reset

The Eleven spent last Saturday night in Baltimore. I know what your thinking about our tours of east coast blue-collar, hardworking, formerly (and future) great cities (more on that later). What with Pittsburgh in February and Wilmington, DE next weekend you might offer us a grander vacation on a beach or mountainside somewhere else; we’d decline that offer.

Baltimore is a city that appears on the edge of becoming quite alluring. (This is the later part, see above.) It went through a first re-invention in the early 1980s (?) when it redid the Inner Harbor area and anchored it with the National Aquarium. Just down the road a piece from the Inner Harbor sit Camden Yards, which spawned the entire retro-baseball park idea, and M&T Bank Stadium (the NFL’s Ravens’ home). These fairly specific areas draw lots of tourism and spending, but I feel the Inner Harbor, at over 30 years old, is fading a bit; and, this brings me to where the city seems to be now. With its various universities, neighborhoods, water access, I-95 access, and a lower cost of living than DC it may be poised to make some noise. The museums are great and I sense a hipster vibe just on the doorstep – hipsters ain’t bad – with places like the old Union Mill popping up. If played correctly, the attraction of areas like Mount Vernon could pull the city up quite a bit. We’ll see – revisit this post in five years’ time.

We did the normal thing for us and wandered around Fells Point for a bit with the weather throwing out a beautiful 70 degrees and sunshine. We bought G. what should be a highly cherished, actual top hat at Hats in the Belfry. I managed any number of CDs at Sound Garden, we did some coffee at Daily Grind, and patted some of the gazillion dogs out for the day before heading to our digs. Julie the Cruise Director booked us into the BlancNoir in Little Italy, and JCD will get a very nice comment card for said actions. We stayed in the New York room which was perfectly lovely – massive king bed with great linens, coffee, water (free; well, you know what I mean), great HDTV (we will watch trashy TV in hotels), slippers, robes, excellent temp control, and a massive bath with Jacuzzi and a two person, 12-head shower. Great place. Breakfast was almost over the top (we were the only visitors that night) with fresh everything: fruit, muesli (homemade), yoghurt, bread, cheeses, eggs to order, and veg sausage (they knew we were coming). As far as rooms and B&Bs go – about the best I’ve seen.

We then met up with my Baltimore-based cousin for dinner at Helmand in Mount Vernon - our second visit intended to verify just how great we find the food. With a near repeat on the selections we have confirmation that it’s fantastic. We had a long and wonderful conversation as we worked through the courses, wine, and dessert. I count it as a great success in my attempt this year of keeping touch with people in my life.

Sunday morning took us to coffee to Artifact Coffee in another part of town, and then back Mount Vernon for the Walker Art Center. I’m not sure how to summarize the Walker aside from saying it may be the best museum (layout, crowds [very small], admission [free], exhibitions, and tone) I’ve ever been to. We spent a nice chunk of time in the lower galleries and the 19th century collection before calling our normal hour-and-a-half eye candy limit. We will no doubt be back to cover the other 80% of the museum, including an entire Asian art building next door. With kids. Very pleasant, indeed. I think my next entry may address the lack of umph provided by the Pittsburgh Museum of Art…

Seven days to Wilmington.

Peace.

working for free

Well, I’ve had both bakeries that I was interested in for my externship fall by the wayside; a bit disappointing. But, I have a good chance of staging at some point next month with my dream chef – fingers crossed. I’m also set to hit a small European/French café this week with a goal of pushing for an externship there next quarter. If that falls through then I’ll just hold off until the summer term and try to work something then.

Just a single class left this term (Wednesday) and then I’m off until January 10th. I think there might be some plans between now and then, including a few Quiz Nights.

Just about the entire clutch Wonder Twin-inspired members headed to Woolly Mammoth on Saturday for Second City’s A Girl’s Guide to Washington Politics. Afterwards it was a fancy-ish dinner at Cedar (compliments of Corey). It was an impressive meal that topped, by everyone's account, our outing at the much higher-rated 2941 a few months back. I had a stunning squash soup, an excellent fluke, and a hazelnut chocolate dessert that was exceptional. The most important, and defining, aspect of a great restaurant for us is this: great bread to open and great coffee to finish. Cedar hit on all cylinders.

...has no grade-point average

We adults snuck out last evening and left (now) five children to their own devices. Actually, L. was watching the N. Park clan sleep and the boys were doing what monkey boys do at home.

Last night was the final night of the D.C. area restaurant week where a great number of chefs open their places to set-price, fixed menus that usually include three courses and wine for about $30-$40 per person. I guess it’s a chance to control prices whilst luring folks out to new restaurants they’ve never tried. I made us a reservation at Kora in Crystal City which is the new place run by our favorite chef/owner from Farrah Olivia. We talked about the results of this foray on the way home last night and I’ve considered the meal even more throughout today, and it’s only getting worse.

