Carlyle Grand Brunch

On a day when you want to walk to brunch and you live in Arlington, none is better than the Carlyle Grand.  Droves of people out with their dogs, this friendly brunch place even has $1 dog biscuits on the people menu.  With my mother in town, we sat outside on an overcast Sunday morning... early for most brunch goers, so still pretty quiet for Shirlington.  She had the french toast, drizzled with yogurt, fruit and crunched up granola, describing it as the best french toast she's ever had.  I would have described it first as the largest french toast I've ever seen and tried to put it in a wrestler's weight class.  These slices were more like loaves.  But very sweet and yummy.  I had the scuibnocket or skabtucket or scraptastic... I don't remember the name.  Basically scrambled eggs with bacon, mushrooms, green onions and all kinds of other parts and pieces mixed in and garnished with cheddar.  It was also very good.  Better than an omelet I think because it was light and airy.  The service was only ok since the waiter spilled my juice and went downhill from there, but he was a happy person and nice, so it was a wash.  I can't not mention the hot tea.  They only had a few selections of caffeinated loose tea so I chose the tropical one.  Very tasty and served in a little asian iron pot.  Good on them for the details.  Overall, an experience I might make a Sunday morning tradition when mom is in town.

Nobu -- NY

I have tasted perfection in New York City.  A quick bus trip up (yes, I said bus), found me at the Nobu in Tribeca.  The mood was as any trendy NY restaurant should be (after the baby left), but the menu had way too many choices.  So my friend Darryl and I opted for the Chef's choice tasting menu.  There were 3 options based on price... which determines the quality of ingredients.  We had our eyes on the high-quality flesh (Kobe beef) so we opted for the highest price option to ensure we got that.  Interesting part of that was of the 8 courses, the beef was my least favorite -- albeit amazing in its own right.  But the one course I can still taste a week later, I even took a picture for you... was the sashimi thin sliced red snapper, served raw.  It carried a dot of a red spicy sauce and a dot of black pepper.  Served with a mound of cilantro and floating in a lemon juice reduction.  The flavors in this were simply stunning. The other courses were, in order:  tuna garlic tartar, teriyaki oysters, the red snapper, ginger tuna salad, caramelized black cod, kobe beef, sushi with clam soup, green tea ice cream and flourless choc. cake.  I may very well remember this meal as being so good because of the sun-dried fig martini which had me on my ass three seconds after arriving... but oh, what flavors!

Tallulah

What was once no more than a tacky neighborhood place to go for food because you were hungry turned into a destination dining experience a couple years ago.  Located at the inconvenient address on Washington Blvd and Pershing in Arlington -- it's worth the extra effort to get there.  Having gone here a number of times, the most memorable things about this restaurant were the largest scallops I've ever seen -- perfectly cooked, succulent.  You can't pass up their sliders with the caramelized onions.  I mean really -- it's 2 bites.  you have room for one.  The wine selection is one of the best I've ever seen -- and at the bar, they'll let you taste any of them.  For a fun change of pace, go to the bar side on movie night.  I've not done that yet, but it's on my to-do list simply because I like this restaurant's vibe and I want to spend more time there.

2007... a bad year for blogging

My apologies for taking a break (for um, a year or 2)... I moved to Tampa.  I've returned and am ready to eat again!

Ashby Inn

I cannot think of another restaurant where I've lingered so long because the entire experience has calmed me into one of those wonderful Sunday afternoon stupors, where I don't have a care in the world.  This happened to me Sunday at the Ashby Inn, an hour west on 66 in Paris Virginia.  I think this lovely little farmhouse turned Inn may be the only business in this hamlet.  I sat on the edge of their covered portico at a table for two with my good friend Andrew, overlooking the hillside at the base of the Shenandoah Valley.  The only thing missing were sheep grazing.  Perhaps I was simply there on the wrong day.  A path edged with unique herbs led to a wall of shrubs -- the only thing between me and this wilderness.  Butterflies swarmed.  Sparkling wine uncorked by New York transplant Lissa (with 2 s's), who was more our friend than our server.  With a price fixe menu -- my appetizer was by far one of the best dishes that has ever touched my lips.  Understatedly described on the menu as a peach and mozzarella napoleon, this creation came to me on a long, thin white plate -- a perfectly plump and juicy peach sliced in 1/4" sections.  Grilled and still warm.  In between, slightly melted pieces of buffalo mozzarella.  The entire thing was drizzled with an orange cilantro reduction that made the flavor of the dish pop into another genre.  This course was followed by a dual eggs benedict.  One was served with a steak fillet, perfectly grilled.  The other with canadian bacon.  I have never seen two such perfectly poached eggs.  The desert choice was an apple cake that was a cross between pie, cake and candy.  Brunch began at 1pm.  I left around 4.  I will never forget this brunch and will return to this place often.

