I know not to run up a big tab at places where the food is less than exquisite—sometimes I have to eat to live, not live to eat.

If I'm short of cash, I might actually go to a fast food restaurant. McDonald's has double cheeseburgers for $1 each, and for $2.20 (10% sales tax in D.C.), one can get full (we won't talk about calories or fat grams). But, fast food is not always a good choice for budget dining. Not long ago, we were at Arby's in Springfield Mall. A combo meal of a roast beef sandwich, curly fries (did you know they don't have potato cakes at Arby's any more? I was so sad!), and a soft drink was $7.69. Going back for dessert items ($2-something) put the meal's cost at over $10 per person. And that was at a fast food place with no waiters or table service. I would rather go to a sit down restaurant and order sensibly and economically than pay that kind of money for fast food.

Such was also the case the other night when Ian and I went for happy hour and dinner at McFadden's. McFadden's, just across the street from the GWU campus, is a big bar with food. Mediocre food. In fact, our friend Laurent, a GWU alumnus, went drinking there for four years and didn't know they even had food. So, I don't like to spend much money there.

It was half price burger night, so I had a basic Angus burger with onion rings. No added cheese or other things on the burger. I drank water. It was $4, plus 40¢ tax plus 60¢ tip, totaling $5. I asked for the burger to be cooked medium, and it arrived with char on the outside, but still dripped blood from the inside (that averages out to medium, doesn't it?). The onion rings were limp and barely warm. But, hey, it was a $5 dinner.

Ian, on the other hand, didn't like the happy hour $2 beers, so he got a Guinness ($7). He didn't want a hamburger, so he got the vodka marinara pasta ($8) and had them add some grilled chicken (and what a pittance of chicken it was!) for an additional $3.


And, he wanted a salad, so he got a Caesar salad with no dressing ($6). Then, instead of another beer, he had a Coke ($2). He spent $26 plus $2.60 tax plus $3.90 tip, or $32.50 for a very mediocre dinner.


A lot of times, restaurants don't have exactly what I want. If I'm in the mood for a manhattan and the bar doesn't stock rye, then I don't drink a manhattan. If I want blueberry syrup for my pancakes and they only have "regular" or strawberry, I either do without or I use the regular (and I certainly don't pay a $2 upcharge for "real" Maple syrup!). It's just not a big deal. But, some people insist on certain foods or condiments. The other day, Ian was over and feeling thrifty and hungry at the same time, so I made us cheese omelettes, baked French fries, and whole grain toast for a quick and inexpensive meal with what was on hand. I'm out of catsup, though. No catsup is not really a big deal for me, since I usually eat fries plain or with the Belgian/French tradition of mayonnaise, and I have mayonnaise, plus a lot of the Ranch dressing that Ryan liked to use on his food, in the refrigerator. It was a crisis for Ian, however. He wouldn't eat the fries without catsup. It was so important to him that he left and walked to the Seven-Eleven to get catsup. By the time he got back, his food was cold, but at least he had catsup for his cold fries. He got what he wanted, but there was a cost to fulfilling his want.

I always think that people should eat what they like. They need to remember, though, that a lot of the extras and special requests and eccentricities add up, and that refusing to eat certain "sale" foods bumps them up to higher and higher price ranges. I get what I want. But I adjust my "want" to be reasonable for the establishment and the circumstances. For the $27.50 cost difference in our McFadden's dinners, I can easily afford to eat out another time, and at a really nice place, too (think about those $20 Restaurant Week lunches at the top restaurants in town).

And thus is the art of dining out in Washington.

Redrock Canyon Grill, Silver Spring, Md.

Robert and I lunched yesterday at Redrock Canyon Grill in Silver Spring, braving the freezing rain and gusty winds.

Redrock Canyon Grill is part of a small, mid-Atlantic chain of restaurants with a large bar and typical mid-range franchise food, all with a "Texas" theme to the upscale menu. Aside from a welcoming, blazing fireplace by the entrance, the dining room was open and spacious, done in dark woods and with a big window wall, but had no Texas or southwestern kitsch laying around. The staff wore blue jeans and white Western shirts, and all were overly friendly and solicitous. I'm surprised they didn't have them in bandanas and cowboy hats, too.

Robert selected the pulled pork sandwich with French fries for his main course. It all looked very standard.


I had one of the daily specials, a Texas chopped salad. It was delicious. The meat was barbecued chicken, and in addition to the usual things, it contained little cubes of jicama and half a sliced avocado. The entire large salad was decorated with a few artistic squirts of barbecue sauce. I also got a wedge of their Texas skillet cornbread that included creamed corn and bits of jalapeño peppers.


For dessert, while I just drank some hot coffee with cream, Robert had the apple blossom pastry. Now, I wasn't really sure was an apple blossom pastry was, envisioning tiny, delicate flowers in apricot glaze on a small square of puff pastry and realizing that not only were apple blossoms not in season (yet), but they were not generally considered edible, so I asked the waitress to explain it to me. After she gave her corporate-established spiel, I said, "Ohhhh, it's an apple dumpling." You would have thought that I had stabbed her in the heart. While she confessed that it was "like" an apple dumpling, it wasn't one, because it's "different." Alas, the demands they place on the poor wait staff.