I have no idea what was the genesis behind the new place aside from him needing to close FO when the rent apparently skyrocketed at his Alexandria location. Kora is allegedly an Italian place but the set-price menu didn’t seem to offer what I might consider Italian fare – aside from tiramisu. It’s a bigger venue then FO but the design isn’t anything to write home about; certainly nothing like his last room. The wait staff that we encountered was clearly of the hourly sort, and by that I mean non-professional waiters. FO was full of the kind of waiter that knew the food, understand the menu, and could do more than ‘take orders’ and (maybe) come back. Our group was pretty amateur (the dessert order was lost) across the board. The food was below mediocre and that’s a pretty harsh thing for me to say. I had a seasonal seafood soup (salmon being the season) with bacon bits on top, a mushroom polenta for mains, and tiramisu for dessert. The soup seriously could have come from a carton with some cooked bacon pitched on top. The polenta was a horribly overcooked square that was rockhard on the outside and bit cold in the middle – I imagine someone ‘grilled’ it, but it’s a mystery to me. The mushrooms were a poorly sauteed and poorly seasoned collection chucked on top with a few cherry tomatoes halved around the plate. Dessert may have worked its way up to mediocre but I have a theory that says tiramisu is probably going to always be okay but rarely stunning – they met my theory dead-on. Both the WonderTwins opened with beet salad which at least got “it was good” reviews, and Corey had a lamb shank that he said may have been dead-and-gone for a very long time. I didn’t hear much on the other two desserts around the table but it wouldn’t be enough credit to move everything up to the “we’d go again” grade.

I just don’t get it. If he was going to move (forced to move) why not just re-open FO at the new place? Italian? His style doesn’t seem to even consider Italian as an option and now he’s opened a place (in which there is no way he was at the helm last night) that will not survive until summer, in my opinion. Considering our awe of his fool at Farrah Olivia, the great staff, and the lovely atmosphere it’s hard to believe it’s come to this. Even though the total was a reasonable $190 (w/tip and two bottles of wine) for four adults, Kora is an utter failure in my book. I’m pretty devastated by the whole thing. Word is that he’s looking to open up in the District and if it Farrah O. then I’ll be there, posthaste. If not, he’d have a hard time getting me in the door. For all my readers (!) that loved Farrah Olivia, as of now, it's a goner...

Ah, life.

We are back on for quiz night at the pub this evening. I’ll pass along results.

t

dinner, date, d.c.

(Holly Twyford)

I was watching the NFL pre-game show on ESPN and Chris Berman reported that the two former Bush presidents were going to be at the Houston game today and called them the "President Bushes", shouldn't it be the Presidents Bush? Sort of like Grands Prix? Just wondering. We're watching the dog down the street for a week so I'm spending the afternoon - post-dog walk - hanging around Daisy (dog) and her sweet HDTV; I have a new favorite thing.

We saw Lost in Yonkers in D.C. last night at Theater J. It's a pretty straight-forward Neil Simon play with wise-cracking dialogue interleaved with heavy family love issues. All the actors were very good but it only took a portion of the first act to realize that Bella, played wonderfully by D.C. legend Holly Twyford, was the holding center of the show. You'd be hard pressed to find a better cast across the board than what they've put together for this show. The theater, at the DCJCC, is a set-up perfectly (we saw Sandra Bernhard there last season). It's an eleven-row house, about 20 seats across, that was built steep so that every single seat has a full view of a beautifully designed stage. A very pleasing show all around.

We had dinner beforehand at Skewers on P St. NW. Even though the name is questionable, the food is excellent Middle Eastern fare. We split an appetizer plate and then both went with eggplant mains and red wines. Just perfect for a dinner before sitting for a 2+ hour show - until X decided she not only wanted dessert but then ordered the dessert with' supreme' in the name that included a lovely creme anglais, strawberries, and a dense cake. Needless to say, she then complained of being too full as we walked around the corner to the theater. I'm shocked...shocked! I think the most entertaining blurb from our dinner discussion was "We think the sumac is the most underrated of the autumnal colors."