Jaleo -- Crystal City

It has been a long while since I dined at Jaleo in Crystal City.  I used to live right across the street, yet avoided this place as a bastion of mediocre food and tourist service.  But in a cry for convenience and armed with the new knowledge that the commonwealth rid itself of the 1700s law where you could not mix wine and spirits effectively killing a good sangria recipe -- I decided to give this place another shot.  Clearly the new management there had a come to Jesus meeting with their people or started from scratch.  The service was impeccable.  The food, I can still taste a week later.  The most unique dish was thinly sliced watermelon topped with I believe goat cheese.  Truly unique. My favorite though were the golden friend bacon-wrapped dates.  My mouth is watering.

TenPehn

What I would have once said was a fantastic Asian Fusion place in downtown... located at 10th and Penn (hence the name)... left me severely disappointed during restaurant week this year.  While the food was ok -- not memorable, but certainly not bad -- it was the service I found deplorable.  Granted, this was compounded by my overbearing company which created a patronizing situation I found gross.  Regardless -- that's not the part with which I found fault.  A week after dining, I realized the entire bill -- which had been split between 4 credit cards -- somehow ended up completely on mine.  Upon querying the manager of the restaurant, he admitted fault -- but instead of doing the right thing and refunding my money, I'm now torn between disputing it with my credit card or tracking down strangers with whom I dined to pay me back.  Disappointing all around.

Gordon Biersch

Downtown near Chinatown, this microbrewery chain was surprisingly enjoyable. We had an office luncheon there, so we were confined to the glass fishbowl of a room, which allowed for an intimate affair without being bothered by the other lookie-loo's. The building, a renovated historic bank, was restored and augmented to emphasize the unique architecture of when it was built, but updated for a sleek brewery feel. Other microbreweries I've been to were sticky-floored burger joints with over-polyurethaned tacky wood furniture. GB is the anti-thesis of tacky. Except for the beer selection, I would have thought I was just in another trendy, big downtown restaurant. I had the ahi tuna salad, which was perfectly seared and sliced and topped with these wonderful spicy crunchy sticks. I tasted my friend's pulled pork BBQ, which had such unique flavor, I think I'll have that next time. As far as breweries go, this one gets an A+... But only a few stars on the grand scheme given that it is a chain. I recommend it for when your steak and potato in-laws come to town and you need to compromise between the fast and the furious of DC and Applebee's.

Oyamel

This latin small plates restaurant owned by the Jaleo people is on Crystal Drive in Crystal City. Unless you work in CC, or are on your way to the airport, there is no reason to visit this part of Arlington, with the single exception of this restaurant. The other Crystal Drive places can all be found elsewhere. I know of no other local Oyamel. I had tacos with pork and pineapple, the tamale and the mushroom quesadilla special. Plus 2 mediocre sangria. The service tonight was only ok, but that isn't standard here. There is an outdoor eating area too. Perfect on a night like tonight. Unfortunatly, my company was dull. A staple restaurant that the DC-ers ought to make the trek for sometime.

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I'm very sad to say that Oyamel left our fair hamlet and was replaced with Bebo -- an Italian place that left me wanting for service.

Logan Tavern

Last night I had dinner with Alyssa at Logan Tavern between 14th and 15th on P. Comfort food in a rustic environment. Convenient place to go if in Logan Circle. It was a beautiful day outside, but the wait for a cafe table outside was too long and we had plans later, so we took a table by the window. I had the snapper special, which was only ok. The highlight of my meal was my stoli dollie -- pineapple infused vodka. Darryl introduced me to these things here -- very few places in town do this. Not much more to say about this neighborhood restaurant. Nothing to brag about, but certainly a place to count on in a pinch.

