Ray's Hell Burger

I had a lunch meeting today in Rosslyn and as it was too cold to walk, we drove. When you drive in Rosslyn, you have to consider parking -- which pretty much brings me to the only restaurant strip that has parking. There's Pho75, a Mexican Place, a coffee shop, a Greek place, a steak place and a street number: 1713. And inside the non-descript facade under 1713 Wilson is a GREAT find. Ray's Hell Burger. What fantastic play on words. Almost better than the bar I frequented in Florida -- Hellen Back. With a line out the door at Ray's, there were signs up that said don't take a table until you order. WOW! Really? Supply and demand I guess. I ordered a Grilled Burger with Vermont White Cheddar, Smoked bacon, and red onions. I've never had a better burger in my life. Juicy. Flavor. Cooked perfect. On a soft bun. The options were endless. If you're an option freak, you'd be in hog heaven. Options make me stare in indecision... and this place, like Seinfeld's soup Nazi episode -- is not the place for indecision. 16 kinds of cheeses from American to Epoisse de Bourgogne an Chimay a la Biere. Do you want seared foie gras with truffle oil on your burger? Guacamole? Roasted Bone Marrow with Persillade? I don't even know what that is. There is also a list of specialty burgers if you don't want to decide on options, but that requires you to be smart enough to flip the menu over, which I wasn't. And then the sides... I ordered mac and cheese I'd have slapped my mother for. My sister wouldn't have approved of it though as it had spices in it. Don't go here if you're a vegetarian because the only thing they serve is burger and more burger. A+

Commissary

Commissary -- on P between 14th and 15th downtown -- has been on my list simply for its location since I read about it a while ago. It stuck with me because of its name and the idea it would probably have a little of everything. So on a chilly February Saturday after swimsuit shopping around the corner, when some hunger pangs started panging -- I recommended a 3pm meal at Commissary. The previous tenant of this location was Merkado -- an odd Latin/Asian/I don't-know-what kind of place where I had a birthday at a few years ago. I was served a lamb shank sticking out of a soup bowl like I was Fred Flinstone at a state fair. Merkado was just sucking up good space -- the wrong restaurant for that neighborhood. A fly-in at 3 with no previous plans place like Commissary was perfect. We sat in the corner with a view of the trendy people with afternoons of nothing to do. Our Latin waiter was very helpful and when he didn't know what the answer was -- he went and found out... even though I knew after one bite it was potatoes that made their blueberry pancakes different from the bisquick IHOPy kind. Our neighbor table didn't have the same luck with our same waiter. It was like two different people and we commented to each other on this fact. I started my meal with lentil soup. It was bland and could have used some meat, but after a request for some lemon juice, it brought memories of eating at the Iranian place in Qatar. Lemon juice is the trick for brining out flavors at the last minute in a complex soup. My main dish was a chicken stew with rice. Perfect comfort food, although the bay leaves in it were a bit much. One would have sufficed. I hope Commissary makes it. We need more restaurants like this. The closes alternative I can think of is Busboys and Poets sans bookstore. Both worthy afternoon hang outs.

Ping

I watched Ping with interest as it was built -- the unfinished wood outside making a modern facade on an otherwise mainstreet USA kind of street in Shirlington. My first visit, I didn't make it past the hostess stand as a mean Russian lady (in an Asian Restaurant) curtly tried to shove us to a table. We abruptly declined and I boycotted the place until Friday when an overly lively Guapos next door forced a last minute dinner decision elsewhere. We settled on Ping. While also lively and filled, we didn't have to wait for a table. My only complaint for the evening was the heater under the table was cooking me so Louis kindly switched seats with me. My other Table companions were Rudy and Elliott. Our service was very good. Our Catholic waiter was knowledgeable and expeditions, but not overly expeditious where we felt we were being shoved out the door. I had the honey chicken. It used to be if it had mangos, it was my sure menu choice. Today, it's honey. As with most 'Chinese' food, it filled the hole, but tasted mostly like any other Chinese dish I'd had in the past. I will say the purposely cold and fresh green beans were very tasty. Ping is a little cousin of the Charlie Chang restaurants. I'm not a fan of chains, nor am I a fan of restaurants with sports playing on TVs over the bar -- but I think this one has earned a space on my "I feel like Chinese" list of restaurants. And if I'm in a rush -- there was the take out option with its own entrance, averting any further possible interaction with a mean Russian lady.