She has biggish news and maybe I'll pass it along early in the week.

t

bowl with noodles; bowl without

Any number of years ago, while living in England, we stumbled upon a newer place in London called Wagamama. It’s a noodle house that I believe opened in the early ‘aughts in the Bloomsbury area of the city. If I’m not completely insane, I vaguely remember that the owner came from a long list of successful joints he’d either run or chef’d at in the past. The general room configuration is rows of wooden tables that seat 10 or 12 down each side and people simply sit side-by-side ignoring the conversations ongoing to the left and right or, taking the opportunity to engage with other humans (see our tea experience). L, in particular, loved to eat at Wagamama at every opportunity when we were in the City five or six times a year. The huge bowls of steaming noodles, the open kitchen layout, and the bustle of the London crowd at night was always enjoyable; she’d spent a couple hours hunting the huge noodles with her poorly-executed chopstick ability. It’s a place we’ve missed over the years – vaguely hanging in that dark corner of our past lives. I’m sure the franchise has expanded quite a bit in England (they’d added more in London before we left) but I’m not sure if they’ve been able to maintain the quality and kick ass-ness of the original; maybe I could do a little research and divine expansion quality. What brings this up is that as Laurel and I were walking from our dinner to the theatre on Friday night I was telling her that my favorite bookstore, Olsson’s, used to have a great location on 7th St. NW in the Penn Quarter – we were approaching the very block of its location, hence the story – but this locally-owned chained went bankrupt early last year and my favorite hangout in the area had been shuttered. As I’m relaying this horribly interesting story I point across 7th to what had been the store’s location and, lo’ and behold, the store front windows are covered with lovely signs announcing that a Wagamama is to open in 2010. Great joy was expressed by both of us as we danced around and dreamt of returning, once again, to our beloved noodle restaurant sometime next year. Laurel, realizing how much I love bookstores, and knowing how much she loves Wagamama, pointed out rather sardonically that the bookstore died for a higher calling; I couldn’t agree more.

My father and uncle have been visiting since Saturday and X pointed out to me after dinner last night, clear of the guests that had departed, that my storytelling ability is just like my father’s. I not sure what word she used but it wasn’t anything that resembled great, fantastical, enthralling, or good. In truth, it was a funny conversation as much as anything else but she’s challenged me to tell all my stories in no more than five or six sentences. So, in the spirit of that challenge I’ll retell the Wagamama story within the confines of that call to arms.

Laurel and I used to eat at a place call Wagamama in London. We both loved the noodles and chatter of the crowd. Laurel is visiting this month and we noticed that a Wagamama is scheduled to open in the Penn Quarter sometime next year. Maybe when she’s here next summer we can partake of the noodles. There used to be a bookstore there. Hooray!

T

my heart will go on

(photos: Washington Post)

On Monday evening we met some of my old work mates for dinner at a very nice Greek/Turkish/Lebanese place in D.C., Zaytinya. Actually, there were supposed to be eight of us but only four showed up – we had a huge eight-person round top in an alcove that would have been perfect if the rest of the inconsiderate hacks had shown up. It ended up being Sue, Johnny B. (of upper NY and guest of honor), and the Eleven; a grand time all around the piles of mezze, wine, and pricey martinis. This is all merely a short back story and this isn’t meant as a “quick as a bunny” tale. I thought we should spend some time together at the blog and let the people know that we do in fact go out to dinner on occasion. As I was doing some research on the restaurant and parking, we’d decided to drive into the city (yes, we got a ticket…go figure), I realized that the one and only Celine Dion was playing at the Verizon Center a mere two blocks from our soiree. If you do the math on our 6pm reservation and the 8pm show time we were worried about two things: one, was the area going to be mobbed? Two, what if people thought we were going to the Celine Dion show? You can deal with the mobbed parking situation and streets easily enough, but the idea that some unknown person hanging around the city thinks you’re a Celine Dion fan is simply too much to bear. I think I may have tipped my hand, and rightly so, in order to continue the story.

I dug up the concert review at the WaPo online and gave it once over yesterday afternoon (you may not be able to read it unless you sign up for the “free” membership). The reviewer, who is the main WaPo concert and music critic, didn’t take much effort to hide his near hatred of Dion. I found the review fit my overall opinion of her and I think his description of her histrionics was dead accurate. This review led to a discussion at home last night about the responsibility of critics. Is there any point in sending a critic to a show if that person is wholly predisposed to not enjoying the show or being unable to put themselves in the shoes of the fans? I almost think that swinging either way – too great a fan or too much a hater – would then become an issue with just about every review. Do reviews fall under news or op-ed? I think that some of the best reviews I’ve read or heard were prefaced with the “I don’t much like this type of music (or this band), but this was a really good show (or record)…” Obviously, the counterbalance to that would be someone slagging off an artist they care deeply about – I know, I’ve done both when talking to people about shows and CDs. It seems that if you believe there shouldn’t be predisposition in a review then you’d have to find either a completely middle-of-the-road music fan/critic or you’d have to have every review open with a declaration of position. Or, I guess you could have a pure, idealistic person who can sit through the schmaltz of Celine Dion and keep that infection from the review. I’m not clear on which I’d vote for but after we debated it last night I realized that this review, though hilarious to me, was probably a little over the line when taking into account the whole of her career and not focusing on this particular show. Maybe a little insight into how the crowd reacted both during and the after the show would have given some depth to the review.

Vocal flyover…what a great line.

t