Once it arrived, there appeared to be two different sauces, one more transparent and honey-colored over the apple and a dark, caramel-looking sauce over the ice cream. I inspected it and it looked like a standard apple dumpling, though I must confess that when I make apple dumplings, I set the apple up on a square of pastry and fold the pastry up to join together on the top of the apple, while at Redrock, their apple is laid on its side and the pastry seam is underneath. So, it's "different."

Redrock Canyon Grill is a pleasant place with decent food and ample service. Next time you're in the downtown Silver Spring shopping district, give it a try.

Magic Gourd, Washington, D.C.

Laurent and I walked down to Columbia Plaza this evening to have Chinese New Year's dinner at the Magic Gourd. The restaurant wasn't really my first choice tonight, but he was tired and didn't want to do a lot of walking, so Columbia Plaza was close.

We had a plate of pan-fried noodles topped with a melange of vegetables, chicken, beef, and who knows what that we shared so that by eating long noodles, we would have long lives, according to Chinese tradition. The noodles were very well fried in some spots, even to the point that there were beyond lightly crunchy.



We also shared some sesame beef and some firecracker shrimp. Both came with steamed broccoli. The beef had an interesting vinegar bite to it. The shrimp had some small slices of jalapeño pepper in the sauce, but I didn't know jalapeños were native to China! The shrimp was my favorite of the dishes. We'd asked for "spicy" food, but I thought they both didn't rise above "mild."




The dining room was as full as I've ever seen it, so the limited staff did a lot of running around to try to keep up. The back dining room seemed to be filled with Greeks from GWU, mostly a bunch of Pikes and Phi Psis, many of whom were wearing their baseball caps inside at the tables. Oh, for the olden days.....when I was an undergraduate, had we done that (*especially* if we'd been wearing our letters), our housemother would never have let us hear the end of it.

I won $5 on a lottery scratch off. I look at that as an auspicious beginning to the Year of the Rat!

Restaurant Vero, Arlington, Va.

We didn't go out for pancakes last night.

We did do our part to try to eat a lot of rich food, though, to help clear out the larders before Lent. My friend Jevon, who used to office two doors away from me at Georgetown, and I ventured out to far west Arlington for dinner at a place neither of us had previously experienced, Restaurant Vero. I had to juggle both subway trains and Metro buses to get there, but it was worth the trip.

Restaurant Vero is very suburban. It's located in a mostly residential neighborhood in the end of a long shopping strip building that probably once held some kind of retail store. Inside, the walls are painted a very fashionable dark taupe with a hint of color I couldn't quite discern in the fashionably dark dining room. The space is essentially an el-shape, with the bar area in the thick foot of the el. The menu is surprisingly large for a small, independent restaurant, and they have a lengthy wine list with over two and a half pages just of red wines.

It was Mardi Gras, though, so we celebrated with Mardi Gras Abita Bock beers. They were surprisingly tolerable for seasonal beer from Louisiana, sort of hoppy, amber lager with a crisp finish.

While there was a page in the menu with daily specials, we both stuck with the standard dinner menu. Jevon started with a grilled Caesar salad. They took the heart of a head of romaine lettuce, grilled it, then drizzled it with Caesar dressing and freshly grated parmesan cheese and garnished the plate with a couple of blistered tomatoes and a parmesan crisp.


I had their miniature Maryland-style crab cakes. Three little tiny crab cakes rested on a plate covered in corn-tomato relish and a chipotle remoulade dollop rested atop each cake. I found the crab cakes to be quite good, and I'll be interested to try the crab cakes on the entree menu to see how the full-sized version fares.


Jevon knew as soon as he opened the menu what he wanted for his main course: pan seared duck breast. The presentation for this dish was interesting, since the duck was practically hidden by the other items. Dominating the plate was a large serving of butternut squash bread pudding, a very intriguing savory interpretation of the dessert classic; some raw European bitter greens and some sautéed julienne of carrot took up the rest of the space, nearly covering the duck. The duck itself came with a fig and cherry compote.


I opted for the slow roasted pork shank served on a bed of creamy Virginia-style grits. Sautéed rainbow chard surrounded the dish, and a sprig of fresh rosemary garnished the top of the pork. The pork was falling-off-the-bone tender. I wasn't overly fond of the tomato sauce enrobing the pork, but the pork itself made up for it. The grits were a nice touch, and I would have liked more of them.


The dessert menu was rather disappointing, given the fact that the restaurant has a pastry chef. It was basically the same stuff one sees at restaurants all over town. I thought my pear-almond frangipane tart with caramel sauce was tasty, but as far as D.C. restaurants are concerned, it was rather ordinary and nothing special.


Jevon, on the other hand, ordered a milk chocolate mousse cake that unexpectedly displayed the artistry that one should get from a restaurant with a pastry chef. It was really more of a mousse capped by chocolate wafers, but the fresh strawberry sauce and fresh fruits provided balance and variety to the plate. Sprigs of mint garnished both desserts. We also had coffee with our dessert, and Jevon in particular thought the coffee helped to balance out the sweetness of the mousse.


Restaurant Vero is a fine place. There are a lot of things on the menu I'd like to try, and based on their performance with the duck and pork plus my crab cakes, I think they warrant another visit. The food was good and the service was well trained and inobtrusive. I also found the prices to be surprisingly moderate for the food quality.

Jevon was excited to have the opportunity to join the Kody Pose gallery, so here he is with his Mardi Gras beer.