Liberty Tavern

Right next to the Clarendon Ballroom is a "bar."  I'm told at night it's very lively.  I've never really hung out in Clarendon though, so I don't know this first hand.  I don't typically go to bars for food.  There are a few exceptions.  So when Monica suggested Sunday Brunch at Liberty Tavern, it fell under the category of "I've never been there so okay."  And what a nice surprise.  First... ambiance.  The place was hopping on a Sunday morning.  Light, airy, warm feeling, with a good layout despite having to negotiate a staircase after loading up from the buffet.  We took a 6 top in the corner in front of floor to ceiling windows on a bustling city street. DeDe, Samantha and Brenda were already there.  The music was fantastic for a Sunday morning - albeit all over the place.  But brunch music that can go from the calm romance of EBTG to tribal dance and back over the course of a meal and still keep my interest helps intertwine the background into the odyssey.  Next -- food.  We showed up at 1130, which is the "I don't go to church and didn't go out last night" appointed brunch time.   The problem with an 1130 brunch is that you really can't eat anything beforehand.  A 1:30 brunch -- I've either eaten pizza at 3am after the club and slept till noon, or I got up, read the paper over coffee and grits.  Either way, I'm probably not starving.  So here we are, 1130, and I am starving.  Now I didn't do my research on this place since I was being taken, so I didn't know it was a buffet.  And the buffet is upstairs so it wasn't obvious.  All I had heard about was the cheese grits and shrimp making me drool for the Fish House brunches of Pensacola.  I'm scanning the menu and DeDe announces she's going for the buffet.  I drop the menu and bolt upstairs -- heading straight for the meat section in the back of a buffet... Restaurants always put the expensive stuff in the back... Salad and bread up front is not accidental.  I skip through the line and pile up on carved turkey, ham, bacon and sausage links... load up on the cheese grits with unfortunate slabs of pork instead of shrimp... some french toast and a slice of veggie frittata.  Now meat isn't hard to screw up... but I applaud the choices.  The grits were fantastic, said the southern boy who speaks with grit authority.  The french toast and frittata were both dry and unpalatable, but didn't ruin the meal.  I tasted DeDe's parsnips, which I wish I were paying attention to the fillers in the front.  Root veggies seem all the rage now.  Desert -- there was a chocolate cake option, but I don't do chocolate.  And mini-pecan pies, which I love some pie -- but the little ones are hard.  Yet for a place that doesn't have an ice cream bar, there was every sort of candy topping you could want.  I went for the dots -- my favorite movie indulgence.  The buffet was adequate yet forgettable.  What was not forgettable though were the spicey $4 bloody marys that come with a beer chaser.  I had 2.  They must use oyster juice in their recipe.  Not everybody does.  I like the added flavor from the juice which is the real discriminator for those who just can't stand a bloody mary.  And to celebrate the inauguration, our waiter served us complimentary tequila shots.  So was this a bar or brunch?  Either way -- the service and ambiance will earn a repeat performance.  I can't say I'll add this place to my menu I call DC -- where I just crave that one dish that they only serve at that one place -- but overall a good experience.

Cucina Vivace

When I lived in Crystal City, I thought 23rd Street was a bit overrun with Italian restaurants.  So it confused me when the sign for yet another place showed a 4th Italian restaurant in a one block span... but unlike the two traditional places and Portofino's Northern Italian fare -- Cucina Vivace promised a more upscale environment and cuisine.  When it first opened, I got to know the place better than I do now and I really appreciated the effort they put into trying.  Their seasonal menus were always packed with interesting flavors and the service was impeccable.  I would brag on their lamb like nothing else -- the combination of rosemary and other spices overwhelmed your mouth.  And if I wouldn't just slap my mother silly during truffle season and the things Vivace would do with those.  But more than a year later, I think the lack of following has gotten the best of Cucina Vivace.  23rd street just isn't the place for a higher end restaurant and I think this one might be failing.  For a Friday night, when all the other restaurants on the street were packed, this one still was empty.  The service was attentive and the ambiance was enjoyable (save the mismatched music for the look and feel of it), but something was still off.  I feel bad for this fledgling restaurant -- that it never took off.  While I enjoyed my meal tonight and my company --  the lamb wasn't as exciting as it was a year ago and I fear Cucina may be complacent as it dies a very, very slow and painful death.  

Bonsai Sushi on 23rd

I've had posh sushi at Nobu in New York.  I've had all you can eat sushi buffets in Las Vegas. I've had Sushi delivered on vespas in Tokyo like we order Pizza. And I've had nouveau Sushi in San Francisco (french fries in it?).  But nothing really beats the hole in the wall neighborhood sushi joint.  The kind of place where you can sit at the sushi bar and talk to the chef -- ask him to make his favorite.  Where the waitress is the same waitress every night of the week -- there's only one -- and she knows that you don't like your green tea ice cream so frozen it'll bend the spoon, so she nukes it for me for 10 seconds before she serves it.  Where... on a sunny day in the summer, you can sit and eat sushi alone on the patio, watching people walk by -- but you're just as comfortable there on a blustery winter night with a close friend in intimate conversation.  This is what I get from Bonsai sushi on 23rd street in Crystal City.  This is place is the definition of a neighborhood restaurant and the Sushi isn't half bad either.