Busboys and Poets

I’m continually amazed by the offerings of the U Street corridor. Last night before Yoga, Sean and I wanted a quick bite and so I offered we hit Busboys and Poets. This place seems to have an identity crisis. Unlike Kramer Books in Dupont which at least has “books” in its name and is seemingly a bookstore with an embedded restaurant, BB&P is a bookstore, café, decent hip restaurant and possibly even a venue for small scale events. Bring your laptop, they have wireless… a tacky accouterment for anybody having dinner, yet practical ability for anybody sprawled on their low and crowded lounges just having a coffee and a bowl of their pretty decent hummus. While I wasn’t interested in the bookstore or poetry reading possibilities, this place reminded me a bit of City Café in Baltimore – a staple stop for the city boy on the go there. I think that’s where BB&P is trying to go and has the potential, but the word of mouth about this place hasn’t yet hit outside of the U streeters. Who does their marketing? Sean had a glass of not-so-cheap white wine and a very bitter apple salad with some sort of goat cheese dressing that he didn’t rave about. I had a mozzarella and tomato burger which was perfectly sized. Our service by Princess, our waitress, wasn’t magnificent as she was distracted by her friends two tables over, my burger came with salad instead of my requested chips, my diet coke was awfully empty for a place offering free refills and when it was time for yoga to start, we had to send a rescue party into the back to get Princess to deliver the check. This is the type of service I would expect at McDonalds, not a trendy new place. Despite the service, its unique atmosphere will bring me back for a quick bite when it’s convenient, however BB&P isn’t a destination… not in my mind at least.

Lauriol Plaza

On a Friday night with the first 80 degree weather of the year at 8pm? what am I kidding? nope... that's where I decided to host a few friends for the evening... A staple restaurant of DC, sometimes you have to get back to the basics. The basics here being frozen margarittas. slurp! And I always get their crab enchiladas. We managed to steal a table after only 45 minutes waiting... I wasn't even into my second coctail when our buzzer went off. The shock and surprise... The large glass windows proved a nice show when the lightening storm began. I love this place. The salsa is slap-your-madre good! Can't wait to spend an evening on their roof bar.

Food Bar DC

The trivia game at Food Bar Thursdays no where compares to Titan on Wednesdays for the fun atmosphere. Titan's co-hosts for smartass make that evening, while the one host at Food Bar simply reads questions that are pre-printed in front of you on a sheet of paper in between trying to learn how to use iTunes as he is the resident DJ too. As a DJ, he apparently had Hollaback Girl on continual repeat. The questions, although a bit easier for the layman at Food Bar, don't have hidden themes or make the game fun -- although they do have a more local political flare to them than Titan. Food Bar food is terrible, but the drinks are good. I drank Liz Taylors all night, which is basically a purple raspberry cosmo. If you order a martini though like Topher, make sure you're pretty specific. His Gin with olives came dirtier than bath water and had to send it back. While the drinks are more cosmo, they also come with a more cosmo price requiring you to win a great deal to cover your bar bill, which we did. We won first place, which there is a cash prize of $100 and a $10 bar tab. Our drink bill for 4 people though was $86 so we all went home with $3 in our pocket.

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of course Smartass Trivia is now at Nellies

Matchboxx

Date night Friday found me at the hip new brick oven pizza place in Gallery Place. No reservations accepted was the only drawback, but that allowed me and my date to drink Martinis at the overly crowded bar. The bartenders had skills reserved for the Coyote Ugly sequel, but made a good drink. Try the Ginger Snap... fantastic. For dinner, none of their specialty pizzas wooed me, so I built my own with pesto, artichoke hearts, chicken and kalamata olives topped with mozzarella. Great pizza, great crust. Their menu is full of other things, but go for the pie... otherwise the hour wait for a table can be spent elsewhere for the same food. Make sure you get a table on the second or third floor... the first is too jammed with the bar.

I Ricchi

To dinner with Dr. Mike and Andrew tonight and we chose this place... mainly because 2 of us hadn't been there and it was the only place on opentable that would accept an 8pm reservation on a Saturday at 4pm. By far the best Italian food oustide of Italy and my Grandmother's kitchen that I've ever had. I started my meal with a sparkling wine spiked with raspberry puree and switched to a nice Sangiovese for my red meat meal. I chose 2 specials... the Risotto with Mushrooms to start and a medium rare ribeye slow cooked and served in this fantastic au jous. For desert, Tiramisu. The only annoyance was an overly attentive waiter, however one should expect that from an upscale Italian restaurant. This was the single largest purchase I've ever made in a restaurant on myself, not buying for another and was worth every penny of that $100 bill. Unknown and useful fact -- Free Valet parking!