D.C.'s restaurant week waits for inauguration

Washington Business Journal - by Tierney Plumb Staff Reporter

D.C.’s winter edition of restaurant week is getting pushed back to February this year because of the presidential inauguration.
Last year, restaurant week was from Jan. 14 -20. No date has been set for the event.
Keeping in line with last summer’s price increase during the event, signature $30 dinners are no more.
Nearly 200 of the D.C. area’s restaurants will serve three-course dinners for $35.09. Lunch will be $20.09. Drinks, gratuity and tax are not included.
The restaurant week Web site tells visitors to “check back to this site in mid-January for more information.”
Dinner prices were first adjusted during the summer in consideration of the rising food and fuel costs restaurants were facing.
Destination D.C. coordinates the week with the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington.
Alexandria is holding its own inaugural restaurant week from Jan. 17-25, with 30 restaurants in the area participating. Most eateries, such as Bastille and Chadwicks Restaurant, will offer a three-course, fixed-price dinner for $35. Others, such as Overwood and King Street Blues, will offer dinner for two for $35.

Aria Trattorioa

While I would like to be a guy who's glass is half full and point out all the wonderful things I experience or see, I'm having difficulty coming up with something for this restaurant experience.  The one positive is that if you're going to National Theater, as we were to see West Side Story, that this restaurant validates free parking in the Reagan building right across the street.  As a matter of fact, that's the primary reason I chose this restaurant, so I shouldn't expect anything else.  If you're affected by negativity, stop reading.  For the rest of us -- this place was terrible!  Aria is the third restaurant to be in this location since Michael Jordan's restaurant left.  It's such a great location, but afflicted by the fact its inside an office building and not 'known.'  location, location, location.  So why was it so bad?  Lets start with the ambiance.  Bland, all around.  There was no vibe.  The people were tourists. The lights were bright and the sound was quiet.  Once sat, the maitre'd immediately insulted my mother.  I'm sure he was just an idiot and didn't mean to basically call her an old bag, but that's the result.  Perhaps it was lost in translation.  I don't know... but he was a moron.  Next... food.  I was happy with how the menu sounded... but don't be fooled.  You'd do better at a hotdog stand.  my Sister ordered the pasta prima vera... which was more like soup in a butter broth.  Butter.  With little veggies swimming in it and some pasta.  Did I mention the butter?  Mine... the pasta bolognese... Bolognese is a red sauce cooked with sausage and meats filled with the flavor of those meats.  This sauce had no flavor.  I could have opened the chef boyardee myself and eaten at home.  The special... Fillet Mignon.  Now, to their credit -- Mom's steak came out very nice and tasted great... she ordered medium.  But because Damon ordered medium rare and his came out well done... they switched.  Mom decided the well done was too done and sent it back. This is a good transition point to talk about the service.  While up to this point the service was ok, at this point, the service went in the crapper.  Our waiter... who was clearly serving a theater crowd on a schedule off their theater menu... never came back!  Could you imagine?  He delivered the desert menu only after prompting... (for which they were out of their advertised theater menu desert), and then didn't return for 7 minutes.  At this point, we were ready to leave, even if we wanted desert.  If I were to return to this restaurant, it would only be for the theater proximity and free parking... I'd go in, order an appetizer off their taster menu for $10.  Validate and leave.  But I think I'd rather just pay the $10 to another close parking garage and eat at home, avoiding the dissatisfaction.

Utopia

For New Year's Eve, I met a group of 6 strangers at a restaurant called Utopia on U St.  The night was freezing and the vibe inside was chill. The bohemian patrons provided a great people watching venue... the couple in formal wear with hipster hair and black fingernail polish.  The overly  tatooed guy at the bar.  The bad Macy Gray doppelganger in the tube top (A tube top in 27 degrees -- not to be crass, but a with chest that would have been airbrushed out on TV... seriously?) This vibe is the only reason I'd consider returning to the restaurant.  Okay, maybe to gawk at the hot bartenders too.  The service was moderate if compared to Applebees.  The drinks were weak. and my medium rare fillet with don't get saucy with me bernaise sauce came out well done.  The saving grace for the evening was the company of these happenstance new friends whose company I thoroughly enjoyed.  Marc, Andrea, Sarat, Missy, Derek and Liz -- Thanks for a great evening!